= FSFE Newsletter July 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201807.it.html ]
== Save Code Share ==
On July 5, The European Parliament rejected the mandate to fast-track
the controversial legislation intended to reform online copyright. 318
MEPs voted against the draft law amended by the Legal Affairs (JURI)
committee, compared to 278 in favor. The legislation now opens up for a
new round of amendments, before being sent for a second vote in
September.
This rejection by a majority of MEPs can be seen as the success of
creative and massive protest by citizens and civil rights organisations.
The FSFE, together with Open Forum Europe, explained [1] how the
proposed EU Copyright review can substantially threaten Free Software
development by forcing online code sharing repositories to use filters
that monitor and preemptively take down any content that could
potentially infringe copyright, including entire code repositories.
Instead of that, we ask the European Union to Save Code Share [2].
More than 13.000 individuals have already signed our open letter [3]
asking to preserve the ability to share and build software online, and
lots of Free Software supporters raised their voice. It was a success to
see that, in the JURI report Free Software code sharing platforms were
listed as an exempted service. While JURI proposed to spare Free
Software code sharing platforms from the new filtering obligations, the
changes committee tried to introduce for the remaining online
environment remain dangerous for the rest of the Internet ecosystem.
In September, MEPs will once again vote in plenary to either 1) confirm
the mandate as proposed by the committee, 2) amend it, or 3) reject it
entirely. That includes the possibility that an exemption for Free
Software code hosting platforms will not be in future versions of the
draft law.
Hence, together with OFE, we at FSFE will continue to raise our voice
and to explain the lawmakers about harmful implications of the current
copyright reform for Free Software.
== The FSFE's Community Meeting 2018 ==
This year, we had the pleasure to align with hackstub [4], the
organisation behind the Libre Software Meeting 2018 (also known as
RMLL), to organise a policy track for FSFE and to run our annual
community meeting [5] at the same conference.
This turned out to be a very good chance for cooperation, and all
participants benefited from a well-equipped and well-organised
convention. We received a lot of positive feedback and look forward to
catch up on the many good ideas and activities proposed in our sessions.
Herewith a big thank you to hackstub and to everyone who participated!
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- It is summertime in Europe and there is less activity, because people
have vacations. Our community planet [7] is more silent these days and
there are just a few events and conferences happening throughout
Europe. Nevertheless, the FSFE's CARE team [8] met with an extended
round of community members for a full day, to get training on the
proper implementation of our code of conduct [9].
- Francesca Bria, CTO of Barcelona, is reshaping the modern city's
infrastucture and technologies to put citizen's needs first. We have
conducted an interview with her about how to use Free Software to
build a more democratic, inclusive and sustainable digital society
[10].
- Free Software is about sharing knowledge and sources and that's what
Hook did this month by blogging a review of some Vahdam’s Masala Chai
teas [11].
- OW2 published a video [12] with Max Mehl, who gave a keynote about
"Public Money? Public Code!" and the modernisation of public digital
infrastructure at OW2con'18.
== Get Active ==
Current EU copyright reform is on summer break but will be re-opened in
September. The initially proposed Article 13 of the EU Copyright
Directive targets every online service that allows its users to upload
and share content with each other, including code hosting platforms.
Help us to prevent such an implementation and to Save Code Share [13] by
signing our open letter and ask others to do so as well.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org [14]. We're looking
forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [15], supporters [16] and
donors [17] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[18], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
The FSFE wishes everyone nice summertime and will be back with the
Newsletter in September.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171005-01
2: https://savecodeshare.eu/
3: https://savecodeshare.eu/#sign-letter
4: https://hackstub.netlib.re/landpage/
5: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/LSMandCommunityMeeting2018
6: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-06
7: http://planet.fsfe.org/
8: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct#CARE
9: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
10: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180705-01
11: http://matija.suklje.name/review-of-some-vahdams-masala-chai-teas
12: https://www.youtube.com/embed/kQGw25xG_5c
13: https://savecodeshare.eu/
14: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletterATfsfeDOTorg
15: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
16: https://fsfe.org/join
17: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
18: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
19: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-06
= FSFE Newsletter June 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201806.it.html ]
== Join us at the FSFE's community meeting during LSM2018 ==
>From July 7 to 9, the FSFE will run its annual community meeting in
conjunction with the Libre Software Meeting [1] in Strasbourg, France.
On the weekend of July 7 + 8, we are very excited to run a track, set up
with speakers of our community and friends to cover several burning
topics regarding Free Software. Our track covers business topics like
marketing for Free Software and funding Free Software projects as well
as policy topics from tinkering in Brussels to success factors for Free
Software implementations in public services as well as contemporary
important issues regarding diversity in Free Software, software freedom
in the cloud, and many more. You can find an overview of our topics on
the dedicated wiki page [2].
On July 9, we invite our community to join us for a full day agenda [3]
to bond and prepare for the next months. The meeting will include "Open
Space" methods, an "Ask us anything" session as well as room for
reflections on our current activities and well-being.
Throughout the event, we will run FSFE assembly, similar to the one
during CCC, CCCamp and SHA camp. This assembly can serve as a place for
our community to simply come together and get to know each other or to
start and work on common projects.
== Introducing the FSFE's CARE team ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and its community aim to
offer a friendly and peaceful environment for every participant at FSFE
events, online and offline. To this end, the General Assembly 2017 [4]
adopted an overall Code of Conduct [5] for the FSFE. To ensure its
availability and enforcement, we created a central CARE team. If you
have experienced or became aware of behaviour contrary to the principles
guaranteed in this Code of Conduct, please bring such incidents to the
attention of your respective local or our central CARE team as soon as
possible.
The central CARE team [6] may be reached via e-mail at care(a)fsfe.org but
you can also contact members individually. This is possible with
encrypted email and in six languages. Rest assured that your messages
will always be handled confidentially.
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- Following more than a decade long tradition, the FSFE once again led
its annual Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop [8] (LLW) in
2018: a meeting point for world-leading legal experts to debate issues
and best practices surrounding Free Software licences.
- The Technology Transfer Centre (CTT) is an initiative run by the
Spanish government whose goal is to facilitate sharing and reuse of
software and services among public administrations. To shed light on
this best practice, we have conducted an interview with Elena Muñoz
Salinero [9], head of the CTT, to ask her about the legal, political,
and technological background of the CTT.
- The mission of Software Heritage is to collect, preserve, and make
readily available the source code of all software ever written, to
help preserve the knowledge embedded in software source code, and make
it widely available. Since June 7, the Software Heritage archive is
open to the public [10].
- Diderik von Wingerden started a list of public bodies [11] in Europe
and in particular in the Netherlands, that publish their self-
developed software as Free Software.
- vanitasvitae blogged a first evaluation [12] of his research about how
the size of OpenPGP encrypted messages grow.
