g on multimedia,
including TV programmes in the near future. FTPress also sets up media for
outside customers.

= How do you see your professional future?

I see my professional future as a professional "here and now." If you'd asked me
that two years ago, I would have said that through working with the Internet (as
head of information systems at the CNRS) and writing things about the Internet
(as editor of LMB Actu), I was dreaming of creating an Internet start-up. But I
was wondering how to do that. If you'd asked me the question a year ago, I would
have answered that I'd made the jump, was all set and had told my bosses I was
leaving, to go off and create FTPress. I just didn't want to stay where I was
any more. I was becoming bitter. I wanted to start my own company or else take a
year's sabbatical to do nothing. Today, I'm fully involved in the firm. I feel
I'm living some of the stories we read in the press about start-ups. It's hard
to do physically because it's all growing so fast. So I see my future on the
beach, without the Internet, relaxing with my wife ;-)

= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web? What practical
suggestions do you have?

It's a valid debate. Some people, often those hiding behind the authority of an
institution that ought to respect copyright, don't respect it and have no qualms
about putting their names to articles written by somebody else. At FTPress, we
more or less follow the guidelines of the GPL (a public licence used as a basis
by Linux for free software). Our material can be freely reproduced for
non-commercial purposes, with the source mentioned of course. The authors of
these articles are paid at a standard rate, have journalist status and are also
given stock options in the company. This stake in the firm's activity and its
value brings the journalist's pay up to the level for an article written for a
given publication. But FTPress no longer pays authors extra if the article is
sold to a third party for their own use. I think this is a solution to the
problem as far as the press is concerned. But it's a complex issue with many
aspects and no single answer.

= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?

I don't know how to answer that, except with a truism like "Everyone will keep
their own language, with English as a language of exchange." But do we really
believe all the world's people are going to communicate in every senses? Maybe.
Through writte