### FSF releases audio recording of LibrePlanet conference
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Monday, March 30, 2009 -- The Free
Software Foundation (FSF) today released the complete audio recordings
from the first day of the LibrePlanet GNU/Linux conference, held on
March 21, 2009, in Cambridge, MA.
The recordings include a talk given by Samba's Jeremy Allison on
Microsoft and its relationship with the free software community, and
Gnash developer Rob Savoye announcing the Cygnal project -- a rich
media server with features roughly compatible with the Flash Media
Server. Two members of the autonomo.us group, Evan Prodromou and FSF
director Mako Hill, spoke about efforts to engineer for free network
services and the successful launch of the micro-blogging service
identi.ca.
The event, which was attended by free software activists from all over
the world, also included a panel discussion on regional software
activism efforts from Brian Gough of the GNU Project, Ryan Bagueros of
North-by-South and Bradley M. Kuhn of the Software Freedom
Conservancy. FSF president Richard Stallman announced a new article
and campaign targeting the dangers of nonfree JavaScript, then
presented the FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software to Wietse
Venema, developer of the Postfix mail server, and the FSF Award for
Projects of Social Benefit to Creative Commons.
"These recordings provide the free software community an opportunity
to hear about some of the important work underway, and to get
connected with the priorities that the Free Software Foundation is
staking out for the coming year" said Peter Brown, FSF executive
director.
The recordings, presented in the Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Speex codecs, as
well as photographs of the event, courtesy of local photographer Matt
Hins can be found at http://fsf.org/conference/
### About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating
system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free
software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and
political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information
about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
<http://donate.fsf.org>. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
### Media Contacts
Matt Lee
Campaigns manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x24
<campaigns(a)fsf.org>
###
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org>
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
A great global community is gathering today to celebrate the second
Document Freedom Day. After a successful 2008 celebration, Document
Freedom Day teams all over the world are joining efforts to raise
awareness for Document Freedom and Open Standards.
In a world where records are increasingly kept in electronic form, Open
Standards are crucial for valuable information to outlive the
application in which it was initially generated. The question of
Document Freedom has severe repercussions for freedom of choice,
competition, markets and the sovereignty of countries and their governments.
"We are happy to see our community getting bigger this year", says Ivan
Jelic, DFD Coordinator. "We expect large variety of activities organized
by DFD teams, from speeches and informative events, to university
document liberation or open standard promotion in local governments."
"Like all Open Standards, Document Freedom provides users with the
freedom to choose their application freely, and yet still be able to
communicate and collaborate with others.", explains Georg Greve,
president of FSFE. "This freedom of choice provides the basis for
competition in the field of text processing software. Where there is
healthy competition, companies and software developers are driven to
innovate, and monopoly pricing becomes impossible. So Document Freedom
means better software and lower cost. Document Freedom also means that
yesterday's documents can easily be read with tomorrow's software,
protecting and preserving your data against forced vendor
incompatibilities through the upgrade treadmill."
The DFD team will do its best to gather all the information about this
year activities, organize them and publish on DFD web pages. If you have
material about local document liberation activities, please send mail
to: contact AT documentfreedom.org
How you can get active
The Document Freedom Day is a collaborative effort.
You can make a difference by linking to http://documentfreedom.org,
generate your own artworks or use the ones available at
http://documentfreedom.org/Artwork.
You could also print out some of the DFD leaflets at
http://www.documentfreedom.org/Artwork#Leaflet and give them to your
co-workers, family or friends. And if you feel creative, consider taking
pictures or small video testimonials that show the world what Document
Freedom means to you!
About the Document Freedom Day
The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation
with roughly 250 active teams worldwide. It is a day of grassroots
effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance
of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general.
Document Freedom Day is supported by a large group of organizations and
individuals, including, but not limited to ANSOL, Ars Aperta,
BrOffice.org, COSS, Esoma, Estándares Abiertos, FFII, Free Knowledge
Foundation, Free Software Foundation, Free Software Foundation Europe,
Free Software Foundation Latin America, Funambol, Google, IBM, NLnet,
ODF Alliance, Open Forum Europe, Open Source Initiative (OSI), Opentia,
OSL, iMatix, Red Hat, Sun, The Open Learning Centre.
