FFII call for freedom of publication, developement and thinking

(Sorry, folks, for the crossposting. I hope you tolerate it - it's concerning most of you. --mi)

Please forward this alert to any concerned constituencies you know.

   - Please help conduct this action in your country:      http://kwiki.ffii.org/LtrConsSend0406En
   - Please volunteer to spread the message:
     http://kwiki.ffii.org/FfiiMail0408En


Ask Your Representative to Withdraw Support for the Council's Software Patents Directive,
and mobilize to Prevent Software from Becoming Patentable in Europe !


What's Happening:

We need to act now to tell our representatives not to support the EU Council's attempts to overturn the European law under which software is not patentable. See: http://kwiki.ffii.org/index.cgi?ShortIntroEn

On May 18th, in a highly dubious voting procedure, the Council of Ministers came to a preliminary agreement on a draft Directive that stands as a direct  rebuttal of the EU Parliament's express intentions.  They have now explicitly introduced 'program claims' in the text. They also eliminated all clear definitions of "technical" and "industry," are trying to use TRIPs to overturn the European Patent Convention, which states that software may not be patented, by calling software a 'field of technology.'

This is the critical moment. If we do not act now, the EU Council will make software patentable in Europe, against all express wishes of the individual citizens and businesses that will be affected, and regardless of the intentions of the elected officials who represent us.

Please tell your Representative to withdraw support for the EU Council's Software Patents Directive, or we will have to live with the results of this decision for a very long time.

  - Please Help us Contact Concerned Constituencies to Join the 
    Campaign.  Send an email to [email protected] to help.

  - Please Send the Urgent Call to Your Representatives:
    http://kwiki.ffii.org/LtrConsSend0406En
  - Please Send Postcards to your Representatives:
    http://kwiki.ffii.org/Postkard0407En

  The Urgent Call Document is here: http://swpat.ffii.org/letters/cons0406/LtrConsMinim0406.en.pdf

Personal contacts make all the difference. We need MPs and MEPs and Ministers who deal with technology and innovation to receive multiple postcards and Urgent Call letters from their constituents.  Translations of the Urgent Call, sample postcards and Contact addresses are available for many countries at the above links.  If you don't find the information for your country, please add it.

For regional activities, contact regio-help(att)ffii.org.  Regional politicians often make a crucial difference.

Activity Status:

   - Volunteers in the Netherlands Convinced the Dutch Parliament
     to Withdraw Support for the Directive:
     http://kwiki.ffii.org/NlMot040701En
   - 30 Volunteers have Sent 141 Letters to 6 Countries Since
     July 20: http://kwiki.ffii.org/LtrConsSend0406En
   - 4 Volunteers have Sent 11 Postcards to 6 Countries Since
     August 21: http://kwiki.ffii.org/PostkardSend0407En
   - 400 Demonstrated in Budapest Demanding No to the EU Council's
     Software Patent Agreement:
     http://kwiki.ffii.org/Budapest040824En
   - We are holding a Summer Camp for Activists (or those who want
     to become such) on 17-20 September in Makelo, The Netherlands:
     http://wiki.vrijschrift.nl/MarkeloEvent0409

Related News: http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoPolitEn

Send an email to [email protected] with these checkboxes filled out to
register for the following actions:

[ ] interested in autumn camp (17-20 Sept 2004) in Markelo, NL 
[ ] interested in October Weekend in (2-3 or 8-9 October) in Brno, CZ
[ ] cannot at both dates, but would like stay at Brussels at another time (we may try to
    help to arrange something)
[ ] interested in Brussels conference, November

If you want to donate anything, you can go to http://www.ffii.org/assoc/financ/

-- mi (no name, sorry, i won't be spider lunch, but you can reply to the sender address)

# Note:
# If you're not on a mailing-list, and wonder why you get this mail:
# You did mail me once before, and your mail was in my mail-folders.



















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