Statement by Florian Mueller on Recent Awards and Nominations (29 September 2005)
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Since the rejection of the EU Council's un-common position on software patents by the European Parliament on 6 July 2005, juries and editorial staffs have recognized our efforts in the form of listings on certain rankings as well as nominations for awards:
Managing Intellectual Property magazine, list of 50 most influential people in intellectual property
CNET Networks UK Technology Awards, winner in Outstanding Contribution to Software Development category, article on ZDNet UK
EV50 Europeans of the Year, nominated for EU Campaigner of the Year and European of the Year awards, article on TheRegister
While the FFII and NoSoftwarePatents.com jointly received the CNET award, other juries have decided to pick me personally as a representative of our movement. In choosing a single individual, they may only have observed the written or unwritten rules of the respective awards and rankings.
I feel honored and uneasy at the same time. It has certainly been my objective to make an impact on the software patent debate and on political decisions. However, that has not been a solo accomplishment. Without the FFII, I wouldn't have been able to prevent the legalization of software patents through the proposed directive. If it weren't for the FFII, I probably wouldn't even have become involved in the controversy over software patents. In fact, the FFII and I wouldn't have been able to do it without other organizations, committed citizens, corporate supporters, and political allies in parliaments and governments.
Instead of selecting me, the juries could have named Hartmut Pilch, and I would have accepted that decision. Hartmut understood the software patent issue years before I entered the debate. Without Hartmut, there would be no FFII. Without him, the pro-swpat forces in the patent bureaucracy would most likely have succeeded five years ago in modifying the European Patent Convention (deleting the exclusion of computer programs from the scope of patentability).
Let's respect the choices made by the juries, and let's make the best out of the opportunity in front of us: to heighten the profile of the anti-swpat cause by winning the EU Campaigner of the Year or overall European of the Year award. That victory would belong to all of us together. I said so right after my nomination, I have repeated it here, and I will make it absolutely clear in the event that I do get to win one of those awards on 29 November 2005. I would only win such an award as a representative of our cause. I have also promised to designate the FFII as the recipient of the prize money, which would indirectly represent a donation of the world's largest software company (which sponsors the EV50 awards) to the FFII.
From a strategic perspective, the exposure that I personally receive is beneficial to our cause. I have already written about 60% of the manuscript of my book on our successful fight against the proposed software patent directive. That book is likely to be published within about eight weeks. The book makes it perfectly clear how important the contributions made by many key FFII players were.
