[Openstandaarden] Book on the war over software patents now available for download

[Benjamin Henrion]

Florian Mueller's book
"No Lobbyists As Such -
The War over Software Patents in the European Union"
now available for download

Starnberg, Germany (June 06, 2006) -- Florian Mueller, the founder of the
award-winning NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, has published his memoir-style
book, "No Lobbyists As Such - The War over Software Patents in the European
Union", on the Internet. On 377 pages, Mueller tells the story of the
legislative process that ended in July last year with a landslide vote of
the European Parliament against a proposal for a software patent directive.
The book is now available on the Internet for download:
http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/NoLobbyistsAsSuch.pdf

The file may be redistributed under a Creative Commons license. Mueller
explained in his blog
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/ebook/) that he
wants "to get [this] book out to a large audience, especially since the next
major war over software patents in Europe will officially break out on July
12 at a hearing to be held by the European Commission in Brussels. The same
forces who supported the software patent directive we successfully fought
against are now trying to achieve everything they wanted the last time, and
even more, by means of the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA)."

Wlodzimierz Marcinski, the then Polish deputy minister of science who
blocked an EU Council decision in favor of software patents all alone on
December 21, 2004, said he looks forward "to reading Florian Mueller's book
that tells the story from the perspective of the citizens who became
involved and through their untiring commitment made such a difference."

When Mueller announced his book in late March, reviewers were enthusiastic:
For William New, editor-in-chief of the news service Intellectual Property
Watch (www.ip-watch.org), Mueller's book "really reads like a spy novel,
very instructive as well as entertaining and engaging." Professor Brian
Kahin, former Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office on Science and
Technology Policy, says: "Mueller's lucid, gripping account succeeds as an
engrossing introduction to one of the major policy problems of our time and
to Europe's struggle for integration."

Benjamin Henrion of the non-governmental organization FFII comments that the
book "vividly conveys the feeling of what we experienced", and considers it
a "must-read for all who are concerned about software patents, and for those
who want to know how things work in EU politics." Kaj Arnö, vice-president
of community relations at open source database maker MySQL AB, felt like
"standing in a parliament and talking directly to the politicians who made
the decisions" when reading the manuscript.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THE BOOK:

Publisher: SWM Software-Marketing GmbH (Florian Mueller's own company)

Copy-editor: Wendy Grossman (www.pelicancrossing.net), a UK-based journalist
from the US, copy-edited Mueller's manuscript.

Other language editions: The book has been simultaneously published in
German ("Die Lobbyschlacht um Softwarepatente",
www.softwarepatente-buch.de).

AUTHOR'S BACKGROUNDER:
http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller.html

CONTACT DATA:
Florian Mueller
Phone +49 - 81 51 - 2 10 88
fmueller.nosoftwarepatents at gmail.com 

-- 
Benjamin Henrion <bh at udev.org>
http://bh.udev.org
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