[Fsfe-ie] Irish Software Assoc-

[Ryan Meade]

I think the Irish Software Association is a key player in all of this, and IFSO should try to work out a strategy for lobbying them.  A simple approach is to seek a meeting, provide a briefing document etc., but this is unlikely in itself to bridge the huge gap which currently exists.

Another approach might be to engage in a little "entryism", by encouraging sympathetic software companies to join the association.  Reading through their list of members, it would appear that the FOSS sector is under-represented:

http://www.software.ie/Sectors/ISA/ISADoclib3.nsf/wvMembers?OpenView

Of course, companies like Microsoft and Oracle will always have a disproportionate influence, but if there's a possibility of breaking up a consensus on software patents (if it exists), then this should be pursued.

In the first instance, I would suggest examing the list above and trying to identify companies who might be sympathetic, either because they develop free software or because they provide services which depend on Free Software, for example Linux and Apache.  This may not yield much, especially as companies which nominally support Free Software development, such as IBM, also support patents.  However, there may be smaller companies who have an open mind on the issue.

Further to that, we should encourage Irish software and computer services companies who work with FS to join.  As far as I'm aware it's not necessary to be developing proprietary, productised software to be eligible to join the ISA.  This won't yield any immediate results, but I feel it should be done.

I use the term "entryism", but there's nothing underhanded about this approach.  The association exists to represent the software and computer services industry, and there's clearly a problem if its chairperson thinks it's okay to write off the efforts of people in that industry as "stifling innovation".

[As an aside, it occurs to me now that there might be a press release in the above.]

What does anyone think?

Ryan

p.s. Cathal Friel is from that noted supplier of software and computer services, Merrion Corporate Finance: http://www.merrion-capital.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Teresa Hackett" <teresahackett at eircom.net>
To: gstrong at cs.tcd.ie
Subject: Re: [Fsfe-ie] Irish Software Assoc-
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 14:35:27 +0000

> 
> 
> "Commercial Supplement", I think.
>  >Exactly. Today there's a feature on "Leasing Plans".
> 
> > I have not (bothered to) read the whole thing but I think Teresa has
> > already quoted the two sections that most concern us.
> >
> >
>  >There was one other interesting quote which I couldn't re-find. This said 
> that software companies in Ireland are characterised by the fact that they 
> have products (as opposed to services, I suppose). This apparantly came about 
> because in order to get support from Enterprise Ireland, a company had to have 
> and to *own* a product i.e. they had to have the IP rights to that product.
> 
> Hence perhaps the philosophy behind the Irish govt pushing the software patent 
> directive.
> 
> Question: do IFSO want to respond to Mr Friel?
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