<>"For big sound studios it would be certainly interesting if they
could adapt their audio software to their individual needs.
Currently, if they require changes, they need to ask their software
developer first. That costs both time and money", says Michael
Spiess, a sound engineer in the South Bavarian town of Babensham.
For the little village band, continues Spiess, the freedom to use the
software for whatever purpose they want is certainly an advantage.
"There's a lot of software for Windows, but there is also a large
amount of rubbish. Professional applications run on GNU/Linux and
on Apple. Hobby musicians in particular are frequently forced to
improvise. Traditional systems do not allow this."
'Creating artistic licence by Free Software technology' might have
been the motto of AGNULA (A GNU/Linux Audio distribution -
www.agnula.org): within the scope of the EU project two GNU/Linux
distributions for Debian and Red Hat were developed that are targeted
specifically at professional musicians and multimedia authors.
"AGNULA constitutes a very vibrant environment for musicians",
states project leader Nicola Bernardini. The available applications
include a synthesizer and a graphical user interface for "CSound" -
(free) sound software written in C. The technical leader Andrea
Glorioso sees AGNULA as an "ecosystem" of developers and users:
"We need the experience of the user in order to fix problems in using
the system. Therefore it is of great importance to convince as many
developers and users as possible of the advantages of Free Software.
The more people participate in this ecosystem, the more rapidly it can
develop. For this reason AGNULA needs to reach the critical
mass of developers and users as soon as possible."
AGNULA also wants to set a legal example for other Free Software
projects: For Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation
Europe (FSFE) it is particularly important to avoid the contamination
of the AGNULA collection of Free Software by "proprietary software".
According to Greve, "this establishes a 'freedom seal of approval' for
users, who get the guarantee that with AGNULA they will always get
the full freedom."
The following institutions participated in the project (04/01/2002 -
04/01/2004):
* IRCAM Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique -
Paris
* Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Music Technology Group - Barcelona
* Kungl Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Music Acoustics Group - Stockholm
* Free Software Foundation Europe
* Red Hat France
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org>
Press Speaker - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
In der Roede 24, 64367 Mühltal(Tel: +49-179-6919565)
1. Introducing the FSFE newsletter
2. EU Council decision on software patents directive
3. AGNULA
4. Welcoming FSFE press speaker Joachim Jakobs
5. Georg Greve in South America
6. Protecting Free Software from over regulation
7. Other important public appearances
1. Introducing the FSFE newsletter
Around the official general assembly of the Free Software Foundation
Europe on May 15, the core members took the chance to discuss several
ideas on how to improve public information about the activities of the
FSFE. One of the results was the decision to periodically publish a
newsletter, and this is the first one.
2. EU Council decision on software patents directive
The most widely regarded event in May was probably the decision of the
Council of the European Union about the Software Patent Directive. After
the European Parliament made its clear vote against unlimited
patentability of software algorithms, the Irish Presidency proposed a
version of the directive that undoes virtually all of the Parliament's
changes. Even though some countries did not approve it, this version got
the necessary qualified majority in the Council.
The fact that the Council's opposition against software patent was still
stronger than expected can well be regarded as a result of the
successful cooperation of FSFE, FFII and many other organizations in
informing citizens and politicians about the danger of the Presidency's
proposal. As the decision process is still not finished, the FSFE will
continue to work on the software patent issue together with these
organizations.
3. AGNULA
While AGNULA (A GNU/Linux Audio Distribution) is already regarded a big
success by all participants (and also by the European Union, who funded
the project), work is not over with the final release. The FSFE still
supports the project by helping with things like the AGNULA trademark
license.
4. Welcoming FSFE press speaker Joachim Jakobs
To relieve the core members from the increasingly time-consuming press
work, the FSFE hired Joachim Jakobs on a part-time basis as a press
speaker.
5. Georg Greve in South America
Georg Greve is currently visiting several locations in South America,
getting in contact with local Free Software Activists there and
supporting them in building up a Free Software network there like the
FSFE is here. His public activities in South America included an
interview for Argentinas most important newspaper, a speech at the
University of Cordoba about Free Software in Education, an interview for
TV as well as for the largest national radio station in Uruguay and the
keynote at USUARIA, a South American congress on Free Software topics.
We expect these activities to help building up a global network of Free
Software organizations, of which the FSFE will be an essential part.
6. Protecting Free Software from over regulation
The Italian Chapter has been very busy trying to amend a new Italian
law that could harm Free Software. To limit the supposed damages that
the Italian motion picture and record industry claims to come from
peer-to-peer file sharing, the government proposed a law that makes it
illegal to publish any digital content on the web without "declaring
to the SIAE that the publisher has a license to do so". The law also
introduces more restrictions, making a criminal offense punishable
with up to four years of jail sharing without consent of the author
any file on the web, even if it is not "for profit".
The law is so absurd that FSF Europe has been asked by BSA (Business
Software Alliance) to cooperate to prevent its approval.
Unfortunately, though, the law passed despite the fact that in the end
both the government and the opposition agreed that "it is a very bad
law". The government promised to correct it soon and already
announced a revision: FSFE will continue its strong pressure on the
whole Parliament.
7. Other important public appearances
Stefano Maffulli participated at a forum about "Intellectual property"
at the Istituto Bruno Leoni (IBL) in Italy to point out some problems
regarding software patents. At the end of the month he participated
to a "summit of Italian free software organizations" in Avellino where
there was the chance to discuss a better coordination between them.
--
Free Software Foundation Europe
http://www.fsfeurope.org