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 conferenc room.
Thank you for any help.
El Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 12:32:18AM +0100, xdrudis deia:
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.
Sorry, I meant is working on a directive that would allow unlimited patentability (by any other name).
Irrespective of where you live:
I meant, irrespective of where in the EU you live:
Actually, having limited space is a good news. ;-) With a bit of mobilisation we can make it a very visible event inside the European Parlement. If people need to stack in order to participate, there is obviously a big interest on this topic.
The most important information is that in order to get physical access to within the European Parlement, you need to be identifyed as comming to the conference (security issue).
This mean you have to contact first: Laurence Van de Walle lvandewalle@europarl.eu.int If ever the room is overfull, she will tell you.
Other working link: http://www.greens-efa.org/fr/press/detail.php?id=1176&lg=fr A few news over the net: http://www.e-arenas.org/FRhome.asp#2065 Even more interesting link on Linux FR http://linuxfr.org/2002/11/15/10322.html where people organise themself to get from various location in France.
Translation and similar news into your news site or your mailing list are welcome. Various Belgian Linux User Group have been contacted. Belgian University and Computer Science dep. should start soon.
Poster are available from Laurence Van de Walle if you have a public place with a lot of potential interested people (University, User Group, ...).
David GLAUDE
From: "Xavi Drudis Ferran" xdrudis@tinet.org Subject: [Osdem]RMS et al on software patents at the European Parliament
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
Xavi Drudis Ferran xdrudis@tinet.org
El Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 09:53:42AM +0100, David GLAUDE Mailing deia:
This mean you have to contact first: Laurence Van de Walle lvandewalle@europarl.eu.int If ever the room is overfull, she will tell you.
Other working link: http://www.greens-efa.org/fr/press/detail.php?id=1176&lg=fr A few news over the net: http://www.e-arenas.org/FRhome.asp#2065 Even more interesting link on Linux FR http://linuxfr.org/2002/11/15/10322.html where people organise themself to get from various location in France.
More precisely, there is a page trying to register people for possible collective travel from France http://www.lamenagerie.com/OEB/
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
These are deep links to frames. The hompage for the frameset is, of course http://www.greens-efa.org/
On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 09:53:42AM +0100, David GLAUDE Mailing wrote:
This mean you have to contact first: Laurence Van de Walle lvandewalle@europarl.eu.int If ever the room is overfull, she will tell you.
I tried to register but I didn't receive any answer yet... I mailed him/her last Sunday.
Rudy
On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Rudy Gevaert wrote:
On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 09:53:42AM +0100, David GLAUDE Mailing wrote:
This mean you have to contact first: Laurence Van de Walle lvandewalle@europarl.eu.int If ever the room is overfull, she will tell you.
I tried to register but I didn't receive any answer yet... I mailed him/her last Sunday.
Same here ... I will try to call one of the following days ...
michael
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael De Nil -- michael@aerythmic.be Linux lisa.flex-it.be 2.4.20-rc1 #4 vr nov 1 13:13:41 CET 2002 i686 18:36:01 up 18 days, 5:10, 6 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
I did register yesterday, and got a response within a few hours... Maybe I should note you will have to mention your full address (security reasons it seems), and you will get a badge when checking in at the event. Quote:
"Yes I can confirm but I need your address to register you because security rules are very strict. The security service will prepare a badge that you can pick up from 1:30 on at the entrance of the ASP builing of European Parliament. Thanks L. Van de Walle"
Regards, Guy
On Tue, 2002-11-19 at 16:07, Rudy Gevaert wrote:
On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 09:53:42AM +0100, David GLAUDE Mailing wrote:
This mean you have to contact first: Laurence Van de Walle lvandewalle@europarl.eu.int If ever the room is overfull, she will tell you.
I tried to register but I didn't receive any answer yet... I mailed him/her last Sunday.
Rudy
Rudy Gevaert - info@webworm.org - http://www.webworm.org http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/glms [glms admin] http://savannah.gnu.org/ [savannah developer] GNU/Linux advocate - http://www.gnu.org/
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