=== Nortel/Rockstar, Google/Motorola deals create balance of terror on
software patents===
[Read Online: http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120214.01.en.html]
On Monday, the US Department of Justice approved the sale of Nortel's
patent portfolio to a consortium led by Apple and Microsoft. At the same
time, the DOJ and the European Commission allowed Google to buy Motorola
Mobility, thus giving the search company a sizable patent portfolio.
"We appreciate that competition authorities in the US and Europe
continue to take software patents seriously as a risk to competition,"
says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe.
"However, we believe that the commitments made by Google, Microsoft and
Apple regarding their patent licensing policies are not sufficient to
allow everyone to compete on equal terms."
The terms of those commitments do nothing to ensure that the software
patents in the portfolios in question can be implemented in Free Software.
While Microsoft has said that it will not seek injunctions against
companies using its standard-essential patents, this policy merely
restates the commitments Microsoft has already made to standards
organisations. Microsoft will only license its patents on so-called
"RAND" terms (short for "reasonable and non-discriminatory"). These
typically require the company that implements the patents to pay a
licensing fee per unit.
Despite their name, such conditions are largely incompatible with Free
Software based on Open Standards [1], standards which can be implemented
by anyone in any business or software model. This means that Microsoft
remains free to use its patents to block or harm some of its most
important Free Software competitors, such as the GNU/Linux operating
system and the LibreOffice productivity suite.
"By greenlighting both the Google and Nortel transactions, the DOJ has
merely created a balance of terror where patents are concerned," says
Gerloff. "Small companies and individual software developers don't have
the deep pockets required to play the patent litigation game. They will
suffer as a result of this deal, along with the shareholders of Google,
Microsoft and Apple. When elephants dance, the smaller wildlife gets
crushed."
FSFE submitted a comprehensive statement of concern to the US Department
of Justice in September 2011. [2]
Links:
[1] http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html
[2] http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/nortel.en.html
== Contact: ==
Karsten Gerloff
President of the Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: gerloff AT fsfe DOT org
Phone: +49 176 9690 4298
== 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/
= La recherche sur le web par le Peuple, pour le Peuple : YaCy 1.0 =
Le projet YaCy vient de publier la version 1.0 du logiciel libre de
moteur de recherche pair-à-pair. Le logiciel prend une direction
radicalement nouvelle pour la recherche. YaCy n'utilise pas de serveur
central. À la place, ses résultats de recherche viennent d'un réseau
composé actuellement de plus de 600 pairs indépendants. Dans un tel
réseau distribué, aucune entité ne peut à elle seule décider de ce qui
est listé, ou dans quel ordre les résultats apparaissent.
Le moteur de recherche YaCy fonctionne sur le propre ordinateur de
chaque utilisateur. Les termes de la recherche sont chiffrés avant de
quitter l'ordinateur de l'utilisateur. À la différence de moteurs de
recherche conventionnels, YaCy est conçu pour protéger la vie privée des
utilisateurs. L'ordinateur d'un utilisateur créée un indexe des
recherches et un classement individuel, afin que les résultats
correspondent davantage à ce que l'utilisateur recherche au fil du
temps. YaCy rend également facile la création d'un portail de recherche
personnalisé en quelques clics.
"La plupart des choses que nous faisons sur l'Internet implique de
chercher. C'est le lien vital entre nous et l'information que nous
recherchons. Pour une fonction aussi essentielle, nous ne pouvons pas
reposer sur quelques grandes entreprises, et compromettre notre vie
privée par la même occasion~» selon Michael Christen, leader du projet
YaCy. «~La recherche libre de YaCy est le lien vital entre des
utilisateurs libres et une information libre. YaCy nous redonne le
contrôle sur la recherche, il le rend aux utilisateurs."
Chaque utilisateur de YaCy fait partie d'un large réseau de recherche.
YaCy est déjà utilisé sur des sites Web comme sciencenet.kit.edu,
yacy.geocaching-portal.com, ou fsfe.org, afin de fournir une fonction de
recherche à l'échelle d'un site qui respecte la vie privée des
utilisateurs. Elle contient un protocole de réseau pair-à-pair pour
échanger des indexes de recherche avec d'autres moteurs de recherche
YaCy.
"Nous nous éloignons de l'idée qu'un service doive être contrôlé
centralement. Au lieu de ça, nous réalisons combien il est important
d'être indépendant et de créer une infrastructure qui n'ait pas un point
unique de défaillance.~» déclare Karsten Gerloff, président de la Free
Software Foundation Europe. «~Dans l'avenir des systèmes pair-à-pair et
distribués, les logiciels libres de moteurs de recherche comme YaCy sont
une fondation nécessaire."
