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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>FYI, from Amnesty International</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT face="Times New Roman">----- =
Original
Message ----- </FONT>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><B>From:</B> <A =
href="mailto:CMacMaho@amnesty.org"
title=CMacMaho@amnesty.org>CMacMaho@amnesty.org</A> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B>To:</B> <A =
href="mailto:ITGen@amnesty.org"
title=ITGen@amnesty.org>ITGen@amnesty.org</A> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, September 01, =
2003 5:51
PM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B>Subject:</B> Petition for a =
Software Patent
Free Europe</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR><FONT size=2>All,</FONT> <BR><FONT size=2> =
Some of you may be aware that there is a petition going =
round for
a Software Patent Free Europe. This has been instigated by this =
</FONT><FONT
size=3>proposal for a European Community Directive</FONT><FONT =
size=2> on
patents, including software patents:</FONT> <BR><BR><FONT size=2><A
href="http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/">http://swpat.ffii.=
org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/</A></FONT>
<BR><BR><FONT size=2>The worry amongst the Open Source community is =
that this
could seriously affect how Open Source software is created, and =
licensed. The
domino affect of this could be that users of open source software, =
including the
Charity arena (e.g. Database Team in I.S., Amnesty International is a =
big user
of Open Source software, as I would say many other sections in AI) would =
have to
consider not using Open Source Software, and move to commercial vendors =
with a
knock-on cost hike.</FONT> <BR><BR><FONT size=2>If you would like to =
read up
more on the issues and the petition, or even to sign it, please follow =
this
link:</FONT> <BR><BR><FONT
size=2>http://petition.eurolinux.org/index_html?LANG=en</FONT> =
<BR><BR><FONT
size=2>Best regards,<BR>Conor MacMahon<BR><BR>email:
cmacmaho@amnesty.org<BR>phone: +44 (0)20 - 7413 5778<BR>Java =
Analyst/Programmer,
Database Team, IT Program, International Secretariat, Amnesty
International</FONT></BODY></HTML>