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

James Heald j.heald at ucl.ac.uk
Thu Dec 11 13:14:53 CET 2003


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ciaran O'Riordan" <ciaran at member.fsf.org>
To: <fsfe-ie at fsfeurope.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Fsfe-ie] topic for tonights meeting: companies supporting IFSO
(Business Freedom)


>
> James Heald <j.heald at ucl.ac.uk> writes:
> > From: "Ciaran O'Riordan" <ciaran at member.fsf.org>
> > >
> > > 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).
> > >
> >
> > Any thoughts on the suggestion of sending out a semi-academic software
> > patents questionnaire, as per the second half of that email ?
>
> Yes, it's a good idea.
> We should definitely send out something, possibly a questionaire.
>
> Teresa Hackett (working on the IPR Enforcement Directive) is also
> looking for a list of companies that we can gather support from.
>
> So lets split the work rather than duplicating it.
>
> A possible implementation would be:
>
> Draw up Preamble, Principles, and Current Projects.  Ask companies for
> their approval of our work for a 12 month period.  At the end of this
> period, we'd summarise our work and produce an updated Current Projects
> notice, and ask companies if they will continue supporting out work for
> an additional 12 month period.
>
> This would give us business support without us having to ask for
> signatures every time we write a new letter.
>
> I don't know.  I haven't ironned it out fully, but with limited
> resources, I want to figure out the most efficient way to work this.
>
> This would be similar to software-using companies forming a union.  They
> don't have to agree 100% with everything, but solidarity would be
> beneficial to all.
>


To maximise the number of returns coming back (in order to make the results
as powerful as possible), the swpat questionnaire should be just that, and
not attached to a plea for support or anything else.

Probably it would be useful if it originated from its own domain, eg
    swpat-survey-2004.ie
not IFSO.



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