Chacun peut essayer le moteur de recherche à http://search.yacy.net. Les
utilisateurs peuvent faire partie du réseau YaCy en installant le
logiciel sur leurs ordinateurs. YaCy est un logiciel libre~;ainsi,
chacun peut l'utiliser, l'étudier, le partager et l'améliorer. Il est
actuellement disponible pour GNU/Linux, Windows et MacOS. Le projet est
également à la recherche de développeurs et d'autres contributeurs.
== Liens: ==
Page d'accueil de YaCy :http://yacy.net
Portail de recherche YaCy :http://search.yacy.net/
Comment contribuer : http://yacy.net/en/Join.html
Free Software Foundation Europe: http://fsfe.org
== Contacts ==
Michael Christen
YaCy Project Leader
Tel. +49 177 6424235
Email: mc(a)yacy.net
Karsten Gerloff
Président, Free Software Foundation Europe
Tel. +49 176 9690 4298
Email: gerloff(a)fsfeurope.org
== À propos de la Free Software Foundation Europe ==
La Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE - Fondation Européenne pour le
Logiciel Libre) est une organisation non gouvernementale à but non
lucratif, active dans de nombreux pays européens et impliquée dans de
nombreuses activités internationales. L'accès au logiciel est éterminant
dans la participation à la société numérique. Afin d'assurer un accès
égalitaire à l'ère de l'information ainsi que la libre concurrence, la
FSFE se dévoue au développement des Logiciels Libres, qui se
caractérisent par les droits d'exécution, d'étude, de modification et de
copie. Sensibiliser le public à ces problèmes, sécuriser l'environnement
politique et juridique du Logiciel Libre, et rendre la liberté aux
personnes en soutenant le développement de Logiciels Libres sont les
activités centrales de la FSFE depuis sa création en 2001.
= FSFE Newsletter - November 2011 =
[Read Online : http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201111.en.html ]
== WWW would have been better if it was patented ==
How long should copyright last? Should living beings or software be
patentable? The World Intellectual Property Organisation deals with this
sort of questions. Since 2004, we are involved in the WIPO to make sure
they do not harm Free Software. Our most important demand is that when
it comes to copyright and patents, the benefits should be weighed
against the costs.
The new Director General Francis Gurry's said that the World Wide Web
would have been better if it was patented. This shows us that the
current trend is in the opposite direction. Read more about this in
Karsten's article WIPO sliding back into the Dark Ages?[1], our WIPO
dossier[2], and support the Geneva Declaration[3].
1.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/10/24/wipo-sliding-back-into-the-dark-ag…
2. http://fsfe.org/projects/wipo/wipo.de.html
3. http://fsfe.org/projects/wipo/wiwo.de.html
== Daily business - step by step ==
Why do FSFE so frequently give interviews and talks, and travel to
promote FSFE issues? Our mission is to promote freedom in emerging
digital society. So as you can see on our events page[4]it is part of
our daily business to travel around, give talks, interviews, and
organise events. Paul Boddie improved our Fellowship event
calendar[5]which now integrates GriCal. This way you can subscribe to
the calendar. If you are already subscribed to the the event's RSS feed
<http://fsfe.org/events/events.de.rss>or the Ical feed[6]you can skip
the next paragraph.
4. http://fsfe.org/events/events.de.html
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=54
6. webcal://fsfe.org/events/events.en.ics
So for example in October Karsten and Matija gave talks at LinuxCon
Europe in Prague, Sam gave a speech at the DIY Feminist Festival in
Manchester[7], our UK team had a booth at FLOSS UK Unconference 2011 in
Manchester, your editor gave a talk about "10 misunderstandings about
Free Software (or are they lies?)" at the technical university in
Berlin, our Austrian coordinator Peter Bubestinger gave a talk "Free
Software and Open Formats: virtual immortality and independence for
digital archives" at the National Library in Vienna, and our French
coordinator Hugo Roy organised a talk on "A Free Digital Society" by
Richard Stallman[8].
7. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=215
8.
http://www.libertesnumeriques.net/evenements/stallman-19octobre2011?lang=en
On the interview front: Karsten gave a radio interview about our work at
WIPO[9], Hugo an interview to the French GNU Linux Magazine Essentiel,
your editor to the German newspaper TAZ about Secure boot[10].
9.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/10/24/wipo-sliding-back-into-the-dark-ag…
10. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=845
== Something completely different ==
- Rikard Fröberg works at The Society for Free Culture and
Software[11], and contributes this year to the FSCONS[12]organisation
and thereby supporting our Free Software in Politics track[13]. In the
October Fellowship Interview[14]he considers the importance of having
an active and engaged community of users.
- Free Software from a human rights angle. Instead of just saying good-
bye after the end of his internship, Diego wrote us a nice article as
a gift:"Free Software social networks for social change"[15].
- A selection of interesting blog entries from our planet
aggregation[16]:Denmark - Portugal 4:5. The regular qualification for
the EURO2012 in Free Software are over. Which country has good Free
Software and Open Standard practices? Guido Arnold looked at this[17].