- Daniel Pocock proposes to offer an annual award [13] for non-technical
non-profit organizations, who demonstrate exemplary use of free
software in their own organization.
- The FSFE simplifies membership procedures [14] for contributors by
removing the Fellowship seats. In future, access to membership of the
FSFE shall be facilitated through the normal membership procedures for
active FSFE contributors.
- On Friday morning, one of our servers had a fatal hardware crash. This
affected parts of our mail infrastructure and mailing lists. By now,
all services are back to normal. At the same time, we modernised large
parts of the mail infrastructure [15], for instance anti-spam
measures. This also involves a change in our SMTP setting for people
using this service: From now on, we will no longer accept mails
delivered to port 25 from mail clients. Please make sure to use port
587 if you would like to send emails, and make sure the settings in
your email clients match our recommendations [16].
- The FSFE, represented by Matthias Kirschner, Max Mehl, and Erik
Albers, gave talks about technical sovereignty, digital sustainability
and "Public Money? Public Code!" in Darmstadt [17], Berlin, Paris
[18], and Madrid [19].
- The FSFE community ran booths at FOSS Backstage and Maker Fair in
Berlin, Germany and at OpenExpo in Madrid, Spain.
== FSFE is hiring ==
We are looking for a programme manager for our policy work. Our main
policy topics cover Free Software and Open Standards issues on the EU
and member state level. We work together with the European Commission
and Parliament, as well as with politicians and civil servants in EU
countries. This work is either done directly by staff or together with
volunteers, as well as other Free Software and digital rights
associations around Europe.
The person will work 35 hours per week with our team in the FSFE's
Berlin office. There will be coordination with remote staff and
volunteers, as well as regular travels to Brussels and other countries.
If you are interested, read more details in our job announcement [20].
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org [21]. We're looking
forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [22], supporters [23] and
donors [24] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[25], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/LSMandCommunityMeeting2018
2: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/LSMandCommunityMeeting2018#Join_our_track_at_t…
3: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/LSMandCommunityMeeting2018#Join_community_meet…
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171107-01
5: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
6: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct#CARE
7: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-06
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180530-02
9: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180601-01
10: https://www.softwareheritage.org/2018/06/07/opening-the-door/
11: http://think-innovation.com/blog/do-european-governments-publish-open-sourc…
12: https://blogs.fsfe.org/vanitasvitae/2018/06/11/summer-of-code-evaluation-an…
13: https://danielpocock.com/pmpc-for-fsfe-itself
14: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180526-01
15: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180613-01
16: http://wiki.fsfe.org/TechDocs/SMTP
17: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2018/FSFERM-talk-kirschner-in-DA
18: https://www.ow2con.org/view/2018/
19: https://openexpoeurope.com/session/public-money-public-code/
20: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180529-01
21: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletterATfsfeDOTorg
22: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
23: https://fsfe.org/join
24: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
25: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
26: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-06
= FSFE Newsletter May 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201805.it.html ]
== LLW2018: The FSFE brings together top legal experts to debate about legal and licensing issues around Free Software ==
Following a more than a decade long tradition, the FSFE once again led
its annual Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop [1] (LLW) in
Barcelona, Spain, as a meeting point for world-leading legal experts to
debate over issues and best practices surrounding Free Software
licences. This year we decided to bring the event back to its roots and
to emphasise the "Workshop" part in its original title. Our 3-day
conference attracted around 120 legal experts and came with an
unprecedented amount of parallel tracks and interactive sessions
designed to dive into the most contentious topics in the legal world of
Free Software.
Some of the topics covered during the conference included an update on
how to build a successful legal defense strategy [2] against a copyright
troll, recommendations on how to tackle challenges of compliance in
container images [3], as well as an overview of what decades of Free
Software licensing can teach us in data sharing [4]. A more detailed
report of this important event is to come during the next weeks.
== The FSFE community as a case study ==
Since more than 15 years, the FSFE is an enduring non-profit
organisation with a distributed network of people, who contribute their
time and effort into our common mission [5] to empower users to control
technology. That is why Giacomo Poderi chose the FSFE community [6] as
one of his cases for his research in the “Infrastructuring SuStainable
Playbour“ (ISSP) project [7]. This project investigates the
sustainability of collaborative spaces, as commons, and it focuses on
participants’ continuous contribution to the maintenance and development
of such ‘places’.
If you are contributing or contributed in the past to the FSFE's mission
and you feel fine with being interviewed, please get in touch with
Giacomo Poderi. No automated data gathering is involved in this research
and no sensitive data are expected to be collected. Furthermore,
anonymity of participants will be preserved in any dissemination
activity related to this research.
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- While you better not start using Facebook in the first place,
currently many people decide to move away from Facebook. Sebastian
Schauenburg writes about his own experience of "Disconnecting from
Facebook" [9].
- Evaggelos Balaskas blogs about USBGuard [10] and other measurements to
protect your system from the harmful attach of an unknown USB device.
- Daniel Pocock runs a crowdfunding campaign to help run a ham radio
station at OSCAL 2018 [11] and blogs about initial problems with
GoFundMe [12] beforehand.
- Erik Albers was on a panel about "The Sustainable Side of Technology"
[13], organized by GreenBuzz in Betahaus in Berlin, Germany.
- Matthias Kirschner gave a talk at the Internet policy forum of the
social-democratic party in Germany in Berlin, Germany.
- The FSFE has been present with a booth at the OpenTechSummit and at
Netzfest in Berlin (Germany) and Corso Leopold in Munich (Germany)
== Get Active ==
We have been running a call for participation [14] for the FSFE track
during the Libre Software Meeting 2018 and the FSFE's community meeting
from July 7 to 9 in Strasbourg, France. Thanks to numerous submissions
we still need to set the last details of the agenda, but you can already
get a first glance of our track as well as the most important
information about accommodation and organisation on our wiki-page [15].
If you like to join the Libre Software Meeting and our community meeting
be quick to organise your trip and book a suitable hotel. We expect many
people to attend the event, while Strasbourg attracts a lot of visitors
during the summer weekends in general.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org [16]. We're looking
forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [17], supporters [18] and
donors [19] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[20], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/legal-conference.en.html
2: https://lwn.net/Articles/752485/
3: https://lwn.net/Articles/752982/
4: https://lwn.net/Articles/753648/
5: https://fsfe.org/about/mission
6: http://blogs.fsfe.org/poderi/?p=38
7: http://poderi.eu/research/issp/
8: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-05
9: https://www.schauenburg.nl/posts/2018/04/12-disconnecting-from-facebook/
10: https://balaskas.gr/blog/2018/05/13/usbguard/
11: https://danielpocock.com/powering-a-ham-radio-demo-oscal-2018
12: https://danielpocock.com/gofundme-beware-bait-and-switch
13: https://greenbuzzberlin.de/event/sustainable-side-technology/
14: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180414-01
15: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/LSMandCommunityMeeting2018
16: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletterATfsfeDOTorg
17: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
18: https://fsfe.org/join
19: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
20: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
21: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-05
= FSFE Newsletter April 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201804.it.html ]
== More than 11.000 signatures handed over to the EU legislators asking to change dangerous copyright reform proposal ==
On March 19, the Free Software Foundation Europe together with
OpenMedia, jointly delivered a petition signed by more than 11.000
individuals, who ask European politicians to save internet from the
irreversible dangerous impact of the ongoing copyright reform, and in
particular Article 13 [1], which imposes preventive blocking of online
code repositories. These signatures were addressed to the EU co-
legislators: the European Parliament and the Council of the European
Union, and received by MEP Julia Reda, the shadow rapporteur in the
European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) which drives the
main parliamentary effort in the current copyright reform.
