1. First international Fellowship conference
2. Freedom Task Force started
3. FSFE becomes the legal guardian of Bacula.org
4. Inaugural meeting of the Internet Governance Forum
5. Fifth international GPLv3 conference
6. Trophees du Libre
7. Introducing Mathias Klang
8. FSFE at public events
9. Get Active: tell your company about FSFE!
1. First international Fellowship conference
More than 40 Fellows from all over Europe came together at the first
international Fellowship conference in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.
The main disuccion topics were the advocacy project, the Fellowship
web page, the new logo of the FSFE, and heads-up information on the
Freedom Task Force. Besides that, the Fellows and the members of the
FSFE core team used the opportunity to meet each other in person and
talk about various topics in smaller groups.
2. Freedom Task Force started
After years of planning, FSFE was finally able to announce its most
recent activity, the Freedom Task Force (FTF). The FTF will help
projects and companies to ensure legal maintainability of their Free
Software through three main areas of activity: licensing education,
fiduciary services, and - when necessary - enforcement of Free
Software licenses.
The FTF provides a point of reference and contact for all these issues
and is being coordinated by Shane M. Coughlan, who is working closely
with similar projects, such as Harald Welte of gpl-violations.org. The
startup of the Freedom Task Force was made possible by a contribution
of EUR 30.000,- by Stichting NLnet. FSFE thanks NLnet for their
support and encourages others to contribute to secure these activities
in the long term; you can lend a hand through volunteer engagement,
financial contributions, and participation in the Fellowship.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000159.htmlhttp://fsfeurope.org/ftf/
3. FSFE becomes the legal guardian of Bacula.org
The first project to make use of FSFE's Freedom Task Force and its
fiduciary services is Bacula.org, arguably the most advanced Free
Software backup solution currently available. Using the Fiduciary
Licence Agreement (FLA) of FSFE, Bacula.org has made FSFE the
fiduciary of its legal interests to ensure the long-term freedom
of the project, helping the Bacula.org project to further mature and
focus on its technical and project coordination.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000161.html
4. Inaugural meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
FSFE was very involved in the United Nations World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS), in which FSFE president Georg Greve
co-coordinated the global Civil Society work on Free Software, Open
Standards and knowledge regulation issues. One of the outcomes of the
WSIS is the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF), an open,
inclusive, multi-stakeholder dialog forum for future policies of
internet use and regulation.
To ensure that such dialogs and global policy trends include the Free
Software perspective, FSFE will be following the IGF, which held its
inaugurational meeting in Athens. FSFE president Georg Greve brought
Free Software issues to the table in one of the main-room panels as
well as participated in the launch of the Dynamic Coalitions on Open
Standards and Access to Knowledge and Freedom of Expression.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/igf/
5. Fifth international GPLv3 conference
The fifth international GPLv3 conference took place in Tokyo, Japan,
and was hosted by FSFE's associate organsiation, the Free Software
Initiative Japan (FSIJ). Georg Greve and Ciaran O'Riordan represented
the FSFE at the event, which is expected to be the last international
GPLv3 conference before the release of the final version of the GPLv3
in spring next year.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/tokyo-rms-transcript.en.htmlhttp://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/tokyo-ciaran-transcript.en.html
6. Trophees du Libre
Organised by the Cente Européen de Transfert et de Recherche en
Informatique Libre (CETRIL), the 3rd edition of the Trophees du Libre
was held in Soissons, France. To express FSFE's support for this way
of encouraging and endorsing Free Software projects, FSFE president
Georg Greve participated in the jury and had many interesting
conversations with other people of the Free Software community.
7. Introducing Mathias Klang
Mathias Klang joined the core team of FSFE, strengthening the Swedish
team. Mathias is a researcher in legal informatics at the University
of Göteborg in Sweden. He studied law in Göteborg and later
specialised in IT law at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.
His research interests and publications lie primarily in the areas of
the law & technology in connection with topics such as democracy,
human rights, free expression, censorship, free software, open access
and ethics. He has published many research articles in addition to
co-editing (with Andrew Murray) a work entitled "Human Rights in the
Digital Age" (2005), written (and successfully defended) his doctoral
dissertation "Disruptive Technology: Effects of Technology Regulation
on Democracy" (2006).
8. FSFE at public events
Many core team members of the FSFE were present at the South Tyrolean
Free Software Conference (SFScon) in Bolzano, Italy. Georg Greve
presented the Free Software Foundation Europe, Jonas Öberg talked
about the SELF project, Stefano Maffulli held a speech about the
Fellowship of FSFE, and Werner Koch did an Introduction in encryption
technologies and a Workshop on GnuPG und the Fellowship Crypto-Card.
The FSFE also wants to thank the organisers of the event for also
hosting the first international Fellowship conference after the
official end of the actual SFScon.
Michael Kallas, Rainer Kersten and Güven Bay organised a booth at the
LWE in Cologne, Germany, where they had a number of interesting
conversations and informed people about the work of the FSFE.
Jonas Öberg gave a talk on SELF and the GPLv3 at the Update computer
club of the Uppsala University in Sweden.
Shane Coughlan spoke at a meeting in central Zurich organised by "Nexell
Informiert" on Wednesday, November 29th. He introduced the concept of
Free Software and explained how the Freedom Task Force (FTF) can help
businesses understand Free Software licensing. The reaction from Nexell
customers was very positive, many of whom are considering the adoption
of Free Software solutions over the coming year.
9. Get Active: tell your company about FSFE!
>From now on, every newsletter will contain an idea how everybody can
contribute to the Free Software movement and to the work of the Free
Software Foundation Europe.
Spreading the word about Free Software has always been a key activity
of the FSFE, and everybody can help with this, even in his daily
environment:
* Inform the decision makers in your company about the idea of Free
Software, or try to bring them to Free Software events.
* Inform them about FSFE's work and why it matters to them.
* If you think that your company could benefit from legal education
around Free Software, point them to the Freedom Task Force.
* Encourage them to do more to ensure freedom in the digital age by
donating to the Free Software Foundation Europe.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html