Dear Friend,
We have seen the likes of "the politically motivated" slowly bringing a
country into ruin, because they no longer stand for, or even understand, the
idea of having an ideological concept as a goal. Read each other's writings:
it is "I" and rarely "We the people." At the founding of this country, men
(We) stood shoulder to shoulder and fought for FREEDOM; then the government
was formed as a way to defend people from the oppressive processes. The
processes have resurfaced, evolved and become more complex but they are
still processes people have once again allowed themselves to be controlled
by. The country needs to define what was lost over time, and what to fight
for. Do you really want to know what the soul really yearns for leaders to
do, even if they appear to not know it or want it? Try this webblog to get
an idea of the things which this country (We) can (will) stand for:
http://the-next-election.blogspot.com
It is prophetic; and won't go away, and will be satisfied.
John K. Gregory
greg1011(a)bellsouth.net
404-294-1377
> http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/gen/34784prs20080404.html
> http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/freespeech/in_re_bilski_aclu_amicus.pdf
---
ACLU Introduces First Amendment Argument In Key Patent Law Case
(4/4/2008)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212)549-2666; media(a)aclu.org
Patenting Abstract Ideas Violates The Constitution, Group Says
WASHINGTON - Introducing a rare argument applying the First Amendment
to patent law, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend of
the court brief today urging a federal court to uphold the denial of a
patent that would, if awarded, violate freedom of speech. In the
brief, the ACLU argues that Bernard L. Bilski is seeking a patent for
an abstract idea, and that abstract ideas are not patentable under the
First Amendment.
"The court must ensure that any test it uses in determining whether to
award a patent is in line with the Constitution," said Christopher
Hansen, senior staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working
Group, who filed the brief. "If the government had the authority to
grant exclusive rights to an idea, the fundamental purpose of the
First Amendment - to protect an individual's right to thought and
expression - would be rendered meaningless."
In 2006, Bilski sought a patent for his idea that the weather risk
involved in buying and selling commodities could be minimized if
sellers had conversations with two buyers instead of one. The U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office denied his request and the Board of Patent
Appeals and Interferences affirmed the denial. Bilski appealed that
decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the
court has agreed to hear the case in a single joint session in May.
"Patent law prohibits the patenting of abstract ideas, but recently
the courts and the patent office have been granting patents that
consist essentially of speech or thought," said Hansen. "If the
government continues to allow patents of speech or thought it risks
violating the First Amendment. No one can have a monopoly on an idea
or prohibit speech on a particular subject."
The ACLU's brief is available online here:
www.aclu.org/freespeech/gen/34783lgl20080403.html
Hi! I'm writing guidelines for IETF document authors on how to achieve
free software compatible copyright and patent licenses [1]. The
copyright area is rather well understood, I think; pick any liberal
license that is compatible with all (reasonable) free software licenses
and you are done.
However, the patent license area seems less clear to me.
Does anyone have some references to any patent license that have been
deemed acceptable to some free software projects?
Going further, is there some kind of patent license that free software
would _prefer_ (as opposed to just _accept_)?
To give a concrete example of what I'm thinking of:
There is one patent license in <https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/942/>:
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Google hereby
grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge,
royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this License) patent
license for patents necessarily infringed by implementation (in whole
or in part) of this specification. If You institute patent litigation
against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a
lawsuit) alleging that the implementation of the specification
constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any
patent licenses for the specification granted to You under this
License shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.
This patent license is a reciprocal license, but is fairly limited in
scope.
Would that be acceptable to free software projects?
/Simon
[1] http://josefsson.org/bcp78broken/draft-josefsson-free-standards-howto.html
Hello
I had an idea about a patent license some time ago, but I didn't have the
time to express it in a meaningful way.
I'll make an attempt here.
My idea starts with the question: is it possible to "copyleft" a patent?
(I know copyleft is derived from copyright != patent system) But still, I
view copyleft as a philosophy so ...
Can someone license the use of a patent to others as long they don't try to
enforce their own patents ?
--
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it.", 1971, Alan Kay:
http://www.smalltalk.org/alankay.html
Hello,
Sorry, I didn't finish reading all messages posted, therefore repeating
others' words.
In my opinion this reciprocal license should stop its' availability once
someone starts to enforce it against non-litigators (non-trolls). But
enforcing a patent on a (proven) troll should not end the patent license,
thus allowing its possessor to defend herself/himself. Surely a troll uses
software too...
