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_fr...
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-20080220-01 http://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
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