= Join the I Love Free Software Day 2019 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190214-01.en.html ]
Today, as with every year on February 14th, people around the globe are
celebrating *"I love Free Software"* Day by expressing their love and
thanks to all the people working behind each Free Software project.
Follow the love with the hashtag #IloveFS today and add your own love
dedication to the stream!
Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives; and it is
important that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free
Software gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt and share
software. These rights help support other fundamental freedoms like
freedom of speech, press and privacy. And Free Software is also the
result of people who work together collaboratively and dedicate their
skills to a project. "I love Free Software" Day is a day to show our
appreciation to all these people behind any Free Software project and
our gratitude for their dedication:https://ilovefs.org
== Becoming part of #ilovefs [1] ==
Everyone can participate in *"I love Free Software"* Day and join the
celebrations by sharing a message of love with the hashtag *#ilovefs* on
any (social) media channel. Be it on a general note or directly
dedicated to a particular Free and Open Source Software solution. The
more people contribute their part, the more we will enjoy a beautiful
*"I love Free Software"* Day together.
Or help by spreading the word in the offline world among your friends
and colleagues and bring them together. We know about interesting
offline events happening, for example in Barcelona, Berlin, Sofia,
Stockholm, Tirana, Plovdiv and Zurich. Follow the stream and enjoy a
lovely day packed with thankfulness and creativity!
Happy *"I love Free Software"* Day everyone!
1: https://ilovefs.org
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= Huawei case demonstrates importance of Free Software for security =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190205-01.en.html ]
The discussion of the Huawei security concerns showcases a general trust
issue when it comes to critical infrastructure. A first step to solve
this problem is to publish the code under a Free and Open Source
Software licence and take measures to facilitate its independently-
verifiable distribution.
The ongoing debate about banning Huawei hardware for the rollout of 5G
networks, following earlier state espionage allegations, falls too
short. It is not just about the Chinese company but about a general lack
of transparency within this sector. As past incidents proved, the
problem of backdoors inside blackboxed hard- and software is widely
spread, independently from the manufacturers' origins.
However, it is unprecedented that the demand to inspect the source code
of a manufacturer's equipment has been discussed so broadly and
intensely. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) welcomes that the
importance of source code is recognised, but is afraid that the proposed
solution falls too short. Allowing inspection of the secret code by
selected authorities and telephone companies might help in this specific
case, but will not solve the general problem.
To establish trust in critical infrastructure like 5G, it is a crucial
precondition that all software code powering those devices is published
under a Free and Open Source Software licence. Free and Open Source
Software guarantees the four freedoms to use, study, share, and improve
an application. On this basis, everyone can inspect the code, not only
for backdoors, but for all security risks. Only these freedoms allow for
independent and continuous security audits which will lead citizens, the
economy, and the public sector to trust their communication and data
exchange.
Furthermore, in order to verify code integrity – so that the provided
source code corresponds to the executable code running on the equipment
– it is either necessary that there are reproducible builds in case of
binary distribution, or that providers are brought into the position to
compile and deploy the code on their own.
"We should not only debate the Huawei case but extend the discussion
to all critical infrastructure." says Max Mehl, FSFE Programme
Manager. "Only with Free and Open Source Software, transparency and
accountability can be guaranteed. This is a long-known crucial
precondition for security and trust. We expect from state actors to
immediately implement this solution not only for the Huawei case but
for all comparable IT security issues."
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= FSFE publishes expert brochure about “Public Money? Public Code!" =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190124-01.en.html ]
Why should governments develop Free Software? Where is Free Software
already generating benefits in the public sector? What are Free Software
business models? Answers to these questions and practical guidelines are
given in the new expert policy brochure published today by the Free
Software Foundation Europe. Produced with decision-takers in mind, the
brochure will be a helpful source of information for candidates and
parties running for the European Parliament election. Downloads and
prints are available under a Creative Commons license.
Today the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) releases its policy
brochure, *"Public Money Public Code - Modernising Public Infrastructure
with Free Software"* [1]. This brochure aims to answer decision-takers'
questions about the benefits of using and developing Free Software for
public administrations. To help understand the important role that
public procurement plays in this, the brochure presents an overview of
EU Free Software projects and policies, uncovering legislation on
software procurement. The FSFE will use this brochure in the upcoming
European Parliament elections to inform MEPs how to speed up the
distribution and development of Free Software in public administration
and putting in place appropriate legislation.
