[FSUG-Bangalore] Invitation to The National Public Meeting on Software Patents

Sun Oct 5 06:04:53 IST 2008

I forget the speaker name , but During the last talk, I gave a pointer to
code birthmarking, please forward this to the speaker,
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/25/1648253&from=rss
http://www.st.cs.uni-sb.de/birthmarking/

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 11:24 PM, Anivar Aravind
<anivar.aravind at gmail.com>wrote:

> *Please Circulate widely*
> With Usual apologies for X-posting
>
>
> On behalf of the organizers,
> Free Software Users Group- Bangalore
> cordially invites you to
>
> The National Public Meeting on Software Patents
> ====================================
>
>
> ==Venue==
>
> 2nd Floor, Ecumenical Resource Centre,
> United Theological College,
> Millers Road, Benson Town.
> (Behind Cantonment Railway Station)
> Bangalore¨C560046
>
> ==Time==
>
> 10:00¨C17:00
> Saturday, October 4, 2008
>
>
>
> Software patents in India occupy a contentious and indeterminate legal
> space. While recent amendments to the Patent Act have sought to bring
> our law in conformity with WTO-mandated standards, these amendments have
> shied from pronouncing conclusively on the patentability of software.
> The result is an equivocation in the law which is being wrestled
> aggressively and effectively by corporate interests, patent attorneys
> and the Patent Office in favour of granting software patents.  Unheard,
> and so unrepresented in this powerful triad are the interests of
> millions of citizen-consumers who are either presumed too ignorant to be
> credited with a view on the issue, or are presumed to be irrelevant to
> the determination of issues which are seen as purely "business" matters
> (as opposed to "citizen" matters).
>
> Software is everywhere you look (and many places you never think
> of looking). With the explosion of low-cost computing devices (think
> mobile phones and iPods), software has leaked out of its traditional
> home¡ªthe PC¡ªand begun infiltrating various aspects of our lives. From
> traffic signals to toilet commodes in some countries, refrigerators to
> railway tickets, vacuum cleaners and electronic voting machines, TVs,
> refrigerators and electronic pacemakers, inanimate objects of all sizes
> are humming to themselves, chattering amongst themselves in an
> intricate, highly complex tongue called 'software' that few of us can
> ever hope to understand. On the impulses of software, we stop or move on
> streets, fill up on petrol, and elect governments. Someone's heart
> beats. Someone else receives land records on a village kiosk. Someone is
> standing by helplessly for fourteen years (the un-evergreened term of a
> patent) because software failed to factor in her disability.
>
> There are big stakes involved in the control of software in an era
> when software is becoming increasingly central to the way we humans
> organize our lives and inhabit a democracy. At one level this is about
> preserving the right of agency and self-direction that citizens have in
> their own lives.  At another, it is about the right not to be silenced
> when our long-fought democratic republic is at risk of being diminished
> by a few lines of software in a machine. Whether or not we are all in
> fact capable of deciphering software is inessential. Those of us who are
> ought not to be denied the freedom to interrogate, tinker and improve.
>
> Patents have the effect of adding an additional layer of 'protection'
> to already existing copyright protection of software, while
> simultaneously overriding the various affordances and safeguards built
> into copyright law. For instance, the right of "fair dealing" under
> copyright law permits users to examine and modify any software in order
> to make it interoperable with other software. This is an extremely
> potent right that reasserts our right to intervene in the shaping of our
> surroundings. It is also one of the rights that is most imperiled by
> software patents.
>
> The present "public hearing" on software patents is an invitation
> for dialogue on the various issue surrounding software patents.
> Although the Patent Office had scheduled a public consultation on its
> Draft Patent Manual to be held in Bangalore in August this year, that
> meeting was abruptly cancelled (or postponed indefinitely, or to an
> unannounced date¡ªwe can't be sure) without any reasons having been
> assigned by the Patent Office.  This signals either of two unpleasant
> scenarios: first, the Patent Office is proceeding with its consultations
> in an extremely mechanical fashion, not intending inputs received in the
> course of these consultations to qualitatively impact their functioning
> in any way; or secondly, perhaps the Patent Office underestimates the
> amount that citizens living in the IT capital of India might have to say
> on the subject of software patents.
>
> It is our attempt in this public hearing to organize the kind of
> consultation that the Indian Patent Office ought to have conducted. We
> hope also hereby, to serve as a gentle but firm reminder to the Patent
> Office that its task is as yet undone.
>
> ==Agenda==
>
> 1000¨C1100
> Presentation on the principles of patent law and
> software patents
>
> Sudhir Krishnaswamy
> (National Law School)
>
> Prabir Purkayastha
> (Delhi Science Forum)
>
> Nagarjuna G.
> (Free Software Foundation of India)
>
> 1100¨C1130
> Discussion on software patents in the Indian context:
> Indian Patent Act, and the draft patent manual
>
> Prashant Iyengar
> (Alternative Law Forum)
>
> Venkatesh Hariharan
> (Red Hat)
>
> 1130¨C1150
> Tea break
>
> 1150¨C1240
> Discussion on patents and the development sector
> (freedom of speech, open standards, healthcare, biotech, agro-sector,
> etc.)
>
> Sunil Abraham
> (Centre for Internet and Society)
>
> Anivar Aravind
> (Movingrepublic, FSUG-Bangalore)
>
> Others
>
> 1240¨C1300
> Presentation on the software patents that have been
> granted so far in India
>
> Pranesh Prakash
> (Centre for Internet and Society)
>
> 1300¨C1400
> Lunch break
>
> 1400¨C1700
> Open House
>
> T. Ramakrishna
> (National Law School)
>
> Abhas Abhinav
> (DeepRoot Linux)
>
> Joseph Mathew
> (Special It advisor, Govt of Kerala)
>
> Sreekanth S. Rameshaiah
> (Mahiti Infotech)
>
> Vinay Sreenivasa
> (IT for Change)
>
> Any others who wish to speak
>
>
> ==Organizers==
>
> Centre for Internet and Society; Free Software Users Group-Bangalore;
> Free Software Foundation of India; SPACE; IT for Change; Alternative
> Law Forum; Delhi Science Forum; Movingrepublic; Sarai/CSDS; OpenSpace,
> ; Swathanthra Malayalam Computing; Servelots - Janastu; Mahiti; DeepRoot
> Linux; Wiki Ocean; Turtle Linux Lab; Zyxware Technologies; INSAF; Aneka
>
>
>
> Anivar Aravind
> +91 9449009908
>
> --
> Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free
> Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs.
> Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.
> _______________________________________________
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> FSUG-Bangalore at mm.gnu.org.in
> http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsug-bangalore
>

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