= Icelandic developer receives Nordic Free Software Award =
[Permanent URL: http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101108-01 ]
Bjarni Rúnar Einarsson, Free Software developer and community
builder from Iceland, has received the Nordic Free Software Award.
This annual prize was awarded on Saturday by Föreningen för Fri Kultur
och Programvara and Free Software Foundation Europe at the Free
Software Conference and Nordic Summit (FSCONS) which took place in
Gothenburg, Sweden this weekend.
Einarsson has been a leading figure in Iceland's Free Software
movement for more than a decade. He has been driving the country's
Free Software and free culture community, founding and participating
in various groups such as Vinix, contributing to the KDE project, and
starting netverjar.is, an organisation fighting for civil rights on
the Internet.
"Without Bjarni, Iceland's Free Software community wouldn't be what it
is today," says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software
Foundation Europe. "People like Bjarni are the lifeblood of our
community. I'm very glad to see his work recognised in this way."
Bjarni has advocated the use of Free Software by maintaining and
distributing CDs with a free operating system, both translating and
developing Free Software for several years.
"The Nordic Free Software Award is special because it's a recognition
from your peers," comments 2009 award recipient, the Swedish Free
Software developer Daniel Stehnberg. "It means having your work
appreciated by people who understand what you have achieved."
== Links ==
Föreningen för Fri Kultur och Programvara
http://ffkp.se
Free Software Foundation Europe
http://fsfe.org
== Media contacts ==
Iceland:
Smári McCarthy - smari(a)immi.is +354 662 2701
Denmark:
Anne Østergaard - anne(a)ostergaard.nu +45 35 42 88 73
Sweden:
Daniel Stenberg - daniel(a)haxx.se +46 705 44 31 77
Norway:
Anders Kringstad - akai(a)underworld.no +47 932 82 137
Finland:
Otto Kekäläinen - otto(a)fsfe.org +358 44 566 2204
Rest of Europe:
Karsten Gerloff - gerloff(a)fsfeurope.org +49 176 9690 4298
== 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 support us to reach more people in their native language. Join
our translator team http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/.)
= FSFE Newsletter - November 2010 =
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201011.en.html]
This edition explains how we counter the lobby work of proprietary
organisations at the European level, what we do at the United Nations
level to inform more people about the dangers of software patents,
what we are doing to get rid of non-free software advertisement on
public websites, and what you can do to make a change.
Beside that the Document Foundation was formed to take care of the
development of Libre Office. More and more organisations raise
awareness about government spendings on non-free software, like the
[1]parlamentarian group Digital Sustainability in Switzerland and our
associated organisation [2]ANSOL in [3]Portugal (Portuguese). The
Austrian Fellows asked the political parties in Vienna about their
[4]stance on Free Software related issues, the Fellowship interviews
started again with a [5]new interview with Leena Simon, Karsten gave a
talk about "Power and Freedom" at Tedx [6]which was recorded
(bittorent), and I (Matthias) informed the listeners of Dradio Wissen
about [7]Free Software licenses (German).
== Facts against BSA's fictions on Open Standards ==
Open Standards are always a hot topic in Brussels. Where Open
Standards go, Free Software can easily follow. That's why [8]we're
pushing for Open Standards in the rules and recommendations that the
European Commission makes for public bodies across Europe. For example
we document the changes of EU's new interoperability recommendations (
[9]European Interoperability Framework), we [10]publish analysis, and
with [11]Document Freedom Day we raise awareness for the topic in a
wider public.
But not everyone out there likes Open Standards. The Business Software
Alliance (BSA), a lobby group for proprietary software, is pressuring
the European Commission to remove the last traces of support for Open
Standards from the latest version of the European Interoperability
Framework (EIF).
We obtained a [12]copy of a letter sent to the Commission by the BSA.
