== FSFE to users: Seize your freedom of choice! ==
22 February 2010, 14:00, Berlin, Germany
Permanent URL: http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100222-01.en.html
FSFE welcomes the arrival of greater competition in the web browser
market. From today, Microsoft has to offer Windows users in Europe the
possibility to choose among different browsers. This step puts into
practice the company's settlement with the European Commission from
December 2009. The Free Software Foundation Europe was an active
participant in the Commission's investigation.
"For the first time, Microsoft has been forced to offer all users a
choice among different web browsers," says FSFE's President Karsten
Gerloff. "This is a stop sign for the company's strategy of extending
its near-monopoly in desktop operating systems to other markets."
FSFE is fighting for freedom of choice and Open Standards. Microsoft's
own Internet Explorer browsers do not interpret web standards
correctly. The company's near-monopoly on the desktop has meant that
web designers have often catered to Microsoft users only, leaving
users of rival browsers to deal with broken pages.
"Microsoft has gained its dominant position in the browser market by
violating its consent decree with the US competition authorities. The
problem we are trying to fix here wouldn't exist if Microsoft had
complied with the laws," says FSFE's Legal Counsel Carlo Piana. "It
is no coincidence that we have recently seen more competition among
browsers, after years where there was no innovation and a total lack
of investment by Microsoft."
It is now up to the users to take advantage of the choice they are
offered. Gerloff reminds the EC that it will constantly need to
monitor the success of the 'ballot screen'. "Microsoft is a convicted
monopolist and has broken countless promises in the past," he
says. "We urge the European Commission to keep a sharp eye on how well
this measure plays out in practice."
The 'ballot screen' is currently limited to Europe. "We call on
competition authorities around the world to take a cue from the EC's
good work in this case. The effect on competition and standards
compliance would be much greater if users were offered a choice
everywhere", says FSFE's Legal Counsel Carlo Piana.
It remains to be seen how the 'ballot screen' will improve competition
in the market for web browsers. FSFE is equally concerned about the
lack of interoperability between Microsoft's products and Free
Software competitors, and the company's practice of bundling its
operating system with consumer hardware.
== Background ==
The initial complaint about Microsoft's abuse of its dominant position
in the web browser market was brought by Opera. FSFE has supported the
investigation as an interested third party, providing feedback and
helping to shape the measures imposed by the European Commission.
The settlement on web browsers is only the latest among several
European Commission investigations into Microsoft's anticompetitive
behaviour. The most famous among these actions -- where FSFE was a key
player [1] -- concerned the workgroup server operating system market. Also
known as the Samba case, it ended with a landmark decision in 2007 by
the European Court of Justice. Microsoft was forced to disclose
interoperability information that it had illegaly withheld from
competitors.
On the same day that the ballot screen was announced, Microsoft also
promised to disclose interoperability information for a number of its
products, such as Windows Server, Microsoft Office, Exchange and
SharePoint. Here, an investigation by the European Commission is still
ongoing.
[1] http://fsfe.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.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
== Contact ==
Karsten Gerloff
President
Free Software Foundation Europe
e-mail: press at fsfeurope.org
mobile: +49-176-96904298
== FSFE: On Valentine's Day, show your love for Free Software! ==
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100212-01.en.html ]
12th February 2010, 11:00 am CET, Berlin, Germany
This year on Valentine's Day, FSFE calls on Free Software users
everywhere to show their love for Free Software. Behind every Free
Software initiative and organisation there are real, hard-working
people.
Free Software is everywhere. Its presence on desktop computers,
servers, routers, mobile phones, television sets and in other
electronics means that most of us use Free Software every day.
This is why for Valentine's Day, FSFE invites everyone to show
their appreciation of the people who produce, distribute and
promote Free Software.
"This year why not take the opportunity to show you care about the
people who show you their love all year round?", suggests Karsten
Gerloff, FSFE's President. "Free Software is about making
technology fit people's needs. It's people who are at the centre
of it all, not computers."
On its campaign page [1], FSFE suggests what users can do to show
that they appreciate Free Software. Simply sending a developer a
mail to say "Thank you", buying them a book or just giving them a
hug - with their permission, naturally. Donating to a Free
Software organisation is also among the options.
Everyone is invited to post pictures online of them showing their
love for Free Software. On identi.ca and Twitter, FSFE is using
the hash tag #ilovefs to collect pictures and build a
collage.
For microblogging FSFE is using the hashtag #ilovefs to collect
messages and pictures to build a collage (e.g. see
http://identi.ca/tag/ilovefs).
[1] http://www.fsfe.org/campaigns/valentine-2010/
== 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 - January 2010
In January, FSFE was awarded the Theodor Heuss Medal as a "trendsetting
organisation". This recognition for the hard work of the past years was a
good start into the new year.
FSFE participated in a WIPO meeting on patents and standards, moved forward
with the restructuring of the website, identified two Fellowship candidates
for the Fellowship seat in FSFE's General Assembly, and much more.
