= Web Search By The People, For The People: YaCy 1.0 =
The YaCy project is releasing version 1.0 of its peer-to-peer Free
Software search engine. The software takes a radically new approach to
search. YaCy does not use a central server. Instead, its search results
come from a network of currently over 600 independent peers. In such a
distributed network, no single entity decides what gets listed, or in
which order results appear.
The YaCy search engine runs on each user's own computer. Search terms
are encrypted before they leave the user and the user's computer.
Different from conventional search engines, YaCy is designed to protect
users' privacy. A user's computer creates its individual search indexes
and rankings, so that results better match what the user is looking for
over time. YaCy also makes it easy to create a customised search portal
with a few clicks.
"Most of what we do on the Internet involves search. It's the vital link
between us and the information we're looking for. For such an essential
function, we cannot rely on a few large companies, and compromise our
privacy in the process," says Michael Christen, YaCy's project leader.
"YaCy's free search is the vital link between free users and free
information. YaCy hands control over search back to us, the users."
Each YaCy user is part of a large search network. YaCy is already in use
on websites such as sciencenet.kit.edu, yacy.geocaching-portal.com, or
fsfe.org, to provide a site-wide search function that respect users'
privacy. It contains a peer-to-peer network protocol to exchange search
indexes with other YaCy search engines.
"We are moving away from the idea that services need to be centrally
controlled. Instead, we are realising how important it is to be
independent, and to create infrastructure that doesn't have a single
point of failure," says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software
Foundation Europe. "In the future world of distributed, peer-to-peer
systems, Free Software search engines like YaCy are a vital building
block."
Everyone can try out the search engine at http://search.yacy.net. Users
can become part of YaCy's network by installing the software on their
own computers. YaCy is Free Software, so anyone can use, study, share
and improve it. It is currently available for GNU/Linux, Windows and
MacOS. The project is also looking for developers and other
contributors.
= Links: =
YaCy homepage: http://yacy.net
YaCy search portal: http://search.yacy.net/
How to contribute: 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
President, Free Software Foundation Europe
Tel. +49 176 9690 4298
Email: gerloff(a)fsfeurope.org
== 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/
= Swedish activist receives Nordic Free Software Award 2011 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20111114-01.en.html ]
Erik Josefsson is the winner of the Nordic Free Software Award 2011.
With the award, the Swedish Foundation for Free Culture and Free
Software (FFKP) honours Josefsson for his achievements as a campaigner
for freedom in the information society.
"We are proud to honour Erik for the tremendously important work he has
done over the past ten years", says FFKP [1] Executive Director Jonas
Öberg. "Erik has an exceptional ability to understand and explain the
link between policy and technology. We are hugely grateful for his work.
He is an inspiration to all of us."
From a career as a professional double-bass player, Josefsson gradually
moved to full-time activism for freedom in the information society. He
founded the Swedish Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
(FFII Sweden) in 2004. Listed among Sweden's 30 most influential people
during the European debate about software patents in 2005, Josefsson is
among Europe's foremost defenders of software freedom.
As an activist in Brussels, Josefsson was instrumental in getting the
European Parliament to reject the Software Patent Directive in 2005.
More recently, he prevented the EU from passing a law to cut off
people's Internet access without due process, and is currently
campaigning against ACTA. [1]
Josefsson currently works as an adviser on Internet policies for the
Green/EFA Group in the European Parliament. He is busy building tools
such as ParlTrack [2] that make the Parliament's processes transparent
to citizens. "This information holds real power", says Henrik Sandklef,
Vice President of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). [3]
"Understanding how the Parliament works is very important for the Free
Software movement. Erik does a great job of explaining software freedom
to politicians, and helping freedom campaigners to understand Europe's
power structure."
Every year since 2007, FFKP [4] has used the Nordic Free Software Award
to honour people, projects and organisations in the Nordic countries
that have made a prominent contribution to the advancement of Free
Software. Previous winners of the award are Bjarní Runar Einarsson
(2010), Simon Josefsson and Daniel Stenberg (2009), Mats Östling (2008),
and the Skolelinux project (2007).
1. http://en.act-on-acta.eu/
2. http://parltrack.euwiki.org/
3. http://fsfe.org
4. http://ffkp.se
== Press contact ==
Jonas Öberg
Executive Director, FFKP
Email: jonas(a)ffkp.se
Phone: +46 31 780 21 61
== 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/
= Court rejects AVM´s claims opposing third party modifications of GPL software =
On November 8th the Regional Court of Berlin issued its decision in the
previously reported case AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM) v.
Cybits AG (Cybits). In this case, AVM was essentially trying to stop
Cybits from modifying GNU GPL licensed Free Software inside of their AVM
Fritz!Box products. Yesterday, the court dismissed this principal claim.
Thus, it also confirmed that users of embedded devices with
pre-installed Free Software have the legal freedom to make, install, run
and distribute modifications to this Free Software. The Free Software
Foundation Europe (FSFE) and gpl-violations.org, both welcome this
decision.
Although the written reasoning of the decision is not available yet, it
is clear that the court rejected AVM's claims according to which no
third party shall be permitted to alter their products' firmware, even
if the GNU GPL components are concerned. Thus, Cybits or anyone else may
perform such modifications. Furthermore, under the judgement, Cybits is
not prohibited from distributing its software that assists users in
making and installing modifications to GNU GPL licensed software (Linux
kernel used in the Fritz!Box device).
"I am extremely pleased that the court turned down any request by AVM to
control any modification to the GNU GPL licensed components of the
Fritz!Box firmware. Enabling and encouraging everyone to innovate based
on existing software and products is a key aspect of the Free Software
movement.", says Harald Welte, founder of gpl-violations.org and third
party intervener on behalf of Cybits in the dispute.
