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From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,trial.misc.legal.software
Subject: Let's let the market decide the software patent issue: SIPRIG
Summary: we can all agree on this one
Message-ID: <11212:Sep306:53:0290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 3 Sep 90 06:53:02 GMT
References: <67632@sgi.sgi.com> <9358@ubc-cs.UUC <68381@sgi.sgi.com>
Organization: IR
Lines: 25
X-Original-Subject: Re: Patents (was Re: Copyrights)

Rather than forming a union of software users biased towards one
viewpoint or another: Let's form SIPRIG, the Software Intellectual
Property Rights Information Group.

SIPRIG is dedicated to furthering the software community's knowledge of
what intellectual property rights are claimed by programmers. For any
program on the market, SIPRIG wants to know what kind of copyrights and
patents protect it. SIPRIG also wants to know if there are any trade
secrets in it, though of course it can't ask what those secrets are.

Each of us with an interest in this issue should join SIPRIG. We can all
back our opinions with much more solid evidence when we see what the
world is really like; it may turn out that software patents are widely
accepted or hardly used at all. Best of all, we can express our opinions
in the market. Those who think software patents are damaging can boycott
companies that sell programs covered by patent. Those who think software
patents are good can take their business to those companies and refuse
to give other companies any loans. We all want to see this information
made available to the public.

If there's enough interest in SIPRIG, I'll set up a mailing list. In the
meantime, I'll start putting patent information into my own programs.
Feel free to join me.

---Dan