[ILUG] [Fwd: RE: Website Mail Comment - software patents]

[Bernhard Rohrer]

I thought y'all might find this interesting ;-)

Bernhard

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Website Mail Comment - software patents
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 13:13:02 +0100
From: DE ROSSA Proinsias <pderossa at europarl.eu.int>
To: Bernhard Rohrer <graylion at sm-wg.net>

Dear Bernhard,

Thank you for your message. Following yesterday's decision by the
Competitiveness Council to adopt its 'common position' (first reading)
on the proposal, the European Parliament has now requested that the
Commission make a statement to the EP Plenary tomorrow in Strasbourg at
6.00pm. MEPs are awaiting with considerable interest to see what the
Commission has to say but it's important to remember that the EP has the
right to retable any of its first reading amendments from September 2003
not taken up in the Council's common position, which the EP has yet to
see, or to reject the common position entirely. If Council still refuses
to accept EP amendments, a 'conciliation committee' of MEPs and national
civil servants will meet  to reach a compromise. If none is found, the
proposal falls. The important point is that the Ministers do not take
the final decision on this issue - they must work with the EP.

On 4 February, the EP's Legal Affairs Committee voted overwhelmingly for
a complete restart to the negotiations. From our estimation, there is
still an anti-software patents majority within the EP following last
year's elections.

Proinsias took part in the debates on this issue in September 2003 -
check www.derossa.com

The EP's first reading position can be downloaded from
http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?L=EN&OBJID=79550&MODE=SIP&NAV=X&
LSTDOC=N&LEVEL=2


-----Original Message-----
From: Bernhard Rohrer [mailto:graylion at sm-wg.net]
Sent: 08 March 2005 12:05
To: DE ROSSA Proinsias
Cc: head_office at labour.ie
Subject: Website Mail Comment - software patents

Message for Proinsias De Rossa

Hello Pronsias

I am writing to you as my MEP.

I am a German national living in Dublin 3 and would like to ask you to
do your utmost to stop the software patent directive which has been
pushed through by all sorts of weird procedural dodges and in clear
violation of the wishes of the parliament. It will be a major desaster
for small business, innovation and the EU, as some multinational
companies control all intellectual property on software. Did you know
that Micsosoft have tried to register a software patent on the operator
"not"?

Please do averything you can to stop that. Not only because it will be a
desaster for business in the EU but also because this IMO is a watershed
for democracy in the EU.

thanks

Bernhard Rohrer
30 Marino Green
Dublin 3