Free Geek Principles

Sent by Laurel to council on August 6, 2004; inspired largely by the Rochdale principles. These principles were approved by the council shortly thereafter to guide potential new FREE GEEKs in determining whether they are eligable to use our name. Also see Free Geek's Trademark Fair Use POLICY.

FREE GEEK Fair Use Principles

An organization that would be affiliated with FREE GEEK must:

1. Have a mission that is similar to and does not contradict the FREE GEEK PDX Mission Statement.
2. Dispose of equipment in an ethical and environmentally responsible manner.
3. Use Free/Open Source Software wherever possible and must promote the Free Software philosophy in other ways, such as transparent collaboration with others.
4. Provide low- and no-cost computer technology and training to their community.

An organization that would use the FREE GEEK name must additionally:

1. Be democratically run in a non-hierarchical way that is open and transparent to all participants in its programs.
2. Be a non-profit business (as legally defined in their location)and must follow honest business practices and have the stated goal of advancing the common good.

Annotated Principles

Why these principles?

As staunch supporters of Free Software and its [attendant philosophies], and as reg'lar folk who just want to do what we do and not deal with legalities, we approach trademark law warily. On the other hand, our project has gained a certain amount of renown and is attracting people who wish to recreate the magic in their hometowns. These are certainly good people, but we want to have some say over who we're affiliated with - and we want to use this position to strongly suggest to certain things that we feel are essential to what a FREE GEEK is. We're developing a fair use policy so people can know if it's ok for them to use our name. Some of the principles may seem strange or unnecessary for some people, but they really do represent what, to us, is the essence of FREE GEEK - so here's our attempt to unpack some of those dense sentences.

Principles for affiliates:

1. Have a mission that is similar to and does not contradict the FREE GEEK PDX Mission Statement. The Free Geek mission, of course, defines the explicit legal goals of our organization. We don't want to require that affiliates have the same mission statement. On the other hand, we don't want to explicitly affiliate ourselves with an organization that has nothing to do with our goals, or relies primarily on new technology to fill its goals.
2. Dispose of equipment in an ethical and environmentally responsible manner. We're a reuse and recycling center; a large part of our mission is environmental. We prioritize the fate of equipment this way:
   • Reuse: reusing equipment is environmentally better than recycling it, even, because recycling and remanufacturing equipment does have an environmental toll.
   • Recycling locally: we do as much of our recycling locally as possible, so that we can hold those recyclers accountable and so that fuel is not wasted in transport.
   • Recycling within the US: we prefer to recycle within the US because environmental restrictions here tend to hold recyclers more responsible than recyclers abroad that would want to take our equipment.

As a last resort for materials that cannot be recycled in any of these ways, we might send equipment overseas to recyclers that can document their processes and we trust will not do dastardly things like dumping vats of acid into rivers or using child labor. This sort of thought process and accountability - evaluating options and choosing the one that's the least harmful (and the most helpful) for people and the environment - is important to us.

Principles for FREE GEEKs:

1. Use Free/Open Source Software wherever possible and must promote the Free Software philosophy in other ways, such as transparent collaboration with others.
2. Provide low- and no-cost computer technology and training to their community.