We [13]analysed their arguments and explained why their claims are
false, and why Open Standards are key to interoperability and
competition in the European software market. In short we dealt with
the following points:
- Restriction-free patent licensing opens up participation and
promotes innovation
- The example standards cited by the BSA are irrelevant to the
software field
- (F)RAND licensing in software standards is unfair and
discriminatory
- The BSA's letter to the Commission isn't supported by its own
- membership, much less by the software industry as a whole
- (F)RAND is incompatible with the most widely used Free Software
licenses
- Restriction-free specifications will promote standardisation,
competition and interoperability
We sent a [14]letter with those arguments to the European Commission
to support Open Standards and interoperability, and [15]informed the
press about it. Although this topic is quite complex, several media
outlets picked it up. You might especially be interested in an article
by Glyn Moody about [16]"A (Final) Few Words on FRAND Licensing".
== WIPO - Fighting software patents at WIPO ==
But why wait until we have to deal with topics at the European level?
We always try to fix them at the root, so we work in some committees
of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). From October
11-15, WIPO's Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) had its
15th session. We participate there because the committee discusses
questions related to patents and standards.
Our main goals in the committee are to convince WIPO member states and
WIPO staff why software should not be patentable, explain to them the
relation between standards and patents from the perspective of Free
Software, and make them understand how rules must be shaped so that
their countries can get the most out of Free Software.
In our most important statement [17]"Statement on the relation between
standards and patents at WIPO SCP/15" we explain why software
standards must be implementable in any software or business model,
including those based on Free Software. We argued that when patents
are included in software standards, they need to be licensed in a
manner that does not restrict their implementation in any way. Besides
the absence of any other restriction, that means royalty-free
licensing to any party implementing the standard.
== PDFreaders: 2162 public websites advertise non-free software ==
One month, one campaign, one goal: getting rid of non-free software
advertisements on public websites. In four weeks, we received reports
concerning [18]2162 European institutions who advertise non free
PDFreaders. Apart from the 305 activists who participated to the
search, 1500 individuals, 46 businesses and 38 organisations signed
our [19]Petition For The Removal Of Proprietary Software Advertising
On Public Websites. Now that the hunt is over, it's time to chase up
those websites which encourage visitors to jeopardise their freedom.
It's time to stamp out the ads!
Highly motivated volunteers searched the internet for public websites
that advertise for non-free software and reported [20]2162
institutions. Some of them, like Massimo Barbieri and Lucas Bickel
individually reported more than 350! Alessandro Albini, Rainer
Schmitz, and Павел Харитонов (Pavel Kharitonov) also made a remarkable
contribution in reporting around 50 institutions each.
But we will not stop with a list of institutions. In the coming weeks,
we will [21]send letters to the institutions to draw their attention
to their unfair advertising. In the name of the signatories of the
[22]petition, we will ask the institutions to either remove any
recommendation for non-free software from their website, or give a
choice of several programs.
== Get active: stamp out the ads! ==
Wherever you are, whatever time you have, you can contribute to the
removal of non-free software adverts on public website. The amazing
work of the ads hunters and [23]our translators has laid a firm
foundation for the next phase. Now it is up to you to enable us to get
things done. You can make a difference! Help us to [24]translate the
letter into missing languages or [25]donate to the PDF readers
campaign fund to help cover the 1600 EUR for postage and the extra
costs of administration to deliver the messages throughout Europe.
Help us stamp out the ads!
Hope to see you at [26]FSCONS,
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
1.
http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.ch/2010/10/beschwerde-ans-bundesgericht/
2. http://ansol.org/
3.
http://listas.ansol.org/pipermail/ansol-imprensa/2010-September/000085.html
4. http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/vienna/Wahl2010
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=119
6.
http://download.fsfe.org/torrents/TEDxEutropolis-Karsten_Gerloff-Power_and_…
7. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=679
8. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=408
9. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/eifv2.en.html
10. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/ps.en.html
11. http://www.documentfreedom.org/
12. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-letter-ec.pdf
13. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-letter-analysis.en.html
14. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-eif-letter-fsfe-response.pdf
15. http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101016-01.en.html
16.
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2010/10/a-final-few-words-…
17. http://fsfe.org/projects/wipo/statement-20101013.en.html
18. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
19. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.en.html
20. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
21. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html
22. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.en.html
23. http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.en.html
24. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html
25. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
26. http://www.fscons.org/
--
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>
= End non-free advertisement: stamp out the ads! =
[permanent URL : http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-2010-11-02-01.html]
One month, one campaign, one goal: getting rid of non-free software
advertisements on public websites. In four weeks, FSFE received
reports concerning 2162 European institutions[1] who advertise
non-free PDF readers. Apart from the 305 activists who participated to
the search, 1500 individuals, 46 businesses and 38 organisations
signed our Petition For The Removal Of Proprietary Software
Advertising On Public Websites[2]. Now that the hunt is over, it's time
to chase up those websites which encourage visitors to jeopardise
their freedom. It's time to stamp out the ads!
