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Re: New Nokia device is Debian-based?



On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 11:47:50AM +0200, David Weinehall wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 02:21:46AM -0700, Stephen Birch wrote:
> > Florian Weimer(fw@deneb.enyo.de)@2005-06-06 09:32:
> > > * Stephen Birch:
> > > 
> > > > Wow!!!! Nokia just became my new favourite company.
> > > 
> > > To put things into perspective, Nokia is one of the companies lobbying
> > > for unlimited software patents in Europe.
> > 
> > Oops.  I don't like to appear fickle but I guess they just went from
> > top company to bottom in my mind.  Sigh ... I would have liked one of
> > those tablet computer.
> 
> So, I take it you don't buy any products from Apple, IBM, Sony,
> etc either?
> 
> There's a distinct difference between corporate policy and the project
> internal policy of the Nokia/OSSO team who have developed the N770.
> 
> > Software patents are an absolute menace in the USA it would be crazy
> > for Europe to also start issuing them.
> 
> Well, the European Parliament is (or has at least been) strongly opposed
> to software patents, so it's unlikely that they will pass without some
> serious trickery.

FFmpeg threatened by software patents: http://ffmpeg.org/

specifically:

	The European commission has just passed its directive on
	software patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to
	the sole benefit of big non-European corporation and Ireland and
	to the detriment of small and medium sized businesses (which
	comprise 99% of the European software industry) and free
	software.

	The European parliament will now be taking the last stand
	against software patents in a voting for which an absolute
	majority is needed. Such a majority is hard to come by in a
	parliament with a low attendance level.

Doesn't look good :-(

-- 
Chris.
======



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