Since 1999 quite a few appeals have been launched to stop software patents in Europe.

Call for Action II In order to add a version in your language to a page of this site, you needn't be concerned about HTML or other object formats. Your translations are independent of the page design and will survive future changes of this design. You fetch a plain text file, in which the textual building blocks of the page are listed with identifying tags and minimal markup. You overwrite these blocks and send it to a mail processor which inserts them into a data base and generates the object pages anew. There are nice people willing to guide you. Some basic questions are answered here. Call for Action The European Commission's proposal for the patentability of software innovations requires a clear response from the European Parliament, the member state governments and other political players. Here is what we think should be done. Eurolinux Position on the Community Patent European patent politicians tend to portray the Community Patent project as a key to progress and prosperity in Europe. The innovativity of our economy, according to this view, seems to be a largely function of cheap availability and uniform enforcability of patents throughout the European Interior Market. The Eurolinux Alliance believes that the Community Patent according to current plans would stifle innovation and harm European citizens. Instead it must not be built as an extension to the current system maintained by the European Patent Office, but as a new lean, decentral, unbureaucratic foundation in the spirit of the Polluter Pays Principle. The Eurolinux position statement comes with an online signature guestbook. Eurolinux Petition for a Software Patent Free Europe The largest petition ever in IT matters, started in June 2000 see also Petition Initiators Thank the European Parliament Liste de Signatures de la Pétition des Étudiants de l'Université de Louvain A campaign of Belgian students, who collected 2200 signatures mainly from the French speaking area. An letter in Italian to Mario Monti and other European Commission member, which collected approximately 1000 signatures. Letter to the Competition Commissioner Probably the first petition. This fuelled public awareness and accumulated approximately 10000 signatures between June and August 1999. Many people, including some supporters of software patents, left personal notes in the guestbook.