(Even though they were not able to win against Belgium, your editor is
happy that Germany qualified. It is difficult to compete against teams
with such good players as FOSDEM[18].)
- New government in Denmark, read what new opportunities Fellow Carsten
Agger sees[19].
- Converting letters into e-mails? Working on our PDFreaders
campaign[20], Sam received letters from public administrations and had
to forward them to our mailing list. So he took this opportunity to
write about Easy OCR on GNU/Linux with gImageReader"[21].
- The first 100 customers matter! Writes Georg Greve in his article
about an Open climate for entrepreneurs in Europe[22]. Read more about
Research and Development programmes, Silicon Valley, and software
patents.
- UnRAR in freedom: Thanks to The Unarchiver initiative, we are now able
to extract recent rar files completely with Free Software[23].
- When is a bug report useful?[24]Read the article, and file about to
this month newsletter.
- KDE became 15 Years in October. Paul Adams wondered how that does
look like[25].
11. https://ffkp.se/
12. http://fscons.org/
13. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=840
14. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=446
15.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/diegojavier/2011/10/10/free-software-social-networks-…
16. http://planet.fsfe.org
17.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/10/euro2012-in-free-software-regular-quali…
18. http://www.fosdem.org
19.
https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/2011/10/01/denmark-new-government-new-opportun…
20. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.de.html
21. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=227
22. http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=455
23. http://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/2011/10/14/unrar-in-freedom/
24. http://blogs.fsfe.org/myriam/2011/10/when-is-a-bug-report-useful
25. http://blogs.fsfe.org/padams/?p=251
-
== Get Active: Document Freedom Day - Let's get ready to rumble ==
Coordination for next years Document Freedom Day[26]is starting. Your
editor is responsible for next years international coordination, and
shamelessly asks you to join the team, subscribe to our mailinglist[27],
give input about the last year, help with campaign planing, taking care
of coordination events in a certain country, taking care with the
communication with partners, help with the organisation of events for
next year, help with setting up the new website, writting texts,
translate them, help with designing t-shirts and other promotion
materials, or if you do not have time, make a donation[28]to support us
in this activity.
26. http://documentfreedom.org
27. http://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/df-coordination
28. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
Thanks to all the Fellows[29]and donors[30]who enable our work,
29. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
30. donate/thankgnus.de.html
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.de.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.de.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.de.html>
= FSFE Newsletter - September 2011 =
[Version en ligne: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201109.fr.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.fr.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.fr.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.fr.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.fr.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.fr.html>
= FSFE Newsletter - August 2011 =
[Version en ligne: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201108.fr.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.fr.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.fr.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.fr.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.fr.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.fr.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.fr.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.fr.html>
= Lettre d'information de la FSFE - Juillet 2011 =
[Version en ligne: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201107.fr.html ]
== Attaque contre le logiciel libre et la licence GNU GPL ==
Imaginez que vous achetiez un ordinateur avec du Logiciel Libre
pré-installé. Après quelque temps, vous décidez d'installer un
logiciel tiers. L'entreprise qui vous a vendu l'ordinateur n'aime pas
cela cependant, et décide d'attaquer le fournisseur du logiciel tiers
en justice. Peut-être qu'acheter votre ordinateur à cette entreprise
n'était pas une si bonne idée !
Il se passe quelque chose de très similaire à cette histoire fictive
ces jours-ci, dans un cas de violation de la licence GNU GPL en
Allemagne[1], auquel la FSFE et gpl-violations.org[2]participent.
L'entreprise AVM (constructeur allemand de routeurs, NdT) maintient,
devant la cour, que des tiers ne devraient pas être autorisés à
modifier le logiciel présent sur les ordinateurs qu'elle vend, ce qui
inclut le noyau Linux. Et ceci bien que le noyau Linux soit distribué
sous les termes de la GNU GPL, qui garantit précisément à
l'utilisateur ce droit de modification.
1. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.fr.html
2. http://www.gpl-violations.org
AVM s'en prend aux fondations même du Logiciel Libre : ils veulent
retirer la liberté des utilisateurs à modifier le logiciel. Ceci
enfreint directement le droit légal des auteurs originaux[3]du
programme, qui ont décidé que la liberté logicielle et la
coopération étaient plus importants que de percevoir des droits de
licence. Si la cour donne raison à AVM, nous connaîtrons un résultat
désastreux pour le Logiciel Libre dans les systèmes embarqués, dont
les téléphones mobiles, le matériel réseau et d'autres produits se
basant sur le Logiciel Libre.