Highly motivated volunteers searched the internet for public websites
that advertise non-free software and reported 2162 institutions[3].
Some of them, like Massimo Barbieri and Lucas Bickel individually
reported more than 350! Alessandro Albini, Rainer Schmitz, and Pavel
Kharitonov also made a remarkable contribution in reporting around 50
institutions each.
But the FSFE won't stop with a list of institutions. In the coming
weeks, FSFE will send letters to the institutions[4] to draw their
attention to their unfair advertising. In the name of the signatories
of the petition[5], FSFE will ask the institutions to either remove
any recommendation for non-free software from their website, or give a
choice of several programs.
Wherever you are, whatever time you have, you can contribute to the
removal of non-free software adverts on public websites. The amazing
work of the ads hunters and our translators[6] has laid a firm
foundation for the next phase. Now it is up to you to enable us to get
things done. You can make a difference! Help us to translate the
letter[7] into missing languages or donate to the PDF readers campaign
fund[8] to help cover the 1600 EUR for postage and the extra costs of
administration to deliver the messages throughout Europe. Help us
stamp out the ads!
== 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/
1. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
2. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.en.html
3. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
4. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html
5. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.en.html
6. http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.en.html
7. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html
8. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
= 2286 public websites advertise non-free software =
[permanent URL : http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101018-01.html]
During Free Software Foundation Europe's pdfreaders.org[1] campaign,
Free Software activists from 41 countries have reported 2286 public
sector institutions which advertise non-free PDF readers on their
websites. FSFE will now contact these institutions, trying to get as
many advertisements for non-free PDF readers as possible removed before
the end of the year. Progress will be documented on the list of reported
institutions[2].
"Public bodies are right to try and make things easy for citizens by
explaining how to open the files on their sites. But by advertising
non-free software, they're doing citizens a disservice", says Karsten
Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "Democratic
governments are supposed to give us freedom, not to drive us into
dependence on a single software vendor."
Most versions of the PDF file format are Open Standards[3], but the
advertised readers are proprietary. These advertisements help to build a
brand for the one particular non-free software company. The public
sector becomes a marketing channel for that company and its products,
making it harder for Free Software PDF readers[4] to gain market share.
"We're frankly astonished at the amount of responses we got", says
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's Fellowship coordinator. "The number of
reports we've received show that the problem is endemic across all
levels of the public sector." In just four weeks, hundreds of activists
from 41 countries submitted 2286 reports[5] about advertisement for
non-free software to FSFE. Beside that, already 37 organisations, 45
businesses and 1418 individuals have signed FSFE's petition asking
public bodies to remove advertisements for non-free software from their
websites. "This shows how many people across Europe care about software
freedom and are willing to get active to help the public sector solve
its advertising problem", continues Kirschner.
FSFE encourages public institutions to remove advertisements for
non-free software from their websites, or at least change their websites
so that they no longer discriminate against Free Software[6]. In
February 2009 Fellows of FSFE[7] started pdfreaders.org[8], a website
listing Free Software PDF readers for all major operating systems. The
website also provides recommendations based on a range of practical
criteria, such as integration with the operating system and ease of
installation.
== 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/
1. http://www.fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.en.html
2. http://www.fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html
3. http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/os.en.html
4. http://www.pdfreaders.org/
5. http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100913-01.en.html
6. http://www.fsfe.org/about/basics/freesoftware.en.html
7. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/
8. http://pdfreaders.org/
== Open Standards in Europe: FSFE puts facts against BSA's fictions ==
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101016-01.en.html]
18 October 2010, 12:30, Berlin, Germany
On Friday FSFE sent a letter to the European Commission to support
Open Standards and interoperability. In the drawn-out battle to retain
at least a weak recommendation for Open Standards in the revised
European Interoperability Framework, FSFE has countered a leaked
letter by the lobby group Business Software Alliance with its own
thorough analysis of the relation between standards and patents.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is pressuring the European
Commission to remove the last vestiges of support for Open Standards
from the latest version of the EU's interoperability recommendations,
the European Interoperability Framework.
