Welcome to FSFE's exceptionally full November newsletter. In Europe FSFE has
been involved in speeches, meetings, training courses and public betas of new
technology. On the global level we have been participated in the recent
Internet Governance Forum meeting in Brazil.
As always FSFE's work has been complemented by the contributions of the Fellows.
The Fellows in Nijmegen, Dusseldorf and Berlin are due particular credit this
month after participating in discussions on various topics. In Berlin the
increased use of Free Software on mobile devices was discussed, while Free
Software and business was the topic of choice in Dusseldorf and Nijmegen.
If you are interested in starting Fellowship meetings in your area please
contact the Fellowship at http://fsfe.org/en/contact_us
- Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
2. STACS meeting in London
3. Trophees du Libre 2007 in Soissons
4. Training Courses in Stockholm and Nijmegen
5. FTF events in Linz, Lausanne, Nijmegen and Dusseldorf
6. Foundation activities in Sweden
7. Berlin Fellowship discusses Free Software mobile phones
8. FSFE revisiting software patent information
9. SELF public beta and bug fixing
10. Interview with Werner Koch
Forthcoming events:
11. Free Software Conference Scandinavia, Gothenburg, Sweden
12. FSFE informes on privacy and freedom in Schwetzingen
1. United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
The second Internet Governance Forum was hosted by the Brazilian
government in Rio de Janeiro and showed a strong emphasis of Open
Standards as one of the key issues, also thanks to the constant work
that FSFE has been doing over the years and the good collaboration with
many groups in the Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS). FSFE's
president Georg Greve had a busy time participating in the pre-IGF
Standards Edge conference by the Bolin Group and several workshops on
the issue, including the general assembly Security Session. Open
Standards are likely to play a greate role in the future UN work.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/igf/
2. STACS meeting in London
On the 2nd of November, the FSFE organised a capacity building session
for CSOs as part of the STACS project
(FP6-2005-Science-and-Society-19-044597), in order to increase CSO
awareness of Free Software and to demonstrate its use. The session took
place at The Hub in London and was attended by a nice mixture of
participating CSOs, both from the greater London area, from the rest of
the UK and from several other European countries. The session ended with
a wish from all participants to hold several more similar sessions for
other CSOs in other places around Europe.
3. Trophees du Libre 2007 in Soissons
The Trophees du Libre, organised by CETRIL, is the world's largest Free
Software award with several categories. The 29 November saw the 4th
edition of the Trophees du Libre, held at the Chateau de Villeneuve
Saint-Germain with participants coming from as far as Taiwan, Israel or
Montreal. Having participated in the jury last year, FSFE president
Georg Greve was invited to preside over the jury of this edition and to
moderate the award ceremony while FSFE intern Irina Dzhambazova was
using the opportunity to get to know more projects and supporting the
event as best she could.
http://www.tropheesdulibre.org/?lang=en
4. Training Courses in Stockholm and Nijmegen
On the 8th of November, the FTF in collaboration with Internet Academy in
Stockholm, Sweden delivered a course on the strategic implementation of
Free Software in business. On the 26th of November the FTF and ATComputing
in Nijmegen, The Netherlands delivered the same course. The FTF now offers
course in Switzerland, Sweden and The Netherlands and expects to expand into
more countries soon. For more information about FTF courses please visit:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
5. FTF events in Linz, Lausanne, Nijmegen and Dusseldorf
It has been a busy month for the FTF. Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator,
delivered a keynote entitled 'Free Software, licensing and business
processes' on the 3rd of November at elce2007 in Linz, Austria. He also
spoke at the Business and Law schools of Lausanne University, Switzerland,
on the 21st and 22nd of November, attended a Fellowship meeting in Nijmegen,
The Netherlands on the 26th, and delivered a speech for the Dusseldorf
Fellows about Free Software licensing and business processes on the 28th.
For more information about FTF events please visit FSFE's events page:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/events/events.html
6. Foundation activities in Sweden
The Swedish team of the FSFE has been busy during the month, holding
several presentations about SELF and Free Software in Sweden. The first
presentation was held at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm
on the 7th of November, followed up by the University College of Borås
in Borås on the 9th, Umeå University in Umeå on the 12th, Mid Sweden
University in Sundsvall on the 19th, Karlstad University in Karlstad on
the 20th and Linköping University in Linköping on the 21st.
All events were quite well attended, with a mixture of students, teachers
and other members of the faculty. In the presentations, emphasis was
placed also on how SELF actually contributes, not only to further education
on Free Software, but also to encourage the Free Software philosophy of
sharing and cooperation in other areas.
7. Berlin Fellowship discusses Free Software mobile phones
On 13. November there was a local Fellowship meeting in Berlin. Fellow
Robert Schuster gave a presentation about the relevance of OpenMoko for
the Free Software community. There was an interesting discussion about
what that means for the freedom of private persons as well as the
possibilities these freedoms give SMEs who can offer special services
for their costumers. It was decided that the Berlin Fellowship group
will meet every second Thursday in the month at the Newthinking store.
Afterwards the meeting was moved into a pub to get know to each other.
More information:
- The slides (in German):
http://fsfe.org/en/content/download/33600/207464/file/OpenMoko-Vortrag-fell…
- Pictures of the event:
http://store.newthinking.de/blog/archive/2007/11/13/erster-fsfe-fellowship-…
- Mailing list for meetings in Berlin: berlin(a)lists.fsfe.org.