The list of DFD Teams is available at:
http://documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organization 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://fsfeurope.org
You can find this text online at
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090325-01
FSFE announces the second European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) today announces that the second European
Licensing and Legal Workshop will be held at the Hotel Okura on the 23rd and
the 24th of April 2009 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This conference will
provide a forum for discussions on supply chain management, compliance
procedures, licence management, community interaction, and other legal issues
related to the growth of the European Free Software market.
The European Licensing and Legal Workshop is an event held primarily for the
members of the European Legal Network, a private, non-partisan network of 185
Free Software experts across 27 countries and 4 continents facilitated by FSFE.
There is limited space available at the event and attendance for non-network
members is by invitation only. Projects and companies interested in
participating should contact the FTF at ftf at fsfeurope.org.
The European Licensing and Legal Workshop is kindly supported by Bender von
Haller Dragsted, Blackduck, Canonical, HP and Mozilla.
This event is one of the activities of FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF). The
FTF is an infrastructure activity to help individuals, projects and businesses
understand Free Software licensing and the opportunities that it presents. The
FTF works in partnership with gpl-violations.org to deal with licence
violations in the European arena. The goal of the FTF is to foster best
practice throughout the industry.
For more information about the FTF or the European Licensing and Legal Workshop
please contact the FTF:
About the Freedom Task Force
<p>The Freedom Task Force is an activity run by Free Software Foundation
Europe to help people understand Free Software licensing and the
opportunities it presents. We offer educational services, facilitate
larger infrastructure activities and manage FSFE's legal affairs.
Our goals are to share knowledge about Free Software law, to
safeguard the interests of Free Software projects, to connect
experts in this field and to help other groups achieve similar goals.
We believe in positive, constructive dialogue and seek at all times
to support the long-term sustainability of Free Software.
The FTF's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf and you can
contact us via email: ftf @ fsfeurope.org
You can phone us at:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 Ext. 22
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73 Ext. 22
Sweden: +46 31 7802160 Ext. 22
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 Ext. 22
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 Ext. 22
Press contact: Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
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.
You will find further information about the work of the FSFE at
http://www.fsfeurope.org.
Contact:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Sweden: +46 31 7802160
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
For eight years now, the Free Software Foundation Europe has been
working tirelessly for basic rights and freedoms in an increasingly
software-driven society. The 11th of March 2009 sees another major
milestone passed, with its 2^3 (eighth) birthday being celebrated by
its friends, Fellows and associates.
"The world of Free Software has developed dramatically since FSFE was
founded, and FSFE was a core part of that change," Greve observes.
"Free Software has won its first antitrust action. We helped to bring
issues of interoperability and standardisation to the forefront of the
debate, with OOXML being the culmination of this debate. As a
consequence, more governments and public institutions have begun to
ask questions about the sovereignty of their software and data."
In the fast-moving Free Software world, FSFE has often found itself in
at the forefront of new developments. While public campaigns like the
annual Document Freedom Day and the recently launched pdfreaders.org
campaign have been the most visible aspects of FSFE's work, many other
activities have received less publicity because of their inherent
behind-the-scenes nature.
Over the course of the last eight years, FSFE has been working
intensively at the United Nations, has promoted Free Software interests
at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), contributed to
the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), taken part in discussions at the
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and taught project
managers of the World Bank about Free Software. FSFE has worked with the
European Commission not just as part of its antitrust work, but also
through research and development funding under the framework
programmes, been directly involved in these projects, and has assisted
the Commission by offering input into policy-setting initiatives.
Work in international policy-setting fora always involves a conflict
between getting the word out and affording the confidentiality
necessary to the process involved. Proclaiming victory publicly can
often mean bringing about defeat, and a carefully maintained reputation
is the key to being able to convey the right message, in the right
place, at the right time.
From assisting in legal matters through its Freedom Task Force (FTF) and
overseeing the development of Internet regulation, to ensuring
interoperability and keeping software patents at bay, FSFE has played an vital
role in shaping the future environment for Free Software.
In 2005, FSFE initiated its community programme, the Fellowship, which
besides being a major source of funding for FSFE has grown to be a
highly successful independent network in its own right, with projects,
meetings and celebrations taking place in several countries. Matthias
Kirschner, Fellowship Coordinator for FSFE, explains that the
Fellowship has chosen to mark the 2^3 birthday event with a special
edition of the Fellowship Interview series, in which Georg Greve
explains the history behind FSFE and how he came to found it. The
interview is available at http://fellowship.fsfe.org/interviews/greve/.
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.
You will find further information about the work of the FSFE at
http://fsfeurope.org