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This project may soon become illegal...
Multimedia is a patent minefield. All important techniques, formats and standards are covered by broad and trivial patents that harm progress and make independent implementations hard or impossible. Thus xine and the other free software multimedia players, like MPlayer, VLC, avifile, gstreamer and especially FFmpeg, which provides the framework all of the above players use, are seriously threatened by software patents. Already companies are succeeding at driving multimedia libraries out of existence with legal threats.
The Council of the European Union has adopted its so-called "Common Position" on software patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to the sole benefit of big multinational (mostly non-European) corporations and Ireland and to the detriment of small and medium sized businesses (which comprise the majority of the European software industry) and free software.
If the European Parliament fails to rally an absolute majority (367) of all members of the European Parliament - not just an absolute majority of the attending members - for substantial amendments in July, then the Council's directive will become law and the hunting season for US-style software patent enforcement in Europe will begin. Such a majority is hard to come by in a parliament with a low attendance level.
But not all is lost yet as long as you decide it is time to make a difference and take action. This is our last opportunity to fend off software patents worldwide, there will be no second chance for the foreseeable future.
Signing petitions will not suffice. Contact your local EU representatives and educate them why software patents are a bad idea in the first place and why they must attend that parliament session to vote against them. Make it clear that they need to stop the machinations of the Council of the European Union and reaffirm the power of the EU parliament, the only democratically elected EU institution. For in-depth information and starting points to get active visit the NO Software Patents! campaign, the software patent page of the FFII and NoSoftwarePatents.com.
Wish us luck, we will need it.
http://xinehq.de/index.php/patents |
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发表于 2005-6-26 02:45:55
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