OT: Europaen decision on software patents on Jan 24

Hi galeon folks, 
I dare to bother you and expect your flames with this OT since i personally believe it's important enough for the future of any free software project.

The EU directive on the patentability of software takes another turn.
After a Council decision was impeded by the polish IT minister in december, 
they intend to set it on the Fishery- and Agriculture meeting again, this time at 2005-01-24, as an A-Item which would mean adopting without any discussion. It's our opinion that for several reasons  it must be decided as an B-Item instead, which would mean several important national parlament movements get a chance to be heared, and the whole thing will possibly be trashed, or rewritten.

In the recent version the preparating committees threw away any valuable amendments made by the Europarl last year, totally. In case it gets through, the Europarlament will have a very difficult stand at next stage to modify it once again.

Perhaps you have the opportunity to join the web-demo with a banner on your homepage, or writing some mail to mulitpliers.

For more accurate information see: http://wiki.ffii.org/Fish0501En
A collection of banners can be found starting at: http://demo.ffii.org.
The latest news use to appear on: http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn

I should add this mail is my private action, although FFII recommends to do so, for the urgency,  even if it sucks. 
We heavily depend on the participation of developers, users, and any internet community.


Greetings, micha.


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