Re: [Fsfe-uk] EU Ambassadors vote to back Software Patents

[Tom Chance]

Kevin,

On Thursday 13 May 2004 09:32, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
> Something like this is certainly needed - if you're running a campaign, you
> need a succinct summary of the issue that the campaigners can use to catch
> up on what the substance is before they relay that to whoever they are
> talking to.  I think a lot more people would get involved if they didn't
> have to do the spadework first, and could use pre-digested stuff.  But
> writing such stuff can be very time-consuming :-)

That it is :-) I like your approach, but unfortunately most of the people who 
do that hard work within the FFII are more interested in their own lobbying 
efforts, and I've found it to be quite a lot of work to encourage them to 
focus more on the thousands of other people, who'd appreciate the sort of 
approach you suggest.


> This is interesting, but I'm afraid that if I was an MEP I would vote
> against whatever it was you wanted me to vote for after receiving a call
> like this
> :-(  I think it's too hectoring, and will only antagonise people.
>
> My view would be that this is something you can only work on gradually, by
> educating your MEP, and this is quite a major task in itself, without the
> added complication of trying to do it in short order because of a voting
> deadline.  I wonder rather about trying to get some face-time with MEPs
> (and prospective MEPs).  If each constituency could get together a
> delegation of 3-4 people, preferably from a range of backgrounds, backed up
> by good material of the sort above, and have 40 minutes with the MEP, it
> might be possible to approach the issue in a more constructive way, which
> gives a better flavour of the long-term damage that these things are going
> to do.

You're right, your approach is better. Unfortunately, at the moment there 
aren't enough people working towards that sort of approach. In fact, so far 
as I can tell (from the few weeks I've worked on the MEP Toolbox), I'm 
probably the only person really pushing for more effective grassroots action. 
I'm hoping that there are lots of other people who agree with me, who 
hopefully are doing stuff I've missed, and who will join me in pushing 
this :)

In the meantime, however, we are faced with the elections on June 10th. 
Anti-software patent people need to know where parties and individuals stand. 
The only way to do that is to ask these questions, which have been written by 
the FFII's experts. MEP's can always abstain from answering, but in my 
experience the majority won't. We could just write up our opinions of MEPs, 
but this sort of approach is going to be more trustworthy :)

For what it's worth, and because it informs my answer to your points about 
MEPs being generally good people, this is where our main parties stand:

Green - Firmly behind us
UKIP & Lib Dems - say they're behind us but vote otherwise!
Labour & Con - Firmly against us, both in rhetoric and voting

If you talk to a Green or UKIP MEP, you can really have a discussion. If you 
talk to a Lib Dem person, they'll discuss it with you, as you point out, 
they're not going to just say "yes, ok, you're right". If you talk to a 
Labour or Conservative person, they'll maybe talk a little, but then just 
tell you to talk to their party rep; they simply "don't have the time" to 
engage on every issue.

So the motivation behind this approach is:
a) To avoid them going to their party rep.
b) To give a trustworthy indication of MEP's and party's positions
c) To give more hackers some experience in lobbying

In the long term, I'd LOVE to do road/train trips with small groups of people 
to MEPs. But in betweeen now and the elections, I doubt it's viable :o)

If you're going to the AFFSAC, I'll be there talking about grassroots 
activism, so I hope we can all get something worthwhile out of the 
discussion, and maybe lead the FFII down the grassroots route :-)

Regards,
Tom