"We trust that the European Commission won't be swayed by such a blunt
attempt to capture the European Software market for a single interest
group", says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software
Foundation Europe. "The BSA's letter to the Commission doesn't even
represent a consensus among the group's own members".
Open Standards, which can be implemented in Free Software, are key to
interoperability in Europe. FSFE on Thursday obtained a copy of a
letter sent to the Commission by the BSA, analysed the BSA's claims,
and made both the analysis and the BSA's letter available on its
website.
The leaked Business Software Alliance letter to the European Commission:
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-letter-ec.pdf
Letter of analysis sent by FSFE to the Commission in response:
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-eif-letter-fsfe-response.pdf
Our analysis of the BSA's letter on-line:
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-letter-analysis.html
Open Standards:
http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.en.html
== Contacts ==
Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.org
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.
http://fsfe.org
Hardware we all want: FSF announces criteria for hardware endorsement
program "Respects Your Freedom"
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Hardware/Endorsement_criteria
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, October 14, 2010 -- The Free
Software Foundation (FSF) announced today that it has published an initial
set of criteria for endorsing computers and other devices. The FSF seeks
both to obtain feedback on the criteria, and raise interest in the program
among hardware manufacturers. Ultimately, the FSF plans to promote an
endorsement mark to be carried on products that meet the criteria:
respects your freedom.
"The desire to own a computer or device and have full control over it, to
know that you are not being spied on or tracked, to run any software you
wish without asking permission, and to share with friends without worrying
about Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) -- these are the desires of
millions of people who care about the future of technology and our
society. Unfortunately, hardware manufacturers have until now relied on
close cooperation with proprietary software companies that demanded
control over their users. As citizens and their customers, we need to
promote our desires for a new class of hardware -- hardware that anyone
can support because it respects your freedom," said Peter Brown, executive
director of the FSF.
The FSF's criteria seek to cover all aspects of user interaction with and
control of a device: they say the hardware must run free software on every
layer that is user upgradeable, allow the user to modify that software,
support free data formats, be fully usable with free tools, and more.
FSF license compliance engineer Brett Smith said, "Every software
component needed to produce endorsable hardware is now available. We have
several GNU/Linux distributions that only include free software, and are
completely functional on the right hardware. We have the LinuxLibre kernel
that does not include nonfree microcode. And we have cutting edge mobile
platforms like Android and MeeGo that are based on free software. In the
past we've spoken to manufacturers who were interested in making free
software-friendly hardware, but they worried about connecting with
customers. With our endorsement mark and the strong criteria that back it,
we plan to bridge that gap and demonstrate to manufacturers that they
stand to gain plenty by making hardware that respects people's freedom
instead of curtailing it."
The initial set of guidelines are available on the LibrePlanet wiki, at
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Hardware/Endorsement_criteria. The FSF
welcomes contributions on the wiki discussion page, including suggestions
for improvements to the criteria, and ideas and art submissions for an
endorsement mark.
Hardware manufacturers interested in endorsement should contact
licensing(a)fsf.org.
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.
About Free Software and Open Source
The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer users. Some,
especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as "open
source," which cites only practical goals such as making software powerful
and reliable, focuses on development models, and avoids discussion of
ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints are different at the deepest
level. For more explanation, see
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.
Media Contacts
Brett Smith
License Compliance Engineer
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x18
brett(a)fsf.org
###
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(We now have dedicated lists for our newsletter. If you want to
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(Please support us to reach more people in their native language. Join
our translator team http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/.)
= FSFE Newsletter - October 2010 =
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.en.html]
In this edition we discuss the misleading term "fair, reasonable and
non-discriminatory terms" (FRAND), we explain what we are doing about
centralised computer systems and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and
update you on our current campaign to end non-free software commercials by
public institutions.
FSFE celebrated Software Freedom Day with a variety of local events and
activities. We organised talks and booths in Berlin, Bonn, Hamburg,
Cologne, Offenburg (Germany), Zurich (Switzerland), and The Hague
(Netherlands). [25]With our activities we reached new audiences, and
explained to them why Free Software will become as important as freedom of
the press and freedom of assembly.
