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--- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html
+++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/hague.html
@@ -1,19 +1,28 @@
<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
-<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 -->
+<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html -->
+<!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays laws patents" -->
+<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" -->
<title>Harm from the Hague
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/hague.translist" -->
<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" -->
+<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE-->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" -->
+<div class="article reduced-width">
<h2>Harm from the Hague</h2>
-<p>
-By <a href="http://www.stallman.org">Richard Stallman</a>, June 2001</p>
+<address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
+Stallman</a></address>
+
+<p><i>June 2001</i></p>
<p>
Europeans have energetically opposed and thwarted the attempt to
introduce software patents in Europe. A proposed treaty, now being
negotiated, threatens to subject software developers in Europe and
-other countries to U.S. software patents &mdash; and other harmful
+other countries to U.S. software patents&mdash;and other harmful
laws from around the world. The problem is not just for programmers;
authors of all kinds will face new dangers. Even the censorship laws
of various countries could have globalized effect.</p>
@@ -29,7 +38,7 @@ country he lives in (or has assets in) for enforcement.</p>
<p>
The treaty becomes a problem when it is extended to distribution of
-information &mdash; because information now travels normally and
+information&mdash;because information now travels normally and
predictably to all countries. (The Internet is one way, but not the
only way.) The consequence is that you could be sued about the
information you distributed under the laws of <strong>any</strong>
@@ -40,7 +49,7 @@ country.</p>
For instance, if you release a software package (either free or not)
in Germany, and people use it in the U.S., you could be sued for
infringing an absurd U.S. software patent. That part does not depend
-on Hague &mdash; it could happen now. But right now you could ignore
+on Hague&mdash;it could happen now. But right now you could ignore
the U.S. judgment, safe in Germany, and the patent holder knows this.
Under the Hague treaty, any German court would be required to enforce
the U.S. judgment against you. In effect, the software patents of any
@@ -86,12 +95,12 @@ be applied to the parent company in the U.S.</p>
<p>
It may come as a surprise to learn that exiled Chinese dissidents
joined the case in support of Yahoo. But they knew what they were
-doing &mdash; their democracy movement depends on the outcome.</p>
+doing&mdash;their democracy movement depends on the outcome.</p>
<p>
You see, Nazism is not the only political view whose expression is
prohibited in certain places. Criticism of the Chinese government is
-also prohibited &mdash; in China. If a French court ruling against
+also prohibited&mdash;in China. If a French court ruling against
Nazi statements is enforceable in the US, or in your country, maybe a
Chinese court ruling against anti-Chinese-government statements will
be enforceable there too. (This might be why China has joined the
@@ -129,10 +138,10 @@ it to reject outright censorship judgments.</p>
However, even that won't help you if you publish on the Internet,
because your <abbr title="Internet service provider">ISP</abbr> either
has assets in other countries or communicates to the world through
-larger <abbr>ISP</abbr>s that have them. A censorship judgment
+larger ISPs that have them. A censorship judgment
against your site, or any other kind, could be enforced against
-your <abbr>ISP</abbr>, or your <abbr>ISP</abbr>'s
-<abbr>ISP</abbr>, in any other country where it has assets &mdash; and
+your ISP, or your ISP's
+ISP, in any other country where it has assets&mdash;and
where there is no Bill of Rights, and freedom of speech does not enjoy
the same exalted status as in the U.S. In response, the ISP will shut
off your site. The Hague treaty would globalize pretexts for
@@ -140,13 +149,13 @@ lawsuits, but not the protections for civil liberties, so any local
protection could be bypassed.</p>
<p>
-Does suing your <abbr>ISP</abbr> seem far-fetched? It already
+Does suing your ISP seem far-fetched? It already
happens. When the multinational company Danone announced plans to
close factories in France, Olivier Malnuit opened a site,
jeboycottedanone.com, to criticize this. (The name is French for
&ldquo;I boycott Danone.&rdquo;) Danone sued not only him but his site
hosting company and domain name registrar for &ldquo;counterfeiting of
-goods&rdquo; &mdash; and in April 2001 received a ruling prohibiting
+goods&rdquo;&mdash;and in April 2001 received a ruling prohibiting
Malnuit from mentioning the name &ldquo;Danone&rdquo; either in the