Download the brochure now:
https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/pmpc/PMPC-Modernising-with-Free-Softwar…
=== About the brochure ===
The brochure evaluates the modernisation of public infrastructure with
using Free Software from the perspectives of academia, law, business,
and government. Expert articles, reports, and interviews help readers to
understand the opportunities for Free Software in public administration.
For decision-takers, practical guidance is provided to move forward and
start modernising public infrastructure with Free Software.
FSFE President Matthias Kirschner states: "Free Software licences have
proven to generate tremendous benefits for the public sector. This is
not a trend that will pass, but rather a long-term development that is
based on very positive experiences, and strategic considerations
resulting from serious vendor lock-in cases in the past. In a few years,
Free Software licences could become the default setting for publicly
financed IT projects. The Free Software Foundation Europe watches these
developments very carefully and we want to contribute our knowledge to
support the public sector in this transition."
First steps for making Free Software licenses the default in publicly financed
IT projects are outlined in the brochure. Other topics cover competition and
potential vendor lock-in, security, democracy, "smart cities", and other
important contemporary debates. The language and examples used have been
specifically chosen for readers interested in politics and public
administrations.
The brochure stars leading experts from various ICT areas. These include,
among others, Francesca Bria - Chief of Technology and Digital Innovation
Officer (CTIO) for the Barcelona City Council, Prof. Dr. Simon Schlauri -
author of a detailed legal analysis on the benefits of Free Software for the
Swiss canton of Bern, Cedric Thomas – CEO of OW2, Matthias Stürmer – head of
the Research Center for Digital Sustainability at the University of Bern,
and Basanta Thapa – from the Competence Center for Public IT (ÖFIT)
within the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems. The
brochure is released in digital and print, and is published under a CC
BY-SA 4.0 licence.
=== About the campaign ===
With the 'Public Money, Public Code' campaign [2], the FSFE demands that
publicly financed software developed for the public sector is made
publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. The
campaign's open letter [3] has, until now, gained more than 19.000
signatures, as well as support from more than 150 organisations. If it
is public money, it should be public code as well!
1:
https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/pmpc/PMPC-Modernising-with-Free-Softwar…
2: http://publiccode.eu/
3: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= Ask Your Candidates: Italian parties offer progress towards the use of Free Software in public entities =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180302-01.en.html ]
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) publishes the results of the
Ask Your Candidates campaign that FSFE Italy did run for the Italian
election. Multiple questions have been sent to the major political
parties that run for office in the national elections on March 4. We
received positive statements by "Movimento 5 Stelle", "Liberi e Uguali",
"Partito Democratico" and "Potere al Popolo". Unfortunately, there have
been no answers by "+Europa", "Forza Italia", "Fratelli d'Italia" and
"Lega Nord".
Since many years, at the FSFE, we run Ask Your candidates campaigns [1]
to send a set of questions to political parties and collect information
about their standing towards Free Software and to make it easier for
voters to compare their positions. Main objective of the campaign is to
know the degree of attention and support of candidates and parties
towards Free Software and those topics that are important for our work
for Free Software like Open Standard formats, digital freedoms and net
neutrality.
FSFE Italy in particular wishes to inform interested voters and citizens
about the parties' positions and candidates on the use of Free Software
in public administrations, a subject already present in the Italian
jurisprudence by Article 68 [2] and Article 69 [3] of the Code of the
Digital Administration (CAD) [4]. Unfortunately, the implementation of
these articles is still in continuous evolution due to the nature of the
software and of the current political will.
Today, we publish the full answers [5] that we received. In summary, the
campaign had a positive response by "Movimento 5 Stelle" and the "Liberi
e Uguali, Partito Democratico and Potere al Popolo". Unfortunately, we
did not receive any answers by +Europa, Forza Italia, Fratelli d'Italia,
Lega Nord. In the following, you find our analysis of the responds
given, sorted chronologically in the order we received the answers:
== Results and analysis ==
Federico D'Incà and Anna Laura Orrico, both candidates for *Movimento 5
Stelle*, declare Free Software to be a benefit for the public
administration because it helps in "independence from suppliers,
security and the accessibility to all its information assets". The same
benefits, so they say, are within the adoption of Open Standards. Both
candidates are in favor of introducing Free Software and Open Standards
in schools and universities, and they consider the Digital
Administration Code to be an exhaustive rule but whose implementation is
necessary to monitor. Finally, both candidates are clearly in favour of
net neutrality which is also part of the official program of Movimento 5
Stelle, that considers net neutrality to be a "necessary and
indispensable prerequisite for freedom of expression".
