= FSFE Newsletter - September 2011 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201109.fi.html ]
== New Intern surrounded by 800 geeks? ==
The first day in a new organisation always is quite intensive, many new
people, procedures, so much information. Our new intern Eszter Bako[1]it
was even more intense. She spent her first day with FSFE at the Desktop
Summit, surrounded by nearly 800 people talking about strange things
such as KDE, Gnome, Qt, GTK, Plasma, Git, QML, D-Bus, or about how to
build a toaster[2]. For beginners the Free Software community can give a
strange impression.
1. http://blogs.fsfe.org/eszter/
2. https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/complexity-everyday-technolo…
Good thing that she wasn't on her own. Our experienced intern Natalia
Evdokimova, who organised our booth at the event, safely guided her
through the day. Beside that there were many other FSFE activists: Our
president Karsten gave a talk about"Free desktops for Europe's public
sector"[3]and founding member Bernhard talked about"Daily Melee: paid
people within Free Software initiatives - How they tick, how to keep
them and the art of behaving if you are one"[4]. Like you can see on our
blog aggregation[5]there were a lot of other Fellows present, including
our former president Georg Greve.
3. https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/free-desktops-europes-public…
4. https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/daily-melee-paid-people-with…
5. http://planet.fsfe.org
Beside Eszter joining and Natalia leaving as intern, there are more
changes within our team: Nicolas Jean's[6]internship has now ended. He
was one of the most active people in the web team, and we are happy that
he will remain in our volunteers team as FSFE's webmaster. Diego Naranjo
Barroso[7]and Alessandro Polvani[8]started their internships. Diego
already contacted the Spanish Institutions[9]for our PDFreaders
campaign, and Alessandro will do the follow-up in Italy.
6. http://blogs.fsfe.org/nicoulas
7. http://blogs.fsfe.org/diegojavier/
8. http://blogs.fsfe.org/alessandro.polvani/
9. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.fi.html#ES
== Digits to remember: 22-10-11 and 11-11-11 ==
The Nordic Free Software Award is given to people, projects or
organisations in the Nordic countries that have made a prominent
contribution to the advancement of Free Software. Henrik Sandklef, our
vice-president, asks you[10]to submit nominations by email until October
22nd.
10. https://sandklef.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/nomination-period-open-for-nordic…
The award will be announced during the Free Society Conference and
Nordic Summit (FSCONS)[11]in Gothenburg, Sweden which will take place
from Friday November 11th through Sunday November 13th. The conference
is organised by FSFE's Swedish team, and your editor is responsible for
FSFE's"Free Software in Politics" track[12]there. We are looking forward
to see you there. (Fellows will get a discount of 10 EUR on the standard
rate).
11. http://fscons.org/
12. http://fscons.org/schedule/
== Something completely different ==
- The importance of promoting Free Software, spreading Free Software in
schools, and what role the computer sciences can play in relating the
messages of Free Software to other institutions and disciplines: Read
the latest Fellowship interview[13], in which our fellow Richard
Shipman shares his thoughts on these topics.
- On Saturday 13th August Free Software activists came to FSFE’s PDF
Readers Sprint in Manchester and found 59 previously unreported
adverts for proprietary PDF readers, all of them on UK Council
websites. Check out the report about the event done by Sam Tuke[14]and
Chris Woolfrey[15]from our UK team.
- Computer Aided Design (CAD) software is critically important to a
variety of industries and professions. It is also notorious for being
poorly catered for by Free Software applications. Sam wrote a brief
summary of the current situation.[16]
- Support Ogg Vorbis by helping our sister FSF to reach 5.000 signatures
for their petition[17], asking for This American Life in Ogg Vorbis.
Also concerning Ogg, FSFE's UK team had a booth at the
OggCamp2011[18].
- R-DIY Feminism Festival: FSFE will be represented at the DIY Feminism
Festival[19]in Manchester on September 3 and 4, holding events,
including talks on Free Software philosophy, Free Software and women,
and an Open Street Map workshop.
- Summer time was blogging time, so here some articles from the planet
aggregation[20]:With our new intern Diego J. Naranjo Barroso's help
Matija prepared the Free Software and law related links covering links
about the the patents war, Google acquiring Motorola Mobility, and
other stories in 1.8.-14.8.[21]and 15.8.-21.8.[22].
