Hi !
As yesterday's PR announced, we are now really contacting the
institutions. In the next weeks, we are going to receive a huge anout of
work. Lots of us are already contributing a great deal to the campaign,
thanks a lot for that.
What can be done ? A lot ! You can blog about the campaign, add flattr
buttons toward it, make people aware through, donate to pdfreaders'
campaign fund, help us sending the letters ...
Help us stamp out the ads !
= End non-free advertisement: stamp out the ads! =
[permanent URL : http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101102-01.html]
One month, one campaign, one goal: getting rid of non-free software
advertisements on public websites. In four weeks, FSFE received
reports concerning 2162 European institutions[1] who advertise
non-free PDF readers. Apart from the 305 activists who participated to
the search, 1500 individuals, 46 businesses and 38 organisations
signed our Petition For The Removal Of Proprietary Software
Advertising On Public Websites[2]. Now that the hunt is over, it's time
to chase up those websites which encourage visitors to jeopardise
their freedom. It's time to stamp out the ads!
Highly motivated volunteers searched the internet for public websites
that advertise non-free software and reported 2162 institutions[3].
Some of them, like Massimo Barbieri and Lucas Bickel individually
reported more than 350! Alessandro Albini, Rainer Schmitz, and Pavel
Kharitonov also made a remarkable contribution in reporting around 50
institutions each.
But the FSFE won't stop with a list of institutions. In the coming
weeks, FSFE will send letters to the institutions[4] to draw their
attention to their unfair advertising. In the name of the signatories
of the petition[5], FSFE will ask the institutions to either remove
any recommendation for non-free software from their website, or give a
choice of several programs.
Wherever you are, whatever time you have, you can contribute to the
removal of non-free software adverts on public websites. The amazing
work of the ads hunters and our translators[6] has laid a firm
foundation for the next phase. Now it is up to you to enable us to get
things done. You can make a difference! Help us to translate the
letter[7] into missing languages or donate to the PDF readers campaign
fund[8] to help cover the 1600 EUR for postage and the extra costs of
administration to deliver the messages throughout Europe. Help us
stamp out the ads!
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries
and involved in many global activities. Access to software
determines participation in a digital society. To secure equal
participation in the information age, as well as freedom of
competition, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues
and is dedicated to the furthering of Free Software, defined by
the freedoms to use, study, modify and copy. Founded in 2001,
creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software
politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting
development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/
1. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
2. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.en.html
3. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
4. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html
5. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.en.html
6. http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.en.html
7. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html
8. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
Regards
--
Maëlle Costa
Free Software Foundation Europe - intern
im : maelle(a)jabber.fsfe.org
On Wed, 2010-11-03 at 18:01 +0100, Theo Schmidt wrote:
> Stephane Ascoet schrieb:
> > Jelle Hermsen a écrit :
> >
> >> I derived this idea from social psychology and I would love to hear what
> >> you all think of it.
> > Hi, I think you're right. We're facing the same issue while trying to convince people to stop meat consumption.
>
> OK, hands up for those who love free software and open content, go easy on the
> meat, prefer cycling to driving and using trains to planes, and try to use solar
> energy rather than fossil or atomic fuels! :-)
>
> Seriously, I find some of these things go together, but professing to them all
> is guaranteed to get labelled as a "do-gooder" ("Gutmensch" in German), not
> meant as a compliment!
>
> Theo Schmidt
I agree that it might be a good idea to compartmentalize your ideals, so
that you're not spreading them thin. But being a Gutmensch also implies
that you're naive and impractical and I think that might be somewhat of
a harsh judgment. Take RMS for example. When I take a look at his
website (http://stallman.org ) it's hard to miss that he cares about a
lot of issues, but I wouldn't say he's naive or impractical, au
contraire, mon frère.
However, I do believe you raise an important point. Where do we draw the
line. Which issues belong to the FSFE and which don't? It's obvious meat
consumption doesn't, but what issues surrounding free software and
computing in general should we fight for?
- Do we care about the low participation of women in floss (I know I
do)?
- What do we think about the digital divide, in which people (mostly
elderly, but don't forget illiterates) miss out on the digital age. Free
software could be of great importance here!
- And what to say about the need for widespread broadband internet
coverage. Children are growing up in rural areas in Europe without
access to all the digital goodness we take for granted. Tried to surf or
apt-get/yum with a 56k6 modem lately?
Just to name a few. I don't say we should care about every single thing
and it's very important to keep your focus, but when it comes to caring
about other people and good causes in general, I'd rather be a somewhat
naive altruistic sissy than a clear headed guy who knows when to tone
down.