Why should it be otherwise?
Have fun,
Bogdan
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Acceptable patent license for free software? (zBog BIV)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "zBog BIV" <bogdanb.frie0606(a)spambob.net>
> To: discussion(a)fsfeurope.org
> Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 12:54:13 +0300
> Subject: Acceptable patent license for free software?
> Hello
>
> I had an idea about a patent license some time ago, but I didn't have the
> time to express it in a meaningful way.
>
> I'll make an attempt here.
> My idea starts with the question: is it possible to "copyleft" a patent?
> (I know copyleft is derived from copyright != patent system) But still, I
> view copyleft as a philosophy so ...
>
> Can someone license the use of a patent to others as long they don't try
> to enforce their own patents ?
>
>
>
>
> --
> "The best way to predict the future is to invent it.", 1971, Alan Kay:
> http://www.smalltalk.org/alankay.html
> _______________________________________________
> Discussion mailing list
> Discussion(a)fsfeurope.org
> https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
>
>
--
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it.", 1971, Alan Kay:
http://www.smalltalk.org/alankay.html
Can someone point me to a good survey of free software uptake in the
public sector, preferrably in Europe, in recent years?
I seem to remember having hear about Amsterdam, Munich, French Parliament,
Extremadura in Spain, etc., but I need a survey with easy access to
details: Actual software in use, porting/compatibility challenges, number
of seats, on/off schedule, etc.
I need to use them for a talk I have to give at work, where I plan to talk
about free software delivery for the public and private sector as a
possible future business case for us (a small consultancy specializing in
telecom and wanting to grow).
Anyone out there who knows of a suitable place to start?
best regards,
Carsten
--
http://www.modspil.dk
Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> The European Commission's IDABC maintain a good list of free software case
> studies:
> http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/chapter/470
Torsten Werner wrote:
> Hi,
>
> http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInThePublicSector is another source.
>
> Cheers,
> Torsten
>
MJ Ray is right, though - there's a lot of info there, but it's not very
up-to-date, and an actual status of the projects is difficult to find.
An up-to-date survey could easily take weeks to make and might be a nice
project to make another selling point for migration ...
Anyway, I'm a developer, so market research is not really my line of
work; but I had to give a talk, so there ... anyway, my "angle" is that
of a small consultancy, and one thing that's interesting about Free
Software adaptation from that point of view is that when the political
and financial pressure really starts to work and the administrations
begin to switch, there's an obscene amount of money just waiting for
SME's to make it.
The relevance from a business point of view depends on *when* that
"when" is going to happen, of course.
best regards,
Carsten
--
http://www.modspil.dk
Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> > The European Commission's IDABC maintain a good list of free
software case
> > studies:
> > http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/chapter/470
> >
> > Some parts of that site unfortunately focus use "open source"
terminology,
> > but the individual case studies mostly use FLOSS and GNU/Linux
terminology.
> >
> > I also compiled a short list before, but I'm not sure if contains
anything of
> > more interest than the EC's list:
> >
https://www.fsfe.org/de/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/free_so…
> >
Thanks, Ciaran, and to the other people who posted links. I'll start
working on my talk soon, and if I find some information of interest that
no-one has pointed to here, I'll post it.
Regarding the language it really doesn't matter for the purpose of this
investigation, since the only real point that matters in a job/company
setting is whether we have a business case or not; and in the long run
we probably do :-) , but my personal beliefs regarding software freedom
probably won't be able to sell the business case on their own.
br
Carsten
--
http://www.modspil.dk
It has been an exceptional month. The European Commission has fined
Microsoft an additional 899 million Euro for continuing to restrict
access to interoperability information prior to October 2007 and the
ISO Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva failed to address most of the
serious issues and ultimately ended up waving through the bulk of ECMA
responses without review. Public awareness of issues relating to
software freedom have been raised dramatically.
Perhaps the key word for this month is precedent. The EC anti-trust
fine is the first of its kind in Europe and draws a line regarding
fair access and good corporate behaviour in Europe. The MS-OOXML
process has clearly demonstrated how international standardisation is
struggling to meet current needs. Fairness, access and lack of
restrictions have become central to debates around the evolution of
the digital sphere. New precedents are being set which enshrine these
values, and where such precedents do not exist it is becoming clear
that they need to be created. This is good news for Free Software and
it's good news for society at large.
Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. Microsoft's so-called 'interoperability' pledge excludes primary competitors
2. FSFE calls on Microsoft to release interoperability information without restrictions
3. FSFE at FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium
4. SELF conference in Sofia, Bulgaria
5. FSFE participates in a global day for document liberation
6. FSFE announces the first European Licensing and Legal Workshop
7. Jonas Öberg in Sofia, Bulgaria
8. FSFE Context Briefing on DIS-29500: Deprecated before use?
9. "Fairware" for the Protestant Church in Gemany
10. Late breakfast for Rhineland Fellows
11. RMS in Berlin
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
12. Free Software in the public sector' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
13. Speech on Free Software licensing and the GPLv3 at OSiM USA
14. FSFE booth at OpenCamp in Rome, Italy
15. Introduction to Free Software licensing' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
16. Strategic implementation of Free Software
1. Microsoft's so-called 'interoperability' pledge excludes primary competitors
The Microsoft pledge to release interoperability information for
flagship products contained little actual news. The announcement
confirmed that Microsoft was planning to use its software patent
portfolio against interoperating products by requiring a patent
license for all commercial activity. This is consistent with its
previous attempts at allowing competition only where it provides no
actual challenge to its monopolies.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080222-01
2. FSFE calls on Microsoft to release interoperability information without restrictions
The European Commission has fined Microsoft 899 million Euro for
anti-competitive behaviour by continuing to restrict access to
interoperability information. "Microsoft is the last company that
actively promotes the use of software patents to restrict
interoperability. This kind of behaviour has no place in an Internet
society where all components should connect seamlessly regardless of
their origin," says Georg Greve, president of the Free Software
Foundation Europe.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080228-01
3. FSFE at FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium
Like the years before, Free Software Foundation Europe had a booth at FOSDEM,
one of the biggest Free Software conferences in Europe. This year FSFE shared
its booth with the Free Knowledge Foundation, a Spanish associate organisation
[1]. About fifteen team members and volunteers from FSFE helped out at the
booth by answering questions and talked to interested people. One of the big
topics was Document Freedom Day, and everyone at the booth helped explain its
importance [2].
[1] http://www.libre.org/
[2] http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/michael_kallas/images/fosdem_2008/document_f…
4. SELF conference in Sofia, Bulgaria
Jonas Öberg, vice president of the FSFE, participated in a SELF
conference in Sofia, Bulgaria the 10th of February, where he gave a
talk about e-learning and Free Software. The talk was part of an event
that took place during a SELF board meeting in Sofia, and gathered
teachers and activists from the area.
5. FSFE participates in a global day for document liberation
The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation
with grassroots action for promotion of Free Document Formats and Open
Standards in general. The DFD was initiated and is supported by a
group of organisations and companies, including, but not limited to,
the Free Software Foundation Europe, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe,
IBM, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, Inc. On 26 March 2008, the Document
Freedom Day will provide a global rallying point for Document
Liberation and Open Standards.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080220-01http://documentfreedom.org/
6. FSFE announces the first European Licensing and Legal Workshop
FSFE's Freedom Task Force announced the first European Licensing and
Legal Workshop for Free Software will be held on Friday the 11th of
April in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The event is targeted towards
large projects and medium to large enterprises wishing to discuss
their existing licence compliance processes. Parties attending are
expected to contribute to issues ranging from process development
through to optimising purchasing contract language for the benefit of
the European Free Software community.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080214-01
7. Jonas Öberg in Sofia, Bulgaria
Jonas Öberg, vice president of the FSFE, gave a talk on the 7th of
February in an event about ICT use in public administrations. His talk
was about how to do procurement of Free Software, using knowledge
gained from Sweden, and took place in Sofia, Bulgaria.
8. FSFE Context Briefing on DIS-29500: Deprecated before use?
When ECMA submitted MS-OOXML as ECMA-376 to ISO for fast-track
approval, several countries criticised overlap with the existing ISO
standard ISO/IEC 26300:2006, the Open Document Format (ODF). [...]
Considering that alleged preservation of idiosyncrasies is the stated
reason for the entire DIS-29500 ISO process, FSFE considers it
worthwhile to investigate this claim in greater depth. The result of
this investigation is a compact context briefing.