- Timo Jyrinki writes about Free Software on mobile phones[23]and the
MeeGo Summit Finland[24]including lots of pictures from the
event[25].
- Freedom Box: Read about the progress and technical details of the
Freedom Box[26], in Bdale Garbee's report from DebConf11 in Banja
Luka. If you are in the UK at the time, you can attend Sam's talk on
Freedom Boxes[27]in Manchester on 20 September 2011 at 19:00.
- Interested in processing images from the command line? Swedish Team
member Patrik Willard writes about how to do that[28]for the FSCONS
preperations.
- Chris Woolfrey, who is doing the Fellowship interviews[29]started
blogging. His latest article is about the question, if all the data on
your work computer count as company data"[30].
13. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=378
14. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=191
15. http://blogs.fsfe.org/chriswoolfrey/2011/08/15/pdf-readers-campaign-hits-th…
16. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=169
17. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tal-ogg-petition
18. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=194
19. http://diyfeminism.com/events-andworkshops/
20. http://planet.fsfe.org
21. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/254
22. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/255
23. http://losca.blogspot.com/2011/08/meego-ce-and-freesmartphoneorg.html
24. http://losca.blogspot.com/2011/04/meego-summit-fi-starts-tomorrow.html
25. http://losca.blogspot.com/2011/04/meego-summit-fi-days-1-2.html
26. http://www.gag.com/bdale/blog/posts/FreedomBox_in_Banja_Luka.html
27. http://fsfe.org/news/news.fi.html
28. http://blog.padowi.se/2011/08/28/2011w34/
29. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/
30. http://blogs.fsfe.org/chriswoolfrey/2011/08/18/should-all-the-data-on-your-…
-
== Get Active: Software Freedom Day ==
September 17th is Software Freedom Day[31](SFD), a worldwide celebration
of Free Software. Its goal is educational, teaching people why Free
Software is the best choice when it comes to using Software. Organised
and coordinated by the Software Freedom International, SFD invites
everyone to participate and take action on a local level. Our Fellowship
group[32]in Vienna for example invits you to a Software Freedom Party.
The evening will be opened by a talk about legal aspects in Free
Software, held by FSFE's new legal coordinator Matija Šuklje. The
groups in Bonn[33], Hamburg[34], and Manchester[35]also have plans.
31. http://softwarefreedomday.org/
32. http://wiki.fsfe.org/CategoryFellowshipGroup
33. http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Bonn
34. http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Hamburg
35. http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Manchester
Contact existing groups to participate in events, or organise your own
SFD activity!
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.fi.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.fi.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.fi.html>
= FSFE Newsletter - August 2011 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201108.fi.html ]
== Inside stories by a critical thinker ==
"If people do not understand why their computing is related to their
freedom, it’s because nobody explained them properly" (Bernhard
Reiter)
Bernhard Reiter is one of FSFE's founders and architect of the original
German team. He participated in setting up three important Free Software
organisations: FreeGIS.org, FFII, and FossGIS. Besides that, he is
founder and Executive Director of Intevation GmbH, a company with
exclusively Free Software products and services since 1999.
Interesting stories about setting up FSFE, challenges for Free Software,
and more are covered in this month's Fellowship interview[1].
1. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=341
== Become a Critical Thinker: Get Rid of "Intellectual Property" ==
A lot of people talk about "intellectual property". When using this
term, they usually mix different things like copyright, patents,
trademarks, also right to a name, utility patents, business models, or
even geographical indications. If you want to think critically and
clearly about challenges in the digital age, you should separate those
different issues.
If you really need a term to cover all that, you should use one which is
not that much biased. There are some suggestions in the articles
mentioned below, like the term "Limited Intellectual Monopolies".
But in 90% cases there is actually only one monopoly concerned.
Discussions will be much more productive if everybody knows what you are
talking about. So, if someone says "we need more protection of
"intellectual property", ask them what that means, perhaps it means they
want to have software patents. If someone says "we need to limit the
scope of "intellectual property", you should ask if they want to
restrain copyright, patents or even abolish trademarks.
You can read more about this in Richard Stallman's article"Did You Say
'Intellectual Property'? It's a Seductive Mirage"[2], Georg
Greve's"Fighting intellectual poverty (Who owns and controls the
information societies?)"[3], and your editor's interview with Dradio
Wissen[4](in German).
2. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.en.html
3. http://fsfe.org/projects/wsis/issues.fi.html
4. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=810
== Support FSFE in critical thinking ==
For FSFE it is important that all of you support us. This way our work
does not depend on single donors, and we can continue to think and
communicate critical to promote software freedom.
It is now possible to donate us monthly and yearly[5]by*credit card*and
in Germany also by*direct debit*. Beside that, in the Netherlands
donations to FSFE can now be deducted from income tax (before it was
only possible in Germany and Switzerland). If we get more than 20 new
donors, your editor promises that he will not write the word "critical"
in the next newsletter.
5. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.fi.html
== Something completely different ==
- Richard Stallman wrote an article"Resist the Temptations of the
Cloud!"[6]( German version[7]) in the German Magazine "Spiegel".
- PDFreaders.org[8]. It is boring to follow up bugs, but it does not
take a lot of time and has a good effect. In Italy volunteers again
managed to close 13 bugs last month. Your editor gave two talks in
Brazil about the PDFreaders campaign[9]to motivate people to fix bugs
in Latin America, and our UK coordinator Sam Tuke is organising a
PDFreaders bug hunt in Manchester. If you live around, join other Free
Software advocates on Saturday, August 13, between 15.00-17.30 at
MadLab hackerspace[10]to find and remove UK Government adverts for
non-Free PDF Readers. Cake and Pizza provided!
- New German Free Software Business Association: Lisog (124 members) and
LIVE Linux-Verband (103 members) now merged into the Open Source
Business Alliance (OSBA)[11](German).
- FSFE will take part at the Desktop Summit, a joint conference
organised by the GNOME and KDE communities in Berlin, Germany, 6 - 12
August 2011 at the Humboldt University. Our president Karsten Gerloff
will give a talk on"Free desktops for Europe's public sector"[12]and
Bernhard Reiter will talk about"Daily Melee: paid people within Free
Software initiatives - How they tick, how to keep them and the art of
behaving if you are one"[13]. (All events are available on our event
page[14]and in the Fellowship calendar[15].
- From the planet aggregation[16]:
- CERN launched its Open Hardware License 1.1 and Open Hardware
Repository. IBM promised to give its Lotus Symphony source code to the
Apache Foundation, and W3C wants to invalidate Apple's Widget software
patents. Read the legal news from 27.6.-3.7.[17] 4.7.-10.7.[18], and
11.7.-18.7.[19].
- Brian Gough has announced the GNU Hackers meeting[20]which will take
place on 25. August – 28. August in Paris. There are about 45 GNU
maintainers and contributors registered so far and speakers include
Jim Meyering, Stefano Zacchiroli, and Jim Blandy.
- Why are students developing Free Software for the public sector? Read
in Guido Arnold's weblog[21]how students get involved in Free
Software.
6. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,775218,00.html
7. http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,774766,00.html
8. http://pdfreaders.org
9. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.fi.html
10.
http://madlab.org.uk/content/stamp-out-the-ads-free-software-pdf-reader-spr…
11. http://www.linux-verband.de/news/detail/opensource/pressemitteilung/
12.
https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/free-desktops-europes-public…
13.
https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/daily-melee-paid-people-with…
14. http://fsfe.org/events/events.fi.html
15. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents
16. http://planet.fsfe.org
17. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/250
18. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/251
19. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/252
20.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/bjg/2011/07/gnu-hackers-meeting-in-paris-25-28-august…
21.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/07/students-developing-free-software-for-t…
== Get active: Read and distribute "crime story" ==
"When patents attack"[22]is a good story from investigative journalists
on software patents, which reads like a crime story. Your editor
recommends you to read it so you have good arguments in future. If you
like it, distribute the article among your colleagues and friends.
22. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/22/138576167/when-patents-attack
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.fi.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.fi.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.fi.html>
= FSFE Newsletter - July 2011 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201107.fi.html ]
== Attack on Free Software and the GNU GPL ==
Imagine that you've just bought a computer with pre-installed Free
Software. After some time you decide to install additional software made
by someone else. The vendor that sold you your computer, however, does
not approve, and decides to sue the people who made the additional
software that you installed. Sounds like purchasing a computer from that
vendor was not such a great idea!