== Why FRAND excludes Free Software ==
[26]We asked European Free Software businesses to participate in a survey
of business attitudes towards the acceptability of including patents in
industry standards. A major theme in the survey was whether patents that
cover standards should be licensed royalty-free (as W3C recommends), or
whether they should instead be licensed under so-called "fair, reasonable
and non-discriminatory terms" (FRAND).
FRAND is a misnomer as the terms are often unfair, unreasonable, and
highly discriminatory, particularly for Free Software. In reality FRAND is
only fair and reasonable to a small circle of the most powerful software
companies.
Paying royalties of 0.000001 Cent per copy to implement a standard might
look fair at the first sight, but such a fee would make it impossible to
distribute a program as Free Software. Free Software safeguards the right
to share with others. Therefore, when Free Software companies sell their
software they cannot know how many people will eventually end up using it.
It becomes impossible to estimate the total amount of royalties owed to
patent owners; Free Software businesses will be unable to compete with
their proprietary competitors and Free Software as a whole would be
undermined.
We encouraged Free Software companies to respond to this survey, so that
their views were heard and the interests of Free Software were represented
in the study's results. Unfortunately the implicit assumptions of the
survey were biased towards large corporations with dedicated
'standardisation employees' dedicated to providing detailed information.
We received feedback that it was very difficult and sometimes impossible
for small and medium sized companies to fill out the questionnaire. We
will highlight this fact as well as our general criticism in the
forthcoming process, [27]as we have done in the past.
== Cloudy Internet Governance Forum ==
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a global policy discussion forum of
the United Nations, established as an outcome of the UN World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS). We are constantly following the IGF to
ensure that policy discussions will not endanger digital freedom in
general and Free Software in particular. Karsten attended the Forum in
Vilnius, Lithuania and presented his talk [28]"Data in the cloud: Where do
Open Standards fit in".
He drew attention to potential solutions to the threats of cloud
computing, including the possibility of users operating their own easy to
administer, always connected servers, which could offer preconfigured web,
mail, jabber, and microblogging services. He also discussed Yacy, GNU
Social, Angel Applications and other Free Software programs which present
decentralised alternatives to dominant proprietary services.
We are currently working on ways to encourage wider use of applications
which use distributed models, so that control of the software is also
distributed amongst users. As a result we have integrated [29]Yacy, the
distributed search engine into our website and are now testing its
results. YaCy's lead developer Michael Christen will be speaking at our
track of talks [30]'Divide and Reconquer: regaining control of our
communications' at FSCONS, which focuses on issues of centralisation of
key Internet services.
== Non-free software commercials presented by public institutions ==
Each day public institutions advertise non-free software on their
websites. They link to non-free software PDF readers and thereby recommend
that their visitors use non-free software. [31]Non-free software harms our
society, and it is particularly inappropriate for public institutions to
unnecessarily endorse it. Some public institutions go as far as stating
that it is only possible to view their PDF files with the proprietary
reader that they recommend, which is simply false. Many [32]Free Software
PDF readers exist and provide users with a clear choice over which reader
they wish to use.
To raise awareness of this behaviour we started a new PDF readers
campaign, and began collecting reports of infringing institutions, and
petition signatures agreeing that this practice should be changed.
Adverts for gratis non-free PDF readers readers are nonetheless adverts
for non-free software, and because of this we do not include them on
pdfreaders.org. Public websites should not list them either as promoting
one proprietary reader over another reader gives an unfair advantage, and
supports the existence of software monopolies.
Since 13 September, volunteers from all over the world helped us with the
campaign. At the time of writing they submitted over 1369 occurences of
advertisement for 39 countries. 762 individuals, 20 organisations and 21
businesses signed the "Petition For The Removal Of Proprietary Software
Advertising On Public Websites". Amazingly the campaign website is
available in 10, the petition page in 11, and pdfreaders.org in 18
languages.
== Get active ==
This month we ask you to support our PDFreaders campaign:
- Find and [33]report advertisements for non-free software on websites
belonging to public institutions.