8. FSFE revisiting software patent information
We have begun to revisit the published information on out webpages.
There is increasing discussion of software patents within the institutions,
so we are revising the information published on out website. Some updates
are already online, and in the coming weeks, we will continue to provide
more documentation about the current status as well as summaries of what was
learned and what has already happened.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/swpat
9. SELF public beta and bug fixing
After the launch of the public beta version of the SELF platform, the
development team has been working extensively on fixing bugs and
implementing the missing functionality of the platform. However, more
work is still needed in this area, and if you want to help, we encourage
you to try out the platform at http://www.selfplatform.eu/ and report
whatever bugs you come across.
10. Interview with Werner Koch
For our German readers there is something of a treat this month. Gulli
has an interview with Werner Koch, creator of GnuPG and one of the co-founders
of FSFE. Werner talks about his perspectives on security and Free Software.
http://www.gulli.com/news/der-autor-von-gnupg-im-gespr-2007-11-23/
Forthcoming events:
11. Free Software Conference Scandinavia, Gothenburg, Sweden
The FSFE is organising the Free Software Conference Scandinavia (FSCONS),
taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden on the 7th and 8th of December 2007. It is
the first in its kind event in the region, inspired by the growing momentum
around Free Software.
http://www.fscons.org/
12. FSFE informes on privacy and freedom in Schwetzingen
The data retention directive has been put into German law and will be valid
from January 2008. And there are other threads as the German "hacker act",
the "on-line searching" or the electronic health card. For this reason FSFE
is organising an event to inform the public about the coming risk for privacy
and freedom.
https://privatsphaere.org
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
[for immediate release]
Welcome to life after ICT lock-in
Certified Open trial period launched
Today sees the launch of the trial period for Certified Open, a
programme to evaluate the technical and commercial lock-in of ICT
solutions. Certified Open promotes fair and effective competition in
the delivery of software, hardware and services.
Certified Open is a joint venture between OpenForum Europe (OFE) and
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). The programme originated in UK
local government and European Commission eTen projects and was further
developed with industry, community and user engagement.
The certification process is simple and fast. It is based on
self-assessment and uses an on-line application process. The programme
tests technical and commercial aspects of interoperability and awards
Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates to successful applicants.
Accreditations and answers to certification questions are listed on-line
for public review to ensure fairness. There is a neutral appeal process
to resolve irregularities and a governance council to oversee
development and forward planning.
Graham Taylor, Director of OpenForum Europe said: "Certified Open
represents a complete solution for public and private sector users to
check the openness of their ICT solutions. We frequently see examples
where organisations have become locked-in to a system due to the costs
involved in change. Analysis carried out by OFE has indicated that 90%
of public sector organisations no longer have the freedom to choose ICT
solutions on the basis of competitiveness, functionality or price
because of lock-in."
Certified Open is designed to ensure freedom from lock-in and openness
to fair competition. The framework assesses dependence on proprietary or
undocumented protocols, dependence on undocumented or proprietary data
formats, licensing terms that preclude the use of alternative products,
extensions to standards to ensure good performance and the use of
pseudo-standards dependent on patents or other restrictions that prevent
compatible competing implementations."
Georg Greve, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe stated:
"Vendor lock-in has become the primary problem for IT decisions in
general and Free Software adoption in particular. It distorts the market
and denies Free Software solutions equal competition on the merits. The
problem has been that many lock-ins are invisible, for example reliance
on proprietary protocols or needing to use certain document
formats. Certified Open makes that lock-in visible and allows users to
measure their dependency. Suppliers can highlight clearly when their
products are interoperable, and we hope that Certified Open will provide
an incentive to ensure that they are. Our goal is to give back freedom
of choice to all users."
NOTES FOR EDITORS
For more information please contact Graham Taylor on + 44 771 359 3217
or Jennifer Webber + 44 7908 643 983.
1. Graham Taylor is speaking at the Open Source Summit, hosted by
Olswang and Greenberg Traurig and held at the Queen Elizabeth II
Centre today at 1630. Graham will be available for comment via
Jennifer Webber on +44 7908 643 093.
2. Certified Open is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee in
the UK. There is no equity or profit to distribute and any surpluses
generated will be returned to the development of Certified Open. It
is intended that this is the first step towards the establishment of
a Foundation. The Board of Certified Open Limited currently consists
of four directors, two from each of the founding organisations -
OpenForum Europe and Free Software Foundation Europe. Certified Open
was originally developed with support of the UK Government's
eInnovations programme, and the eTEN programme of the European
Commission. It has already been extensively trialled with support
from the community, industry and user organisations.
3. The Certified Open programme has a 3 Month Trial period running
until end January 2008. During this period all accreditations will
be free of charge and submissions will remain confidential. The
trial can be accessed at www.certifiedopen.com.
4. OpenForum Europe is a not-for-profit, independent organisation
launched in March 2002 to accelerate, broaden and strengthen the use
of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in business and government.
OFE pursues the vision of an open, competitive European IT market by
2010 in line with the European Commission i2010 Strategy, with the
mission of facilitating open competitive choice for IT users
5. Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in global activities. FSFE is dedicated to Free Software,
software that can be used, studied, shared and improved by its
users. FSFE was founded in 2001 to create awareness for Free
Software, secure Free Software politically and legally, and give
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software. FSFE
wishes to secure equal participation in the information age and
freedom of competition.
