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On 01/21/2014 09:04 AM, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
hi Carsten,
- Carsten Agger agger@modspil.dk [2014-01-16 17:00:33 +0100]:
I've been invited to a meeting next Monday, and I think I will ad the support of our local FSFE group on the "NO" side. The reasoning is, once again: We do not want any software patents, and we believe this unified patents may easily become a means for introducing software patents on the European level.
I am sorry I am late on this. How did it go?
It went fine!
The Danish IT-worker's union PROSA are very keen on getting a "no", because they're convinced that adopting the Unified Patent Court without a clear ban on software patents means that software patents *will* be enforceable throughout the EU, or at least that that's a very serious risk.
Therefore, they wish to launch a "no" campaign that builds on the threat of software patents and support to and solidarity with SMEs.
It's sort of a first that software patents becomes a prime issue in national politics. It's also kind of bewildering to the "yes" side who hadn't expected this.
So I think the campaign and the ideas behind it look promising.
The referendum doesn't look very promising, though. For the patent court to be rejected, 30% of those eligible to vote most vote "no" - a simple majority is not enough. That's very difficult for a technical issue like this one.
That
For the follow-up it might help you to read https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130612-01.en.html and the linked documents. As you can read German also http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a06/anhoerungen/archiv/47_Patentierung_von_Computerprogrammen/04_Stellungnahmen/Stellungnahme_Kirschner.pdf
our written statement to the German Parliament.
Some other background on the German situation is available in my blog entry https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/fsfe-meeting-the-fsf-crew-in-boston-2/ (I have no clue why the URL is so strange, I converted from the short numbers to longer links some time ago).
Thanks for the links, I'm looking at them now. :-)