Yesterday I was invited to a parlamentary evening organized by
FFII e.V., a non-for-profit organization lobbying against the introduction of software patents in the European Union.
As you may know, they've been quite sucessful during the last year, since the
European Parlament passed a directive that prevents any patent on computer
software. However, due to the strange way the EU works, this directive has to
be approved by the EU council before it gets enacted. The council is composed
by representatives of the executive government, not by directly elected members
of parliament.
The purpose of this event was to raise awareness about the dangers of software (and pure algorithmic/logic) patents. Among the invited guests were members of Bundestag (the german parliament), and various Officials of BMWA, BMBF and BMJ (economy, research and justice ministries).
I received the event as quite well. We were able to make our point and make them understand why a piece of software is different of somebody making an invention in the field fo mechanics.