End Software Patents Campaign

End Software Patents director Ciaran O'Riordan, reports that the campaign wiki at en.swpat.org has been growing in size and quality and is seeking contributors. The goal is to collect and organize all the information relevant to educating people about software patents.

http://en.swpat.org/

Join the ESP mailing list:
http://campaigns.fsf.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/esp-action-alert

Legislative change is being discussed or being prepared in these countries:

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Australia
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Israel
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/New_Zealand

Action is needed. A mailing list has recently be set up for each:
http://lists.endsoftwarepatents.org/mailman/listinfo/

In the European Union, a worrying proposal from the EPO got canceled, but there's still a current danger via the proposed UPLS patent court:
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/EPO_EBoA_referral_G3-08
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/United_Patent_Litigation_System


Other News:

1) Who should see the documentary film Patent Absurdity?

The End Software Patents campaign is looking to identify 200 people who are most influential to the software patent debate in the US, and are working with the well known venture capitalist and anti-software patent blogger Brad Feld to send a copy of the documentary film to them in the postal mail.

http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/05/innovating-against-software-patents.html

We are looking for your help to identify:

* Corporate leaders influential to the patent debate
* Standards bodies representatives (ISO? AINSI? W3C?)
* Organization representatives that support small businesses
* Influential journalists
* Academics/professors working in this field

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Who_should_see_Patent_Absurdity


2) Tonight (8pm EST) is also movie night at the Firedoglake Book Salon website where you can chat with Ciaran O'Riordan and Patent Absurdity director Luca Lucarini about the movie and next steps in the the fight against software patents.

http://fdlbooksalon.com/


3) No ruling from the Supreme Court today in Bilski v. Kappos. A case that is likely to have profound implications for patenting of software in the US. Today was one of only six remaining dates favored for the release of that ruling. The ruling is expected no later than the end June.

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Bilski_v._Kappos_(2010,_USA)


Thanks

peter


--
Peter Brown
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St. 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA