Here are the minutes from last nights meeting. Please point out inaccuracies.
Malcolm.
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Minutes for IFSO Meeting 16/05/2006
Notes taken by Malcolm Tyrrell.
Present: Mario Bonilla Brian Brazil Shane Coughlan Hugh Gibbons Teresa Hackett Paul O'Malley Ciaran O'Riordan Ben North Glenn Strong Malcolm Tyrrell
Discussion, topics, and suggestions: 1. Akademy '06 (http://dot.kde.org/1142439906/) * Local organiser: Marcus Furlong (had planned to attend meeting) * IFSO involvement: - Have an IFSO stand (although impractical to have it manned for the full conference). - Submit software freedom related papers to the conference (e.g. Shane on E-mail Security and Ciaran on GPLv3) 2. Website license * What license should IFSO use on its website? * It was agreed to use CC-BY-SA-2.5: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ and also offer to relicense if necessary 3. Membership database * Paul will investigate * Possible data protection requirements 4. T-shirts * Agreed to go for a by-demand service * Suggestion to use the t-shirt people which do "Everybody Loves Eric S. Raymond" - This seems to be http://www.tshirtandsons.co.uk/ - Fair Trade! * Alternatively, David Cathcart had previously mentioned a place he'd used. * David & Shane to sort it out. 5. Patents Consultation * The deadline is Friday 26th May (only 7 business days left) * Suggestion: we ask people on lists to suggest their company (SME) privately to us, then IFSO rings up the company and suggests they make submission. - We could do this via ILUG. * Ciaran will reply to the mail they sent us, on behalf of IFSO * Possible whinge about proprietary file format 6. IPRED2 * Ciaran gave a quick overview of IPRED2 and its history: - IPRED2 has been merged with another EU directive - It's just as bad as it used to be - It will go through the co-decision procedure - It *criminalises* *all* intentional IP violations - In this case, we find ourselves aligned with proprietary software companies. - The people pushing for patents in IPRED2 are mostly pharmaceutical companies who are trying to suppress generics. - Rightsholders are not obliged to instigate investigations - Tax payers must cover the cost of investigation. * We want all patents out of the directive, because it would be difficult to get an exemption for software * Irish government will probably be on our side for this issue * It was agreed that IPRED2 should be IFSO's focus. 7. "Tech Policy Consultation"? * There is a new EU consultation with a June deadline that we might be interested in. * No one new enough about it to have a useful discussion. 8. IFSO to organise a business themed event * Shane wants to talk to businesses about software freedom * Non-geek approach - pushing reliability and efficiency * Someone mentioned adjoining it to the KDE conference * An open discussion mentioned some of the following: - NOVA UCD: http://www.ucd.ie/nova/ It holds conferences and may be a source for contacts - The EdTEch conference at Sligo: http://ltt.dit.ie/html/newsevents/archive/mar2006/edtech_2006.htm - Ciaran mentioned this Stallman essay: http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/Articles/stallman.html * Possible contact for arranging a business talk: - Forfas - Chambers of Commerce - ISME 9. GPLv3 * 2nd Draft will be released in June * 3rd Conference will occur in June * We should make our webpage point *even more* at the main GPLv3 page * We should make sure people understand that, even though Stallman has the final say, the process is transparent to the extent that he will respond to issues and justify his decisions. 10. Mario on FSFLA * Mario Bonilla gave an overview of the state of FSFLA * They have various working groups, e.g. for translation, for s/w development, UN Lobbying, etc. * Someone mentioned an alternative group in Latin America called Hipitia(?) * We engaged in a discussion of organisational transparency 11. AOB * 3 new members joined IFSO * we sold 2 t-shirts