3.
http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/24/#20110624-avm_cybits_gpl_fud
La cour n'a pas pris de décision pendant l'audition du 21 juin. Les
partis impliqués peuvent toujours introduire des recours écrits. Le 27
septembre, la cour prononcera directement un arrêt sur le cas, ou
choisira de débuter des auditions. La FSFE et gpl-violations.org ont
publié un rapport détaillé de l'affaire[4], et continuera à la
surveiller et à défendre la liberté des utlisateurs.
4. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/avm-gpl-violation.fr.html
== Les rouages de la FSFE: Une ère prend fin, d'autres commencent ==
Habituellement vous n'entendez pas parler des gens qui travaillent dans
les coulisses de la FSFE. La raison à cela est que ces personnes sont
principalement des volontaires, et que le travail de presse est
réalisé par le président Karsten Gerloff[5]ou votre éditeur. Mais
ces volontaires donnent de leur temps libre pour promouvoir les
libertés logicielles, et sans eux la FSFE ne serait pas où elle est
aujourd'hui.
5. http://fsfe.org/about/gerloff/gerloff.fr.html
À l'assemblée générale de la FSFE qui s'est déroulée à Ljubljana,
en Slovénie, le 11 juin, les membres de la FSFE[6]ont élu Henrik
Sandklef[7]en tant que vice-président. Chercheur en informatique et
« GNU hacker » originaire de Göteborg en Suède, il est actif au
sein de la FSFE depuis 2005. Il prend la place de Fernanda Weiden, qui a
occupé cette position en tant que volontaire ces deux dernières
années. L'assemblée générale a maintenu Karsten Gerloff au poste de
président, et Reinhard Müller en tant que trésorier.
6. http://fsfe.org/about/members.fr.html
7. http://sandklef.com/hesa
Au cours du week-end une ère prend fin, du fait que Bernhard Reiter,
co-fondateur de la FSFE, achève dix années de service en tant que
coordinateur et coordinateur associé pour l'Allemagne. Il a été le
premier représentant à occuper une position officielle si longtemps au
sein de l'organisation, et également la seule personne à participer à
toutes les assemblées générales. Bernhard reste actif, mais passe le
relais de coordinateur associé pour l'Allemagne à Torsten Grote[8].
8. http://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/
== Les verrous logiciels de la Commission Européenne ==
C'est officiel : la Commission Européenne va migrer vers Microsoft
Windows 7 sans considérer les alternatives possibles. Dans une réponse
aux questions posées par le membre du parlement Bart Staes
(Greens/EFA), la Commission Européenne a confirmé qu'elle a signé les
contrats de « mise à jour » à Windows et au constructeur Fujitsu-
Siemens pour 55 autres institutions européennes et pour elle-même.
Comme l'explique Karsten Gerloff dans son article de blog[9], cette
décision va conduire la Commission Européenne vers toujours plus de
dépendance aux produits Microsoft.
9.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/06/06/the-european-commissions-locked-in…
== Quelque chose de complètement différent ==
- Voulez-vous que votre (futur) enfant travaille avec des Logiciels
Libres à l'école ? Lisez l' interview de Guido Arnold[10],
coordinateur de l'équipe éducation. Il donne un aperçu du travail
de l'équipe pour promouvoir l'utilisation des Logiciels Libres dans
l'éducation.
- Une adresse IP pour tout : la FSFE célèbre la journée mondiale de
l'IPv6[11]. Presque tous nos serveurs sont maintenant joignables via
IPv6.
- Avez-vous déjà vu trois présidents de FSF sur la même photo ?
Cette photo[12]a été prise à la première occasion où Richard
Stallman (FSF), Nagarjuna G (FSF Inde) et Karsten Gerloff (FSFE) ont
été aperçus ensemble.
- En direct de la planète FSFE[13]:
- Avez-vous vu les dernières nouvelles légales autour du Logiciel
Libre[14] ? Matija Šuklje et Natalia Evdokimova ont publié une
nouvelle édition (20.5.-26.5.2011).
- Comment organiseriez-vous un grand salon de Logiciel Libre comme la
FSCONS[15]avec des outils en ligne de commande ? Lisez les articles
de blog de Patrik Willard[16], qui est désormais aussi notre
coordinateur associé pour la Suède.
- Le football est toujours un sujet d'actualité sur notre planète :
Lena Simon parle du football et du football pour hommes[17]et Guido à
propos de l'EURO 2012 de Logiciels Libres[18], une bonne alternative
si vous n'êtes pas plus intéressés que ça par le football
traditionnel.
- Notre Fellow grec Kostas Boukouvalas raconte l'expérience du
laboratoire GNU/Linux de Thessaloniki[19]
- Michael Stehmann fait le récit de la rencontre de la Fellowship à
Düsseldorf[20], dont une compétition de musique libre !
10. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=321
11. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110608-01.fr.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
== Soyez actifs : aidez-nous au stand de la FSFE à Strasbourg ==
La FSFE participera aux Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre (RMLL) à
Strasbourg, du 9 au 14 juillet. Nous y aurons un stand et organiserons
des conférences sur le thème « Internet décentralisé ». Karsten
y parlera des « web services » centralisés et des problèmes de
pouvoir sur Internet (13/07, 15h20), le coordinateur pour la France Hugo
Roy[21]parlera de la bataille des Logiciels Libres pour la vidéo en
ligne avec HTML5, et nous avons invité plusieurs autres conférenciers
sur ce thème.
21. http://fsfe.org/about/roy/roy.fr.html
Comme pour nos stands à d'autres occasions, vous pouvez nous contacter
et nous aider à informer le public sur les enjeux du Logiciel Libre et
sur notre action.
Sincèrement,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.fr.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.fr.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/fr/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.fr.html>
= AVM porte atteinte à la licence du noyau Linux =
[Version en ligne: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.fr.html ]
== Le noyau Linux au centre d'une bataille pour le contrôle des
périphériques embarqués ==
Berlin, le 20 juin - Demain, mardi 21 juin, aura lieu au Tribunal de
Grande Instance de Berlin une audience judiciaire aux conséquences
potentiellement énormes sur la façon dont les logiciels sont
développés et distribués. Les parties impliqués dans cette affaire
sont AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM), fabricant et distributeur
de routeurs ADSL, et Cybits AG (Cybits), qui produit des logiciels de
filtrage web pour les enfants. Ces deux entreprises utilisent le noyau
Linux, qui est distribué sous les termes de la GNU General Public
License (GNU GPL) version 2, une licence logicielle libre qui permet à
tout le monde d'utiliser, étudier, partager et améliorer les logiciels
l'utilisant.
Cette affaire a été portée en justice par AVM dans le but d'empêcher
Cybits de modifier toute partie du firmware utilisé dans les routeurs
d'AVM, y compris le noyau Linux. La Free Software Foundation Europe
(FSFE) et gpl-violations.org considèrent les actions d'AVM comme une
vaste attaque contre les principes du Logiciel Libre, et donc contre les
milliers de particuliers et d'entreprises qui développent, améliorent
et distribuent des Logiciels Libres.
« J'ai décidé de placer mes contributions au noyau Linux sous la
licence GNU GPL, afin que d'autres puissent en bénéficier. Je suis
heureux que des sociétés gagnent beaucoup d'argent avec des logiciels
écrits par moi et des milliers d'autres personnes. Mais en retour,
quand elles distribuent notre logiciel, je veux qu'elles donnent aux
autres les mêmes droits que ceux que je leur ai accordés », a
déclaré Harald Welte, fondateur de gpl-violations.org et détenteur
des droits d'auteurs sur plusieurs parties du noyau Linux.
C'est pourtant exactement ce qu'AVM a essayé d'éviter en déposant en
2010 deux recours en justice contre Cybits. AVM a affirmé que quand
leurs clients installent le logiciel de filtrage de Cybits sur leurs
routeurs AVM, ce logiciel modifie le firmware du routeur et par
conséquent porte atteinte le droit d'auteur d'AVM. Selon AVM, même
changer les composants du noyau Linux du firmware n'est pas autorisé.
En Septembre 2010, la Cour d'appel de Berlin a rejeté cet argument dans
sa décision sur la demande d'une injonction préliminaire, après que
M. Welte est intervenu dans l'affaire. Maintenant, le Tribunal de Grande
Instance de Berlin devra à nouveau se prononcer sur cette question,
cette fois dans la procédure principale.
« Cette affaire peut avoir de lourdes conséquences sur l'avenir du
Logiciel Libre et de la GNU GPL. La GNU GPL est une licence légale
fixée par les auteurs originaux du logiciel. Ses termes ne sont pas
facultatifs », a déclaré Till Jaeger de JBB Rechtsanwälte qui
représente M. Welte dans cette affaire.
Si AVM réussit à interdire à des tiers d'exercer les libertés
explicitement accordés par les termes de la GNU General Public License,
il s'agira d'une atteinte directe des droits légaux des auteurs
originaux de ces programmes, qui ont décidé que la liberté logicielle
et la coopération sont plus importantes que de toucher des frais de
licence. Par ailleurs, il y aura aussi d'importantes conséquences
économiques et commerciales. Premièrement, ceci permettra aux
fabricants d'appareils d'opposer un veto à l'utilisation de logiciels
tiers sur leurs produits, d'où des produits moins bons et des
utilisateurs forcés à acheter les futurs produits de ce fournisseur en
particulier. Deuxièmement, ceci donnera aux sociétés comme AVM un
avantage injuste sur leurs concurrents qui respectent les licences des
Logiciels Libres qu'ils utilisent. Troisièmement, ceci menacera le
modèle de développement logiciel coopératif qui est utilisé avec
succès par de nombreuses sociétés dans le monde entier depuis trois
décennies.
