Just got this email from Ray and Sara - been meaning to post about this for the last few days but the email says it all - sign the petition now!

Hi All,

In one way or other you share our interests in the field of e-learning, as a collegue or a friend, and that is why we are sending you this e-mail.

As partner in the SIGOSSEE EU funded project we were one of the organizers of the Conference on Open Source for Education. Research and Practice, which was held on November 14-15 2005 at the OUNL in Heerlen, The Netherlands. Information about the conference: http://www.openconference.net/

At that conference we brainstormed in one last session about a pre emptive position paper on no EU software patents for e-learning. One of the main issues is, as we see it, guaranteed access to information and knowledge for all.

Out of this came a petition which aims to alert European authorities and policy-makers to the dangers of software patents, and particularly to the negative impact they could have on e-learning that uses information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance education. This petition will be sent to the European Commission as an input for the “Consultation on future patent policy in Europe” by March 31st. The petition will be distributed to other European and national decision-makers to raise awareness on the issue of EU-wide software patents and how they threaten to inhibit innovation among European e-learning developers and practitioners.

If you are a concerned teacher, learner, parent, researcher, decision-maker, e-learning practitioner, developer or citizen, read this petition on-line at:

http://www.noelearningpatents.info/

Consider signing it! Let others know about it.

We aim to raise awareness and gather as many signatures as possible by Thursday 30th March 2006.

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