The MPlayer site currently states :
Closed for patent infringement
This site has been shut down because of numerous patent violations in MPlayer. The other free software multimedia players are next.
The European commission has just passed its directive on software patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to the sole benefit of big non-European corporation and Ireland and to the detriment of small and medium sized businesses (which comprise 99% of the European software industry) and free software.
The European parliament will now be taking the last stand against software patents in a voting for which an absolute majority is needed. Such a majority is hard to come by in a parliament with a low attendance level.
But not all is lost yet as long as you decide it is time to make a difference and take action. This is our last opportunity to fend off software patents worldwide, there will be no second chance for the foreseeable future. Contact your local EU representatives and educate them why software patents are bad and why they must attend that parliament session to vote against them. For in-depth information and starting points to get active visit software patent page of the FFII (Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure) and NoSoftwarePatents.com.
Wish us luck, we will need it.
Say what?!?
Re:attention grabbing
zatoichi on 2005-03-21T02:03:11
Because Ireland "saved civilization". It's all their fault. But then again the Irish think Saint Patrick was Roman Catholic.Re:attention grabbing
link on 2005-03-21T08:16:47
Geez,next you will be saying he was not even Irish.Re:attention grabbing
TeeJay on 2005-03-21T09:09:41
Actually its because ireland is a tax haven for greedy international corporations.Commissioner McCreedy has been working hard on their behalf to push software patents through and is one of the individuals who responsable for the 'procedural anomolies'.
Luxemburg and Ireland have both abused their EU presidency to push the CII directive through.
