[Patents] Swpat auf dem Linuxtag (fwd)

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

Under

        http://swpat.ffii.org/penmi/linuxtag-2000/

you find a report about FFII's work at the linuxtag fair. 

highlights:

* RMS celebrates signature ceremony at ffii booth and calls on all
  companies who work in the GNU/Linux area to ask their customers to
  sign http://petition.eurolinux.org

* Siemens IT Services employees say that Siemens is concerned about
  the EU patent extension plans but has to stay neutral because of
  possible pressure from Microsoft.  Some public statements by the Siemens
  patent department were wrong and are not in the interest of Siemens.

* A representative of the German Patent Office declares that software
  patents have proven themselves economically useful by the mere fact that
  companies apply for them, thereby nourishing 20000 patent experts who
  pay taxes and are not subsidized by any tax money.

* 2 lectures / discussions with participation of high-ranking protagonists
  explore the possibilities for free software organisations to use
  patents to protect their community against patents  

* Mosdorf, secretary of the Ministery of Economics, expresses concern
  about software patenting

* FFII distributes no-e-patents stickers and CDs

--

Copyright: If you use these materials to write a press release, please
mention the original URL (http://swpat.ffii.org/penmi/linuxtag-2000) in
it.

translations of

        http://swpat.ffii.org/penmi/linuxtag-2000/indexde.txt

into EN or FR or other languages would be highly appreciated.

-phm