Luca Casarini, candidate for *Liberi e Uguali*, not only supports Free
Software but also supports a top-down model with an "enforced migration
by law from proprietary software to Free Software and Open Source in the
public administration". Casarini also understands the adoption of Free
Software in school and university courses as "a real strategic and
educational choice towards an emancipation from the use and dependency
of proprietary programs". The candidate of Liberi e Uguali strongly
supports the Digital Administration Code and is committed to monitor its
renewal to avoid being further weakened in favor of compromises not in
line with the original spirit of the law. Such as "the weakening of the
art.68 in particular, but also the repeal of Article 50-bis" during the
last CAD reform. Liberi e Uguali are totally in favor of net neutrality,
to support "information pluralism", citizen rights and liberties.
Paolo Coppola, candidate for the *Partito Democratico*, highlights the
use of Free Software in public administrations as well as the Code of
the Digital Administration as a pivotal tool that is already in place to
promote and support its use. Coppola also points out that, with regards
to software commissioned by public administrations, Partito
Democratico's position "is the one expressed by Article 69 of the CAD:
it must be available as open source code and free of charge". For the
introduction of Free Software and open formats in school and university
courses, article 68 of the CAD is still valid, which says that in public
tenders Free Software has to be favored over proprietary software.
Coppola considers CAD to be a good legislative framework, and as a next
step proposes the publication of guidelines that aim at ensuring
compliance. Coppola confirms the importance of net neutrality and says
that "network and digital platforms must be neutral".
*Potere al popolo* state to be very much in line with some principles
that are related to Free Software and wish for "the use and introduction
of any vision based on copyleft licenses will contribute to the
protection of workers by decentralizing the authority of
multinationals". So they declare themself certainly in favor of the
adoption of open formats and Free Software within the public
administration. Potere al popolo even quotes Richard Stallman in arguing
that "if the school teaches the use of Free Software, they can graduate
citizens ready to live in a free digital society". However, unlike the
other interviewed parties, Potere al popolo finds the Articles 68 and 69
of the CAD to be insufficient and they wish for more intransigent rules
that fully exclude the use of proprietary software. Finally, the party
shows full adherence towards net neutrality, including criticism of the
European BEREC entity considered "insufficient in defining the rules for
the network."
== Conclusion ==
This has been the first time FSFE Italy had run such an Ask Your
Candidates campaign. Fortunately, all parties and candidates that have
answered our questions - Movimento 5 Stelle, Liberi e Uguali, Partito
Democratico and Potere al Popolo - are in favor of the adoption and the
extended use of Free Software and open formats in the public
administration as well as in public education. Such a big consensus
across these parties, that in current polls together have more than 50%
of the votes, opens up a lot of possibilities for progress towards the
use of Free Software on state level in Italy and the FSFE's demand of
Public Money? Public Code! [6]. The latter can be realized by enforcing
already existing legal laws, that are in particular "Article 68" and
"Article 69" of the Code of the Digital Administration. Again, with an
exception of Potere al popolo, all parties claim to be in favor of
enforcing these articles. If it would be for Potere al popolo, they
would set even stricter rules. Finally, all parties in this sample
support the existence and enforcement of net neutrality.
1: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates
2: http://www.agid.gov.it/cad/art-68-analisi-comparativa-soluzioni
3: http://www.agid.gov.it/cad/art-69-riuso-soluzioni-standard-aperti
4: https://cad.readthedocs.io/it/v2017-12-13/
5: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/201803-italy-general-elections
6: https://publiccode.eu/
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= Dutch government publishes large project as Free Software =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171206-01.en.html ]
The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations released the
source code and documentation of Basisregistratie Personen (BRP), a
100M€ IT system that registers information about inhabitants within the
Netherlands. This comes as a great success for Public Code, and the FSFE
applauds the Dutch government's shift to Free Software.