« Ironiquement, en empêchant d'autres de bénéficier des droits
accordés par la licence GNU GPL, AVM est lui-même en violation des
termes de la licence. Par conséquent, ils n'ont pas le droit de
distribuer le logiciel », explique Till Jaeger.
La FSFE et gpl-violations.org encouragent l'utilisation des Logiciels
Libres par les entreprises et les développeurs en rendant le respect
des licences aussi facile que possible. En règle générale, il est
beaucoup plus facile de respecter les licences de Logiciels Libres que
les CLUFs (Contrats de Licence Utilisateur Final) et autres accords de
licence de logiciels non-libres. La plupart du temps il suffit d'ajouter
une copie du texte de la licence GNU GPL à la documentation, et de
permettre l'accès au code source (voir les conseils de respect de
licence de la FSFE[1]).
1. http://fsfe.org/projects/legal/useful-tips-for-vendors.fr.html
- Plus de contexte sur l'affaire[2]
- Décision de la cour en seconde instance (pdf, en allemand)[3]
- Intervention d'Harald Welte (pdf, en allemand)[4]
- Page juridique de la FSFE[5]
l'équipe juridique de la FSFE maintient un ensemble de documentation
sur les aspects juridiques et sur les licences des Logiciels Libres.
Elle produit aussi des guides et manuels.[6]
- Questions fréquentes sur les licences GNU[7]
- GNU GPL version 2[8] et traductions non-officielles[9]
2. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/avm-gpl-violation.fr.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.fr.html
6. http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/documentation.fr.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 Newsletter - June 2011 =
[Version en ligne: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201106.fr.html ]
== The 899 Million question: Microsoft, European Commission, and Free
Software ==
What would you do with a monopolist, who uses his dominant position in
one area to create monopolies in other areas as well? The European
Commission has decided in 2004 that Microsoft has to provide competitors
with information how to connect a workgroup server with computers
running Microsoft Windows. Since the main competitor to Microsoft’s
workgroup server is the Free Software Samba project, the Commission made
it clear that Microsoft had to release interoperability information in a
way that is compatible with Free Software licenses like the GNU GPL. The
Commission's 2004 decision did not require Microsoft to publish
innovative information, it asked for simple information how Microsoft
computers talk to each other.
But Microsoft played for time, even when the Commission imposed a fine
of two million Euro for every day that Microsoft did not make the
required interoperability information and documentation available in a
way that the Samba team could make use of it. That gave Microsoft three
more years to gain profit from its monopoly position.
After losing an appeal in October 2007[1], Microsoft finally made the
required interoperability information available for a one-time fee of
EUR 10,000. This gives Free Software groups access to Microsoft’s
protocol specifications, but does not give them a license to the patents
that Microsoft holds in this area. Microsoft only offers patent licenses
under conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the GNU GPL.
So the Samba team has a license to use Microsoft’s protocol
specifications, but not its patented technologies. At least those
patents are identified, and the Samba team can work around them with
considerable effort until we fix the problem of software patents as a
whole.
1. http://fsfe.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/timeline.fr.html
Microsoft appealed the fine. On the 24th of May another hearing took
place. Like in the rest of the process, FSFE was again present, together
with the Samba team, giving crucial input to ensure that Free Software
can compete on market. Karsten Gerloff wrote about the hearing in his
blog article"Samba case hearing: How Microsoft’s gamble backfired"[2],
and you can also read Groklaw interview with Karsten Gerloff and Carlo
Piana[3]. A ruling on the Microsoft’s appeal is expected in the second
half of the year.
2.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/05/27/samba-case-hearing-how-microsofts-…
3. http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110530202005299
== Antifeatures + DRM ==
How many times have you been forced to watch those copyright notices at
the beginning of a DVD, without the chance to fast-forward? Or would you
miss it, if no mobile phone would have a SIM lock?
On the 4th of May our American sister organisation organised the "Day
Against DRM". There were several articles, events, and radio shows about
this topic[4]. Your editor was interviewed by Dradio Wissen on the
subject of Antifeatures, which also includes digitial restriction
management (DRM).
4. http://www.defectivebydesign.org/highlights-2011-day-against-drm
An antifeature is a feature, which is implemented by the developer on
purpose, but which user does not want. So, it is not about bugs or
missing functionality, but about functions which the vendor added
intentionally to restrict the user.
Your editor's interview and corresponding article[5] explain some
examples, like how printer vendors prevent others from producing
printers' cartridges, the sim lock in mobile phones, the option to get
rid of additional software commercials on laptops, or the copyright
notices and the region code for DVDs.
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=797
With Free Software adding antifeatures simply isn't lucrative. Every
user has the freedom to change the software and to share those changes
with others. So when one person removes an antifeature, all other users
will benefit from this work. In Free Software new features are
implemented either if someone pays for them, or if someone is convinced
that this is an important feature and s/he has spent spare time on it.
