The Morning Ireland show this morning had another piece on the swpat directive, and as when they've covered the issue previously, it was fairly one-sided. They had a representative of the Irish Software Association on, Bernadette (can't recall surname) I think, who was given the opportunity to repeat the usual propaganda. The interviewer did raise the view that small businesses would be harmed, but the ISA rep then just said she disagreed strongly and claimed to represent businesses of all sizes. The ISA rep also started off by claiming that the directive just harmonised patent application practices and appplication and enforcement procedures, which is a line I've seen more in the past week or two. The interview was pretty soft, and introduced ISA rep by saying that she was very strongly in one camp --- doesn't this mean that they really should have found someone from the other camp to talk to as well?
Bit late at this stage probably, but worth writing to RTE about? The piece was on at about 0750 if anybody wants to find it in the archive on the web.
Ben.
The Morning Ireland show this morning had another piece on the swpat directive...
I heard it. I don't think that the ISA person fully understands the issues. Interestingly, the questions posed bore a strong similarity to parts of our press release. Of course, most of the literature from the people opposing software patents uses the similar arguments, so it might be a coincidence. One thing that annoyed me about the item was the fact that for/against software patents was equated with for/against the directive.
Malcohol.
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Malcolm Tyrrell malcoh0l@yahoo.ie writes:
The Morning Ireland show this morning had another piece on the swpat directive...
I heard it.
I just got a call from Emma McNamara of (I think she said) Morning Ireland. The phonecall was recorded and she said she's use recordings of some of what I said on the air - I'm worried about how I'll sound though.
We only talked for around 3 minutes and she didn't ask about free software, why software patents are bad, or even SMEs, just the goal of the directive and the next steps of the procedure.
...in hindsight I guess a good interviewee would have twisted her questions so as to talk about those things, rather than waiting for her to ask them.
I'll send her an email now.
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Malcolm Tyrrell writes:
The Morning Ireland show this morning had another piece on the swpat directive...
I heard it. I don't think that the ISA person fully understands the issues. Interestingly, the questions posed bore a strong similarity to parts of our press release. Of course, most of the literature from the people opposing software patents uses the similar arguments, so it might be a coincidence. ...
One thing I found during the e-voting thing, was that the researchers for shows like Morning Ireland will indeed use our resources and factsheets etc. for research into the issues. At one point, researchers from the Right Hook show on Newstalk 106 were subscribed to the list.
- --j.