The public consultation for drafting GPLv3 is one of my main projects right
now. It's been running for two months and one problem myself and others
working on this have is that we can't gauge how the process is going, so I'm
seeking comments on the process.
Comments on the draft licence text should go to gplv3.fsf.org, but I'm
looking for comments on the consultation process rather than the license
text:
Are you happy with the current draft?
a) don't know
b) yes
c) no
Is your opinion based on:
a) reading it
b) statements of someone you trust
c) opinion of FSF's work
d) other: please specify
If you have not submitted any comments, what are the reasons for not doing so?
If there was a half-day event in Dublin for discussing GPLv3, would you go?
What questions should I add/change in this email before I send a similar one
to ilug and fsfe-uk tomorrow morning?
Thanks in advance for any replies on or off list.
--
Ciarán O'Riordan ______________________ \ To support free software, join
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _____________ \ and tell others about FSFE's
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org
Fernanda Weiden of FSF Latin America was in Dublin today with some free
time, so an open invite was sent to the members of IFSO on short notice and
Myself, Paul O'Malley, and Ben North met her for Sunday lunch. I had
previously mentioned bits of the events idea on the IFSO committee and IFSO
members lists.
Besides the talk by Federico, which has to happen at the end of April and
has to therefore be organised soon, this can be discussed at a leisurly
pace.
Three members of FSFLA's seven-person committee will be in or near Ireland
in the coming months, so, in the medium- to long-term future we'll have the
opportunity to host talks which should be interesting and would usually be
financially impossible.
Federico Heinz will be in Europe (Brussels precisely) and will be available
for travel from noon on April 28th until probably the 2nd of May or so. So
we can get him for the price of flights.
Fernanda Weiden now lives in Zurich and might occasionally come to Dublin
for work reasons. So we can get her cheap or possibly free.
Mario Bonilla will be living in Dublin some time after May, so we can get
him presumably for free.
The events should be seperated by a few weeks or a few months.
Idea #1:
--------
Host a talk by Federico at the end of April, and some time later, host a
double talk with Fernanda and Mario.
I've heard that Federico is one of free software's best speakers, he's the
president of FSFLA, and he's one of the nine official GNU speakers, so I
think he could make an event on his own. Having him talk on "free software
in education" was suggested and he's enthusiastic about that.
Fernanda and Mario might also be great speakers, but I don't know that, so I
recommend they be teamed up to ensure a great event.
Idea #2:
--------
Like as #1, but instead of Fernanda+Mario event, we could do a Fernanda +
someone from FSFE, and a Mario + someone else from FSFE event. FSFE people
should be fairly cheap to get over. The FSFE counter-part could be chosen
based on what topics would compliment the topics of the FSFLA speaker.
Notes:
-----------
I think organising events is important for IFSO because we can record them
and put them online. Any organisation could do that, but IFSO actually does
it. After 5 years, excluding recordings made by IFSO, only 1 person from
FSFE has recordings online (Georg), and 0 people from FSFLA have recordings
online. So I think we can vastly improve on that, and host three very
interesting talks cheaply.
Having talks online is important for a load of reasons:
* people who can't attend (most of the world) can hear the event's content
* people wanting to learn about speaking and communicating techniques can
study the recordings
* people can make transcripts ( http://www.ifso.ie/documents/#transcripts )
These can be used by deaf people, search engines, grep, copy and paste, etc.
* it creates a record of something done by the speakers - in the case of
FSFLA members this is particularly useful because they were only set up
last November, so their current record is very thin
* recordings can be used by people who are organising other events, to check
if the recorded speaker is good.
Comments sought.
--
Ciarán O'Riordan ______________________ \ To support free software, join
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _____________ \ and tell others about FSFE's
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org
Hi,
I'm sure Brian and the other FOSS Means Business organisers will have
more to say later on, but just a quick "thanks" from IFSO to everyone
who came along to our stand at the FOSS Means Business conference
yesterday. It was great to meet and talk with so many people from the
Free Software community.
There are a few photographs from the day: http://flickr.com/photos/tags/fossmeansbusiness/
and I understand there will be professionally taken photos online
shortly, along with recordings of talks.
