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Microsoft ignores German Federal IT security finding, exposing consumer to "high" risk in windows 7
by Bernhard Reiter 23 Oct '09

23 Oct '09

Germany's Federal Officie for Information Security (BSI) found a "high" risk vulnerability, unfixed in Windows 7 and issued a short advisory on the 6th of October. Microsoft seems to ignore them. The FSFE press release from monday [1] included a English translation of the relevant BSI short advisory - which has not been updated up to now. This way we have enabled our English speaking community to inform customers that the box of Windows 7 they are going to buy these days, has a problem if they want to use the SMB2 to share files or printers over the network. And that Microsoft just keeps silent on this "high" risk issue from an official German Federal CERT team. This SMB2 vulnerability has yet not been reported about in English before. To my best knowledge FSFE provided the first public translation. (Do not mix this up with other SMB2 vulnerabilities, which there were a few lately.) As BSI is known to contact the vendors early, we can savely assume that Microsoft has all infos to reproduce the problem, quite likely even before the 6th of October. So why would Microsoft be silent about it, as they are now? If this is a nothing, they could say so or they could warn all of their users right away if it turns out to an issue. Note that this is a Denial of Service vulnerability which of course we cannot fully reproduce and evaluate ourselfs. (A reason why FSFE asks the BSI in the press release to do full disclosure on this special occasion, given the track record of the vendor.) BSI has 5 security levels and "high" corresponds to the fourth, one lower than "very high". So this is not the worst security problem in the world - I still find it notable how it is treated in light of the starting sale. And yes, security problems exist with all software and vendors, including GNU/Linux distributions and other Free Software. Also everybody has the update problem and responsible system administration remains the most important factor. But does this make it okay to deliverately ship a broken product without warning? Even if this is just broken in one out of several functions and there are a duct tape methods to fix it? Again this shows the underlying structural issue known to Free Software people for a long time: Without the freedom to anyone except the vendor to fix the issue? Why should this be of concern to a Free Software person like me? Beside the point that we are all network neighbours - many computer users just shrugg and accept a bad job by vendors or bad quality in software. Alternatives to the main proprietary vendor are often too less known. If we want more people to try Free Software and change the overall situation in the long run, we need to change this mindset and point out if something goes seriously wrong. Even if Free Software cannot make it magically right. It is a long term concern to fund the right structures which are good for vendors that treat users fairly. Best Regards, Bernhard [1] http://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091019-01.en.html -- FSFE -- Deputy Coordinator Germany (fsfeurope.org) Your donation makes our work possible: www.fsfeurope.org/help/donate.en.html

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"My University offers me my Microsoft Windows license" Worldwide Campaign
by Matthias-Christian Ott 20 Oct '09

20 Oct '09

Dear Sir or Madam, on your website you claim that you are the "French speaking Libre Software Users' Association" and therefore, support the usage and adoption of Free Software. Today I received an identi.ca notice with a link to your "My University offers me my Microsoft Windows ® license" Worldwide Campaign [1]. On the campaign's website you encourage students to download Microsoft Windows through MSDNAA and to return the OEM versions of Microsoft Windows which the students own. You claim that this will send "send a strong signal to computer manufacturers" and also suggest to install GNU/Linux on the same computer. Returning OEM versions of Microsoft Windows may convince hardware manufacturers to offer computers without Microsoft Windows, but encouraging students in the same breath to install a gratis copy of the same proprietary operating system won't support Free Software at all. Following Richard Stallman tabaco analogy [2], this means that you ask students to return their tabaco to the shop in order to force the shop to not offering tabaco and on the other to get free tabaco samples from the tabaco company. This will of course not solve the problems of smoking. I think the title of your organisation is dishonest, because you violate your own statutes. I suggest to either change your title and statutes or to stop your campaign and to apologise to your members. If you really want to convince hardware manufacturers to offer computers without an operating system or with a pre-installed free operating system, I suggest to support the Windows Tax Refund initiative [3] of the Free Software Foundation Europe. Sincerely, Matthias-Christian Ott [1] http://www.racketware.info/msdnaa/call-on-students [2] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html [3] https://wiki.fsfe.org/WindowsTaxRefund

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FSFE Newsletter
by Free Software Foundation Europe 12 Oct '09

