Hi network operators,
Apologies for a non-technical post, but I believe this is an issue of
relevance to the NANOG community. EFF is collecting signatures from
prominent engineers and technologists for a letter to the US Congress
calling for reform of the software patent system to protect inventors
and inventive companies against patent trolls, who use patents for
extortionate purposes without ever shipping any products. We're doing
this now because there is a window of political opportunity to actually
get this problem fixed in the next few months.
Draft text of the letter is below. If you broadly agree and would like
to sign on, please send me a private reply with:
- Your name;
- A 1-3 line bio that summarizes your main career achievements, which
might be a current or past affiliation, RFCs you wrote, networks you
built, companies you founded, etc;
- Whether you hold US patents; if so, how many you hold, and (if you
know them) the patent numbers