FT_Policy

FT - Force Transparency, the Policy:

Who we are:

This call is mainly for developers, others are invited, too.

We are developers believing that any activity which we may choose to do or to deny is in its essence also a political choice, and that among such activities, developing tools is a very long term and influential activity, and hence that developers, as they belong and/or do not belong to the Free Software community, MUST be aware of the political power they produce.

Our emphasis is awareness of the political power we produce with respect to the possible misuse of the tools we create. The approach we hold against crossing toward misuse, is of having one sensitive net alarming any significant crossing, instead of having walls preventing such crossings.

We approach Free AND Proprietary Software devlopers (developing Open AND Close Sources) in sustainable businesses.

Here is the definition for sustainability: Sustainability is the ability to meet today's global economic, environmental and social needs without compromising the same opportunity for future generations. (This definition is taken from http://www.sustainablebusiness.org/)

The present relevance: Nowadays, as more information is and becomes free (also due to the activity of the Free Software Movement), once it is gained, the information is available to more unknown users and bodies for their unknown purposes.

The constant relevance: Once, a developer asks him/herself this question:

"When I develop a tool, for what purposes it may be used,
and did I did ALL which I could for preventing misuse of the tool I created?"

The hassle: The more unknown and/or unpredictable are (the possible) purposes of using the tool one creates, namely the more the tool is new, the more this question is critical for preventing any misuse. Nevertheless, also when the tool is not such new, still knowing or telling ALL about the use of the tool may be marked by doubt in the view of the developer.

Eventually, any answering for this question may become very hard to fulfill, when trying to tackle ALL the possible misuses at any time, up to the extent that such attempt may remain an endless task or even useless. Only few, or even no one, can know or tell ALL about the use of the tool, and that is still without counting any moral aspect of what is and what is not a misuse of the tool.

We are "Free Developers", freeing ourselves from this moral hassle and calling also other developers to be free in this sense. For us, resolving this moral hassle, as opposed to ignoring it, can and MUST be found. Resolving it is considered also for the sake of greater development and/or creativity, when these are denied or suppressed, as the hassle described above becomes visible, or even attached, to each developer independently.

For resolving the moral hassle, we suggest
(A) to consider the public as able to protect itself, when is aware to its problems together with their solutions, but
(B) also to consider that the public is NOT constantly aware to problems related to using of tools, considering that the view of the public is always applied only in some critical times and/or upon some critical issues, and finally we suggest
(C) not to consider each of the developers as able to specify ALL which is necessary for defining what are, in any time, the (possible) misuses of the tool she or he creates.

Conforming to the above, we MUST care for maintenance of a minimal and efficient information, by which indicating possible misuse (even when is unknown to us) is available.

This information MUST be constantly and publicly available, such that the awareness of the public, in any specific moment, is enabled.

We assume that the self defense activities of the public, when is aware, occur occasional and/or per specific issues, and not constantly and/or per general issues.

Thereby, when and where the public is actively defending itself, then and there the public (vs the developer) is the one responsible for its own defense, as long as the developer/s care for filling the gaps between the occasional occurances of the public awareness.

The Approach:

The only condition which we specifically suggest is transparency of the intended use, and doing so, in this regard, without trying to prevent or to prefer any of the purposes of use.

Our Approach is adding a constant activity of maintaining general, minimal and valuable information being publicly visible, which, when the public is aware, is useful for the public defence activities, where the most vital part of the information is a commitment for the intended use of the tool.

If and when violation of privacy considering such information is to be considered by the public, then the terms of such violation must be defined in one or more rules, of which all MUST (also) be publicly visible.

For to be legally effective, the commitment for the intended use of the tool shall be bound to the licenses permitting the use of the tool, such that any other use, which is not claimed to be intended, can be considered illegal or at least uncovered by the license.

We distinguish between purposes of use, as being of developing or only of using, by the fact that when a tool is able to operate, then already the intention of using the tool can not be of developing the tool merely, and must be specified further.

The non private information which we suggest to maintain publicly visible, shall indicate the number of the given and taken licenses, accumulated per each different such "Purpose of Use", per each such tool or technology.

Also we suggest to add the information about the time of validity of the license related to the claimed purpose of use, such that when is not defined elsewhere, then it begins with receiving the license and is unlimited in time.

The private information about the identity of the licensing parties, we suggest, if is to be maintained, then is to be made visible only in special cases governed by specific rules, all of which MUST also be publicly available.

These informations we consider as useful for the public for the aim of self-protection, but still respecting the privacy of licensees, unless for clearly defined exceptions, of which rules can be applied when a suspicion of misuse would be arised by the public.

Legal Duties and Freedoms:

Any individual or body, when distributing or licensing, MUST be responsible for updating the information, but only in the conditions agreed by the recipient/s or the licensee/s.

Accepting to apply this FT Policy is indicated by the act of such distribution itself, as the licensee provides the purpose of use bound with the license, when agreeing that the information is to be updated due to the distributer.

Only when accepting to apply the FT policy to the distributing, then the licensee can re-distribute and/or modify under specified terms of a specific license.

Implementation:

Any modifying, reproducing, reformulating, redistributing and/or copying,
in whole or in part, of the contents which are published hereinafter,
is permitted only under explicit licensing
if is approved by the author and enforces the Transparency Clause of the FTM.

The Transparency Clause of the FTM:
-----------------------------------

The license is granted ONLY for one or more, but never any,
specific purpose/s of use of the licensee,
where each of the purposes is specified in the license
and all purposes other than the specified are not granted to the licensee by the license.

Each specified purpose is indicated in the license by an unique identification,
which is registered in a domain authorized by the Force Transparency Movement (FTM)
to be maintained and be publicly visible,
where any licensee can register in such domain a new purpose of use,
if the purpose is not registered yet and still is asked by the licensee to be specified
in the license.

In the case of licensing by GPL,
all the specified purpose/s must at least be included
in the licensing/copyright statement written in the code,
otherwise they must also be registered in said domain by arising the counter
indicating the number of licenses given for said purpose.

Any license being derivative of this license or derived from this license
must apply the above Transparency Clause.

Note: The exception for GPL
is for allowing the freedom to make modifications and use them privately
in your own work or play, without even mentioning that they exist.
If you do publish your changes,
you should not be required to notify anyone in particular, or in any particular way.

An Appendix:

A note, which we would like to add, about bounding the Purpose of Use to the licensing:

One can argue, that restricting the purpose of use in the licensing is irrelevant, but at the same time the one can find other rules restricting the purpose of use.

E.g.: You may buy a car without restriction of purpose of use in your license, but nevertheless you are bound to other rules (laws) restricting ANY use of ANY car, such that the car shall be used for moving people or things but not for killing people. Or, to be more close to the reality of software development, you buy a word procesor and you are bound to the purpose of use of reading/writing with it, but not, for example, refactoring it.

The suggestion we make is relevant especially where possible uses of a new tool/technology are yet unkonwn, and thereby other rules, such as laws, do not exist yet to prevent misuse, but already then the developer, because of her/his intimate knowledge about the technology, can anticipate possible misuse and is concerned with preventing such (if s/he is concerned with it at all).

Waiting for laws in this case is waiting for misuse to take place.

We hope that this suggestion is also relevent for you, as much as you do not fully trust the decision-making about creating and applying rules in your community, and we wish to invite everybody to take part in the design of such articles, legally manifesting the FT bound to licensing.

Note: Participants of the piletech project must agree either to apply the described policy, or to provide an alternative matching such policy, when proposing a license for a product developed in the pilelib project.