[wilhelmtux-discussion] Software patents and the European Parliament

Dietrich Feist dietrich.feist at mw.iap.unibe.ch
Mon Sep 29 20:27:34 CEST 2003


Hi Gaudenz,

> there seems to be some confusion about how to interpret the decision 
> of the european parliament. At least the FFII interprets it as "we" 
> have won! see http://www.ffii.org/#news

I would say we have won an important battle but not yet the whole war.
As far as I have understood, this was not the final decision but it was
a very important one. The council of governments (Ministerrat) will also
have something to say. Be sure that the European Commission and the
patent lobbies will try to influence this discussions.

However, the EP's decision was good and it was a very strong one: 364 to
153 for the amended version. No other European institution will be able
to just bypass this result. This shows how intense the political debate
in the EP has been. And the EP seems to be willing to exercise its
democratic powers much more than it used to do in the past. It is on the
way to become a true representer of the European people after being a
debate club and acclamation organ for much too long. I am very happy to
see that and I will take the next EP vote much more seriously than I
used to.

At least it looks like that I did not freeze for nothing in front of the
EP in Strasbourg last week. There were about 120 other supporters (my
private estimate) at the demonstration last Tuesday. I heard from some
people who work in the EP that the MEP were quite aware of our little
demonstration.

Kind regards,

Dietrich


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