Social Contract

From Mwiki

‘To find a form of association that defends and protects the person and property of each with the common force of all, and in which each individual, joining forces with everyone, yet obeys only himself, and remains as free as he was before. This is the fundamental problem to which the Social Contract gives a solution.’

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Du contrat social

In addition to the lawsuit, a donation campaign has been launched to finance attorney fees, which are pretty high, due to the unique arguments put forward by Iliad. To provide a structure, we have written this social contract. If you are willing to help us, feel free to make a donation. Thank you!

1. Our purpose is to make Iliad conform to the GPL terms.

The sole objective of the lawsuit is to make Iliad respect the GPL terms. We expect Iliad to add a few lines in the documentation provided for the user, to mention the use of Free Software in the Freebox, and to offer to send the source code to the users who ask for them. Should Iliad come to meet those conditions before the case is taken to court, we would stop legal proceedings at once. Should the trial be carried through to its conclusion, we would not ask to be awarded damages, but only ask for conformity. The only exception at this level would be to demand the repayment of the lawyers’ fees, excluding the voluntary contributions, even if their value is increased by a non-profit organization.

2. Donations made within the scope of this campaign will be exclusively used to pay for the costs of this procedure.

Recorded donations will be used to pay for the expenses related to the procedure, mostly the lawyers’ fees. Voluntary authors and principals in this campaign will not be allowed to access these funds for personal use. As the process progresses, the sum needed will be reassessed, and the whole of the invoices will be made available for everyone to review. Should there be a surplus at the end of the campaign, it would be redistributed to a non-profit organization, nominated and chosen through a poll. A donation gives you a right to vote.

3. We will offer our work to the community.

When we create documents or surveys related to this action, we will publish them under an FDL-type free licence. This work will be passed on to the public and to Iliad simultaneously. For reasons related to the course of the procedure, sometimes the drafts of these documents will not be published.

4. We will be transparent and we will not conceal problems.

We will present our arguments publicly, and they will always be accessible. The comments and arguments posted by the users will remain visible for others to view. When a juridical or technical incident takes place, we will quickly publish the details, explaining why it happened, without omitting anything.

5. Our priorities will be in the interest of Free Software writers and users.

The needs of free software writers and users will guide us. We will put their interests first, without limiting ourselves to a specific community or organization.

6. We will respect the privacy of the users of this website

We attach particular importance to the respect of privacy, and we will never allow ourselves to access a user’s personal data without their consent, except to generate anonymous statistics. We will not communicate this information to external entities outside of a judicial proceeding.