Contact: Joachim Jakobs, Media Relations
Email: jakobs(a)fsfeurope.org
Tel: +49 700 373387673 Ext: 404
Mobile: +49 179 6919565
Welcome to FSFE's October newsletter. This month, issues of
interoperability, sustainable ICT and Free Software in education
have been receiving attention. There are also changes inside FSFE,
with the Fellowship reviewing its infrastructure and long-term
projects like the FTF European Legal and Technical networks continuing
to expand. Exciting times indeed.
You may notice that the newsletter has a slightly different format
this month. We would appreciate any feedback or comments you have.
They can be sent directly to coughlan(a)fsfeurope.org.
- Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. European Commission vs. Microsoft decennial battle is over
2. FSFE at Free Software information event in Austrian school
3. FSFE's German deputy coordinator discusses Sustainable-IT in Berlin
4. Sun donates T1000 server to FSFE
5. Fellows plan the future of the Fellowship portal
6. FSFE's European Legal and Techincal Networks grow
7. Brussels meetings and Free Software awareness
Forthcoming events:
8. Strategic implementation of Free Software, Stockholm, Sweden
1. European Commission vs. Microsoft decennial battle is over
The European Commission and Microsoft have agreed that Microsoft is
finally in compliance with the obligations contained in the 2004
Commission ruling against the Seattle company. The Commission had
ruled that Microsoft distorted the market by failing to provide
interoperability information for their products. Microsoft
subsequently appealed against the Commission's decision and lost
at the European Court of First Instance. Part of the ruling requires
reasonable and non discriminatory terms for interoperability
information and related patents. One reason for this was the
intention to enable Free Software projects like Samba to access
the information, and our legal experts are currently assessing
whether the agreed conditions meet these requirements. What is
certain is that Microsoft will not appeal against the judgment of
the Court of First Instance, which has become final and definitive.
Please visit fsfeurope.org for updates.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/
2. FSFE at Free Software information event in Austrian school
As reported in an earlier newsletter, the "BG Rechte Kremszeile" public
school in Austria has switched to Free Software. Recently the school
organised an event to report their experience with the switch. Three
speakers from the FSFE and the Vienna Fellowship group were invited to
talk about the general concepts of Free Software. A number of teachers
and decision-makers from other schools attended the event and showed
interest in the adoption of free solutions for their own schools.
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q3/000181.html
3. FSFE's German deputy coordinator discusses Sustainable-IT in Berlin, Germany
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's German deputy coordinator, took take part in
a panel discussion at the Sustainable-IT conference on the 18th of
October. The topic was "IT sustainability -- international. How can
software contribute to resource protection and a fair distribution of
knowledge."
http://www.sustainable-it.org/
4. Sun donates T1000 server to FSFE
Sun has donated a T1000 server to FSFE's Fellowship. "The work that
the Free Software Foundation Europe undertakes is important for all of
us. Sun is honoured to have donated a Sun Fire(TM) T1000 server, based
on the GPL licensed OpenSPARC(TM) chip, to power the FSFE Fellowship
site," said Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems,
Inc. Thanks to this new hardware FSFE is able to refocus the
Fellowship's on-line presence and provide new services to all our
supporters.
http://www.fsfe.org/supporters/
5. Fellows plan the future of the Fellowship portal
The Fellows of FSFE are discussing the future of the Fellowship portal.
Since 2005, the fsfe.org portal has sought to provide tools for Fellows
to communicate and collaborate. The current discussion is about what
services are most important to the Fellows today and what tools would
be useful for the future. The discussion is covering the use of
forums, calenders, mailing lists and other services. You can add your
view by joining the list:
https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
6. FSFE's European Legal and Techincal Networks grow
FSFE's Freedom Task Force has been busy building pan-European legal
and technical networks. The goal is to strengthen the legal
foundation of Free Software through building connections between
professionals and researchers active on the continent. The networks
now have 45 legal experts and 25 technical specialists, and contain
contacts in Canada, the USA, Singapore and Taiwan. To learn more
visit the website:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/network.html
7. Brussels meetings and Free Software awareness
Ciaran O'Riordan has been busy in Brussels. Along with the usual meetings
about ODF, O'Riordan has been to Helsinki and Florence to talk about GPLv3
and has been writing about this in his blog.
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes
Forthcoming events:
8. Strategic implementation of Free Software, Stockholm, Sweden
On the 8th of November, the FSFE and its Freedom Task Force (FTF), in
collaboration with the Internet Academy in Sweden, will give a course
on Strategic implementation of Free Software in businesses. The course
will take place in Stockholm, Sweden and given predominantly in Swedish.
http://www.internetacademy.se/strategi.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
1. Microsoft antitrust: A victory for Free Software and freedom of competition
2. WIPO: FSFE calls for interoperability and Open Standards
3. Freedom Task Force signs MoU with TIS Free Software Center, Southern Tyrol, Italy
4. Videos of FSFE president Georg Greve with Chilean Minister of Economy
5. FSFE supports protest against increased surveillance of digital communication
6. FSFE presents FSCONS and The Scandinavian Free Software Award
7. FSFE at OpenExpo, Switzerland
8. Get active
1. Microsoft antitrust: A victory for Free Software and freedom of competition
European Commission demands for Microsoft to cease obstruction of
interoperability with its products and to cease bundling practices
have been upheld in the European Court of First Instance.