All signatures have been collected jointly by our Save Code Share [2]
campaign that highlights the threats that current EU copyright reform
imposes on Free Software, and Save the Link [3] that highlights how
current proposals aim at censoring online links.
Although it seems to be difficult to finally achieve a complete deletion
of Article 13, we have seen some positive developments in the position
of JURI when it comes to revising the initially proposed text [4] by the
European Commission. The proposed compromise amendments say, among other
things, that code sharing services will be excluded from an obligation
to install arbitrary upload filters and monitor its users' activities.
However, in the current text, this only applies for code sharing
services which act for "non-commercial" purposes. Such references to
"non-commercial" services still leave plenty of room for legal
uncertainty when it comes to liability of online code hosting services.
In conclusion, Article 13 continues to be a threat to Free Software that
is not in any definition connected to being "non-commercial".
Together with Open Forum Europe and other allies we keep on working hard
to ensure that legislators understand the differences and needs of Free
Software in Europe. If you like to support our work, sign our letter
[5], tell other people about it or help us with your financial support
[6].
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- Our system hackers set up Discourse [8] as a new volunteer-run service
provided by the FSFE. It is still in a beta phase and currently serves
as a test case for specific topics. Over time we will evaluate whether
it fits in the FSFE’s communication setup and community. We would like
to invite you to become part of this new service, help us improving it
and enjoy the discussions: community.fsfe.org [9]
- Isabel Drost-Fromm published her own nomination statement [10] to the
Apache Software Foundation board to help bring more transparency to
people outside the foundation.
- Jens Lechtenbörger explains how he uses meta-data files and emacs-
reveal to automatically display [11] proper licensing and attribution
information in his presentations.
- Daniel Kulesz compares different ROMs [12] for Android phones
regarding questions of freedoms included, security, support and more
aspects.
- The FSFE team Italy was present at "Merge-it" with a session about our
"Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and the current state of its
implementation in Italy and EU.
- The System Hackers [13] held a meeting during Easter, to talk about
how to improve its internal workflow and the digital services provided
by the FSFE. The team was able to set new policies regarding services
maintenance, add more documentation, define the steps needed to comply
with the GDPR, and agreed on long-term goals.
== Get Active ==
The FSFE's community meeting 2018 will be part of the Libre Software
Meeting (LSM, also known as RMLL) in Strasbourg and vice versa. LSM is
maybe the biggest community-driven Free Software meeting in France and
therefore offers an exciting environment for the FSFE community to meet
up itself as well as to connect with the broader Free Software
community. On this occasion, the FSFE will also organise an own track on
the first days of LSM, on 7/8/9 of July. The call for participation [14]
is running until April 30. Do not miss it. This is your chance to
combine taking part in the FSFE's community meeting and to give a talk
at the LSM 2018 at the same time.
So, before you forget it, apply now [15]!
One of our topics will be "Digital Education" [16] - a topic that ranges
from school education via code literacy to the understanding of ethical
concepts behind information technology. But you are free to propose
other topics. Generally, we look forward for inspiring talks and
workshops covering golden cages and user's liberation - in educational
environments as well as in our everyday lives.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org [17]. We're looking
forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [18], supporters [19] and
donors [20] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[21], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editors,
Erik Albers and Polina Malaja
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171130-01
2: https://savecodeshare.eu/
3: https://savethelink.org/
4: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/proposal-directive-europ…
5: https://savecodeshare.eu/#sign-letter
6: http://fsfe.org/join/savecodeshare
7: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-04
8: https://community.fsfe.org/
9: https://community.fsfe.org/
10: http://blog.isabel-drost-fromm.de/posts/my-board-nomination-statement-2018.…
11: http://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2018/04/01/oer-figures-with-licen…
12: https://blogs.fsfe.org/kuleszdl/2018/04/02/looking-for-a-secure-smartphone-…
13: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/System-Hackers
14: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180414
15: https://rmll2018.info/conferences/RMLL2018/program/proposals/new
16: https://2018.rmll.info
17: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletterATfsfeDOTorg
18: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
19: https://fsfe.org/join
20: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
21: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
22: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-04
= FSFE Newsletter March 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201803.it.html ]
== Italy at the forefront of European legislation for public code ==
With the FSFE's Public Money? Public Code! [1] campaign not only do we
demand that code paid for by the people should be available to the
people. We also highlight good examples of public code so other decision
makers can learn from it. One very good example is Article 68 [2] and
Article 69 [3] of the "Codice Amministrazione Digitale", an Italian law
requiring public administrations inside Italy to prefer internally made
solutions and Free Software solutions over proprietary ones. In
addition, these administrations have the duty to share the source code
and documentation of any software developed with public money. These
laws put Italy at the forefront of European legislation in favour of
public code.
Unfortunately, so far the law lacks proper implementation. In that
light, the FSFE's country team in Italy ran an Ask Your Candidates
campaign [4] in which they asked the political parties about their stand
on Free Software [5] and the implementation of the aforementioned
Articles 68 and 69 after the national elections on March 4.
FSFE Italy received very positive replies and many parties took a
favourable stand towards Free Software [6]. Such a big consensus across
these parties gives hope to open up a lot of possibilities for progress
towards the use of Free Software at the state level in Italy and a
better implementation of Articles 68 and 69 of the "Codice
Amministrazione Digitale". As a match to this, the team "Developers
Italia", who are in charge of further implementation of the Articles 68
and 69, sent out their love for Free Software [7] on I love Free
Software day.
== Read our detailed IloveFS report ==
As promised in the last newsletter, we now have a detailed report about
our IloveFS campaign in 2018 [8]. In the report, you will not only read
about some highlights that happened for this year's IloveFS. Thanks to
our current intern Jan, we also have an analysis and visualisation of
439 'I Love Free Software' messsages containing the /#IloveFS/ hashtag.
The scraper Jan used for his analysis is written in GNU R and published
as Free Software [9].
