I get these in digest form, so I've read a lot of discussions about this all at once. Some thoughts... At the risk of being flamed, I'm throwing these out "as is" because without properly briefing myself, I probably think now what the "great unwashed" are going to think on hearing about this initially.
* First off, we all want to see the back of counterfeit or dangerous products.
* Secondly, if subversive or criminal groups are profiting from this, they need to be deterred. * Thirdly, theft of property of any kind is wrong. *** See below *** * FOSS coding is not theft, or criminal, or a health and safety issue!
Welcome to *** below ***
I recently read an article by Richard Stallman called "Did you just say intellectual property", and it focused very heavily on the way the phrase is used to blur the defining lines between copyrights, trademarks and patents. It can be found at: https://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/not-ipr.xhtml and is well worth reading.
I think our greatest challenge here will be to avoid the simplistic "For or against this" stance that would allow us to be spun to the public as 'lumped in with criminals'. We need some way of educating (primarily our MEPs) to recognise the misuse of the phrase.
If I remember right, it was ambiguous terminology "...as such..." that lead to the loopholes we highlighted the last time in the patents debate.
If someone has a URL for what's proposed, please post it. I wanted to say this much before educating myself properly, because our target audience are equally unversed.
Mel
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