- Sign our [34]Petition For The Removal Of Proprietary Software
Advertising On Public Websites.
- [35]Translate the websites about this campaign into your language.
- Find out if it is [36]illegal for the public institutions to give
unfair advertising to particular companies in your country and inform
us about it.
- Find out and inform us how much money it would cost in your country to
get an online advertisement on websites comparable to the public
institutions which contain the advertisement.
- Inform others about the campaign and what they can do to help.
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner
1. http://www.fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss
2. http://www.fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss
3. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.en.html#content
4. http://www.fsfe.org/index.en.html
5. http://www.fsfe.org/about/about.en.html
6. http://www.fsfe.org/projects/work.en.html
7. http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
8. http://www.fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
9. http://www.fsfe.org/order/order.en.html
10. http://www.fsfe.org/press/press.en.html
11. http://www.fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
12. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/
13. http://wiki.fsfe.org/
14. http://planet.fsfe.org/
15. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
18. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/about
19. http://www.fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders
20. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.de.html
21. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.es.html
22. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.fr.html
23. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.it.html
24. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.pt.html
25. http://www.fsfe.org/events/SFD-2010.en.html
26. http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100907-01.en.html
27. http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/ps.en.html
28. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=391
29. http://www.yacy.net/
30. http://www.fsfe.org/events/fscons-2010.en.html
31. http://www.fsfe.org/freesoftware/society/democracy.en.html
32. http://www.pdfreaders.org/
33. http://www.fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.en.html
34. http://www.fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.en.html
35. http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.en.html
36. http://blogs.fsfe.org/maelle/?p=60
37. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201010.en.html#top
38. http://www.fsfe.org/index.en.html
39. http://www.fsfe.org/source/news/nl/nl-201010.en.xhtml
40. http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/translators/index.en.html
41. http://www.fsfe.org/about/fsfnetwork.en.html
42. http://www.fsf.org/
43. http://www.fsf.org.in/
44. http://www.fsfla.org/
--
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>
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Friday, September 24, 2010 -- The Free
Software Foundation (FSF) is advising the software community in the
United States to write to the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) and ask that software patents be excluded from upcoming
guidance about patent eligibility.
Following the Supreme Court's recent decision in *Bilski v. Kappos*,
the USPTO plans to release new guidance about which patent
applications will be accepted, and which will not. As part of this
process, they are seeking input from the public about how that
guidance should be structured. The FSF is taking this opportunity to
call on the USPTO to exclude software patents from eligibility, and
encouraging others in the field to do the same.
"Normally when the USPTO solicits feedback like this, they hear almost
exclusively from patent attorneys who have a vested interest in making
sure that patents are granted as broadly as possible," said Brett
Smith, license compliance engineer at the FSF. "And this process will
be overseen by David Kappos, the current director of the USPTO and
formerly an attorney at IBM in charge of their heavy-handed patent
strategy. It's not hard to guess what this guidance will look like if
we leave this process in their hands, so we're taking this opportunity
to put on public record how software patents harm all computer users
and developers, and why, based upon the Supreme Court's ruling, they
should not be granted."
Ciaran O'Riordan, executive director of End Software Patents added,
"The *Bilski* decision didn't give us everything we wanted, but there
was a silver lining. We asked the Supreme Court to reaffirm their
rulings in *Diehr*, *Benson*, and *Flook*, and distance themselves
from the decisions of lower courts that expanded patent eligibility.
They did just that. Now the USPTO has to interpret this shift, and
our task is to ensure that this key element of the decision isn't
forgotten."
The FSF is advising US corporations, computer users, and developers to
express their opposition to software patents by writing to
<Bilski_Guidance(a)uspto.gov>. More information and example starter
text is available at <http://www.fsf.org/news/uspto-bilski-guidance>
and
<http://en.swpat.org/wiki/USPTO_2010_consultation_-_deadline_27_sept>.
The USPTO is accepting comments through Monday, September 27.
### 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.
### About Free Software and Open Source
The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer users. Some,
especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as
"open source," which cites only practical goals such as making
software powerful and reliable, focuses on development models, and
avoids discussion of ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints are
different at the deepest level. For more explanation, see
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html>.