While every year we are happy to see so many people celebrating I love
Free Software day, we also encourage you to express your Free Software
love every day :)
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- Paul Boddie reflects on the hobbyism and volunteerism attitude [11] in
many Free Software projects and what this means for the valuation of
the actual work that is done, examining Python language development as
an example.
- Isabel Drost Fromm argues against people acting as mediators [12] as
the only interface between their employer and a Free Software project.
- Carmen Bianca Bakker reflects on the recently updated FreeBSD Code of
Conduct [13], examines the included dangers of positive
discrimination, and states how a non-biased, welcoming Code of Conduct
can indeed help dogs and cats to live happily ever after.
- Daniel Pocock reflects on the newly-introduced SwissID [14], and its
potential dangers to privacy and democratic referendums.
- Erik Albers asked our community on multiple channels to let the FSFE
know about upcoming Free Software events in 2018 that are of interest
to the FSFE community. Thanks to our current intern Vincent they all
ended up in the FSFE's wiki calendar [15] so our teams and community
can use them to organise their attendance.
- Björn Schießle, the FSFE's country coordinator Germany, gave a talk
about software freedom in the cloud [16] at "Chemnitzer Linuxtage" in
Chemnitz, Germany.
- Erik Albers was giving a talk about Public Money? Public Code! [17] at
the Internet Freedom Festival in Valencia, Spain.
- The new born local FSFE group in Madrid had its first meeting on
February 22 [18] and March 3 [19].
- The FSFE has been present with a booth at "Chemnitzer Linuxtage" in
Chemnitz (Germany), at T3chfest in Madrid (Spain), and at the Internet
Freedom Festival in Valencia (Spain).
== Get Active ==
If you have not done so yet, let us know your favorite Free Software
event that you think is or should be in interest for the FSFE community
to set up a booth at or participate in with a talk or workshop. The
simplest way to do so is by sending a mail to contact(a)fsfe.org [20] with
the subject "Free Software event 2018". Please state what the event is
about, how many participants are expected, and the main language used.
Before informing us, please check if we do not already have it in our
list [21].
If you are visiting any other events regularly or soon, be it a big
conference or a local meet-up, equip yourself with some FSFE promotion
material that you can order at no charge [22].
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org [23]. We're looking
forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [24], supporters [25] and
donors [26] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[27], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editors,
Erik Albers and Max Mehl
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Join our community of freedom fighters. [28]
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://publiccode.eu
2: http://www.agid.gov.it/cad/art-68-analisi-comparativa-soluzioni
3: http://www.agid.gov.it/cad/art-69-riuso-soluzioni-standard-aperti
4: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates
5: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180219-01
6: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180302-01.html
7: https://twitter.com/developersITA/status/964060999899860992
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180308-01
9: https://git.fsfe.org/janwey/ilfs-data
10: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-03
11: https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=1978
12: http://blog.isabel-drost-fromm.de/posts/proxies-considered-harmful.html
13: https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2018-03-09-how-we-conduct-ourselves/
14: https://danielpocock.com/swisspost-swissid-another-nail-in-the-coffin-sover…
15: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events
16: https://www.schiessle.org/articles/2017/11/14/software-freedom-in-the-cloud/
17: https://platform.internetfreedomfestival.org/en/IFF2018/public/schedule/cus…
18: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2018/0222-encuentro-local-madrid
19: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2018/0303-encuentro-grupo-local-madrid
20: https://fsfe.org/mailto:contactATfsfeDOTorg
21: http://blog.3rik.cc/2018/03/free-software-events-in-europe-in-2018/
22: https://fsfe.org/promo
23: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletterATfsfeDOTorg
24: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
25: https://fsfe.org/join
26: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
27: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
28: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-03
= FSFE Newsletter February 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201802.it.html ]
== Barcelona is the first city council to join the FSFE's "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign ==
"Funds that come from the citizens have to be invested in systems that
can be reused and open to a local ecosystem" says Francesca Bria,
Commissioner of Digital Technology and Innovation of Barcelona. She is
the driving force behind the City's Digital Transformation Plan, which -
among other things - aims to establish the use of Free Software and open
data in the city's administration.
Step by step, all key applications shall be replaced with Free Software
solutions until the city finally replaces its currently running Windows-
system with a suitable GNU/Linux-system. Therewith, Barcelona is heading
to achieve and guarantee "complete technological sovereignty" [1] for
the municipality. By spring of 2019, when its municipal term of office
ends, the City Council has planned to spend 70 percent of its software
budget on open-source software.
With this in mind, Barcelona has been the first city council to sign the
Open Letter [2] of our "Public Money Public? Code!" campaign. The FSFE
is very pleased to see one of European's biggest metropolitan areas
moving to Free Software, and we wish Barcelona much success!
== I love Free Software Day ==
Every year, our community celebrates "I Love Free Software Day" on
February 14. Our report from this year's celebration is coming soon but
we like to say thank you for hundreds of love declarations via social
media channels, pictures of people celebrating their favourite Free
Software projects like Developers Italia [3], beautiful artworks like
the one from Grise Bouille [4] as well as multiple blog posts informing
about the benefits of Free Software. We even found people opening issues
on project's development platforms [5], just to say "Thank You!" on "I
love Free Software Day".
Thank you for celebrating with us and stay tuned for the detailed report
coming soon.
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Join our community of freedom fighters. [6]
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- The day before FOSDEM, the FSFE once again partnered up with OpenForum
Europe for the third edition of European Free Software Policy Meeting
[7] to discuss the most important current policy issues on European
level regarding Free Software.
- The FSFE country team Italy is running an "Ask your candidates"
campaign [8] and sent a set of questions about the use and promotion
of Free Software to the participating parties of the Italian national
elections, happening on March 4.
- The "besondere elektronische Anwaltspostfach (beA)" is publicly
financed software aiming to establish a secure communication between
lawyers in Germany from January 2018. Its usage, however, is currently
being withheld for multiple security issues. The FSFE published an
open letter [9] to demand the full publication of beA under a Free
Software license.
- At the 34th Chaos Communication Congress the FSFE, together with EDRi,
set up a cluster called “Rights & Freedoms” with its own freedom
related track. Erik Albers wrote a report about it on his blog [10].
- Daniel Pocock, the FSFE community representative, writes about
Everything you didn't know about FSFE in a picture [11] in which he
analyses overlapping relationships between staffers, Council,
community and the General Assembly.
- Vanitasvitae reports [12] about his trip to XSF-summit, FOSDEM and the
importance of XMPP libraries
- Daniel Pocock distributed an email to the FSFE community [13] in that
he reflected the GA membership process, the FSFE's identity process
and his personal travels.
- Sebastian Schauenburg shares his insides on sharing local OsmAnd and
Geo URL's [14]
- Polina Malaja, the FSFE's policy analyst, writes about our response to
the PSI Directive public consultation [15] that in short asks to
include source code into the list of re-usable public sector
information.
