Another month, another petition. So what do you think about this

I, the undersigned, support this statement

The European patent system discriminates against:

• The Public, by letting those who benefit from the patent system set the rules for everyone.
• Real innovators, by granting patents too easily and in areas where patents are not needed.
• Fast-moving industries, by pretending that one size fits all.
• The free market, by granting overbroad monopolies that lock out innovation and competition.
• Smaller businesses, by creating risks and costs that small firms cannot afford.
• Open research, in software, medicine, and more, by blocking the free flow of ideas and knowledge.

This discrimination is unfair, and it is costly. We all pay for it, with higher prices, fewer jobs, and less freedom.
I call on the EU to build a new patent system on these principles:

• Fair to the public. It must be made by elected lawmakers of democratic European Union.
• Fair to innovators. It must allow patents only where needed to spur innovation.
• Fair to all industries. It must adapt to the fast-growing diversity of technology and business.
• Fair to a free market. It must ensure that patent monopolies are narrowly focused.
• Fair to small businesses. It must provide affordable, fast, narrow and predictable rights.
• Fair to open research. It must protect the independent creation of original works.

from ethipat.org

Well, I wholeheartedly agree that the current worldwide, not just EU, patent practices and laws are flawed. They are discriminatory, unfair, largely un-implementable in a sensible way but enforcible and prohibitive. There is no protection against misjudgement either.

Ok, I'll shut up for now. I don't have time, at the moment to substantiate my claims, so just take them at with a pinch of salt.

On 11 January 11 2002, the first detainees from Afghanistan arrived at the US Naval Base of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Five years on, the baby is live and kicking and enjoys good health. It has been kept on a nutritious diet of injustice and abuse.

Celebrate it's five year on anniversary with all of it's well wishers at the Guantanamo Anniversary Special

Two days ago a Lybian court sentenced five nurses and a doctor to death, for the horrendous crime that they have apparently intentionally infected some 400+ children with HIV. The really outrageous and and sad side of this story is that the sentenced medics are innocent, at least according to the opinion of independent world renown experts. Their opinions have not been allowed in the court proceedings and discounted as biased, erroneous and alleged that they form a part of a conspiracy against Lybia. That is simply ridiculous. Especially since the medical opinion is that the main cause is probably bad hygiene practices in the hospital in Bengazi. :(

From a conspiracy theorist's point of view it is an inspiration that the blood money demanded by Lybia match the money Lybia was sentenced to pay the families of the Lockerbie bombing's victims.

There's nothing more to comment - there is loads of information on the internet. The article in wikipedia - HIV trial in Lybia provides a fairly brief but thorough account on the matter.

I'm gutted to hear that Spiller's Records is under threat to get shut down. It will be a shame if it happens. It will be a loss. Instead of being shut it should be listed. It's the oldest surviving record shop in the world! It's been continuosly open since 1894, yes, that's right it has been alive in three different centuries. Sign the petition. Now! If you don't want such gems to disappear. I quote the petition below.

Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) has channelled over £30 million of its aid through an institution designed to pay consultants to push privatisation in poor countries according to a report released today (Sunday 26 November 2006) by the World Development Movement. This compares, for example, to the £3.5 million DFID has pledged to spend over four years to help establish a new programme of support for higher education in Africa.

from www.wdm.org.uk

Making noise.

I'm receiving emails from people I know and people who know me (for some strange reason this is true), who are aware of my posts about Alaa and his imprisonment in Egypt earlier this year.

Well, it seems the authorities there have consistent policies against dissent.

Recently Abdel Karim Sulaiman Amer was arrested and detained [apparently] because of his critical writings on his blog.

Similarly Rami Siyam aka Ayyoub got arrested and detained on November 20.

Let's not forget the imprisonment of Tal’at Sadat, a member of parliament, for “spreading false rumours and insulting the armed forces".

Who will win this acclaimed prize for being the master of spin and manipulation, the fastest painter of greenwash, the influencer of influencers, the black hole of transparency? It’s up to you!

In the lobbying game, it takes two to tango, the lobbyist and the public official being lobbied

from worst lobby

'nuff said

Protect Freedom #1: Eliminate DRM

Stikr aktion at factoryjoe's flickr garage.

IBM Sues Amazon For Patent Infringement
IBM Files Patent Infringement Lawsuits Against Amazon.com

Well, the story with patents is on the roll, again. BBC had patents on links, IBM has patents on e-commerce, what next?

Up until now I was avoiding putting my thoughts on 'paper', but here we are. My instincts simply say Restricting knowledge distribution and use is wrong. Some might say this makes me a communist devil, anarchist or whatever other epithet is currently cool in their circles. Let's avoid that for the time being. These scribbles are probably not 100% correct. But the ideas are what matters anyway. And will you find a difference from a bird's eye view?

Obviously this is a strong social issue, as in it reflects a growing concern of the society as a whole. The society as the human beings represented by a state, like UK, USA, France, Bulgaria, or groups of states like EU, UN, ... Some long time ago patents were introduced by the British Crown in order to give a temporary monopoly to inventors, so that they can protect and exploit their knowhow, while making the knowledge (their knowhow) public. This was a significant social issue. This way knowledge was immediately becoming exploitable by the society. People could benefit from the abstract knowledge or the principles behind the patentable invention. These principles were not patentable at the time, only some of their defined applications - the invention, machines, products etc... The monopoly lasted for a relatively short period of time. Longer than it would take at the time to reverse engineer an invetion and set up production of a competitive product, but not by too much. This is important, since timescales, im my opinion, are important when trying to rationalise the costs of patents to a society.