Pieter Hintjens

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Pieter Hintjens (born December 3, 1962^[1]) is a Belgian software developer and past president of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), an association that fights against software patents.

He is also the CEO of iMatix and has written many free software applications, such as Libero and the Xitami web server.^{[citation needed]}

Hintjens 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 Wikidot.com and Google groups. Some new keyboards 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.^[2] The competition was won by Shai Coleman's "Colemak" keyboard layout.^[3]

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He is of the opinion "that public distrust will bring down the patent system in [his] lifetime.” ^[4] 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.^[4]

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."^[5]