-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Patents] Book on the war over software patents now available for download Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 08:47:48 +0200 From: Florian Mueller fmueller.nosoftwarepatents@googlemail.com To: patents@aful.org
Florian Mueller's book
"No Lobbyists As Such - The War over Software Patents in the European Union"
now available for download
Starnberg, Germany (June 06, 2006) -- Florian Mueller, the founder of the award-winning NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, has published his memoir-style book, "No Lobbyists As Such - The War over Software Patents in the European Union", on the Internet. On 377 pages, Mueller tells the story of the legislative process that ended in July last year with a landslide vote of the European Parliament against a proposal for a software patent directive. The book is now available on the Internet for download: http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/NoLobbyistsAsSuch.pdf
The file may be redistributed under a Creative Commons license. Mueller explained in his blog (http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/ebook/) that he wants "to get [this] book out to a large audience, especially since the next major war over software patents in Europe will officially break out on July 12 at a hearing to be held by the European Commission in Brussels. The same forces who supported the software patent directive we successfully fought against are now trying to achieve everything they wanted the last time, and even more, by means of the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA)."
Wlodzimierz Marcinski, the then Polish deputy minister of science who blocked an EU Council decision in favor of software patents all alone on December 21, 2004, said he looks forward "to reading Florian Mueller's book that tells the story from the perspective of the citizens who became involved and through their untiring commitment made such a difference."
When Mueller announced his book in late March, reviewers were enthusiastic: For William New, editor-in-chief of the news service Intellectual Property Watch (www.ip-watch.org), Mueller's book "really reads like a spy novel, very instructive as well as entertaining and engaging." Professor Brian Kahin, former Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy, says: "Mueller's lucid, gripping account succeeds as an engrossing introduction to one of the major policy problems of our time and to Europe's struggle for integration."
Benjamin Henrion of the non-governmental organization FFII comments that the book "vividly conveys the feeling of what we experienced", and considers it a "must-read for all who are concerned about software patents, and for those who want to know how things work in EU politics." Kaj Arnö, vice-president of community relations at open source database maker MySQL AB, felt like "standing in a parliament and talking directly to the politicians who made the decisions" when reading the manuscript.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THE BOOK:
Publisher: SWM Software-Marketing GmbH (Florian Mueller's own company)
Copy-editor: Wendy Grossman (www.pelicancrossing.net), a UK-based journalist from the US, copy-edited Mueller's manuscript.
Other language editions: The book has been simultaneously published in German ("Die Lobbyschlacht um Softwarepatente", www.softwarepatente-buch.de).
AUTHOR'S BACKGROUNDER: http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller.html
CONTACT DATA: Florian Mueller Phone +49 - 81 51 - 2 10 88 fmueller.nosoftwarepatents@gmail.com -- Subscription management: http://www2.aful.org/wws
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