Slashdot Mirror

UK:
http://www.writetothem.com/

UK:
http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/your-meps/your-meps

Rest of Europe:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch.do;jsessionid=EAF5D554A71EBE16A5E8A71092CD2DB9.node2

All UK MEPs contact info

Or search for 1 here

All UK MEPs contact info

Or search for 1 here

Look how little it does here in the US, then imagine how much worse it could get if Congress (both houses) were appointed by the various State governments and not elected, and if the President were a rotating chair that round-robined between the Governors of various States.

The European Parliament is elected by the citizens, not the member states, and the President is largely a figurehead whose powers aren't comparable to those of the US President. There's a lot I don't like about the structure of the EU (such as the fact that only the Commission can propose new legislation), but your comparison with the US system is way off target.

Odd, I thought the were actually elected here in the UK.

http://www.europarl.org.uk/guide/Gelectionsmain.html

IMO, the default position of politicians on a complicated issue will be the corporate view, but only because corporations spend lots of money on PR etc and so get to them first. If objections are raised in a civil and coherent way they appear to be willing to consider them. The recent demolition of the software patents bill reinforces my belief.

So in conclusion I would strongly advise anybody who is dissatisfied with some bill going through parliament to find out who is representing them and email them.

Here's the contents of an advisory email about this sort of thing from the FFII (lists of MEPs removed to get around /. lameness filter). The "Key Messages" section for each party is particularly interesting.
--------
Dear XYZ,

You have registered as a supporter of FFII and thereby agreed to receiving e-mails which tell you how you can support our work.[1]

The European Parliament will vote next Tuesday or Wednesday. Unless more than half of the members (= 367) vote for serious amendments, the Council's version will become law and US-style software patent enforcement will begin in Europe.

On 5 July there will be a demonstration in Strasbourg, with coaches from Paris, Brussels, Munich, Amsterdam and possibly elsewhere http://noepatents.eu.org/index.php/StbDemo050604

Final things for you to do:

* Check that your MEP will attend the plenary session, an abstention is a vote for the unmodified council version.

We recommend him/her to vote for the 21 cross-party amendments[2], but even a vote for the official liberal or conservative party line is probably better than not showing up or abstaining. If the 21 cross-party amendments do not get passed we recommend that your MEP should vote to reject the directive.

* At this point sending e-mails alone is probably of no great value. Below you find a list of UK MEPs with phone numbers and some hints on specific messages to be delivered.

* Phone calls can be very effective if you are well informed. *Otherwise they can backfire*. Always be polite, never get aggressive. Explain clearly how software patents would affect *you* and *your* business. Only contact MEPs from *your own* region.[4]

* Before calling your MEP by phone, please make sure you have read the 21 cross-party amendments yourself, have a printed copy ready beside your phone and are well aware of the central ones, particularly Amendments 8, 4, 3, 9 and 1.

* It would also be good to have read the FFII discussion paper[3]. You can use Sunday (tonight) and Monday morning for preparation. MEPs arrive in Strasburg Monday afternoon.

* For help, please email the UK coordinators at uk-help@ffii.org with your name, region and relevant details of your business or profession.

* More instructions on how to contact your MEP are at http://wiki.noepatents.eu.org/index.php/MEPinfo

With kind regards, Hartmut Pilch and Alex Macfie, FFII

[1] Your user id is XYZ at http://aktiv.ffii.org/, in case of
difficulties you also may contact buero at ffii.org.
[2] Buzek-Rocard-Duff amendments
http://wiki.ffii.org/AmPlenPr050701En
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/amends05 /komprom0506.en.pdf
[3] http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/juri0504 /ffiiepp050615.en.pdf
[4] Map of UK Euro regions at
http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm

UK MEPs

email @europarl.eu.int
Strasbourg phone, MEP assistant: 0033-3881-77 XXX
Strasbourg phone, MEP him/herself: 0033-3881-75 XXX
Strasbourg fax: 0033-3881-79 XXX

LIBDEMS (ALDE UK)
=================

Messages:

Please follow the 21 cross-party amendments which are championned by Andrew Duff
http://www.andrewduffmep.org.uk/news/163.html

The Duff line conforms to the recommendations of the UK Libdem party policy documents and of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)

If this is a constant battle, it's time to fight!

Calling all European slashdotters to the front lines. Contact your Members of the European Parliament and educate them on the economic costs of software patents.

• All MEPs: http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep6/owa/p_meps2.repar tition
• UK MEPs by region: http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/
• Ireland MEPs by region: http://www.europarl.ie/meps/

for your MEP list in the UK.

http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm

Recently the LibDems got 6 million votes in the Euro elections and not 1 seat because of the system.

The EU parliament elections are not based on first past the post, but are based on proportional representation and have been since 1999.

Details on all the UK's MEP's can be found here.

Will they listen? Will thay take note of you? Who knows.

But the most important thing is they hear your voice.

Here are the contact details for UK MEPs, lets have a Europe wide emailing and faxing and phoning tonight and tommorow.
Lets /. them.
http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersPrincip. htm
And contact your MP as well to try to get this asked in UK Parliament.
This is it - there will no more European Software if this happens.

Remember also there's probably going to be a general election in May - now's the time to ask prospective candidates questions!

Here's some links to stuff from the SNP one, two and three

OK, I just emailed my Euro MPs.
You can find out yours from here (it's easier to navigate than the main EU site...)

Done the FaxYourMp thing already, but it seems that the EU parliament website is really not set up to make it easy to find your MEP at all. Any suggestions on how to go about this?

There have been lots of email campains, but time it now up. If there's anything else bugging you you should still contact you MP or MEP, you never knowm, they may listen, it's quite close to a UK election and I don't think that there party will shuffle them around to a less safe seat if they break ranks a bit.

