Europe, 15 December 2008.
[Online: http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20081215-01.en.html]
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) announces a translation
sprint for their web pages from 15 December 2008 to 11 January 2009. The
aim of this sprint is to provide information about Free Software and
FSFE's work in as many languages as possible.
As one of its most important means of communication with the public,
FSFE hosts a web site at http://www.fsfeurope.org/. Translating the
texts and making them available for people with different native
languages has always been important, and thanks to the untiring work of
dozens of volunteers all around Europe, the pages are available in up to
26 different languages.
Translating FSFE's web pages is a huge task. More than 250 pages are
online, and several pages per week are added or updated and require new
translations. There's always something left to do. More help is always
welcome.
So FSFE announces a four weeks translation sprint from 15 December 2008
to 11 January 2009, combined with a call for new volunteers. The job: to
translate from English to other European languages, and to proofread
translations. The mission: to fill as many translation gaps as possible.
The candidate: you.
Translating and proofreading texts is a precious contribution to the
work of FSFE and an excellent chance to spontaneously take part in its
activities without long-term obligations. And it's a great chance to
contribute in a way that doesn't cost money.
Interested? Willing to spend some time on the future of Free Software?
Ready to join one of FSFE's largest volunteer groups? Have a look at the
information page about webpage translations [1]! And if you have further
questions, don't hesitate to send an email to translators (at)
fsfeurope.org. Some of the language groups have already declared some
language-specific goals for the sprint [2] - will you be helping your
group to reach them?
[1] http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators/web.en.html
[2] http://wiki.fsfe.org/TranslatorsSprint
--
Reinhard Müller
Free Software Foundation Europe
Volunteer coordinator for web pages and translations
[for immediate release]
FSFE adds Fellowship representation to General Assembly
Today FSFE is announcing its revised constitution, adding two
Fellowship Seats to its General Assembly. [1] This will give Fellows
of FSFE a direct representation in FSFE's strategic decision making
body.
The Fellowship is FSFE's larger community. [2] Launched in 2005, it
provides a meeting place with regular online and offline activities, a
framework for activity and cooperation, a migration path into the
organisation, and one of the most important ways of supporting FSFE's
work in all areas, providing both resources and political support.
Now the Fellowship also provides a path into the General Assembly.
In early 2009, FSFE will post a call for nominations among all Fellows
who have been with the organisation for at least a year. Before the
next convening of the General Assembly, candidates will come up for
election among all Fellows in time for the first Fellowship Seat to be
filled. The second seat will be defined the year after. Those elected
will serve a two year term and there will thus be one election per
year from now on.
The required constitutional change to allow for this was prepared
after the 2007 General Assembly and adopted unanimously by the eight
members of the GA represented at FSFE's 2008 annual meeting from June
6th to 8th in the FSFE Zurich office.
Georg Greve, FSFE's President, commented: "We were convinced that we
should introduce an element of accountability towards and strategic
involvement of the Fellows in FSFE. More than an advisor or an
observer, we wanted this involvement to be as an equal. Of course we
were eager to put this into practice soon, but constitutional changes
should never be taken lightly since a hasty change could have severe
consequences. So we did it as fast as our responsibility to FSFE
allowed and are glad we got it done now so that next year's General
Assembly meeting will already be with the first Fellow."
Matthias Kirschner, the Fellowship Coordinator added "Because this is
the first year, we're going to have to work hard to give the Fellows a
way to get to know each other. Each candidate will have a platform,
so it will be possible for the voters to know them, but we also want
the candidates to know the voters. As well as improving the technical
infrastructure on fsfe.org, we'll be increasing the number of regional
Fellowship meetings in the coming months."
Pablo Machon, FSFE's Vice President, said: "We modelled our voting
system on that used by Debian. It's a well tested method and has
proven to be resistant to voting anomalies. To be a candidate,
someone has to have been a Fellow for one year already. This is
because we want the Fellowship representative to know the organisation
and what it's like to be a Fellow. For voting, all Fellows can vote
as soon as they sign up."
