The recent demonstrations at the EU parliament and the success of the amendments to the proposals on software patents probably represent a turning point in the radicalisation of the Free software movement - links are being forged with the rest of the movement.

Richard Stallman (or RMS as he often known as) launched the GNU project over 20 years ago:

 http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/26/1423205
 http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=771%40mit-eddie.UUCP&output=gplain

Since then GNU/Linux has become the dominant computer operating system in several computer industry sectors and it is generally considered to be the main threat to Microsoft's domination of the desktop.

If you don't know much about the ideas of the Free Software Foundation the 'Philosophy of the GNU Project' page is a good place to start reading:

 http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/

The next big row around issues raised by Free software will probably happen at the UN's WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) conference in Geneva at December, for which RMS has written this document for the Patents civil society group:

 http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/pcip/plenary/pct-talk.pdf

More information on software patents in Europe can be found on the FFII site:

 http://swpat.ffii.org/

This meeting is being sponsored by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (TheIEE) South Yorkshire Branch and Business Link South Yorkshire (BLSY) with some further help from members of Sheffield Linux User's Group:  http://www.sheflug.co.uk/

There are two Linux users groups in Sheffield - I'm on the SlugBug list because the SLUG list is run by someone who kicks people off it based on personal whims:

 http://www.email-lists.org/mailman/listinfo/slugbug