Bonum Certa Men Certa

Contacting Politicians to Stop Software Patents in Europe

The European Parliament can stop the multinationals' plot

European Parliament



Summary: More time is left for politicians to be informed of the harms of the unitary patent

THE CIRCUMSTANCES surrounding software patents in Europe will be dealt with in Techrights in the coming days, essentially by going backwards in time and researching the subject. In the mean time, however, there is a lot that can be done, e.g. communication with politicians. The unitary patent protest site writes: "On July 10th 2012, the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) of the European Parliament has discussed about the unitary patent and how to proceed forward with the project. Following the postponement of the vote considered in plenary session, the results of the discussions are a strong criticism of the questionable way, to say the least, used by Member States to impose their modifications, along with the decision to discuss again about an hypothetical regulation on the unitary patent in September. With these last moves, the debate on provisions of the text are reopened. April calls Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to improve the text and citizen to rally in order to guarantee that fundamental rights are respected, that a genuine European Union patent is set up, and that software patents are definitively prohibited1." (source)



If the likes of Barnier get their way, the awful outcome will be quite irreversible. Once applicants are granted patents it becomes difficult to manage the mass abolition of what they paid for,

Time is left for contacting politicians. I will do so myself very shortly. The addresses I will send this to were listed by Glyn Moody some days ago and they are:




arlene.mccarthy@europarl.europa.eu gerard.batten@europarl.europa.eu sharon.bowles@europarl.europa.eu mary.honeyball@europarl.europa.eu sajjad.karim@europarl.europa.eu rebecca.taylor@europarl.europa.eu



The text of my mail is as follows:

"Dear public representative,

"As a computer scientist and researcher, I hereby write to warn you about the untold consequences of the unitary patent. Although it is shrewdly named to convey unity and uniformity, in practice it will lend a hand to foreign corporations which strive to expand the scope of the patents (monopolies), which, among other things, cover mathematical methods, business methods, and algorithms -- all of which are abstract methods that cannot be worked around. Scholoarly work consistently shows that software patents breed patent trolls and it is therefore essential that you vote against the otherwise-irreversible move. As a computer scientists I realise this would affect both developers and customers all across Europe. Voting for the unitary patent. is akin to voting for ACTA"

If you live in Europe, please contact the above people as well.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries