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"gewg_" writes:

from the fingering-a-corrupt-governmental-agency dept.

How many people out there have been subjected to censorship and/or self-censorship by European Patent Office aggression against the media?

Roy Schestowitz at TechRights reports [techrights.org]

What the EPO [techrights.org] did to us [1 [techrights.org], 2 [techrights.org], 3 [techrights.org]] last month and earlier this month (for a number of weeks) is important because it can help inform other sites of what EPO has been up to and how to stand up to it. We already have evidence to show that Team Battistelli is using the "chilling effect" against politicians [techrights.org], lawyers [techrights.org], bloggers [techrights.org], journalists, and even government delegates [techrights.org]. How far will these sociopaths go?

[...][We noticed that] EPO lawyers had lazily used a template and didn't even change the name when they sent a threatening letter. [...] This kind of evidence suggests that other such letters were sent to other publishers, demanding that they take down their articles about the EPO. [...] We already know that SUEPO [Staff Union of the European Patent Office [suepo.org]] removed some links from its public site. EPO management put them under threat, hence FOSS Patents links and Heise links got removed. [...] Any information about what exactly happened back then would be greatly appreciated. There is a campaign of "chilling effect" against dissent and if nobody speaks out, as a French blogger did a few months ago, we wouldn't know just how widespread this campaign is.

Original Submission