figos/fmchrtr2.txt

 The Free Media Alliance Charter 

 version 0.2, 01 july 2018



 The Free Media Alliance is an unofficial organisation dedicated to Free Software, Free Culture and Free Hardware.

 In this context, the word "Free" refers to freedom, not price.

 The Free Media Alliance exists to promote alternatives to software, culture and hardware monopolies. It is not exclusive of other organisations, however it recognises that:

 1. The Free Software Foundation is slow to recognise and offer solutions to a growing number of free-software-related problems, such as a corporate coup within the GNU/Linux community; the Free Media Alliance is happy to promote Free Software, but also welcomes thoughtful critiques of the FSFs methods and "extraneous requirements" (other than the 4 Freedoms and GPL licenses)

 2. "Open Source" has done too much to co-opt and misrepresent Free Software, as noted early on by Open Source Initiative co-founder Bruce Perens in a letter entitled: "It's Time to Talk About Free Software Again" https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1999/02/msg01641.html

 3. Corporate monopolies are an active threat to, and generally unwilling (by virtue of the nature of monopolies) to co-exist with software freedom.

 4. Free culture is not adequately promoted by any organisation; including the Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Creative Commons and Free Culture Foundation-- due to either misleading things said about free culture, watered-down or non-existent goals around free culture or organisational exclusivity.



 Who is required to join the Free Media Alliance?

 This is an entirely voluntary organisation, which anybody may join or leave freely. While this probably seems obvious, the Free Media Alliance grew out of the newly-formed "citizens for software freedom" forum; and joining the Alliance is not a requirement of joining the forum; they are two separate (but related) entities. One is simply an internet forum; the other is an organisation (at least unofficially.) 

 

 Who is part of the Free Media Alliance?

 The "citizens for software freedom" forum represents the founding part of the alliance, but each of its individual members may or may not, according to their preference; Alliance members join simply by stating that they are part of the organisation and linking to (or copying and posting) This Charter. Leaving the organisation is equally simple; simply disavow membership. Posting the Charter is permissible by any person, it is available per the terms of the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal waiver, available at https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode (link at bottom go somewhere which also links to this legalcode page.)



 What am I expected to do as a member of the Alliance?



 Requirements of members are as follows:

 1. Publicly state, either vocally or through text-- either online or in the physical world, that you are a member. A social media page or website or git repo will do; as will a small sign or sticker on a desk, filing cabinet, etc.

 2. Post (or link to) This Charter publicly; either by putting the url somewhere online or in the physical world, or by posting its text somewhere public. Please note this charter does not endorse vandalism or spam; "somewhere public" means in a place you are allowed to post things such as a desk, car, tshirt, website, profile page-- use your imagination.



 Non-requirements that are encouraged:

 Promote at least one Free Software or Free Cultural (or Free Hardware) work by telling your friends about it; this could be the GNU operating system, the Linux kernel, a comic under a Free Culture license, or a website that has a large collection of free cultural works, such as Pixabay (it isnt desired to promote this site above all others, but at this time it is a prominent site featuring a fairly large collection of CC0-waived images; it might as well be offered as an example.)

 It is not a requirement, though Creating or re-licensing at least one of your Software or Cultural (or hardware) works/designs is also encouraged; the goal of Free Software is to make all software free "as in freedom," and the goal of Free Culture is hopefully to have a culture that is far less controlled by monopolies. Adding your own work under a Free Culture or Free Software (or Free Hardware) license certainly helps these goals a great deal.

 Avoid excessive/unnecessary/condescending Codes of Conduct; if your organisation must have one, eh-- this organisation neither promotes nor forbids them, though they are certainly at least a mild threat / concern to some advocates of free speech.

 While Free Software and Open Source are definitely not the same thing (and continue to grow farther apart, because they are not 100% compatible and also start with different goals) it is not a goal of the Free Media Alliance to proscribe language to its members. Certainly the term "Free Software" is better for talking about Free Software; people who refer to "GNU/Linux" are at least more likely to care about your freedom than someone who insists on calling it just "Linux," but you are going to have to decide your vocabulary for yourself. The strongest ethical arguments to be made for Free Software and Free Culture alike are very likely based on the freedom of speech; thus, we should probably encourage a little more free thought and free speech than proscribing peoples vocabularies for them, without throwing all pretense of actually being grounded in principles out the window.

 It is not a requirement, though arguing against the special pleading about "works of opinion" used to unnecessarily turn most FSF-related articles into cultural binary blobs is certainly a bonus. The FSF claims to be pro-Free-Culture and has helped to establish a clearer definition of Free Cultural works, but it certainly promotes verbatim copying (and the fairly awful GNU FDL license) over free culture licenses on its primary websites (Free-licensed videos from LibrePlanet may offer a significant exception that ultimately outweighs this.)

 Please note that requirements for membership are very modest and few, and that the person posting this charter may not endorse any of the things said in this charter other than the general idea of promoting Free Software, Free Culture and Free Hardware.

 As of this charters version, Free Software is adequately defined by the Free Software Foundation and Free Culture is adequately defined by the Free Culture foundation, and thus do not really need to be defined in this charter. A simplified 4 freedoms may also suffice; this organisations founder promotes a simplified 4 freedoms based directly on the FSF definition, a similar list based on the 4 freedoms is talked about by Terry Hancock. Free Hardware is probably also adequately defined, but it is early yet. Sincerest apologies to any Free-Hardware-related organisations that feel unrepresented here; hopefully 0.2 will not be the last version of this charter-- and you must admit; Free Hardware is truly in its infancy.

 This original charter was first posted in two locations on the date at the top; the "citizens for free software" forum, and the notabug.org repo for figosdev/figos as fmchartr.txt.



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