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@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@office.fsfeurope.org Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org) Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 4004 Mobile: +49-179-6919565

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