= FSFE Newsletter - May 2011 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201105.en.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.en.html
2. http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/letter-20110406.en.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.en.html
4. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
5. http://fsfe.org/join.en.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.en.html
7. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
8. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/follow-up.en.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.en.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.en.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.en.html
28. http://fsfe.org/contribute/internship.en.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.en.html
30. http://fsfe.org/about/jean/jean.en.html
31. http://blogs.fsfe.org/poderi/
32. http://fsfe.org/about/roy/roy.en.html
33. http://fsfe.org/about/gerloff/gerloff.en.html
34. http://fsfe.org/about/tuke/tuke.en.html
35. http://blogs.fsfe.org/julipan/
36. http://blogs.fsfe.org/riepernet/
37. http://fsfe.org/about/kirschner/kirschner.en.html
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://www.fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
== Open letter to British Telecom: please include freedom in your new music
service ==
Dear BT,
British Telecom is a leader of telecommunication and digital content markets,
and has a reputation for product innovation. Plans recently reported for a new
not-for-profit music download service [1] for BT's 5.5 million broadband
customers have sparked much discussion, and once again placed BT at the fore
of the future of digital content delivery in th UK.
Amongst those speculating about the nature of the new service are the growing
number of BT customers who use Free Software [2] web-browsers, operating
systems, and multimedia players. Currently these and other Free Software users
are unable to enjoy many popular content delivery systems such as Spotify,
Steam, and iTunes, because they are not compatible with Free Software, or
require the waiving of users' rights and freedoms in order to use them [3] [4]
[5]. The nature of BT's new service, and the extent to which it respects the
freedom of it's users, are therefore of particular concern.
Powerful new Open Standards [6] like HTML5 and CSS3, combined with widely used
Free Software codecs for rich multimedia like VP8 and Ogg Vorbis, make it
easier than ever to build powerful cross-platform applications which respect
user freedom whilst maintaining long term accessibility. Recent adoption of
these technologies by established content providers such as YouTube, the
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Dailymotion, and Deutschlandradio, reflect
a growing industry trend towards platform independence through use of Free
Software and Open Standards [7] [8] [9] [10].
In addition to these web-based technologies exists Free Software tools like Qt
and Gtk, which continue to be used by thousands of companies [11] to develop
world-class desktop applications compatible with all major operating systems.
BT already makes wide use of Free Software [12], and "recognises, and welcomes
the use of open source software" [13]. Therefore we ask that you recognise the
value of your customer's freedom as you design and deploy your new
subscription service, and take the opportunity to benefit from one of the many
Free Software technologies which will allow you to achieve this.
The Free Software Foundation Europe is happy to assist you with any questions
regarding this issue or Free Software and Open Standards in general.
Yours Sincerely,
UK Team, Free Software Foundation Europe
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2011/mar/28/bt-illegal-filesharing-
music
2. http://fsfe.org/about/basics/freesoftware.en.html
3. http://www.spotify.com/int/legal/end-user-agreement/#section-12
4. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-08-12-valve-on-steam-part-two-
interview
5. http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/itunes.pdf
6. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/os.html
7. http://www.youtube.com/html5
8. http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/playogg/sites/norway
9. http://www.dailymotion.com/html5
10. http://www.dradio.de/wir/ogg/
11. http://www.digia.com/C2256FEF0043E9C1/0/405002251
12. http://opensource.bt.com/ under "products and projects"
13.
http://www.selling2bt.bt.com/Downloads/BTOpenSourcePolicyextractsforsupplie…
FSFE UK Team homepage: http://uk.fsfe.org
== Contacts ==
Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.org
Sam Tuke, UK Team Coordinator
+44 78680 77871
Karsten Gerloff, President
+49-176-96904298
http://www.fsfe.org/contact
== 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 issue
of the FSFE.