12 Oct '09

Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) Newsletter - September 2009 The Software Freedom Day is one of the main events in the Free Software community in September, and it is an event we never miss: this year FSFE celebrated in Leipzig, Vienna and Hamburg with the help of our Fellows. Thanks to them, the campaign "Ask your candidate about Free Software!" for the German elections became a great success. FSFE's president commented on the possible settlement in the Microsoft "browser case"; we started using Identi.ca as a micro-blogging platform and we also took on board two new interns. Read on to get to know them! Giacomo Poderi 1. FSFE to EC: Don't waste an opportunity with a hasty deal 2. The Fellowship interviews: Andreas Tolf Tolfsen 3. The Second Fellowship Jabber meeting, 22 September 4. Celebrating the Software Freedom Day, 19 September 5. FSFE uses Free Software micro-blogging on Identi.ca 6. Welcome to Hugo Roy and Lena Simon: new Berlin interns IN THE SPOTLIGHT 7. Free Software hits German election campaigns IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST 8. European Union versus Microsoft: A victory for Free Software UPCOMING EVENTS 9. Commercial packages: a new way to support FSFE 1. FSFE to EC: Don't waste an opportunity with a hasty deal Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's president, commented on recent news that European Commissioner for Antitrust Neelie Kroes, is working to close all the major cases on her desk before the end of her mandate in November. Two of these cases concern Microsoft's anti-competitive behaviour in the browser market, and the company's practice of preventing others from interoperating with many of its desktop applications. Karsten's article highlights why Microsoft's offer for a settlement is too weak, lists what Free Software needs from any settlement, and asks Commissioner Kroes not to waste the opportunity to establish real competition in the European IT market with a hasty deal. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=263 2. The Fellowship interviews: Andreas Tolf Tolfsen Andreas Tolf Tolfsen is the Fellow interviewed by Stian Rødven Eide this September. Andreas is a web technologist, developer and aspiring musicologist. He works at Opera Software, and regularly fights for digital freedoms. In the interview, Andreas tells us a lot about HTML5, Electronic Frontier Norway and music. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/andreas-tolf-tolfsen/ 3. The Second Fellowship Jabber meeting, 22 September On the 22 September, from 19:00 until 20:30 we held a new jabber meeting, to repeat the positive experience of the one organised during the Fellowship election. Many Fellows showed up in our virtual room: conference.jabber.fsfe.org, and asked questions to Matthias Kirschner, Fellowship coordinator, and Torsten Grote, Fellowship representative at the GA. The main topics of the meeting were the role of the FSFE's GA and the procedure to take part in it. Free Software in Education was also discussed as an interesting topic for the next Fellowship Jabber meeting. More information about the next meeting will be published soon! 4. Celebrating the Software Freedom Day, 19 September For five years, the Software Freedom Day (SFD) has been the perfect chance for 'hacktivists' to gather together in different place around the world to celebrate Free Software and its principles. More than 500 teams worldwide registered for the event and celebrated on Saturday 19 September SFD 2009. FSFE's local Fellowship groups participated in the events in Vienna and Leipzig, and we manned a booth at the SFD in Hamburg. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=354 http://blogs.fsfe.org/gollo/2009/09/23/software-freedom-party-in-vienna/ http://softwarefreedomday.org/ 5. FSFE uses Free Software micro-blogging on Identi.ca Many key people in our organisation have started using the Free Software micro-blogging service Identi.ca to share status updates and interesting links. On Identi.ca it exists now a group "fsfe" which is possible to subscribe to if you would like to stay informed on our activities. We also started adopting some common tags such as #fellowship, #pdfreaders and #dfd which we encourage you to use. Read Matthias Kirschner's blog post to know more about it: http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=327 http://identi.ca/group/fsfe 6. Welcome to Hugo Roy and Lena Simon: new Berlin interns Starting from the 1 September, FSFE took on board two new, young and motivated interns: Hugo Roy and Lena Simon. Hugo is from France and will work with us until May 2010, focusing on policy and legal aspects. Lena is from Germany, and will stay with us for one month to help in the setting of the new Berlin office. She also provided valuable help during the campain "Ask your candidate about Free Software!". We are happy to have them with us and we are sure they will add value to our work. Welcome Hugo and Lena! http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/ http://blogs.fsfe.org/lsimon/ IN THE SPOTLIGHT 7. Free Software hits German election campaigns Ahead of the German elections 2009, FSFE's German chapter with the help of many Fellows and volunteers brought the issue of Free Software in the political debate. The campaign "Ask your candidate about Free Software!" questioned politicians of different parties about their visions on Free Software principles, Open Standards and their diffusion. Matthias Kirschner said: "We want politicians to get in contact with these topics, and to motivate people from the Free Software community to start a dialogue with their politicians." During the political campaign, the questions prepared by the Fellows and other volunteers were forwarded to representatives of various political parties. We collected their answers in the Fellowship wiki, ordered and summarised them. With the help and coordination of Matthias and Lena the project collected 26 answers (to 35 forwarded questions), and a lot of media coverage during and after the German elections. FSFE's associate organisation ANSOL ran a similar campaign in Portugal, where national elections took place at the same time. We exchanged links and looked to each other for inspiration. http://www.fsfe.org/projects/btw09/btw09.html Relevant Links: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090921-01.html http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090908-01.html http://wiki.fsfe.org/Bundestagswahl2009 http://ansol.org/politica/legislativas2009 IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST 8. European Union versus Microsoft: A victory for Free Software In September 2007, the European Union versus Microsoft antitrust case was finally closed. The European Court of First Instance found Microsoft guilty of deliberate obstruction of interoperability and upheld the obligation for Microsoft to share its protocol information. This information has now been published and is being used by the developers of Samba and many other projects. FSFE and the Samba team participated in the case as an interested third party. Our work was crucial in bringing about such a decisive victory. Today, the judgement in the case serves as a landmark for the fight against monopolies in the software market. http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q4/000187.html UPCOMING EVENTS 9. Commercial packages: a new way to support FSFE In order to make it easier for companies who care about Free Software to support our work, we have assembled a set of commercial service offerings services related to Free Software. They include services such as a Free Software Hotline, personalized workshops, bi-monthly update calls, annual networking dinners and more. More information about these packages will be published soon on our website. Keep an eye on: http://fsfe.org/news/ You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html You can join the Fellowship or find how to support us on http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join http://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html You can order our merchandise at http://fsfe.org/order/order.html Copyright 2009, Free Software Foundation Europe <pr(a)fsfeurope.org>. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