Operation BRP is an IT project by the Dutch government that has been in
the works since 2004. It has cost Dutch taxpayers upwards of 100 million
Euros and has endured three failed attempts at revival, without anything
to show for it. From the outside, it was unclear what exactly was
costing taxpayers so much money with very little information to go on.
After the plug had been pulled from the project earlier this year in
July, the former interior minister agreed to publish the source code
under pressure of Parliament, to offer transparency about the failed
project. Secretary of state Knops has now gone beyond that promise and
released the source code as Free Software (a.k.a. Open Source Software)
to the public.
In 2013, when the first smoke signals showed, the former interior
minister initially wanted to address concerns about the project by
providing limited parts of the source code to a limited amount of people
under certain restrictive conditions. The ministry has since made a
complete about-face, releasing a snapshot of the (allegedly) full source
code and documentation [1] under the terms of the GNU Affero General
Public License, with the development history soon to follow.
In a letter to Dutch municipalities [2] earlier in November, secretary
of state Knops said that he is convinced of the need of an even playing
field for all parties, and that he intends to "let the publication
happen under open source terms". He went on to say: "What has been
realised in operation BRP has namely been financed with public funds.
Software that is built on top of this source code should in turn be
available to the public again."
These statements are an echo of the Free Software Foundation Europe's
Public Money, Public Code [3] campaign, in which we implore public
administrations to release software funded by the public as Free
Software available to the citizenry that paid for it.
The echoes of 'Public Money, Public Code' do not stop there. In a letter
to the Dutch parliament [4] Wednesday 29 November, the secretary of
state writes about the AGPL: "The license terms assure that changes to
the source code are also made publicly available. In this way, reuse is
further supported. The AGPL offers the best guarantee for this, and
besides the GPL (General Public License), sees a lot of use and support
in the open source community.
"Publication will happen free of charge so that, in the public interest,
an even playing field is created for everyone who wants to reuse this
code."
This is big news from the Netherlands and an unprecedented move of
transparency by the Dutch government. Following a report [5] to the
Ministry of the Interior about publishing government software as Free
Software (Open Source Software), it seems that this will happen more
often. In it, Free Software is described as making the government more
transparent, lowering costs, increasing innovation, forming the
foundation for a digital participation society, and increasing the
quality of code.
"We applaud the Dutch government for releasing the source code for
BRP. We have been asking for this method of working since 2001, and
it is good to see that the government is finally taking steps
towards Free Software. In the future, we hope that the source code
will be released during an earlier stage of development, which we
believe in this case would have brought issues to light sooner",
says Maurice Verheesen, coordinator FSFE Netherlands.
If you like our campaign "Public Money, Public Code", please become a
supporter today [6] to enable our work!
1: https://github.com/MinBZK/OperatieBRP
2: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/brieven/2017/11/10/afschrift-brief-…
3: https://publiccode.eu/
4: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/kamerstukken/2017/11/29/kamerbrief-…
5: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2017/10/11/onderzoek-open…
6: https://fsfe.org/donate
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= EU Copyright review: The FSFE joins more than 80 organisations asking the EU member states to reject harmful Article 13 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171130-01.en.html ]
A new copyright proposal is currently discussed by the EU co-
legislators. Part of this proposal is Article 13 which can hamper our
ability to collaborate with each other online as it imposes new
monitoring obligations and installation of arbitrary upload filters on
every code hosting and sharing provider. The Free Software Foundation
Europe (FSFE) today raises its voice to save code sharing and joins 80
other organisations in an open letter towards the EU Council.
Free Software development often relies on code hosting platforms to
build software together. Current ongoing EU copyright review, and in
particular its Article 13 [1] however, could hamper our ability to
collaborate online with each other by imposing new obligations [2] on
every code hosting and sharing provider to prevent any possible
copyright infringement in the form of arbitrary upload filters. In
addition, the proposed Article 13 will oblige online platforms to
monitor their users and actively seek for possible copyright
infringements. However, there are no known filtering technologies that
could accurately and reliably identify whether any Free Software is
being shared in accordance with its terms and conditions. That means
with such an Article 13 as currently proposed in the Council of the
European Union (EU Council), software developers’ ability to share and
collaborate in the development of source code would be limited.
Together with over 80 organisations, the Free Software Foundation Europe
calls [3] the EU member states to acknowledge the danger that Article 13
of the current EU Copyright Directive proposal poses to fundamental
rights and freedoms, our economy, our education, our innovation, and our
culture. And in order to address the issues Article 13 specifically
poses on Free Software, the FSFE together with Open Forum Europe already
launched Save Code Share [4] and has published a White Paper [5] to
explain how Article 13 endangers our ability to build and share software
online. We also ask individuals, organisations and companies to sign our
Open Letter [6] addressed to EU legislators to prevent harmful impact of
Article 13 on collaborative software development and Free Software.
Support us today [7] so we can make the voice of Free Software
developers heard in this policy process.
== Background on the policy ==
The main parliamentary effort in the copyright reform led by the Legal
Affairs committee (JURI) will be voted upon in January 2018. However,
several other parliamentary committees have issued their opinions on the
matter. The most recent one by the European Parliament Committee on
Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), proposes [8] to remove
the most harmful provisions from Article 13, which means:
- no to upload filters;
- no to general monitoring obligation to actively seek for any possible
copyright infringement on their platforms.
As a result, the LIBE opinion goes in the right direction to make sure
that no content, including source code, is taken down because of
'potential' copyright infringement decided by the arbitrary filters.
While LIBE's vote did not reject the harmful Article 13 as a whole, it
still sends a clear message to the rest of the European Parliament that
there is no place for arbitrary code filters when it comes to sharing
Free Software online.
While European Parliament's main negotiating position regarding the EU
copyright directive is yet to come, the co-legislator EU Council
consisting of the EU member states representatives, however, seems to be
taking a completely diverging direction, evident from their revised
presidency compromise proposal [9] on Article 13. EU Council's
compromise proposal reinforces arbitrary removal of works hosted online.
In particular, the EU council proposal reinforces the European
Commission's proposal to oblige online platforms, such as code sharing
platforms, to prevent any copyright infringement on their platforms. It
explicitly mandates to delete and block any content, including code
uploads, as soon as the platform is notified of a potential infringement
without any meaningful redress mechanism for users to contest that
decision. Furthermore, it makes it an explicit responsibility of a
platform to make sure that the same content is not being available
elsewhere on the same platform, including for example all other projects
that might have incorporated the same source code into their software.
As a result any code repository or project can be disabled or taken down
from online code hosting services at any time.
The EU Council's text is even more inconsistent in its proposals. Not
only are platforms obliged to pre-block content, but they have to make
sure the "preliminarily blocked content"' is made publicly available so
the relevant rightsholders can "enforce their rights with regard to
infringing works". The proposal mandates at the same time to both pre-
block content upon uploading, and to make the same content publicly
available simultaneously, in order to expand the number of possible
copyright infringers for rightsholders to go after. Only then, platforms
cannot be held liable for actions of their users, while demanding
mutually exclusive actions from them. As a result, the EU Council's
compromise proposal is introducing more legal uncertainty for online
platforms and their users when it comes to sharing works online,
including software.
Please become a supporter of the FSFE now [10], and enable our work!
1: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016PC0593
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171005-01.html
3: http://copybuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Open-Letter-COMPET-Council-3…
4: https://savecodeshare.eu/
5: https://savecodeshare.eu/static/assets/WhitePaper-ImpactofArticel13onSoftwa…
6: https://savecodeshare.eu/
7: https://fsfe.org/join
8: https://fsfe.org/www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&refere…
9: https://fsfe.org/data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-14482-2017-INIT/e…
10: https://fsfe.org/join
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
--
Matthias Kirschner - President - Free Software Foundation Europe
Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290
Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 | (fsfe.org/join)
Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) - Weblog (k7r.eu/blog.html)
= 32 European ministers call for more Free Software in governmental infrastructure =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171109-01.en.html ]
On 6 October, 32 European Ministers in charge of eGovernment policy
signed the Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment that calls for more
collaboration, interoperable solutions, and sharing of good practices
throughout public administrations and across borders. Amongst other
things, the EU ministers recognised the need to make more use of Free
Software solutions and Open Standards when (re)building governmental
digital systems with EU funds.
The Tallinn Declaration [1], lead by the Estonian EU presidency, has
been adopted on 6 October 2017. It is a ministerial declaration that
marks a new political commitment at European Union (EU) and European
Free Trade Area (EFTA) level on priorities to ensure user-centric
digital public services for both citizens and businesses cross-border.