Cheers,
--
Glenn Strong
The event starts at 10am, so setting up the stall should be finished by then
at latest. Attendees are invited to have tea and coffee at 9:30am, so
ideally it should be set up by then.
The venue opens at 8am.
--
Ciarán O'Riordan _________________________ \ http://foss-means-business.orghttp://ciaran.compsoc.com/ ________________ \ FOSS Means Business
http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Thursday March 16th, Belfast
NEW EU PATENT POLICY PROJECT: ANTI-SOFTWARE PATENT CAMPAIGNER RESPONDS
TO EUROPEAN COMMISSION'S QUESTIONNAIRE
Companies, organizations and citizens encouraged to submit prepared set
of answers to the EC in their own name "in order to stress that most of
Europe's IT industry is against software patents and patent inflation" --
Deadline for writing to the EC is March 31
Brussels (March 8, 2006) -- On January 16, the European Commission (EC)
published a questionnaire on the future of the European patent system,
covering a broad range of policy issues such as an EU-wide community
patent, the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA), and other
measures of streamlining the European patent system. Such consultations
are preparatory to new legislative proposals, which pundits expect the
EC to put forward after the summer.
Some campaigners have already warned that the EU is once again working
on ways to strengthen the legal basis of software patents in Europe.
Pro-patent lobbyists such as SAP lawyer Guenther Schmalz confirmed in
public that "it is starting again". The European Parliament had thrown
out a proposal for a software patent directive on July 6 last year.
Companies, organizations and individuals who would like to tell the EU
their opinion on what its patent policy should look like have until the
end of this month to answer the EC's questionnaire. But in order to do
so, "one has to wade through hundreds of pages of legislative proposals
and related documentation", according to Florian Mueller, the founder of
the award-winning NoSoftwarePatents campaign: "It's the usual EU
lobby-cracy. Still it's very important that many of us write to the EC
in order to stress that most of Europe's IT industry is against software
patents and patent inflation."
The campaigner, who has been listed among the "top 50 most influential
figures in intellectual property", today published a 13-page position
paper as a PDF file
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/PATSTRATpositionpaper.pdf) and
related explanations
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/position-paper/)
in his blog. Everyone is free to submit that document to the EC in his
own name.
A three-page "Quick Facts" PDF document
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/PATSTRATquickfacts.pdf) explains
what the new EU patent policy project is about and why it is important
from the perspective of software patents. According to Mueller, some of
the proposals could be agreed upon at the intergovernmental level
without any decision-making authority on the part of the European
Parliament, which is feared by pro-patent lobbyists because of its
landmark decisions in 2003 and 2005. But national parliaments, several
of which expressed opinions during the row over the software patent
directive, may have a more influential role this time: some decisions
may have to be ratified by them.
Mueller's position paper is already supported by 1&1 Internet AG
(Europe's largest Web hosting company), Materna GmbH (a German IT and
telecommunications company), and MySQL AB (Europe's largest open-source
software company).
NOTE: Florian Mueller founded the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign in 2004
with the support of three corporate sponsors (1&1, Red Hat, MySQL AB),
and managed it until March of 2005. He then gave his website to the
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the leading
European pressure group that opposes the patentability of computer
programs. In connection with the EU's new patent policy initiative,
Mueller is active on behalf of a group of European IT companies,
including Europe's largest Web hosting company 1&1 Internet AG, German
IT and telecommunications company Materna GmbH, and Swedish-based MySQL
AB, Europe's largest open-source software company.
For his efforts against software patents, Mueller has been nominated as
one of the "top 50 most influential figures in intellectual property" by
Managing Intellectual Property magazine, and as one of the 50 "Silicon
Agenda Setters". His NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign received the "CNET
Networks UK Technology Award" in the "Outstanding Contribution to
Software Development" category, and the EU-focused newspaper European
Voice lists him as the European "Campaigner of the Year 2005"
(www.EV50.com) after he received more votes in a public poll than U2
frontman Bono and other candidates.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Florian Mueller
fmueller.nosoftwarepatents(a)gmail.com
phone +49-8151-21088
_____________________________________________
A2k mailing list
A2k(a)lists.essential.org
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k
The FOSS Means Business conference, Thursday March 16th, is just a
week away.
