2004-08-24 Budapest: 400 demonstrators demand No to Council Software Patent Agreement
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SWPAT.fsf.hu: Hungarian anti-swpat site, created mainly for the demo.
Pictures from the Demo
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SOMOGYI Peter (s8674som at hszk bme hu) writes:
As you may know, the software patent directive is currently unfavourable to free software and to SME-s in general... The European Council is likely to vote on the issue in September. Considering the outcome of the preceding events, it would be very unwise to wait for this directive to be put in front of the parliament. It would be highly desirable to revoke the current draft already approved by the Council of Ministers. I am aware that Holland has already withdrawn support and the support for the current draft is somewhat shaky. Therefore even a little can make a big change. We are in the works to make that little difference by putting pressure on the Hungarian government to also withdraw their support for the current draft. If we are not mistaken, then this revocation should be enough to withdraw the current directive.
Officially, the Committee which has the task to make the decision will be meeting on the 28th of August (the date seems to be odd, because it is a Saturday, but be it - this is what is written on the minutes of their last gathering). Rumours are that the session will take place on the 31st. But alas, one of our well-wishers hinted, that the actual decision will be made in the middle of that week, which is on the 25th at the latest.
The talks we pursued for a year have seemed to come to a dead end, and our last - and only - chance to influence the decision to be made seems to be to put some pressure on the officials involved by means of a demonstration, similar to what has happened in Brussels or in Vienna.
Therefore in the limited time we have left, we are organising a demonstration similar to those done by the ffii.org activists and alike.
The demonstration will take place on the 24th of August, 2004 at 16:00 in front of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, in the park opposite the road (1027 Budapest, Bem rakpart 47. Hungary). Please feel free to come by if you can.
A map can be found with some Hungarian information on: swpat.fsf.hu
