1. Robert Bray, Principal Administrator, Secretariat of the Committee for Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, EU Parliament, gave a speech you don't want to miss, "The EU 'Software Patent' Directive: What is it? Why is it? Where are we now?" He mentions the effect of the FOSS community on that whole process.

2. Red Hat's Mark Webbink, Deputy General Counsel and Secretary, also speaks and says that Red Hat's corporate policy is that allowing software patents was a mistake. His speech is entitled "A New Paradigm for Intellectual Property Rights in Software" and you'll enjoy his list of all the reasons why software should be treated differently. It's in the panel discussion.

3. Daniel Egger of Open Source Risk Management, "Extrajudicial Dispute-Resolution and the GNU General Public License: An Emerging Customary Law of "Work Based on the Program."

4. Timothy O'Sullivan - Partner, Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A. "Patents as a Tool to Spur Innovation: The Benefits of Patent Protection over Open Source." I guess you can guess his point of view.

There is a lot more, including the fascinating panel discussion. I note there is a talk on Grokster and the Future of Secondary Copyright Liability, and I am learning a lot, even from those I don't agree with. Enjoy.

That reminds me. There's a Linux conference in Canada, Network World, Conference and Expo, today through Wednesday in Toronto, and if any of you are there, I'd love to have you let us know the highlights. Both Novell's David Patrick and IBM's Scott Handy will present keynotes, I'm told, which I believe are scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday, in that order. More details here. And is there anyone here who can't find something on this list to interest them?