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
-- Karsten Gerloff [ ] <gerloff(a)fsfeurope.org> Free Software Foundation
Europe [ ][ ][ ] [http://fsfe.org] President | | +49 176 9690 4298 Your
donation powers our work! [http://fsfe.org/donate/] Free Software
Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered at the
Registergericht Hamburg (VR 17030).
= 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
= Cutting-edge development: the Analogue Printer =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110401-01.en.html ]
Today FSFE announced a new cutting-edge development: the Analogue Printer.
"Usually, FSFE concentrates on Free Software policy issues: we work to promote
Free Software in politics, business, and law, to increase social awareness of
Open Standards and acceptance by society at large. But at one point we decided
to use our donations to develop this groundbreaking device", says FSFE's
Fellowship Coordinator Matthias Kirschner.
The device is available in two versions:
- Analogue printer, business-style pen, dark blue (€12.00). This
analogue printer is interoperable and works on every platform. Highly
hackable, it uses Open Standards and comes with a shiny box
<http://fsfe.org/order/2010/images/pen-blue.jpg>.
- Analogue printer, geek-style pen, green (€5.00). This analogue printer
is interoperable and works on every platform. Highly hackable, it uses
Open Standards <http://fsfe.org/order/2010/images/pen-green.jpg>.
The device can print any colour, 3D, underwater, and all file formats.
Since the device is analogue, there is no digital restriction management
(DRM), so you can use it for any purpose.
Pictures on http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110401-01.en.html
"It was high time to provide users with a device that frees them not
only from the bonds of proprietary software, but from the limitations of
software in general", says Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's President. "This is a
tool that will finally give you 100% direct control over your written
communications, with no black boxes getting between you and your
messages."
The device is available in FSFE's online shop
<http://fsfe.org/order/order.en.html#other-items>.
== 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/