At the moment something very similar is happening in in Germany[1], in
an important GNU GPL violation case that the FSFE and gpl-
violations.org[2]are participating. Germany company AVM maintains in
court that others should not be allowed to modify the software that
comes pre-installed on their commercial computers and devices. It turns
out, though, that this pre-installed software includes the Linux kernel,
a piece of software distributed under the GNU GPL which guarantees
exactly this freedom to users.
1. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.en.html
2. http://www.gpl-violations.org
Through their actions, AVM is attacking the very foundations of Free
Software: they want to take away freedom from others. It will directly
contravene the legal rights of the original software authors[3], who
decided that software freedom and cooperation is more important to them
than receiving license fees. If AVM is successful in court it will be a
disastrous move for the freedom of software on embedded devices, mobile
phones, network hardware and other Free Software based products.
3.
http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/24/#20110624-avm_cybits_gpl_fud
The judge did not make a decision during the June 21 court hearing, and
participants in the case may still file further written pleas. On
September 27 the court is set to either make a direct ruling on the case
or choose to begin hearing evidence. The FSFE and gpl-violations.org
have published a detailed report about the case[4], and will continue to
monitor the situation in defence of freedom for software users.
4. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/avm-gpl-violation.en.html
== FSFE Internal: An era ends - others start ==
Usually you don't hear about the people who work behind the scenes for
the FSFE. Most of us are volunteers, and press and publicity work is
handled by people like FSFE president Karsten Gerloff[5], or your humble
editor. But without those volunteers who donate their spare time to
promote software freedom the FSFE would not be what it is today. (Thank
you!)
5. http://fsfe.org/about/gerloff/gerloff.fi.html
At the FSFE's June 11 General Assembly, which took place in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, FSFE's members[6]elected Henrik Sandklef[7]to be the
organisation's Vice President. A computer scientist and GNU Hacker from
Gothenburg, Sweden, Henrik has been active with the FSFE since 2005. He
takes over from Fernanda Weiden, who held the volunteer position for the
past two years. The General Assembly also confirmed Karsten Gerloff as
FSFE's President and Reinhard Müller as Finanical Officer.
6. http://fsfe.org/about/members.fi.html
7. http://sandklef.com/hesa
While a new officer term cycle began, another era ended as Bernhard
Reiter, FSFE co-founder, completed ten years as German coordinator and
Deputy. He is the first FSFE representative to continuously hold
positions within the organisation for such a long time, and is the only
person to have participated in every FSFE annual General Assembly to
date. Bernhard will remain active within the FSFE but has handed the
official post of Deputy German Coordinator to Torsten Grote[8].
8. http://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/
== The European Commission’s locked-in syndrome ==
It's official: The European Commission will migrate to Microsoft Windows
7 without considering alternative solutions. In a reply to questions
asked by MEP Bart Staes (Greens/EFA), the European Commission confirmed
that it has awarded contracts for the 'upgrade' to Microsoft and
reseller Fujitsu-Siemens on behalf of 55 other European institutions and
the Commission itself. As Karsten explains in his blog article on the
issue[9], this move will drive the Comission into even greater
dependence on Microsoft.
9.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/06/06/the-european-commissions-locked-in…
== And now for something completely different ==
- Do you want your (future) children to work with Free Software in
school? Read the new Fellowship Interview with Guido Arnold[10]. Guido
is coordinating the FSFE's education team. He gives insights into the
team's latest efforts at increasing the use of Free Software in
education.
- One IP address for everything: FSFE celebrated World IPv6 Day[11].
Almost all of our servers are now reachable via IPv6.
- Have you ever seen three FSF presidents in one place? The famous
picture captures Richard Stallman (FSF US), Nagarjuna G (FSF India)
and Karsten Gerloff (FSFE)[12]together.
- From the planet aggregation[13]:
- Do you need Free Software law related links[14]? Matija Šuklje and
Natalia Evdokimova published a June 2001 edition of their Free
Software law resource list.
- How do you organise a cool Free Software event, like FSCONS[15], using
only command line tools? Read the blog articles from Patrik
Willard[16], FSFE's new Deputy coordinator of Sweden.
- Football is still a topic on our blog aggregation: Lena Simon writes
about football and football for men[17]and Guido writes about the EURO
2012 in Free Software[18], an alternative for those not interested in
traditional football.
