Slashdot Mirror
Sites Shut Down to Protest Software Patents
blueser writes "I went today to TUTOS homepage to check for a newer version, and I was surprised to see that the author replaced the homepage by a 'Closed because of Software-Patents' page, with a brief explanation." Just one site? that's hardly a big deal, but there's more. maliabu writes "Knoppix is closed, apparently waiting for the European Parliament to decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called 'software patents' in Europe." And still more. SLbigE writes "The Wine HQ website has temporarily shut down its webpage in protest to a proposed law in Europe regarding Software Patents." There's many more sites as well, these were just the first I was alerted to, Feel free to note some more in comments. Looks like they're doing a good job of illustrating what could be lost soon.
Is also shut down.
If you can read this sig - the bitch fell off.
Details of the campaign against software patents can be found at http://swpat.ffii.org/group/todo/index.en.html
This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
Gimp is another...
Who doesn't like free music?
We had an interesting thread about Qemu...
It's closed too...
Trolling using another account since 2005.
I noticed the protest yesterday on this site although it appears the protest has been removed today. I was thinking about asking him what it was all about.
PicoSQL seems to be the home of an up and coming open source SQL server.
Just adding this one to the list Freshrpms.net
RPMFind and its mirror sites are closed as well. Not the front page, but after a search query you get the warning. They say it's temporarily though.
Like science? Comics? Wicked...
Funny By Nature
This letter is worth reading ...
gtk is another site that is protesting. Good though, if you look at the rubbish pattens which are already registered (illegally) in Europe, ...
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
You can find a list of sites closed at this link but I suppose many more closed on Ago 27th.
www.apache.org
http://www.mplayerhq.hu and http://www.ffmpeg.org are both 'shut down'. but they still link to thier old homepage.
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/OnlineDemoPartnersWeb sites
for a full list of website participating in the action.
You can also add your web site if you participate in the online action against software patents.
It should be noted that the "official" day for doing this was the 27th August, and that all the sites I've seen have not shut down, but simply replaced their front page with information on the protest, and then included a link to the original project anyway.
"Slashdot is not, however, even though some have requested it be taken down for the day..."
Well, someone has to be up to let people know what is going on.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned that Apache is down too.
Sigh... they had to choose the last bloody day I can download anything before I move (after which I'll be without Internet access for a week).
(Then again I can probably hold off on installing a webserver until my net access is back.)
List of participating site can be found here.
Join in, and contact your MEPs if you are a citizen of an EU member country.
If you live in the EU, don't just sign the petition - email your MEPs explaining why they should oppose the motion (and reminding them - gently - that they want your vote!). Yesterday I emailed all 10 MEPs representing London explaining my concerns, and I've already received 2 thoughtful responses -- one of which was seemed convinced by my arguments.
Probably the best arguments to use are those against patenting algorithmic business methods (also covered by the directive) rather than software per se, as they're more likely to be appreciated by politicians. My example was patenting an 'algorithm' that uses a number keyed in by a bank customer to verify their identity against the account details held on their bank card. Hey presto, your "software patent" gives you a monopoly on ATMs.
You can find a list of UK MEPs at the European Parliament's UK Office. For other countries, check out the main EU parliament website. Note that each constituency is represented by several MEPs, allocated between different parites by proportional representation. The vote on the directive is next week, so email your MEP today!
The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
the slackware page is closed too.
http://linuxfr.org/
How about Google?
Umm... Google owns software patents. Sergey is listed as an inventor. Other companies are now resuming the fight for web-search dominance, and this patent is part of Google's defense.
It means that no one else in the US can use their highly-successful ranking algorithm. Google stands to benefit greatly from software patents- I can't expect them to take such an expensive moral stand.
(Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos stood against software patents, even though his company benefits from them. But there's much more to Amazon.com than a piece of software. Google basically justs rents access to that algorithm and their webcrawled database- and other companies have equally extensive databases...)
I skimmed the patent. It does not patent the concept of a wheel. It patents a particular implementation of a bicycle wheel, designed to produce less wind drag from the spokes. Previous attempts at this have resulted in wheels that suffered ill effects from cross-winds or were expensive to manufacture. This design apparently doesn't have those two problems. Whether the design would be obvious to a mechanical engineer, I cannot say. It is a non-obvious solution to me. It may also have prior art, but I have not studied bicyle wheels.