Scripts, Presentations, Greeting Messages etc

Brian KAHIN: Lawrence LESSIG: Mozelle W. THOMPSON: Peter HOLMES: Puay TANG: 2003/05/07-8 BXL Swpat Conference: MEP Arlene McCarthy's Message: In 2003 on May 7-8 the Greens/EFA and FFII/Eurolinux organised a public conference about the Software Patentability Directive Proposal for whose adoption by the European Parliament MEP Arlene McCarthy as a rapporteur has been pushing. The conference was convened on short notice but yet succeded in attracting more than 200 attendants, among which were many software developpers and business leaders. The Greens hat announced the conference through various channels, including posters in the European Parliament, since early April. FFII sent out some late mailings to MEPs with a detailed conference program. One of the recipients, MEP Arlene McCarthy, immediately complained about this mailing and said to journalists that Eurolinux was trying to exclude her, the rapporteur, from the discussion. She repeated this complaint at various occasions in and outside the parliament. We use this webspace to distribute McCarthy's messages to our participants and to document her complaints. Jean-Paul SMETS: Richard CLARK: Robert DEWAR: David AXMARK: Bernhard RUNGE: 2003/05/07-8 BXL Swpat Conference: RMS Messages and Impressions: Richard M. Stallman (RMS), computer science pioneer at MIT, author of GNU Emacs and various GNU operating system utilities and founder of the Free Software Foundation, spoke both in the European Parliament and a the Dorint Symposium, explaining basics of the patent problem in a very lively way. MEP Elly Plooij-Van Gorsel came to explain why she is proposing to legalise software patents and how she wants to limit the problems created thereby. This led to a clash with an impatient software developper in the audience, thus prompting Plooij to walk out in displeasure. Richard regrets this communication failure. Sven BIEDERMANN: DEIM Agoston: Roman SEDLMAIER: Reinier BAKELS: Jozéf HALBERSZTADT: 2003/05/07-8 BXL Swpat Conference Contributions: Jozéf Halbersztadt: Presentation of Jozéf Halbersztadt, examiner at the Polish Patent Office (not speaking for his employer), prepared for the Conference on Software Patents at the Dorint Hotel in Brussels on May 7-8 2003. 2003/05/07-8 BXL Swpat Conference Contributions: Jorge Cortell: Presentation of Dr. Jorge Cortell, professor for E-Commerce Law in Madrid, prepared for the Conference on Software Patents at the Dorint Hotel in Brussels on May 7-8 2003.