[Discussioni]nomination of Mr. Pilch Hartmut for the 2004 FSF award

[Carlo Strozzi]

Dear FSF board,
I'm the president of the Italian Linux Society (www.ils.org) and CEO
of a small Free Software business (www.texne.com).

With this message I'm glad to propose Mr. Pilch Hartmut <phm a a2e.de>
of FFII (www.ffii.org) for the subject Award, because of the intense
lobbying activity that he has been promoting over the last few years, in
opposition to the dreaded introduction of software patentability in the
European Union. Yesterday Sep. 24th the so-called "McCarthy directive",
aimed at introducing unlimited patentability for computer programs and
business methods in Europe, did pass the vote of the European Parliament,
but fortunately with a number of very important amendments that now make
it a good starting point to try and make it even better, along the next
steps of the path to its adoption by member States.

The McCarthy directive, in its current highly mitigated form, is
definitely a great achievement of Mr. Hartmut and of the countless other
people who have strenuously opposed it in its original form.

The war is not over yet, but the first real battle marked a score 
in favour of Free and Open Source Software, and of the european Small
and Medium Enterprises that act in the software business.

Thank-you for your kind attention,

Regards,
Carlo Strozzi
-- 
Per la libertà di Impresa: http://www.scriptaworks.com/swpat/
Freedom for Business: http://swpat.ffii.org