Hi Steve, thanks for bringing this up on -project. On Thursday 03 July 2008 00:59, Steve McIntyre wrote: > I've been approached by the Open Invention Network[1]. They're asking > if Debian would like to join as an organisation to "protect our work > and support open access to intellectual property". I'm not sure either > way myself, so I thought I'd ask for comments here. Any thoughts? Well, for one, "intellectual property" is a myth, that needs to die. IMNSHO anyway. You cannot own an idea. Secondly, they also seem to think patents are something positive (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/patents.php), the usual "patents promote innovation" bullshit. Nowadays, patents block innovation, a statement which for example was shared by Ciscos main patent lawyer (!) in an 2006 (?) interview with C'T magazine from heise. He (who makes his living on this) stated that Cisco had more costs than benefits from dealing with patents. And Cisco is a multi-billion dollar company, which can afford patents. Many small businesses cant... I guess you know the topic and I cant stop here. Third, whois openinventionnetwork.com reveals that the domain was registered by Ketchum Inc. A quick search brought me to this suppossed to be neutral (so not even explicitly critical) article about the company, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchum_Inc. Let me quote the important bits here: --begin quote-- Department of Education scandal The U.S. Department of Education has been accused of breaking Federal Law by paying commentators to publish articles and appear on talk shows promoting the agenda of the Bush Administration. The use of taxpayers money for this purpose is in violation of U.S. law and has been the subject of several Congressional investigations which reached their peak during the 2004 election battle. Some government reports have exonerated Ketchum and others strongly criticized the actions of the department and Ketchum. Further, Ketchum was strongly criticized by the public relations industry for its inept handling of this crises. Propaganda scandal In 2004, Ketchum produced a controversial series of prepackaged news stories for HHS that featured actors posing as journalists and touted drug benefits. The ads aired on at least 40 television stations and violated a federal propaganda ban because they did not inform viewers that they came from the government, the Government Accountability Office stated. --end quote-- So in summary, I think I'm not interested. If we want a partnership with an organisation that deals with the patent nightmare system, I'd probably suggest the Open Invention Network, which seems much more credible to me. regards, Holger
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