While having no legislative power, the ministerial declaration marks a
political commitment to ensure the digital transformation of public
administrations through a set of commonly agreed principles and actions.
The FSFE has previously submitted its input for the aforementioned
declaration [2] during the public consultation round, asking for greater
inclusion of Free Software in delivering truly inclusive, trustworthy
and interoperable digital services to all citizens and businesses across
the EU.
The adopted Tallinn Declaration proves to be a forward-looking document
that acknowledges the importance of Free Software in order to ensure the
principle of 'interoperability by default', and expresses the will of
all signed EU countries to:
"make more use of open source solutions and/or open standards when
(re)building ICT systems and solutions (among else, to avoid vendor
lock-ins)[...]"
Additionally, the signatories call upon the European Commission to:
"consider strengthening the requirements for use of open source
solutions and standards when (re)building of ICT systems and
solutions takes place with EU funding, including by an appropriate
open licence policy – by 2020."
The last point is especially noteworthy, as it explicitly calls for the
European Commission to make use of Free Software and Open Standards in
building their ICT infrastructure with EU funds, which is in line with
our "Public Money, Public Code" campaign [3] that is targeted at the
demand for all publicly financed software developed for the public
sector to be publicly made available under Free Software licences.
== What's next? ==
The Tallinn Declaration sets several deadlines for its implementation in
the next few years: with the annual presentation on the progress of
implementation of the declaration in the respective countries across the
EU and EFTA through the eGovernment Action Plan Steering Board. The
signatories also called upon the Austrian Presidency of the Council of
the EU to evaluate the implementation of the Tallinn Declaration in
autumn 2018.
"The Declaration expresses the political will of the EU and EFTA
countries to digitise their governments in the most user-friendly
and efficient way. The fact that it explicitly recognises the role
of Free Software and Open Standards for a trustworthy, transparent
and open eGovernment on a high level, along with a demand for
strengthened reuse of ICT solutions based on Free Software in the EU
public sector, is a valuable step forward to establishing a "Public
Money, Public Code" [4] reality across Europe", says Polina Malaja,
the FSFE's policy analyst.
== Tags ==
- front-page [5]
- policy [6]
- Public Code [7]
- OpenStandards [8]
- Digital infrastructure [9]
1: http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=47559
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170710-01.html
3: https://publiccode.eu
4: https://publiccode.eu
5: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-frontpage.en.html
6: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-policy.en.html
7: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-pmpc.en.html
8: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-openstandards.en.html
9: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-digitalinfrastructure.en.html
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= FSFE makes copyrights computer readable =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171108-01.en.html ]
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is proud to release its next
version of our REUSE practices [1] designed to make computers understand
software copyrights and licenses.
The REUSE practices help software developers make simple additions to
license headers which make it easier for a computer to determine what
license applies to the various parts of a programs source code. By
following the REUSE practices, software developers can ensure their
intent to license software under a particular license is understood and
more readily adhered to.
Together with the updated practices, which mostly clarify and make
explicit some points, the FSFE is also releasing a set of developer
tools and examples which show the REUSE practices in action. Three
example repositories, together with an example walkthrough of the
process used to make the cURL project REUSE compliant, are complemented
with a simple tool to validate whether a program is REUSE compliant.
With our REUSE initiative, we hope to inspire software developers to
think about writing copyright and license information -- the
metadata of software -- in ways which make them easier to parse
programmatically.
says Jonas Öberg, Executive Director of the FSFE.
The new REUSE practices and related documentation and examples can be
found on: https://reuse.software [2].
== Tags ==
- front-page [3]
- reuse [4]
- software [5]
- developer-tools [6]
- update [7]
- curl [8]
1: https://reuse.software/
2: https://reuse.software/
3: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-frontpage.en.html
4: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-reuse.en.html
5: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-software.en.html
6: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-developertools.en.html
7: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-update.en.html
8: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-curl.en.html
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= Public Money? Public Code! 31 organisations ask to improve public
procurement of software =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170913-01.en.html ]
Digital services offered and used by public administrations are the
critical infrastructure of 21st-century democratic nations. To establish
trustworthy systems, government agencies must ensure they have full
control over systems at the core of our digital infrastructure. This is
rarely the case today due to restrictive software licences.
