The Inquirer: "A plan by the European Council of Ministers to force the continent wide adoption of the Directive on Software Patents suffered a blow yesterday when the Dutch Parliament ordered a minister to withdraw the country's support".
Groklaw says "The Dutch parliament is making news. It has just withdrawn its vote for the Directive on Software Patents. It's a proof-of-concept vote, you might say, the first time such a move has been taken in the history of the EU, demonstrating that other countries are free to do the same, as we reported on June 22.".
In Germany, Heise covers the story. In the Netherlands, the story is making headlines all over the place, lik e for example on webwereld and Tweakers.net.
This sudden change of direction is a long story, in which a classic case of desinformation of the Parliament triggered a whole process of debates and motions.
Anyway, we will probably invite the signers of the eurolinux.org petition to help out.
So, if you've signed that, you will probably be contacted.
If you already want to start: try to get a list of names and e-mail adresses of spokesmen of the various political parties in your country on the matter of Economic Affairs, both on National and European level.
The game we want to play now is simply a matter of parrallel processing. Everyone going along gets responsibility for maintaing contact with 1 MEP, or 1 party. Since 320.000 people have signed the contract, it seems realistic to expect to be able to build a group of several 100s of people that can deliver an aimed message instead of shouting and mailbombing when it's too late. They should also be able to deliver relevant feedback to the organisation, so that we will be in time next time.
We have been extremely busy for 5 days and delivered a very clear message to the Dutch Parliament : "We know what's going on and you know now too. We'll be in touch!".
We have a very good contact with Annie Schreijer (Cristian Democrates), vice chairman of the Dutch commission responsible for Economic Affairs, who is really supportive in telling us how the game of politics is being played and what buttons to press. Many thanks for that, Annie!
We can make a difference, if we just focus our efforts and avoid double work.
We have until this autumn, so:
Gentlemen, let's Rock and Roll! But stick to the rules and be polite.
The keyboard I'm using rightnow is the same one I've used for 4 years in a row and my boss had used it for a few years too. It seems to be built in 1992. I've had 2 computers and 3 screens during those 4 years but no new keyboard for me, thanks.
A few months ago, I was very lucky. The company on the floor below us dumped a whole lot of IBM computers _with_ keyboards in the garbage. I fished 10 of them out of the container. Unfortunately 9 of them have a Dutch layout, but ya can't beat the price...
I don't think a home user even wants to install software or hardware. Like who's still repairing his own car? What people actually need is cheap, local service and repair-shops who solve your problems. And I definately think this will happen in the not-so-far future. And with Linux, a lot of service can even be done remotely.
Then, the process of switching to Linux would mean dropping the machine at the local Linux shop and negotiating what would be needed. Ok, that's a word-processor, cd-burning software, etc. Shall we add a web-browser, too? The next day, you'd pick it up again, leaving $200 at the shop.
So, what when you decide you need some new piece of software? Well, you call your shop and they will remotely login to your pc and set it up for you. They didn't do it right? Well, no problem. Just call someone else.
We need service shops that actually serve their customers, because they are both enabled and forced to compete with oneanother for a change. Linux makes this possible, because everyone has the same possibilities of actually servicing such a machine.
We just have to wait for the companies to pop-up...
Slashdot Mirror
The Inquirer: "A plan by the European Council of Ministers to force the continent wide adoption of the Directive on Software Patents suffered a blow yesterday when the Dutch Parliament ordered a minister to withdraw the country's support".
Groklaw says "The Dutch parliament is making news. It has just withdrawn its vote for the Directive on Software Patents. It's a proof-of-concept vote, you might say, the first time such a move has been taken in the history of the EU, demonstrating that other countries are free to do the same, as we reported on June 22.".
In Germany, Heise covers the story. In the Netherlands, the story is making headlines all over the place, lik e for example on webwereld and Tweakers.net.
This sudden change of direction is a long story, in which a classic case of desinformation of the Parliament triggered a whole process of debates and motions.
Microsoft are by many considered the driving force behind the BSA, who seems to have co-authored the software patents directive of the European Commission.
I was also part of the delegation.
Anyway, we will probably invite the signers of the eurolinux.org petition to help out.
So, if you've signed that, you will probably be contacted.
If you already want to start: try to get a list of names and e-mail adresses of spokesmen of the various political parties in your country on the matter of Economic Affairs, both on National and European level.
The game we want to play now is simply a matter of parrallel processing. Everyone going along gets responsibility for maintaing contact with 1 MEP, or 1 party. Since 320.000 people have signed the contract, it seems realistic to expect to be able to build a group of several 100s of people that can deliver an aimed message instead of shouting and mailbombing when it's too late. They should also be able to deliver relevant feedback to the organisation, so that we will be in time next time.
We have been extremely busy for 5 days and delivered a very clear message to the Dutch Parliament : "We know what's going on and you know now too. We'll be in touch!".
We have a very good contact with Annie Schreijer (Cristian Democrates), vice chairman of the Dutch commission responsible for Economic Affairs, who is really supportive in telling us how the game of politics is being played and what buttons to press. Many thanks for that, Annie!
We can make a difference, if we just focus our efforts and avoid double work.
We have until this autumn, so:
Gentlemen, let's Rock and Roll!
But stick to the rules and be polite.
I don't miss it. I use one..
The keyboard I'm using rightnow is the same one I've used for 4 years in a row and my boss had used it for a few years too. It seems to be built in 1992. I've had 2 computers and 3 screens during those 4 years but no new keyboard for me, thanks.
A few months ago, I was very lucky. The company on the floor below us dumped a whole lot of IBM computers _with_ keyboards in the garbage.
I fished 10 of them out of the container. Unfortunately 9 of them have a Dutch layout, but ya can't beat the price...
The http://www.theopencd.org project aims at providing a cd with open source s/w for windows.
I don't think a home user even wants to install software or hardware. Like who's still repairing his own car?
...
What people actually need is cheap, local service and repair-shops who solve your problems. And I definately think this will happen in the not-so-far future. And with Linux, a lot of service can even be done remotely.
Then, the process of switching to Linux would mean dropping the machine at the local Linux shop and negotiating what would be needed. Ok, that's a word-processor, cd-burning software, etc. Shall we add a web-browser, too?
The next day, you'd pick it up again, leaving $200 at the shop.
So, what when you decide you need some new piece of software?
Well, you call your shop and they will remotely login to your pc and set it up for you.
They didn't do it right? Well, no problem. Just call someone else.
We need service shops that actually serve their customers, because they are both enabled and forced to compete with oneanother for a change. Linux makes this possible, because everyone has the same possibilities of actually servicing such a machine.
We just have to wait for the companies to pop-up