[Free-sklyarov-uk] European Parliament JURI Committee votes for restart with massive

[Tom Chance]

On Thursday 03 Feb 2005 22:21, Tim Ivorson wrote:
> http://kwiki.ffii.org/Restart050202En
>
> I'm don't really understand, but Dieter Van Uytvanck, president FFII
> Belgium says:
>
> We owe this victory for democracy to the members of the European
> parliament. Today they have shown once again that they really care
> about the concerns of the European citizens. And of course we would
> like to thank those as well. I'm sure that without their impressive
> support for an innovative climate that is freed of software patents,
> this step would not have been possible.
>
> It must be good.

In the meeting (I was there) the MEPs basically showed that they were angry 
and fed up with the Commission and Council blatantly ignoring their views.

It will now go back to square one. The commission can choose to resubmit a new 
proposal, Parliament votes on it, the commission & council draw up an amended 
version, Parliament votes on it, and eventually we end up with a directive.

What it all depends on, then, is two things:
1 - Will the commission really take Parliaments views into account now?
2 - Will the big voting blocks in Parliament continue to lie, be split and 
cause problems?

For us, this means lobbying Labour, the Lib Dems and the Conservatives to sort 
out their position. Lib Dems are advised by a pro-swpat lawyer, the Tories 
are advised by Malcolm Harbour MEP who may be swayed or they may split, and 
Labour used to be advised by the now pro-Parliament-position Arlene McCarthy. 
The Greens and UKIP are firmly against swpats, for their own reasons.

So *lots* of work to make sure this all turns out right :-)

Regards,
Tom