- Greek Fellow Kostas Boukouvalas writes about Thessaloniki’s
GNU/Linux Lab[19]
- Michael Stehmann reports about the Düsseldorf Fellowship meeting[20],
including the Open Music Contest
10. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=321
11. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110608-01.fi.html
12.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/06/30/free-software-summit-improvised/
13. http://planet.fsfe.org
14. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/249
15. http://fscons.org
16. http://blog.padowi.se/
17.
http://www.stud.uni-potsdam.de/~leena/2011/06/fusball-und-mannerfusball-gle…
18.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/06/euro-2012-in-free-software-qualificatio…
19. http://blogs.fsfe.org/boukouvalas/?p=360
20. http://blogs.fsfe.org/stehmann/?p=260
== Get active: Become an FSFE booth volunteer in Strasbourg ==
The FSFE will participate in the RMLL, one of France's biggest Free
Software events, from July 9 to 14. In addition to having an information
booth, the FSFE will also deliver presentations on Free Software:
Karsten will talk about Centralised Internet Services and Problems of
Power (13.07., 15:20), France Coordinator Hugo Roy[21]will talk about
the battle fought by Free Software for HTML5 online videos, and several
other speakers have been invited to talk on topics concerning
decentralisation of the Internet.
21. http://fsfe.org/about/roy/roy.fi.html
Like every booth and event we participate with, please contact today to
volunteer if you are able. Help us to inform our audiences about Free
Software!
Best regards and see you next time,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.fi.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.fi.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.fi.html>
= AVM violating license of the Linux kernel =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.fi.html ]
== Linux kernel at centre of battle for control of embedded devices ==
Berlin, 20th June - Tomorrow on June 21st a legal case will be heard
before the District Court of Berlin which may have enormous consequences
for the way that software is developed and distributed. The adversaries
in the case are the manufacturer and distributor of DSL routers AVM
Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM), and Cybits AG (Cybits) which
produces children's web-filtering software. Both companies use the Linux
kernel, which is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version
2 (GNU GPL); a Free Software license permitting everyone to use, study,
share, and improve works which use it.
The case was brought to court by AVM with the aim of preventing Cybits
from changing any parts of the firmware used in AVM's routers, including
the Linux kernel. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and gpl-
violations.org consider AVM's action as a broad attack against the
principles of Free Software, and thus against the thousands of
individuals and companies developinging, improving and distributing Free
Software.
"I decided to contribute my work to the Linux kernel under the GNU GPL,
and let others benefit from it. I'm happy if companies make a lot of
money with software written by me and thousands of others. But in
return, when they distribute our software I want them to give others the
same rights they received from me", said Harald Welte, founder of gpl-
violations.org and copyright holder of several parts of the Linux
kernel.
This is however exactly what AVM tried to avoid when in 2010 they filed
two actions against Cybits. AVM claimed that when their customers
install Cybits' filtering software on AVM routers it changes the
routers' firmware and consequently infringes on AVM's copyright. In the
opinion of AVM, even changing the Linux kernel components of the
firmware is not allowed. The Court of Appeals of Berlin rejected this
argument in its decision on the request for a preliminary injunction in
September 2010, after Mr. Welte intervened in the case. Now, the
District Court of Berlin will have to decide on the issue again, this
time in the main proceedings.
"This case has far reaching consequences for the future of Free Software
and the GNU GPL. The GNU GPL is a legal license set by the original
authors of the software. These terms are not optional" said Till Jaeger
from JBB Rechtsanwälte who represents Mr. Welte in this case.
If AVM succeeds in forbidding others from exercising the freedoms
explicitly granted by the GNU General Public License terms, it will
directly contravene the legal rights of the original authors of the
programs, who decided that software freedom and cooperation is more
important to them than directly receiving license fees. Moreover, there
are also significant economic and business implications. First, it will
give device manufacturers the chance to veto software from third parties
on their products, resulting in worse products for the user and them
being locked-in to purchasing future products from a particular vendor.
Second, it will give companies like AVM an unfair advantage over their
competitors who are in compliance with the Free Software licenses which
they use. Third, it will threaten the cooperative software development
model, which has been successfully used by many companies worldwide for
three decades.
"AVM is attacking the very foundations of Free Software: They want to
take away freedom from others. We have to act when a company sues others
for executing their right to modify Free Software. AVM's behaviour must
not be tolerated. If they are successful in court it will be disastrous
for the global market for embedded devices, which includes mobile
phones, network hardware, and other Linux based products" says Matthias
Kirschner, FSFE's German Coordinator.
