Diana Wallis
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Diana Paulette Wallis (born 28 June 1954) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Democrats for Yorkshire and the Humber since 1999.
Before being elected she was a solicitor and a councillor on Humberside County Council and East Riding Unitary Council.
Diana Wallis and Software Patents
In a Patent Practice Meeting of the UK Patent Office in 2001, she was marked with a * (http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/groups/240101.htm) as one of those JURI members who submitted amendments for the recent second reading of the Directive on "Harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the Information Society" and those who submitted amendments on the Designs Regulation." So she might have been lobbied and appears to have followed the ELDR 'IP expert' Toine Manders (http://kwiki.ffii.org/?ToineMandersEn).
Diana Wallis spoke (http://www.xenoclast.org/free-sklyarov-uk/2003-September/005373.html) to the Liberal Democrats conference before the vote on the software patents diective about how "We should be exposing the political choices that lay beneath... technical issues. For example we are currently dealing with a directive on the patentability of computer generated inventions; we have been lobbied to death by various individuals. This is about liberty, about choice, about protecting innovative small enterprises and the consumer." In the end, the British LibDems voted against fellow European Liberals and for software patents.
Alex Macfie commented on May 14 2004 (http://lwn.net/Articles/83658/): Be careful with the LibDems. They officially have a policy against swpat (I know --- I contributed to the internal debate which produced said policy) but the party's MEPs don't get it. Sure they use the right rhetoric, they make it sound like they hear concerns about swpat. But their rhetoric was not matched by their voting record. They voted mostly against amendments limiting patentability and in favour of bad amendments. The LibDem MEP in charge of this issue is Diana Wallis, who still needs hitting with cluestick.
But maybe she was also distracted by being draftsperson an EP Opinion on a Council Regulation about the "Recognition and enforcement of judgements in civil and commercial matters" on the initiative of the UK and the Netherlands. (Report A5-0253/2003) which has been voted on 1st September 2003.
Internet issues are also at the forefront of Diana's work. She heads a discussion forum called E-PING! (htt://www.eping.org) where relevant topics (ie. the digital divide, cybercrime, data privacy) are openly discussed by all parties concerned. E-PING!s on-line "chats" assist by opening up the discussions to a world-wide audience.
It might be worthwile to hold her by her press release and vote for the amendments the parliament voted for in 1st reading. It's headlined (http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/news/172.html): Euro MP welcomes adoption of strict limits on patenting of computer implemented inventions
External links
- Diana Wallis MEP (http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/) official site
- Profile at the European Parliament (http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep6/owa/whos_mep.data?ipid=0&ilg=EN&iucd=4544)
- Profile at the site of the Liberal Democrats (http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/person.html?id=156)
- Women in Decision-making: Interview with Diana Wallis (http://www.db-decision.de/Interviews/Eu/Wallis.html)
- Diana Wallis Press Release on Software Patents (http://www.ffii.org.uk/players/people/meps/libdems/wallis.html)
- Speech of Diana Wallis two days before the vote (http://www.ffii.org.uk/players/people/meps/libdems/libdems.html)
- UK LibDems and software patents (http://kwiki.ffii.org/ElectUkLib0405En)
- Liberal Democrats Youth & Students against software patents (http://swpat.ffii.org/log/03/libdem1208/index.en.html)
- Quick overview of her most important roll-call votes on software patents (http://www.ffii.org/~bkaindl/questionnaire/tree/UK/ELDR/dwallis.html)
- Diana Walli's voting on software patents explained (http://beauprez.net/softpat/lobbybase/mepsummary.php?name=Wallis)