The MS message: Time to invest in Free Software
In an attempt to inspire fear, uncertainty and doubt in the hearts of
the financial world, Microsoft alledged massive patent infringement by
Free Software in a recent Fortune article. [1]
According to Microsoft the Linux kernel violates 42 patents, Free
Software graphical user interfaces violate 65 patents, OpenOffice.org
productivity suite violates 45 patents, Free Software email clients
infringe 15 patents and other unspecified Free Software programs
infringe 68 patents.
On the grounds of these hitherto unsubstantiated claims, Microsoft now
seeks to cash in on the work of all the companies and developers that
earn their living through Free Software.
"Microsoft has built an empire in which it benefits from every
transaction. It can bolster and break companies at will and each and
every inhabitant of their world needs to financially pledge their
allegiance in certain intervals," explains Georg Greve, FSFE's
president. "Now that they are losing market share to a free market
economy built on Free Software, they again try to impose their vig on
the work of others."
"This is a good example of the impact of software patents. The main
effect of such patents is not innovation, but monopolisation and
establishing a licence to sue, or at least to slander," comments
Shane Coughlan, FSFE's coordinator for legal activities. "Unfortunately
Novell has given these ludicrous claims false credibility by entering
into an agreement with Microsoft, and paying Microsoft for a promise
not to sue its customers."
FSFE lawyer Carlo Piana continues: "I understand why Microsoft insists
on the Novell deal, but it is not a reliable example. If one examines
the recent history of the agreements between the two companies,
Microsoft does not seem to be the one selling something. Two years
ago Microsoft convinced Novell to withdraw antitrust claims against
Microsoft, and thus its support to the European Commission [2], for
monetary compensation. On the most recent deal the money apparently
went in the same direction. Paying your infringer nearly one billion
dollars in two years is quite an odd way to show reliance on your
patents portfolio."
Novells CEO, Ron Hovsepian, has indeed published a letter [3] in which
he contradicts Microsofts claims about violation of software patents
in Free Software. But since Microsoft paid good money for the deal
they apparently wanted some return on their investment and they
selected FUD.
"Companies that sign up with Novell as a result of this deal are
wasting their shareholders' money. There is no substance to these
claims, and no need to pay anything to Microsoft to use a system that
Microsoft had no part in," explains Georg Greve, FSFE president.
"If there is a lesson to be learned from this, it is that Microsoft is
getting desparate and does not know how to counter Free Software with
innovation," continues Greve. "This is a good proof of the business
success of Free Software, which is extremely stable not only
technologically, but also legally. So if you are a smart financial
analyst, this is the time to invest in Free Software."
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.
[1]
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/
[2] http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q4/000118.html
[3] http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/community_open_letter.html
_______________________________________________
Press-release-sv mailing list
Press-release-sv(a)fsfeurope.org
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release-sv
Jeremiah,
I've taken the liberty of posting this reply to both lists, and setting
the Reply-To to fsfe-se(a)fsfeurope.org which I think is a better place to
discuss the FSFE.
> Where are the minutes from the board meetings?
If you mean the minutes from the General Assembly, we file them
regularly with the court in Hamburg where the FSFE is registered.
> Where is the criteria for getting elected to country teams?
What happens generally is that one or more persons in a country team
raises the issue of inviting someone else to join the team, whom they
have presumably met and trust would be a useful addition to the team. If
the rest of the team agrees, then the coordinator of the team invites
that person to join.
> Where is the criteria for getting elected to the team?
This is similar to the country teams, but it is usually more strict.
More people in the core team have to know and trust the new person that
joins than in a country team.
> Is there a mission statement saying that regular votes are held for elected positions?
I don't understand what you mean by a "mission statement". The only
elected positions in the way you seem to think of them that we have is
the president, vice president and head of office. Those positions are
voted on by the General Assembly.
> What is the difference between the "GA" and the "Team"?
The General Assembly is the legal body responsible for the FSFE. The
core team is the executive arm of the GA and is lead by the president
and the vice president.
> In fact, the FSFE says they want a "structure that will allow transparency, plurality
> and participation." However what that means is unclear. For example, can any member
> become "President"?
Yes, any member can be elected for president. The members of the FSFE
gather every year at the assembly where they vote on president for two
year terms. This is in the FSFE constitution which you can find on our
web pages.
> For example, the last section called "Decision Processes" offers not one single
> concrete demonstration of which office makes executive descision, who is directly
> responsible for policy, or how that policy gets formed. It merely says things like;
I think this shows at a misunderstanding of how we work. Very, very
rarely do we take executive decisions. I think this happens only a
couple of times a year at most. The FSFE is governed by consensus: not
by executive decisions.
