[Lincs] Software Patents (East Midlands LUGS)

[Chris Lingard]

On Thursday 23 June 2005 15:38, Michael Simms wrote:
> TOPIC: Software Patents
> TO: All East Midlands LUG's
>
> Greetings LUGs one and all. Nottingham LUG will know me, Id hope that
> some people in other LUGS will at least have heard of me {:-)
>
> This message is going out to all of the East Midlands LUGs that I can
> find that are affected by this:
>
> I have just talked to our EU MP, Bill Newton Dunn, and he is in favour
> of software patenting.

I have found Bill Newton-Dunne most cooperative, and have held many
discussions with him.  I am not too sure that I agree with you about his
views; but the whole definition of what should be patentable is very
difficult.

> I have created a mailing list so the East Midlands LUG's can form a plan
> of action for this situation. List details at the end of the message, as
> a) Im not sure it would be appropriate to spam most list members that
> dont care about, and b) we dont have a mailing list for all of the lugs
> combined and it would be a pain to get a collective set of results from
> 9 mailing lists
>
> When I talked to Mr. Dunn, he caught me off guard when he returned my
> call - I was in the middle of a dozen things as usual - so I didn't do
> the worlds best job of convincing him, and also he used a lot of very
> slimy sneaky tactics of speech to get round ANY argument I made, so I
> STRONGLY encourage you to all call him NOW - we have about 8 days left
> to change his mind on the vote. I am including below information on HOW
> he gets round questions so you can prepare - PREPARE for this, I did
> prepare a little, it wasn't enough because I had no idea how he would
> try and sneak round the issue. I expected to be talking to a normal
> person not an avoidance machine.
>
> His details are:
>
> Bill Newton Dunn MEP
> 01522 810 812

He uses email when he has time; but please keep it polite; since the Lib Dems
are against software patents, unlike Labour and the Conservatives.

> DON'T email him, he can just ignore that. His voicemail on that number
> also mentions his mobile number, if he doesn't call you back in about
> 2-3 days, call his mobile! However he DID call me back about 2 days
> after I left him a message. (NOTE: This number is publicly available on
> his website, I'm not giving out private numbers here)

Chris Lingard