"Ironically, by preventing others from enacting the rights granted by
the GNU GPL, AVM itself is in violation of the license terms. Therefore
they have no right to distribute the software" says Till Jaeger.
FSFE and gpl-violations.org are committed to encouraging the use of Free
Software by companies and developers by making licensing and compliance
as easy as possible. Generally it is considerably easier to comply with
Free Software licenses than with EULAs and other license agreements for
non-Free software. Often it is only necessary to add a copy of the GNU
GPL license text to documentation, and add an offer to provide the
software source code (see FSFE's compliance tips[1]).
1. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors.fi.html
- Link to Background Information[2]
- Court decision 2nd instance (pdf, German)[3]
- Intervention by Harald Welte (pdf, German)[4]
- FSFE's legal page[5]
- FSFE's legal team maintains a collection of documentation on Free
Software Legal and Licensing topics. It also produces guides and
handbooks.[6]
- Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses[7]
- GNU GPL version 2[8] and official translations[9]
2. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/avm-gpl-violation.fi.html
3. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/kg-avm-vs-cybits.pdf
4. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/avm-nebenintervention.pdf
5. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/ftf.fi.html
6. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/documentation.fi.html
7. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html
8. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
9. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-translations.html
== Press contacts ==
Matthias Kirschner <mk at fsfe.org>, Free Software Foundation Europe
Linienstraße 141, 10115 Berlin
Phone: +49-30-275 95 290 Mobile: +49-1577-178 000 3
== gpl-violations.org ==
The gpl-violations.org project is taking legal and other means to
make sure commercial users of Free Software are adhering to the GNU
General Public License. gpl-violations.org has enforced the GNU GPL
in hundreds of cases, most of them amicably and out of court.
However, if neccessary, legal means such as warning notices,
preliminary injunctions and civil copyright lawsuits are used in
order to ensure companies are following-up with their obligations
under the GNU GPL.
gpl-violations.org was started by Free Software developer Harald
Welte, who has received multiple awards in recognition of his legal
efforts on enforcing the GNU GPL.
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/
= FSFE in Samba case: Microsoft's defiance backfired =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110525-01.fi.html ]
Luxembourg, May 25 - FSFE played a key role at a Microsoft hearing
before the European Union's General Court on Tuesday, helping explain
the intricacies of Free Software servers.
The hearing was called to consider Microsoft's challenge to a EUR 899
million fine imposed by the European Commission in 2008. Microsoft had
failed to carry out remedies imposed for its violation of EU antitrust
law. A ruling is expected for later in the year.
Microsoft was required to provide interoperability information that
would enable others to hook up to its products so they could compete
with its workgroup servers. Key among those was the Samba team, which is
the only surviving competitor in the workgroup server market. Only after
a European Union court acted in 2007 to uphold nearly all of the
Commission's 2004 decision did Microsoft finally meet the Commission's
requirement to comply.
"In order to compete, the Samba team only needed the mundane information
about how Microsoft computers talk to each other," said Tridgell. "There
is nothing innovative here. All the innovative bits are either already
published by Microsoft's own researchers, or are contained in the
Microsoft program source code – and we have no interest in seeing
that. The innovation certainly isn't in the protocol specifications."
Tridgell appeared before a panel headed by Chamber President Nicholas
James Forwood of Britain, which also included judges Franklin Dehousse
of Belgium and Juraj Schwarcz of Slovakia. Microsoft, the Commission,
and outside intervenors on both sides were also represented. FSFE and
the Samba team were represented by lawyer Carlo Piana.
The problems date back to the Commission's 2004 decision that Microsoft
should release interoperability information. After that, the company
played for time and waited three years to comply with the Commission's
demands. Explaining the significance of Samba for a competitive software
market, Chamber President Forwood said: “Samba is the funnel through
which the effects on the market will be produced.”
Microsoft contended that the information it had to provide was valuable
and innovative, and originally sought to charge high prices for it.
Tridgell demonstrated that the valuable information had already been
revealed by Microsoft in research papers and other public fora. By
contrast, the information that Samba team needed to interoperate with
computers running Microsoft Windows was neither original nor innovative.
