[Fsfe-uk] Re: [Fsfe-ie] Patented videoshop opens in Wales

[Justin Mason]

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James Heald writes:
>Fwd from  fsfe-uk
>
>Crossposting to try to keep all 3 lists in touch.
>
>Kevin Donnely (kevin at dotmon.com) writes:
>
>> 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. 

I would agree -- and in addition the RSA patent has expired, if I recall
correctly!   Doesn't that knock out 'Secured SSL connections using RSA
encryption: US4405829'?

- --j.
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