Hi Folks, It was great to see several regulars and also several new faces at the Melbourne Free Software Interest Group the week before last. Notes from the discussion are below. Ben Discussion group notes from 21/4/2011 Getting involved in free software projects: - important to find a project that matters to you, ideally a program you use regularly - interpreted languages are easier to get started on since compilation can be a bit fiddly - many non-programming roles - finding others physically near you helps with motivation - interesting talk at OSDC on bug reporting Cargo - the free software game Alex is working on: - http://phatcore.com/portfolio/cargo.php - commercial with sales of game on DVD including artwork, models etc. - looking for assistance with Blender modelling and animation, see contact details in footer of website - also discussed Whipfrog game created for recent game competition http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/whip-frog Trans-Pacific Partnership - increasing copyright duration - increasing penalties for circumventing DRM - patent "evergreening" (allowing patent renewals) - Alex wrote to Kim Weatherall (University of Queensland) and Brendan Malloy (Pirate Party) to see how we can help Commercial free software agreement: - an agreement between client and supplier specifying that software will under a free software license - permission to contribute changes to existing free software upstream - Alex has discussed possibility with Brendan Scott - may require some funding