[Fsfe-ie] topic for tonights meeting: companies supporting IFSO (Business Freedom)

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

(meeting tonight, 2000h, Benshaws pub, the usual
 http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/images/benshaws.png)

It seems that it would be useful for IFSO to create a listing of
companies that support our work.

I don't mean "companies that support Free Software".  I mean
"companies that support our actions, for whatever reason".

So I suggest we draw up a set of principles for IFSO.  I'm not
suggesting we add this to the charter, but it could be a useful
working group or project.

This requires that we draw up a set of principles that benefit Free
Software as well as the software industry in general.  I am not
willing to compromise the former for the latter, but I don't think
it's necessary to do so anyway.

Off the top of my head:
1. Monopolys should not be supported by law
2. Open standards should guide public administration
3. The law should not block competition in software
4. Software should not block acts permitted by law
5. The law should not prevent a software package being released as
   Free Software
6. The development of useful software shall not be illegal
7. etc.

(1=no patents, 2=no proprietary file formats, 3=no DRM/prevention of
interoperability, 4=fair dealing, 5=no "Trusted Computing", etc.)

(Of course, this all needs to be reworded etc. and a preamble should be
written to explain the need for competition, interoperability, etc.)

I propose gathering a list of companies (using the list of directories
James Heald posted yesterday as a starting point).  We could then
contact these companies and see how many we can get to sign up to our
"Business Freedom" project (or whatever it's called).

I'll probably start making the list of companies tomorrow, but first I
wanted to discuss it on the list and at the meeting.  So, what do people
think?

-- 
Ciaran O'Riordan - http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/