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/
= FSFE Newsletter - April 2011 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201104.en.html ]
== A decade of Freedom: FSFE turned 10 ==
One room with a bed, a desk, and a sofa. That was the situation when
your editor started working as an intern for FSFE in Georg Greve's one
room appartment in Hamburg in 2004. FSFE started with its operations in
March 2001[1] as the first sister organisation of the FSF in the US. We
have come a long way[2] since then. First of all, our interns don't get
Georg's mandatory cooking lessons any more, instead they now have their
own desks and do not have to work from the sofa any more. Second, we now
have the Fellowship which leads to a growth of volunteers and
activities:
- In the UK, Sam Tuke is currently busy setting up a punchy team. They
are giving talks, organising events, and documenting the
developments[3] in the future role of Free Software in the British
public sector.
- Our Italian team is currently supporting ADUC to get rid of the
Windows Tax[4] . ADUC is an Italian association for users/consumers'
rights who recently filed a class action request against Microsoft
Italy's refusal of reimbursing unused OEM licences for its operating
system. Carlo Piana is helping ADUC's lawyers and Giacomo Poderi with
the Italian team will help to raise awareness on this issue[5] .
- In Switzerland you have a confusing landscape of different Free
Software organisations, which have problems with coordionation. It was
nearly impossible to find out what is going on in the next weeks, or
to find a date for an activity which does not interfer with another
group. That's why the Zurich Fellowship group has now set up an event
calendar on freie-termine.ch[6] to improve this situation.
- Our Swedish team was actively publishing videos from FSCONS[7] . Last
year in November, we hosted our own track at FSCONS around different
topics of decentralised (social) networks and free network services.
Now the videos of the talks[8] are finally online.
- This year there are at least 8 Federal State elections in Germany. The
German team already received replies from the parties in Sachsen-
Anhalt[9] , Rheinland-Pfalz[10] , and Baden-Würrtemberg[11] on
questions like general support of Free Software, problems of vendor
lock-in, Open Standards[12] , non-free PDF readers advertisements[13]
on public websites, the use of Free Software in education[14] , and
software patents[15] . The same will be done for the remaining
elections.
1. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110310-01.en.html
2. http://fsfe.org/about/history/birthday10.en.html
3. http://fsfe.org/uk/mapping-uk.en.html
4. http://wiki.fsfe.org/WindowsTaxRefund
5. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110321-01.en.html
6. http://freie-termine.ch
7. http://fscons.org/2010/news/fscons-2010-videos-finally
8.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/2011/03/28/fscons-2010-divide-and-re-co…
9. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ayc/201103-germany-sachsen-anhalt.de.html
10. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ayc/201103-germany-rheinland-pfalz.de.html
11. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ayc/201103-germany-baden-wuerttemberg.de.html
12. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/os.en.html
13. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.en.html
14. http://fsfe.org/projects/education/education.en.html
15. http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/swpat.en.html
== Worldwide celebration of Open Standards ==
Open Standards are a common language, publicly documented, that computer
programs can speak. They are central to interoperability and freedom of
choice in technology. Open Standards allow Free Software developers to
create programs that can interoperate with other solutions, so users can
migrate away from proprietary solutions.
Many of you followed our call to participate in this year's Document
Freedom Day: in Brazil, the Federal Data Processing Company - Serpro -
hold events in 10 cities. In the European Parliament, experts discussed
Open Standards as a means to guarantee access to cultural works in the
long term. Other groups participated in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil,
Croatia, Greece, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Portugal,
Spain and United Kingdom. Selected FSFE activities include:
- The City Munich was awarded with the European Document Freedom Day
prize for its LiMux project[16] .
- Tagesschau.de awarded[17] for the use of Open Standards: The prize was
awarded in Berlin and Hamburg by the Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure (FFII) and us for offering the broadcast shows also in
the free video format "Ogg Theora". As you can see on the pictures[18]
(DE) the cake was amazing (also available in French[19] )
- "A bright Document Freedom Day for Britain?" about Open Standards in
Britain[20] .
16. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110330-02.en.html
17. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110330-01.en.html
18. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=765
19. http://blogs.fsfe.org/nicoulas/?p=87
20. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110330-04.en.html
== Something completely different ==
- Redhat made $909 million with Free Software and Nokia is spreading
FUD?: After Mirko Böhm wrote an interesting analysis[21] on the
current Nokia move, your editor commented on Nokia's announcement[22]
about selling the proprietary Qt business to Digia. This also led to
interesting discussions on our public mailing lists about the meaning
of "commercial".
- Our freshly elected Fellowship representative Hugo Roy[23] wrote about
IPRED[24] (FR).
- Fellowship Interview with Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen[25] . Dan
describes the aims of these exciting gaming projects, and discusses
what Free Software could mean for gaming in future.
- New Legal News available for 19.02.-25.02.[26] , 26.02.-04.03.[27] ,
05.03.-13.03.[28] , 14.03.-20.03.[29] , 21.03.-28.03.[30]
- 2010 Free Software Awards[31] go to: Rob Savoye and the TOR project.
Savoye is a long-time free software hacker, who has worked on GNU and
other free software for over 20 years. TOR is enabling people around
the world to experience freedom of access and expression on the
Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and anonymity.
- The FSF welcomed Debian's "Squeeze" release[32] . Debian GNU/Linux
also received a prize at the Cebit, where Karsten Gerloff held the
laudatio[33].
21. http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/4394
22. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=736
23. http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110301-01.en.html
24.
http://blog.hugoroy.eu/2011/03/28/ipred-remettre-en-question-la-politique-d…
25. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=267
26. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/232
27. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/233
28. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/236
29. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/237
30. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/238
31. http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-free-software-awards-announced
32.
http://www.fsf.org/news/debian-squeeze-makes-key-progress-toward-being-a-fu…
33. http://fsfe.org/events/2011/lnm-award-debian.en.html
== Get Active - Translations for free PDF readers ==
During our pdfreaders campaign[34] we received the feedback that it is
difficult to use some free PDF readers, as the download pages, or the
actual software is not translated. Since then our intern Nicoulas Jean
is in contact with several free PDF reader developers. Take a look at
our list of PDF readers[35] and how to help them with translation, and
take action:
- Help translating your favorite PDF reader and ask others to do so.
- Find out how to help with translations of the missing readers and add
this information it to the website.
34. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.en.html
35. http://wiki.fsfe.org/PDFreadersTranslations
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE
== A bright Document Freedom Day for Britain? ==
Today is Document Freedom Day: a globally celebrated day for digital
liberation [1]. As companies and communities come together to raise
awareness of Open Standards for the forth consecutive year, the issue of
freedom from restricted digital files is more relevant in the UK than
ever.
"Britain's relationship with Open Standards is rapidly changing for the
better. As a Parliamentary Select Committee today debates increasing its
commitment, we hope that pubic sector ICT can look forward to greater
interoperability and value for money in future" [2], said Sam Tuke, UK
Team Coordinator of Free Software Foundation Europe. "If the government
can follow up its words with actions, British citizens will have much to
celebrate."
The Coalition Government has made Open Standards a key area of reform,
and in the last three months has set Britain on track to take a leading
role in implementing Open Standards in Europe. New procurement
requirements for all departments, a new 'Open Source Advisory Panel',
determinative meetings with the largest public ICT suppliers, and
research on hundreds of existing technical standards herald a new era of
document freedom for Britain [3].
Despite this push from government during the months leading up to
Document Freedom Day, many local British institutions remain far behind.
Sustained reform and strong leadership is required from the Coalition
in order to ensure that by Document Freedom Day 2012 citizens will
enjoy better interoperability between programs, better value from
publicly purchased technology, and a more competitive software market.
1. http://documentfreedom.org/
2.
http://services.parliament.uk/calendar/#/calendar/Commons/SelectCommittee/2…
3. http://fsfe.org/uk/mapping-uk.en.html
FSFE UK Homepage: http://uk.fsfe.org
== Contacts ==
Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.org
Sam Tuke, UK Team Coordinator
+44 78680 77871
Karsten Gerloff, President
+49-176-96904298
http://www.fsfe.org/contact
== 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 issue
of the FSFE.