### Media Contacts
Brett Smith
License Compliance Engineer
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x18
<brett(a)fsf.org>
###
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)fsf.org>
http://lists.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
= FSFE: Stop unfair advertising - get your government to promote free
PDF readers! =
[Permanent URL : http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100913-01.en.html]
The Free Software Foundation Europe calls on all Europeans to seek out
advertisements for proprietary PDF readers on their government's
websites, and report them [1]. In addition, FSFE has prepared
a petition [2] demanding an end to such advertising practices, and
encourages the public to sign it .
"Every time that state websites link to non-free applications and
encourage visitors to use them, they needlessly encourage citizens to
throw away their freedom", says Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's President.
As websites such as pdfreaders.org [3] demonstrate, Free
Software PDF readers exist for all major operating systems. Fellows of
FSFE launched the project in 2009 in response to public bodies' habit
of advertising a particular non-free product on their sites.
FSFE's Fellowship Coordinator Matthias Kirschner comments: "What would
you think about a sign on the highway saying 'You need a Volkswagen to
drive on this road. Contact your Volkswagen dealer for a gratis test
drive'? When it comes to PDF readers, governments seem to think that
this is acceptable."
Such endorsements give unfair advantage to whichever proprietary
product they recommend, and are often accompanied by inaccurate
statements presenting the application as the only available option.
The hunt begins on September 13th, and will continue until October
17th 2010. Prizes will be awarded at the end of October to the
individuals and groups who report the greatest number of proprietary
software advertisements on government websites.
Happy hunting!
1. www.fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.html
2. www.fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/petition.html
3. http://pdfreaders.org/">pdfreaders.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/
(Please support us to reach more people in their native language. Join
our translator team http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/.)
= FSFE Newsletter - September 2010 =
In this edition we are covering Free Software in education, distributed
Free Software solutions as alternative to centralised services, some ways
to celebrate what we -- the Free Software community -- already achieved,
and how you can participate in the European football championship even if
you are not interested in football.
A lot of us used August to recharge our batteries. We also supercharged
our internship team, as Nicolas Jean joined Maëlle Costa and Sam Tuke.
Karsten [24]gave an interview in Noticias de Gipuzcoa (Spanish) where he
talks about how Free Software contributes to the division of power in
democracies. He also discusses how Free Software helps local enterprises
to acquire advanced technology skills, and keeps profits in the region. I
(Matthias) gave an interview to Dradio to explain a wider audience, that
[25]'Free does not mean gratis (German)', explaining how and why to earn
money with software you can use, study, share, and improve.
== Free Software in education ==
As more people understand technology, more people will understand why
Free Software is important for our society. Our aim is that children and
students do not only learn how to use software, but understand the
principles how software and computers in general work. With Free Software
there are no artificial barriers to stop you from learning. You can dive
right in and see exactly how professionals design software.
Our [26]education team is connecting people working on these topics to
avoid duplication of efforts, spreads information about Free Software in
education and explains the importance of software freedom.
Edu-team member [27]Guido Arnold published a summary covering news about
Free Software in education over the last 16 month in European countries,
including news from Free Software distributions aiming for education, and
news what happened in the education team itself.
== Celebrate Software Freedom ==
Many of us dedicate a lot of time and energy working for freedom in the
digital age. One possibility to celebrate our achievements worldwide is
[28]Software Freedom Day on September 18th. At this day we encourage you
to celebrate Free Software, and share your joy with others.
We organise and take part in several events. Our Austrian Fellows are
organising an event in Graz, Hugo Roy is planning an activity in Paris,
our German Fellows take part at events in Berlin, Bonn, Cologne, and
Offenburg. Our President Karsten will give a talk at a celebration in the
Royal Library of The Hague/Netherlands and Reinhard Müller will hold a
speech at FrOSCamp in Zurich titled "Free yourself -- how to save the
world in five easy steps". For more details check out [29]our event page
and [30]the Fellowship calendar.
== Free Software Championship ==
Do you like Football? To like Guido's Free Software championship, you
don't have to. The idea is to run a parallel tournament to the football
championship in Europe 2012 where the discipline is Free Software usage
in government. Guido developed the [31]ground rules and uses the
[32]information from our page about Free Software usage in the public
administration as input. Participate by [33]adding missing data about the
Free Software usage in governments to our website and discuss the rules
with Guido. If you like to microblog about it, you can use the hashtag
#euro4fs.
