Hello again Em. Now to business.
E L Tonkin py7elt@bath.ac.uk writes:
- what /are/ the short-term aims of the fsfe? Establishing GPL for each
country, first? Then what?
That seems a noble aim which will probably take some time and considerable effort. Keeping it secure under the various legal systems will probably become a major task. FSFE should also be watching our for issues about other Free Software licences and related matters, not just GPL and its siblings.
This probably also answers about long-term aims and tracking laws which hinder software freedoms.
- Is the FSFE structure good enough? What's wrong with it? What do we need
to fix? What about the sub-FSF chapters? Do geeks really fit into a hierarchy? (hint: no)
Hah! Not exactly a hint there, was it? More a blatant spin.
Anyway, I think we should make some effort to organise ourselves into a constituency as soon as is reasonable (nb: I do not say "possible"). Other FS bodies manage to organise themselves into democracies, so why not us? The finer details are up for discussion, of course.
- Policy on finances, financial gain, industry freebies...
Oooh, is this a can of worms I see before me? Good luck to them, as long as there's no conflict of interest and the elected terms are reasonably short so that we can slap them back if they over-step the mark. The problem with many electoral systems is that it's too hard to remove corrupt people without causing significant insecurity to the elected officers.
[...]
STILL don't have a version of GNU/Linux that installs and /does stuff/ painlessly. Is that an FSF(E) problem? Do we care about Software For Your Average Idiot? or do we tell them to go hang?...
No, yes and only after the nth attempt at an unpaid support call.
- What about community? Does the FSFE have interest in getting into
establishing any LUG-style initiatives?
Interesting question (and the next one about unionism). FSFE should open dialogues with any body of people who broadly share their aims, I think.
- To repeat myself once more, what about the whole damn woman issue? (And
/be/ political, people, would you? This is a discussion list. If you think it's all a non-issue, say so)
Bah, do you want equality or reverse discrimination? Personally, I think any discrimination is a bad thing. Yes, equality will take longer to bring about equilibrium, but at least it will be true and not about to see-saw *and* piss people off in the process.
- What about stuff like legal defence, patents, all that? Does the
FSFE get into all that? How much?
Yes, as much as it can afford.
- How about stuff like DVD regionality, and blah?
This isn't really FSFE beyond the freedom of the decoder software once legally created. Does anyone know of EFF-like bodies in Europe?