Here's what I sent to Gay Mitchell, I'll send out the rest in a short while, so let me know if there are any comments on the content.
Ryan
------ Forwarded Message From: Ryan Meade ryan@meade.net Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 15:13:08 +0100 To: Gay.Mitchell@finegael.ie Subject: Important European Issue: software patents
Dear Gay,
I hope the campaign is going well - I received your Litir um Thoghchán today. I hope you've received my literature also!
I'm contacting you because I saw that your Oireachtas committee on European Affairs recently heard a delegation of major IT companies and venture capitalists promoting the concept of allowing software to be patented. I understand they won the backing of your committee for their position, but I'm not certain if the committee had the opportunity to hear the other side of this argument.
In any case, I would like to inform you of an excellent opportunity to learn of the dangers of software patents, in the form of a talk by Richard Stallman, a renowned authority and campaigner on this topic. The talk takes place on Monday 24th May at 19:30 in Trinity College.
Full details are available at this address: http://www.ifso.ie/news.html#n7
Other European candidates and MEPs are expected to attend, and it will be an excellent opportunity to learn of the negative effects software patents would have on indigenous software development companies.
If you can't attend on Monday, I wonder if you could let me know if there might be any opportunity of presenting this side of the debate to the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs.
Good luck with the rest of the campaign!
Kind regards,
Ryan
Councillor Ryan Meade Green Party - Rathmines
------ End of Forwarded Message