[P2P-F] Fwd: New FSF campaign? Pledge to only fund and create free software and free content

Tue Dec 29 05:11:45 CET 2015

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul D. Fernhout <pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 2:34 AM
Subject: New FSF campaign? Pledge to only fund and create free software and
free content
To: Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org>
Cc: campaigns at fsf.org, Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>

Richard-

The FSF could start a new campaign to get foundations and non-profits to
pledge that all content and software they fund or develop for the public
using charitable or public dollars will be released under free licenses.

One by one, foundations and non-profits could be approached and asked to
commit to a pledge similar to the following:

"Our organization, ______, pledges to our our stakeholders and the people
of the world that from this date forward, ________, whenever we use
charitable or public dollars to fund or create any new content, software,
or any other sort of copyrightable or patentable materials intended for
public distribution and public use (or substantially modify existing public
content), we will ensure those works will be distributed to the public
under free/libre licenses. Free/libre licenses means those who receive the
works have the freedom to use, run, copy, study, change, improve,
redistribute, and/or distribute modified versions of the works without
paying additional fees or obtaining additional permissions."

If the organization is not willing to sign the pledge, then that fact could
be made known as well, along with their reasons. The FSF would keep such a
list publicly available on its website of organizations that have been
approached (and the date) and their responses (including the date they took
the pledge or the reason for their refusal).

The FSF could recommend people only donate money to such organizations as
have made that pledge. For non-profits already committed to making free
works, being on this list would be a good way to advertise that fact.

With trillions of dollars expected to pour into foundations soon, this
campaign might make a huge difference in funding for those who want to work
on free/libre works.

More details are at the below link if you are interested, including one
reason why the FSF would probably not sign that pledge as is, and
suggestions as to how it could be further improved.
http://www.pdfernhout.net/pledge-to-only-fund-and-create-free-works.html

I CC'd Michel Bauwens because recent discussions with him helped spark this
(as have recent discussions with you).

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/
====
The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of
abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.

-- 
Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

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