Re: [Fsfe-uk] The patented videostore

[Kevin Donnelly]

Hi James

On Thursday 04 December 2003 10:53 am, James Heald wrote:
> Anyone feel like putting together an English-language version of the
> graphic ?

I have put up a tidied-up version of the translation at http://www.dotmon.com.  
There is also a download link for the materials used on the page, in case 
anyone wants to make further changes.

The screenshot is not ideal, and I may redo it (and also the page in Welsh) if 
I have time.

Is it worth trying to contact people like the Small Business Federation 
locally to bring their attention to this?

I do have to say that I see some difficulty with 3 of the items mentioned: I 
think the response of most people to patents on gifs, mp3s and mpeg4s will be 
"somebody did some work to create these, and you're using them, so it's 
reasonable to pay".  In my view, these are of a different character to things 
like tabbed browsing, or paying by credit card over the internet, or a 
shopping trolley, all of which are analogues of real-world things.  I 
recognise the issues with the compression technology (significantly, in at 
least  two cases (png and ogg) there are free alternatives) - it's just that 
I think there would be a better response if we focus on the really loony 
ones. 

-- 

Best wishes

Kevin Donnelly

www.kyfieithu.co.uk - Meddalwedd Rydd yn Gymraeg