Belfast is just 2 hours by train from Dublin, and as well as the
keynotes by Richard Stallman and Bruce Perens, there will be
presentations by Zaheda Bhorat of Google, Les Timms of Open Source
Academy, and Owen Hughes of Oracle and plenty of breaks to get to know
the other people there.
Registration is not mandatory and there is no entrance fee, but to
give us a rough number for how many teas, coffees, chairs, and how
much food is needed, it would be helpful if people who are coming
would add their name to this wiki page:
http://foss-means-business.org/Attendees
There's information about travelling from other places to Belfast at:
http://foss-means-business.org/Travel
And the day's agenda is at:
http://foss-means-business.org/Agenda
I don't know what sort of numbers would be necessary in order to say that
this is the biggest free software event the island has hosted, but it will
certainly be a contender.
The website is a wiki, so if there are any questions about the event or
about travelling, the site is one option.
Anyone interested in manning or wommaning an IFSO stall, please get in
contact.
--
Ciarán O'Riordan, _________| Belfast, Northern Ireland, Thursday March 16th
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ | \\ FOSS Means Business //
http://www.fsfe.org________|http://foss-means-business.org
* MalcolmTyrrell SoftwarePatentsThu, 09 Mar 2006 08:00:01 -0000
* There is an opportunity now (January 2005) to ask for a restart of the process. Out letter asking for this is being drafted: SoftwarePatents/JuriLetter1
* Before the parliament see this directive again we should contact the MEP's. New MEP's must be informed of the changes that have happened in the directive since it last reached the parliament, and the dangers of the new directive. Other MEP's should be reminded that the parliament's previously agreed formulation has been drastically changed.
+
+ * QuestionaireReponse
== Parties == URL: http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/SoftwarePatents?action=diff
* MalcolmTyrrell QuestionaireReponseThu, 09 Mar 2006 08:00:01 -0000
URL: http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/QuestionaireReponse?action=diff
1. Gareth Bowker joins General Assembly of FSFE
2. Free Knowledge Foundation associates with FSFE
3. UN Consultations on Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
4. UN WIPO: Provisional Committee on a Development Agenda (PCDA)
5. FSFE's office moves to Düsseldorf
6. Second Fellowship meeting in Berlin
7. Microsoft antitrust case: 2 million EUR per day
8. FSFE at FOSDEM
9. FSFE organises SWPAT roundtable in Brussels
10. Fellowship: Get a 3 month LWN subscription and win a notebook!
1. Gareth Bowker joins General Assembly of FSFE
After Gareth Bowker has been working in the FSFE Team for a long time,
the Free Software Foundation Europe is glad to announce that he has
joined the general assembly. With this step, Gareth has committed
himself to the work of FSFE in the long term and agreed to accept legal
and political responsibility for FSFE's work.
His dedication strengthens FSFE's role within the United Kingdom and
is warmly welcomed by everyone in the Team.
