Does anybody know what happened to that site? Someone to contact with
at least to explain why it disappeared or is it likely to be restored
in the near future?
Hi all,
just came accross this article about IBMs "OpenClient" on Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/12/ibm-open-source-tech-enter-cz_dl_0212ibm.h…
this once more proves how right we are to talk about Free Software!
Regards, Myriam
--
Protect your freedom, join the Fellowship of FSFE!
http://www.fsfe.org
Please don't send me proprietary file formats,
use ISO standard ODF instead (ISO/IEC 26300)
Hello. Argh. I've written too much again, i'll try to underline some
sections with "!>" so you can skip the rest:
!>I've read that a software license has been published by the EU
!>to cover software made by or for public administration that is
!>freed by EU governments.
!>
!>It's at:
!>http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/6523
!>
!>I haven't found it at
!>http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/index_html
!>
!>An I've read the license, the preamble and the explanation on
!>the compatibility clause (without reading the reports it cites).
!>
!>The license is all right with me, until I get to an strange
!>twist:
!>
!> The European Commission may put into force translations and/or binding new
!> versions of this Licence, so far this is required and reasonable. New versions of the
!> Licence will be published with a unique version number. The new version of the
!> Licence becomes binding for You as soon as You become aware of its publication.
!>
I've seen similar clauses in some propietary licenses (for demos or betas at least).
I'm not an expert on software copyright or licenses, but
I've never seen a free software license that can expire, and
as I see it, this clause means that the moment that the European
Commission changes its mind, I can lose my right to use , modify
or redistribute the software. I think the CEC has several means
to make sure that I (or anyone) is made aware of the change
of license (for instace with a certified letter, a visit by some
officer, or simply widespread propaganda, but in any case easily
done previous to a lawsuit).
!> That wouldn't be free software
I certainly have no trust in any license than can be so easily
revoked (and I suspect it wouldn't be DFSG either, but I haven't
checked and I have bad memory). Any investment in work or learning
with software that I don't know if it will be free tomorrow is
nearly wasted. I'm not sure it would be even legal to take
away the granted rights, but I've seen it in other licenses, so
it might well be.
I'm relieved to find that confirmed in the free software definition at
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html :
In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be irrevocable as
long as you do nothing wrong; if the developer of the software has the
power to revoke the license, without your doing anything to give
cause, the software is not free.
I could understand people who publish their software under GPL version
X only and those who trust FSF enough to publish under GPL version X
or later. But it's always version X or later as the user chooses, not as the
publisher or FSF chooses at a later moment in time, just by making
people aware of the change.
I also don't know whether this clause was already in EUPL v 0.2 or is new.
I hadn't checked v 0.2. Today's news just happen to reach me in a moment
I could spare some minutes to read the license.
I hope I'm missing something here and... well I don't know, maybe there's
some binding compromise somewhere that the EU cannot change the EUPL
to grant less than some minimum freedoms, come what may, or so, but I
don't see it. I know governments can change law and therefore can
take away freedoms even without changing the licenses in their software,
but well, that would at least require some legislative maneuvring and
some votes somewhere (just don't get me started on democracy and the EU).
Of course the same concern I have may be shared by any public administration
that the EUPL aims to serve. Will my local council use software by a
neighbour local council if the permission to use it may be revoked at
any time by the European Comission ? Will any business help my local
council adapt software under EUPL if their legal ability to conclude the
project is dependent on a change of political tides in Brussels ?
Is that sound policy ?
Just thought I'd ask in case someone here is aware and can clarify
my confusion.
