Hi.

Last november the 7th there was an official hearing in the European Parliament on the directive on software patents. It went better than I thought, but we've still have a way to go before this one is won.

http://patents.caliu.info/audiencia.en.html

The next event is a conference in the European Parliament in Brussels, tuesday, november the 26th. Important speakers will be present to discuss about the effects of software patents, the proposed directive and what to do about it. There will be free software representatives such as Richard M. Stallman, academics like François Pellegrini (of Libre Software Meeting fame) or Brian Kahin from the University of Maryland, , representatives of innovative software companies in Europe, patent experts and of course members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

The good news is that it is a public conference and anybody can go. The bad news is that capacity is limited. The program and contact information for registration (free registration is required) is at

http://www.greens-efa.org/en/agenda/detail.php?id=770&lg=fr http://www.greens-efa.org/fr/agenda/detail.php?id=770&lg=fr

If I just wasn't so far, or I had holidays left, I wouldn't lose a chance to listen to RMS and the rest convincing the European Parliament not to condemn European Software to a dark age, just in a moment when the Parliament is working.

But what I would ask people to do is:

If you live a not too long trip from Brussels:

- Please tell people interested in software in your area about the event, and hang the program in Computer Science departments or classrooms in universities, or software companies. There is a poster announcing the event, but I haven't found it. Maybe they'll put a link to it in the program page, in a couple of days.

Irrespective of where you live:

- If you know MEPs, MPs, people in political parties or decision makers, tell them of the importance of this big change in the European software arena, and ask them to go to the conference. Also ask them to support the ammendments proposed at

http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/prop/

(or else to reject the directive). We shouldn't mail bomb our representatives though, so just don't start sending mail indiscriminately to MEPs you don't know, please.

- If you have contacts in the press, warn them and ask them to cover the event

We have powerful arguments to stop software patents in Europe, but we need to show the MEPs that this issue is important and many people cares, and one way is filling the conferenc room.

Thank you for any help.