Persbericht Vrijschrift, 8 februari 2008
Vrijschrift roept op tot boycott van Trend Micro
WORKUM -- Vrijdag 8 februari 2008 -- De Stichting Vrijschrift heeft vandaag opgeroepen tot een wereldwijde boycott van Trend Micro-producten. De oproep is een antwoord op een rechtzaak die Trend Micro op 29 januari jongstleden aanspande tegen Barracuda Networks, maker van netwerkbeveiligingssoftware. In deze zaak claimt Trend Micro dat Barracuda Networks inbreuk maakt op zijn Amerikaanse octrooi op software die virussen uitfiltert op internetgatewaycomputers. De claim betreft het vrije en opensourceprogramma Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV), en eist dat Barracuda een licentie betaalt, danwel ophoudt met het verspreiden van zijn webfilteringhardware en andere producten.
Softwaremakers die over softwareoctrooien beschikken neigen tot het voeren van een onderlinge "koude oorlog", waarbij ze octrooien verzamelen voor defensieve doeleinden. Zelden worden zaken Software vendors that hold software patents tend to maintain a "cold war" amongst each other, collecting patents, and holding on to them for defensive purposes. Rarely are suits filed against one another aggressively. ScriptumLibre's chairman Wiebe van der Worp finds Trend Micro's aggressive use of litigation to be "well beyond the borders of decency," and points to the company's past history of, "extorting organizations such as Symantec and McAfee with similar threats of litigation." However, there are deeper concerns echoed by van der Worp, and others, in the threats this lawsuit holds toward others in the FOSS community. Recognizing this threat, Barracuda CEO, Dean Drako, in a statement to the FOSS community, writes, "Trend Micro’s actions illustrate that ClamAV and other open source projects remain vulnerable to commercial patent holders attempting to unjustly hinder the free and open source community."
As a result, many in the community are banding together, and offering support towards Barracuda, such as Eben Moglen of the Software Freedom Law Center, who has stated that the "Collective defense from software patents is a shared responsibility for everyone in the free software ecosystem." ScriptumLibre feels that the patent system is fundamentally broken. But just because the system is broken, does not mean that companies should be absolved for abusing that system. The foundation therefore urges the entire IT community, including both the proprietary and FOSS communities, to boycott Trend Micro products.
About ScriptumLibre: ScriptumLibre.org Foundation is the international branch of the Dutch "Stichting Vrijschrift.org". ScriptumLibre creates awareness about the economic and social meaning of free knowledge and culture for our society. The foundation was involved in the successful campaign to keep software patents out of the European Union.
Links and Attachments
Boycott web page with information, banners and cartoons: http://www.scriptumlibre.org/Boycott_Trend_Micro
Barracuda Networks call for help: http://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/legal/
Contact
Wiebe van der Worp, chairman ScriptumLibre, wiebe at vrijschrift.org tel.: +31 6 455 939 82
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