1. DRM.info platform launched 2. Introducing Shane M. Coughlan and Maria Luisa Carli 3. FSFE helped liberating Italian ZIP code database 4. FSFE at LWE fairs in Utrecht (Netherlands) and London (UK) 5. FSFE Swedish Team at the Internet Days in Stockholm (Sweden)
1. DRM.info platform launched
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology affect all users of digital technology. At the same time, there is an almost total lack of critical dialog. To address this issue, FSFE has contacted multiple organisations from various areas, such as consumer rights, libraries, digital rights and Creative Commons, and jointly started the DRM.info platform to provide the critical view that is currently missing.
Accompanying the launch, FSFE organised protests in various cities, including Zürich and Gothenburg, to inform people about the problem that in order for DRM to work, they need to be at least partially disowned of the devices they bought, surrendering control over them to third parties.
The platform, which also contains pictures from the protests, can be found online at
Please help FSFE and its collaborators on DRM.info to spread the information, link to DRM.info and point others to it!
2. Introducing Shane M. Coughlan and Maria Luisa Carli
Shane Martin Coughlan has started to work for FSFE full time as a project coordinator. Shane was born in Dublin City and moved to England for higher education. He graduated 2003 in Birmingham with an MA in International Studies (Globalisation and Governance). He joined FSFE because he believes ICT needs to be available to society at large, and he thinks FSFE is in an excellent position to work towards this goal.
Maria Luisa Carli works as an intern for FSFE from October 2006 to June 2007. Marilu was born in Foligno, Italy. She gradueted 2004 in businness law and did an MBA at University of Perugia. Marilu joined to FSFE because she was impressed by the enthusiasm that drives the organization and by the international and motivated team.
Both work together with FSFE president Georg Greve in FSFE's new office in Zürich, Switzerland, which has been set up as the third operational base after Düsseldorf and Gothenburg.
3. FSFE helps liberating Italian ZIP code database
As soon as the ZIP codes have been updated by the private company Poste Italiane, the official list of codes distributed as compressed text file has disappeared from the websites of Poste Italiane and of the Ministry of Communication. Such text file was used to develop Free Software useful in many commercial environments. Poste Italiane made available the ZIP codes only with proprietary software and proprietary formats (even encrypted) running only on one operating system or via a web search form.
As ZIP codes are public data under Italian laws, FSFE's Italian Team helped the developers of Free Software providing legal expertise and protection to rebuild the list of codes using a crawler. FSFE also promoted an open letter to the Minister of Communication asking to release the list of ZIP codes as before.
http://www.italy.fsfeurope.org/it/projects/cap/
4. FSFE at LWE fairs in Utrecht (Netherlands) and London (UK)
During the 2006 LWE in Utrecht, FSFE president Georg Greve presented the strategic value of Free Software in business as part of a Free Software masterclass in collaboration with Harald Welte. The show also served to present and promote to the public the "Scientific Education and Learning in Freedom" (SELF) project.
FSFE's Gareth Bowker and Rainer Kersten were in London, manning a booth at the LinuxWorld Expo on 25-26th of October. The show itself was very successful, raising a significant amount of awareness about the work FSFE do in Europe - as well as outfitting the UK masses in FSFE's latest fashions! Thanks must also go to Richard Smedley and Simon Morris for helping out on the booth.
5. FSFE Swedish Team at the Internet Days in Stockholm (Sweden)
During the last week of October, the Swedish II Foundation held their annual Internet Days in Stockholm, where the FSFE participated with its Swedish team. Besides having a booth with information about our activities, FSFE vice president Jonas Öberg also participated in a panel debate on open document formats.
The Swedish Team of the FSFE was also there as one of the recipients of the II Foundation stipends that are given out during the Internet Days each year. The stipend was given to the Swedish Team to complement the activities of the SELF project in Sweden, in particular to work with schools in Sweden to give educations based on SELF material and make more material from SELF available in Swedish.
Henrik Sandklef from the FSFE also received a stipend from the II Foundation. His work will focus on translations of manuals and other documents for GnuPG into Swedish.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html