FSFE-IE December 2006

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7 participants
5 discussions

description of Tivoisation - comments sought
by Ciaran O'Riordan 19 Dec '06

19 Dec '06

A lawyer asked me recently how tivoisation works. I looked around, and there was no document explaining it. So I've put together a description below, but I'd like some comments on whether it's understandable and complete enough: =================== Tivoisation is a way of giving someone a computer whose software can be upgraded but which will refuse to run any software that isn't first authorised by the manufacturer. To implement tivosiation, a hardware manufacturer must do three things: 1. Put a chip in the computer which will check any software before it is run and which will only allow the running of software if an authorised digital fingerprint is found. 2. Inject that certain digital fingerprint into each version of their own software. 3. Don't tell their customers the fingerprint. By doing this, the manufacture can still publish new versions of the software in the future. It just has to inject the secret fingerprint and then publish the software and users will be able to run it. However, if the user tries to use a modified version of the software, or tries to run some third-party software, the computer will refuse to function fully, or will simply not run the software at all. =================== -- Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3 http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ GPLv3 and other work supported by http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org

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Update about FSFE's Freedom Task Force
by Shane M. Coughlan 13 Dec '06

13 Dec '06

Hi all The Freedom Task Force website is currently being updated: http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf Comments and suggestions are most welcome. I've recently posted a blog entry about the Freedom Task Force explaining our place in the wider Free Software world: http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/shane/communicating_freely/the_freedom_task_… I'm going to be on IRC for two hours this Friday. You'll see me there as 'shanecoughlan' between 9am and 11am GMT time (10am to 12 noon CET). The server is freenode, and the channel is #fsfeurope. I'd be delighted to answer any questions you might have about the FTF, to discuss potential routes of involvement, and to chat in general about Free Software licensing in Europe. Regards Shane -- Shane Coughlan FTF Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe +41435000366 ext 408 coughlan(a)fsfeurope.org Support Free Software > http://fsfe.org

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IFSO Meeting, Wed. December 20 (+ T-Shirts!)
by Glenn Strong 12 Dec '06

12 Dec '06

Hi everyone, Just a reminder that the next IFSO meeting is on Wednesday week. We would like to get a feel for how many people think they will make it to the meeting (reply off-list if you can, please, to avoid everyone getting too much email). It's the last one of the year, and we hope to make it more of a social event. Also, as of this morning, IFSO T-Shirts are available once more (we sold out at Akademy). All sizes and colours are back in stock. If you've been waiting to show your support in cotton-and-ink form, now's the time! Cheers, -- Glenn Strong

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FSFE Newsletter
by Free Software Foundation Europe 11 Dec '06

11 Dec '06

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.html http://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.html http://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

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FSFE Freedom Task Force - a new project to help Free Software
by Shane M. Coughlan 05 Dec '06

05 Dec '06

Good evening all! It's late at night here in Zurich and I decided to write a little message to everyone about the Freedom Task Force (FTF) [1]. The FTF is a project in Free Software Foundation Europe to help people with licensing matters in the European area. It's got a full-time coordinator (that's me), a network of legal and technical experts, and a volunteer list for people to help out [2]. The FTF focuses on three things: Licence education Fiduciary activity Licensing enforcement We officially launched the project recently [3] and we have been helping individuals, projects and businesses with various matters around Free Software licensing issues. One of the most interesting events was the signing of the Fiduciary License Agreement with the Bacula Project [4]. This enables FSFE to act as the legal guardian for Bacula. I'd really appreciate if you could help spread the word about the FTF. Tell projects. Blog. Spread the word at your LUG. Meanwhile, if you have any questions regarding Free Software licensing please drop me a line. The best way to get quick answers is to submit questions to ftf(a)fsfeurope.org because then the data will go directly onto our tracker. Regards Shane [1] http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/ [2] https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/ftf-discussion [3] http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000159.html [4] http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000161.html -- Shane Coughlan FTF Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe +41435000366 ext 408 coughlan(a)fsfeurope.org Support Free Software > http://fsfe.org

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FSFE-IE December 2006