Therewith Free Software is more honest and more transparent towards
users.
Benjamin Mako Hill wrote more about antifeatures[6] and also gave
several talks about it, e.g. at Linux Conf Australia 2010 (Ogg-
Theora)[7], or FrosCon (Ogg-Theora)[8].
6. http://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2007/fall/antifeatures/
7. http://projects.mako.cc/media/revealing_errors_lca2010.ogv
8.
http://ftp.stw-bonn.de/froscon/2010/hs12/theora/hs12_-_2010-08-22_12:45_-_e…
== Something completely different ==
- As British Telecom plan to roll out new music subscription service to
their 5.5 million broadband customers, our UK Team has asked BT to
make user freedom one of the product's key features.[9]
- The German Foreign Office is turning away from Free Software, and the
German Government is entangling itself in contradictions. The
assessment of our German team is,[10] that the reaction of the
Government to an inquiry by "Bündnis 90/Grüne" shows that the
government either does not understand important aspects of Free
Software or is deliberately offending Free Software in general as well
as Free Software companies in particular. We set up a public comment
plattform[11], and ask you to participate.
- The Free Software in Education update is out for March/April 2011[12].
Besides, there is an education survey in the UK.[13]
- The German team commented the replies to our question to the political
parties in Bremen.[14]
- From the planet aggregation[15]:
- This month's Fellowship interview with Florian Effenberger[16], is
out. He was the previous Marketing Project Lead for OpenOffice.org and
now founding member and part of the Steering Committee at The Document
Foundation.
- There are again new issues of Free Software and law related links for
30.4.-6.5.[17] 7.5.-22.5.[18], and 23.5.-29.5.[19].
- Fellow Jan-Christoph Borchardt wrote about Free(ing) web games.[20]
9. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/bt-open-letter.fr.html
10. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110511-01.fr.html
11. http://etherpad.fsfe.org/1TyQlboVdF
12.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/04/free-software-in-education-marchapril-2…
13.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/05/free-software-in-education-survey-in-uk/
14. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110520-01.fr.html
15. http://planet.fsfe.org
16. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=308
17. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/245
18. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/246
19. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/247
20. https://jancborchardt.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/freeing-web-games/
== Get active: Translate our Ask your Candidates page ==
In the coming month we will do more in our"Ask Your Candidates"[21]
activity. You can already help us by translating this page into your
native language. Like on all pages click on the source code link[22] at
the buttom of the page. Translate the page and then send it to
translators fsfeurope.org. If you are interested to help us more
regularly with translations, please take a look at our translator
page[23].
21. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates.fr.html
22.
http://fsfe.org/source/campaigns/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates.xhtml
23. http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.fr.html
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.fr.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.fr.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.fr.html>
= FSFE in Samba case: Microsoft's defiance backfired =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110525-01.fr.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
= FSFE Newsletter - May 2011 =
[Version en ligne: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201105.fr.html ]
== Competition authorities: Free Software protects competition ==
882 software patents, likely related to GNU/Linux, in the hands of
people who could use them to pressure Free Software companies and
developers? Maybe in the hands of Microsoft, which has for years used
nebulous patent claims to extract licensing fees from companies that use
the Linux kernel in their products. This month the German and the US
competition authorities approved the sale of those patents to CPTN, a
consortium consisting of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, and EMC. But, barring
nasty surprises in the still to be published detailed decision, we
neutralised the danger for Free Software.
Software patents are a very complex matter, and competition authorities
are not used dealing with them. So beginning from December 2010 we
explained to the German competition authorities why the patent sale was
highly problematic. In our first[1] , and second[2] submission we
explained the mechanics that some companies use to compete in the
software market, and how they preserve their monopolies.
1. http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/letter-20101222.fr.html
2. http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/letter-20110406.fr.html
In their press release the authorities have not only highlighted the
importance of Free Software for competition, and that actual patent
lawsuits are anticompetitive but also that threatening with patent
lawsuits, like the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) strategies from
some non-free software companies, can be anticompetitive.
So for the first time, competition authorities have acknowledged the
essential part of Free Software for competition, and that patent
lawsuits by dominant market participants can be anticompetitive. This
will also be important for future debates, when the behaviour of big
non-free software companies has to be evaluated from a competition law
perspective.
As the devil is in the details, we hope to hear about the exact wording
of the CPTN contracts to evaluate them[3] . Such work is very time
consuming, and we would not be able to keep track of those activities,
without the support of one time donations[4] and regular ones by our
Fellows[5] .
3. http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/novell-cptn.fr.html
4. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.fr.html
5. http://fsfe.org/join.fr.html
== Mission is possible ==
To date, 17 percent of the public institutions, we contacted[6] ,
already replied and removed the non-free PDF reader advertisements from
their websites. The current progress of the campaign can be seen on our
buglist[7] . Until now we have only received one negative reply.
