Ciaran O'Riordan said:

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), together with the Green Party EFA have put together a good alternative proposal. It's a good idea to point MEPs to this page: http://swpat.ffii.org/analysis/epc52/index.en.html

damn, I didn't see that page! :( the ffii.org site needs a bit of work on their front pages... so is that the official FFII/Eurolinux suggestion at the moment? Where is the discussion occuring at the moment?

I've emailed Nuala Ahern, Pronnsias De Rossa, Avril Doyle and Patricia McKenna so far. (email because I'm in the US these days -- but hey, I want to be able to code when I get back to Ireland ;)

- Nuala Ahern responded straight away, with a very positive reply; good news.

- Patricia McKenna I mailed last week, and haven't received a reply (and I voted for her last time; guess I'll be voting for someone else next time around.)

- Pronnsias and Avril I've just mailed, so I don't know what the results will be.

Here's one example of what I mailed BTW. Might be useful for reference. Some could probably be updated with the latest stuff from above, but fundamentally, urging the MEPs to support the Green position, or the FFII/Eurolinux position, is the best advice IMO.

Dear Ms. Ahern,

I am writing in opposition to the proposal being advanced by the EC regarding patentability of software, and the relaxation of current EU regulations on this: directive proposal COM(2002)92 2002/0047.

I'm a native of Ireland, temporarily residing in the US (but intending to return in a year or two). During my time in Ireland, I've spent 10 years working in the software industry, including some time developing software for Iona Technologies and a few other small, Irish technology companies. (My full CV is at http://jmason.org/cv.html if you're curious.)

In addition, I am the author of what is probably the most significant piece of Open Source software to emerge from Ireland, "SpamAssassin", the leading spam-email filtering product.

I'd like to note that the software I've worked on, whether commercial or open-source, has universally been built on free foundations; patent-free standards, patent-free operating systems, and has never required the patenting of software techniques in its operation. In fact, we have generally found that if we had used software patents, we would have alienated our potential partners in terms of gaining interoperability and standardisation, both of which are key factors for a small company developing software.

In my experience in following the US software development arena, software patents have been repeatedly used by large companies with massive legal teams, to stifle competition from other companies, especially smaller SME-scale ones, who cannot afford the high fees required to register or fight patents.

It's also worth noting that Open Source software is directly threatened by patenting. Leaked documents from Microsoft have recently noted that they see patents as a key battleground where they can destroy Open Source competition.

Open Source is, in my experience, one where Irish and European software developers can compete with the large US companies on a level playing field; the success of SpamAssassin as a mail filtering tool -- even though it was mainly developed by myself, alone, in Dublin -- as well as many other European software companies basing their businesses on Open Source -- demonstrates this.

We as Europeans should support Open Source as an important aid for the European software industry. In my opinion, it has been the biggest breakthrough in the field in the last 10 years.

Next: regarding "obvious" patents. While monitoring the US software arena, I have noted a range of several patented techniques which are trivial and thorougly obvious to one versed in software development techniques. It's clear that, in the US at least, the patent examiners are not capable of examining software patents sufficiently.

I myself have been forced to avoid implementing some obvious features, in my Open Source software development work, which would have infringed on US patents which should never have been granted due to their obviousness (at least "obvious to one versed in the field", as the rule goes).

And, looking at the 'European Software Patents Horror Gallery' at the EuroLinux.org site [1], it seems the US PTO is not alone in this.

[1]: http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/samples/index.en.html

Given this, I have very little confidence that, were rules on the trivial and thorougly obvious to one versed in software development techniques. It's clear that, in the US at least, the patent examiners are not capable of examining software patents sufficiently.

I myself have been forced to avoid implementing some obvious features, in my Open Source software development work, which would have infringed on US patents which should never have been granted due to their obviousness (at least "obvious to one versed in the field", as the rule goes).

And, looking at the 'European Software Patents Horror Gallery' at the EuroLinux.org site [1], it seems the US PTO is not alone in this.

[1]: http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/samples/index.en.html

Given this, I have very little confidence that, were rules on the patentability of software to be relaxed in Europe, that the patents granted would be in any way advantageous to myself or other European software developers or software development SMEs.

Therefore, I strongly urge you as an MEP to not support this initiative. I am convinced that it would directly harm the business of Irish software SMEs, and would directly pose the biggest threat to the emerging model of Open Source software development in Europe.

In addition, I urge you to support the EuroLinux Call For Action, at http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/demands/index.en.html , and the Green/EFA position on same: http://www.greens-efa.org/en/press/detail.php?id=1383&lg=en .

--j.