FSF and UPD omitted from Policy98 information

["Krishna E. Bera" <kebera@Cyblings.ON.CA>]

Dear ACM Policy98 Organizers,

I read over the conference program on intellectual property issues at 
    http://www.acm.org/usacm/events/policy98/txtProperty.html 
and noticed some important organizations were not represented in the 
program or hyperlinked background documents.

I believe the Free Software Foundation and the Union for the Public 
Domain (UPD) have some valid and relevant points to make in regard to 
public policy in the area of copyrights and intellectual property, and 
would encourage you to invite UPD's involvement in Policy98.  You 
can read more about these organizations at 
    http://www.gnu.org/fsf/fsf.html
    http://www.public-domain.org/

In particular, conference attendees might find the essay entitled 
   "Why Software Should Not Have Owners" 
   http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html 
insightful and provocative.

I regret that I will not be able to attend the conference myself, but
will be following the online proceedings.  I am glad ACM is taking 
such an active role in public policy-making.  However, I want to be 
sure that avenues promising significant public benefit are not 
inadvertantly foregone by focusing exclusively on a model in which 
information/knowledge becomes property to be owned and hoarded.

Regards,

Krishna E. Bera
kebera@acm.org     
member#3217304