2005-03-15-SwpatLetter

(Please see the ActionAftermath page for other reports)

Action

On March 15, 2005 KDE.ie, the Irish Linux Users Group, and the Irish Free Software Organisation sent a briefing document to the 16 MEPs of Ireland explaining the our position on the "software patents" directive COD/2002/0047 http://www.kde.ie/patents/briefing/

Some extra information can be found here: http://www.kde.ie/patents/

Steps taken to publicise the action

(Who was notified? Journalists, decision makers, mailing lists, etc.)

• The 16 MEPs of Ireland

• The members of the Irish Linux Users Group - http://www.linux.ie

• The members of the IFSO

• The members of the System Administrator's Guild of Ireland http://www.sage-ie.org/

• The members of the KDE.ie mailing list

• anyone else?

Aftermath

Press coverage

• http://www.irishcomputernews.com/article.php?story=20050321150246235 - "ILUG sends s/w patents briefing document to Irish MEPs", Irish Computer News, March 21, 2005, John Hegarty

• http://dot.kde.org/1111180978/ - "KDE.ie on Software Patents", KDE.news, March 18, 2005, BarryOdonovan

• http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1777073,00.asp Eweek.com "Irish Open-Source Groups Protest Software Patents" (BarryOdonovan is quoted a number of times in this article and you can read what he actually said at http://www.kde.ie/patents/statements/eweek.com.php )

• http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39191811,00.htm - "Irish developers protest against patents", ZDNet UK, March 17, 2005, Ingrid Marson

• http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/33036/index.html - "Irish OSS Groups Send Software Patents Briefing Document to Irish MEPs", LXer, March 17, 2005, BarryOdonovan

• http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050316114603315 - "Irish Linux Groups Write Their MEPs About SW Patents", Groklaw, March 16, 2005, Pamela Jones

• http://www.irishdev.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=457 - "EU Council Passes Software Patent Law", Irish Developers Network, March 7, 2005, Fergal Breen

• More..?

Comments

(It would be useful if people left their names with their comments, but it's not required)

Lessons learned

Journalists are willing to cover this issue, but they will attribute our work to the open source movement unless told otherwise. In this case, this action was a combined effort of members of both movements, but the journalist attributed the efforts of both to the open source movement. In future, we should be more active about informing the media and making sure that journalists know we are contactable and open to discussion. --CiaranOriordan