Malcolm Tyrrell malcoh0l@yahoo.ie writes:
in the Patents debate we made a conscious decision to stand with SMEs
and it was a good decision, but a lot of people framed the debate as SMEs Vs. Whatever. Mostly because that was the easiest argument to make.
This wasn't so much of a problem for this list since this list is a focal point of most/all of Irelands competence on this issue, but for the next battle we have to make sure that others are able to make the best arguments, instead of resorting to the easiest one.
The pro-swpat camp won most of the ground they won because they noticed a weak point in the legislative process (the largest party in the EP was having their vote dictated to them by one person, so they just had to get this one person on-side).
After their very embarrassing defeat in that round, they'll be looking for a more stable weakness in our position. We can't afford to leave the SME problem open in the next round: the pro-swpat camp will offer a Software Patents + SME Assistance Plan compromise. And it really will be a compromise, and it will be what we have asked for, and it will be terrible.