Re: [Fsfe-uk] Arlene McCarty on software patents

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

> On Thu, Jun 12, 2003 at 09:25:34PM +0100, Nick Hill wrote:
>  
>
> > This gives some insight to the workings of Arlene McCarthy. I will 
> > compose a response. Any input about elements to include, and references, 
> > are welcome.
> >    
>
> Indeed. I found it particularly galling that she appears to be playing the
> man rather than the ball 
...and her website leads one to believe that she is a member of the 
Cooperative party !

It is clear that she does not put across any clear counter argument(s) 
against the case that 'a single piece of software can have thousands of 
ideas ...' or the threat of 'largescale land grabbers' analogy.

It could have been helpful if she could have pointed out with atleast 
one example of how an *independent* SME will benefit weighed against the 
overwhelming power of cross licensing giants.
Will she put up the legal costs if a 'small fry' SME wishes to challenge 
an imaginary future dispute?

Are these 'small fry' SME's hoping to 'licence out  inventiveness' and 
create jobs in the far-east and not address the 'job losses' locally?

Why not 'get real' and help the people move into a fairer digital era, 
creating new jobs that respect their freedoms.Tradional jobs do not have 
to be simply replaced by few programmers and a huge support 
infrastructure for new 'laws'.

The reply could point out the fact that she used ''free'' without 
understanding the difference between users and programmers/distributors 
and how the free software system works and why a

All the best,

Ramanan