[1] http://fsfeurope.org/about/legal/constitution.html
[2] http://fellowship.fsfe.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://www.fsfeurope.org/
Contact
* Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
* Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
* Sweden: +46 31 7802160
* Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
* UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
FTF and gpl-violations release a guide to reporting and fixing licence
violations
2008-12-08, Zürich, Graeme West, FSFE
FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF) and GPL-Violations.org today released a
guide to reporting and fixing licence compliance issues.
This guide will help users and developers to deal with license violation
reports. It explains how to make a report, what information is useful to
include, and offers suggestions for how projects or businesses can deal
with reports once they are received.
The guide is released as part of the strategic partnership between the
FTF and GPL-Violations.org, who work together to improve licensing
awareness and compliance in Europe. It is located on the new FTF
website, http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf, along with information on how
projects and businesses can get help with understanding Free Software
licences. Translations into several European languages will be made
available during coming weeks from the FTF website.
"The best way to solve compliance issues is to prevent them happening in
the first place", says Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator. "We work to
support this by educating the community at large. When problems do
occur, we want people to be able to share information and resolve them
effectively."
About the Freedom Task Force:
The Freedom Task Force is a project run by Free Software Foundation
Europe to help people understand Free Software licensing and the
opportunities it presents. We offer educational services, facilitate
larger infrastructure activities and manage FSFE's legal affairs.
Our goals are to share knowledge about Free Software law, to
safeguard the interests of Free Software projects, to connect experts
in this field and to help other groups achieve similar goals. We
believe in positive, constructive dialogue and seek at all times to
support the long-term sustainability of Free Software.</p>
The FTF's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
You can contact us via email: ftf @ fsfeurope.org
You can phone us at:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 Ext. 22
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73 Ext. 22
Sweden: +46 31 7802160 Ext. 22
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 Ext. 22
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 Ext. 22
Press contact: Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
About gpl-violations.org:
In the past 40 months, gpl-violations.org has helped uncover and
negotiate more than 100 GPL violations and has obtained numerous
out-of-court settlement agreements. The gpl-violations.org project
is a not-for-profit effort to bring commercial users and vendors of
Free Software into compliance with the licence conditions as set
forth by the original authors. The project was founded and is
managed by Mr. Harald Welte, a Linux Kernel developer and Free
Software enthusiast.
For more information on the project, its mission, milestones and
goals, please see http://gpl-violations.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.
FSFE's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Sweden: +46 31 7802160
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
Further information: http://www.fsfeurope.org
[for immediate release]
Following up on the European Commission's "IPR in ICT Standardisation"
workshop two weeks ago in Brussels, FSFE president Georg Greve analysed
the conflicts between patents and standards. The resulting paper is
about the most harmful effects of patents on standards, the
effectiveness of current remedies, and potential future remedies.
>From the article:
"[...] Both patents and standards derive their justification from the
public benefit, yet upholding one deprives the other of its
function. Standards seek to counteract monopolies, patents establish
them. Or, as Tomoko Miyamoto, Senior Counsellor of the Patent Law
Section in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said
in her presentation: Patent thickets and patent hold-ups arise from
legitimate exploitation of the exclusive rights intentionally
conferred by patents. They are a normal and intended consequence of
the patent system. [...]"
The article is available in full text at:
http://fsfeurope.org/standards/ps
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.
You will find further information about the work of the FSFE at
http://fsfeurope.org/.
Contact
* Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
* Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
* Sweden: +46 31 7802160
* Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
* UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
October marked the beginning of a planning phase in FSFE. As well as
planning our campaigns for next year, we've been working on some
actions for around the upcoming festive season. Alongside the
internal discussions, we've been asking the community for ideas when
we go to events or hold Fellowship meetings. Nothing is concrete yet,
so if you have good ideas, please join our public lists and let us
know!
A minor change is that, starting next month, Shane will hand over the
newsletter task to me. So, thanks to Shane for almost two years of
newsletters! I'm looking forward to writing next month's, and if you
have suggestions for how the format might be changed, let me know via
ciaran[a]fsfe.org.
