[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130927-01.en.html ]
It was 30 years ago that Richard Stallman announced the GNU project[1].
An initiative that started with a programmer's frustration over a broken
printer driver has changed our society. The idea of software that
everyone can use, study, share and improve has proven very powerful
indeed.
"Without the GNU project and the Free Software movement that it
inspired, our everyday lives - and the Internet - would be a very
different place right now," says Karsten Gerloff, President of the
Free Software Foundation Europe.
Free Software[2] puts the control of electronic devices where it
belongs: with the people who own them. Today, Free Software is
everywhere. It powers the Internet, our mobile phones, televisions,
cars, routers, and electronic devices of all sorts. Free Software has
fundamentally changed the way people create software: instead of
preventing people to adapt the software to their own needs, they invite
people to participate in the development.
"The GNU project has acted as the starting point of a movement that
makes sure we can control technology, and not technology controlling
us," says Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's head of Public Awareness.
The influence of the GNU project's approach to sharing knowledge goes
far beyond the GNU/Linux operating system, and extends beyond computer
programs. With the power of shared knowledge, Wikipedia has fast risen
to become the world's mainstream encyclopedia. Creative Commons licenses
let artists, musicians and authors use their work in ways ideally suited
to the digital age. Scientists and engineers rely on Free Software tools
to cure diseases and make everyone's life better. A generation of young
people is now coming of age for whom sharing knowledge is simply the
natural thing to do.
"We are grateful to Richard Stallman for sparking this epochal change,
and to everyone who has worked so hard to drive Free Software's
progress for three decades," says Gerloff. "Join our movement, support
our work[3], and help us met the challenges ahead."
1. http://gnu.org
2. http://fsfe.org/about/basics/freesoftware.en.html
3. http://fsfe.org/fellowship/join.en.html
== 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/
= FSFE Newsletter - August 2013 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201308.html ]
== Proprietary companies ask European Commission to restrict business
models ==
Because Android is Free Software and gratis, the non-free software
competition cannot compete with it, therefore the market has less
alternatives, thus the consumer suffers from this lack of competition.
In a nutshell that is the argumentation of the so-called "Fair Search"
coalition. Essentially they are asking the European Commission to favour
a restrictive business model over a liberal one, which is exactly the
opposite of what competition regulators should do in order to achieve a
fair market.
Asking the European Commission to cripple Free Software in order to
allow proprietary vendors to sell their locked-down systems is absurd.
Therefore the FSFE has written a letter to the European Commission's
competition authorities to refute the claims[1], and make it clear that
Free Software is critical for a competitive IT market. In our letter we
ask the European Commission to dismiss the "FairSearch" coalition's
unfounded claims regarding predatory pricing, and not make them part of
whatever steps it decides to take. For further information: our legal
council Carlo Piana wrote a background article about this case[2].
== Election software: source code available but not Free Software ==
Estonia has used Internet voting for general elections since 2005. Local
activists have recently managed to convince Estonia's National Electoral
Committee (NEC) to release source code for some of the software under a
non-free licence, but this licence does not permit distribution of
derivative works or commercial use and therefore is non-free. Besides
"[i]mportant system components remain completely unknown to the general
public. One of those components is the client side voting application
that must be loaded and executed on the voter's computer," said Heiki
Ojasild, Fellowship representative in the FSFE's General Assembly in our
press release[3] accompanying our open letter to NEC regarding the
country's Internet voting system[4].
Similar in Norway: Paul Boddie reports about the Norwegian voting and
the illusion of "Open Source"[5], where the published software covers
only "testing, reviewing or evaluating the code", restricts commercial
purposes, and for a lot of things you need a "written approval" from the
vendors.
== NSA leaks motivates Free Software activists ==
For almost two decades the Free Software Foundations have been working
for a society where the power over technology is distributed. We work
for a world in which nobody can prevent others from learning how
computers work. A world in which programmers can work with each other
instead against each other. Nobody should be forced to use a certain
kind of software without being able to adjust it to her own needs
instead of adjusting herself to the software. Everybody should be able
to audit software, to understand what a program does exactly and what
happens to your data.