On the other hand, the court upheld an auxiliary claim raised by AVM. In
its ruling, it enjoins Cybits from distributing the software only in
case it causes the web interface to display a wrong status of the
internet connection and web filtering software. "But this is a side
issue, the important part is: Free Software gives everybody the right to
use, study, share, and improve it. Nobody should be allowed to prevent
others from executing those rights", says Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's
German coordinator.
The decision can be appealed by either party within one month.
FSFE and gpl-violations.org are committed to encouraging the use of Free
Software by companies and developers by making licensing and compliance
as easy as possible. Generally it is considerably easier to comply with
Free Software licenses than with EULAs and other license agreements for
non-Free software. Often it is only necessary to add a copy of the GNU
GPL license text to documentation, and add an offer to provide the
software source code (see FSFE's compliance tips
https://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors.en.html ).
- Detailed background information
http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/avm-gpl-violation.en.html
- Previous news on this case:
- 2011-06-20 - AVM violating license of the Linux kernel
http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.en.html
- 2011-06-22 - FSFE on AVM vs Cybits: A small computer is still a
computer http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110622-01.en.html
- LWN article: "ELCE11: Till Jaeger on AVM vs.
Cybits https://lwn.net/Articles/465070/
== 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/
Please accept our apologies. The correct link for reference [1] is:
http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/bestanden/documenten-en-publicaties/kamerstukke…
> = Dutch government hands over education's keys to Microsoft =
>
> [Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20111107-01.en.html ]
>
> The Dutch government wants to tie the country's schools to a single
> software vendor for years to come. Dutch students using Free Software or
> devices without Silverlight-support will find themselves locked out of
> schools' online systems due to the use of proprietary technology and
> closed standards. Marja Bijsterveldt, the secretary of education,
> recently said that she is unwilling to enforce the Dutch government's
> own Open Standards policy on educational institutions[1]. Instead, the
> government will accept long-term vendor lock-in of educational
> institutions.
[...]
> 1. http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/bestanden/documenten-en-publicaties/kamerstukke…
= Dutch government hands over education's keys to Microsoft =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20111107-01.en.html ]
The Dutch government wants to tie the country's schools to a single
software vendor for years to come. Dutch students using Free Software or
devices without Silverlight-support will find themselves locked out of
schools' online systems due to the use of proprietary technology and
closed standards. Marja Bijsterveldt, the secretary of education,
recently said that she is unwilling to enforce the Dutch government's
own Open Standards policy on educational institutions[1]. Instead, the
government will accept long-term vendor lock-in of educational
institutions.
For Free Software advocate Jan Stedehouder this emphasizes the need for
a stronger and more robust Open Standards policy framework. Therefore
Stedeholder initiated the Dutch campaign to make the use of Open
Standards mandatory in the public sector and to ensure vendor-
independent access to all online service of publicly funded
organisations.
The organisations and individuals supporting the campaign demand:
- to strengthen the Dutch action plan "Netherlands Open in Connection"
by making the use of Open Standards truly mandatory for all publicly-
funded institutions
- to make vendor-independent access to all online services and
information mandatory for all publicly-funded institutions, in this
case, educational institutions;
- to promote innovative education in IT-skills by broadening the
educational program with vendor-independent skill-sets.
"The policy framework approved by the Dutch Parliament in 2007 was an
important, internationally acclaimed achievement", says Stedehouder.
"But political barriers have meant that this policy hasn't been
implemented. As a result, students, future knowledge workers, are still
locked in proprietary technology."
Stedehouder highlights that students who complain about being locked out
of their school's system are being advised to buy the proprietary
Microsoft Windows operating system. "This behaviour is not only
unacceptable but also illegal. Our campaign aims at passing new
legislation to ensure the mandatory use of Open Standards in education,
to make sure that students have access to the free technology they
deserve", says Stedeholder.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) supports the Dutch
campaign[2] which is gaining traction and has received endorsements by
NLLGG[3], LPI Netherlands[4], NLUUG[5] and HCC[6], and almost 900
individuals. The Dutch parliament shares the disappointment with the way
the Open Standards policy framework is implemented in education. Mark
Lamers, coordinator for FSFE Netherlands, says: "Now it is time to act
for everybody who is in favour of a free competition in the software
market, and of course all Free Software advocates: Support this
campaign!"
"Though this problem is all too common around the world, the Dutch
government's stance is particularly disappointing", says Karsten
Gerloff, president of FSFE. "The Netherlands have some of the most
progressive policies on Free Software and Open Standards in the world.
But the education ministry utterly fails to implement them. I can well
understand that Dutch parliamentarians are dissatisfied and want to push
for a more robust policy."
*** More background information and up to date information on this topic
are available on"Unlocking education, for growth without limits":
http://fsfe.org/campaigns/nledu/nledu.en.html ***
1. http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/bestanden/documenten-en-publicaties/kamerstukke…
2. http://www.janstedehouder.nl/category/petitie-ictovergewicht-onderwijs/
3. http://www.nllgg.nl/
4. http://www.lpice.eu/nl/home/persberichten/steunbetuiging-en-oproep-voor-act…
5. https://www.nluug.nl/
6. http://www.hcc.nl/
== Press contact ==
Matthias Kirschner, Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
Linienstraße 141, 10115 Berlin
Phone: +49-30-275 95 290
Mobile: +49-1577-178 000 3
Jan Stedehouder <jan(a)stedehouder.org>
Mobile: +31-644357105
== 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 - 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>
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Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.de.rss>
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Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.de.html>