Your problem seems to be that you don't understand what consensus means.
In a consensus decision, there is no quorum, and no votes. There's
either consensus or there isn't. If there isn't, you discuss the issue
until you reach consensus.
> A simple, clear answer to those questions would server the fellows well. As it is it seems like
> FSFE is just an extension of the FSF designed to prevent a non-FSF group from co-opting or forming
> a group in Europe that might duplicate or obviate the FSF.
If you want to see a non-FSF group in Europe, I would suggest that you
found one. There are many non-FSF groups in Europe already, like the
FFII and EFF, working on areas that sometimes overlap, but I'm sure
there are room for more.
--
Jonas Öberg
Free Software Foundation Europe ( Join the Fellowship )
Tel. +46-31-780 21 61 Mob. +46-733 423 962 ( http://fsfe.org )
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Hej!
Jag skrev ihop ett litet referat ~4500 tecken ifrån gårdagen som jag
skickade till min hustidning. Så jag tänkte att listan kan få en kopia
med, har inte sett något officiellt ännu?
Leif-Jöran
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Fri programvarugrundaren fyllde Draken i Göteborg
Grundaren av Fri programvarurörelsen, FSF och Gnu, Richard Stallman, fyllde på ondagen biografen Draken i Göteborg till bristningsgräns vid sitt framträdanade ordnat av Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) och Göteborgs universitet. Vid videoskärmar i faojen följde utterligare intresserade det två timmar och fyrtiofem minuter långa föredraget.
Om åskådarna förväntat sej en fanatiker så överraskade Stallman med ett ytterst jovialiskt framträdande.
Microsoft, Apple och andra monopolistiska och proprietärprogramivrare fick sej rejäla kängor. Likaså USA:s president Bush, som genom sin administration utövade påtryckning på Microsoft för att införa en bakdörr så att USA:s regering skulle få tillträde till alla Windows-datorer i hela världen, vilken det därigenom skulle vara omoraliskt att rädda om han ramlat i vattnet och ropade på hjälp.
Microsofts övriga bakdörrar och spionerande på användarna i Windows belystes med flera upptäckta och konfirmerade exempel liksom i Windows Media Player. Apples iTunes och MacOS X fick även sina anti-användarbeteenden och begränsningar belysta. Google fick även det sitt för hanteringen av länkar som kopplas till person i Gmail och inlåsningen i Google Earth.
Skolor uppmanades att inte ge eleverna livslånga beroende av propritära program genom att ta emot donationer av eller använda subventionerade proprietära program. Bättre vore att endast använda Fri programvara för att gynna vetgiriga barns inlärning och en av grundskolans första uppgifter att lära barnen att dela med sej.
"Lär er säga Gnu/Linux det tar bara en sekund jämfört med att förklara filosofin bakom fri programvara vilket tar tio minuter", sade Stallman. Detta är det bästa sättet att ge uppmärksamhet åt friheten i Gnu.
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) Har nu börjat fått så dåligt rykte att producenterna fundera på dett nytt namn för de användarfientliga aktiviteterna. Här kommer Microsoft Windows Vista som endast gör allt sämre i detta avseende in. Undvik för allt i världen Windows Vista. Se kampanjsidorna badvista.org och defectivebydesign.org för att förstå vad systemet gör mot dej, sade Stallman vidare.
När det gäller upphovsrätten hade Stallman två förslag: i) tio års upphovsrätt för konstnärligt och ideologiskt material, däremot tillåts fri icke-kommersiell distribution från första dagen. ii) En nätskatt för att gynna artister och andra kulturarbetare. För att vara bättre än dagen system som ger 96 procent av intäkterna till förlag och underhållningsindustri och endast genererar 1 dollar per år och innevånare (siffror för USA) åt kulturarbetarna behövs inte mycket. Skatten bör vara trafikbaserad men för att inte enbart gynna storsäljare görs den progressiv.
Till Piratpartiet hade Stallman två uppmaningar: För det första, byt namn, det kan ibland fungera att kasta tillbaka ordet pirat i ansiket på underhållningsindustrin, men i längden tär det på krafterna och ger ett underläge inför allmänheteten. Och för det andra, det viktigaste, gör förhållandet mellan fri pgrogramvara och proprietära program i partiprogrammet mindre ofördelaktigt för Fri programvara genom att tvinga propritära programmakare som distribuerar binära program att deponera källkoden hos staten för att sedan släppas fri efter fem år. Då ges lika villkor eftersom Fri programvara alltid släpps med källkoden tillgänglig.