2. Free Knowledge Foundation associates with FSFE
The Free Knowledge Foundation, a Spanish non-profit organisation, has
become the first FSFE associate organisation in Spain. Both FKF and
FSFE are looking forward to a close cooperation and many fruitful
projects. Together with FKF, the next step will be to build up the
Spanish Team for FSFE.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000128.html
3. UN Consultations on Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
As one of the outcomes of the UN World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS), UN secretary-general Kofi Annan asked to organise
consultations on the establishment of an Internet Governance
Forum. The reason for these consultations was to determine the scope
and mandate of the IGF. Statements were rather diverse, and ranged
from "domain name issues only" to "all aspects of the internet,
including spam, cybercrime, privacy and online identities" in scope
and "pure discussion forum" to "global public-policy setting body" in
mandate. FSFE's president Georg Greve participated in the meeting to
help maintain the interests of Free Software, the FSFE statement and
more information are available in his blog:
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/(tag)/IGF
4. UN WIPO: Provisional Committee on a Development Agenda (PCDA)
Last year's series of Inter-Governmental Inter-Sessional Meetings
(IIM) on a potential reform of the United Nations World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO) ended in a deadlock, largely due to a
blockade by the United States. As a result, the last general assembly
decided to hold two week-long PCDA meetings, the first of which took
place last month in Geneva. FSFE was represented by its president Georg
Greve and former intern and now Team member Karsten Gerloff, who worked
hard to help push for reform in WIPO. The first FSFE statement is
available online at
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/statement-20060223.en.html
The second statement can be found in Georg Greve's blog, Karsten
Gerloff also has some more information:
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/(tag)/WIPOhttp://www.fsfe.org/fellows/gerloff/blog/(tag)/WIPO
5. FSFE's office moves to Düsseldorf
After its initial founding in 2001, Free Software Foundation Europe
has maintained a small distribution and administrative office in the
Villa-Vogelsang in Essen. The office was kindly provided by Reinhard
Wiesemann of the Villa-Vogelsang, FSFE's visionary patron, who also
allowed Martin Gerwinski to spend part of his time paid by the
Linuxhotel to also work on FSFE office tasks. The rest of the time was
volunteered by Martin Gerwinski. Both Martin and Reinhard deserve and
have our sincere thanks and appreciation for their important
contribution.
As FSFE has been growing rapidly over the past year, the office work
is now too much to be handled on this basis, which is why FSFE is glad
to introduce Rainer Kersten. He has entered FSFE's paid staff to take
care of the necessary administrative work and is working with FSFE's
head of office Werner Koch to establish the new office in Düsseldorf.
6. Second Fellowship meeting in Berlin
For the second time, Fellows in Berlin met to discuss and coordinate
their activities. FSFE is happy to see Fellows taking initiative, and
is working with them to constantly improve the infrastructure that
can be used freely by the Fellows. Currently, the possibility of
creating ad hoc mailing lists is being worked on, and a Wiki is planned.
7. Microsoft antitrust case: 2 million EUR per day
Last month was also the moment when the European Commission finally
decided to stop allowing Microsoft to ignore its antitrust obligations
and faced them with the obligation of paying 2 million EUR for each
day they remain in non-compliance with the ruling. Microsoft is still
trying to play for more time, so FSFE has spoken up in support of the
commission.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000129.html
8. FSFE at FOSDEM
As every year, Free Software Foundation Europe participated in one of
Europe's classic: FOSDEM in Brussels. Georg Greve, Ciaran O'Riordan,
Henrik Sandklef, Pablo Machón and Reinhard Müller presented various
aspects of FSFE's work in a series of short talks. Volker Dormeyer,
FSFE booth coordinator and long-term Team member, did an outstanding
job in coordinating the booth. A team of 16 people from the FSFE and
associates, especially the Free Knowledge Foundation and Wilhelmtux,
gathered for this event and helped turn it into a great success.
9. FSFE organises SWPAT roundtable in Brussels
Originally masquerading themselves as 'computer implemented
inventions', software patents are now lurking under the plans for a
'Community patent' for which the European Commission is seeking
input. FSFE took this as an opportunity to organise a round table with
Francisco Mingorance, BSA, Pieter Hintjens, FFII and Ciaran O'Riordan
of the Free Software Foundation Europe. German journalist Stefan
Krempl moderated the discussion to which journalists across Europe
were invited.
10. Fellowship: Get a 3 month LWN subscription and win a notebook!
The Fellowship of FSFE is an essential part and building block of
FSFE's work. It makes possible much of what you can see above, and
helps make visible the number of people who care about these issues.
FSFE greatly appreciates the help and support of all Fellows, and is
glad to see this community for digital freedom grow.
For all that support, FSFE would like to give something that goes beyond
our work and words. Thanks to Jonathan Corbet, there is a new "thank
GNU" for all new or renewing Fellows: a gratis 3 month subscription to
LWN, which every Fellow will receive by email upon confirmation of
his/her renewal or subscription.
http://www.lwn.net
Also, all Fellows that are fully activated by 1 April 2006 have the
opportunity to win one of two HP notebooks, kindly provided by HP.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000131.html
If you wish to support FSFE's work, sign up now:
http://www.fsfe.org/join/
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html