Today, 31 organisations are publishing an open letter [1] in which they
call for lawmakers to advance legislation requiring publicly financed
software developed for the public sector be made available under a Free
and Open Source Software licence. The initial signatories include CCC,
EDRi, Free Software Foundation Europe, KDE, Open Knowledge Foundation
Germany, openSUSE, Open Source Business Alliance, Open Source
Initiative, The Document Foundation, Wikimedia Deutschland, as well as
several others; they ask individuals and other organisation to sign the
open letter [2]. The open letter will be sent to candidates for the
German Parliament election and, during the coming months, until the 2019
EU parliament elections, to other representatives of the EU and EU
member states.
"Because the source code of proprietary software is often a business
secret, it radically increases the difficulty of discovering both
accidental and intentional security flaws in critical software.
Reverse engineering proprietary software to improve or strengthen it
is an absolute necessity in today's environment, but this basic
technical requirement is unlawful in many circumstances and
jurisdictions. With critical infrastructure such as hospitals,
automobile factories, and freight shippers having all been brought
offline this year due to flaws concealed within proprietary
software, unauditable code is a liability that states can no longer
subsidize with special legal privileges without incurring a cost
denominated in lives.
Right now, the blueprints for much of our most critical public
infrastructure are simply unavailable to the public. By aligning
public funding with a Free Software requirement -- "Free" referring
to public code availability, not cost -- we can find and fix flaws
before they are used to turn the lights out in the next hospital."
says Edward Snowden, President of the Freedom of the Press
Foundation about the "Public Money Public Code" campaign [3] launch.
Public institutions spend millions of euros each year on the development
of new software tailored to their needs. The procurement choices of the
public sector play a significant role in determining which companies are
allowed to compete and what software is supported with tax payers'
money. Public administrations on all levels frequently have problems
sharing code with each other, even if they funded its complete
development. Furthermore, without the option for independent third
parties to run audits or other security checks on the code, sensible
citizen data is at risk.
"We need software that fosters the sharing of good ideas and
solutions. Only like this will we be able to improve digital
services for people all over Europe. We need software that
guarantees freedom of choice, access, and competition. We need
software that helps public administrations regain full control of
their critical digital infrastructure, allowing them to become and
remain independent from a handful of companies," says Matthias
Kirschner, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe.
That is why the signatories call on representatives all around Europe to
modernise their digital infrastructure to allow other public
administrations, companies, or individuals to freely use, study, share
and improve applications developed with public money. Thereby providing
safeguards for the public administration against being locked in to
services from specific companies that use restrictive licences to hinder
competition, and ensuring that the source code is accessible so that
back doors and security holes can be fixed without depending on only one
service provider.
"Public bodies are financed through taxes. They should spend funds
responsibly and in the most efficient way possible. If it is public
money, it should be public code as well!", says Kirschner.
== Further information ==
- Open Letter [4]
- Sign the Open Letter! [5]
- Video (3:47) in different formats [6] (licensed under CC-By 4.0 ), or
also for embedding on Vimeo [7] and Youtube [8]
== The initial signatories ==
- April: https://www.april.org/
- Associação Ensino Livre: https://ensinolivre.pt
- Associação Nacional para o Software Livre (ANSOL): https://ansol.org
- Chaos Computer Club (CCC): https://www.ccc.de
- Courage Foundation: https://couragefound.org/
- D3-Defesa dos Direitos Digitais: https://direitosdigitais.pt/
- Digitalcourage: https://digitalcourage.de/
- Digitale Gesellschaft: https://digitalegesellschaft.de/
- Dyne.org Foundation: https://dyne.org
- ePaństwo Foundation: https://epf.org.pl
- European Digital Rights (EDRi): https://edri.org
- Expose Facts: https://exposefacts.org/
- Free Software Foundation Europe: https.//www.fsfe.org
- GFOSS: https://gfoss.eu/
- HackYourPhD: https://hackyourphd.org/
- KDE: https://ev.kde.org
- Linux User Group Of Slovenia (LUGOS): http://www.lugos.si
- Linuxwochen: https://www.linuxwochen.at/
- Modern Poland Foundation: https://nowoczesnapolska.org.pl
- quintessenz: http://quintessenz.at
- Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland: https://okfn.de
- Open Labs: http://theopenlabs.org
- Open Rights Group: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/
- Open Source Business Alliance: http://osb-alliance.de
- Open Source Initiative (OSI): https://opensource.org/
- openSUSE: http://opensuse.org
- Public Software CIC: https://publicsoftware.eu/
- Software Liberty Association Taiwan: https://slat.org/
- The Document Foundation: https://www.documentfoundation.org
- Wikimedia Deutschland: https://wikimedia.de
- Xnet: https://xnet-x.net/
1: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
2: https://publiccode.eu/#action
3: http://publiccode.eu/
4: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
5: https://publiccode.eu/#action
6: http://download.fsfe.org/videos/pmpc/
7: https://vimeo.com/232524527
8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuVUzg6x2yo
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org
= Digital-O-Mat: Compare your views on Internet policies with the parties for
the German federal election 2017 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170829-01.en.html ]
Although digital issues are becoming increasingly important, general
election coverage often miss them out. That is why the "Koalition Freies
Wissen" ("Free Knowledge Coalition") created the "Digital-O-Mat", an
online tool for voter information for the German federal election of
2017. The FSFE asked the participating parties about their positions on
Free Software. CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP avoid clear statements and thus
confirm the status quo, the Greens and the Left in contrast present
themselves as supporters of Free Software.