== Will distributed Free Software preserve our freedom? ==
Today, the majority of Europe's citizens communicate on-line, often
hundreds of times a day. Employers demand it, communities need it, yet
more and more digital communication happens through only a handful of
globalised service providers. Whether emailing, social networking,
blogging, calling over VOIP, sharing files or researching data, control
over our data and what we can do remains firmly out of our grasp.
A democratic society relies on dividing power between its institutions
and citizens. Individuals deserve control of their own actions and
information in the digital age.
Does Free Software offer us this control, through distributed, accessible
and transparent ways of interacting? That is what we want to discuss. We
will be hosting an own track at FSCONS. Our five talks form a series
entitled [34]'Divide and Reconquer: regaining control of our
communications', and includes speakers from software initiatives that are
changing the future of the Internet.
'Divide and Reconquer' invites you to engage with the empowering concept
of decentralised networks, understand how recent trends have concentrated
control, and witness the most exciting tools available for taking the
power back.
* The foundations of the Internet: the dawn of peer-to-peer (working
title) - Benjamin Bayart (French Data Network)
* The Centralisation of the Internet (working title) - Torsten Grote
(FSFE)
* Socially responsible social networks (working title) - Michael
Chisari (Appleseed Project), Jaussoin Timothée and Ludovic Bocquet
(Movim)
* Web Search By The People, For The People (working title) - Michael
Christen (YaCy)
* TBA - Matt Lee (FSF)
== Get active: Encourage people think about distributed software ==
For our monthly get active item, we would like to encourage more people
to think about distributed Free Software programs as an alternative to
centralised services. Our track 'divide and reconquer' at FSCONS will
deal with that. Please help us:
* Attend the conference, discuss the topics with us and afterwards
continue discussions with friends. [35]Accommodation booking through
FSCONS will close by the end of September.
* Help out as a volunteer during the conference in Gothenburg. For
example you can help us with recording the talks so more people can
benefit from them. Get in [36]touch with us. Your help will be very
much appreciated.
* Promote the conference on your website, or by inviting friends.
* Check out the topics of the track and send us possible questions for
the speakers to [37]our discussion lists.
Thank you for supporting FSFE!
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
1. http://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss
2. http://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss
3. http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201009.en.html#content
4. http://fsfe.org/index.en.html
5. http://fsfe.org/about/about.en.html
6. http://fsfe.org/projects/work.en.html
7. http://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
8. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
9. http://fsfe.org/order/order.en.html
10. http://fsfe.org/press/press.en.html
11. http://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
12. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/
13. http://wiki.fsfe.org/
14. http://planet.fsfe.org/
15. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
18. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/about
19. http://softwarefreedomday.org/
20. http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201009.de.html
21. http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201009.el.html
22. http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201009.fr.html
23. http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201009.it.html
24.
http://www.noticiasdegipuzkoa.com/2010/08/23/economia/el-dinero-que-se-gast…
25. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=627
26. http://fsfe.org/projects/education/eduteam.en.html
27.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2010/08/free-software-in-education-clearing-the…
28. http://softwarefreedomday.org/
29. http://fsfe.org/events/events.en.html
30. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents
31. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2010/08/euro-2012-in-free-software/
32. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Free_Software_usage_in_public_administration
33.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2010/08/euro2012-qualifying-preparing-for-day-2/
34. http://fsfe.org/events/fscons-2010.en.html
35. http://fscons.org/catalog/14
36. mailto:fellowship@fsfeurope.org
37. http://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html
38. http://fsfe.org/about/kirschner/kirschner.en.html
39. http://fsfe.org/index.en.html
40. http://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss
41. http://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss
42. http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml
43. http://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html
44. http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201009.en.html#top
45. http://fsfe.org/index.en.html
46. http://fsfe.org/source/news/nl/nl-201009.en.xhtml
47. http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/index.en.html
48. http://fsfe.org/about/fsfnetwork.en.html
49. http://www.fsf.org/
50. http://www.fsf.org.in/
51. http://www.fsfla.org/
--
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>