== Do not miss it! Upcoming events with the FSFE ==
We are happy to see a first local FSFE meet-up happening in Madrid,
Spain, on February 22 [16] and on March 3 [17]. We wish all participants
to spend their time at the meet-up in a positive and fruitful manner. If
you are from the area, do not miss it.
By the way: If you miss a local FSFE group in your area but you like to
start one, get in contact with our community coordinator Erik Albers
[18] who is happy to help you with the first steps.
== Get Active ==
Have you found an interesting Free Software story online that you would
like to share? Maybe you have a question that you like to discuss with
other Free Software activists? Or you like to announce your upcoming
Free Software event or report about a recent one? Then post it on one of
our public mailing lists and share it with the community! We currently
have active public mailing lists in English [19], German [20], Spanish
[21], and Greek [22].
If you live in Italy, contact your local candidates during their current
election-campaigns, point them towards our "Public Money? Public Code!"
campaign and ask them the questions that we have also sent to the
participating parties [23] or similar ones.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [24], supporters [25] and
donors [26] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[27], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
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Join our community of freedom fighters. [28]
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: http://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/digital/en/digital-transformation/technolog…
2: https://publiccode.eu/#action
3: https://twitter.com/developersITA/status/964060999899860992
4: https://grisebouille.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/tad_024_ilovefs.jpg
5: https://github.com/westnordost/StreetComplete/issues/866
6: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-02
7: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180215-01
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180219-01
9: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/bea
10: http://blog.3rik.cc/2018/02/fsfe-assembly-at-34c3-wir-taten-was/
11: https://danielpocock.com/everything-you-didnt-know-about-fsfe-in-a-picture
12: https://blogs.fsfe.org/vanitasvitae/
13: https://danielpocock.com/our-future-relationship-with-fsfe-2018
14: https://www.schauenburg.nl/posts/2018/01/26-local-osmand-and-geo-urls/
15: https://blogs.fsfe.org/polina/2017/12/13/fsfe-asks-to-include-software-into…
16: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2018/0222-encuentro-local-madrid#head-03d1f2ac…
17: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2018/0303-encuentro-grupo-local-madrid#head-37…
18: https://fsfe.org/about/albers/albers
19: https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
20: https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-de
21: https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/spain
22: https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/admin/fsfe-el
23: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180219-01
24: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
25: https://fsfe.org/join
26: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
27: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
28: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-02
= FSFE Newsletter - December 2017 / January 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201712.it.html ]
== 2017: A year full of Free Software ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe looks back on a very exciting year.
While on one hand we managed to take our regular campaigns like I love
Free Software [1] and Ask Your Candidates [2] to a new level with
extraordinary activities, we also started three new major activities
this year that will keep running in 2018 and beyond. These are Public
Money Public Code [3], Save Code Share [4] and the Reuse Initiative [5].
In the legal field we held the 10th Legal and Licensing Workshop [6] and
updated the Fiduciary Licence Agreement [7] to version 2.0. In the
technical field, we set up new tools for our community [8] and
(co-)developed new tools for our campaigns [9]. All of them are Free
Software, of course.
2017 was also a very good year for our outreach. Our community attended
75 events in 11 countries with talks, workshops and booths. In our
Berlin office we have welcomed six interns from six different European
countries, and our message keeps spreading with new merchandise items
[10] and promotional material [11].
As a result of our joint efforts, we have seen growth in many sectors:
in funds, in media attention, and in our community, with the latter
being the most important point. The Free Software Foundation Europe
could not pursue its mission without the people that make up our
community and spread our message. This is a big thank you to all of you:
the countless volunteers, supporters and donors who were part of or who
made the work of FSFE possible in 2017. Your contributions are priceless
and we are doing our best to keep the good work going in 2018!
If you are interested in more details about our activities in 2017, read
our yearly report [12]. If you like what we are doing, join the FSFE as
a supporter [13] and help us to continue our work for Free Software!
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Help us grow and make a difference in 2018 [14]
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- Part of a new copyright proposal currently discussed by the European
Union is Article 13, which imposes the installation of arbitrary
upload filters on every code hosting and sharing provider. Together
with over 80 organisations, the FSFE called the EU member states to
reject the harmful Article 13 [15] and to Save Code Share [16].
- The Dutch government released the source code and documentation of
"Basisregistratie Personen", a 100 million Euro IT system that
registers information about inhabitants within the Netherlands. The
FSFE applauds the Dutch government's move [17] towards releasing
publicly financed code as Free Software.
- Max Mehl, project manager of the FSFE, explains the current status of
the FSFE's work on proposed European Radio Lockdown [18]. While the
FSFE was not accepted as member of committee, which assists the
European Commission with drafting the delegated acts, we keep raising
our demand to save users' rights and Free Software, backed by more
than 50 civil society organisations.
- The FSFE submitted its response to the public consultation on the
Directive on the re-use of public sector information [19]. In our
response we argue that source code needs to be added to the list of
'documents' that governments and other public bodies need to make
available for re-use in an open and machine readable format. When it
comes to publicly financed software, it should be released to the
public under Free Software licences [20].
- Thanks to April, the French Free Software association, we now have a
French translation of our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign video
[21].
- Erik Albers wrote a report of the FSFE's community meeting and the
common spirit with some pictures (http://blog.3rik.cc/2017/12/report-
about-the-fsfe-community-meeting-2017/)
- Earlier this year, after a public consultation, we took the decision
to change the name of our supporter program, the Fellowship of the
FSFE, and talk about our supporters by their true name: Supporters. At
the same time as we're completing this change, we're also
decommissioning our old Fellowship SmartCard in favor of a brand new
FSFE supporter patch [22].
- Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE, argues in a blogpost [23]
as a reply to Scott Peterson from Red Hat, that the terms "Open Source
Software" and "Free Software" are referring to the same kind of
software but only differ in their emphasis. And that it is challenging
to impossible and maybe even unnecessary to find a "neutral" term.
- Jonas Öberg, Executive Director of the FSFE, introduces the FSFE's
forms API in a blogpost [24], a way to send emails and manage sign-ups
on web pages used in the FSFE community.
- Daniel Pocock, community representative of the FSFE, shared a picture
of the fixme.ch hackerspace [25] in Lausanne which promotes the FSFE.
- Michael Kappes blogs about a group of supporters from the Berlin local
FSFE group who went to the FIfF-Konferenz in Jena to set up a booth
for the FSFE [26].
- Björn Schiessle, German team co-coordinator, blogs about how to
achieve practical software freedom in the cloud [27].
- We welcome our new associate [28]: Open Labs [29], Albania
- FSFE has a new t-shirt celebrating the 100 freedoms of Free Software
[30]. Also, we have a lot of other nice shirts and merchandise in our
online shop [31] - for Christmas or for any other reason.
