Posts by Tim 15 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jul 2007
A Christian and an atheist were having a discussion.
The Christian says “You know, I feel that an atheist is like a man in a blacked out room looking for a black cat that is not there.”
The atheist replies, “I feel the same about Christians, the only difference being that the Christian thinks he has found the cat”
(Inspired by Dave Allen)
This is clearly in contravention of Article 10 of The European Convention on Human Rights.
ARTICLE 10
1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. this right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
2) The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or the rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
In this case I do not think Italy can use clause 2 as a defence. Is Italy going to withdraw from the EU?
The reply I got.....
from LANCOR <Info@lancorltd.com>
subject RE: Patent Troll Blocks Distribution of Free Laptops to Poor Nigerian Children
Dear Tim,
We can feel your passion, but again your anger is misdirected... don’t believe everything you read online.
We are sure OLPC has very capable lawyers that will make their case for them in court and not in the media or online blog.
Further, we are sure that the rule of law will be upheld “even in the Nigerian Court.”
These things don’t always seem the same when the facts are actually sorted out in Court.
Again thanks for your mail, just sit back and let the lawyers sort it out.
Yours,
LANCOR
I sent the following to all the contacts I could find for Lancors clients:
[email addresses excised by Reg moderator.]cc Info@lancorltd.com
date 4 Jan 2008 19:53
subject Patent Troll Blocks Distribution of Free Laptops to Poor Nigerian Children
Are you happy to do business with this creeps?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/03/lancor_demands_20_mil/
*************************
I got this responce:
Dear Tim,
We thank you for your mail.
We are a little miffed at your message, but then we guess in your neck of the woods, wherever that may be, it is OK to steal your neighbor’s property as long as you are donating the stolen property to “Poor Nigerian Children”
Yours,
LANCOR
***************
To which I responded with a view of the comments from here:
to LANCOR <Info@lancorltd.com>
[Email addresses excised.]date 4 Jan 2008 20:47
subject Re: Patent Troll Blocks Distribution of Free Laptops to Poor Nigerian Children
Do you really have a case, I think not...
The differences were more evident than the similarities once you got beyond the fact that they are both keyboards. It also had the text of the suit, and basically, it looked to *all* the commenters like they were:
a) claiming similarities in the most general of terms that *even so* were tenuous
b) claiming infringement of features which LANCOR did not invent.
Not everyone thinks that charity means stealing is okay; if you could get a free laptop, why would you buy one? But even then, once the OLPC scheme has raised the computer literacy of LANCOR's target market, that market will be a boom one for them. An enlightened (or even canny, presuming they really do want to make money out of regionalised keyboards) corp would grant OLPC a free licence and make a big song and dance about it for free publicity.
OLPC is not the only PC sold in Nigeria. What keymaps other PCs use and why for example Windows 2003 is not slapped with the same lawsuit?
*******************
[excised]
Just a few points but they are BIG ones:
Length of time the waste is a hazard.
50 years supply of fuel.
Cost of decommissioning reactors not taken into account when costing.
While there have not been many accidents that we KNOW about, but it only takes one to mess up a huge area
I don’t claim to have the answer to our energy needs but I am sure Nuclear is not one of them.
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