[Fsfe-ie] Meeting report: Mairead McGuinness MEP

Ian Clarke ian at locut.us
Fri May 27 13:25:05 CEST 2005


Aidan MacGuire and I met Mairead McGuinness MEP yesterday.  She was  
rather overwhelmed by all of the lobbying, and I think the only  
people that she is likely to see are constituents, and anyone that  
does go to see her would need to be very clear with her.  She was  
particularly offended by some of the really aggressive lobbying by  
some idiots on our side, and this made her much more sympathetic to  
the pro-swpat lobby.

She had received emails from (supposed) Ericsson employees who said  
that if the current Directive wasn't past they would lose their  
jobs.  She was quite influenced by this.  Aidan and I tried to point  
out why this wasn't true, that we wanted to maintain the real status  
quo, which was that software patents aren't enforceable (even though  
they may have been granted) in the EU.

I think Aidan and I made a good impact, and by the end of the meeting  
she was on-side, but I am concerned that she may sway back after her  
next meeting with the other side.

If anyone gets meetings with her in the future (and they should  
probably be Irish SMEs, I don't think she will have another meeting  
with IFSO as she feels she has already heard their point of view)  
they need to be really crystal clear with her (something,  
unfortunately, that we aren't very good at), she has no appetite for  
getting even more confused over this.

Ian.



More information about the FSFE-IE mailing list