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Richard Stallman <patent-examples@gnu.org>
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 10:00:08 -0700 (MST)
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We would like to collect information about cases where free software has been harmed by software patents-that is, cases where a free program has been withdrawn from use or interfered with, or where a feature was taken out or never written in the first place, because of the danger of a patent.
We hope to use this information to argue against the system of
software patents, especially in Europe where the question has
become a live political issue (see
If you know of such a case, please write to
Ideally we would like to know the name of the program, its
developer's name and email address or other coordinates, what
happened to the program, and the patent number. If you know
those things, please include them in your report. But if you
don't have all of that information, please write anyway and tell
us whatever you know. For instance, if you can tell us how to
contact the program's developer, we can probably get the rest of
the information from the developer. If you can tell us just the
program's name, we may be able to find the developer. We may
write back to you to try to get more details; even leads for
getting more details may be useful.
Please send your information to <patent-examples@gnu.org> rather
than to me personally, so that we can collect the responses
efficiency.
Return to GNU's home page.
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to
gnu@gnu.org.
There are also other ways to
contact the FSF.
Please send comments on these web pages to
patent-examples@gnu.org,
send other questions to
gnu@gnu.org.
Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
Updated:
Last modified: Sun Feb 25 00:06:41 EST 2001
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