Discussion June 2004

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

10 participants
8 discussions

Join the translators and proofreaders team!
by Reinhard Mueller 29 Jun '04

29 Jun '04

Hi, all, with the growing attention the FSF Europe attracts in many countries, the need has arised to build up a flexible, responsive, and well coordinated translator team. Translating and proofreading texts is a precious contribution to the work of the FSF Europe and an excellent chance to spontaneously take part in the activities of the FSF Europe without long-term obligations. The texts to translate will vary in length between a few lines and a few pages. We have created a mailing list to coordinate our efforts on translations and proofreading. We will exchange original and translated texts over this mailing list, so no special knowledge of systems like CVS is necessary to join the team. You can subscribe to the translators team mailing list at http://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/translators Please also have a look at http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators.en.html for more information on how we will coordinate our translation efforts. Thanks, -- Reinhard Mueller Free Software Foundation Europe http://www.fsfeurope.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No army can stop an idea whose time has come. -- Victor Hugo, 1802-1885

1 0

FSMSI 2004 - European seminar on "Free Software for Multimedia Streaming over Internet" - detailed scheduling
by Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia 19 Jun '04

19 Jun '04

[ Sorry for cross-posting - feel free to forward around ] ====================================================================== FSMSI 2004 European seminar on Free Software for Multimedia Streaming over the Internet 1st edition June 23/24, 2004 IRCAM, Paris, France http://freesoftware.ircam.fr/fsmsi2004 ====================================================================== SCOPE OF THE SEMINAR The exponential growth of network speed makes it possible to exchange high quality audio and video contents over the Internet, often with real time capabilities. However, multimedia streaming still presents several issues with regards to Free Software and open standards: patents on software and data formats, free codecs availability, standards definitions, etc, etc. The goal of this seminar is to provide an overview of existing Free Software for multimedia streaming over Internet, to envisage future developments and collaborations in this area and to examine the possible ways to fund these developments. SEMINAR PROGRAM Wednesday, June 23: IRCAM, Salle Stravinsky: 9:45-10:00 : François Déchelle (IRCAM) - Introduction 10:00-10:20 : Andrea Glorioso (MIU-FT) - Innovating the Media: why Streaming is important for Free Software (and viceversa) 10:30-11:00 : Olivier Lescurieux (IRCAM) - Interactive multimedia projects at Ircam 11:00-12:00 : Carlo Calabrò (VideoLAN) - The VideoLAN project 12:00-14:00 : Lunch break IRCAM, Salle Olivier Messiaen: 14:00-14:45 : Eric Gressier (CNAM/Cedric) - The distributed concert 15:00-16:00 : Dominique Fober (GRAME) - Clock skew in real-time networking; Wireless performances in regard of music applications 16:00-.... - open Q&A, discussion & hacking session Thursday, June 24: IRCAM, Salle Stravinsky: 10:00-11:00 : Yann Orlarey (GRAME) - Distant Music Rehearsal 11:00-12:00 : Stuart Cunningham, Michael Sparks, Anuradha Suraparaju (BBC R&D) - BBC Research and Development multimedia projects 12:00-13:00 : Juan Carlos De Martin (IEIIT-CNR/Politecnico di Torino) - The Open Media Streaming project 13:00-14:00 : Lunch break IRCAM, Salle Stravinsky: 14:00 - .... : open Q&A, discussion & hacking session ORGANIZATION COMITTEE Francois Déchelle, IRCAM (dechelle(a)ircam.fr) Andrea Glorioso, Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia (sama(a)miu-ft.org) SEMINAR STREAMING The presentations will be streamed in OGG/VORBIS format. CONTACTS Web site: http://freesoftware.ircam.fr/fsmsi2004/ Mailing list: freestreaming-paris2004(a)lists.miu-ft.org http://lists.miu-ft.org/mailman/listinfo/freestreaming-paris2004

1 0

Re: EU Communication on the Management of Copyright and Related Rights
by MJ Ray 17 Jun '04

