[PLUTO-soci] ancora sulla decisione del parlamento europeo: [ffii] Patent Lobbyists "wasted millions, deny defeat" in EU software patent battle

Ven 8 Lug 2005 08:34:16 CEST

	Per rispondere alla domanda di Alex:
	ffii sostiene che i lobbisti hanno speso troppo per dichiarare 
	sconfitta.

	Aggiungo una congettura personale: alcuni emendamenti alla legge
	che avrebbero potuto passare se non fosse stata bocciata
	forse per loro erano addirittura peggio.

	ciao
		mmzz

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From: PILCH Hartmut <phm a a2e.de>
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Subject: [ffii] Patent Lobbyists "wasted millions,
	deny defeat" in EU software patent battle
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PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / economy / ICT ]

===============================================================================
Patent Lobbyists "wasted millions, deny defeat" in EU software patent battle
===============================================================================

Munich, 08 July 2005 -- Even after the EU Parliament's rejection of a
controversial directive, the war of words rages on between opponents
and proponents of software patents.  Anti-patent campaigners today
criticized the lobbyists in the other camp for "excessive spin
doctoring".

Hartmut Pilch, the president of the Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure (FFII), cannot see why the proponents of software
patents would truly welcome yesterday's outcome: "No matter what the
others say, article 52 of the European Patent Convention is still in
force, and it clearly disallows patents on computer software.  Our
opponents wanted to dilute that article by means of an EU directive,
and the headway they made amounts to zero."

In Mr. Pilch's opinion, "legitimate concerns over the negative effects
of software patents to the economy and to innovation" have received a
level of attention in the media and in politics all across Europe
"that wouldn't have been imaginable without this legislative process."
He also pointed out that various national parliaments passed
resolutions in favor of his organization's demands.  After the failure
of the process at an EU level, Pilch believes that lawmakers in the EU
member states may take initiatives.

"After they just wasted many millions of Euros on lobbying and public
relations, they now want to soothe their bosses and clients by denying
their all-too-obvious defeat", said Florian Mueller, the founder of
the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign. "If I had spent so much money, I'd
want to walk out of the shop with something more than a failed attempt
to enshrine software patents in European statutory law.  They could
have had that for free any time."

The pro-patent efforts had reached major proportions.  Free ice cream
to more than 500 people was actually one of the minor expenses.
Pro-patent organizations hosted events in the European Parliament and
various capitals of Europe on an almost daily basis during the three
months of the EP's second reading.  They produced various videos;
hired a former president of the EP (Pat Cox) and several high-profile
PR agencies; placed a large banner on the front of a building close to
the EP; and they had dozens of full-time lobbyists -- a number of them
high-paid lawyers -- stationed in Brussels for months.  One of the
leading pro-patent campaigners had made himself a name with a
30-million Euro campaign for gene patents.

Mr. Mueller pointed out that the same pro-patent lobbyists who now
welcome the abrupt termination of the legislative process were the
same ones who spoke out against a restart of the legislative process
when the European Parliament requested so from the EU Commission in
February. "It was our side that convinced MEPs of the benefits of a
fresh start, and the others told politicians that they needed this
directive as soon as possible.  Then, less than three weeks ago they
hailed the fact that the EP's Legal Affairs Committee didn't support
key amendments to the proposed directive.  They thought they were
closer than ever to achieving their goals, so how can they possibly be
happy now?"

Find more background information at

	http://wiki.ffii.org/SpinPr050708En

==========================================================================
Contact
==========================================================================

Hartmut Pilch and Holger Blasum (Munich Office)
info at ffii org
tel. 0049-89-18979927

Erik Josefsson (Brussels Office)
erjos at ffii org
tel. 0032-2-7396262

Jonas Maebe:
jmaebe at ffii org
tel. 0032-485-369645

Dieter Van Uytvanck:
dieter a vrijschrift.org
tel. 0031-6-275-87910

==========================================================================
About FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
==========================================================================

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a
non-profit association registered in several European countries, 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 3,000 companies and 90,000
individuals have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public
policy questions concerning software copyright and patents.  The FFII
manages the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign and the
Economic-Majority.com initiative.

_______________________________________________
FFII Press Releases.
(un)subscribe via http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media a ffii.org for more information.

----- End forwarded message -----

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Alberto Cammozzo                        V.Cesare Battisti 241/243. PADOVA ITALY
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