These events originate in a complaint by Sun Microsystem about a lack
of interoperability information for Microsoft products in 1998. This
lead to the Commission's 2004 decision that Microsoft unfairly
distorted the market and Microsoft's subsequent appeal against this
ruling at the European Court. This appeal has now been rejected on
all counts and it was even noted that the Commission had been too
lenient with Microsoft on some issues.
More information can be found in FSFE's press release and a Groklaw
article explaining the fallacies of Microsoft's spin following the
decision:
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q3/000186.htmlhttp://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070923170905803
2. WIPO: FSFE calls for interoperability and Open Standards
The 2007 Assembly of the Member States was quite confrontational and
could not reach agreement despite going into overtime. This was
largely due to the turmoil surrounding WIPO's Director General Kamil
Idris and allegations of misconduct. There was also tension over the
fees WIPO receives and the need to increase effectiveness of
organisation. It quickly became clear that budgeting could endanger
the success of agreements like the Development Agenda.
In response, FSFE is calling for interoperable, vendor-independent and
Open Standards based procurement at WIPO, and for the WIPO committees
to study Free Software and Open Standards more closely:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/statement-20070928
3. Freedom Task Force signs MoU with TIS Free Software Center, Southern Tyrol, Italy
FSFE's Freedom Task Force has signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with the TIS Free Software Center about increased cooperation in the
field of Free Software licensing and training. Both groups expect to
work closely together on developing common services.
4. Videos of FSFE president Georg Greve with Chilean Minister of Economy
The Chilean Ministry of Economy has put the recording of a meeting
between Chilean Minister of Economy Alejandro Ferreiro and FSFE
president Georg Greve on-line on YouTube. The talks are about economics
of Free Software and legislation to create a transition path towards
freedom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz6LO16JNPUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae2MCdUTKME
5. FSFE supports protest against increased surveillance of digital communication
The German Chapter of the FSFE supported a protest under the slogan
"Liberty instead of Fear - Stop the Surveillance Mania!" on 22nd
September in Berlin. In total more than 15,000 people participated
in the demonstration.
The protest took a stand against the retention of telecommunication
data, an issue that is extremely topical on Autumn's political agenda
in Germany. Other issues of concern included the suggested covert
on-line-searching of computers.
By supporting the protest, FSFE emphasises the value of liberty in
digital communication. The large turnout shows that people consider
the continuing tightening of surveillance laws to be unacceptable.
This was the largest protest for civil liberties and privacy
protection in Germany since the census in 1987.
6. FSFE presents FSCONS and The Scandinavian Free Software Award
The Free Software Conference Scandinavia (FSCONS) is going to take
place in Gothenburg, Sweden on the 7th and 8th of December 2007. It
is the first event of its kind in the region and is inspired by the
growing momentum around Free Software. Top notch programmers, hackers,
lawyers, and government representatives will speak to stakeholders from
all areas of Free Software. Spreading the buzz for Free Software in the
region is the goal.
As part of FSCONS, FSFE is also presenting the first Scandinavian Free
Software Award. Presented to a person, project or organisation from
Scandinavia that has showed an outstanding contribution to the cause
and spirit to Free our minds, it is to become an annual event.
http://www.fscons.orghttp://www.fscons.org/award_idea
7. FSFE at OpenExpo, Switzerland
At this year's OpenExpo in Zurich, FSFE president Georg Greve opened
the event with a keynote speech entitled "Free Software is compatible
with your business." The audio recording and slides (all in German)
are available at:
http://www.openexpo.ch/openexpo-2007-zuerich#c188
8. Get active
Do you want to contribute to digital freedom? Get active by
joining our Fellowship, contributing as a translator, webmaster or
booth volunteer, or even come to one of our offices as an intern.
Find out more by visiting the link below:
http://fsfeurope.org/contribute
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
FSFE, Samba: A triumph for freedom of choice and competition
"Microsoft can consider itself above the law no longer," says Georg
Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE).
"Through tactics that successfully derailed antitrust processes in
other parts of the world, including the United States, Microsoft has
managed to postpone this day for almost a decade. But thanks to the
perseverance and excellent work of the European Commission, these
tactics have now failed in Europe," Greve continues.
Carlo Piana, FSFE's legal counsel: "FSFE and the Samba Team welcome
the decision of the court. This is a milestone for competition. It
puts an end to the notion that deliberate obfuscation of standards and
designed lock-in is an acceptable business model and forces Microsoft
back into competing on the grounds of software technology."
"The Samba Team would like to thank the European Commission for its
outstanding job over the past years. Millions of users around the
world will reap the rewards of their work," comments Jeremy Allison,
co-author of the Samba project. "This is a very important day for the
Samba Team: we hope to finally compete on a level playing field,
without being denied access to interoperability information. Samba
would then be able to offer consumers real choice, with the benefits
of software freedom."
Volker Lendecke of the Samba Team: "Now that the court has decided, we
will be watching closely what the exact licensing terms for the
interoperability information are. It will be very important to make
sure that the information is usable in Free Software, otherwise the
great success the Commission has achieved here is severely
harmed. Samba is one of the most important players in the workgroup
server market, the market in which the comission wanted to restore
competition."
"This is a very good day for Europe, but it is only a step along the
way. The recurrent theme for Microsoft's behaviour over the past years
is an apparent perception of interoperability as a threat to
overcome," summarises FSFE counsel Carlo Piana. "The most recent
example was provided by MS-OOXML, which Doug Mahugh of Microsoft
described as a commercially motivated response to the threat provided
by the ODF ISO standard and the interoperability and choice it offers.