- Thanks to our growing community and the big demand by people around
the world to spread the word about the FSFE and Free Software, we are
looking for an office assistant as a part-time job [32] to help us
with packing and posting.
- In 2018, again, we are looking for students who can join our team in
Berlin [33] for three months or more as a mandatory part of their
studies or before graduation.
== Do not miss it! Upcoming events with the FSFE ==
As in recent years, the FSFE will be present with an FSFE assembly at
the Chaos Communication Congress [34], one of the biggest technology
related events in Europe. The assembly will be equipped with current
merchandise and promotional material, run a Free Software track, invite
people to play a Free Software game or to join us in several Free
Software song sing-along sessions. After all, the assembly shall be a
place for our community to get together and connect with each other. If
you are attending Chaos Communication Congress too, use this opportunity
to meet and get to know the people behind FSFE, including volunteers and
staffers.
As usual, find all the other future events with or by the FSFE listed on
our events page [35].
== Get Active ==
Use the vacation time to read our yearly report [36] and share it among
your friends. Let people know about the importance of Free Software and
why they should care about it. Tell them that people around the world
form communities with the aim to bring technological freedom,
transparency, knowledge and emancipation to everyone. Spread the word
[37] about the four freedoms and if possible, help others to exercise
their freedoms too.
Join our cause [38].
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [39], supporters [40] and
donors [41] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[42], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
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Help us grow and make a difference in 2018 [43]
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170315-01
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170829-01
3: http://publiccode.eu/
4: http://savecodeshare.eu/
5: http://reuse.software/
6: https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/legal-conference
7: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171013-01
8: https://wiki.fsfe.org/TechDocs
9: https://github.com/freedomvote/freedomvote
10: https://fsfe.org/order/
11: https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword
12: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171207-01
13: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-12
14: https://fsfe.org/httpsfsfeorgjoinnl201712
15: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171130-01
16: http://savecodeshare.eu/
17: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171206-01
18: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171212-01
19: http://blogs.fsfe.org/polina/2017/12/13/fsfe-asks-to-include-software-into-…
20: http://publiccode.eu/
21: https://www.april.org/version-audio-francaise-de-la-video-argent-public-cod…
22: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171116-01
23: https://k7r.eu/2-percent-discussion-free-software-or-open-source-software/
24: http://blog.jonasoberg.net/introducing-forms/
25: https://danielpocock.com/hacking-with-posters-and-stickers
26: http://blogs.fsfe.org/majestyx/2017/11/03/fsfe-berlin-goes-fiff-konferenz-2…
27: https://www.schiessle.org/articles/2017/11/14/software-freedom-in-the-cloud/
28: https://fsfe.org/associates/associates
29: https://openlabs.cc/en/
30: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171211-01
31: https://fsfe.org/order/
32: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171207-02
33: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171114-01
34: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2017/wiki/index.php/Assembly:Free_Software_F…
35: https://fsfe.org/events/events
36: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171207-01
37: https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword
38: http://fsfe.org/join
39: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
40: http://fsfe.org/join
41: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
42: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
43: https://fsfe.org/httpsfsfeorgjoinnl201712
= FSFE Newsletter - November 2017 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201711.it.html ]
== The FSFE presents modernised Fiduciary Licensing Agreement 2.0 ==
The FSFE's Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA) was initially introduced in
2002, to address the challenge of managing rights and content within a
Free Software project over long periods of time. The FLA is a well-
balanced contributor agreement, which gives the trustee, responsible for
managing the rights within a Free Software project, power and
responsibility to make sure the contributed software always remains free
and open. This way the project, together with all the respective
contributors, is protected against any possible misuse of power by a new
copyright holder.
However, the last review of the initial FLA was back in 2007 and we are
happy to present an improved and modernised version - FLA-2.0 [1]. The
biggest improvements are that the FLA-2.0 now also covers patents and
enables more practical licensing options directed towards third parties
– including referencing an external licensing policy. In addition, the
new wording is much improved both in its compatibility with more
jurisdictions as well as being easier for everybody to understand and
apply.
For FLA-2.0, the FSFE joined forces with ContributorAgreements.org and
integrated the FLA-2.0 into its Copyright Licensing Agreement (CLA)
chooser/generator, in order to make the use of the FLA easier both for
projects and for developers. As a side-effect, all CLA on
ContributorAgreements.org have been updated as well, following some of
the improvements from the FLA.
== General Assembly 2017: new members, new roles and new directions ==
The members of the Free Software Foundation Europe held their General
Assembly on October 15 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The annual meeting is
held to discuss strategies for the upcoming year and to set the overall
direction of the organisation. Amongst other things, the General
Assembly prepared a route to some reforms of the organisational
structure and adopted an overall Code of Conduct for the FSFE. Patrick
Ohnewein was elected as the new Financial Officer, and six new members
joined the association. You can read more details in the official
minutes [2] and a summary about the accepted proposals in the
corresponding news-item [3].
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Help us grow and make a difference in 2017 [4]
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- The Free Software Foundation Europe released its next version of REUSE
practices [5] to make computers understand software copyrights and
licenses. The REUSE page now also comes with an explanatory video [6]
as well as a set of developer tools [7] and examples which show the
REUSE practices in action.
- The FSFE's Vice President Heiki Lõhmus explains the background about
decisions for future changes to FSFE membership [8] and the removal of
the Fellowship Representatives during the General Assembly 2017.
- As in previous editions of the Chaos Communication Camp, the FSFE will
set up an assembly during 34C3 for all friends of Free Software and is
running a call for participation [9] until November 19.
- At the beginning of October, 32 European Ministers signed the Tallinn
Declaration on eGovernment. The FSFE's policy analyst Polina Malaja
writes about [10] FSFE's input and the good process involved in this
declaration.
- The FSFE's Executive Director Jonas Öberg blogs about the steps he
took to make cURL REUSE compliant [11].
- André Ockers analyses the Dutch coalition agreement [12] on the matter
of software and misses any support of Free Software within.
- Tarin Gamberini evaluates [13] that in the last semester, eight
Italian Regions have reduced advertisement of proprietary PDF readers
on their website, and that one region has increased its support for
Free Software PDF readers.
- Hannes Hauswedell explains how to use FSFE's Gitea [14] and/or Github
to host comments in statically generated blogs [15] and in a privacy-
friendly way.
- The FSFE was present at the Open Source Summit 2017 in Prague, Czech
Republic. The FSFE's president Matthias Kirschner gave a talk about
"Limux: The Loss of a Lighthouse", and Polina Malaja about "DSM, EIF,
RED: Acronyms on the EU Level and Why They Matter for Software
Freedom".
- Jonas Öberg was at the Open Source Strategy Forum in New York to
present updates to FSFEs' REUSE practices.
- The FSFE's country coordinator Germany Björn Schiessle gave a talk
about how to avoid digital dependencies [16] at the Fellbacher
Weltwochen.
