Re: Infoworld: EU headed for limited software patent law

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

> Right, and Paul Meller knows it.
>
> Also, like last time, he misleads readers into confusing copyright and
> patents and believing that this is about free vs proprietary.  And, while
> he quotes lots of patent lobby people, he doesn't quote a single critical
> voice.
>
> He can no longer say that he is not aware of
>
>       http://swpat.ffii.org/
>
> but he has chosen to suppress our voices.
>
> This case requires us to call IDG and complain about malpractise of a
> journalist.  Could someone do that?

> Perhaps there are people at IDG who are concerned about the integrity and
> reputation of their house.  Since the patent owners have a lot of money to
> spend, the danger of corruption is great everywhere.  Even if Meller
> didn't receive any money, it is gross negligence to do such lousy
> reporting in such a constellation.

Note that IDG's german branche, Computerwoche, has already parrotted
Meller's misinformation and even made it worse by claiming that Arlene
McCarthy (earlier it was Bolkestein) is bravely heading for conflict with
the USA and patent lawyers are protesting against her efforts to make
methods like Amazon OneClick unpatentable.

This is clearly an orchestrated propaganda campaign.  From the start, the
CEC/Indprop and McCarthy/Wuermeling have tried to sell their contents
under our labelling, because they know that's what public opinion is
asking for.  CEC/Indprop and friends came to JURI to involve Wuermeling
and McCarthy in their scheme in May 2002.  They have since acted perfectly
according to this scheme.  And evidently, some journalists are also in the
boat.  Others may ride it due to laziness, but Meller definitely not.

By directly informing the other journalists and documenting this on the
web, we may be able to build some kind of check on corruption.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
145,000 votes 400 firms against software patents     http://noepatents.org/