[Sderby] Fwd: action week against EU software patent plans

[Chris]

Hi Dom

I'd suggest a co-ordinated campaign of letters to our MEP

Chris


Dominic Knight wrote:

>Any thoughts on how we want to be involved in this as a user group?
>
>Dom
>
>----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
>
>Subject: action week against EU software patent plans
>Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 03:13:09 +0100
>From: FFII/Eurolinux - Olaf Buddenhagen <muenchen0309@ffii.org>
>To: lugmaster@sderby.lug.org.uk
>
>Hello Linux supporters!
>
>(We send this message to you as the contact person of your Linux
> User Group. Please forward it to the other members.)
>
>Surely you know the deadly danger imposed on free software by
> software patents.
>
>Under the influence of the patent lobby, the European Parliament is
> about to pass a directive allowing extremely broad software
> patentability -- harming not only GNU/Linux and free software in
> general, but also imposing danger on every programmer, web
> publisher, computer user, and severly demaging the European
> economy.
>
>With massive protests organized by the FFII, we succeeded in
> thwarting a premature decision, and mobilizing public resistence by
> citizens, enterprizes, trade associations, and politicians.
>
>September 24th has been set as a new date for the decision in
> European Parliament. Encouraged by the recent success, we are
> planning even wider protests before the decision this time, to
> further raise public awareness of the problem.
>
>Besides of a second online demonstration, we want to organize
> mini-demos/info stands during the week between September 17th and
> September 24th in as many European cities as possible. We need your
> help with this. Although software patents are not only a concern
> for GNU/Linux users, we believe that the LUGs feature an
> exceptional combination of people strongly interested in stopping
> software patents, and the organisation (mailing lists etc.)
> necessary to line up such an event in a short run.
>
>That's why we beg you to help us, to prevent a patent disaster.
>
>http://netrik.sf.net/swpatents_de.html offers general information on
> software patents, the current situation, and the planned actions.
>
>Organising the info stands is done via the wiki at
>http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/InfoStands for the most part. You'll
> find tips there what to take care of when organizing such an event,
> as well as dedicated pages for each single demo, for interchange
> amongst those interested. Please simply add a new page for you city
> if noone exists yet. (To achieve this, klick the "edit" button;
> then insert the name into the existing list, following the scheme
> InfoStandCityname; confirm with "save"; and now follow the newly
> created link with the question mark.)
>
>There is also irc.debian.org#bxl-ffii; usually, there are some FFII
> members present.
>
>If you have further important questions, simply send a reply here.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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>  
>