However, as about 83 percent of the contacted institutions have not
responded yet, we want to remind them about the letter we have sent, and
ask for a reply. This works only with your help. To take part, follow
the actions from our follow-up guide[8] . In short this is:
6. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.fr.html
7. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.fr.html
8. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/follow-up.fr.html
- have a look at organisations in your country which appear as not
having answered yet,
- contact and remind them of FSFE's letter on inadmissibility of
advertising of proprietary software by public institutions, and
- ask them to remove the proprietary software advertising from their
websites.
If you discover non-free PDF reader advertisement, and is not on our
list, you are encouraged to contact them on your own. For public
institutions use a modified version of our letter[9] , for companies and
non-profits we are working on a template, after volunteers have
convinced organisations like Greenpeace Germany[10] to link to
pdfreaders.org instead.
9. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html
10. http://www.greenpeace.de/themen/energie/nachrichten/artikel/deutschlands_en…
== Something completely different ==
- Data stored per-user, and under the user's control. That is the aim of
the unhosted web. This project is covered by this month Fellowship
interview with Michiel de Jong[11] . If you want to discuss this in
person with Michiel, he will help as one of our booth volunteers for
one day during Berlin's Linuxtag[12] .
- Free Software for the public sector: We have provided input for the
European Commission on modernising the way in which public bodies buy
software[13] and related services.
- At the moment fellows are starting new Fellowship groups[14] in
Augsburg[15] (Germany) and Manchester[16] (UK). For the Manchester
group our British coordinator Sam Tuke created a good presentation
template about the Fellowship which is now linked from the meeting
howto[17] .
- Noteworthy articles from the Fellowship planet[18] include:
- Timo Jyrinki's article about his presentation of "tuning an old but
free phone"[19] with corresponding videos from FSCONS[20] ,
- Carlo Piana's article "Doors opened at Openoffice"[21] about
Oracle's announcement that they want to make OpenOffice.org a
community developed project,
- and Lena Simon's article about the old myths in a digital society[22]
(German) which also covers some issues we have to explain often.
11. http://losca.blogspot.com/2011/04/tuning-old-but-free-phone-video-now.fr.ht…
12. http://www.fscons.org
13. http://piana.eu/it/node/265
14. http://www.stud.uni-potsdam.de/~leena/2011/04/alte-mythen-in-der-digitalen-…
- Groklaw's well deserved pension. Groklaw is shutting down and like our
sister organisation[23] we would like to thank them for their good
work.
- Free Software licensing, Free Software business, software patents, and
other topics from a legal point of view are covered in Matija's Free
Software and law related links. Editions are available for
29.03.-17.04.[24] , 18.04.-24.04.[25] , and 25.04.-29.04.[26] .
15. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=299
16. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents/Linuxtag%20berlin
17. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110418-01.fr.html
18. http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/
19. http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Augsburg
20. http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Manchester
21. http://wiki.fsfe.org/MeetingHowTo#General
22. http://planet.fsfe.org
23. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/farewell-groklaw-and-thanks
24. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/239
25. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/241
26. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/244
== Get Active - Internships at FSFE ==
We are looking for smart, motivated interns to join our team[27] . Apply
for an internship position[28] yourself, or distribute the information
about it. We offer:
27. http://fsfe.org/about/team.fr.html
28. http://fsfe.org/contribute/internship.fr.html
- a challenging and exciting time with a dynamic NPO working
internationally,
- a close-up view of organisational and community processes,
- a chance to take the initiative and put your ideas into practice, and
- the opportunity to meet and work with Free Software advocates across
Europe.
Beside the current interns Natalia Evdokimova[29] , and Nicolas Jean[30]
, past interns include our Italian coordinator Giacomo Poderi[31] ,
Fellowship representative Hugo Roy[32] , our president Karsten
Gerloff[33] , UK coordinator Sam Tuke[34] , Swedish team member Stian
Rødven Eide[35] , education team coordinator Thomas Jensch[36] , and
your editor[37] , who was FSFE's first intern. So as you can see, the
internship is a good start to get more involved in FSFE.
29. http://fsfe.org/index.fr.html
30. http://fsfe.org/about/jean/jean.fr.html
31. http://blogs.fsfe.org/poderi/
32. http://fsfe.org/about/roy/roy.fr.html
33. http://fsfe.org/about/gerloff/gerloff.fr.html
34. http://fsfe.org/about/tuke/tuke.fr.html
35. http://blogs.fsfe.org/julipan/
36. http://blogs.fsfe.org/riepernet/
37. http://fsfe.org/about/kirschner/kirschner.fr.html
Cordialement,
Matthias Kirschner
--
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