- The FSFE's country coordinator Italy, Natale Vinto, gave a talk about
Public Money? Public Code! at Linux Day Milano to celebrate Linux Day,
a national manifestation to discuss about Linux and free software.
== Do not miss it! Upcoming events with the FSFE ==
Always find the FSFE's future events listed on our events page [17].
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [18], supporters [19] and
donors [20] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[21], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
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Help us grow and make a difference in 2017 [22]
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--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171013-01
2: https://fsfe.org/about/legal/minutes/minutes-2017-10-15.en.pdf
3: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171107-01
4: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-11
5: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171108-01
6: http://reuse.software/
7: https://reuse.software/dev/
8: http://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/english/2017/11/06/background-for-future-c…
9: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171024-01
10: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171109-01
11: http://blog.jonasoberg.net/a-reuse-compliant-curl/
12: https://blogs.fsfe.org/ao/2017/10/28/dutch-coalition-agreement-wheres-the-t…
13: https://www.taringamberini.com/en/blog/fsfe/adoption-of-free-software-pdf-r…
14: http://git.fsfe.org/
15: https://hannes.hauswedell.net/post/2017/10/21/blog-comments/
16: http://ichbinbaff.de/multibaff/ww17/events/digitale-abhaengigkeit-vermeiden…
17: https://fsfe.org/events/events
18: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
19: http://fsfe.org/join
20: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
21: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
22: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-11
= FSFE Newsletter - October 2017 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201710.en.html ]
== Tell the EU to Save Code Share in the current EU Copyright debate! ==
The EU is currently revising its copyright rules in its proposal for the
EU Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market [1], so that they
may be more suitable for the modern digital age. Instead of recognising
the realities of how different content is being shared online, the
current EU Copyright Directive proposal, and in particular its Article
13 targeted at online hosting providers, threatens [2] our ability to
access public code repositories and share code online. The new rules
enshrined in Article 13 intend to introduce new obligations for code
hosting platforms in order to prevent any possible copyright
infringement: if they do not implement these, the platforms will end up
being directly liable for their users' activity. Article 13 thus imposes
the use of costly upload filters in order to identify allegedly
infringing code. The problem with such a requirement is that there are
no known automated filters that can accurately identify whether the code
is shared adequately and without breaching a respective Free Software
licence. In addition, Article 13 imposes a far-reaching monitoring
obligation on code hosting platforms to actively search for infringing
activity by their users. Article 13 treats every user of code hosting
platforms as a potential copyright infringer whose content, including
entire code repositories, may be taken down, or barred from upload to
the platform, at any time. If code is so easily "unpublished", all other
software built on top of it will be hampered.
For more information on how Article 13 poses a threat to the ability to
build software online, please visit Save Code Share [3] and read our
White Paper [4].
[ In the online version you can find a picture here: ]
[ FSFE booth at FrOSCon 2017 ]
[ https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201710 ]
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Help us grow and make a difference in 2017 [5]
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- The success of our Public Money? Public Code! [6] campaign so far has
been overwhelming. At the time of writing, more than 13.000
individuals have signed the open letter [7] and the campaign has been
backed by the support of more than 80 organisations. The campaign has
gained attention from huge press coverage [8]; many prominent people,
developers, artists, CEOs and politicians have joined our demand that
whenever software is financed by public money it should be public
code. If you have not done so already, join us now and sign the open
letter [9].
- Jonas Öberg, the FSFE Executive Director, blogged about updates [10]
and templates to the FSFE's REUSE campaign [11]. In his blog post he
presents three different Git repositories, each of which is REUSE
compliant, and which demonstrate different parts of recommended REUSE
practices.
- Kristi Progri, project assistant for the FSFE, blogged about our
ongoing identity process and how to become part of the involved
interview process [12].
- Polina Malaja, our policy analyst and legal coordinator, gave a talk
at CopyCamp in Warsaw, Poland, about the implications of the current
EU Copyright Directive proposal for the collaborative software
environment, and our campaign Save Code Share.
- Carmen Bakker and Erik Da Silva, current interns at the FSFE, gave a
talk during Copycamp in Warsaw about our Public Money Public Code
campaign. Find a short report and a video on Carmen's blog [13].
- Erik Albers, program manager and community coordinator of the FSFE,
gave a talk about Free Software campaigning in the forefront of
elections [14] at the Kieler Linuxtage, Germany.
- On Software Freedom Day, Polina Malaja gave a talk about Public Money
Public Code [15] in the c-base, Berlin.
- During the Digitale Woche Kiel, Erik Albers gave a talk about Public
Money Public Code [16] and how it helps with the current coalition
agreement in Schleswig-Holstein.
== Do not miss it! Upcoming events with the FSFE ==
We are preparing the first-of-its-kind FSFE community meeting. It will
take place on November 25 & 26 in Berlin. We therefore invite all active
community members, and those who would like to become active again, to
come together and collaborate. Seats are limited due to physical
restrictions. If you would like to participate read all details on the
dedicated wiki-page [17].
== Get Active ==
Tell the Members of the European Parliament and the EU Council to secure
collaborative software development online, and in particular the sharing
of Free Software, by signing the Open Letter, both as an individual
and/or an organisation at Save Code Share [18]! Please spread the word
about the negative implications of the current EU Copyright Directive
proposal within your networks #savecodeshare [19]. Tell EU policy makers
that there is no place for upload filters when it comes to sharing code
as Free Software!
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [20], supporters [21] and
donors [22] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[23], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editors,
Polina Malaja and Erik Albers
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Help us grow and make a difference in 2017 [24]
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1: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016PC0593
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171005-01.en.html
3: https://savecodeshare.eu/
4:
https://savecodeshare.eu/static/assets/WhitePaper-ImpactofArticel13onSoftwa…
5: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-10
6: https://publiccode.eu/
7: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
8: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/PMPC/Press
9: https://publiccode.eu/#action
10: http://blog.jonasoberg.net/reuse-templates/
11: https://reuse.software/
12: https://kristiprogri.com/2017/09/20/fsfe-identity-process/
13:
https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2017-10-02-copycamp-public-money-public…
14:
https://www.kieler-linuxtage.de/index.php?seite=programm.html&untermenu=Bes…
15: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2017/Germany/Berlin/JointSFDBerlin
16: https://digitalewochekiel.de/programm/public-money-public-code/
17: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2017/the-fsfe-community-meeting-2017
18: https://savecodeshare.eu/#sign-letter
19: https://savecodeshare.eu/
20: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
21: http://fsfe.org/join
22: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
23: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
= FSFE Newsletter - September 2017 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201709.en.html ]
== Public Money? Public Code! ==
Digital services offered and used by our public administrations are part
of the critical infrastructure of 21st century democratic nations. Due
to restrictive software licences, however, many public bodies do not
have full control over their digital infrastructure. Although publishing
publicly funded software under a free licence generates great benefits
for governments and civil society, policy makers are still reluctant to
improve legislation in this area. It is time to change this. At the
FSFE, we want European legislation requiring that publicly financed
software developed for public sector must be made publicly available
under a Free and Open Source Software licence. If it is public money, it
should be public code as well!
