This info I would like to put to your attention as you seem to be
right audience. Please forward the message to other colleagues.
As we already started to explain in Warsaw.
http://techrights.org/2015/11/05/copycamp-15-on-swpats/
The rejection of in the 2005 proposed European Directive for “Computer
Implemented Inventions” did not mean that Europe is free from software
patents. It is far from true. The rejection only meant that some –
questionable – rules for software patenting were not accepted as
obligatory.
The current situation is worse than ten years ago because courts in
European countries are not setting proper limits on software
patentability. We would like to talk about Polish bad and good
examples, which remain unknown.
On the other hand, recent developments in the US are encouraging.
After two important Supreme Court decisions in almost all software
patents related cases courts voided the patents. It cannot happen in
the EU. Unfortunately, no appeal to some non-specialised “supreme”
court is foreseen in the new European patent court structure. The
European Court of Justice was excluded from the system.
Europe should not stay behind the US. Two year ago the German
Parliament unanimously decided upon a joint motion to limit software
patents urging the government to take measures in this sense. In the
German MPs’ opinion, supported by several associations, including
FSFE, software should be covered exclusively by copyright, and the
rights of the copyright holders should not be devalued by third
parties’ software patents. Can we have similar resolution in the
European Parliament? What action we need from German Government and
European Commission?
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130612-01.en.html
There are other initiatives against the Unitary Patent seen as the
third major attempt to legalize software patents in Europe.
http://www.esoma.org/forum/t-1162188/unitary-patent-challenged-at-the-belgi…
There is a clear need to return to a wider action against software
patents. If you would like to contribute, please contact us. In the
first place we have submitted a lecture at 32C3 – day 2, 28.12, 14:00,
hall 6.
https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/Fahrplan/events/7283.html
Co-authors of the talk are Benjamin Henrion, president of FFII - an
organisation that in the debate about European software patents gained
some influence on the legislative process, Iga Balos assistant
professor who is writing a study on Polish court software patent
cases, and me, who pulled them together.
Best regards
Jozef Halbersztadt
--
jozef [dot] halbersztadt [at] gmail [dot] com
Internet Society Poland http://www.isoc.org.pl
pubkey&address: http://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?search=0x6A332CA03C4ACB9A
Hi!
I want to announce our free software and open hardware project:
Nitrokey Storage is a USB device which operates as a “digital latchkey”
to protect your data and user accounts. It allows for the secure
encryption of emails, files and hard drives, secure login on the web and
contains encrypted mass storage. The encryption keys are stored securely
in the hardware at all times.
Nitrokey is made entirely in Germany and stands out on the market
because it is free software (GPLv3+) and open hardware (Creative Commons).
It is also the first hardware worldwide with hidden storage, which
enables users to plausibly deny the existence of additional encrypted
data. This can be useful during border controls or similar threatening
situation.
Use Cases:
* Encryption of emails, hard drives, SSH, and other data via a highly secure
smart card. Secure keys are protected by the hardware. Up to RSA 4096
bit is supported.
* Secure login on the web and protection against identity theft via
one-time passwords.
* Secure transport and exchange of sensitive files via encrypted mass
storage (up to 64 GB). (AES-256 in CBC mode)
Please support and promote our crowdfunding campaign:
http://igg.me/at/nitrokey
Kind Regards,
Jan Suhr
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Hi
I have found some useful documents with regard to creative commons
however they seem to be in US format. I am still trying to print out
properly.
https://creativecommons.org/about/downloads
Just wondered if you could add these to your portfolio of items we can
send for, as you have a professional print department so the physical
size of the document is less of an issue.
I think it would complement what you have, as free software also needs
good freely available documentation.
Perhaps this is also related to the education discussions as I
understand the points about not specifying a specific software package
so if that flyer can look at licensing then it could help promote free
software and creative commons for media.
Just a thought
Paul
- --
http://www.zleap.net
t: @zleap14 diaspora : zleap(a)joindiaspora.com
Documentation lead @ ToriOS http://www.torios.org
Torbay Tech Jam http://torbaytechjam.org.uk
Festival of Code 2016 1st - 5th August 2016 http://www.yrs.io
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Hi
I haven't seen the new education flyer yet, as I think it is still in
development, I have a few possible suggestions.
1. The new curriculum in the UK (http://torbaytechjam.org.uk/curriculu
m/
) has a focus partly on using computers responsibly, so you could argue
that using free software comes under this, as you are not taking the
irresponsible step of using pirated software for example.
There is also a focus on safety so again by using free software you can
examine the software, and make improvements if there are problems, the
software is transparent in what it is doing and how it works.
Young rewired state and google summer of code actually encourage
participants to release under free licenses, as this encourages
collaboration.
- From an wider perspective too, taking part in free software projects
has benefits for work experience, collaboration and working across
borders with people being more concerned with what you contribute than
your age, gender, orientation and ethnic background. So there is a lot
of equality.
Granted here people still need to be careful as to what information they
share, and take the same care about using forums as any where else,
Hope this helps
Paul
- --
http://www.zleap.net
t: @zleap14 diaspora : zleap(a)joindiaspora.com
Documentation lead @ ToriOS http://www.torios.org
Torbay Tech Jam http://torbaytechjam.org.uk
Festival of Code 2016 1st - 5th August 2016 http://www.yrs.io
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This is an offtopic request I'd like to put to your attention as you
seem to be the right audience.