17 Jun '04

The consultation call is on <URL:http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/copyright/management/manageme…> and repeated for the UK at <URL:http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/notices/2004/eurocomm.htm>. Replies need to be in by 21 June. What are other EU-based free software groups saying about this? I'll copy this to a fsfeurope list. Please reply to -uk for UK specifics, or fsfeurope for other EU states. So, thanks to John we have the two headline points: 1. DRM must not make interop illegal (is this mentioned in the "CEN/ISSS report on DRM standardisation and interoperability"); 2. DRM must not override fair use/fair dealing provisions, or things like the disability discrimination act (need to check EUCD Art5(2)(b) about this). What else do we need to address? Should we include positions on Community-wide licensing, harmonisation of individual rights or collective rights societies? Need to check the references to directives 92/100/EEC and 2001/84/EC. -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing Help hack the EuroParl! http://mjr.towers.org.uk/proj/eurovote/

4 3

FFII EU Voters Guide Page
by Seth Johnson 10 Jun '04

10 Jun '04

EU Voters Take Note: > http://kwiki.ffii.org/ElectPart0405En The above page provides links that may help European Union citizens determine which candidates are most supportive of information freedom. It provides analyses of the Parties in various Member States, and lets you see how the Parties and individual MEPs voted on the Software Patent Directive this past September. In a world of ubiquitous computing, candidates who take an enlightened position on software patents are most likely to understand the profound extent to which unconscionable exclusive rights policies affect our lives and the wellbeing of society. It is not an overstatement to say that the diverse, pervasive effects of policies that allow private parties to lay claim to naked information and abstract knowledge, easily make those policies among the most critical, central issues we face today. For more information on software patents in Europe, start with these links: > http://swpat.ffii.org/log/intro/index.en.html > http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/plen0924/index.en.html > http://kwiki.ffii.org/?Intro040608En Latest news: > http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn Seth -- DRM is Theft! We are the Stakeholders! New Yorkers for Fair Use http://www.nyfairuse.org [CC] Counter-copyright: http://realmeasures.dyndns.org/cc I reserve no rights restricting copying, modification or distribution of this incidentally recorded communication. Original authorship should be attributed reasonably, but only so far as such an expectation might hold for usual practice in ordinary social discourse to which one holds no claim of exclusive rights.

1 0

Obtaining interface documentation without restrictions
by James Davis 10 Jun '04

10 Jun '04

I've recently bought myself a Nikon D70 digital camera which supports the PTP (ISO 15740) protocol for transferring images from the camera and controlling the hardware. Although basic functionality (transferring images for example) is available through tools such as libptp,gphoto2 and gtkam, the more advanced features are as yet, not supported in Free software. Essentially PTP allows the user to read, and set a number of properties on the camera. The properties are referenced by numerical values ( a subset of which are common to all devices) and not by a descriptive label. According to Nikon's customer support the documentation for this properties is available gratis in the SDK for the D70 and not available separately. The application form for the SDK requires the signing of an NDA which would prevent me from contributing any patches back to gphoto2/gtkam. The SDK contains, besides the documentation, binary libraries which I presume is essentially a PTP client customized for this camera. I'm not particularly concerned by a NDA covering the binaries as I have no absolutely no interest in looking at them or using them but I'd really like use the PTP interface fully in Free software. I could reverse engineer the PTP properties and it wouldn't be too difficult but I'd rather not have to. Has anyone on the list got any recommendations or experience with approaching hardware manufacturers with requests of this type? Regards, James