The Free Software movement wrote a lot of software which respects your
privacy, including encryption and anonymisation software. The FSFE
pushed for Open Standards to prevent monopolies by enabling different
software to work with each other. We promote decentralised systems, so
there is no single point in our infrastructure which has too much power
and which enables you to store the data in a trusted enviroment.
It seems the NSA leaks of the last weeks have strengthened the Free
Software community's will to continue fighting for our freedoms in a
digital society. More people are listening to Free Software programmers
and activists, more people demand Free Software solutions, more people
are using Free Software to protect their privacy, and more people
appreciate Free Software developer's work. E.g. Eva Galperin from EFF
said in her keynote at KDE's conference akademy[6]: "Help us Free
Software, you are our last and only hope". She asked Free Software
developers to build new products, and "save us"! And as you will see
below, the Free Software movement will continue to do so.
== Something completely different ==
- Privacy is a fundamental human right, and is central to maintaining
democratic societies. The FSFE joined more than 100 other
organisations in demanding that states respect human rights, and bring
their surveillance apparatus under democratic control.[7] More than
one year in the making, the demands are now more relevant than ever.
The FSFE also signed an Open Letter to stop surveillance[8], which
calls for twelve political steps including the development and
promotion of Free Software for digital self-defence.
- The FSFE commented on leaked documents[9] which show how Microsoft is
actively cooperating with the NSA.
- Together with the Open Rights Group we sent an open letter on
transparency to Martin Schulz, President of the European
Parliament[10]. Mr Schulz has recently been asked to produce a study
on transparency within the Parliament. In our letter we are offering
Mr Schulz our help in this effort and suggest several questions, e.g.
if the Parliament would be obliged to publish the source code of the
software it uses.
- News about Free Software in education are back: Guido Arnold
summarised what happened in the education sector[11] during April,
May, and June. He also summarised the relevant parts[12] of the UNESO
conference World Summit on an Information Society (WSIS+10).
- Ubuntu is aiming to raise $32 million in crowdfunding to produce
Ubuntu Edge, a mobile computer that can dual-boot between Android and
Ubuntu GNU/Linux. Our sister organisation[13] the FSF is asking the
crucial question: Will Ubuntu Edge commit to using only Free
Software?[14]. Paul Boddie, Fellow and maintainer of Fellowship
wiki[15], looked into the question if Ubuntu Edge is making things
even harder for open hardware?[16]
- Besides our sister organisation reports that the New Internationalist
adopted the DRM-free label[17] and over 50 others were added to the
DRM-free Guide.
- From the public administrations: Students and teachers at 160 high
schools in the Brussels Region have started to use Free Software[18]
like LibreOffice or Mozilla Thunderbird on PCs and tablets. Joinup
reports that France's ministry of Agriculture extensively uses Free
Software[19]: For instance in 2012 it spent 174,000 euro on support
for Free Software. Additionally news from France: Lucile wrote about
the Zombie Free Software provision[20] -- a Free Software law for
France's higher education -- and how to contact politicians.
- For those amongst you giving talks at conferences: LWN now offers a
handy calendar for call for papers[21].
- From the planet aggregation[22]:
- Former FSFE president Georg Greve wrote a tetralogy about the Post
PRISM society. He puts together what actually has been proven so
far[23], what that means for society[24], what the implications for
businesses around the world are[25], and takes a look at
governments[26]. He argues that any government should be able to
answer the following question: What is your policy on a sovereign
software supply and digital infrastructure? If that question cannot
be answered, he suggests it is time to get to work. And soon.
- FSFE's president Karsten Gerloff wrote about what you can do to
secure your communications[27], e.g. participating in politics,
- Werner Koch, author of GnuPG and FSFE GA member wrote about Gpg4win
and the feds[28], commenting on a CT article which mentions GnuPG
and claims that only a self compiled version is trustworthy.
- and Kevin Keijzer documented how he maintains his online
privacy[29].
- Anonymisation hobbyist Jens Lechtenboerger explains how he selects
Tor guard nodes under global surveillance[30], and also publishing
code how he analysed the situation.
- A proposal for a new encrypted mobile messaging app called Hemlis
received $125,000 in crowdfunding. It is good to see ambitious new
software projects get support from the community when they are Free
Software. Sam Tuke checks if this is really the case with
Hemlis[31].
- Viktor Horvath published the video from his talk at FOSDEM about
SlapOS[32] a decentralised Free Software plattform.
- Lucile wrote about several examples of interesting uses of
transparency policies[33], related to Free Software especially for
France.
- Should a person be bound by terms of use and contracts where that
person has been effectively coerced into accepting them? Other
questions about IT in universities are asked by Paul Boddie in
"Students: Beware of the Academic Cloud!"[34]
- News from Martin Gollowitzer's "Tracking for Freedom"[35] project:
he is now cycling with the pros.
- Mirko Böhm reports from his travel to Akademy and the Qt contributor
summit[36]. Together with Armijn Hemel he started a process to make
defensive publications a routine part of the Qt release process[37],
- and Free Software activities in Munich have intensified. Christof
Kalkhoff and the Munich group now bought a pavilion to be present at
more and more public events (German)[38].
== Get active: Help with Crypto parties! ==
Crypto parties are getting more popular. They also attract funding from
non-free software companies. One company offered money to crypto party
organisers if they also mention non-free software (German)[39]. Good
that a lot of FSFE's volunteers already support the organisers to help
people install encryption software, and educate participants about Free
Software.
In the Free Software community a lot of us understand how end-to-end
encryption works. At the moment a lot of people new to Free Software
want to use it themselves. If you have some time, either help some
friends, colleagues, or search for local crypto parties and show others
how to use GnuPG for e-mail encryption, OTR for encrypted chats, TOR to
anonymise your online behaviour or programs like Jitsi to have encrypted
audio and video communications.
Thanks to all the Fellows[40] and donors[41] who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130729-01.en.html
2. http://piana.eu/android
3. http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130730-01.en.html
4. http://fsfe.org/ee/i-voting/2013-07-26_Open_Letter_to_NEC.en.html
5. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=291
6. https://lwn.net/Articles/559124
7. https://necessaryandproportionate.org/
8. http://www.stopsurveillance.org/?page_id=20
9. http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130712-01.en.html
10. http://fsfe.org/activities/os/transparency-letter.en.html
11. https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2013/07/free-software-in-education-news-aprilm…
12. https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2013/06/1347/
13. http://fsfe.org/about/fsfnetwork.en.html
14. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/will-ubuntu-edge-commit-to-using-only-f…
15. http://wiki.fsfe.org
16. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=366
17. https://www.defectivebydesign.org/new-internationalist-drm-free-label-guide…
18. http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/open-source-tablets-and-pcs-…
19. http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/extensive-open-source-use-fr…
20. https://blogs.fsfe.org/lucile.falg/2013/06/28/zombie-free-software-provisio…
21. https://lwn.net/Calendar/Monthly/cfp/2013-08/
22. http://planet.fsfe.org
23. https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=553
24. https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=568
25. https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=573
26. https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=586
27. https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2013/07/01/some-things-you-can-do-to-secure-…
28. http://rem.eifzilla.de/archives/2013/07/16/gpg4win-and-the-feds
29. https://blogs.fsfe.org/the_unconventional/2013/06/29/more-work-to-maintain-…
30. https://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2013/07/19/how-i-select-tor-guar…
31. https://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=564
32. https://blogs.fsfe.org/viktor/archives/62
33. https://blogs.fsfe.org/lucile.falg/2013/07/19/clear-answers-demanded
34. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=197
35. https://blogs.fsfe.org/gollo/2013/07/06/tracking-for-freedom-cycling-with-t…
36. http://creative-destruction.me/2013/07/10/kde-akademy-and-qt-contributor-su…
37. http://creative-destruction.me/2013/07/16/qt-project-and-defensive-publicat…
38. http://www.softmetz.de/2013/07/16/bericht-vom-treffen-der-muenchner-fsfe-fe…
39. http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/hacker-lehnen-teletrustt-sponsor…
40. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
41. http://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
= FSFE objects to claims of 'predatory pricing' in Free Software =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130729-01.en.html ]
In a recent antitrust submission to the European Commission, a
Microsoft-led coalition falsely claimed that the distribution of Free
Software free of charge hurts competition. FSFE has written[1] a letter
to the European Commission's competition authorities to refute this
claim, and make it clear that Free Software is critical for an open,
competitive IT market.
