Dear Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz,
Of course I have heard about you and your personal involvement in the
European Public License. So please forgive me if my comments upon an
earlier draft of the EUPL have offended you. I hope you understood that
my comment was the result of direct solicitation.
From a quick glance at EUPL version 1.1 it now seems that the license
has been greatly improved since that first draft I saw. Congratulations!
Although FSFE's legal department would require a bit more time for
thorough analysis, the license now looks like a Free Software Copyleft
license that is expressedly compatible to the old version of the GNU
General Public License (GPL). For future improvement it would be good if
compatibility to the current version of the GNU GPL were also added.
Otherwise version 1.1 seems to have solved the issue that existed with
paragraph 13 of version 1.0, and while license proliferation [1] is
always a concern, the Compatibility clause in paragraph 5 seems to have
addressed it sufficiently through explicit compatibility and the ability
to relicense.
So from a first look it seems to me that the EUPL is now fit for its
intended use as a license catering to the specific political needs of
European public administration and it will help to foster growth of the
European Free Software ecosystem.
I'm sure you'll understand that this is a tentative analysis, pending a
more thorough one by the legal departments of our sister organisation
and FSFE itself, but maybe this quick response is already helpful.
My commendation on the work that has been done on the EUPL,
With best regards,
Georg Greve
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_proliferation
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
President +41 43 500 03 66 ext 400
Still seeking a New Year's Resolution? Visit http://fsfeurope.org/2009
Perhaps you have not seen it yet. We published a press release about
EC's decision: "Web browser interoperability: FSFE welcomes EC's
decision and offers support" [1] (also already available in Ελληνικά and
Italiano):
On the 16th of January the European Commission DG Competition
reported that it had issued a statement of objections regarding
Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer (IE) to the Windows Operating
System product family. This action builds on a complaint originally
submitted by Opera, a European company involved in web browser
development.
Free Software Foundation Europe welcomes the European Commission's
decision and offers its support in the coming anti-trust
investigation. As stated previously in a letter to the European
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, anti-competitive behaviour is
unacceptable, whether it occurs as 'tying' products with dominant
market segments, or in circumventing standards and fair access.
"Web browsers are becoming a critical platform for home and business
computing," says Shane Coughlan, legal coordinator at FSFE. "The
market previously failed to prevent unfair distortion of the desktop
environment and we cannot allow such practices to be repeated."
"It is important that no business in Europe is allowed to institute
any policy of embracing, extending and extinguishing competition
either through manipulation of interoperability information or
through abuse of a dominant position by unfair tying and bundling of
products," says Georg Greve, FSFE President. "Microsoft is a company
that has previously been convicted of market distortion in the Work
Group Server market, and we would welcome if the Commission also
took up the antitrust complaint initially lodged in early 2006 by
the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) regarding
market abuse in other areas."
For FSFE's previous statement on this issue please see: [2]
For FSFE's letter to the European Competition Commissioner Neelie
Kroes please see: [3]
I have seen it on some German media (sent that to fsfe-de(a)fsfeurope.org)
and also submitted it to fsdaily. If you like it, please vote for it on
[4].
Best wishes,
Matthias
1. http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090120-02.en.html
2. http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2007/news-20071221-01
3. http://fsfeurope.org/documents/20071219-opera-antitrust.pdf
4. http://www.fsdaily.com/Business/Web_browser_interoperability_FSFE_welcomes_…
--
Deputy German Coordinator, Fellowship Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) [] (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship of FSFE! [][][] (http://fsfe.org/join)
Your donation powers our work! || (http://fsfeurope.org/donate)
(Please forward this to anybody or any lists you think might be interested)
DFEY-NW (Digital Freedom in Education & Youth - North West) is a group
focusing on young people and issues of freedom in the digital world,
based in the Northwest of England at the moment.
=== In Brief ===
WHERE: Meet near the strange phonemast-like sculpture thing outside
Manchester OXFORD ROAD Station.
VENUE: BBC Headquarters, Oxford Road, Manchester
WHEN: Sunday 18th January, 12pm -> ~4pm
YOU *MUST* SIGN UP: http://dfey-nw.eventwax.com/dfey-january-meeting
CONTACT: Email - team at dfey dot freedomdreams dot net
--
MAILING LIST: http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/dfey-nw-discuss
WEBSITE: http://dfey.freedomdreams.co.uk
--
Notes from the last meeting:
http://dfey.freedomdreams.co.uk/wiki/Meetings/October/Notes
=== Meeting ===
Again, we have switched venues! This time however, hopefully we have a
permanent place with good facilities. As I understand, via the BBC we
will have not shortage of quiet space, power, wifi and a projector!
Due to because it's not fun to have to walk around a strange city on
your own, even if it is just a few steps, I suggest we meet at
Manchester Oxford Road train station at about 12pm (look for geeks,
laptops, t-shirts, signs saying "DFEY", stickers etc.) Once everyone has
arrived, we will then move on to BBC building just down the road.
We aim to have finished by about 4pm and to have left the building by 4:30.
=== Sign Up ===
The BBC has insisted I give the a list of all participants by early
Friday Morning, please do your best either sign up below, or email us so
we can let them know.
http://dfey-nw.eventwax.com/dfey-january-meeting
If you think a contact number might be helpful on the day, email us and
we will sort one out :)
=== Contact ===
Please join our *low traffic* mailing list for updates:
http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/dfey-nw-discuss
or use the forum interface:
http://dfey.freedomdreams.co.uk/wiki/Forum
We also are on IRC for questions and socialising at:
#dfey on irc.freenode.net
There is also a web interface if you haven't mastered IRC yet:
http://dfey.freedomdreams.co.uk/wiki/Chat
=== About DFEY-NW ===
DFEY-NW (Digital Freedom in Education and Youth) is a group formed in
response from a growing need in the Northwest of England for a group to
encourage and promote young people's involvement with the free software
community by creating a social space to make it more comfortable for
young people to get involved with GLUGs and FSUGs.
--
www.tdobson.net
----
If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us
still has one object.
If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now
has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw
