Hi everyone, Ben and I have contacted several organisations: - Linux Australia - ask-oss - CASE - VPAC - EFA - Melb PC - PCUG (Canberra) - Open Source Law (Brendan Scott) - Ubuntu Australia (wrote to Melissa; could write to two others) - OLPC (au) Ben has also been in contact with Kim Carr and Richard Marles' offices. Apparently the review group met a couple of weeks ago, will be meeting again in December, and will deliver the review in February. We think they will probably be drafting the report in the mean time, so now is a good time to try to influence them. We already have over 360 signatures - even though most of the organisations were only written to just now. There are still more that we can contact, but it's getting difficult. Perhaps you can help? These are the others we identified, and the reason they haven't been contacted yet: - Charles Wright (Fairfax) No email - Computer-related expo at the exhibition buildings Too vague - VicNet http://vicnet.net.au/about-us2.html - info@vicnet.net.au Not sure how to word the email to get their interest. - Hackerspace http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Australia Too many spaces to choose from. If someone wants to go through these, feel free :) - Google Aus http://www.google.com.au/contact/ +61 2 9374 4000 Only phone contacts given. Does anyone know somebody who works at Google? - Redhat http://www.apac.redhat.com/about/ 1800-REDHAT Only customer service emails given. I may call them on Monday, but how does one start the conversation? "Hi, I'd like to speak to your CEO...". Actually for these companies, it might be better to encourage them to make their own formal submission to the Government. - TomTom Same as Google. - Waugh Partners http://bethesignal.org/ http://pipka.org/ No email. Does anyone know Pia or Jeff's addresses? Included below is the email I sent to Melb PC. Feel free to modify it and send it to other organisations (putting your own name to it). Cheers, Alex ----- Hello, The Melbourne Free Software Interest Group has written an open letter calling for the abolition of software patents in Australia. http://apps.softwarefreedom.com.au/patents/ We already have over 350 signatures, inlcuding those of several software company CEOs and high profile free software developers. I notice Melb PC has a Linux and Open Source interest group. In fact, software patents threaten all users and developers of software, free or otherwise. As an organisation with interests in this area, your members may like to sign the letter. Patent law is changing around the world: a software patent has been rejected in the first appeals ruling in the US since Bilski[1], and the upcoming Patents Bill in New Zealand is likely to disallow the patenting of software[2]. And here in Australia, the Government is currently reviewing patent legislation. Please encourage your members to sign, and help us create a stronger software industry. Best regards, ... [1] http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20100713173032257 [2] http://www.nzcs.org.nz/news/blog.php?/archives/97-.html