At the Dutch digital rights organization Bits of Freedom[1] a comparison
is being made by Christina van Kuijk on how the different secret
services compare on a variety of topics. These include authorizations,
data retention policies, international collaboration, and oversight.
[1] https://www.bof.nl/home/english-bits-of-freedom/
Currently there is mostly a language barrier hindering this research,
mostly for Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Austria, and France.
To me this seems to be right up our alley, in addition to international
efforts of EDRI, and I hope some of you can help provide some
information on these issues.
If you want to contribute you can contact me, or Evelyn
evelyn.austin(a)bof.nl from BoF directly.
Kind regards,
Nico Rikken (NL)
P.S. If you find this plug inappropriate, of good, please let me know,
so I known for future occasions.
Thanks for looking up!
Not sure about other Dutch ISP's. I assume Ziggo (previously UPC, owned
by Liberty Global [doublespeak ;) ] will be difficult, if only
practically as a TV-cable modem is needed.
Regards,
Nico
On vr, 2015-11-27 at 09:16 +0100, André Ockers wrote:
> Op 26-11-15 om 09:29 schreef Matthias Kirschner:
> > * Paul van der Vlis <paul(a)vandervlis.nl> [2015-11-25 22:32:21 +0100]:
> >
> >> Another point is the "routerdwang". In the Netherlands you get "for
> >> free" a router with modem from your ISP. So people who would buy such a
> >> device have to pay double. Because of that, not many people will buy
> >> such a device, what makes it expensive.
> > But you are allowed to use your own router instead, right?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Matthias
> I contacted XS4ALL and it's legal to use your own router :-)
>
> Best regards,
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discussion mailing list
> Discussion(a)fsfeurope.org
> https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
Hi Fellows,
Just wanted to bring this under your attention as well (double-forward).
A final batch of the GTA04A5 will be available, as they were on a
waiting list for a long while.
Together with the Neo900 project this phone is about the most free
smartphone available for sale. Yes it is pricy, yes it still requires
some blobs to get all the features working, yes its performance might
not meet today's expectations.
BUT... This is a very impressive and admirable project from what I've
seen.
Regards,
Nico
-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller <hns(a)goldelico.com>
To: replicant <replicant(a)lists.osuosl.org>
Subject: [Replicant] GTA04 boards and complete devices ready for
ordering
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2015 11:56:34 +0100
Hi,
finally (after 2 years work/wait) we will produce the last batch of GTA04A5 boards.
There will be also ~40 complete devices (with display, case, battery etc.).
Replicant 4.2 is also available. And Lukas is working to patch/upgrade to a 4.3 kernel
(needs backporting some Android features) so that we have the most modern basis that
we can get to run Replicant on top.
For details see:
<http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner/2015-November/006878.html>
Note that it will be the last batch we can produce since we can't get some components
any more.
BR,
Nikolaus
_______________________________________________
Replicant mailing list
Replicant(a)lists.osuosl.org
http://lists.osuosl.org/mailman/listinfo/replicant
Good news:
Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, is requiring the use of open
IT standards for all of its future IT projects. This way, the city
aims to rid itself of IT vendor lock-in. Aarhus is currently ”fenced
in by contracts, proprietary software and proprietary standards”,
says Camilla Tække, leading the change management project for the
city. “This is a change in culture, not just as a technical one.”
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/denmark%E2%80%99s-aarhus-in…
Best,
Erik
--
No one shall ever be forced to use non-free software
Erik Albers | FSFE | https://fsfe.org/about/albers
OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x8639DC81 on keys.gnupg.net
Hello,
Next week is T-dose, a FOSS-event in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. I will
have a stand with laptops and other devices. I can show Libreboot and
coreboot. I also have phones with Replicant. I also have a Lime2, an
alternative for the Raspberry Pi and Chromebooks with Linux.
When there are people who like to see it, Kevin Keijzer will show at
Saturday afternoon how to flash a Thinkpad with Libreboot. That's not
very easy, because you have to put a clamp on the bios-chip and flash it
from another device.
Maybe I will show Intel AMT. That's a dangerous feature in Intel CPU's.
You can completely control a machine with it, bypassing the operating
system. Even when the machine is "off".
With regards,
Paul van der Vlis.
--
Paul van der Vlis Linux systeembeheer Groningen
https://www.vandervlis.nl/
Hi all,
There has been some discussion recently about Software Freedom
Conservancy's announcement about their ability to defend licenses[1]
Has anybody looked at any legal insurance policies that may allow
developers to protect their rights under the GPL and other licenses?
There are many freelancers out there (authors, photographers, musicians,
etc) who probably have somewhat similar needs so it occurred to me that
there may already be insurance companies offering services for this type
of risk.
I looked at the FAQ about the VMware case[2] and it leaves a lot of
questions unanswered, for example, it is not clear if Conservancy would
have the funds to pay costs to VMware if the case fails or if they run
out of funds to pursue the case. Sometimes risks like that can be
insured against too but with a legal insurance policy it is often a
standard part of the insurance.
Regards,
Daniel
1. https://lwn.net/Articles/665739/
2. https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html