FFII Mobilizes Against Software Patents

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Software Patents list.  Hartmut is pitching for volunteers. 
Let's take off with this.  -- Seth)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Patents] howto help immunise the media
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 20:06:21 +0200 (CEST)
From: Hartmut Pilch <phm at a2e.de>
To: patents at aful.org

Also, we need as exact as possible a transcript of the monday jury session. 
McCarthy, Rothley and a few others made statements which we need make
quotable for journalists.  We only have Rothley ready so far.

Those who want to talk to journalists can send a short text based on the
following template.  If you need further help in reaching out to the media
or want to supply others with media contacts (even phone numbers gathered
from websites), please write to

	media at ffii org

When first contacting a journal and you don't have any good text yourself,
use something like the following:

--------------------------

Dear Sir

On June 30th a far reaching decision is scheduled to be taken at the
European Parliament.  Europe stands to lose much of its freedom and
productivity to a small but highly active group of owners of illegal
patents.  The press release which you find below/attached explains you the
details.  They are quite different from what leading politicians will tell
you.  Since few poeple understand questions of software and patents,
misinformation campaigns in this field pay off. But so does writing of
well-researched articles.  We are trying to put all the materials at your
fingertip at

	http://swpat.ffii.org/

Please mail to us or to media at ffii org if you need further assistance.

Yours sincerely

<!--#include signature.txt -->

<!--#exec lynx -dump http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/juri0317/ -->

-------------

Also call the people by phone a few hours after having sent the this text
and try to find out who might be interested and send this info to media at
ffii org.

If you have some experience in the swpat case or in media work, you can also
be one of the coaches at media at ffii org.  We need people to volunteer
with this.  After some initial trials, we may procede to mobilise our
supporters more systematically.

To write instructions or usable pieces, use your own website or a wiki, such
as

	http://swpatwiki.ffii.org/

or the swpat section on

	http://wiki.ael.be/

as much as possible.

I also need help with documentation

At

	http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/juri0304/

you find some of the details (e.g. how many for, how many against each
amendment) I obtained from the protocols of the sound recordings pointed to
at

	http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/juri0617/

but these are far from complete.

It would be particularly helpful to know how many (and possibly) who
supported COMP-1 (compromise amendment 1).

The recordings contain some speeches from which we need to supply exact
quotes to journalists.  Protocols of this would be extremely helpful.  I
don't have an mp3/ogg system and many other people either don't or won't
take the time to use it.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation	     http://swpat.ffii.org/
145,000 votes 400 firms against software patents     http://noepatents.org/