Tactical, not technical considerations were the driving force behind
Microsoft's global efforts to manipulate national standardisation
bodies into blind acceptance of MS-OOXML."
FSFE president Greve concludes: "Today's decision has set a very
important precedent for the future. Secret manipulation of open
formats and protocols has clearly been marked as unacceptable
conduct. We now encourage the European Commission take up the recent
antitrust complaint brought forward by ECIS. In a joint effort with
the Samba Team and OpenOffice.org, the FSFE gladly offers its
expertise to the European Commission for that investigation."
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.
Contact:
Web page: http://fsfeurope.org
Email: press(a)fsfeurope.org
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Sweden: +46 31 7802160
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
About Samba:
Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that has, since 1992,
provided file and print services to all manner of SMB/CIFS clients,
including the numerous versions of Microsoft Windows operating
systems. Samba is freely available under the GNU General Public
License.
Contact:
Web page: http://www.samba.org
1. FSFE engages with irregularities in the ISO voting process
2. FTF informal legal network now covers sixteen European countries
3. Two days of Free Software in Chile
4. The Fellowship site now supports multiple languages
5. First distributed Fellowship meeting
6. FSFE German Team at FrOSCon
7. Fellows of the Rhein/Ruhr area holding monthly talks
8. Building the Fellowship in Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Karlsruhe
9. FSFE supports demonstration "liberty instead of fear", September 22nd
10. Speeches about SELF, Open Standards and Free Software in Argentina
11. Free Software and Free Documentation licence consultations
1. FSFE engages with irregularities in the ISO voting process
FSFE has been deeply involved in the ISO voting process on Microsoft's
Office OpenXML proposal, and has uncovered serious irregularities in
various national standardisation body's handling of the matter. These
irregularities have included committee stacking, conflicts of interest,
concerns raised by parties being ignored, and lack of due consideration
to legal issues like Microsoft's vague 'Open Specification Promise.'
FSFE president Georg Greve was interviewed by ZDnet regarding the
international voting process. In Switzerland, FSFE and the Swiss
Internet User Group (SIUG) lodged formal objections to the process
with the national standardisation body, which were later published
by Groklaw:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39288959,00.htmhttp://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007081708383138
2. FTF informal legal network now covers sixteen European countries
FSFE's Freedom Task Force now has connections with lawyers in Austria,
Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Germany,
Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the UK. The network also
includes legal researchers in Ireland, Serbia and Sweden and legal
contacts in Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, the USA and Australia. As
always, the FTF offers licence consultancy and education, fiduciary
services and licence enforcement for individuals, projects and
businesses. Please help us to continue spreading the word about this
Free Software infrastructure project:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
email: ftf(a)fsfeurope.org
3. Two days of Free Software in Chile
On invitation of the Chilean educational ministry and in coordination
with our sister organisation FSFLA and GNU Chile, FSFE president Georg
Greve spoke at the Universidad Mayor and an event of the educational
ministry in Santiago, as well as the library of the national congress
in Valparaiso. Georg Greve also discussed strategic and practical Free
Software issues with the vice-minister of education and economic impact
of Free Software with the minister of economics.
4. The Fellowship site now supports multiple languages
Thanks to the contributions of Fellow Alejandro Serrano and Ivan Čukić,
with support from other fellowship hackers, fsfe.org now supports
adding content in other languages besides English. For the moment
Italian, Spanish and German are supported, but more will come. Most
of the work has gone into modifying the standard UI provided by eZ
Publish and put all the files in a svn repository. Expect more
changes and additions in functions during the next weeks.
http://www.fsfe.org
5. First distributed Fellowship meeting
While the monthly Fellowship meetings in Vienna have become a jour
fixe in the calendar of many Austrian Fellows, the August meeting was
special: for the first time, a Fellowship meeting took place in two
locations at the same time. The net.culture.labs in Vienna and Dornbirn
hosted this event, both connected via videoconferencing over a
broadband internet line sponsored by Telekom Austria.
http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/meetings/austria/20070814
6. FSFE German Team at FrOSCon
Thanks to the organisational skills of Michael Kesper, members of the
FSFE German Team attended FrOSCon (St. Augustin/Germany) on the 25th
and 26th of August. Myriam Schweingruber delivered a talk about
"Women in IT - View points and possible explanations", and Michael
Kesper discussed interaction with other projects. FSFE maintained a
booth at the entrance to the fair where ad hoc talks were held and
FSFE and Fellowship merchandise was available.
http://www.froscon.de/
7. Fellows of the Rhein/Ruhr area holding monthly talks
The Fellows of the Rhein/Ruhr area have monthly public meetings with
talks on the last Wednesday of each month in Duesseldorf. In August,
Fellow Dr. jur. Michael Stehmann spoke about the new Par.202c in the
German criminal code which bans possessing, using, publishing and
distributing so-called "hacker tools". As Michael stated, this
regulations are very poorly formulated, practically useless in their
attention, and might be used as a pressure instrument against innocent
people. 202c tries to define pure ownership of broadly defined network
analysis tools as the preparation for crime.
email: rheinland(a)lists.fsfe.org
8. Building the Fellowship in Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Karlsruhe
As you know FSFE tries to keep in contact with its Fellows and attract
additional ones. One aspect of this work sees Joachim Jakobs meeting
with LUGs and other local FS-related groups in between Kaiserslautern
and Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Karlsruhe. Last Friday he met with the
LUG Landau. Landau is just a small town but nevertheless about a dozen
people attended. If you are interested in helping JJ organise a local
Fellowship in this area please contact him directly.
email: jj(a)fsfe.org
9. FSFE supports demonstration "liberty instead of fear", September 22nd
"Civil rights groups are calling on citizens to join in a protest march
against excessive surveillance by businesses and governments. On 22
September 2007 concerned citizens will take to the streets with the
slogan "Liberty instead of fear - Stop the surveillance mania!". Groups
will initially meet at Pariser Platz (Brandenburger Tor), Berlin, at
2.30 pm. The German Chapter of FSFE decided to join this demonstration
and asks everybody for participation.
