Re: [Patents] ITRE, McCarthy

[<xdrudis@tinet.org>]

> At
> 
>        http://www.europarl.eu.int/
> 
> you can also find a list of MEPs and search for MEPs of your country
> who are in ITRE.  
>
ITRE is the committee of Industry, Research external Trade and Energy
of the European Parliament, the one meeting tomorrow thursday (from the 
the schedule at 
http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep/owa/p_calag.oj?ipid=0&imn=3653&ilg=EN&iorig=committees

The list of ITRE members and substitutes
http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep5/owa/p_meps.short_list?ilg=EN&iorig=committees&ipv=&ipos=&iukconst=&ipolgrp=&icom=C07&idel=&iothbody=&ictry=&ictry=&iukreg=&iaction=search

Please note that this is the European Parliament most likely to
listen to freelancers, SMEs and businesses that produce or use software. 
If they care to talk to the committee, that is. And for this 
committe comments should arribe today. 

The search engine to find MEPs by state, party, committee, etc.
http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep5/owa/p_meps.entry?ilg=EN

> This week EICTA has sent professional lobbyists to Brussels to talk to
> the MEPs.  They tell MEPs that they have a study which shows 97% of
> software companies wanting software patents, and many MEPs believe
> that EICTA is "the industry" and must be obeyed.  About the
> decisionmaking in EICTA, you can find more at
> 
>        http://swpat.ffii.org/players/eicta/
>

EICTA is at http://www.eicta.org
It includes big multinational companies and many member state business
associations (which in turn may include smaller associations, etc.)
What I mean is that it might include you, so they may be talking in your
name in a way (which is fine if you are pro-swpat). You can check members
at their website (and their members' mebers websites, recursively). 

I noticed that eicta.org requires you accept cookies, or else (with my
browsers) puts you into an (infinite?) redirection loop. 
For Spanish language readers, here's a comment on EICTA position paper:

http://patents.caliu.info/eicta.es.html

> Especially if you work for a software company or can represent a
> software company, you should send at least one MEP of your choice
> a fax and begs for an opportunity to talk to the MEP or her
> assistant.   
>

MEPs fax numbers are more available than phone numbers, and they have 
the advantage of not requiring availability of the MEP in that 
precise moment. But in case you still want to call, the European
Parliament phone number is + 32 284 21 11
 
> The vote in Rocard's CULT commission was largely in our favor, but
> ITRE is traditionally more obedient to the big associations.
> 

Maybe because they get more direct feedback from them. I've heard the EU
values SMEs a lot, in some new green book or something.

> Please do send your fax, and send a copy of the text to info@ffii.org
> if you like and tell us whether we can publish it.
> 

I just want to add that many arguments are already available so simply 
saying who you are, what you do and that you are concerned about it, or
you support one side or the other, or whatever, may be enough. 
This should require little time, specially compared with the time it may
take you in the near future to defend from software patents if MEPs can't 
sense that the issues are real and people on the field care about them,
instead of just being conspiracy theories, or abstract arguments. If you
want to avoid software patents in Europe, don't wait for MEPs to call
you and ask your opinion. Act now.