April forwaded its Candidats.fr questionnaire to the candidates to the French presidential election.
During the last French presidential election in 2007, April launched the Candidats.fr [3] initiative in order to raise the awareness of the future elected representatives on the subject of Free Software and to know their views regarding the various related topics. Each candidate had received a long questionnaire. Accepting to answer it gave them the opportunity to share their views on subjects such as patentability, copyright, treacherous computing, interoperability...Eight of the twelve candidates had taken up the challenge [4] (François Bayrou, Olivier Besancenot, José Bové, Marie-George Buffet, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Ségolène Royal, Nicolas Sarkozy and Dominique Voynet).
On the occasion of the upcoming presidential election, that will occur on April 22nd and May 5th 2012, our questionnaire has been updated and we have just sent it to the candidates' campaign teams. Its structure is the following: page 2 - letter from April's president to the candidates; pages 10 to 17 - questions to the candidates; pages 18 to 131 - thematic booklets on patentability, interoperability, international, DRM, consumption, education, e-administration, accessibility, economy/companies/innovation, research.
Compared to the questionnaire submitted in 2007, 23 questions have been kept, 3 questions have been updated and 49 are new ones.
These booklets are the result of the huge work done these last few months by the association's work groups, by its full-time employees and by various benevolent experts. Even if they do not claim to cover the subjects completely, they perfectly summarize the current issues regarding Free Software and the digital world. The subjects that are dealt with cannot be ignored any longer by the candidates, since they are at the heart of our society. We therefore hope to receive many answers.
The Candidats.fr questionnaire is available as a PDF file [5], and as an OpenDocument file [6]1. The booklets and questions are also available on our wiki [7]. If the candidates wish to ask a collaborative answer from their campaign teams and from their supporters, they can easily get the content of our booklets and put it on a wiki.
We shall upload each candidate's answers as we receive them.
Here is the text of the letter from April's president to the candidates:
Dear Madam, dear Sir,
April is the French association for the promotion and the defence of Free Software, counting over 4,900 members, either users or producers of Free Software (individual members, companies, associations, public authorities...).
Since 2007, during each election, we wish to call the attention of the upcoming representatives on the stakes of Free Software and those of a digital society that is innovative, open and inclusive. We also ask them for their positions concerning the different questions that derive from these stakes (copyright, DRM, ACTA [8], software patents, education, bundled sale...).
In a few weeks, you shall be yourself candidate to become the president of French republic. That is why I send you this updated questionnaire allowing you to take position on the following subjects: DRM, Research, Accessibility, Patentability, Consumption, e-Administration, Economy/Companies/Innovation, Interoperability, Education, International. Your answers shall be published and will allow French citizens to know your ideas, your choices and commitments on such subjects that have become essential in our society.
Yours faithfully
Lionel Allorge,
President of April
- 1. When opening the document, answer "no" to the question "Update all the links?"