=== What is the Digital-O-Mat? ===
The Digital-O-Mat [1] highlights the parties' positions on Internet
policy relevant topics and helps voters to find their matching party for
the election to the German parliament. Its design resembles the well-
known Wahl-O-Mat, a popular online voter information tool by the German
Federal Agency for Civic Education . Users of the Digital-O-Mat are able
to answer twelve questions and then compare their position to the
participating parties. The topics of Digital-O-Mat include transparency,
surveillance, digital civil rights and, of course, Free Software. We
asked AfD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, CDU/CSU, FDP, Die Linke and the SPD.
We received replies from everyone except AfD. Digital-O-Mat is Free
Software [2] and had its debut in 2017 for the state parliament
elections in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) [3].
=== The parties' positions on Free Software ===
For Digital-O-Mat, the Free Software Floundation Europe asked the
participating parties the following questions:
- If software is financed or co-financed by the public sector, should
there be no regulation regarding its licensing, e.g. a Free Software
licence?
- Should public administrations gradually migrate their IT systems to
Free and Open Source software?
CDU/CSU (conservatives) and FDP (liberals) marked their position as
"neutral" and answered in a very similar fashion. Unfortunately, these
parties avoid making a clear stance and ultimately confirm the status
quo. On one hand, they do consider the use of Free Software, on the
other hand, so they say, there are multiple other aspects to consider
weigh in. However, they list functionality and usability for example,
even though they have no relation to the licence in use. When asked
about the migration of existing IT systems, CDU/CSU prefer decision
making on a case-by-case basis, while FDP dodged our question.
Although the SPD (labour) also marked their answer as "neutral", they
support the deployment and development of Free Software in public
administrations and educational institutions, "to foster the creation of
innovative businesses in the local market". Die Linke (lefts) and
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (greens) position themselves as supporters of
deployment and public funding of Free Software. The greens consider Free
Software to be a "cornerstone for secure and future-proof IT systems",
and the lefts also fully support it, as long as there are no concerns
regarding security or operation.
=== About the "Koalition Freies Wissen" ===
The Koalition Freies Wissen ("Free Knowledge Coalition") is an
association of multiple civic organisations, namely Bündnis Freie
Bildung [4], Chaos Computer Club e.V. [5], Digitale Gesellschaft e.V.
[6], Freifunk [7], Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland e.V. [8],
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. [9] and the Free Software Foundation Europe.
The common goal of the Koalition Freies Wissen is to disseminate
knowledge about digital and Internet policy issues as well as to
highlight and establish digital civil rights in society and politics.
The coalition has sent questions to the participating parties in
previous state parliament elections this year and has now created the
Digital-O-Mat for the German federal elections 2017.
== Related content: https://digital-o-mat.de/ ==
1: http://bund.digital-o-mat.de/
2: https://github.com/dsstio/digital-o-mat
3: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170419-01
4: http://buendnis-freie-bildung.de/
5: http://buendnis-freie-bildung.de/
6: https://digitalegesellschaft.de/
7: https://freifunk.net/
8: https://okfn.de/
9: https://www.wikimedia.de/wiki/Hauptseite
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.
http://fsfe.org