domain name or in the text of the site. Even more telling, the
registrar removed the domain in fear before the court made a
@@ -157,8 +166,8 @@ The natural response for French dissidents is to publish their
criticism of Danone outside France, just as Chinese dissidents publish
their criticism of China outside China. But the Hague treaty would
enable Danone to attack them everywhere. Perhaps even this article
-would be suppressed through its <abbr>ISP</abbr> or
-its <abbr>ISP</abbr>'s <abbr>ISP</abbr>.</p>
+would be suppressed through its ISP or
+its ISP's ISP.</p>
<p>
The potential effects of the treaty are not limited to laws that exist
@@ -186,14 +195,9 @@ investment if they did not support software patents. Meanwhile, the
U.S. trade representative pressured Middle Eastern country Jordan to
allow patents on mathematics.</p>
-<!-- The following link is dead, disabled - mhatta 2002/9/30 -->
-<!--
-<A HREF="http://www.usjoft.com/usjoft/memopro/memopro.html">patents on
-mathematics</A>.<p>
--->
<p>
-A meeting of consumer organizations
-(<a href="http://www.tacd.org">http://www.tacd.org</a>) recommended in
+<a href="http://tacd.org">A meeting of consumer organizations</a>
+recommended in
May 2001 that patents, copyrights and trademarks (&ldquo;intellectual
property&rdquo;) should be excluded from the scope of the Hague
treaty, because these laws vary considerably between countries.</p>
@@ -209,33 +213,27 @@ distributor or transmitter operates should have jurisdiction.</p>
<p>
In Europe, people opposed to software patents will be active in
-working to change the Hague treaty.
-<!-- link dead, disabled - yavor, 24 Apr 2007 -->
-<!-- ; for more information, see
-<a href="http://www.noepatents.org/hague">http://www.noepatents.org/hague</a>.
--->
+working to change the Hague treaty; for more information, see
+<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20061209210148/http://www.noepatents.org/hague/index_html?NO_COOKIE=true">www.noepatents.org</a>.
In the U.S., the Consumer Project for Technology is taking the
lead; for more information, see
-<a href="http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html">http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html</a>.</p>
+<a href="http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html">www.cptech.org</a>.</p>
<p>
A diplomatic conference is slated to begin today (June 6, 2001) to work
on the details of the Hague treaty. We should make ministries and the
public aware of the possible dangers as soon as possible.</p>
-<hr />
+<hr class="column-limit" />
-<!-- link dead, disabled - yavor, 24 Apr 2007 -->
-<!--
-You can read a draft of the Hague
-treaty <a href="http://www.hcch.net/e/conventions/draft36e.html">here</a>.</p>
--->
<p>
There is more information about the problems with the Hague
-at <a href="http://web.lemuria.org/DeCSS/hague.html">http://web.lemuria.org/DeCSS/hague.html</a>.</p>
+at <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210507012748/http://web.lemuria.org/DeCSS/hague.html">web.lemuria.org</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
-<div id="footer">
+<div id="footer" role="contentinfo">
<div class="unprintable">
<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to <a
@@ -253,30 +251,46 @@ href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org">
&lt;web-translators@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
- <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of
+ <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of
our web pages, see <a
href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
README</a>. -->
Please see the <a
href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for
-information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p>
+information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p>
</div>
-<p>Copyright &copy; 2001 Richard Stallman<br />
-Copyright &copy; 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+ files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+ be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this
+ without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+ Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
+ document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
+ document was modified, or published.
+
+ If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+ Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
+ years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
+ year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
+ being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+
+ There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+ Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2001, 2022 Richard Stallman</p>
<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
-href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative
-Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
<p class="unprintable">Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2014/04/12 12:40:10 $
+$Date: 2022/04/12 11:15:30 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
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