No Software Patents In Europe

The European Commission, which originally supported software patents has reversed its position, and now wants to exclude software from being patented. Last year the commission fased off against the European Council which opposed software patents. This is in stark contrast to the proposed New Zealand Patent Bill which not only does not exclude software, but also fails to address concerns over the ease which software patents are granted, leaving citizens to fight expensive legal battles even when prior art exists.

FAST proposes threatens the education sector over software piracy

The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) has threatened to prosecute educational establishments who use improperly licensed software.

The pressure group, which lobbies on behalf of the proprietary software industry, has threatened to take headteachers, schools, and Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to court if they are found to have any unauthorised software.

see: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/windows/0,39020396,39270906,00.htm

IRC agenda

Finances

1. Regular council meetings on IRC. I think the AGM went well, and our
previous IRC meetings also have been good. As the logs make them self
documenting I think that this should be the primary decision making
venue. Next one will be sometime next week.

2. Decide on some short term goals. To date we have been big on long
term goals. That didn't translate into short term goals or serious
action. When we did decide on short term goals (Patent action, web site,
SSC document) we succeeded. Here are some ideas:

- Hold a business seminar that costs ($30), and give away free CD's.

NZOSS AGM Held Online

On Sunday the NZOSS held its first AGM over the Phone and using an online form of meeting called Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC is the oldest form of chat technology on the Internet, predating services such as ICQ and MSN. This allowed members who were not in the main centres to attend the meeting on the same basis as other members.