Someone on the campaignforcreativity list sent me this announcement e-mail.
Looks like things are hotting up again.
http://campaignforcreativity.org/camp4creativity/
Malcohol.
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> (I thought there used to be a wiki page refuting some of their
> arguments, but I can't find it now, so I've had my rant here... if
> someone wants to start a wiki page for this stuff I'll gladly add to it)
I've put David's refutations on a wiki page:
http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/FurtherRefutations
Another page with refutations is here:
http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/ProSoftwarePatentsLetter
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When I spoke to Crowley, I'm not sure if he knew that "free" to us means
"freedom". McGuinness knew free software was something about doing things
openly and collaborating. One thing that we should be doing to help explain
this to people we talk to is end all communications with an "About IFSO".
Here's a suggestion. It says all I think we'd want to say, but it doesn't
read as well or as interesting as it could. This isn't urgent, so it can
just sit in minds/inboxes until people have time+interest. After my draft,
I've pasted the "About Us" blurbs used by FSFE and FFII for reference.
This would be a good candidate for a wiki page I think.
About IFSO
IFSO was founed in January 2004 to protect and promote software which comes
with permission to run, study, modify, and redistribute it -- Free Software.
IFSO would like to see more widespread use of Free Software, such as the
GNU/Linux operating system, the Mozilla Firefox web browser, and the
OpenOffice.org office suite. We would also like to see the encouragement of
businesses based on the development, implementation, and support of Free
Software. So that Free Software can continue to flourish, IFSO works to
prevent new legislation from restricting the writing of Free Software. The
Software Patents directive is the largest such proposed restriction, but
copyright and other laws also need watching.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charitable non-governmental
organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to
software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the
Freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in
the Free Software definition- allow equal participation in the information
age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically
and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting development of Free
Software are central issues of the FSFE. The FSFE was founded in 2001 as
the European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
About FFII:
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a non-profit
association registered in Munich, which is dedicated to the spread of data
processing literacy. FFII supports the development of public information
goods based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 300
members, 700 companies and 50,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act
as their voice in public policy questions in the area of exclusion rights
(intellectual property) in data processing.
Or the alternative FFII blurb:
FFII campaigns to promote competition and innovation in the field of
software development. They seek a positive environment for the development
of information goods, based on copyright, free competition, and open
standards.
More than 700 companies and 60,000 registered supporters have entrusted the
FFII to act as their public voice in the area of exclusion rights
(intellectual property) in data processing; and the FFII/Eurolinux petition
against software patents now has over 330,000 signatories.
--
Ciarán O'Riordan,
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
Have you signed up to help FSF Europe yet? http://www.fsfe.org/
IFSO has been accepted as an FSFE associate organisation. :)
David C.
----- Forwarded message from "Georg C. F. Greve" <greve(a)fsfeurope.org> -----
Dear Glenn,
Dear friends at IFSO,
|| On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:35:44 +0000
|| Glenn Strong <Glenn.Strong(a)cs.tcd.ie> wrote:
gs> I am writing to you as a representative of the Irish Free
gs> Software Organisation. At out Annual General Meeting on the 23rd
gs> of this month it was unanimously agreed that we should make an
gs> application for affiliation with FSF Europe. With this mail we
gs> are making that application.
With great pleasure I can inform you that your application has been
approved with strong support. IFSO is now an official associate
organisation of the Free Software Foundation Europe.
In order to intensify the our work, these steps are now possible and
seem concretely useful:
- Create ireland(a)fsfeurope.org mailing list/email alias for "official
inquiries" to Free Software activities in Ireland and populate with
active IFSO people.
- Create Associate Organisation information at
http://fsfeurope.org/associates/ifso
which is entirely at your disposal.
- Prepare press announcement to bring the good news to the people,
this should be done on pr(a)fsfeurope.org -- if you have one or two
people who are working on PR issues and might be interested in
participating in the coordination of FSFE PR, they could be added
to the list.
After meeting you in Ireland, I am very happy to see this happen and
am looking forward to our next meeting -- if some of you are
interested, you could consider coming to GNU/LinuxTag in Karlsruhe and
inform people about Free Software, Irish Activities and IFSO at the
FSFE booth.
Best regards,
Georg
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
----- End forwarded message -----
Hi there.
The new IFSO web pages are up. The site will be under development for a
while, so please be patient. Most of the changes so far have been
structural, intended to make the site easier to maintain. Next, we need to
add some more content.
Please have a look around and see if you can find any mistakes, dead links
or see if you can think of some content you would like to see. Please put
your comments here:
http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/IfsoWebPages
or, if you really don't like using wikis, mail webmaster at ifso dot ie.
Good luck,
Malcohol.
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IFSO should have a "positional paper" on the software patents directive.
Something comprehensive so when politicians bring up a questions (TRIPS,
current situation, employment), we tell them what page to read.
So when we meet policitians, we bring a copy, highlight bits as we talk, and
leave them with a highlighted copy. Shows we're organised, thought of
everything, etc.
I don't know how big it would have to be, but 10 pages seems like the right
order of magnitude. The directive should be quoted, etc, so it could go to
20 pages.
I was hoping to make a start on this last night but it didn't happen.
A lot of stuff can be robbed from our letters, and more can be robbed from
FFII's site. It doesn't matter if the material isn't ours (although it will
be clearly labeled as being whoever's material), the important thing is just
to have it in one document.
First section should explain what happens when an economy permits software
patents:
1. Some existing software development models become impractical due to costs
(these are individual development, SMEs, more?)
2. Writing useful software is specifically prohibited because use of
standards (and worse, defacto standards) can require patent licenses
This true because:
How the current text permits software patents
The fallout is:
Less control over software
Less choice
Less SMEs
Less investing in SMEs (because investment just brings lawsuits)
I can start this on Monday, or someone can take a stab now.
--
Ciarán O'Riordan,
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
Have you signed up to help FSF Europe yet? http://www.fsfe.org/