The French Free Software Association April is running its “Free Software Pact” campaign again for this years European Elections. Aim of this campaign is to enlighten candidates for the European Elections 2014 about Free Software by signing a “Free Software Pact” at the same time. Core demands of this pact are:
[…] I therefore undertake to:
- Encourage all administrations, all public or local services to prefer Free Software and open standards in their choices, purchases and own developments;
- Support active policies in favour of Free Software, and oppose any discrimination against it ;
- Stand up for Free Software authors’ and users’ rights, especially by requiring the modification of any legal text currently weakening those rights, and opposing any legal project that would lead to such consequences.
In the past, April was very successful with this campaign. For the last European Elections, 2009, they have been able to collect 231 signatories out of 10 different countries. Unfortunately, this time there have been some starting problems, that is why time is already running short. The more urgent it is to become active immediately. This blogpost is supposed to help you in becoming active.
Template for re-use
I just started today to contact the list of candidates of the conservative party CDU here in the state of Berlin, Germany. In the following you will find the text that I have been using until now. Maybe it can be helpful for one or the other in phrasing his own text. Anyway, you are free to use this text in a whole, in part or as an inspiration for your own activity.
Dear Sir/Madam [Name]
I am a [ member / engaged / volunteer …] of the Free Software Foundation Europe and I am writing you today because you are running for office in the name the of the [name of party] for the European Elections 2014.