[Sheflug] RMS et al on software patents at the European Parliament

[Richard Ibbotson <nospam [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

Thought some of you might be interested in the following message
 which came to  me from the Fosdem list.  Xavi asked me to forward it
 to our list...


----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: [Osdem]RMS et al on software patents at the European
Parliament
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 00:32:18 +0100
From: Xavi Drudis Ferran <nospam [at] tinet.org>
To: osdem [at] lists.raphinou.com, discussion [at] fsfeurope.org,
patents@aful.org

Hi.

Last november the 7th there was an official hearing in the European
Parliament on the directive on software patents. It went better than
 I thought, but we've still have a way to go before this one is won.

http://patents.caliu.info/audiencia.en.html

The next event is a conference in the European Parliament in
 Brussels, Tuesday, november the 26th. Important speakers will be
 present to discuss about the effects of software patents, the
 proposed directive and what to do about it. There will be free
 software representatives such as Richard M. Stallman, academics like
 François Pellegrini (of Libre Software Meeting fame) or Brian Kahin
 from the University of Maryland, , representatives of innovative
 software companies in Europe, patent experts and of course members
 of the European Parliament (MEPs).

The good news is that it is a public conference and anybody can
go. The bad news is that capacity is limited. The program and contact
information for registration (free registration is required) is at

http://www.greens-efa.org/en/agenda/detail.php?id=770&lg=fr
http://www.greens-efa.org/fr/agenda/detail.php?id=770&lg=fr

If I just wasn't so far, or I had holidays left, I wouldn't lose a
chance to listen to RMS and the rest convincing the European
Parliament not to condemn European Software to a dark age, just in a
moment when the Parliament is working.

But what I would ask people to do is:

If you live a not too long trip from Brussels:

- Please tell people interested in software in your area about the
event, and hang the program in Computer Science departments or
classrooms in universities, or software companies. There is a poster
announcing the event, but I haven't found it. Maybe they'll put a
 link to it in the program page, in a couple of days.

Irrespective of where you live:

- If you know MEPs, MPs, people in political parties or decision
makers, tell them of the importance of this big change in the
 European software arena, and ask them to go to the conference. Also
 ask them to support the ammendments proposed at

http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/prop/

(or else to reject the directive). We shouldn't mail bomb our
representatives though, so just don't start sending mail
indiscriminately to MEPs you don't know, please.

- If you have contacts in the press, warn them and ask them to cover
the event

We have powerful arguments to stop software patents in Europe, but we
need to show the MEPs that this issue is important and many people
cares, and one way is filling the conference room.

Thank you for any help.


--
Xavi Drudis Ferran
xdrudis@tinet.org



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