[Debian-uk] EU OSS policy meeting - suggestions?

[Philip Hands]

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 01:23:42PM +0100, Wookey wrote:
> I seem to have got myself an invite to a meeting as an 'expert'

BTW how did you get that gig?  I used to be on their database as an
expert for FP[67] type stuff, but have a feeling that I've dropped off
the list somehow (as I'm no longer being spammed by them).

It would seem like a good idea for as many as us as possible to be signed
up for such things in order to make sure that they're always able to
find someone to tell them what's what.

...
> The most obvious points I can think of are:
> 0) Understand that public good is maximised by Free and Open
> 0.5) Think primarily about public good, rather than 'maximising revenue of
> software economic sector', even though in fact these may well come to
> the same thing.
> 
> 1) Require Open standards in Govt systems and public interaction
> 2) Keep Software out of patent regime so re-implementation is legal
> 3) Allow reverse engineering for similar reasons
> 4) Encourage (Require?) publically funded code to be Free.
> 5) Fund useful Free Software services (sourceforge-alikes? translation
> services? legal advice?)

Seems like a good start -- I'm tempted to flesh out those points, but
it strikes me that email isn't the right medium -- would it be worth
setting up a wiki page to develop the position, and add references etc.,
so that you can present the eurocrats with a mature position paper that,
if they're lazy enough, they might just swallow whole.

Cheers, Phil.