[ILUG] patents again

[Colm MacCarthaigh]

On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 09:58:57AM +0100, Bryan O'Donoghue wrote:
> I wonder, would it make sense to email Mr Crowley and notify him that, 
> should he continue, to be so very pro-Patent, that, not only will *we* 
> collectively not vote for him... but, in fact actively campaign against 
> him on the occasion of the next European elections ?

No, it won't make any sense. There are no votes to lose in this on
idealogical grounds. At the very most, spread accross every constituency
in Ireland, there are maybe 200 votes that could be motivated by this
issue - and I wouldn't say many of these people votes Fianna Fáil in the
first place.

What you need to demonstrate to Mr. Crowley is that software patents
will be bad for our economy, will decrease our international
competitiveness and utimately cost our country jobs. When convincing
numbers on those fronts exist, there's a chance of swinging his vote.

As I've said here before, I think the sad truth of it is what while
Software patents are economically bad for Europe, they are economically
good for Ireland, since a large part of our economy is based on the
encumbant patent-holders, and incentivising them.

Software patents will help those companies shut down competition in the
other european countries, and ultimately probably will benefit our
economy - in the short to medium term anyway. Our politicians know this,
they arn't stupid.

Of course patents are *terrible* from the consumer and coder points of
view, and I remain complete opposed to patents, but it's always good to
be realistic about what you're up against.

> There's a big difference between saying "I won't vote for you if your 
> policies are 'blah'" then there is in saying "Dear blah, if you don't 
> change your policies, you'll force, me and all my friends to campaign 
> *against* you, the next time you come up for election".

Not a hope of success on that front.

-- 
Colm MacCárthaigh                        Public Key: colm+pgp at stdlib.net