Ciaran O'Riordan, FSFE Brussels Office
1. Antitrust work bears fruit
2. Fellowship interview: Rolf Camps
3. Free Software licensing and Net TV in Italy
4. Behind the Scenes at the Freedom Task Force
5. Fellowship meeting in Geneva
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
5. Fellowship meeting, Bolzano, Italy (2008-11-15)
6. Fellowship meeting, Cologne, Germany (2008-11-18)
1. Antitrust work bears fruit
One year after the final court case was won, FSFE is pleased to hear that
the Samba development team is getting useful interoperability information
from Microsoft. FSFE's goal was always to ensure that Free Software
developers would benefit from any published information. This outcome comes
after 5 years of work from FSFE, the Samba team, and other organisations.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/fsfe_s_antit…
2. Fellowship interview: Rolf Camps
We interviewed Rolf Camps for some insight on what motivates volunteers and
how they get involved. Rolf is clearly one of our most active translators,
so he told us what that work involves, and about Free Software awareness in
Belgium.
http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/fellowship_interviews/fellowship_inte…http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators/translators.en.html
3. Free Software licensing and Net TV in Italy
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, attended the 'IP-TV 2.0 Conference' in Rome
on the 15th of October to deliver a speech entitled "The implication of Free
Software licenses for the future of IPTV." This event was organised by the
Telematics Freedom Foundation, run by Rufo Guerreschi. The chair of the event
was Arturo Di Corinto, Professor of Communication Science at the University of
Rome La Sapienza. The attendance was quite good and there were several quite
lively discussions. Most of the audience was still new to Free Software, and
opinions were quite divided regarding the importance and impact of increased
freedom in this field.
http://www.telematicsfreedom.org/en/project/14/event-ip-tv-net-tv
4. Behind the Scenes at the Freedom Task Force
Ciaran O'Riordan, FSFE's Fellowship Ambassador, published an exciting profile
article [1] about the Freedom Task Force (FTF), FSFE's legal project. Ciaran
looked at the main areas of the FTF's work, including building the world's most
successful Free Software legal and technical network, enforcing the GPL in
collaboration with gpl-violations.org [2], and offering licensing support to
Free Software projects. Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, is also involved in
delivering consultancy and training to third parties on licensing best practice
and policy decisions.
The FTF is active behind the scenes on many legal and policy issues related to
Free Software, and Ciaran's article offers a rare glimpse into the goings on of
one of FSFE's most important ventures in this area. The article has recieved
significant media coverage, including Slashdot, Free Software Daily, FOSS
Bazaar, Linux.com and LWN.net.
Check it out!
[1] http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/status_of_fs…
[2] http://www.gpl-violations.org/
5. Fellowship meeting in Geneva
On October 19th, 13 Fellows met in Geneva. Ciaran O'Riordan and
Benjamin Morant were there from FSFE to learn about the local Free
Software groups and activities, and to answer questions about FSFE and
discuss upcoming campaigns. We think this was the Fellowship's first
francophone meeting and look forward to many more.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
This is only a partial list, and only contains events where our presence
has been confirmed at time of drafting this newsletter. For a more complete
list of events FSFE will be involved with, please consult
http://www.fsfeurope.org/events/
6. Fellowship meeting, Bolzano, Italy (2008-11-15)
On Saturday, 15th November at 14:00 h there will be a Fellowship meeting at
the TIS Innovation Park of Bolzano. The meeting is open to Fellows and all
persons interested in FSFE's work in Italy and the projects of the Fellowship.
The meeting has two parts. First Patrick Ohnewein, coordinator of the Italian
FSFE group, will talk about the activities of the FSFE and the Fellowship in
Italy. In the second part the Fellows will be invited to make proposals for
and discuss about future initiatives to promote and help Free Software.
7. Fellowship meeting, Cologne, Germany (2008-11-18)
On Tuesday, 18th november at 19.00 h again all fellows and people who want
to support FSFE or simply want to inform about Free Software will gather at
the Fellowship Meeting in Hallmackenreuther, Brüsseler Platz, Cologne.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
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