[WSIS CS-Plenary] Opening Ceremony Speaker PCT proposal : Richard Stallman

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

 Hello everybody 

 Besides the selection rules that have been just proposed by the C&T
 for discussions and that of course we fully intend to abide, 
 it has been recognized that the discussion concerning 
 the Opening Ceremony speaker has already started and obviously 
 this choice requires a very broad consensus. Therefore the 
 PCT group is setting forward a proposition for discussions.

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Our propositions is based both
on the merits of the speaker
as well as the purpose and usefulness of his intervention.

Without Richard Stallman, the information society would probably be the
dominion of ruthless monopolies, leaving little practical possibilities
for any freedom at all. Without the Free Software movement, without the
GPL, there would have been probably no GNU/Linux operating systems that
now running on the vast majority of Web servers. Richard Stallman is
well versed with all the
technical, legal, economical and philosophical aspects of the issues of
the Civil Society.

It is proposed that the first part of his speech (about 2/3 ) should
convey the declarations that would have prepared by the various
thematics groups of the Civil Society as compiled by the C&T drafting
group.

In the last part, Richard Stallman should focus on the issue of Free
Software and Software patents. As all of you are aware, the fight
against software patents is a crucial issue, and a decisive battle is
now been fought in Europe that is going to have worldwide consequences.
It is proposed that in the name of the CS; Richard Stallman
would publicly challenge Mr. Frits Bolkestein, the European
Commissioner to accept the decision of the European parliament and
not to try to remove the patent directive,
as he threatened he would do, from the authority of the European,
parliament to put it under the authority of
governments as a technocratic re-negotiation of the European Patent
Convention, in order to that software patents be approved despite
the vote of the parliament.!

The exact text from Frits Bolkestein
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/bolkestein/index_en.htm
http://swpat.ffii.org/players/bolkestein/index.en.h is :

"Now if we fail in our efforts to achieve a harmonization of patent law
relating to
computer-implemented inventions in the European Union,
we may well be confronted with a renegotiation of the European Patent
Convention.
And if I may be blunt, President, the process of renegotiation of the
European Patent Convention
would not require any contribution from this parliament. So the
situation is clear:
there is a single objective but a choice of means. Either we proceed
using the community method,
or we take a back seat and watch while member states go via the route of
an intergovernmental treaty.

Such a provocative undemocratic statement shall not
be tolerated by the CS. The message is that the Information Society
shall not be ruled by technocrats but with respect of the democratic
rights. This is a question of basic rights.

Therefore the purpose of the end of Richard Stallman intervention should
be dual :
1/ Help to remove the threat of software patent over Europe and over the
world.
2/ Reaffirm the rights of the people in front of an arrogant
technocracy at the service of special interests.

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Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D 
muguet at mdpi.org   muguet at ensta.fr  

MDPI Foundation   http://www.mdpi.net 

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups 
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair 
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
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