[cdr] Inferno: USPTO p0wn3d (fwd)

Jim Choate ravage at einstein.ssz.com
Wed Sep 10 15:45:41 PDT 2003


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 11:29:32 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Inferno: USPTO p0wn3d

It seems that the veritable US Patent and Trademark Office, promulgator of
such wonderful ideas as sweeping patents on basic software algorithms,
seems to have revealed more of its true colors in recent statements.

In defending U.S. opposition to a recent World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) meeting on "open collaborative models to develop
public goods" and after significant Microsoft lobbying, Lois Boland,
director of international relations for the USPTO is quoted as saying:

"open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO which is to
promote intellectual-property rights...To hold a meeting which has as its
purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to us to be contrary to
the goals of WIPO."

Lessig is furious:
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001436.shtml

"The Quiet War Over Open-Source"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A23422-2003Aug20&notFound=true

linked from http://www.effaustin.org/

The meeting has been quashed.  But the idear seems quite rooted.





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