[Patents] free sw removed from german website due to US swpat threats

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

> Then Dersch is an idiot getting bad advice who isn't being terrorized.
> Unless there are German patents involved, IPIX's US patents don't
> require him to do anything.  Additionally, this is free image
> processing software packages all over the Internet (including some
> from US government agency laboratories).
>
> All he has to do is fax a letter to IPIX saying "US PATENTS HAVE NO
> ENFORCEMENT VALUE IN GERMANY.  GOODBYE."

I would suspect that too.

On the other hand side, the German Federal Court seems to think
differently, since it has handed penal verdicts to forein citizens
(e.g. an Australian) for information crimes (publishing nazi
propaganda on a website in Australia).

Thus things have become very uncalculable for an ordinary citizen.
And I think Dersch is getting some legal advice.  He has been harassed by
iPIX for several years, all on the basis of US patents.
If they get an injunction that will make it risky for him to travel to
the US, that might be enough.
But I don't know.

--
Hartmut Pilch                                           http://phm.ffii.org/
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation        http://swpat.ffii.org/
79100 signatures against software patents     http://petition.eurolinux.org/