Hi,

We had to do a lot of last minute stuff as IISc centenary celberations is on.

We have the big guys coming the same day including : Assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India - speaks @ IISc - 11.30 a.m - 1.00 p.m, 14th Dec : India - A Knowledge Power: Opportunities and Challenges

http://www.iisc.ernet.in/centenary-conf/kentaro.html http://www.iisc.ernet.in/centenary-conf/kentaro.html http://www.iisc.ernet.in/centenary-conf/program.shtml

We have Choksi hall fixed at 5.p.m Sunday 14th. This got confirmed only last night. If we didnt get the hall we were planning to have a open air session with hand mike considering the importanct of the topic.

We have Eben moglen - speaking on The Knowledge Power of the Community :: Danger of Patents

1) http://notoimp.wordpress.com/ - its important for civil society to debate the quote IP unquote policy of a institute of national importance 2) Its also important in the light of the national debate on software patents.

thanks senthil

* harish k singh

Can you look at the article at http://osindia.blogspot.com/2008/11/global-patent-troll-comes-to-india.h tml. The patents subsidized by our belowed govt is now in the hands of these trolls. Maybe we need to address these issues when the meeting in IISc happens next month.Incidently, this company's major investor is none other than microsoft. See http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?cur rentPage=1.

* Rehat Venky

"Software patents are an important issue in India right now because there is a heated debate over how to interpret Section 3(k) which says that, "A mathematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms are not patentable."

How "computer programme per se" is interpreted is of vital importance to the FOSS community. Therefore a talk by RMS on software patents would be relevant at this point in time and would help raise awareness of how patents prevent independent invention and restrict the freedom of software developers."