[Fsfe-ie] Information Flyer -- draft 2

[Malcolm Tyrrell]

Quick reply.

> Can I leave printing to someone else?

Yes.

> All software is licensed.

Actually, public domain software isn't licensed. Perhaps "Most software
is licensed".

> These freedoms and rights help to foster a community of dedicated computer
> programmers who work with each other over wide geographic areas to develop
> high-quality programs for the benefit of the community and the world at
> large.

I think there's just too much in that one sentence. Here's a
suggestion. Sorry, I just don't have time to make it better.

These freedoms and rights help to develop a community of dedicated computer
programmers. The software which results is often of high quality and
always available for use by the community and the world at large.

> The section with the title "How does it work?" is to be rephrased as
> follows:

Seems fine, but I don't thing that it is particularly necessary to say:

"In the same way as with non-free software, the user may choose not to accept
the license governing the software. In this case the user must still abide
by the copyright laws of the land."

> The "Examples" section has been changed to remove Samba (why -- does it not
> toe the party line?) and to delete "based on netscape" from the Mozilla
> section.

Samba is (I think) fully free software but it isn't very visible to the
non-techy. It is probably worth deleting "based on netscape" because
netscape originally wasn't free software. And people may remember that,
at certain times, IE was better than Netscape.

> The section entitled "GNU and the Free Software Foundation" has been changed
> slightly to read:
> =============================
> GNU stands for "GNU is Not Unix". It is the name of a project
> (http://www.gnu.org/) whose goal is to provide a complete computer operating
> system using only free software. The Free Software Movement and the GNU
> project were started by Richard Stallman in January 1984, and the project is
> maintained by the Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org/). All GNU
> software is copyrighted by the FSF and is released under the GNU GPL.
> =============================
>
> While the LGLP is missing in the last sentence, would adding it cause
> confusion?

Yeah. Leave it out. Alternatively, you could say "GPL or similar" or
"released under Free Software licenses".

> Viral. Installing GPL software does not mean that a company's software
> products must be released under the GPL.

That sounds fine.

> The copyright notice now reads:
> =============================
> Copyright ?ibhear ? hAnluain, 2004. Prepared on 21st April, 2004 for the
> Irish Free Software Organisation. For more information, see http://ifso.ie/.
> For corrections, contact ifso at gibiris.org.
> =============================

Fine.

Good luck,

Malcohol.