Open Forum Europe got stitched up.

[James Heald <j.heald@ucl.ac.uk>]

It looks as though Open Forum Europe got stitched up.

Mike Banahan, chief technology officer with OpenForum Europe, was speaking
yesterday (Thursday) at the Linux User Expo event in Birmingham, and
answered a question from the floor about the organisation's infamous support
for software patents.


A member of the fsfe-uk list reports:
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/fsfe-uk/2003-06/msg00230.html

>
>  He stated (as off the record as he could get in a public forum) [that]
>
> his statement on software patents was written form the point of view of - 
> IF software patents were a done deal (and he was informed that they pretty 
> much were, by the people asking him for a statement) then there should be 
> exclusions for Free Software to safeguard the common interests.
>
>  He also said (again as completely off-the-record as possible) that he had 
> been told that any anti-patent statement would be discarded, as many others 
> had already.
>


ZDnet has the story at
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2136651,00.html

*but* note that they have the story slightly confused, because they thought
OFE were responding to (and directed by) the Commission itself, rather than
a group of lobbyists for big business.

> Mike Banahan, chief technology officer with OpenForum Europe, a subsidiary
> of technology lobbyist InterForum, said the group received clear indications
> during a consultation on the proposal that some form of software patenting
> would be introduced, regardless of the fact that the consultation showed
> heated opposition to such patents.
>
> "We were briefed that a position that was in total opposition to patents
> would be discarded, that that was not a position they were prepared to 
> take,"
> Banahan said. "The position was, given that there will be software patents,
> what kind will there be? It was presented as a done deal."
>
> OpenForum had not intended to submit a position paper on software patents, 
> as > it focuses on end user adoption of open-source software, but the 
> group's 
> opinion was solicited by the organisers of the consultation, Banahan said. 
> The paper was misinterpreted in the press as supporting software patents, he
> added.


I have sent ZDnet's newsdesk the email below to try to get them to change
their slant on the story (European software patents 'a done deal'), which is
so misleading.

---
Re: European software patents a done deal

F.A.O.  Matthew Broersma


There is one important fact you appear to be missing, which puts a rather
different complexion on the story "European software patents a done deal"
(http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2136651,00.html)

Namely:  the 'consultation' that OpenForum Europe responded to was not run
by the European Commission or the European Parliament, but by a firm of
lobbyists hired by a consortium of big business associations.  

(Remember that OFE's response was produced not by the Commision, but by this
consortium of associations).

So the first paragraph of your story should more accurately read not:

"The European Commission and European Parliament are determined to introduce
software patents in Europe despite widespread opposition from European
companies and software developers,"

but rather:
 
"Lobbyists for big business are determined to introduce software patents in
Europe despite widespread opposition from European companies and software
developers, according to a UK open-source software lobbying group."

Similarly it was the lobbyists, not the European institutions, who were not
prepared to accept any position that was in total opposition to software
patents.

And when Banahan was told that swpat was a 'done deal', again, it was the
lobbyists speaking, not the Commission.

There is no done deal.  OpenForum got stitched up.


*  In Brussels this afternoon the Committee of Presidents of Political
Groups
voted unanimously to remove the directive from the July agenda, to give time
for a more considered assessment.  The directive is now expected to be put
to the vote in the first week of September.

Graham Watson, leader of the European Liberal Group of MEPs, said "I share
your
concerns about this, and we have managed to delete the item from our July
agenda".

The FFII has a press release at
    http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/plen0626/

---