Re: [Patents] Washington Times: Internet Patents Divide Industry

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

> I suggest if you really are interested in a true democratic debate about
> these issues you would take the steps to ensure that all members of the
> community have the opportunity to enter the discussion. To that end, I
> recommend moving the discussion to 1 group and posting the subscription
> information for the group to the entire community.

I think Richard and I are both on patents at aful org.
I am not on any of the other lists.  So that is probably the list of
choice.

> Although I find many of the thoughts presented here to be little more
> than mental masturbation, I agree that the subject is worthy of
> discussion.

The subject is sterile for the public at large, which may be one of the
reasons why so many people from nyfairuse and perhaps elsewhere suddenly
wanted to unsubscribe.

Language policies such as those proposed in
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html can be constitutive for
communities and generate conformity pressure.  They can also help win/lose
political battles.  Thus what may seem like empty debates can acquire a
very practical meaning for many people.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
160,000 votes 2000 firms against software patents    http://noepatents.org/