1. FSFE becomes the legal guardian of the OpenSwarm Project
2. Transcript of Richard Stallman on the Free Software movement
3. Windows Vista released - FSFE recommends switching to GNU/Linux
4. Get Active: Join the Revolution!
1. FSFE becomes the legal guardian of the OpenSwarm Project
OpenSwarm is the second project to make use of the fiduciary services
of the FSFE Freedom Task Force. OpenSwarm is planned to be a holistic
set of model-driven software development tools focused on the easy
creation of powerful and business logic enriched applications in the
field of Web- and data-centric solutions. By signing the Fiduicary
License Agreement (FLA) with FSFE, the project allows FSFE to become
its legal guardian.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q1/000165.html
2. Transcript of Richard Stallman on the Free Software movement
Ciarán O'Riordan has compiled a transcript of a lecture given by
Richard Stallman in Zagreb. This speech is certainly a good source of
information about various Free Software related topics.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/documents/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html
3. Windows Vista released - FSFE recommends switching to GNU/Linux
FSFE has taken the opportunity of Windows Vista's launch to remind about
the dangers and threats arising from the use of proprietary software. As
many users will have to convert to a new operating system anyway, FSFE
recommends to take the chance to get rid of the chains of proprietary
software and switch to a Free Software solution.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q1/000166.html
4. Get Active: Join the Revolution!
The internship position in FSFE's office in Zürich is becoming vacant in
March, and FSFE is looking for somebody to continue the series of
interested and motivated interns. An internship with FSFE is an
interesting, challenging and exciting experience, and there are few
other opportunities to work with a highly dynamical NGO on an
international level.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/internship.en.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Hi all,
Does the FSF Europe website still exist?
I can't seem to reach it. HTTP to http://www.fsfeurope.org times out,
alertra.com confirms it's unreachable.
PING fails as well.
$ ping -c 5 www.fsfeurope.org
PING berzelius.fsfeurope.org (130.243.109.205) 56(84) bytes of data.
--- berzelius.fsfeurope.org ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 4001ms
$ ping -c 5 fsfeurope.org
PING fsfeurope.org (130.243.109.205) 56(84) bytes of data.
--- fsfeurope.org ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 4019ms
Any idea what's wrong? Or when someone is going to fix it?
Or has the FSF given up on having a European website?
Andy
Dear all,
as you might know, the FSFE is involved in a project called SELF
(Science, Education and Learning in Freedom), a projected funded by the
European Commission for a period of two years, from summer 2006 to
summer 2008.
The SELF project will develop a platform for the collaborative sharing
and creation of free educational materials on Free Software and Open
Standards. It will also try to fill this platform with some initial
materials on Free Software and Open Standards.
The first half year of the SELF project has been spent primarily on
analysis of the available free materials on Free Software and Open
Standards, as well as a preliminary analysis of the areas where there
are none or little free educational materials.
With the developers at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in
Mumbai now starting the work on the technical implementation of the
platform, the project will gradually shift into a more active mode of
operation.
For this reason, I have just created a mailing list where we can
coordinate the FSFE work in this project. If this project sounds
interesting, please have a look at the SELF project web site;
http://www.selfproject.eu/
And subscribe to the FSFE mailing list:
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/self
You can also subscribe to the SELF general mailing list if you wish:
http://mail.selfproject.eu/mailman/listinfo/discussion
What we're soon going to start working on is the atomisation of the
existing materials (basically turning the materials into SCORM format
for later import into the SELF platform). Each partner is responsible
for about nine materials, and the FSFE has been given the following
materials to convert:
- AGNULA Tutorials
- GNU Emacs Manual
- GNU Emacs FAQ
- GNU Octave Manual
- The Gimp Documentation
- GNU/Linux Command-Line Tools Summary
- Bash Guide for Beginners
- Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
- Network Administration
Needless so say, all of these are rather technical in detail, and we
have already identified a gap in the available materials covering the
general issues of Free Software and Open Standards. But we're sure there
are other gaps that needs to be filled as well, which is why we should
also work to organise a workshop to talk about what kinds of educational
materials are needed for Free Software and Open Standards, though I'm
not sure exactly when this should be done right now.
But please, if this sounds interesting to you, please join the mailing
list, and contribute to the work!
--
Jonas Öberg
Free Software Foundation Europe ( Join the Fellowship )
Tel. +46-31-780 21 61 Mob. +46-733 423 962 ( http://fsfe.org )
I've discussed the Nokia 770 with a few high profile members of the
FSFE community. The reaction was generally positive. Sure, it may
have Flash and Opera, but it's essentially a free platform, was the
common feeling. I call this assertion into question: Maemo relies
heavily on non-free components and Nokia has constructed technical and
psychological barriers which prevent a free platform from emerging. I
contend that Nokia, despite their contributions to the FLOSS
communities, represents a greater threat to freedom than many
proprietary hardware vendors. Read the note here:
http://walfield.org/blog/2007/01/29/maemo.html
Neal