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Of particular note:
The week of 17-20th May is constituency week for the MEPs, which
means they will be in their home countries. This is an excellent
chance for you to get in contact with them.
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From: FFII <feedback@xxxxxxxx>
The debate in the European Parliament on software patents is
reaching a critical phase. We expect the vote in the committee
for legal affairs (JURI) to take place on 20 or 21 June, and the
European Parliament second reading vote to be on 6 July.
MEPs realise that there is much at stake and both sides are devoting
a lot of resources to support their case. The companies that remain
silent are simply not being counted.
NOW is the time to act. This is the message to pass on to people
running businesses most at risk from the software-patent threat.
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
The FFII is organising a conference on 1 June 2005 in Brussels.
We hope to see you there; see below for details.
If you are representing a European enterprise yourself, there
are several more things you can do to help us to prevent software
patents in the EU. If possible, please take all of the following
actions:
* As company or as individual, please print out the
Call for Action III (http://patinfo.ffii.org/material/cfa/),
sign it, and fax it to the FFII at +49-201-755440. We are
collecting these signatures in order to attach them to a (paper)
letter to the MEPs, similar to what EICTA did in April (see:
http://swpat.ffii.org/log/05/eictasme04/pro-patent-smes.pdf).
The signatures will not be published anywhere else.
* Please add your company to the "Economic Majority Against
Software Patents" list at http://www.economic-majority.com/ .
* Please continue to write (paper) letters to your representatives
in the European Parliament explaining, in your own words, why you
are concerned.
* Please visit our conference on 1 June in Brussels (see the
invitation below). Your presence makes a difference for the
MEPs you will meet there.
* Please go to Brussels and explain your concerns to the MEPs.
We can help you to arrange a meeting and, if necessary, to find
a hotel. Please send questions and possible dates for meeting
MEPs to <brussels@xxxxxxxx>.
We have already arranged and held several meetings, and each one
is very significant because it helps MEPs see how important this
issue is.
* The week of 17-20th May is constituency week for the MEPs, which
means they will be in their home countries. This is an excellent
chance for you to get in contact with them and pay them a visit
without the need for travelling to Brussels.
For basic introduction to the topic, we recommend (in this order):
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/basics/index.html
http://patinfo.ffii.org/faq.en.html
http://swpat.ffii.org/log/intro/index.en.html
If you are convinced about the urgency of this matter but you have
difficulties communicating this to your business partners or to your
superiors, the following presentation could be useful to you:
http://patinfo.ffii.org/material/ing-it/
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Thanks to the continuous work of the FFII and its supporters, the
MEPs are beginning to understand the problems induced by software
patents. It has become obvious that neither the industry nor the
academic institutions support the Council version of the directive:
* UEAPME, an umbrella organisation representing 11 million
European SMEs employing around 50 million people, finds large
companies misrepresenting SMEs' stance on software patents.
See: http://wiki.ffii.org/Ueapme050427En
* A German survey of more than 1,000 companies took the German
government by surprise when the vast majority spoke out clearly
against software patents.
See: http://wiki.ffii.org/Ifis050404En
* More recently still, 10,000 to 15,000 students, teachers and
staff at more than 35 Spanish universities protested against
the directive proposed by the Council.
See http://lucha.proinnova.org/ for photos and information.
Several MEPs, including the rapporteur Michel Rocard, have submitted
good amendments to the preparatory JURI report on the directive.
Now they need to see their actions legitimised by your support. Your
voice will give them the necessary moral backing to convince their
colleagues, and needs to be heard now more than ever.
INVITATION
The FFII cordially invites you to its
Conference on the proposed Software Patent Directive
on 1st June 2005 in Brussels
in the European Parliament and the Renaissance Hotel.
Please find the preliminary program here:
http://swpat.ffii.org/events/2005/bxl0601/
The conference is co-organized with the Computer & Communications
Industry Association (CCIA) and four European People's Party (EPP)
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from different countries.
The conference is free of charge. You can register either by
replying to this email with the form at the bottom filled in,
or by visiting the above web page.
Please help us to defend your business against software patents!
With kind regards,
Erik Josefsson Felipe Wersen
Hartmut Pilch Dr. Peter Gerwinski
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII)
Rufus Pollock, James Heald, FFII UK, http://www.ffii.org.uk/
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION AND SUPPORT
[ ] I will participate in the morning session (Parliament).
[ ] I will participate in the afternoon session (Renaissance Hotel)
[ ] Please contact me to provide help with hotel rooms
(Renaissance Hotel, Maison du Dragon Hotel or Gogh Hostel).
[ ] I am representing a company and I wish our company logo to be
on the program to show support by sending it to em-logos@xxxxxxxxx
(Note that you can do this even without attending the conference!)
[ ] I am representing a company and willing to publish a statement like
http://www.economic-majority.com/testimony/wuensche/ ,
Please contact me for details.
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--
Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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