In its letter, FSFE urges the Commission to consider the facts properly
before accepting these allegations at face value. "Free Software is a
boon for humankind. The only thing that it is dangerous to is
Microsoft's hopelessly outdated, restrictive business model," says
Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's president.
The so-called "FairSearch" coalition is essentially asking the European
Commission to favour a restrictive business model over a liberal one.
This is exactly the opposite of what competition regulators should do in
order to achieve a fair and open market.
"Free Software is not about price, it's about liberty, a guarantee of
competition and vendor independence. Asking to cripple Free Software in
order to allow proprietary vendors to sell their locked-down systems is
just abusurd" says Carlo Piana, FSFE's General Counsel. "The most
substantial threat to competition in the mobile space today are software
patents, and we have repeatedly urged antitrust authorities to address
this problem," he adds.
FSFE asks the European Commission to dismiss the "FairSearch"
coalition's unfounded claims regarding predatory pricing, and not make
them part of whatever steps it decides to take in response to the
group's filing.
1. http://fsfe.org/activities/policy/eu/20130729.EC.Fairsearch.letter.en.html
== 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/
= FSFE Newsletter - May 2013 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201305.en.html ]
Note: As Matthias Kirschner is on vacation, this edition of the monthly
Newsletter is written by Erik Albers. Enjoy!
== Document Freedom Day 2013 ==
Every year on the last wednesday of March, Document Freedom Day
(DFD)[1]takes place: the global day to raise awareness of Open
Standards, organised by the FSFE. It has been amazing to see year by
year how the message of freedom and Open Standards has continued to
spread around the world. This year, there were 59 events in 30
countries, and many first time participants, including Niger, Indonesia
and the United States.
1. http://www.documentfreedom.org/
Highlights from Document Freedom Day include more than a hundred press
articles[2]and blogs, Libre Office's publication of a new migration
guide[3], support from Lawrence Lessig[4], and a storm of social media
coverage and opening up discussions.
2. http://www.documentfreedom.org/press.en.html
3.
http://documentfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/tdf-migrationwhitepap…
4. http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2013/news-20130315-01.en.html
But let's not forget: all these events were organised by local groups.
Among them were many FSFE Fellowship groups[5], a wide variety of other
Free Software community organisations, and teams of friends who care
about Open Standards. So, this is a big thank you to everybody who made
this year's DFD so successful! It is awesome to see how Free Software
and Open Standards connect people around the world. Read the extended
report online[6].
5. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipGroup?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
6. http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2013/news-20130419-01.en.html
== Free Software LegalLicensing Workshop ==
In early April, we held our annual Free Software LegalLicensing Workshop
in Amsterdam. More than 70 Free Software legal experts from the Legal
Network[7]came together for two days in order to share their knowledge
and discuss cutting-edge questions in the field.
7.
https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/network.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_…
Topics discussed this year included recent court rulings, patent-related
developments, and transferring Free Software licensing ideas to
hardware. Stefano Zacchiroli, Debian's (now former) project leader,
delivered a keynote speech, describing the community perspective on
legal issues[8].
