Quote:closed for patent infringement
this site has been shut down because of numerous patent violations in mplayer. the other free software multimedia players are next.
the european commission has just passed its directive on software patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to the sole benefit of big non-european corporation and ireland and to the detriment of small and medium sized businesses (which comprise 99% of the european software industry) and free software.
the european parliament will now be taking the last stand against software patents in a voting for which an absolute majority is needed. such a majority is hard to come by in a parliament with a low attendance level.
but not all is lost yet as long as you decide it is time to make a difference and take action. this is our last opportunity to fend off software patents worldwide, there will be no second chance for the foreseeable future. contact your local eu representatives and educate them why software patents are bad and why they must attend that parliament session to vote against them. for in-depth information and starting points to get active visit software patent page of the ffii (foundation for a free information infrastructure) and nosoftwarepatents.com.
wish us luck, we will need it.
enter the mplayer homepage while it is still available.
(pre1014 @ mar. 22 2005,17:52 Wrote:sooo, they are making it mandatory to have a patent on software? i guess i don't get it. so they are trying to get rid of open source all together in lieu of having everyone patent their software. besides, this is only in britian. can't the rest of us ignore this ruling like certain sites do about copyright laws considering they don't apply where they are.no, but companies are able to do patents on common things like "a way to output visual content on a screen". and after they did they can sue every mediaplayer software developer.
