- Pieter Hintjens
Pieter Hintjens (born
December 3 ,1962 [ The Hintjens' Wiki, [http://hintjens.com/pieter-hintjens:cv:personal-details "Pieter Hintjens"] . Consulted on February 2, 2007. ] ) is a Belgiansoftware developer and past president of theFoundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), an association that fights againstsoftware patent s.He is also the CEO of iMatix and has written many free software applications, such as Libero and the
Xitami web server. Fact|date=February 2007Hintjens started the CAPSoff campaign to reform the keyboard, starting with the removal of the Caps Lock key. He described this campaign as an example of an online campaign conducted entirely using free services like [http://wikidot.com Wikidot.com] and Google groups. Some [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/
] are starting to drop the Caps Lock key. In September 2006 he launched the "Million Dollar Keyboard" competition for the best keyboard design to do away with the Caps Lock key. It was funded by donations from the campaign's supporters and eventually raised €194.91. [cite web|url=http://colemak.com/List_of_donations|title=List of donations|work=Colemak website|first=Shai|last=Coleman|date=2007-12-17|accessdate=2008-01-04] The competition was won by Shai Coleman's "Colemak" keyboard layout.cite web | url=http://capsoff.org/competition:results | title=Competition Results | work=CAPSoff.org | date=2007-01-04 | accessdate=2007-11-02]
Views
He is of the opinion "that public distrust will bring down the patent system in [his] lifetime.” William New, [http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=515&res=1024_ff&print=0 "Piracy, Innovation Top Developed-Country Industry Priority List"] , Intellectual Property Watch, January 26, 2007. Consulted on February 2, 2007. ] According to him, the purpose of the patent system is not to make patent owners wealthy but to record innovations for future generations, the argument that the patent system makes economies work better is simplistic, that patents (especially ones related to software) are written purposely to be difficult to understand, and litigation is "an evil” as it destroys companies and wastes resources, and that mediation is better.
He has also written that "a sustainable patent system is needed for cultural and scientific reasons, and on that basis, I'm going to propose five steps to get there. These steps are: to stop the polemics, to resolve conflicts of interest, to construct appropriate models, to return to basics, and to engage in constructive dialogue."Digital Majority, [http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-2114/a-sustainable-patent-system "A sustainable patent system?"] ]
References
External links
*http://hintjens.com/pieter-hintjens:cv
*http://gca.org/attend/2001_conferences/europe_2001/bios/3.htm
*http://heironymouscoward.blogspot.com/
* [http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/files/nodes/1254/1254.pdf Free Software magazine Issue 12]
* [http://capsoff.org/ CapsOff Website]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