Anyhow...

If you want to contact your ME go here(what's an MEP?)
UK

If you want to fax your mp go here

Sorry, the whole MEP thing's a bit crap, and it looks like lists are regional.

On a slightly different note, who knows where I can find the MEPs for London?
Go to the European Parliament, UK Office - UK MEPs page, click on London.

Brits can find the name of their MP from the Common's list of members by constituency, or can use faxyourmp.com. They can find names and contact details for their MEPs from the UK Office of the European Parliament. I'm sure similar sites exist for other countries.

I faxed all 10 London MEPs a few weeks back. I've had half the responses back (I was sure to ask a direct question or two). One or two MEPs are suprisingly switched on to the issues involved. Of course, there's also the quintessential MEP who gets his PA to respond, and says very little so as not to infer an opinion either way.

Either way, faxing my 10 MEPs took me about an hour (from starting to write the letter (not pinching someone else's), printing it 10 times and faxing it to the 10 different numbers). It's dead easy, and you should definitely do it.

The list of MEPs can be found via http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/ and should you be even slightly interested, my experiences with them are at http://www.coofercat.com (search for "european"). You might also like http://www.faxyourmp.com

When are these elections held? I'm on the electoral register and have been for years - I've voted in two general elections and a number of local elections, I may have moved a couple of times but I've never had any notice or ballot cards through for European elections, not once.

EU parliament positions are generally for a duration of 5 years, and are usually similar to national elections (I'm not sure if there's still a representative vote in some member states). For the UK, this means parliament members are elected as described here (note that it changed before the 1999 elections). Your not getting a ballot has to be blamed on local government; I've had to elect my representatives twice already.

All in all, this type of democracy isn't much different from the representative system that's used in the US (Except that we don't bother trying to elect a central president. We know that won't work in Europe.) Each member state has a proportional number of parliament members, and will supply members depending on a national vote. That puts countries like the UK, France, Italy and Germany in a serious advantage compared to Belgium, Luxemburg and The Netherlands. If your government doesn't attempt to represent your views, take it up with them. The distributions of seats sure shouldn't stop them. :)

Well you can have a chance to vote next year since you missed the election in 1999.

You can find out who your MEP is here and complain to them.

If you live in the EU, don't just sign the petition - email your MEPs explaining why they should oppose the motion (and reminding them - gently - that they want your vote!). Yesterday I emailed all 10 MEPs representing London explaining my concerns, and I've already received 2 thoughtful responses -- one of which was seemed convinced by my arguments.

Probably the best arguments to use are those against patenting algorithmic business methods (also covered by the directive) rather than software per se, as they're more likely to be appreciated by politicians. My example was patenting an 'algorithm' that uses a number keyed in by a bank customer to verify their identity against the account details held on their bank card. Hey presto, your "software patent" gives you a monopoly on ATMs.

You can find a list of UK MEPs at the European Parliament's UK Office. For other countries, check out the main EU parliament website. Note that each constituency is represented by several MEPs, allocated between different parites by proportional representation. The vote on the directive is next week, so email your MEP today!

Open Forum Europe got stitched up.

The patent directive is far from a done deal, as the success of last week's lobbying in Brussels shows.

The important point, that the journalist didn't realise, was that Mike Banahan was not talking about a consultation run by the European Commission or the European Parliament, but about a *consultation run by a firm of lobbyists* who had been hired by a consortium of big business associations. (Remember that OFE's response was paraded not by the Commission, but by this consortium of associations).

So the real story is

Lobbyists for big business [*not* the European Commission or the European Parliament] are determined to introduce software patents in Europe despite widespread opposition from European companies and software developers, according to a UK open-source software lobbying group.

The subsequent paragraphs take on a completely different dimension when you realise they are about the lobbying firm for the business associations, not the European institutions:

Mike Banahan, chief technology officer with OpenForum Europe, a subsidiary of technology lobbyist InterForum, said the group received clear indications during a consultation on the proposal that some form of software patenting would be introduced, regardless of the fact that the consultation showed heated opposition to such patents.

"We were briefed that a position that was in total opposition to patents would be discarded, that that was not a position they were prepared to take," Banahan said. "The position was, given that there will be software patents, what kind will there be? It was presented as a done deal."

OpenForum had not intended to submit a position paper on software patents, as it focuses on end user adoption of open-source software, but the group's opinion was solicited by the organisers of the consultation, Banahan said. The paper was misinterpreted in the press as supporting software patents, he added.

The quotes are echoed in this posting to the FSF Europe-UK list:

He stated (as off the record as he could get in a public forum) his statement on software patents was written from the point of view of - IF software patents were a done deal (and he was informed that they pretty much were, by the people asking him for a statement) then there should be exclusions for Free Software to safeguard the common interests.

He also said (again as completely off-the-record as possible) that he had been told that any anti-patent statement would be discarded, as many others had already.

The parliament vote is now expected in the first week of September. The Socialist group in particular is very divided. But internal party-group positions are expected to take shape this week, while the MEPs are all gathered together in Strasbourg, before they disperse for the long summer recess. It is therefore worth contacting MEPs now, sooner rather than later, to have maximum effect.

Contact details for UK MEPs can be found by clicking on the map here

(This information sent to ZDnet on Thursday night, but apparently not of interest).

there is more MEP info here for people in the UK, and search the same website for rest of europe. i cant believe this proposal passed parliament...

I am aware that this has nothing to do with europe but it would be worthwhile to write to our democratic representitives here to make sure it stays that way. So here are the links (they're in English) Info on contacting your MP. if you live in the UK (like me) Info on contacting your MEP If someone could post links to sites that help people contact politicians in other contries that would be great.