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press-release: Microsoft antitrust case: FSFE offers analysis to European Commission
by Thomas Jensch 06 Oct '09

06 Oct '09

Hi, FSFE has just published a press-release on the topic. You can read it here: http://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091006-01.en.html Additionally an announcement has been sent via identi.ca Please feel free to redent and forward that information to everyone. You might also want to vote for the story at fsdaily.com: http://www.fsdaily.com/Government/Microsoft_antitrust_case_FSFE_offers_anal… mfg Thomas Jensch, Intern - Zurich office -- http://fsfe.org | http://fellowship.fsfe.org Your donation powers our work! (http://fsfe.org/donate) Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered at the Registergericht Hamburg (VR 17030). Its president is Karsten Gerloff.

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books / papers on software exports/imports and bop
by Novica Nakov 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Hi, I was wondering if someone maybe knows if there are some published books or research papers on effect of software exports / imports on the balance of payments of countries, especially developing countries where free software is highly advocated. Thanks Novica

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Fellowship interview with Andreas Tolf Tolfsen
by Stian Rødven Eide 02 Oct '09

02 Oct '09

Hi all, The latest instalment of our Fellowship interview series has now been published: http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/andreas-tolf-tolfsen/ Please forward where appropriate and vote for the story at http://www.fsdaily.com/Community/FSFE_Fellowship_Interview_with_Andreas_Tol… all the best, /Stian

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New Project Page - “Ask your candidates” / Now I ask you
by Matthias Kirschner 30 Sep '09

