Demonstration against Software Patents at the German Ministry of Justice

Yesterday, I was attending the demonstration against software patents at the ministry of justice in Berlin.

This demonstration had to be called in on very short notice, because the European Council has yet again tried to quietly pass the legislation on software patentes (2002/0047 COM (COD)) as so-called 'B-item' on the agenda of the council (toe be more precise: the agriculture and fishing council). A B-item is one that requires no further discussion - which is absolutely wrong. The European Union has new member states that didn't participate in the previous discussion, and several member countries' parliaments have made decisions against patentability of software meanwhile...

Upcoming Chaosradio episode on software patents

The next Chaosradio radio show will be about the ongoing debade on software patents, especially the recent development within the European Union.

Being part of the anti software patent movement for about 4-5 years now, I am more than happy to help with the radio show on this subject.

The radio show will be on air on Sept 01, 10pm GMT+2. If you understand german, there's a MP3 live stream available on the homepage.

"Parlamentary Evening" about software patents

Yesterday I was invited to a parlamentary evening organized by FFII e.V., a non-for-profit organization lobbying against the introduction of software patents in the European Union.
As you may know, they've been quite sucessful during the last year, since the European Parlament passed a directive that prevents any patent on computer software. However, due to the strange way the EU works, this directive has to be approved by the EU council before it gets enacted. The council is composed by representatives of the executive government, not by directly elected members of parliament.

The purpose of this event was to raise awareness about the dangers of software (and pure algorithmic/logic) patents. Among the invited guests were members of Bundestag (the german parliament), and various Officials of BMWA, BMBF and BMJ (economy, research and justice ministries).

I received the event as quite well. We were able to make our point and make them understand why a piece of software is different of somebody making an invention in the field fo mechanics.