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/125/116/lang,en/
10. Speeches about SELF, Open Standards and Free Software in Argentina
Before the SELF board meeting in Cordoba, Argentina, to prepare for the
launch of the first version of the SELF platform, FSFE's Georg Greve
and Jonas Oberg spoke at the Septimas Jornadas Regionales de Software
Libre, giving talks about SELF, Open Standards, the problems of
MS-OOXML and the political importance of Free Software:
http://selfproject.eu
11. Free Software and Free Documentation licence consultations
The public consultations continue for the GNU Free Documentation
License, the GNU Affero General Public License, and the new GNU
Simpler Free Documentation License. We advise you to take a look
as soon as possible if you might have a comment about these free
documentation licences or the "Affero" version of the GPL which
additionally deals with software used over public networks:
http://gplv3.fsf.org/doclic-dd1-guide.htmlhttp://gplv3.fsf.org/agplv3-dd2-guide.html
Meanwhile, FSFE has been providing ongoing advice about GPLv3 since
it's mid-summer launch. The lack of controversial news is welcomed as
a sign that broad compromised was indeed reached and no obvious
mistakes were made.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
Advanced international educational platform goes live
Free courses and a professional environment for teachers
A milestone for education on Free Software and Open Standards has been
reached. On September 5th 2007 the beta version of the SELF Platform [1]
goes live. The official launch [2] is taking place during a conference on Free
Software in Education in the Netherlands, accompanied by satellite launch
events in Sweden, Bulgaria, Argentina, Mexico and India with workshops
and conferences.
The SELF Platform has been developed by a global team of non-profit
organisations, universities and volunteers engaged in the SELF Project,
an initiative for the collaborative sharing and creation of free
educational and training materials on Free Software and Open Standards.
Users, primarily learners and teachers, are enabled to assemble
selections of learning contents and create custom-made learning material
for lessons in their language. The Platform is launched in beta stage to
involve the growing community in optimising the tool.
Hundreds of documents on Free Software, such as OpenOffice.org, The
Gimp, or GNU/Linux, and documents on Open Standards have been screened
by a team of experts in regards to quality, free license and validity.
The result is a basic collection of high-quality learning materials that
have been, or will be atomised and entered into the SELF Platform.
Inspired by Wikipedia, the multilingual SELF Platform is not only a
self-sustaining source of knowledge and a tool to evaluate, adapt,
create and translate free learning materials on Free Software, but also
creates a much needed room for interaction between the Free Software and
the education communities in a broader sense.
The SELF Project is carried by a consortium of non-profit organisations
and universities in Europe, Asia and Latin America. The initial setup of
the Platform has been financially supported by the European Union.
[1] http://selfplatform.eu
[2] http://selfproject.eu/launch
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://fsfeurope.org
1. Mythbusting MS-OOXML
2. First Swedish Fellowship meeting held in Gothenburg
3. Free Software on Exit festival 2007, Novi Sad, Serbia
4. Freedom in the hills: the Bergtagung
5. GNU GPL licence confirmed once again in a court of law
6. Submit Free Software projects to the Trophées du Libre
7. Ongoing work of spreading GNU GPLv3 understanding
8. Tell a friend about the Fellowship, share this newsletter
1. Mythbusting MS-OOXML
Microsoft has been busy trying to spin the debate on its proprietary
office format Microsoft Office OpenXML in ways to suggest that it was
open, accessible, good for archival and enrolled the help of several of
its partners to make it seem like there was no danger of lock-in. FSFE
has engaged in mythbusting the archival myth, the conversion myth and
the myth of openness and accessibility in the past month(s).
The links below provide a solid initial reference for you to explain
why MS-OOXML should be avoided by companies and especially governments.
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions-for-mshttp://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-converter-hoaxhttp://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions
2. First Swedish Fellowship meeting held in Gothenburg
The first Swedish Fellowship meeting was held at ITUniversitetet in
Gothenburg on the 4th of July. FSFE representatives presented the
Fellowship, GPLv3, SELF, EU and Richard Stallman's activities in
Sweden for 2007. Many of the participants wanted to engage more in
FSFE activities, and it was agreed that it would be useful to have a
public mailing list for communication. Immediate future plans are to
run a workshop in Gothenburg with a focus on GPLv3.
3. Free Software in Exit Festival 2007, Novi Sad, Serbia
Members of the Serbian team participated in a public event related to
Free Software and Open Standards at the Exit 2007 music festival in
Novi Sad. Ivan Jelić participated in the "Free and Open" discussion on
MyExit stage, the MyExit social network gathering. He spoke about the
four freedoms and the social impact of Free Software, with
participation from representatives of other active organizations
related to Free Software and the regional representative of Red Hat.
A day after MyExit stage performance, Ivan Čukić delivered a speech
on the Agora stage, a place dedicated for Serbian and regional NGO
sector. Ivan introduced the basic principles of Free Software to the
audience, speaking about Free Software Network Serbia, FSFE and
current projects and activities.
http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/attitude/escape_to_freedom/free_software_on_…
4. Freedom in the hills: the Bergtagung
Between the 20st to the 22nd of July 2007 FSFE Fellows Ramon Cahenzli
and Alex Antener organised an event called Bergtagung in the Swiss
alps. In a small village called Siat, hackers, media artists and geeks
met for hiking, drinking beer, discussing conspiracies and grilling
in a beautiful landscape. This is the second time this event has taken
place, with a third planed for next summer. For more information
check the website:
http://bergtagung.org
5. GNU GPL licence confirmed once again in a court of law
The terms of the GNU GPL licence have been confirmed as binding once
again, with a German court ruling that VoIP company Skype was failing
to uphold its obligations as a distributor. Skype had been selling a
Free Software-based telephone without meeting the terms of the GNU GPL
licence. Harald Welte of gpl-violations.org, the Freedom Task Force's
partner project, was the plaintiff in the case. Shane Coughlan, FTF
coordinator, pointed out in a press release that this case showed
the important of adhering to the terms of the GNU GPL, and stressed
that companies cannot ignore their obligations. The FTF offers
personal assistance for businesses using Free Software.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q3/000182.htmlhttp://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q3/000180.html
6. Submit Free Software projects to the Trophées du Libre
FSFE President Georg Greve has been invited to preside over the jury
of the fourth Trophées du Libre, an award for the most innovative and
promising Free Software projects from numerous countries. This
important event promotes emerging technologies, thus encouraging
greater adoption, and has a clear focus on the professional promotion
of Free Software. If you feel that your favourite projects have not
yet achieved the fame they deserve, now is the time to spread the word
and to get them involved!
http://www.tropheesdulibre.org/IMG/pdf/Trophees_du_libre_EN.pdfhttp://www.tropheesdulibre.org/-Inscrivez-votre-projet-.html?lang=enhttp://www.cetril.org/
7. Ongoing work of spreading GNU GPLv3 understanding
Since the publication of GPLv3 a month ago, FSFE has been replying to
questions from free software projects and legal experts. Questions
range from how projects can migrate from other licences to GPLv3, to
how specific clauses of GPLv3 work and how they benefit the free
software community. Some work has also been required to rebut
misleading articles, but the number of such articles has been
pleasantly low.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/
8. Tell a friend about the Fellowship, share this newsletter
You can help FSFE and the Fellowship by making sure more people know
about the Fellowship. Please consider spreading the word at your local
user groups and with your friends in the technology world. Don't
forget to let them know about our Fellowship crypto card! Maybe a
good way to start is by sharing a copy of this newsletter with people
who might be interested.
http://fsfe.org/en/abouthttps://fsfe.org/en/fsfeuser/registerhttps://fsfe.org/en/card
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
FSFE offers to help companies adhere to Free Software licence terms
The terms of the GNU GPL licence have been confirmed as binding
once again, with a German court ruling that Skype was failing
to uphold its obligations as a distributor. FSFE wants to help
other vendors understand their GNU GPL obligations.
Harald Welte of gpl-violations.org took Skype to court in Munich,
Germany, regarding misuse of GNU GPL code he wrote for the Netfilter
component of the Linux kernel. This is the first time a non-German
company has been convicted for GNU GPL licence violations, though the
gpl-violations.org project has reached numerous out of court
settlements with various vendors in the past.
Skype had been selling the SMC WSKP100 VoIP telephone without providing
either source code or a written offer for the source code with the
product itself. Though Skype later included a supplementary text to
the product which referred to the use of GPL software and contained
URLs to source code downloads, this also failed to meet the terms
contained in the GNU GPL licence.
The ruling of the German court in favour of Harald Welte is welcomed
by FSFE. "Adhering to the terms of the GNU GPL is not difficult, and
this case re-emphasises the importance of doing so, " says Shane
Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE. "Skype did not
recognise this and unfortunately had to be reminded of their
obligations in a court of law. While many vendors are working
pro-actively to resolve licensing issues, problems remain in the
European market place. We would like to see them resolved as quickly
and as amicably as possible."
"The main focus of the gpl-violations.org project is to fix problems
vendors have with shipping products that contain GNU GPL code," says
Armijn Hemel, an engineer at the gpl-violations.org project. "We want
to work with vendors to implement long-term solutions to compliance
issues. It is our wish to ensure everyone operates according to the
same terms and rules, as decided by the authors of the code in
question."
There are several ways that companies distributing GNU GPL code in
Europe can get help and advice. Armijn Hemel, an engineer at the
gpl-violations.org project, offers compliance services for embedded
devices. FSFE's Freedom Task Force has also recently launched
professional consultancy services for businesses making use of Free
Software in their products.
"There are avenues of information and advice for businesses using Free
Software," says Shane Coughlan. "One of the purposes of the FTF is to
help companies avoid costly mistakes. Where the FTF can help people,
we will. If we don't have the answers in-house we will help guide
people to the external information or expertise they need. The one
thing I would like to stress is that businesses should not and cannot
ignore these issues."
The Freedom Task Force can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
The Freedom Task Force can be emailed at ftf(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.
About gpl-violations.org:
In the past 30 months, gpl-violations.org has helped uncover and
negotiate more than 100 GPL violations and has obtained numerous
out-of-court settlement agreements. The gpl-violations.org project
is a not-for-profit effort to bring commercial users and vendors of
Free Software into compliance with the licence conditions as set
forth by the original authors. The project was founded and is
managed by Mr. Harald Welte, a Linux Kernel developer and Free
Software enthusiast.
For more information on the project, its mission, milestones and
goals, please see http://gpl-violations.org
Contact:
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 ext 408
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73 ext 408
Sweden: +46 31 7802160 ext 408
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 ext 408
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 ext 408
Shane Coughlan, FTF Co-ordinator, FSFE extension: 408
Joachim Jakobs, Media Relations, FSFE extension: 404
mobile: +49-179-6919565
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
1. FSFE's General Assembly and the first Benelux fellowship meeting
2. GPLv3 and LGPLv3 have been released
3. Free Software personal consultancy for businesses
4. Six questions to national standardisation bodies
5. Georg Greve in India
6. FTF useful tips translated to Asian languages
7. Free Software in Austrian Schools
8. Get your friends to support the Fellowship and FSFE
1. FSFE's General Assembly and the first Benelux fellowship meeting
The first Benelux meeting of the Fellowship took place on Thursday the
28th of June in Brussels and provided an excellent opportunity for the
local fellows to get to know each other. Two days later the General
Assembly of FSFE met at FSFE's Brussels office for a productive
discussion about the foundation's past work and future direction.
Georg Greve was re-elected as president and Jonas Oberg as
vice-president of FSFE, with Reinhard Muller elected as the Head of
Office. The executive summary for the last two years of FSFE's work
can be found on-line here
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/reports/es-2007
2. GPLv3 and LGPLv3 have been released
The final text of both the GNU GPL version 3 and the GNU LGPL version 3
licences were released on the 29th of June 2007. The GPLv3 is the
result of eighteen months of drafting, a process which included four
published drafts and thousands of comments from interested parties.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.htmlhttp://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.html
3. Free Software personal consultancy for businesses
FSFE has always helped the community through providing pro bono advice,
and through this we have discovered that businesses often require
additional personal assistance. For this reason, FSFE is offering
businesses a chance to get individual consultancy regarding Free
Software issues at its Zurich, Switzerland office. Shane Coughlan, FTF
coordinator, will be available for reserved sessions starting from July
13th. The sessions cost 150 Euro per hour, with a special discounted
rate of 100 Euro for companies that have fellowship members among their
employees. The FTF can also organise and hold in-house training
sessions and workshop on Free Software licensing. By making use of this
service, companies will also help to sustain FSFE's continuing community
work.
http://fsfeurope.org/ftf
4. Six questions to national standardisation bodies
Microsoft very actively seeking ISO approval as an Open Standard for
their proprietary MS-OOXML format. Should ISO approve this format as a
standard, Free Software may find itself locked out of the office
application and collaboration market and the barriers to Free Software
adoption will increase.
FSFE president Georg Greve spoke about the necessity and value of
interoperability at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in
Calcutta. In order to help people understand the issue, FSFE also
published six questions that every national standardisation body
should have good answers to if it wants to approve Microsoft's
application. Read more and help us spread the word at
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions
5. Georg Greve in India
In cooperation with FSFE's sister organisation, the Free Software
Foundation India (FSF India), FSFE president Georg Greve visited the
Indian subcontinend and gave speeches in Mumbai, Calcutta and
Trivandrum at institutions like the Tata Institute for Fundamental
Research (TIFR) or the Technopark in Trivandrum, the first of its kind
in India. You can read more about the trip and some truly exciting
things about Free Software accessibility for the visually impaired at
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/last_night_in_indiahttp://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/back_from_india
6. FTF useful tips translated to Asian languages
FSFE's Freedom Task Force is proud to announce that the useful tips for
users and vendors of GNU GPL version 2 software are now available in
Korean and Traditional Chinese. These documents are intended to help
users and vendors think about licence compliance and to guide people to
authoritative sources of information on the Internet. By making these
documents available in more languages the FTF aims to continue building
productive infrastructure for Free Software in Europe and beyond.
Useful tips for users:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-users_ko.pdfhttp://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-users_zh_tw.pdf
Useful tips for vendors:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors_ko.pdfhttp://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors_zh_tw.pdf
7. Free Software in Austrian Schools
During the monthly meetings of the Fellowship in Austria, a constant
topic was the importance of Free Software in education to give the
next generation the freedom to become an active part of society. Some
committed Fellows carried this message into schools and as a result
of the initiative of two teachers, the "BG Rechte Kremszeile" in
Krems decided to switch the whole school to exclusively Free Software
with the start of the next school year.
The Free Software Foundation Europe congratulates the school on
their decision and encourages others to follow the example. Our
thanks go to the Fellows involved in this initiative.
8. Get your friends to support the Fellowship and FSFE
FSFE's Fellowship is a community of people united by their interest in
Free Software and freedom in all aspects of the digital age and FSFE
is dedicated to supporting all aspects of Free Software in Europe.
Please tell your friends and collegues about the Fellowship and FSFE.
Their help and support would be invaluable in helping us to accomplish
our goals across Europe.
Join the fellowship
https://fsfe.org/en/fsfeuser/register
Donate to FSFE
http://fsfeurope.org/help/donate-2002.en.html
Volunteer time and energy
http://fsfeurope.org/help/help.en.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html