8. https://lwn.net/Articles/546411/
Several talks at the conference were covered by LWN, for example those
by Eben Moglen[9], Daniel German[10]and Anthonia Ghalamkarizadeh[11].
9. https://lwn.net/Articles/547379/
10. https://lwn.net/Articles/547400/
11. https://lwn.net/Articles/546678/
== FSFE welcomes Ceata as associate organisation ==
A new foundation from Romania and Moldova has joined FSFE's program of
associate organisations[12]. Ceata[13]has been promoting Free Software
and culture since 2008, and in February this year was officially
incorporated. The group, based in Bucharest with local chapters in Cluj
and Chișinău, organises conferences on Free Software, Free hardware,
and Free culture. Ceata also develops their own applications, translates
programs into Romanian, and participates in international campaigns.
Fundația Ceata and FSFE will now join forces[14]and work more
effectively on promoting software freedom in Romania and throughout
Europe.
12.
https://fsfe.org/associates/associates.en.html#id-funda%C8%9Bia-ceata?pk_ca…
13. http://ceata.org/
14.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130424-01.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter…
== Something completely different ==
- The German Parliament (the 'Bundestag') has voted on a joint motion
against software patents[15]. The resolution urges the German
government to take steps to limit the granting of patents on computer
programs. The Parliament's resolution reminds the government that,
under the EU's Computer Programs Directive, software is covered by
copyright, not patents. It calls on the government to finally put the
directive's "copyright approach" into practice, and make German law
more concrete in this regard. It also points out that the restrictions
which patents impose are incompatible with the most widely used Free
Software licenses.
- The winner of the election for FSFE's Fellowship GA[16]is Heiki
"Repentinus" Ojasild[17]. The election period for this year's
Fellowship GA seat ended on March 15, and proved exciting to the end.
Thanks to all Fellows who participated in the process and made this a
valuable experience for the Fellowship and for FSFE.
- Please welcome the latest Fellowship group, from Bari, South
Italy[18]! The way the group was formed was unprecedented in FSFE
history: As a former GNU/Linux user group, 15 people joined FSFE
simultaneously to create a new Fellowship group. According to the
members, they took this step in order to be more active on a political
level in future.
- The chancellor of the "Freie Universität Berlin" has asked all staff
to use exclusively 'Apple iTunes U' for the publication of University
materials, such as recordings of lectures. To access University
resources therefore, students now have to use Apple iTunes, which
excludes users of Free Software operating systems, and includes a
variety of anti-consumer measures to lock them in to the service. FSFE
has written to the chancellor explaining why University resources
should be available without software barriers (German)[19].
- As part of the Ask Your Candidates campaign[20], FSFE has sent out
'voting benchmarks' ("Wahlprüfsteine") for all three elections in
Germany, that will be in autumn this year. The aim is to obtain public
statements on Free Software policies and committments from parties
which are hoping to be elected. Some responses have already been
received and will be published soon.
- FSFE participated in the Chemnitzer Linuxtage conference[21]this
month. The FSFE booth received lots of attention, and many people
approached the team to ask about campaigns. Free Your Android proved
to be a hot topic, generating many questions and ideas. Reinhard
Müller, FSFE's Financial Officer, gave a talk entitled "Free
yourself: how to save the world in five easy steps", and Erik Albers,
Fellowship Deputy Coordinator, gave a presentation on Free Your
Android. Erik was in Freeing frenzy this month, and delivered the same
talk at Cebit in Hannover[22], Germany. The conference organisers
filmed and hosted a video of the talk[23], but unfortunately only in
Adobe Flash.
- From the planet aggregation[24]:
- Hugo explains why the HTML5[25] video[26] tag has been a
failure[27]and still is. He argues that we need to weigh in to the
political process which is shaping HTML5, and to fight the surrounding
Fear Uncertainty and Doubt[28]to keep the Internet a place where
everyone is free to express themselves - without having to ask for
permission or signing a restricted-patent-license.