To push our demand, the FSFE launched a new campaign last week: "Public
Money Public Code" [1]. The campaign explains the benefits of releasing
publicly funded Software under free licences with a short inspiring
video [2] and an open letter [3] to sign. Furthermore, the campaign and
the open letter will be used in the coming months until the European
Parliament election in 2019 to highlight good and bad examples of
publicly funded software development and its potential reuse.
Initial success was overwhelming. The campaign launch was covered by
many websites and news magazines over Europe. At the time of writing,
the Open Letter is already signed by more than 35 organisations [4] and
more than 5000 individuals [5]. Various politicians and other prominent
people have publicly announced their support of the campaign, including
Edward Snowden, President of Freedom of the Press Foundation:
"Public money shouldn't write software the public isn't allowed to
fix. Sign the letter, save the world: https://publiccode.eu/#action
#PublicCode" [6]
[ In the online version you find a picture here: ]
[ Edward Snowden on publiccode.eu ]
[ https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201709 ]
Support public code as well and sign the open letter here:
https://publiccode.eu/#action [7]
== FSFE publishes Software Licensing Best Practices ==
If you want others to be able to use your code, you have to include a
licence, and as a best practice you should do so in a way which can be
understood by humans and computers alike. Unfortunately, endless
software projects and code snippets are available in the open but still
lack a proper licence. One potential reason is that attaching a licence
to software - properly and in a way that is understandable - can be
challenging. Making sure computers understand your licence is even more
difficult.
That is why the FSFE has begun our work to make managing copyrights and
licences in free and open source software easier [8]. Our Software
Licensing Best Practices guide will help you include license and
copyright notices correctly in your software. And as we keep evaluating
best practices, under https://reuse.software/ [9] you will already find
a few simple steps to take to make the copyright and licence of your
project more easily understood.
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- The proposed European Copyright Directive restricts the rights of
developers and internet users, creating barriers for the development
of source code. Together with Open Forum Europe, the FSFE wrote a
white paper [11] to help people understand the full view of the matter
at stake from a software developer point of view. We will launch a
campaign later this month but you can already help us to raise
awareness by sharing Save Code Share [12] widely.
- The FSFE's executive director, Jonas Öberg, published a blog post
about the yearly FSFE budget, how our finances are structured, and
where the money goes [13].
- The "Koalition Freies Wissen" ("Free Knowledge Coalition") created the
"Digital-O-Mat" [14], an online tool for voter information for the
German federal elections on September 24th, 2017. The Digital-O-Mat
[15] (German) highlights the parties' positions on topics relavant to
internet policy like Free Software and helps voters find their most
matching party for the election to the German parliament.
- The FSFE country team Germany sent "Ask Your Candidates" questions to
participating parties of the Bundestagswahl (the German federal
elections) and published and analysed their answers [16]. (German)
- The FSFE country team Netherlands was present with a village at SHA
Camp, a non-profit hacker-camp in the Netherlands. For five days, this
village offered a public space to discuss, meet, hack, sing-along, and
find shelter. The FSFE had its own curated track and the village
offered multiple self-organized sessions [17], from a Free Software
Song choir to a FreedomBox install fest.
- The FSFE country team Greece supported the first edition of Re:publica
in Thessaloniki [18], a conference about digital culture.
- The FSFE group Rhein/Main was present with a booth at Froscon [19], at
the Free Software conference at the University of Applied Sciences
Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Germany. FSFE president Matthias Kirschner also gave
a talk about "Limux: das Ende eines Leuchtturm-Projekts!?" [20].
(German)
- In April this year, the Digital Society Institute hosted a workshop to
analyse "How secure is free software? Security record of open source
and free software." The workshop included contributions from Matthias
Kirschner and is now available in English and German [21] including
recommendations for the private and public sector.
- We are happy to welcome three new interns: Carmen Bianca Bakker,
Kristi Progri and Erik Da Silva. If you are interested in doing an
internship with us, find more information on our pages [22].
- We have a new item in the FSFE online shop: a non-binary pink bib [23]
with the slogan "I am a fork" stitched onto the bib. Organic and fair
trade.
[ In the online version you find a picture here: ]
[ The FSFE village during SHA Camp 2017 in the Netherlands. ]
[ https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201709 ]
== Do not miss it! Upcoming events with the FSFE ==
CopyCamp in Warsaw [24] will be happening on 28 - 29 of September.
CopyCamp is a conference that focuses on the question of how exclusive
immaterial rights affect culture, education, science, technology, and
Free Software. Matthias Kirschner will speak about "Limux: the loss of a
lighthouse" and our policy analyst Polina Malaja about the upcoming "EU
copyright reform and its implications for collaborative software
development." The conference has no admission fee, but participants are
asked to register before attending [25]. Thanks to the Foundation for
Polish-German Cooperation, there are travel grants available for German
residents (not only citizens), funded by the German Federal Foreign
Office.
== Get Active ==
Have a look at our "Public Money Public Code" page [26] and the PMPC
video and share it with your friends, colleagues, and favorite mailing
lists. Also ask them to sign the open letter [27] and do this yourself.
If the page is not available in your language, help us with translations
[28].
== Help us improve our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [29], supporters [30] and
donors [31] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[32], who enable our readers to read this newsletter in their mother
tongue.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
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1: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170913-01
2: https://publiccode.eu#about
3: https://publiccode.eu#action
4: https://publiccode.eu/#organisations
5: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/all-signatures/
6: https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/908012039045386240
7: https://publiccode.eu/#action
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170906-01
9: https://reuse.software
10: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-09
11: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170908-01
12: https://savecodeshare.eu/
13: http://blog.jonasoberg.net/where-does-our-money-go/
14: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170829-01
15: https://bund.digital-o-mat.de
16: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170905-01
17: https://blog.3rik.cc/2017/09/still-freeing-software-anyway/
18: https://re-publica.com/en/eu17/sessions?location=Thessaloniki
19: https://k7r.eu/fsfe-at-froscon-2017/
20:
https://media.ccc.de/v/froscon2017-1991-limux_das_ende_eines_leuchtturm-pro…
21: https://www.esmt.org/sites/default/files/dsi_ipr5_engl-dt.pdf
22: https://fsfe.org/contribute/internship
23: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170726-01
24: https://copycamp.pl/en/
25: https://copycamp.pl/en/contact/register/
26: https://publiccode.eu
27: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
28: https://git.fsfe.org/pmpc/website/src/master/TRANSLATE.md
29: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
30: http://fsfe.org/join
31: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
32: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
33: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-09
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>