30 Sep '09

Hi all, I just added the following information to FSFE’s project page for the German federal election [1]: Because of the German federal elections in 2009, FSFE called on all German Free Software supporters to ask the parties’ candidates about their positions on Free Software and Open Standards. FSFE set up a page about the German Bundestagswahl [2] to help asking questions, and to collecting answers. During the campaign politicians from many parties have recognised the potential of Free Software [3] and Open Standards [4] for Germany. In response to questions from supporters of FSFE, they explained that Free Software equals more competition, promotes innovation and provides cost savings. FSFE collected the candidates’ answers [5] and wrote an overview of the parties’ programmes [6] where they concern Free Software (in German). Our Fellows, volunteers [7] and the German team asked 35 questions and got 26 replies. FSFE’s publications - 2009-09-08: Press release “German Election: Ask your candidate about Free Software!” [8] - 2009-09-10: Matthias Kirschner’s question to Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD and Germany’s Vice-Chancellor) [9] (in German) - 2009-09-15: Torsten Grote’s question to Martina Krogmann (CDU) [10] (in German) [Got a reply] - 2009-09-16: Matthias Kirschner’s question to Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU and Germany’s Minister of the interior) [11] (in German). [Got a reply] - 2009-09-17: Thomas Jensch’s question to Guido Westerwelle (FDP) [12] (in German). - 2009-09-21: Press release “Free Software hits German election campaigns” [13] = Selected media coverage = - 2009-09-09: Gulli: “Kandidaten nach Freier Software löchern!" [14] - 2009-09-09: Netzpolitik: “Wahl09: Fragt die Kandidaten nach Freier Software!” [15] - 2009-09-10: Heise: “Free Software Foundation Europe startet Aktion zur Bundestagswahl” [16] - 2009-09-10: Pressetext: “Freie Software als Wahlkampfthema” [17] - 2009-09-10: Pro-linux: “FSFE startet Kandidaten-Befragung zur Bundestagswahl” [18] - 2009-09-14: Computerwoche: FSFE startet Kandidaten-Befragung Freie Software als Wahlkampfthema [19] - 2009-09-21: Heise: “Freie Software: Die Positionen der Politiker” [20] - 2009-09-21: Pro-Linux: “FSFE stellt Politiker-Antworten zu freier Software vor”. [21] - 2009-09-22: OSOR: “DE: Interior minister: ‘Open source reduces vendor lock-in and monopolies’” [22] (in English). - 2009-09-22: Pressetext: “Politiker zeigen Interesse an freier Software — FSFE bemängelt fehlendes Gesamtkonzept deutscher Parteien” [23]. - 2009-09-25: Heise: “Mit dem “Steini-Girl” und “3 Tage wach” in den Wahlkampfendspurt” [24] = You liked that? = Please support us preparing and implementing such activites in future. Here are some suggestions: - Help us translating our information into your mother tongue [25], so more people can read about Free Software and our activties. - Support us with a donation [26] or ask your employer to donate us. That is crucial to secure our financial independence. - Join FSFE’s Fellowship [27] to meet other likeminded people, participate in our activities and secure our financial independence plus our political weight. - Promote our newsletter [28] so more people read about Free Software issues. You can do this with our _new newsletter banners and buttons_ [29]. - Buy a t-shirt [30] and spread our message, plus support us financially. Best wishes, Matthias 1. http://www.fsfe.org/projects/btw09/btw09.en.html 2. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Bundestagswahl2009 3. http://blogs.fsfe.org/documents/freesoftware.html 4. http://blogs.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html 5. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Bundestagswahl2009#SchongestellteFragenunderhalteneAnt… 6. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Bundestagswahl2009#DiePositionenderParteieninihrenProg… 7. http://blogs.fsfe.org/contribute/ 8. http://blogs.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090908-01.html 9. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=333 10. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=343 11. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=349 12. http://blogs.fsfe.org/riepernet/?p=90 13. http://blogs.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090921-01.html 14. http://www.gulli.com/news/bundestagswahl-kandidaten-nach-2009-09-09/ 15. http://www.netzpolitik.org/2009/wahl09-fragt-die-kandidaten-nach-freier-sof… 16. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Free-Software-Foundation-Europe-startet-Akti… 17. http://pressetext.at/news/090910009/freie-software-als-wahlkampfthema/ 18. http://www.pro-linux.de/cgi-bin/NB2/nb2.cgi?show.14679.3010 19. http://www.computerwoche.de/software/software-infrastruktur/1905401/ 20. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Freie-Software-Die-Positionen-der-Politiker-… 21. http://www.pro-linux.de/news/2009/14722.html 22. http://www.osor.eu/news/de-interior-minister-open-source-reduces-vendor-loc… 23. http://pressetext.de/news/090922025/politiker-zeigen-interesse-an-freier-so… 24. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Mit-dem-Steini-Girl-und-3-Tage-wach-in-den-W… 25. http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.en.html 26. http://www.fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html 27. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join 28. http://www.fsfe.org/news/newsletter.en.html 29. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Artwork/Banners#Newsletterbannersandbuttons 30. http://www.fsfe.org/order/order.en.html -- German Coordinator, Fellowship Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) [] (http://fsfe.org) Join the Fellowship of FSFE! [][][] (http://fsfe.org/join) Your donation powers our work! || (http://fsfe.org/donate)

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petition on net neutrality
by Geza Giedke 23 Sep '09

23 Sep '09

Hello, please consider the petition http://www.euopeninternet.eu/ which requests to fix general principles of net neutrality in European and national law. The petition is timely in view of the imminent telecom package reading in the European Parliament http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Telecoms_Package (negotiations between parliament and commission are planned for next week according to heise.de http://www.heise.de/newsticker/EU-Petition-setzt-sich-fuer-ein-offenes-Inte… and the net neutrality discussion in the US http://www.openinternet.gov/read-speech.html regards Geza

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Survey on Openness
by Igor Zubiaurre 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

http://www.werebuild.eu/wiki/index.php/Survey_to_NGOs I think FSFE should participate (if not yet) on this (?).

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Re: Discussion Digest, Vol 81, Issue 3
by Igor Zubiaurre 14 Sep '09

14 Sep '09

> > ---------- Mensaje reenviado ---------- > From: Matthias Kirschner <mk(a)fsfe.org> > To: discussion(a)fsfeurope.org > Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:21:30 +0200 > Subject: Re: Survey on Openness > * Igor Zubiaurre <fioddor(a)gmail.com> [2009-09-11 12:46:34 +0200]: > > > http://www.werebuild.eu/wiki/index.php/Survey_to_NGOs > > > > I think FSFE should participate (if not yet) on this (?). > > We have not been addressed with that. > And what is the purpose of this survey? > I'm nobody to speak for them, but from the information posted in their wiki I guess that "The results will be forwarded directly to the Department of Energy and Infrastructure in Sweden" in an aim to influence "EU-presidency during the second half of 2009" in search of "access to a free internet without intrusive surveillance".

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