Re: [fsfc-discuss] FSF Canada - Call for action.

[Russell McOrmond]

David Henry wrote:
> I'm sure no-one here thinks otherwise, and expect I am actually
> over-clarifying the obvious to most of you. <pointing at elephant> 

  Pointing at an elephant isn't a bad idea, as we may not all be on the 
same page.

  What I'm hoping, and what I'd like to transfer the domain names 
eventually to, is a Canadian equivalent of what I see with FSF Europe 
http://www.fsfeurope.org/ and http://fsf.org.in/

  These aren't a GNU project, which is a project that creates software, 
but as you can see from the headlines in those sites does more policy 
work to protect the rights and interests of those who are authoring 
software.  (Some of it lobbying, some of it participating in standards 
bodies, some of it hosting education/conferences/etc).


  If lobbying/etc can't be done with charitable status, then I believe 
the right response is to simply move forward without charitable status 
-- not limit the organization to only those activities that can be done 
under charitable status.  I know of many organizations that have their 
budget divided into activities based on funding and charitable status 
issues, so this shouldn't be seen as a problem (IE:  Hopefully there 
will be funding applications as well.  This is Canada where the funding 
of NGOs is done differently than the foundation model in the USA).



  I think authoring software is interesting, but don't think we need a 
foundation for that.  And if we do, I don't think FSF is the right 
acronym for that type of organization.  I wouldn't be all that 
interested personally in such an organization as I don't think we have 
any shortage of resources for authoring FLOSS, but do have a major 
shortage of resources for people protecting our rights to author and 
choose FLOSS.  I often feel very lonely here in Ottawa trying to talk to 
politicians and bureaucrats with only a handful of colleagues.



  EFF isn't a FLOSS association/group, so a Canadian form of EFF (Like 
Online rights Canada  http://onlinerights.ca/ and associated 
groups/projects) wouldn't and couldn't do the job we need.

  We have CLUE (I'm the policy coordinator there 
http://www.cluecan.ca/policy ), but it is also not an FSF in Canada. 
While the organizations will of course work closely, and possibly have 
some people overlap, they wouldn't have the same message.


  An FSF Canada that has similar campaigns as FSF USA needs to exist, 
for the same reason that an FSF exists (and needs to exist) in the USA 
even though there is also an EFF, Linux Foundation, Public Patent 
Foundation, Software Freedom Law Center, and so-on.

> Bouncing our ideas off the FSF people, before we actually start
> anything, should be enough for now.  This should not be particularly
> hard to do.  

  I've written, but no replies yet.  Preference is if someone from FSF 
just joins the list and helps get us started.

> Legally speaking, there is no particular restraint on what we do with
> the domain.

  Legally speaking, there is no particular restraint on what I (as 
current owner) can do with the two domains.  But practically speaking, 
I'm only interested in personally hosting or transferring those domains 
to an organization that is doing in Canada like what FSF Europe and FSF 
India are doing in their respective regions/countries.

  People can create whatever organizations they want, and while there 
are limitations on some trademarked phrases, those organizations can 
carry out any of the activities mentioned thus far in the mailing list. 
   There are many organization names where the acronyms aren't already 
taken as domain names.

  The fsf.ca and fsfc.ca domains are, however, spoken for ;-)

--
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
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