- Mia Julia Eley encourages women that are interested in technology and
engineering[29]to apply for GNOME's Outreach Program for Women[30].
"Plenty of women out there have skills that could benefit the Free
Software movement and the barrier to entry should be clearly
understood" she states.
- Torsten Grote reports about the latest changes in CyanogenMod's
[http://www.cyanogenmod.org/] privacy policy. Before, they were
collecting anonymised data for statistical purposes including the
option for everyone to opt-out. Suddenly, this opt-out feature was
removed and a tracking feature was added that sends the collected data
to Google Analytics, too. After some days, the first decision was
reversed, that means you have the option to opt-out again. But, still,
if you agree that your data will be sent to CM, it will also be sent
to Google Analytics. Read all details on Torsten's Blog[31].
- Paul Boddie reflects about "The Academic Challenge: Ideas, Patents,
Openness and Knowledge" and argues why Universities should insist on
freedom of knowledge instead of just defending openness of knowledge.
Read why there should be no commercialisation of academia and no
monopolization of ideas[32].
- Did you already set up your Fellowship card? If not, you might be
interested in a'How To' which was made by Jens Lechtenbörger[33]to
support the already existing Fellowship How[34]to.
- Beside this, Jens Lechtenbörger also explains why, for privacy
reasons, Ubuntu users should not update to Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04[35],
but instead stick with version 12.04 LTS.
- Finally, some fun: Henrik Sandklef shows how to use your calendar for
artistic purposes[36], in this case to illustrate the Fellowship
Plussy
15.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130422-01.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter…
16.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130319-01.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter…
17.
https://www.wiki.fsfe.org/Fellows/repentinus?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd…
18. https://www.wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Bari?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
19.
https://netzpolitik.org/2013/kein-open-education-aber-itunes-u-e-learning-s…
20.
https://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates?pk_campaign=…
21. http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2013/
22. http://www.cebit.com
23. http://www.techcast.com/events/cebit13/di-1600/?q=di-1600
24. http://planet.fsfe.org?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
25.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2013/04/a-small-lesson-about-patent-fud/?pk_camp…
26.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2013/04/a-small-lesson-about-patent-fud/?pk_camp…
27.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2013/04/a-small-lesson-about-patent-fud/?pk_camp…
28. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
29.
https://blogs.fsfe.org/mia/2013/04/10/programming-oportunities-for-women/?p…
30. https://live.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen
31.
https://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/2013/04/03/cyanogenmod-removes-trackin…
32. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=134&pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
33.
https://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2013/04/19/how-to-set-up-your-fe…
34.
https://wiki.fsfe.org/Card_howtos/Card_with_subkeys_using_backups?pk_campai…
35.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2013/04/19/ubuntu-search-still-br…
36. http://sandklef.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/fsfe-graphics-with-owncloud/
== Get active: oppose integration of DRM into HTML5 ==
FSFE, FSF and other prominent organisations defending digital freedom
have prepared a joint letter to the World Wide Web Consortium and its
member organisations urging them to reject the Encrypted Media
Extensions (EME) proposal[37]. This proposal aims at incorporating
support for Digital Restriction Management (DRM) into HTML5 and might
become a threat to Free Software users. P lease join us[38]in calling on
the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and its member organizations to
reject the Encrypted Media Extensions proposal (EME).
37.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130423-02.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter…
38. http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5
Thanks to all the Fellows and donors who enable our work,
Erik
--
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Free Software Discussions - http://fsfe.org/contact/community
= International Day Against DRM: fight deliberately crippled technology =
[Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130503-01.en.html ]
This Friday, May 3rd 2013, FSFE is joining the 8th international "Day
against DRM" campaign [1] in the call to end Digital Restrictions
Management (DRM). The fight against DRM has been gathering momentum in
the past weeks. Freedom activists rallied against DRM in HTML5,
stressing this technology's harmful effects on innovation and user's
freedom. On today's Day Against DRM, our sister organisation the Free
Software Foundation will deliver the petition signatures opposing DRM in
HTML5 to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in Boston.