Cheerio,
Jelle
http://bit.ly/9iLCBm (SFLC podcast of Eben Moglen speaking in Scotland)
This is old (from July this year) but definitely worth listing to if you
haven't already.
It provides strong argument from a legal, moral and regulatory
perspective in favour of Free Software.
They're the kind of arguments that should have an impact on people who
are ambivalent or hostile towards Free Software.
Thanks,
Sam.
Hi there,
at the 10th March 2011 FSFE become 10 years old. We would like to
celebrate that _with_ you. Therefor we would like to ask you for ideas
how we can celebrate it together with you.
Just some crazy brain storms:
- a website where people can upload their picture and afterwards we
generate a big Fellowship logo which we will print out as a poster
for future booths.
- a virtual IRC get together and see how many people we get together
(beforehand aim for a number)
- organising some small helium balloons with a messages from you and
other Free Software activists about Free Software and start them at
several places in Europe.
Beside that we would prepare some background material for on our
website. This can include some nice quotes from people who are part of
FSFE for a longer time, tell some nice stories, add some nice old
pictures, include links to existing history materials like
http://www.fsfe.org/about/history/doi.en.html and
http://www.fsfe.org/about/history/preamble.en.html.
So question to you: From whom should we get a quote? Do you know some
cool old stories?
I am looking forward to your ideas (they do not have to be perfect and
can definitely sound a bit crazy in the beginning ;) ).
Regards,
Matthias
--
Matthias Kirschner - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe (fsfe.org)
Free Software is important to you? Join today! (fsfe.org/join)
Interviews with FSFE fellows are back! In the first in this new series Chris
Woolfrey talks to 'Freedom Not Fear' organiser Leena Simon about dogmatism,
surveillance, and why Free Software needs more geeky girls.
Full interview: http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=119
Sam.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11479831
"Drage was convicted of failing to disclose an encryption key...[h]e was
formally asked to disclose his password but failed to do so, which is an
offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000"
Thanks to Andreas Tolf Tolfsen for bringing this to my attention.
Sam.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi !
I've recently posted a new blog entry [1] concerning the legislation
about concurrence, and governmental advertising (with aim to have useful
material to argue with the public institutions when we will try to make
them correct their websites). I've so far only been able to find
information for France (which system I know better.
If you know anything on this topic for your country, please send me this
information !
Another information that could prove to be useful would be the
tarification of online advertising in the different countries. Again, if
you know something or if you have some time to dedicate to the research,
comments will be welcome !
Thanks a lot for your help,
Best regards,
Maëlle
1. http://blogs.fsfe.org/maelle/?p=60
- --
Maëlle Costa
Free Software Foundation Europe - intern
im : maelle(a)jabber.fsfe.org
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Hi there,
Bernhard pointed out on fsfe-de(a)fsfeurope.org that the license from
http://www.openerp.com/download/stable/source/openerp-web-5.0.12.tar.gz
looks like it is non-free. Here a quick and dirty translation of the
message (the party from OpenERP were in English before):
The OpenERP web client is distributed under the "OpenERP Public License".
It's based on Mozilla Public License (MPL) Version 1.1 with following
restrictions:
- All names, links and logos of Open ERP must be kept as in original
distribution without any changes in all software screens, especially in
start-up page and the software header, even if the application source code
has been changed or updated or code has been added.
You cannot use it for any purpose, e.g. make a version for very small
screens (you are not allowed to remove the logos).
The company 2007-TODAY Tiny ERP Pvt Ltd is also experimenting:
If you need commercial licence to remove this kind of restriction please
contact us.
This would mean that they think that you are not allowed to use their
software commercially, but that you have to buy another license.
But in their FAQ they write:
. Why add branding restrictions on MPL?
These restrictions are only to maintain our trademark and branding.
It will not affect in any case product copying,
improvements, deploying, etc.
We believe that community will not be affected by these few restrictions
that's goal is only to recognise editors efforts. Source still opens and
free so enjoy.
This might be influences by the amount and places of Open ERP's "links"
and "logos", but the startup page is definetely bothering.
Debian is packaging it also under non-free, see
http://git.debian-maintainers.org/?p=open-object/openerp-web.git;a=blob;f=d…
Does anyone know more about it? Can someone help to distribute this to
more people. For example the Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenERP says it is Free Software.
Regards,
Matthias
--
Matthias Kirschner - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe (fsfe.org)
Free Software is important to you? Join today! (fsfe.org/join)