209 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
209 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
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<title>FSFE - Software Patents in Europe - Open Letter - May 10th, 2004</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<center><h1>Software Patents in Europe</h1>
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/swpat.html">Introduction</a> | <a
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href="/campaigns/swpat/background.html">Background</a> | <a
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href="/campaigns/swpat/status.html">Status</a> | <a
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href="/campaigns/swpat/documents.html">Further Reading</a>]
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</center>
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<br />
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<center> Open Letter [2004-05-10]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040531.html">2004-05-31</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040706.html">2004-07-06</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040802.html">2004-08-02</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040906.html">2004-09-06</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20041004.html">2004-10-04</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20041101.html">2004-11-01</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20041206.html">2004-12-06</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050103.html">2005-01-03</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050207.html">2005-02-07</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050307.html">2005-03-07</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050405.html">2005-04-05</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050502.html">2005-05-02</a>]
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050606.html">2005-06-06</a>]
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</center>
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<h2>Open letter to all citizens of Europe</h2>
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<h3>May 10th, 2004</h3>
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<p>Dear Fellow Citizens,</p>
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<p>Have you ever heard of internet protocol (IP) telephony? This is
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beautiful technology! While sitting at your PC, you click a
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number and the computer dials for you -- automatically! To chat to
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the person on the side you can use a headset plugged into your
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computer. To arrange a meeting with friends you can have a
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telephone conference with as many people as you want. Also, if you
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and your partners own a webcam you can also see each other. With
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a flatrate connection no costs are incurred.</p>
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<p>The business opportunities are considerable: IBM expects cost
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reductions of 30% for professional users. The market research
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company Gartner expects the market volume to quadruple till 2007
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(as compared to 2002). Definitely a very interesting field!</p>
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<p>However - there is a road block called 'software patents': While
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Copyright law prevents competitors from selling applications
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(e.g. "Microsoft Word") under a different product name, software
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patents protect ideas and make them a creative wasteland for many
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years. Apple, for example holds a patent on a virtual wastepaper
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basket.</p>
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<p>Given the appropriate legal framework, Apple can prohibit
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implementation of the idea of a 'paper basket' in any other
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software application, regardless of the technical solution or
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programming methodology and language used. Alternatively they
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might choose to extort licensing fees from the programmer writing
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the paper basket software for using the idea of a wastebasket.</p>
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<p>Back to internet telephony. IP telephony is like an incredibly
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complex house of cards of ideas: how to synchronise audio and
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video? How to compress data such that users with low bandwidth
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analog modems are not excluded? All of these ideas are necessary
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for internet telephony to become reality.</p>
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<p>The result of software patents: no IP telephony at all! Professor
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Henning Schulzrinne from Columbia University (New York) currently
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suggests that programmers wait another 17 years, after which the
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patents will have expired!</p>
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<p>In the US there is a legal basis to enforce claims from software
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patents. Outside the scope of the law, the European Patent Office
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has been granting software patents for a number of years, which
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could not be enforced for lack of legal basis.</p>
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<p>Against good reason employed at the crafting of the European
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system and against the will of the European Parliament, which
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reaffirmed the undesirability of software patents in September
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2003, the European Union's Council of Ministers now seeks to
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force legislation similar to the US! Now - less than seven months
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later - the European Union's Council of Ministers and the
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Commission prepare to vote for the exact opposite of the
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parliamentarian will. What an affront to our elected
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parliamentary representatives!</p>
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<p>This abuse of the basis of democracy will have severe economic
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consequences: despite current law the European Patent Office has
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already granted 30,000 software patents. How much creative and
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hence economic potential is blocked for decade(s) by this? How
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many jobs do software patents cost or prevent?</p>
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<p>Who has an interest in monopolising ideas and dealing with them?
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In November 2003, the CEOs of Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia and
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Siemens wrote to the EU commission and have spoken in favour of
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software patents. Did they know what they were doing? Obviously
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not - especially the telephony equipment suppliers would do
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excellent business in IP telephony.</p>
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<p>Obviously, patent lawyers are interested in new and complex
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regulation: after the European Parliament's decision the chamber
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of patent lawyers issued a 12-page position paper, signed by the
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president of the "computer software committee". From the point of
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view of the more than 700 patent lawyers in Munich (to these
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you need to add the legal personnel in companies and chambers)
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this effort is justified when there is a threat of losing an area
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of activity with the potential for growth. However, can the European
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economy afford to sacrifice its competitiveness in favour of these
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partial interests?? As long as the public discussion is
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dominated by patent lawyers in patent offices, lawyers in law
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firms, chambers, associations and ministries one gets the
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impression that these particular interests are the interests of
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the entire society.</p>
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<p>The nuisance of the patent system in the software field has been
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scientifically explored by MIT, the Massachusetts Institue of
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Technology. In a 2003 study its researchers found out that the more
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software patents a company holds, the less it invests in research and
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development.</p>
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<p>What happens in government, society and economy as a whole if
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these developments are not stopped? We bar people from being
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creative. We put societal development into the hands of
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bureaucrats bullying us for their own benefit at every turn. To
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use the words of the Czech President Vaclav Klaus "The EU is not
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about freedom and openness, but about bureaucratisation,
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regulation and harmonisation". If we leave this discussion to
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others, we may prove him right.</p>
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<p>Dear Fellow Citizens you know us - <a
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href="/">fsfe.org</a> and <a
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href="http://www.ffii.org">www.ffii.org</a> - as organisations
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fostering freedom in the digital age (<a
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href="/documents/freesoftware.html">Free Software</a>) and public
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information goods.</p>
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<p>We will continue doing that work.</p>
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<p>Software patents will enslave all software, including Free
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Software. So in consequence this might be much more: the
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enslavement of society as a whole by the patent establishment.
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Therefore we ask you for support in our struggle for freedom in
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Europe! You can do this by:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>1. Protesting to politicians and administrations of your country</li>
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<li>2. Pointing entrepreneurs - not their patent department -- to
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the dangers of software patents and asking your government to
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fight for innovation and against software patents.</li>
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<li>3. Contacting the papers in your region/in your professional
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environment. Journalists have influence - but they first have to
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recognise that you take this problem very seriously!</li>
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<li>4. Supporting us with your donation: information on how to donate
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is available at <a
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href="/help/donate.html">http://fsfe.org/help/donate.html</a>
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and <a
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href="http://www.ffii.org/assoc/financ/account/">http://www.ffii.org/assoc/financ/account/</a>. Donations are tax-deductible in many European countries. If you let
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us know about where to send it, receipts for your tax authorities will
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be provided quickly. Also, in the case of FSFE, please indicate
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whether you want to be <a href="/help/thankgnus.en.html">publicly
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listed as our supporter</a>.</li>
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<li>5. Participating in the demonstrations we are doing in Mid May in
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many European capitals and cities, <a href="http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpDemo0405En">http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpDemo0405En</a>.
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</li>
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<li>6. Moreover you can sign FFII's "Call for Action II" via
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<a href="http://www.ffii.org/ffii-cgi/aktiv?f=euparl&l=de">http://www.ffii.org/ffii-cgi/aktiv?f=euparl&l=de</a>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>With kind regards,</p>
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<table width="100%">
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<tr>
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<td>
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<div align="left">
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<a href="/about/greve/">Georg Greve</a><br />
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Free Software Foundation Europe<br />
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<a href="/">fsfe.org</a>
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</div>
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</td>
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<td> 
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</td>
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<td>
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<div align="right">
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Hartmut Pilch<br />
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Foundation for a Free Informational Infrastructure<br />
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<a href="http://www.ffii.org">www.ffii.org</a>
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</div>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</body>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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