[Fsfe-ie] EU Software Patents directive

Ben North ben at redfrontdoor.org
Tue Nov 18 12:36:32 CET 2003


James Heald wrote:
> Summary of the latest situation:
> 	http://www.ffii.org.uk/latest.html
>
> Extracts from the US Government FTC report, which is *devastating* about  software patents.
> 	http://www.ffii.org.uk/ftc/ftc.html

Earlier this morning, I spent a couple of minutes on the phone to the
Dept of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, trying to find the name of
somebody to write to about the impending meeting of the EU
Competitiveness Council.  I spoke to a helpful woman called Erica
Colley, who said that it had not yet been decided who would attend the
meeting, but that if I were to email my concerns to her, she would pass
them on.  Her address is
   erica _UNDERSCORE_ colley _AT_ entemp _DOT_ ie
(with appropriate decoding).

I don't know whether the Dept has decided on a position to take at the
meeting, but it can do no harm if they were to receive a few emails
and/or letters pointing out the reasons why the amended directive
approved by the Parliament should not be weakened.  The conclusions of
the US FTC are, as James says, pretty clear about the problems caused
by software patents.

I've just sent off such an email to Erica, and I'll let the list know if
there's any response.

Ben.







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