You still have a few hours to take action: join FSFE, FSF and 25 other
organisations defending digital freedom by signing the petition against
DRM in HTML5 [2].
By accepting to implement DRM in HTML5, W3C would endanger
interoperability and open the door to the implementation of restrictive
technologies in the heart of the internet.
Device manufacturers and corporate copyrights holders have already been
massively infecting their products with user-hostile DRM. Tablets,
smartphones and other minicomputers are sold with numerous restrictions
embedded that cripple users freedom. The proposal at table in W3C goes
even further.
DRM creates damaged goods [3] that users cannot control or use freely.
It requires users to give-up control of their computers and restricts
access to digital data and media. Fight it: use today's international
Day against DRM to spread the word and make yourself heard!
[1] http://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm
[2] http://drm.info
[3] http://www.defectivebydesign.org/
== 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/
= German Parliament says: Stop Granting Software Patents =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130422-01.en.html]
The German Parliament, the Bundestag, has adopted a joint motion against
software patents. The resolution urges the German government to take steps to
limit the granting of patents on computer programs.
In the resolution [1], the Parliament says that patents on software restrict
developers from exercising their copyright privileges, including the right to
distribute their programs as Free Software. Patents help to create monopolies
in the software market, and hurt innovation and job creation. The Parliament
calls on the German government to make sure that Free Software development is
not restricted by patents.
"Software patents are harmful in every way, and are useless at promoting
innovation", says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation
Europe. "We urge the German government to act on this resolution as soon as
possible, and relieve software developers from the needless patent-related
costs and risks under which they are currently suffering."
Software patents [2] are illegal under the European Patent Convention.
Nevertheless, the European Patent Office has granted tens of thousands of
patents covering software. As a result, software developers constantly risk
being accused of patent infringement. This causes legal uncertainty which is
costly for large companies, and potentially deadly for small ones.
The Parliament's resolution reminds the government that, under the EU's
Computer Programs Directive, software is covered by copyright, not patents. It
calls on the government to finally put the directive's "copyright approach"
into practice, and make German law more concrete in this regard. It also
points out that the restrictions which patents impose are incompatible with
the most widely used Free Software licenses.
For any future initiative to reform European rules on copyright and patents,
the Parliament asks the German government to make sure that developers'
economic exploitation rights for their programs are not restricted by patents.
The government should also push to ensure that software is covered by
copyright alone, and that patent offices (including the European Patent
Office) stop granting patents on software.
== Contact ==
Karsten Gerloff,
Free Software Foundation Europe
President
<gerloff(a)fsfeurope.org>
+49 176 9690 4298
== More information: ==
- Joint Motion approved by the Bundestag (in German, PDF) [2].
[1] http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/130/1713086.pdf
- Background on software patents
[2] http://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/swpat.en.html
== 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/
= Document Freedom Day: 2013 Event registration now open =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130226-01.en.html ]
Today event registration opens for Document Freedom Day 2013, March
27th. Local teams can add details of their activities to
DocumentFreedom.org[1], and have them marked on the global campaign
map[2].
Last week 50 promotional packs were dispatched to hackerspaces to kick
start event preparations. They contain posters, fliers, stickers, and
advice, including how to apply for financial support. Packs are now also
available to order online.
"Last year trail-blazing Open Standards advocates introduced thousands
of people to better standards" said Sam Tuke, Campaign Manager. "Teams
now have more resources at their disposal, and fresh ideas including
switching from Adobe Flash to HTML5 technologies".
"Markets for digital products such as audiobooks and cloud documents
have grown dramatically in recent months, but without Open Standards
customers are victims of vendor lock-in and anti-consumer market
control" said Erik Albers, Community Manager, Free Software Foundation
Europe.
