[bcn-pm] Conferences and "Patent Riots" in Brussels 2004-04-14
Alex Muntada
alexm at ac.upc.es
Fri Mar 26 07:33:40 CST 2004
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Tal com vam parlar ahir, us envio el darrer missatge que he
rebut sobre el moviment anti-patents de programari. En tinc
d'altres però he de mirar-me'ls amb calma per no enviar-vos
informació repetida o obsoleta.
En qualsevol cas, a la web <http://swpat.ffii.org/> trobareu
tota la informació que vulgueu.
use Perl;
no Patents;
- ----- Forwarded message from PILCH Hartmut <phm at a2e.de> -----
Subject: [ffii] Conferences and "Patent Riots" in Brussels 2004-04-14
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 13:32:45 +0100 (CET)
From: PILCH Hartmut <phm at a2e.de>
To: news at ffii.org
FFII News -- For Immediate Release -- Please Redistribute
+++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++
Conferences and "Patent Riots" in Brussels 2004-04-14
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) calls on
its 50.000 European supporters and on 300.000 petition signatories,
including more than 2000 CEOs of European software companies, to take
to the streets in Brussels on April 14 and in national capitals around
1st of May, and to temporarily block access to their websites, in
protest against new moves by the EU Council and Commission to legalise
patents on computerised calculation rules and business methods, and in
support of the European Parliament, which voted to clearly exclude
such items from patentability last september.
The Brussels demo is accompanied by two days of conferences in the
European Parliament. The FFII hopes that it will spark off a series of
similar events in national capitals during the period before the
elections of the European Parliament from June 10 to June 13.
Moreover, during this period netizens are called to block access to
their websites and instead point to protest pages. [31]Similar actions
in August and September 2003, termed "the 2003 Patent Riots" by US PC
Magazine commentator John Dvorak[32], had attracted 500 participants from
all over Europe in Brussels and struck a chord of resonance with
scientists and software companies. A combination of elaborate
argumentation with a groundswell of public opinion ultimately
persuaded a majority of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
[33]from all political groups to vote for [34]clear limitations on
patentability.
However the EU Parliament alone can not pass laws. It needs the
support of the Commission and the Council of Ministers. In the latter,
effective power is in the hands of specialised bureaucrats from
national government who are often affiliated with special interest
communities. In the case of the software patent directive, the members
of the Council's "Working Party on Intellectual Property (Patents)"
consists of exactly those patent experts who, in another institutional
setting, run the European Patent Office. On September 23rd 2003, the
day before the European Parliament's vote, EU Commissioner [35]Frits
Bolkestein threatened the Parliament that it would lose its influence
on European patent legislation if it went against the will of the
Council. The Council, Bolkestein warned, would simply scrap the
directive and pursue its own policy outside the EU, in the
inter-governmental framework of the European Patent Organisation, far
removed from all parliamentary control.
After the Parliament defied Bolkestein's threats, Bolkestein's
directorate soon circulated a [36]secret document among member
governments in which it discredits the Parliament's vote on the basis
of formalistic arguments and false assertions. This encouraged the
national patent experts in the EU Council's "Working Party on
Intellectual Property (Patents)" to press ahead with a [37]secret
proposal for unlimited patentability, of which a yet undivulged
[38]follow-up document was produced on 2004-03-17 (last wednesday). A
final version could be decided by the ministers (EU Competitivity
Council) in May and then presented to a new European Parliament for a
second reading in autumn after the June elections.
The Council Working Party is careful to conceal which government
advocated what. Upon inquiry, most governments say that they are being
pushed toward unlimited patentability by the other governments.
FFII formulated its concerns in a [39]Call for Action which has
received support from numerous members of the European Parliament,
associations, companies and individuals, many of whom are expected to
voice their concerns at the press conference in Brussels on April
14th.
The two-day events overlap with a conference at Berkeley University in
California, USA, about new reports by the Federal Trade Commission and
the National Academy of Sciences which point out that software patents
are stifling innovation and call for patent reform.
Schedule
The [40]program in Brussels is approximately as follows
Wednesday, 2004-04-14
10:00-11:00
Press Conference inside the European Parliament, Room ASP AG2,
registration at press040414 at ffii.org
11:30-14:00
Speeches and Performances on Luxemburg Square beside the
Parliament, Walk to the Council building, Launch of Balloons.
14:00-18:00
Conference on Software Patents in EP ASP AG2, registration at
conf040414 at ffii.org
Thursday, 2004-04-15
09-18:00
[41]Free Software and Digital Rights conference organised by
Greens/EFA in EP room ASP AG2
Contacts
Mail
media at ffii org
Phone
Hartmut Pilch +49-89-18979927 (German/English/French)
Benjamin Henrion +32-498-292771 (French/English)
Jonas Maebe +32-485-36-96-45 (Dutch/English/French)
Dieter Van Uytvanck +32-499-16-70-10 (Dutch/English/French)
About the FFII
www.ffii.org
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is
a non-profit association registered in Munich, which is
dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. FFII
supports the development of public information goods based on
copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 250
members, 300 companies and 15,000 supporters have entrusted the
FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions in the
area of exclusivity rights (intellectual property) in the field
of software.
Permanent URL of this Press Release
http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004/bxl04/pr/
Links
[42]EU Council criticises lack of democracy in Russian presidential
elections
Council members point out that there was no real discussion of
policy options before the elections and alternative candidates
had no real chances.
Strangely enough, however, processes in Russia may seem more
democratic than in EU, precisely because of the role of the
Council. The russian parliament still has the power to make
laws. They don't have a Commission/Council deciding in an
anonymous backroom procedure to scrap parliamentary votes,
after stating that only the interests of a claimed "economic
majority" deserve protection and systematically refusing to
discuss policy options.
[43]Demo14and15april AEL working wiki
This is the working wiki where many volunteers are helping for
the logistic problems of the event.
_________________________________________________________________
References
Visible links
31. http://swpat.ffii.org/lisri/03/demo0819/index.nl.html#links
32. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1236389,00.asp
33. http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/plen0309/resu/ana/
34. http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/
35. http://swpat.ffii.org/players/bolkestein/
36. http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/cec0311/
37. http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/cons0401/
38. http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004/bxl04/mepltr
39. http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/demands/
40. http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004/bxl04/
41. http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004/bxl04/floss
42. http://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/cgint.exe/1?204&OIDN=1507361&-tt=
43. http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/Demo14and15april
- ----- End forwarded message -----
- --
Alex Muntada <alexm at ac.upc.es>
http://people.ac.upc.es/alexm/
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