Does anyone work for a SME (small/medium enterprise) and have a concern about the software patent threat to free/open source software? If so, please read this message - forwarded from the Free Software Foundation Europe (UK) list - and email Graham Watson MEP (e-mail: gwatson@europarl.eu.int) urgently. Many thanks, Chris. ----- Forwarded message from James Heald <j.heald@ucl.ac.youkay> ----- From: James Heald <j.heald@ucl.ac.youkay> I've had a message from Erik Josefson, who's on the spot in Brussels trying to head off the software patents directive, can we urgently find SMEs who are worried about software patents to contact Graham Watson MEP.

He needs to be called by SMEs who say

1. we are n employees (n as large as possible)

2. we have a turnover of XX EUR.

3. we are damaged/threatened by patents.

It is looking increasingly likely that the full plenary debate in the parliament is going to take place in the session starting 30 June -- ie only ten days away. This gives very little time to educate MEPs, and next to no time to file amendments. It looks as though there is no chance of any kind of exemption for Open Source. The question is whether there are going to be any effective limits placed on patentability. If the plenary goes the same way as Tuesday's committee vote, the answer will be no. Graham Watson is the group leader of the European Liberals, who will be having a group meeting very soon to work out how they are going to vote, and which amendments they need to put down. Watson's contact details are: Office PHS 55 C7, European Parliament, Rue Wiertz, B-1047 Brussels, Belgium Tel. 00 32 2 284 7626 Fax. 00 32 2 284 9626 e-mail: gwatson@europarl.eu.int It may be worth cc'ing any emails to the Lib Dem's UK IT spokesman, Richard Allan MP (allanr@parliament.uk) Basically unless we can establish that there is really a depth of concern about this issue, among real businesses, the McCarthy text will go through. Best regards, James Heald. Unfortunately I'm going to be away from the net for the next couple of days, but Alex Macfie <alex@cgce.net> is either in or just back from Brussels, if you need to know the latest score. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | ___ Chris Lale <ctlale@netscape.net> | | / \ | | | <_/ My PC runs Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (http://www.debian.org). | | \ Robust, secure and free operating system + applications. | | `- | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+