- Florian Müller
Florian Müller (born January 21, 1970 in
Augsburg ,Germany ) is anauthor ,entrepreneur ,consultant , and the founder of the [http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com NoSoftwarePatents.com] campaign.oftware industry/computer books
In 1985, Müller started writing articles for German computer magazines. A year later, at age 16, he became Germany's youngest computer book author.Fact|date=March 2008
From 1987 to 1998, he specialized on publishing and distribution cooperations between US and European software companies. He initiated and managed such alliances in various market segments, including productivity software, utility software, educational software, and computer games. As a consultant to and representative of
Blizzard Entertainment , Müller was involved in the marketing campaigns for , Diablo I andStarCraft ).Fact|date=March 2008In 1996, he co-founded an online gaming service named Rival Network, which in early 2000 was acquired by the
Telefónica group. From 2001 to 2004, Müller advised the CEO ofMySQL AB, developer of the namesake open-source database management software product.Fact|date=March 2008Campaign against EU software patents
In 2004, Müller received the support of corporate sponsors 1&1,
Red Hat andMySQL for launching the [http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com NoSoftwarePatents.com] campaign, which opposed theEuropean Commission 'sproposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions . Following several years of intensive lobbying by many parties, this heavily amended proposed directive was rejected by theEuropean Parliament on July 6, 2005, with 648 out of 680 votes cast.Fact|date=March 2008For his political activities, Müller received several awards in 2005. A leading publication for
intellectual property lawyers, "Managing Intellectual Property", counted Müller - such as the Chinese vice premierWu Yi - among the "top 50 most influential people in intellectual property" (renominated in 2006). IT-focused website Silicon.com listed him among the [http://www.siliconagendasetters.com Silicon Agenda Setters] . A jury of EU-focused weekly newspaper "European Voice" elected Müller as one of the "EV50 Europeans of the Year 2005", and handed him the "EU Campaigner of the Year 2005" award. Jointly with theFFII , Müller received the "CNET Networks UK Technology Award" in the "Outstanding Contribution to Software Development" category.Fact|date=March 2008occer policy
After more than 20 years in the IT industry, Florian Müller became involved with soccer (football)
politics in 2007. According to articles published in Spanish byDeutsche Welle , he advised the Spanish soccer clubReal Madrid with respect to aEuropean Union policy -making initiative concerningprofessional sports .Fact|date=March 2008External links
* Florian Müller, " [http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/ No Lobbyists As Such] " (2006). 377 page play-by-play memoir of the story of Florian's part in the campaign over the EU software patent directive.: — [http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/books/0,39024115,39260033,00.htm Review] by Ingrid Marson, ZDnet : — [http://www.techworld.com/applications/features/index.cfm?featureid=2391&pagtype=samecatsamechan Review] by Matthew Broersma, Techworld
* Florian Müller's personal [http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/ blog] : - [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2576109,00.html Article 1] and [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2606604,00.html Article 2] of Deutsche Welle about soccer (football) policy (in Spanish)
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