On Monday 08 March 2004 16:22, Herman Robak wrote: > On Mon, 2004-03-08 at 15:19, Thomas Templin wrote: > > On Saturday 06 March 2004 23:01, Herman Robak wrote: > > > The EU council has circulated a "compromise" counter-proposal > > ... > > > > Calling it a "compromise" is highly desceptive; it's > > > much worse than the original. But they press on, > > ... > > > FFII, http://www.ffii.org, People are planning to have some > > actions/events at Bruxelles for this. There also will be a > > "Parlamentarischer Abend", some kind of Informational event for german > > Potiticians of the Bundestag this Wednesday. Holger Blasum, > > [EMAIL PROTECTED], and Hartmut Pilch, [EMAIL PROTECTED], will > > be the right people to get in contact. > > > > There are also some guys of ATTAC Wissensalmende, a ATTAC group working > > on property rights, who will be in Br�ssel too. > > ... > > > Sven Kromminga and me (Volunteers of FSF Europe in Germany) are in > > contact with some people of the lower saxony greens and the lower saxony > > SPD (social democratic party). > > Mostly the left, the greens and the anti-globists? > > This cause used to have a broader support than that, didn't it? > Where are the small companies? There are _some_ right-wing > politicians who are opposed to this, right? Give me the chance to talk to them for an hour or two and I will tell them what a disater sw patents will be for europe. In the moment there are two limtations for this. First conservatives who are willing to get informed. and second the limitation in (not only my) recources. Traveling, phone calls, postings, newspaper articles and so on and so on hase to be payed.
> I'm glad the left, the greens and the anti-globalists are with > us on this, but I would like to see a pan-political opposition. > This case could fit almost any party's agenda, with the right > "spin" put to it. Calling us "extremists" ought to be an absurd > lie. Can we make it so? FULLACK But the conservative and others are not willing even to listen to arguments. For example the ministery of justice lower saxony anounced the migration to W2003 and XP-pro some weeks ago. And they said, "This will be a sign for lower saxony." And there are plans to buy state licenses (don't know how to explain it exactly in english) for all lower saxony schools and governmental institutions. There are teachers who fear that they will not be able to buy any GNU/Linux Distribution when they will be offered to use W2003 and XP-pro for free. And they will get free support too. But here skolelinux wins. Due to the decision of SUSE to stop the support even for SLOSS packages they sold in feb a lot of schools are very angry and this is a point where we should be able to introduce skolelinux. We did so on GNU/Linux infomation days last weekend in Wilhelmshaven. There are first contacts between skolelinux, cobaco and Bastian, the local vhs (Evening classes and education), Ken Wilson, and BBS Emden (a big school for education for skilled workers which is common in germany), Werner Lasch. To my opinion debian-edu should work on the aspects of Free Software and on the aspects of Debian society as non comercial project which can't be sold, closed and can't go bancrupt as every comercial company can. That's a very big plus especially in the public sector. There is a big need for more information work on a european base and on a very big need for information on a regional base too. Most regional politicans don't know that small and midrange companies aside the it branch will be affected by sw patents. And this are the companies which pay their fees mostly to the local region, so they do in germany. e.g. I'm from Wilhelmshaven (WHV), ex Olympia Typewriter City. The local authorities know what it means when a complete industrial sector will dissappear. This happend cause of two reasons which are a bit similar to what happens nowadays. Countries from outside europe came to us and learned how to design and produce consumer electronics and precision mechanics like it was produced by Grundig, Olympia, Nordmende and others. So do some contries from far east and other regions on the field of Free Software nowadays, what is a plus for Free Software. And on the other Hand the big industrial lobbies like Olympia and Grundig in the past and MS and others today believe in an overcome buisines model on their field. What happend 25 years ago in a decade may happen wihtin the next five years in a period of one or two years in the field of it again. I know that this argumentation lacks a lot. But this is an experience and a pictur in the mind of local authorities here. And you can see the sweat of fear on their faces. :o) It's a good way to get a foot in the door, as we say in germany. I think it is time to show some officials which drastically regional effects sw patents will have and not only on the field of it. And regional work is not as expensive as european work is. This year we will have european parliament elections again. And thats a good chance to ask our regional candidates some painful questions... Bye, Thomas
