Re: [Fsfe-uk] Stalls at Marxism 2003

[Alex Hudson]

On Sat, Jun 28, 2003 at 03:10:48PM +0100, Timothy Baldwin wrote:
> > I propose, to tackle the shocking ignorance within the left, that the AFFS
> > should hold a stall at Marxism 2003.
> 
> Since disscussion on this list has been mostly agreeable, I'll go ahead. 
> Presence at an event is not seen endorsment of it's organisers. 

Actually, we did attempt to make contact with the organisers of this event,
and there was no response - I think there was also some disagreement that it
should be anything associated with AFFS officially. I think some kind of
more general Free Software-type stall might be more agreeable to some.

> A paper petition against Software Patents (can anyone clarify what "business 
> methods" are, and how broad the AFFS's anti-patent position is?)

AFFS is specifially against all kinds of software patents, and (by extension)
business method patents, patents on mathematical methods and methods of
playing games, because they are all very similar things for the most part.
A written petition would be useful, also distributing information about 
swpat - getting people to write to their MEPs would also be very useful. 

> A paper petition againist the nazi that has been trolling on uk.comp.os.linux 
> and elsewhere, calling that he should be banned from using the Internet. This 
> falls within the AFFS's goal because he is disrupting the free software 
> comminity, if the nazis aren't stopped soon it is possible we could be facing 
> physical violence from many nazis.

I would ask you not to do this, please - the ucol situation is a little more
complex than as you describe above. In particular, this individual is (I 
believe) subject to court action currently, and it doesn't seem clear to me
that he is of sound mind. I'm also not sure how calling to ban him from the
net fits with your anti-censorship stance (above) ;). 

He is disrupting the community, this is true. However, I'm not sure that it
would be a progressive move to petition against him, at this stage at least.
I think we have an example of a very individual problem here, and it is 
clear that 'the man' already knows about this person. Best to let those who
are in better positions than ourselves sort it out.

> Some books, I will bring my coppies of Free as in Freedom and Rebel Code for 
> people to browse. Anyoue willing to lend a copy of Free Software, Free 
> Society or anything else relevant?

Copies of many of Richard Stallman's writings are freely available on the 
gnu.org site, they could be printed.

Cheers,

Alex.