“Microsoft didn't keep this information secret because it was
valuable; the information was only valuable because it was kept
secret,” Piana told the Court on behalf of FSFE. He said it let
Microsoft preserve its dominant position, because no other software was
able to talk to the company's systems. “The company used these three
years to further entrench its dominant position in the market.”
“Microsoft is acting like a gambler who doubled up on a losing bet,
and now wants his money back,” said Nicholas Kahn, the representative
of the European Commission. By waiting three years before complying with
the Commission's decision while the clock on the fine was ticking,
Microsoft set the stakes very high – and finally lost.
“In this case, Europe's competition regulators have shown their bite.
We hope that the court will uphold the fine and make it clear that
companies in Europe have to play by the rules,” said Karsten Gerloff,
President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. “FSFE does many
things to help foster the growth of Free Software. We're proud to help
make the case for Free Software in a forum such as this, where we
believe we are providing a public service.”
Workgroup servers handle tasks used in small groups – printing,
signing in, and allocating permission to access particular files. The
Samba project not only provides an alternative to Microsoft's workgroup
server. It has come up with an alternative that is better in many
respects. For example, the Samba team used the trivial information
provided by Microsoft to build an innovative system that runs on very
small, cheap computers -- something that Microsoft's software cannot do.
“The hearing established that Free Software is central to restoring
competition in the workgroup server market,” says Piana. “Everyone
agreed to this, including the judges. This case matters because it
highlights that interoperability is more important than a company's
interest in keeping its dominant position.”
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/
Contact: Karsten Gerloff, President, +49-176-96904298
Free Software crucial to competition, regulators in Novell patent deal say
Competition authorities in Germany and the United States today
highlighted the fundamental role that Free Software plays for
competition in the software market. After several months of discussions,
the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the German Federal Competition
Office (FCO) have allowed a consortium of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and
EMC to acquire 882 patents from Novell only subject to conditions
clearly intended to prevent their use against Free Software players.
"This is an historic step", says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free
Software Foundation Europe, which was involved in the FCO investigation
since the beginning. "The regulators acknowledge that Free Software is
crucial to competition; that patent aggression can well be
anticompetitive behaviour; and that fear, uncertainty and doubt serve to
push smaller competitors out of the market."
== Parallels to Microsoft case - no patent privilege ==
"FSFE has been highlighting the danger of software patents for a decade,"
says FSFE's legal counsel Carlo Piana. In the present transaction,
patents play a similar role as they did in the European Commission's
antitrust proceedings against Microsoft. Microsoft was forced to
disclose its secret protocols, but refused to make them available under
conditions that would allow their use in GPL-licensed Free Software.
FSFE is glad to see that conversely in this situation antitrust
authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are recognising the power of
copyleft Free Software licenses to preserve competition.
The decisions by the FCO and the DOJ are also an acknowledgement that
regulatory intervention can be necessary to overcome vendor lock-in and
create a level playing field for all market participants. "Patents are
not an excuse to avoid antitrust scrutiny. Today's announcements make
that clear as daylight" says Piana.
In a hearing at the European Court of Justice next month, FSFE will
state its objections to Microsoft's strategy of using patents to limit
competition, as Microsoft is appealing the fine of 899 million Euro
imposed by the Commission.
FSFE will carefully review the actual decisions as they become
available. "Today's announcements point in a very interesting
direction. It is a success for the intense work done by FSFE and
others, such as the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source
Initiative. But the conditions we've seen are no panacea. The devil
will be in the details," says Gerloff. Intense monitoring by the
competition authorities will be required to ensure that the conditions
for the transaction will have the intended effect.
== Contact ==
Karsten Gerloff
President, Free Software Foundation Europe
Phone: +49 176 9690 4298
Mail: gerloff(a)fsfeurope.org
== Resources ==
US DOJ announcement:
http://7thspace.com/headlines/379849/usdoj_cptn_holdings_llc_and_novell_inc…
German FCO announcement:
http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/wDeutsch/aktuelles/presse/2011_04_20W3Dnavid…
FSFE statement to German FCO from December 22, 2010
http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/letter-20101222.en.html
FSFE response to questions by German FCO from April 6, 2011
http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/letter-20110406.en.html
Overview of FSFE's work
http://fsfe.org/projects/work.en.html
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit,
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation
in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/