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Fine Gael supports Software Patents

According to an email I received today from Gay Mitchell, the Fine Gael candidate in the European elections, he supports the government’s position on advocating software patents. So that’s another person you shouldn’t bother voting for tomorrow.

Please feel free to email Gay Mitchell at gay.mitchell@oireachtas.ie to tell him that you disagree with his position. You should explain that it will do nothing to promote the ‘enterprise and reward‘ values which Fine Gael is supposed to espouse. In fact, it stifles creativity and innovation in the software industry.

Email is as follows:

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Dear Antoin,

I have already supported the Irish Presidency position on this at the Oireachtas
Committee on European Affairs which I Chair.

Regards,
Gay Mitchell T.D.

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Comment

  1. Well, that’s disappointing 🙁 but hardly surprising — the pro-patent side have been bending the ears of our politicians for quite a while, much longer than we have.

  2. Worrying would be more the term if you consider the pressure of lobbying which has been successfully applied on those people, future of free software doesn’t look bright at all …

  3. From Ciaran O Riordan’s recent mail to ILUG:

    +-+-++
    |Area |Vote #1 |and #2 |
    +-+-++
    |East |Avril Doyle |Eoin Dubsky |
    |South |Brian Crowley |Gerard Collins |
    |North West |Sean O’Neactain | |
    |Dublin |Patrica McKenna |Ivana Bacik |
    +-+-++

  4. Here’s a bizarre one — FG’s left hand don’t know what the right hand is doing:

    ‘From: Christian van den Bosch cc: ilug.linux.ie
    Now, the funny thing is I just got a letter from FG attaching an anti-swpat press release of Avril Doyle’s from last year and saying that’s the party line…’

    Oops! 😉