#1 2016-10-18 19:57:06
How will leaving the EU affect Free Software in the UK?
I'm thinking it might move us further from the FSFE and closer to the FSF, since the US has more influence on international trade deals than the EU.
Also the work the FSFE does to lobby the EU will no longer be very relevant to us, we'll be on our own.
What do people think?
Offline
#2 2016-10-18 22:21:27
- bashrc
- Member
- Registered: 2016-10-18
- Posts: 5
Re: How will leaving the EU affect Free Software in the UK?
In the short term I don't see it making any difference. Longer term an independent UK might develop laws different from the EU which either support or oppose Free Software. Which way it goes is just down to us to try to influence and so it may be that a specifically UK Free Software group has more relevance than it would have previously.
Offline
#3 2016-10-19 10:07:56
Re: How will leaving the EU affect Free Software in the UK?
I think it will depend heavily on the details of Brexit, which of course have still very much to be worked out. If (God forbid), we go for a hard Brexit, I agree that being under WTO rules will naturally move us closer to the US way of doing things. If, however, we get a very soft Brexit, or even BINO (Brexit In Name Only), then we'll still have to honour all the EU's rules in order to have access to the single market, so our EU-oriented focus will continue.
Personally, I'm still hoping that the sheer complexity of exit / challenges to the use of the Royal Prerogative / Parliament's insistence on having a voice / the UK's desire for negotiation-before-notification and the EU's desire for notification-before-negotiation will prevent Article 50 from being triggered until we're less than two years from the next general election, at which point the country can legitimately revisit the decision taken in the referendum - and hopefully reverse the course.
Fellow of the FSFE (#1499)
Offline