2 1

FSF Europe newsletter
by Free Software Foundation Europe 08 Jun '04

08 Jun '04

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

1 0

Collecting arguments for licence change
by Achim D. Brucker 06 Jun '04

06 Jun '04

Hi, I'm trying to convince a group of authors (I'm not one of those) to release their software with a free licence (preferable (L)GPL or at least a (L)GPL compatible one). The project is a (in its community) well known and highly respected piece of software which was initially distributed under a non-free licence, mainly: "Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any non-commercial purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both the copyright notice and this permission notice and warranty disclaimer appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of the University xxx not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission." Where in the real licence terms, "University xxx" stands for two European Universities. Today, the copyright situation is somewhat complicated. - the above copyright note seems to be still the intended "main" copyright note, as it is located in a file called "COPYRIGHT" within the top-level directory of the (source) distribution. - Within the source files there are at least three types of copyright headers: 1) // Author: Joe Developer // Copyright: 2003 University xxx 2) // Author: Jim Developer // Copyright: GPL (GNU General Public License) 3) // Author: Fred Developer // Copyright: Fred Developer Note that one can assume that all authors have written the code "from scratch" for this project, e.g. Jim Developer will argue for changing the licence but would not accuse the project of disrespecting his licence. At the moment I'm in the brain-storming phase, e.g. I'm collection any thoughts, ideas, arguments, problems which I can use to convince the copyright holder to change the licence. My rather unstructured and unpolished list is as follows: - IMHO the actual licence constellation is highly contradictory and therefore "default copyright" rules come into force, which means (as I understood it) that a user is not allowed to do anything with the software... - recently they launched a public project where they are collecting examples for their software. They strictly require that the authors of the examples must licence their work under the LGPL. This prohibits code exchange in both directions, using code from the project in the example and also using the submitted examples in the main distribution (I think, this could be a kind of "killer argument"). - releasing the project as free software opens the door to broader publicity, e.g. inclusion of the project into Debian GNU/Linux, which IMHO is a great chance for projects in a non-mainstream area. (After a licence change, I would volunteer to provide Debian packages) - I plan also an offer to produce a Gnoppix (www.gnoppix.org) setup which provides a bootable demo system which should also be a great gain to the project as system is quite complex to install (at least in some sense). As I have the suspicion that the important people cannot be conviced on the legal level (the contradiction problem of the actual constellation) I try mainly to argue with the benefits of releasing the software as free software. Do you have any hints, guidelines, and/or further arguments for me? Any ideas how to start the licence discussion in a friendly way. What are the modest licence changes needed to get a (L)GPL compatible one? Thanks, Achim

2 2

FSMSI 2004 - First european seminar on "Free Software for Multimedia Streaming over Internet"
by Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia 04 Jun '04

04 Jun '04

[ Sorry for cross-posting - feel free to forward around ] ====================================================================== FSMSI 2004 First european seminar on Free software for multimedia streaming over internet June 23/24, 2004 IRCAM, Paris, France http://freesoftware.ircam.fr/fsmsi2004 ====================================================================== SCOPE OF THE SEMINAR The exponential growth of network speed makes it possible to exchange high quality audio and video contents over the Internet, often with real time capabilities. However, multimedia streaming still presents several issues with regards to Free Software and open standards: patents on software and data formats, free codecs availability, standards definitions, etc, etc. The goal of this seminar is to provide an overview of existing Free Software for multimedia streaming over Internet, to envisage future developments and collaborations in this area and to examine the possible ways to fund these developments. TOPICS OF INTEREST * Standards and open protocols for multimedia streaming * Free implementations of open protocols * Free players for multimedia contents * Free servers for multimedia streaming * Server architectures for multimedia streaming * Open multimedia formats * Free codec implementations * Real time multimedia streaming * Interactive multimedia applications INVITED SPEAKERS Carlo Calabrò (Videolan) François Déchelle (Ircam) Dominique Fober (Grame) Andrea Glorioso (MIU-FT) Eric Gressier (Cnam) Olivier Lescurieux (Ircam) Hans-Nikolas Locher (Cnam) Juan Carlos De Martin (IEIIT-CNR/Politecnico di Torino) Yann Orlarey (Grame) Patrice Tisserand (Ircam) SEMINAR PROGRAM Thursday, june 23: * presentations by the invited speakers * round table discussions for future projects and collaborations Friday, june 24: * presentations by the invited speakers * round table discussions for future projects and collaborations * "Bring your own laptop" hacking sessions ORGANIZATION COMITTEE Francois Déchelle, IRCAM (dechelle(a)ircam.fr) Andrea Glorioso, Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia (sama(a)miu-ft.org) SEMINAR STREAMING The presentations will be streamed in OGG/VORBIS format. CONTACTS Web site: http://freesoftware.ircam.fr/fsmsi2004/ Mailing list: freestreaming-paris2004(a)lists.miu-ft.org http://lists.miu-ft.org/mailman/listinfo/freestreaming-paris2004

1 0

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

Discussion June 2004