EU response on swpat petition

A few weeks ago, I finally got a response back of the EU Directorate General. A response to what, you ask? Well, for those that are familiar with my interest in (no) swpat, it will be obvious it's to the petition (actually the second one, but the first apparently disappeared) I made to the EU parliament, which was based on the "Software patents manifesto" I made (CC).

My first one was send several months before the actual definitive vote, but got lost. My second did arrive, on 30.03.2005... still on time, but for the slow adminstrative and bureaucratic procedures (something I criticise in the manifest also), which made it too late for having an actual influence on the vote (as a petition, I mean). The main reason being, that it has to go through the committee of petitions, to see if it's allowable. For that, the request must come from a EU citizen (which I am), and must be about subject matter that falls within the scope of the EU parliament (which it did). As a consequence, it got accepted...but by that time the vote was already over. "Fairly lengthy" they call it...indeed!

Well, anyway, the proof is there that at least I tried, which is more than one can say for some anonymous posters who responded to earlier posts on this blog. ;-)

The letters can be viewed here: