Commission to Microsoft: Preventing interoperability has a price
FSFE welcomes the decision by the European Commission.
"Microsoft is still as far from allowing competition as it was on the
day of the original Commission ruling in 2004. All proposals made by
Microsoft were deliberately exclusive of Samba, the major remaining
competitor. In that light, the fines do not seem to come early, and
they do not seem high," comments Carlo Piana, Milano based lawyer of
the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) regarding the decision of
the European Commission to fine Microsoft 1.5 million Euro per day
retroactively from 16. December 2005, totalling 280.5 million Euro.
Should Microsoft not come into compliance until the end of July 2006,
the daily fines could be doubled.
These fines are a reaction to Microsofts continued lack of compliance
with the European Commission decision to make interoperability
information available to competitors as a necessary precondition to
allow fair competition. FSFE has supported the European Commission
>From the start of the suit in 2001.
Having made similar statements during the hearing, Microsoft commented
to the press last week [1] that 300 engineers are currently working
"day and night" to fulfill the request of the public authorities.
"If we are to believe Microsofts numbers, it appears that 120.000
person days are not enough to document its own software. This is a
task that good software developers do during the development of
software, and a hallmark of bad engineering," comments Georg Greve,
president of the FSFE. "For users, this should be a shock: Microsoft
apparently does not know the software that controls 95% of all desktop
computers on this planet. Imagine General Motors releasing a press
statement to the extent that even though they had 300 of their best
engineers work on this for two years, they cannot provide
specifications for the cars they built."
Many companies run a mixed network of Windows, GNU/Linux, Unix and
other operating systems (OS). The Windows products understand each
other, and all the other operating systems can talk to each other. It
is the connection between the two worlds that was deliberatly
obfuscated a few years ago by Microsoft, and that the Samba project is
working on.
During the main hearing at the European Court of Justice toward the
end of April, the president and founder of Samba Dr. Andrew Tridgell
presented the work of the Samba Team work. Among other things, he
demonstrated a box for roughly 100 EUR. If Microsoft did not hide its
interoperability information, that box would already be capable of
administrating hundreds of users. A small 100 EUR box could do the
same task that is currently done by an entire PC for 1.000,- EUR.
"Dr. Tridgell demonstrated easily what kind of innovation is locked
out of the market by Microsofts refusal to interoperate with other
vendors. In this case, the price of that refusal are domain
controllers that are ten times more expensive than necessary, and the
price is paid by everyone: private businesses, public authorities and
society as a whole," Georg Greve summarises.
He concludes: "When will society refuse to legitimise such business
practices by buying from companies that exhibit such behaviour?"
[1] http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/07/04/216779/Microsoft+working+…
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may
participate in a digital society. Therefore the Freedoms to use,
copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free
Software definition- allow equal participation in the information
age. 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. The
FSFE was founded in 2001 as the European sister organisation of the
Free Software Foundation in the United States.
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
1. GPLv3 conference in Barcelona
2. FSFE at UN WIPO PCDA/2
3. Anja Vorspel hired part time to help in FSFE office
4. Georg Greve at dorkbot.swiss
5. Linuxwochen in Linz (Austria)
6. Stefano Maffulli at Java Conference Milano
1. GPLv3 conference in Barcelona
The Free Software Foundation Europe organised the third international
GPLv3 conference in Barcelona, Spain. The first day of the two day event
featured speeches from Georg Greve, Richard Stallman, Ciarán O'Riordan
and Eben Moglen about the changes in GPLv3 and the public consultation
process. The second day included four panel discussions, a talk by Pablo
Machón about software patents and a closing presentation by Stefano
Maffulli.
Hosting an official GPLv3 conference in Europe was very important, and
the FSFE was proud to be able to organise it. Financial contributions
from the Fellowship and the work of the Fellows and other volunteers
were essential to make this conference possible. Also, FSFE would like
to thank Stichting NLNet, whose donation supports a large part of the
GPLv3 activities.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/europe-gplv3-conference.en.html
2. FSFE at UN WIPO PCDA/2
The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
held its second Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO
Development Agenda meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting was
the last before the next WIPO general assembly, and was intended to
formalise the agenda items for a WIPO reform. After several days of
discussion, a proposal to drop all items except those immediately
acceptable to the United States and European Union led to escalation,
and a total disassembling of the meeting. FSFE's statements can be
found online at
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/
and FSFE's president Georg Greve also summarised much of what has
happened throughout these days in his blog:
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/(tag)/WIPO
3. Anja Vorspel hired part time to help in FSFE office
Thanks to Rainer Kersten, FSFE's new office in Düsseldorf is up and
running. Rainer works in the office on part time basis and is joined by
Anja Vorspel as a complimentary part time officer. Anja has been
helping as a volunteer in the new office from the start.
4. Georg Greve at dorkbot.swiss
FSFE's president Georg Greve spoke at the dorkbot.swiss event in
Zürich, Switzerland. The dorkbot events are a global network of events
about "doing strange things with electricity", bringing together
artists from various fields and interested people. Georg Greve spoke
about Free Software, its social impact, and how Free Software is both
shaping art and offering new perspectives for artistic work.
5. Linuxwochen in Linz (Austria)
After the positive experience in Vienna, Karin Kosina also gave a
presentation about the FSFE at another event in the Linuxwochen series,
this time in Linz. Although this event was much smaller, her talk was
again well received.
6. Stefano Maffulli at Java Conference Milano
During the latest Java Conference in Milano on 27 June, the Italian
chancellor of FSFE presented the revision process of the GPLv3 to a
public of small and medium enterprises.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
CAMPAIGN CALLS UPON BONO to take a stand against the digital restrictions
found in new technology and music.
----June 30, 2006
The direct action campaign DefectiveByDesign.org, today called for all
technologists to sign the petition calling upon Bono the lead singer of U2,
to take a stand against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)
<http://defectivebydesign.org/petition/bonopetition>. The campaign aims to
collect 10,000 signatures, at which point they will seek an audience with
Bono, and discuss with him the threats posed by DRM.
The group has focused on Bono because of his social activism and leadership
in the music industry. Bono and the band U2 have helped encourage the media
companies to distribute music online. U2's endorsement of the iPod has led
to a huge financial windfall for Apple's iTunes. The problem is, all Apple's
iTunes music is distributed with DRM handcuffs. The campaign is asking Bono
to take a lead in encourage the removal of these handcuffs.
"Apple once proclaimed - Rip, Mix, and Burn - but when the Majors offered
them an exclusive deal to distribute their music files, they quickly stepped
into line and imposed DRM on their customers." said DefectiveByDesign
campaign manager Gregory Heller "Apple are now embarrassed by their once
famous marketing slogan, as they try to make excuses for these digital
restrictions."
DefectiveByDesign describes DRM as a simply a scheme by the Big Media
corporations to control consumers and keep artists locked into unfair
contracts - reports say many artists receive as little as 7 cents, for each
99 cent iTunes track downloaded. The petition asks Bono to come out in
support of technology free of restrictions, and in doing so expose the myth
that musicians demand locks on technology and culture.
This petition is the forth in a series of direct actions that
DefectiveByDesign.org have taken. They have already targeted Microsoft and
Apple's DRM schemes, and published the telephone numbers of the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) executives, encouraging hundreds of
consumer complaints against the trade organization.
----30----
About Defective By Design
DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based, anti-DRM campaign run by the Free
Software Foundation, that is targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers
and DRM distributors. It aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing
their DRM-enabled products to market. The campaign aims to identify
"defective" products for the consumer. Users are being asked to stand up in
defense of their existing freedoms and to take action by joining at
DefectiveByDesign.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. Their Web site, located at www.fsf.org, is an important source of
information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support their work can be made at
http://fsf.org/join They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org>
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
GPLv3 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DETAILS ONLINE
BARCELONA, CATALONIA - SPAIN, JUNE 22nd & 23rd
Marking the half-way point of the year-long public consultation process for
redrafting Free Software's cornerstone licence, the third international GPLv3
conference will host experts from Europe and from around the world.
The venue, in the heart of the city, is the Centre de Cultura Contemporània
de Barcelona (CCCB). There, during the two days of this event, there will
be presentations from experts including Richard Stallman, president of FSF,
Eben Moglen, chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, Georg Greve, president
of FSF Europe and Harald Welte, founder of gpl-violations.org.
By far the most widely used Free Software licence, the GNU General Public
License (aka, "the GPL") ensures that everyone who receives GPL'd software is
able to use it as they wish, to modify to fit their needs, and to distribute
modified or unmodified copies.
"People sometimes have the feeling that GNU GPL has been around forever, and
they would not be entirely wrong. Published in 1991, the GNU GPL has proven
to be exceptionally successful throughout the past fifteen years," says
Greve. "With such an exceptional success, one will change as little as
possible. But there are changes in the legal and technical environment, as
well as the position of Free Software and its community, that made some
changes advisable. The process to update the licence is aiming at a global
GPLv3 drafting team, and everyone is invited to participate: Joining the
conferences is one of the best ways of doing so."
Harald Welte emphasises the threat caused by Digital Restriction Management
(DRM) to Free Software: "It has always been clear that using DRM to restrict
users is in conflict with the spirit of the GPL. As a copyright holder of
some GPL'd software, I have already successfully enforced this out of court
with GPL version two. The new DRM language proposed for GPLv3 is more solid
and will make this enforcement easier. When enforcement is easy, people are
less likely to violate the licence in the first place, so the Free Software
can continue to focus on software development rather than policing licence
violations."
All presentations will be made in English, with the only exception of one
which will be in Spanish. Translation to Spanish will be provided for the
entire conference, and translation to English will be provided for the
Spanish talk.
There is no fee for the conference, but registration is required to
guarantee a place. Attendees are asked to email
oriordan(a)fsfeurope.org
with "GPLv3 registration" in the subject of the email.
The Conference's schedule and further information will be published
soon at http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/europe-gplv3-conference
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 4004
Mobile: +49-179-6919565
To find out what keeps the digital society going
please check our Free Software press review today at
https://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/jj/pressreview
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
1. FSFE at Linuxtag in Wiesbaden (Germany)
2. Free Software workshop at Academy of German Army
3. FSFE at several events in Milan (Italy)
4. GPLv3 at SANE and UKUUG evening talks
5. Georg Greve at HGKZ university in Zürich (Switzerland)
6. Karsten Gerloff at eIFL workshop in Kiev (Ukraine)
7. FSFE General Assembly in Manchester
8. Linuxwochen in Vienna (Austria)
1. FSFE at Linuxtag in Wiesbaden (Germany)
As in previous years, Linuxtag was an opportunity for FSFE members and
Fellows to meet people from FSF Latin America and the
Free Software Initiative Japan and share the FSFE booth with them.
Karsten Gerloff gave a speech about the Access to Knowledge movement
(A2K) and its backgrounds. Ciarán O'Riordan, Georg Greve (FSFE), and
Federico Heinz (FSFLA) gave speeches about various aspects of the GPLv3.
As usual, Volker Dormeyer did an excellent job organising the booth and
the accommodation.
2. Free Software workshop at Academy of German Army
Free Software is penetrating an increasing amount of governmental
areas. As part of a meeting to assess the strategic future of Free
Software in the German Army, Georg Greve was invited by the Academy of
German Army to speak on Free Software and the political and strategic
issues that software raises for all sovereign governmental tasks, for
which Free Software provides the strongest answers today.
3. FSFE at several events in Milan (Italy)
The Italian team of the FSFE took part in some Milan-based events this
month. At the "Linux World Summit", Stefano Maffulli and Cristian
Rigamonti ran the Free Software Foundation Europe booth and participated
in a panel discussion dedicated to the Italian Free Software
communities. Cristian Rigamonti then held a talk about Free Software at
the "Gira e Respira" event, and an online talk on oilproject.org about
GPLv3. All the events benefitted from the support of the Italian
Fellows.
4. GPLv3 at SANE and UKUUG evening talks
Twice last month Georg Greve explained the reasons and overall changes
to the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3, and introduced the
audience to the GPLv3 update process. The first conference was the 5th
System Administration and Network Engineering (SANE) Conference in
Delft, in the Netherlands. The second speech took place as a UKUUG
evening talk at the University Conference Center in Manchester, UK.
5. Georg Greve at HGKZ university in Zürich (Switzerland)
On request of the School of Art and Design at the University of
Applied Sciences and Arts Zurich (HGKZ), FSFE president Georg Greve
spoke to art and design students about the role that software takes in
the digital society, and what Free Software means for society.
6. Karsten Gerloff at eIFL workshop in Kiev (Ukraine)
Libraries are currently struggling with ever-tighter copyright
restrictions that make it harder for them to serve their purpose of
collecting and disseminating knowledge. An important countermeasure is
for librarians to educate themselves about copyright, and about
advocating their interests.
At a workshop in Kiev, Ukraine (May 26-27), Karsten Gerloff gave talks
about Free Software and sharing knowledge, as well as about the WIPO
Development Agenda and a Treaty on Access to Knowledge. The audience
consisted of librarians from the former Soviet Union, Mongolia, the
Middle East and South-East Asia.
7. FSFE General Assembly in Manchester
The FSFE held its General Assembly on 27 May 2006 in Manchester, UK.
The members of the General Assembly spent the weekend reviewing the
past year and engaging in lively and constructive discussions about
future tasks and priorities.
8. Linuxwochen in Vienna (Austria)
FSFE was present at Austria's largest Free Software event, the
Linuxwochen in Vienna. On all three days of the event, members of the
FSFE, Fellows, and volunteers were available at the booth to inform
about the work of the FSFE and about the Fellowship.
On the first day, Karin Kosina gave a speech titled "Free Software for
free people" in which she introduced the Free Software Foundation
Europe. On the last day, David Ayers and Karin Kosina did a presentation
of the GPLv3 which was very well received, and the following panel
discussion turned out to be very constructive.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
PROTESTERS PROVIDE A NASTY "VISTA" FOR GATES - Hazmat Suits Greet
Microsoft Developers As They Gather For Annual Conference
----Seattle, May 23, 2006
As Microsoft developers gathered in Seattle to hear Bill Gates's keynote
speech on the future of Microsoft and the coming release of its updated
operating system Vista, protesters wearing bright yellow Hazmat suits
swarmed the entrance of the city's convention center, delivering an
unsettling message to the corporation: your product is defective and
hazardous to users.
The surprise protest marked the launch of DefectiveByDesign.org, a
direct-action campaign that will target Big Media and corporations
peddling Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). "Flash protests, direct
actions, and practical ways that people can get involved and help stop
the stupidity of DRM," is how campaign manager Gregory Heller described
the grassroots effort.
An initiative of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Defective By
Design is urging all technologists to get involved at the start of the
campaign. "Technologists are very aware of the dangers of DRM," said
Peter Brown, Executive Director of the FSF. "We see this as the tip of
the iceberg and it is our duty to do something about it." The tech
community is uniquely qualified to lead this effort, in Brown's view.
"We know about the collusion of Big Media, device manufacturers and
proprietary software companies to lock us down," he continued. "Their
aim is to put Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into all our
computers and homes".
Brown's case is simple: the computers, high-definition screens, phones,
music players and video players that are currently being sold are
"defective by design". These products don't respect the user's right to
make private copies of their digital media. These devices make no
provision that would allow art, literature, music or film to ever fall
into the public domain. Effectively, the media purchased for these
devices does not belong to the user -- rather, the networking of these
DRM'd devices means that as the user watches a film, reads an e-book or
switches channels on their HDTV, their habits can be recorded and
actions monitored. The result is that over time, DRM technology will
negate, if not completely eliminate, the rights of the individual.
"In any other industry, such limitations or invasions would be
considered major flaws. A media player that restricts what you can play
is like a car that you won't let you steer," said Brown. "Products
containing DRM are defective -- only, unlike other products, these
defects are deliberately created by an industry that has long stopped
caring about us."
With DRM in place, media conglomerates can change the rules whenever
they want, leading to more restrictions on the individual.
"Media bosses scream 'pirate' equating sharing with murder and kidnap,
then sue our college students. They then steal our rights and impose
crippled products upon us," said Henri Poole, Chairman of CivicActions
and a coalition partner in the campaign. "Media bosses have long been
the 'gatekeepers to the market' for artists. Now they are threatened by
new distribution methods that give artists new freedoms and direct
access to an audience. DRM is the media bosses attempt to re-impose
their rule".
Today's event is the first in a series planned by DefectiveByDesign.org
that will mobilize individuals to make a stand against DRM.
----30----
About Defective By Design
DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based, anti-DRM campaign that is
targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors. It
aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing their DRM-enabled
products to market. The campaign aims to identify "defective" products
for the consumer. Users are being asked to stand up in defense of their
existing freedoms and to take action by joining at
http://DefectiveByDesign.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. Their Web site, located at www.fsf.org ,
is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to
support their work can be made at http://fsf.org/join They are
headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.
----------
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org>
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
EUROPE TO HOST 3rd INTERNATIONAL GPLV3 CONFERENCE
BARCELONA, SPAIN, JUNE 22nd & 23rd
Europe will host the 3rd international GPLv3 conference on June 22nd &
23rd. The conference will take place in Barcelona, Spain, and the exact
venue will be announced soon.
In January, a year-long public consultation process for updating the GNU
General Public License was launched. Commonly called "the GPL", this
licence is used by the majority of Free Software to detail the distribution
terms of the software.
This coming conference will approximately mark the half-way point of
that process.
The goal of the GPL is to ensure that recipients of GPL covered
software are free to examine it, to modify it, to pass on copies, and
to distribute modifications. Version two of the GPL was released
fifteen years ago, in 1991. The new version is being drafted to
account for changes in the legal and technical environment in which
software licences operate.
The main changes in version three are to minimise the harm of software
patents, to prevent Digital Restrictions Management from being used
against software users, and to make the licence compatible with
certain classes of other Free Software licences.
The international GPLv3 conferences are part of an effort to maximise
awareness of the updating of the GPL, and to tap into the knowledge of
the community around the World. The first conference was in North
America, and the second was in South America.
When version three of the GPL is published at the end of this public
consultation process, most GPL covered software will automatically
transition to it.
Confirmed speakers include Richard Stallman, founder and president of Free
Software Foundation (FSF), who will discuss the reasons for the main
changes, Eben Moglen, chairman at Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and
legal counsel of Free Software Foundation, who will explain the legal
implementation, and Georg Greve, President of Free Software Foundation
Europe. Expert panelists from all parts of Europe, and from around the
World will lead discussions on licence internationalisation, DRM, software
patents, and adoption of the finished licence.
The Conference's schedule and further information will be published
soon at http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/europe-gplv3-conference
--
Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ GPLv3 and other work supported by
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org
1. Two lucky Fellows win a notebook
2. Giacomo Poderi starts internship at FSFE
3. FSFE core team continues to grow
4. Ciarán O'Riordan and Gareth Bowker speak in London
5. Free Software Forum in Brasil
6. Access to Knowledge Conference in USA
7. Hearing for Microsoft antitrust case
1. Two lucky Fellows win a notebook
The Fellowship is extremely important to sustain the activities of the
Free Software Foundation Europe. For this reason, the FSFE tries to
find ways of saying thank you to all who joined: This year, two HP
Compaq notebooks were donated for random distribution among our
Fellows. The winners of the raffle are Andrea Di Dato from Italy, and
Wouter van Heyst from the Netherlands. Congratulations once more and
enjoy your new machines!
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q2/000134.html
2. Giacomo Poderi starts internship with FSFE
The Free Software Foundation Europe welcomes Giacomo Poderi as its new
intern. Giacomo lives in Zürich and works for FSFE from April to August
2006. His main task is administrative support for the President, the
office, and the whole FSFE team. Giacomo has studied Philosophy in
Bologna, Italy, and chose to work for FSFE because it allows to take
part in some processes deeply related with social and technical aspects
of daily life.
FSFE thanks Alexander Finkenberger for the valuable work he did during
his internship, which ended in March. Alexander has decided to
continue to work for FSFE on a volunteer basis and remains active in
the core team of FSFE.
3. FSFE core team continues to grow
Antonella Beccaria, Cristian Rigamonti and Patrick Ohnewein joined the
core team of FSFE. All of them have been active supporters of Free
Software for several years. Together with Stefano Maffulli, they turn
Italy into a firm and powerful base of the Free Software Foundation
Europe.
4. Ciarán O'Riordan and Gareth Bowker speak in London
On April 7th, the British Computer Society hosted a Free Software
evening where Ciarán O'Riordan gave a presentation about FSFE's work
against software patents and about the GPLv3, and Gareth Bowker gave a
presentation about copyright law and how DRM can restrict computer
users. Both answered questions and the discussion with the attendees
continued for a long time afterward.
5. Free Software Forum in Brasil
Georg Greve and Ciaran O'Riordan took part in the 7th edition of the
Free Software Forum (FISL) in Porto Alegre, Brasil. Georg Greve gave
one of the opening talks ("Free Software - Social Movement or
Technological Revolution?"), and participated in the sessions on Free
Software Foundation Latin America, 100% Free Software distributions,
and the license compatibility panel for the 2nd international
conference on GPLv3. Ciaran O'Riordan spoke about the work against
software patents and participated in various ways in the GPLv3
conference. Besides these public appearances, both also worked with
FSFE's sister organisation, the FSF Latin America and the local Free
Software community to strengthen the international Free Software
network.
6. Access to Knowledge Conference in USA
The Information Society Project at Yale Law School held a landmark
conference on Access to Knowledge (A2K) on April 21-23. Karsten Gerloff
moderated a podium on "Licensing Frameworks for Access to Knowledge".
The speakers investigated the possibilities and limitations of licenses
in regulating knowledge. The debate centered on the limits of the
Creative Commons concept.
The conference was a great opportunity to make contact with other
activists and academics in the A2K field. The organisers have documented
most of the conference in a public wiki.
http://research.yale.edu/isp/a2k/wiki/index.php/Yale_A2K_Conference
7. Hearing for Microsoft antitrust case
After many years of investigation, years of legal battle and literally
billions of Euro spent by Microsoft to uphold its monopoly, the
European Court in Luxembourg convened in its grand jury of 13 judges
for a one-week hearing. The purpose of this hearing was to decide
whether Microsofts accusations of unfair treatment and mistakes in
judgement by the European Commission are founded and whether the
decision should be abolished or modified.
In close cooperation with the Samba Team, the Free Software Foundation
Europe had a Team of five people present in Luxembourg to defend the
Commissions decision: Accompanied by FSFE president Georg Greve,
FSFE's lawyer on the case, Carlo Piana, and FSFE's media coordinators
Joachim Jakobs and Antonella Beccaria, Samba Team founder Andrew
Tridgell spoke in court on behalf of the FSFE. His clear and profound
explanations greatly helped invalidate many of the false claims made
by Microsoft. A decision is expected within this year, and also thanks
to the work done by FSFE and Samba, some slight optimism is warranted.
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
FSFE welcomes KDE e.V. as new associate organisation
The KDE e.V. -- a registered non-profit organisation that represents
the K Desktop Environment (KDE®) in legal and financial matters -- and
the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) are proud to announce their
associate status, working together for the promotion and protection of
Free Software on users' desktops in Europe and worldwide.
"The Free Software community started to build freedom into the most
basic building blocks of an operating system, finishing the operating
system GNU/Linux in the early 90s, taking over more than 60 percent of
the web servers with Apache [1] and has become a seminal building
block of the networked society and economy," says Georg Greve,
president of FSFE. "As a community, we then tackled the desktop as the
next big step. Today we have two fully functional desktops that bear
comparison to any other desktop in use around the world: GNOME and
KDE."
"Although GNU/Linux and KDE are used on desktops in many companies and
governments around the world, some people still have preconceptions
about lack of usability of GNU/Linux on the desktop," Eva
Brucherseifer, president of the KDE e.V., points out.
She continues: "KDE has embraced the openusability project and they
are now working closely together with the developers. This already led
to numerous improvements on the usability side of KDE but will have
even bigger effect in the KDE 4 release cycle where we're able to make
more intrusive changes leading to enhanced usability in all kinds of
areas.
"The desktop is one of the most important battlefields for the long
term success of Free Software. In the antitrust case it has become
apparent how Microsoft could take its quasi-monopoly on the desktop
and use it as leverage in other areas. FSFE is helping to put an end
to this in the EU antitrust case, but this is not enough: We need to
put an end to proprietary desktop monopolies that made such abuse
possible," Georg Greve explains the background for FSFE's decision to
take action in this area. "Together with the KDE e.V. we seek to break
the stranglehold on the desktop, give people freedom, and explain to
them why this is important, and why they should not give it up again."
One of the first projects discussed between the organisations will
involve the provision of more information to interested parties about
Free Software and inform them about alternatives. "But this can be
only the first step", adds Eva Brucherseifer and points out:
"Ultimately our goal must be to help build a strong environment of
Free Software service companies. We have been cooperating unofficially
in the past, and are now very happy to also work with the Free Software
Foundation Europe officially towards this goal."
[1] http://www.serverwatch.com/news/article.php/3596491
Trademark Notices
KDE®, K Desktop Environment and the KDE Logo® are trademarks or
registered trademarks of KDE e.V. in the European Union, the United
States and other countries. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Trolltech AS in Norway and other countries.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About KDE
The KDE project consists of hundreds of developers, translators,
artists and other contributors worldwide collaborating over the
Internet. The community creates and freely distributes a stable,
integrated and free desktop and office environment. KDE provides
a flexible, component-based, network-transparent architecture and
powerful development tools, offering an outstanding development
platform. Reflecting its international team and focus, KDE 3.5 is
currently available in over 80 different languages.
KDE, which is based on Qt® technology from Trolltech®, is working
proof that the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development
model can yield first-rate technologies on par with and superior
to even the most complex commercial software.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
Contact
KDE e.V.
Eva Brucherseifer <eva(a)kde.org>
Phone: +49 6151 3 969 961
Sebastian Kügler <sebas(a)kde.org>
Phone: +31 6 483 709 28
FSF Europe:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve at fsfeurope.org>
Phone: +41 76 561 18 66
Joachim Jakobs <jakobs at fsfeurope.org>
Phone: +49 179 6919565
Microsoft: "Our software patents preclude interoperability"
Throughout the last two days in European Court, Microsoft tried to
explain to the European Court and Commission its "Blue Bubble Theorem"
about Active Directory Services (ADS) being surrounded by a Blue
Bubble within which interoperability was impossible.
Carlo Piana, Free Software Foundation Europe's lawyer on the case
explains: "The interventions made perfectly clear that the Blue Bubble
only existed in the lawyers' pleadings. Meanwhile, Microsoft left no
doubt as to the legal nature of that Bubble: a conglomerate of 46
patents that it claims it holds on ADS, whose main effect is to
prevent interoperability and, eventually, competition."
So Microsoft maintains that without licenses to these software
patents, which they would strongly object to and essentially referred
to as "expropriation", forcing the interoperability information to be
released might turn out to be irrelevant: Future competitors might
find themselves involved in costly software patent litigation rather
quickly.
"This proves effectively how software patents are fundamentally
opposed to competiton, and thus harm economy and society. In the
European fight about software patents, the proponents tried to make
the claim software patents were about innovation. Today Microsoft once
more demonstrated how they are indeed helping build and maintain
illegal monopolies", Georg Greve, president of Free Software
Foundation Europe (FSFE) said today and continued: "It reminded me of
a 1991 quote of Bill Gates that summarises software patents rather
effectively [1]:
'If people had understood how patents would be granted when
most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents,
the industry would be at a complete stand-still today. The
solution ... is patent exchanges ... and patenting as much as
we can... A future start-up with no patents of its own will be
forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That
price might be high: Established companies have an interest in
excluding future competitors.'"
FSFE referred to that quote in a feature article [2] earlier this
week. Greve concludes: "Software patents are limited mini-monopolies
on ideas that should allow to share ideas for the inspiration and
benefit for society. In software they have the opposite effect and
build mega-monopolies."
[1] http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001447.shtml
[2] http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/article-20060421.it.html
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition
- allow equal participation in the information age. Creating
awareness of these issues, securing Free Software politically and
legally, and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free
Software are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in
2001 as the European sister organisation of the Free Software
Foundation in the United States.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/