Dear MMDs,  If ROMFI wanted some advertising for its web site, it has
it, but perhaps not exactly in the way it wished ...

(Sorry if this posting is a bit long : what follows expresses only my
own personal views.  My aim is not to cause disorder, but only to help
us, ROMFI included, to clarify things and make them better in the
interest of everyone).

Actually, this case is very interesting, because it obliges us to ask
some questions we should ask for every large web site (and I include the
MMD and my web pages musica mecanica as well).

And in the case of ROMFI, I would be very pleased if Mike Moran (I do
not know him, I have personally nothing for or against him) could
answer them clearly.

1) What is the meaning of the acronym "ROMFI"?

You can guess it (that is for my friend Matthew Caulfield) from the
mention under the acronym on the "home page", but curiously it is not
evident.  Why is it not shown plainly?

  (World) *R*epository *O*f *M*anu*F*actured *I*tems

2) What is the aim of the ROMFI web site?

There Mike Moran answered briefly : asking the visitors to donate
their images, music and texts to build an encyclopaedia -- in every
field, which is rather ambitious, as M. Caulfield underlined.  Is there
already no existent international organization trying to do that?
(What about patent offices ?).

3) Who is managing the ROMFI web site?  That is:

= Technically : the answer is interesting only for webmasters.
= "politically" :

An answer is given for web sites by the "WhoIs" site of Internic,
the Internet Authority, and is often interesting.  (For ROMFI :
"Functional Technologies", address in Basel, Switzerland.  I did not
find any other web site by that corporation, but perhaps I did not
look close enough.  Is it a large corporation?  Dealing with what?)

But usually this info does not really answer the fundamental question
of who really runs a web site.

In the case of ROMFI, who is the real creator, owner and manager?
Is it :

= an individual ? (Perhaps Mike Moran is a teacher, he has plenty of
money, and in the pure interest of science and humanity, he finances
alone and for free a site which is his hobby).

= a Society of members (in French : "association", like the MBSI,
AMICA, etc.).  Purely non-profit?  Or commercial?  For what aim?

= a true and declared profit company?  Then what for?

4) Copyright : this point is very important.

What the site will do with the texts, images and music given?
Will it re-sell them again to others (individuals or companies?)
Will it patent in its name the inventions deposited by inventors,
leaving them only with their eyes to cry ?

5) A wonderful database of addresses of interesting people.

ROMFI asks the donators of texts, images, music, to register, and leave
their address, e-mail, etc.  What a wonderful data base of wonderfully
interesting people it makes!  Will ROMFI use this personal data base
for commercial purposes?

(I personally do not send messages to forums held by Yahoo, because
I suspect either Yahoo resells the e-mail addresses -- or at least some
unscrupulous people inscribed on Yahoo forums do, whence a lot of spam
after each connection!).

6) What will happen to these data when the ROMFI web site will close?

A very important question for every web site, rarely asked --
What will become of all the information stocked on that site (texts,
images, music), and the many e-mails collected ?

For example, I have total confidence in Robbie Rhodes and Jody Kravitz,
but what will become of the marvelous amount of information compiled in
MMD when -- in a very far date I hope -- MMD will close?

Will it go to a museum?  (After our recent discussions, I doubt it.)
To a non-profit organization?  To another commercial company?

For example, if I disappeared, or stopped working, all the info of
my web pages musica mecanica will go to a non-profit organization.

Mike Moran has already asked us to read the numerous pages of
legal-size  small letters on his site to find the answer; that is
rather a disquieting answer!  It means at least that ROMFI has real
professional legal advisors.  What for, then?

A curiosity : I tried to read them again, when writing this message,
(Tuesday May 13th 2003 at ca. 3 p.m. GMT), but they were not any more
active on the site.  Perhaps are they under reconstruction after our
discussions on the MMD ?

So I hope Mike Moran will tell us frankly what his "Repository" (what a
curious name!) is exactly for.

I just hope he is not a cousin of Bill Gates, trying to build for free
a huge data bank of texts, images and music, to re-sell it later (or
even now!).

So Mike, now, it is your turn to send us details, and even all the
details...

By the way, are you Swiss, based in Basel?

Best regards,

Philippe Rouille  (Paris, France)
http://www.musicamecanica.org/