[FSFE PR][EN] FSFE Newsletter: November

[Free Software Foundation Europe]

I'm happy to begin my first newsletter with a call for financial
support.  To stay financially independent, FSFE relies on the Free
Software community.  We have the pure goal of protecting users' rights
and spreading software freedom, and this is enabled by a large number
of people making small and medium sized donations.  Like you.

To protect everyone's freedom to write software, and to spread
software freedom, please help us encouage people to join the
Fellowship (http://fellowship.fsfe.org/), or to make a donation and
get listed on our Thank GNUs page.

				Ciaran O'Riordan, FSFE Brussels Office


1. Analysis of Patents in Standardisation
2. FSFE thanks Jonas Oberg for years of work as Vice President
3. FTF talks strategy with the European embedded Linux industry
4. Get your 'Windows Tax' rebate!
5. Project spotlight: UN & WIPO lobbying
6. This time in 2007
7. Upcoming events


1. Analysis of Patents in Standardisation

Following up on the November "IPR in ICT Standardisation" Workshop in
Brussels, FSFE president Georg C. F. Greve analysed the conflicts between
patents and standards.  The result is a paper about the most harmful
effects of patents on standards, the effectiveness of current
remedies, and potential future remedies.

http://fsfeurope.org/projects/os/ps


2. FSFE thanks Jonas Oberg for years of work as Vice President

FSFE's General Assembly would like to thank Jonas Öberg for his years
of service as Vice President of FSFE.  His hard work has ensured the
functioning of internal structures such as financial and policy
setting.  As vice-president, Jonas was a driving force in two
restructurings of the organisation and his efforts will be visible in
FSFE for years to come.

Taking over as interim Vice President until the next General Assembly
meeting, FSFE would like to welcome aboard Pablo Machon.


3. FTF talks strategy with the European embedded Linux industry

Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, delivered a talk
 entitled 'The strategic implementation of Free Software in business' 
at the CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2008 on Friday 7th 
November in Ede, Netherlands.

Shane discusssed how successful implementation of a Free Software 
business strategy is assisted by the kind of generic market knowledge 
which members of the FTF's European Legal Network have been working to 
develop over the past several months.

FSFE was also present at the NLUUG conference which took place the 
previous day, to spread the word and connect with local FSFE Fellows.


4. Get your 'Windows Tax' rebate!

Members of FSFE's German chapter are in the process of collecting 
information about how to reclaim the cost of Microsoft Windows licensing 
fees from computer hardware manufacturers.

The Fellows are collaborating in a public wiki page, and we would like to 
invite contributions. Showing which firms have fair policies on this
 issue is a great way of making it easy for consumers to incorporate 
this into their buying decisions, and thus influence corporate policies.

If you have been able to gain a refund from a manufacturer, please share 
your knowledge.

	http://wiki.fsfe.org/Windows-Tax_Refund


5. Project spotlight: UN & WIPO lobbying

Our work within international treaty processes is some of our most
important, but also some of our least visible. The meetings
themselves are rarely discussed in the media, and most of the work
happens in many private discussions beforehand. You don't get in by
just knocking on the door, and you don't change policy by just
collecting business cards and emailing your suggestions around.

This work is vital because these international agreements trump the
European Parliament and our national governments.  If an agreement is
made at the international level, then the European Parliament has to
obey it, and so do our national governments.  Another reason for us
doing this work is that we happen to have a President who has a talent
for this, Georg Greve.

Some information about this work is available on our website:

http://fsfeurope.org/projects/igf/igf.en.html
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/wipo.en.html
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/wsis/wsis.en.html


6. This time in 2007: 

This time last year, FSFE was involved in the United Nations Internet 
Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, delivering training courses 
in Nijmegen, and holding FTF events in Linz, Lausanne, Nijmegen and 
Düsseldorf - among many other activities.

Amazing progress has been made in the last year. FSFE's influence in 
international institutions has grown, and the FTF continues to build 
legal infrastructure for Free Software through its training, 
documentation and outreach activities. If you'd like to know more about 
what was going on in November last year, please see the newsletter 
archives:

http://mailman.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q4/000190.html


7. Upcoming events

An up-to-date list of our upcoming events can be found at:
http://fsfeurope.org/events/events.en.html

When this newsletter was being written, we had the following upcoming list:
2008-12-18: Fellowship Christmas get-together in Gothenburg, Sweden
2008-12-19: Zurich, 'Licensing questions and other legal issues' workshop
2008-12-19: Monthly Fellowship meeting in Vienna, Austria

You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html

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