= A restriction on technological restrictions =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150506-01.en.html ]
== The right to install other software on your computing devices ==
Safecast is a global project to map radiation data from around the world
and release this information openly. When the project just started out,
they used modified hardware, together with their own custom software and
a few clever tweaks, to allow anyone to participate in the project. This
kind of ingenuity, the ability to re-purpose or adapt existing
technology by replacing or supplementing its software, should be
permitted and encouraged by the law. In the example of Safecast,
fortunately nobody prevented them from being innovative.
But all of us depend on the possibility to install or replace programs
that we use every day, to increase our security, privacy or convenience
-- or just because we happen to like using a different program on our
laptop, tablet, phone, router, television, car, or on other devices.
Today, on the International Day Against DRM, the undersigned
organisations are calling on lawmakers to safeguard the right to tinker
for everyone. To make sure that the owner of every device is allowed to
replace or supplement the software in that device if they so choose,
thereby empowering owners to control their own property. Many
manufacturers today add technological restrictions that prevent device
owners from changing their devices, or having someone do so for them.
This can be in breach of the licences on the devices (as with Free
Software/Open Source Software licences, which grant the rights to use,
study, share, and improve the software for any purpose). It is clear
that any right to tinker must also be coupled with a legal provision
that prevents technological restrictions of the same right.
To successfully guarantee that device owners are in control of their own
technology, the following organisations ask that the right to tinker be
guaranteed for everyone, and that technological restrictions that
interfere with this right be limited by law.
- L'Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de logiciels libres (AFUL) <https://www.aful.org>
- Chaos Computer Club <https://www.ccc.de>
- Deutscher Konsumentenbund <https://www.konsumentenbund.de>
- Digitalcourage <https://digitalcourage.de>
- Digitale Gesellschaft <https://digitalegesellschaft.de>
- European Digital Rights <https://edri.org>
- Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
- KDE e.V. <https://ev.kde.org>
- Associazione LibreItalia ONLUS <https://www.libreitalia.it>
- Open Rights Group <https://www.openrightsgroup.org>
- Open Source Business Alliance <https://www.osb-alliance.de>
- Open Source Initiative <https://opensource.org>
- The Document Foundation <https://www.documentfoundation.org>
- UFC-Que Choisir <https://www.quechoisir.org>
- VideoLAN <https://www.videolan.org>
- Vrijschrift <https://www.vrijschrift.org>
== Press contact ==
Matthias Kirschner <press(a)fsfeurope.org>
Vice President, Free Software Foundation Europe
Schönhauser Allee 6/7, Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49-1577-1780003
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, 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.
http://fsfe.org/