= 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
--
Free Software Foundation Europe - http://fsfe.org
FSFE News - http://fsfe.org/news/news
Upcoming FSFE Events - http://fsfe.org/events/events
Fellowship Blog Aggregation - http://planet.fsfe.org
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/
= Illegal procurement favouring Microsoft killed in Portuguese court =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130429-01.en.html]
On April 27, the administrative court of Almada, Portugal, declared a
550, 000 Euro contract between Microsoft and the municipality of Almada
to be illegal. The technical specifications of the competition launched
by the municipality prevented any company other than Microsoft and their
partners to submit a proposal.
This ruling is especially significant as it clarifies that a widely used
procurement procedure is illegal. The procedure specified the name of
Microsoft products instead of their general functional and technical
requirements.
Unfair tendering practices in Portugal have been repeatedly denounced by
FSFE's Associate Organisation ANSOL [1] and the Portuguese association
ESOP [2], who brought the case to court. They violate fundamental rules
of fair competition and systematically exclude companies that provide
services based on Free Software.
FSFE welcome the court's decision, and calls on other European national
courts to continue to systematically annul similarly discriminatory
contracts.
[1] https://ansol.org/
[2] http://www.esop.pt/
== More information ==
- The court's decision
https://fsfe.org/documents/court-act-portugal.pdf
- ESOP's press release about the ruling
http://www.esop.pt/court-annuls-public-tender-for-microsoft-
software-in-the-municipality-of-almada/
- Discriminatory practices continue to plague IT public procurement
across Europe (Open Forum Europe)
http://www.openforumeurope.org/openprocurement
- FSFE's Contribution to the European Commission consultation on the
modernisation of European Union public procurement policy
https://fsfe.org/activities/policy/eu/20110418.ProcurementConsultation.FSFE…
- FSFE's work to improve procurement in Finland
http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120619-01.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/