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-idiosyncrasies
9. "Fairware" for the Protestant Church in Gemany
For many years now the churches have supported fair trade. Because of this the
ethical principles of Free Software are a real match with the IT needs of
churches.
A practical start to introducing Free Software was undertaken on the 23th of
February. In an event of the Protestant Church in Verden (near Bremen, Germany),
the use of "Fairware", as they called Free Software, was discussed. Bernhard
Reiter gave a lecture on Free Software and answered several questions of the
interested audience. The event was very successful. Thanks to Andreas Bergmann
and Detlev Rakebrand who have organized the event and are promoting Free
Software within their communities.
10. Late breakfast for Rhineland Fellows
At 2008-03-02 the second "late breakfast" of the Fellows at Rhineland took
place in the Duesseldorf Office of FSFE. There were twice as many people as
at the first "late breakfast". Upgrade problems, free geo data and IT
security in enterprises were the topics discussed while enjoying coffee
and breakfast . There are now plans to make this a regular event.
11. RMS in Berlin
On his visit to Europe, Richard Stallman gave a speech on the history
and philosophy of Free Software in Berlin. The local Fellowship group
together with the newthinking-store put up a booth to inform the
visitors about ways to participate in the Free Software movement.
Around 200 people listened to Richard Stallman's speech, which was
concluded with a round of questions and the recitation of "The Free
Software Song"[1]. The Fellowship group really enjoyed the speech and
the fruitful discussions with the participants afterwards.
http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.html
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
12. Free Software in the public sector' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, will deliver a training course
examining how Free Software can be used in the public sector on Friday
the 7th of March. The course will be delivered between 13:00-16:00 at
the FSFE Zurich office. There is no cost to attend this course, but
due to limited space all those wishing to come should register their
interest beforehand through the FTF contact form.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/form.html
13. Speech on Free Software licensing and the GPLv3 at OSiM USA
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, will deliver a speech entitled
'Analysing Whether GPLv3 Has Improved Free Software Licensing' at OSiM
USA on Tuesday the 11th of March in San Francisco. The speech will
cover topics ranging from the creation of GPLv3 and its place in
licensing through to examining the place of GPLv3 in tomorrow's
market.
14. FSFE booth at OpenCamp in Rome, Italy
The FSFE will be present with a booth at the OpenCamp event
organized by the Sapienza Linux User Group in Rome on 15th March
(http://barcamp.org/OpenCamp). The booth will offer FSFE
merchandising, information about current activities and a meeting
point for all interested people and Fellows.
15. Introduction to Free Software licensing' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, will deliver a training course to
introduce people to Free Software licensing concepts on Friday the
21st of March. The course will be delivered between 13:00-16:00 at the
FSFE Zurich office. There is no cost to attend this course, but due to
limited space all those wishing to come should register their interest
beforehand through the FTF contact form.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/form.html
16. Strategic implementation of Free Software
On the 2nd of April FSFE and its Freedom Task Force (FTF) will give a
course on the Strategic implementation of Free Software in Business in
collaboration with the Internet Academy. The course will take place in
Stockholm, Sweden. Those wishing to come should register their
interest beforehand through the FTF contact form.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/form.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
Hi all,
is there someone with good Latex customisation knowledge? If so perhaps
you can help me with this problem.
At the moment we make our leaflets with Scribus. While this is good if
one person is working on the leaflets, it becomes difficult if more
people are working on the leaflets with different versions of scribus
(you cannot edit it after someone with a never version edited the file).
Now we also start putting all our leaflets online, e.g.:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/documents/leaflets/leaflet-SELF-about.en.html
I want to generate leaflets (perhaps even autogenerate them) looking
like our current Scribus leaflets, e.g.:
http://download.fsfeurope.org/leaflets/leaflet-SELF-about-en-G-A.pdf +
leaflets without the graphics so we can print them on our preprinted
paper:
http://download.fsfeurope.org/leaflets/leaflet-SELF-about-en-0-A.pdf
The metrics of the version with abstract are here:
http://www.difficulties.de/tmp/info-flyer-metrics.txt
I thought that Latex might be a good solution here.
Someone here who want to help with this task?
Or can you give some pointers?
Best wishes,
Matthias
--
Deputy German Coordinator, Fellowship Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) [] (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship of FSFE! [][][] (http://fsfe.org/join)
Your donation powers our work! || (http://fsfeurope.org/donate)