This year the campaign aims to have more events, in additional
locations. In 2012[3]groups of volunteers ran 54 events in 23 different
countries, including Brussels, Colombia, and Indonesia.
1. http://documentfreedom.org
2. http://www.documentfreedom.org/events/events.html
3. http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2012/news-20120403-01.en.html
== About Document Freedom Day ==
Document Freedom Day (DFD) campaigns to celebrate information
accessibility and introduce non-technical audiences to Open Standards.
Open Standards are a basic condition for freedom and choice in
software; ensuring the freedom to access data, and the freedom to
build Free Software to read and write information. Started in 2008,
the campaign last year had 54 events worldwide. It will happen on 27th
March.
http://documentfreedom.org
== 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/
= Document Freedom Day: 2013 Event registration now open =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130226-01.en.html ]
Today event registration opens for Document Freedom Day 2013, March
27th. Local teams can add details of their activities to
DocumentFreedom.org[1], and have them marked on the global campaign
map[2].
Last week 50 promotional packs were dispatched to hackerspaces to kick
start event preparations. They contain posters, fliers, stickers, and
advice, including how to apply for financial support. Packs are now also
available to order online.
"Last year trail-blazing Open Standards advocates introduced thousands
of people to better standards" said Sam Tuke, Campaign Manager. "Teams
now have more resources at their disposal, and fresh ideas including
switching from Adobe Flash to HTML5 technologies".
"Markets for digital products such as audiobooks and cloud documents
have grown dramatically in recent months, but without Open Standards
customers are victims of vendor lock-in and anti-consumer market
control" said Erik Albers, Community Manager, Free Software Foundation
Europe.
This year the campaign aims to have more events, in additional
locations. In 2012[3]groups of volunteers ran 54 events in 23 different
countries, including Brussels, Colombia, and Indonesia.
1. http://documentfreedom.org
2. http://www.documentfreedom.org/events/events.html
3. http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2012/news-20120403-01.en.html
== About Document Freedom Day ==
Document Freedom Day (DFD) campaigns to celebrate information
accessibility and introduce non-technical audiences to Open Standards.
Open Standards are a basic condition for freedom and choice in
software; ensuring the freedom to access data, and the freedom to
build Free Software to read and write information. Started in 2008,
the campaign last year had 54 events worldwide. It will happen on 27th
March.
http://documentfreedom.org
== 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/
= Document Freedom Day: 2013 Event registration now open =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130226-01.en.html ]
Today event registration opens for Document Freedom Day 2013, March
27th. Local teams can add details of their activities to
DocumentFreedom.org[1], and have them marked on the global campaign
map[2].
Last week 50 promotional packs were dispatched to hackerspaces to kick
start event preparations. They contain posters, fliers, stickers, and
advice, including how to apply for financial support. Packs are now also
available to order online.
"Last year trail-blazing Open Standards advocates introduced thousands
of people to better standards" said Sam Tuke, Campaign Manager. "Teams
now have more resources at their disposal, and fresh ideas including
switching from Adobe Flash to HTML5 technologies".
"Markets for digital products such as audiobooks and cloud documents
have grown dramatically in recent months, but without Open Standards
customers are victims of vendor lock-in and anti-consumer market
control" said Erik Albers, Community Manager, Free Software Foundation
Europe.
This year the campaign aims to have more events, in additional
locations. In 2012[3]groups of volunteers ran 54 events in 23 different
countries, including Brussels, Colombia, and Indonesia.
1. http://documentfreedom.org
2. http://www.documentfreedom.org/events/events.html
3. http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2012/news-20120403-01.en.html
== About Document Freedom Day ==
Document Freedom Day (DFD) campaigns to celebrate information
accessibility and introduce non-technical audiences to Open Standards.
Open Standards are a basic condition for freedom and choice in
software; ensuring the freedom to access data, and the freedom to
build Free Software to read and write information. Started in 2008,
the campaign last year had 54 events worldwide. It will happen on 27th
March.
http://documentfreedom.org
== 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/