Read further January Newsletter
Giacomo Poderi
1. Fellowship elections, introducing the candidates: Julia Klein and Björn Schießle
2. Ongoing website restructuring
3. Standards and patents at WIPO, Geneva, Switzerland, 25-29 Jan
4. Fellowship Jabber meeting: "What does it mean to be a candidate for the GA seat?", 06 Jan
5. December Fellowship grants
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
6. FSFE honoured with Theodor Heuss Medal - "trendsetting organisation"
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
7. First draft of GPLv3 presented
UPCOMING EVENTS
8. Election for Fellowship GA seat
9. FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 06-07 Feb
1. The Fellowship elections, introducing the candidates: Julia Klein
and Björn Schießle
Julia Klein and Björn Schießle are the two candidates who will run for
the election of the second available seat as Fellowship representative at
FSFE's GA. Both have been Fellows for a few years now. Julia often
participates in Fellowship events and helps in setting up FSFE's booths in
Germany. Björn is active in the German translation team, takes part in the
Baden-Würtemberg
Fellowship events and has a been part of FSFE's German team for several years.
More information on the voting period are available at
http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100129-01.htmlhttp://wiki.fsfe.org/election10
2. Ongoing website restructuring
Last month we announced the beginning of the major restructuring of
FSFE's website. The work is not finished yet, but as it is possible to
notice by browsing fsfe.org, our webmasters team did an excellent job in
only a few weeks. The visible changes are only the top of the iceberg.
Many hours of work were spent on the improvement of the underlying
structure of the website. You can help the webmasters team by joining them
or simply by pointing out problems concerning the website.
web(a)fsfeurope.org
http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/web/web.html
3. Standards and patents at WIPO, Geneva, Switzerland, 25-29 Jan
Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's president, and Hugo Roy, FSFE's intern,
participated in the meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents. From FSFE's perspective, the two most important points on the
agenda were the relation between standards and patents, and limitations to
patentability. In this regard, FSFE made a statement which highlights the
relevance of transparent processes when discussing patent regulations and
gives support to the idea of creating a working program for the discussion
of limitations and exceptions of patentability, and their effectiveness in
addressing development concerns. FSFE's statement is available at:
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=291
4. Fellowship Jabber meeting: "What does it mean to be a candidate for the
GA seat?", 06 Jan
On 06 January, the Fellows met on our jabber server to hear about Torsten
Grote's experience as representative for the Fellowship at FSFE's General
Assembly (GA). Torsten clarified doubts that other Fellows had concerning
this role, and encouraged them to run as candidates for the other available
seat. The election will take place during February.
http://wiki.fsfe.org/Jabber
5. December Fellowship grants
As it happened for the application period of November, we received many
interesting grant applications and deciding amongst these wasn't easy at
all. However, the grants for December have been awarded to Alex Bihlmaier
and Christoph Fritz, both from Germany, and Stelios Stavroulakis from
Greece. They impressed us with their enthusiasm for Free Software projects
and the many valuable contributions they have made so far.
We welcome them to the Fellowship!
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/joinhttp://fellowship.fsfe.org/grant.en.html
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
6. FSFE honoured with Theodor Heuss Medal - "trendsetting organisation"
FSFE will receive this year's Theodor Heuss Medal for its extraordinary
work for equitable participation in the information society. Since 2001
FSFE has promoted the freedom to use, investigate, modify and redistribute
software in all parts of society and politics. Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's
president, and Matthias Kirschner, German team coordinator, emphasised on
the valuable efforts done by Georg Greve, Bernhard Reiter and Werner Koch,
who founded FSFE, and by all volunteers who supported us during these
years. It was them who made this success possible!
The non-partisan Theodor Heuss Foundation seeks "to bring attention to
something that needs to be done in our democracy". Regarding FSFE's medal,
the Foundation states: "FSFE, as a forward thinking organisation,
contributes to the development and establishment of rules for good global
governance." The award ceremony will take place on May 8 in Stuttgart,
Germany.
http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100126-01.html
Relevant Links:
http://www.theodor-heuss-stiftung.dehttp://fsfe.org/projects/work.htmlhttp://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
7. First draft of GPLv3 presented
In January 2006 at MIT in Boston, USA, the first draft of the GPLv3 was
presented and discussed. Georg Greve and other FSFE representatives
participated at the first international conference on the GPLv3. An event
that marked an important milestone towards the new version of the world's
most successful Free Software license.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000127.html
UPCOMING EVENTS
8. Election for Fellowship GA seat
During the whole month of February, the election for the second Fellowship
seat in FSFE's GA will take place. All Fellows will be asked to vote for
the candidates and to decide who, between Julia and Björn, will join
Torsten in representing the Fellowship in FSFE's highest decision making
body.
http://wiki.fsfe.org/election10
9. FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 06-07 Feb
As usual, FSFE will participate at FOSDEM with a lively and well-staffed
booth. This European event organized by the community, for the community
is the place where Free Software developers meet, and an event that you
should not miss. Drop by the FSFE booth near the entrance and say hello!
FOSDEM takes place at ULB Campus Solbosh, 50 Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt,
1050 Brussels, Belgium. Admission gratis.
http://fosdem.org/2010/
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html
You can join the Fellowship or find how to support us on
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/joinhttp://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html
You can order our merchandise at
http://fsfe.org/order/order.html
Copyright 2010, Free Software Foundation Europe <pr(a)fsfeurope.org>.
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