Patent på programvara måste avvecklas. Gå inte på finten av lobby att användanda termen IP (intellectual property, immaterialrätt). "Detta görs enbart för att skapa oreda och osäkerhet", fortsatte Stallman. De lagstiftningsområden de försöker klumpa ihop är inte förenliga. Använd därför alltid direkt hänvisning till den lagstiftning i det frågan gäller.
Föredraget avslutades med att Stallman publikfriande klädde ut sej till helgon av Emacs-kyrkan och därefter svarade på frågor från publiken.
Slutorden från Stallman blev "Ge inte monopolen makt över ditt liv. Fly till friheten i Gnu!"
Leif-Jöran Olsson, Göteborg, 20070517
****
Huvudpunkterna i föredraget var:
* De fyra friheterna i Fri programvarulicensen GPL. Läs mer om detta på gnu.org.
* Skillnaden mellan frihet och makt.
* Skillnaden mellan Fri programvara (Free Software) och Öppen källkod (Open source). Dvs avsaknaden av etik i det senare som endast är inriktat på effektivitet och prestanda.
* Ge inte barnen i skolan livslånga beroenden av proprietära program, ge dem Fri programvara.
* Digital Restrictions Managenent (DRM) (se badvista.org och defectivebydesign.org)
* Förslag till Piratpartiet
* Mjukvarupatent (se playogg.org)
> > Tue, May 15, 2007 at 03:00:24PM +0200: Jonas Oberg mangled some bits into this alignment:
> >> Jeremiah Foster wrote:
> >>
> >>> - It needs more openness. Currently FLOSS is dominated by groups like FSFE and
> >>> the Swedish Linux Foreningen. These groups are closed - especially the FSFE.
> >> I doubt this is really the case. This seems akin to saying that politics
> >> is closed since not anyone can be in the government!
> >
> > I think that is specious. Yes both domains are self-selecting, i.e. you can
> > decide to be active and find a position in the domain. However the FSFE does not
> > have direct elections by its members, just a select few. This points to a lack of
> > openness. Contrast this position with debian where all that is required is
> > previous involvement with debian and then once you are inside debian _anyone_
> > can be elected leader.
>
>
> Getting inside Debian means you have to prove some kind of skill and a
> long term commitment. Not everyone who wants get in.
>
> Once inside Debian you'll have a vote.
>
> ... same applies to FSFE. ( s/Debian/FSFE/ )
Umm, you just repeated what I said. Here is my quote, verbatim:
> > Contrast this position with debian where all that is required is
> > previous involvement with debian and then once you are inside debian _anyone_
> > can be elected leader.
I will re-iterate: Lack of tranparency in proceedings of FSFE exists at nearly all levels.
Where are the minutes from the board meetings?
Where is the criteria for getting elected to country teams?
Where is the criteria for getting elected to the team?
Is there a mission statement saying that regular votes are held for elected positions?
What is the difference between the "GA" and the "Team"?
In fact, the FSFE says they want a "structure that will allow transparency, plurality
and participation." However what that means is unclear. For example, can any member
become "President"? If not, why not? When is the election? Who votes? If you have
answers to these questions they ought to be publically available.
Frankly the "Self-conception" page is vague, thereby thwarting any transparency.
For example, the last section called "Decision Processes" offers not one single
concrete demonstration of which office makes executive descision, who is directly
responsible for policy, or how that policy gets formed. It merely says things like;
"The people of the Free Software Foundation Europe believe in consensus. We always
seek to base our work on the consensus -- and sometimes compromise -- of our active members."
Frankly, this is not just redundant, but meaningless. Yes you want consensus - but what
quorum is required? Consensus amongst whom? Just the members or the GA? Is there a plurality
needed or can one person say "Nope, lets not sue Microsoft! I want out!"
A simple, clear answer to those questions would server the fellows well. As it is it seems like
FSFE is just an extension of the FSF designed to prevent a non-FSF group from co-opting or forming
a group in Europe that might duplicate or obviate the FSF.
Jeremiah
>
>
>
> About openness, here's some links:
>
> what we do
> - http://www.sweden.fsfeurope.org/projects/projects.en.html
>
> what money we spend
> - http://www.sweden.fsfeurope.org/about/funds/funds.en.html
>
> what you can do
> - http://www.sweden.fsfeurope.org/help/help.en.html
>
> what info do you miss on our pages?
>
>
> Instead of discussing FSFE here I suggest switching to the list:
>
> fsfe-se(a)fsfeurope.org
>
> ... I have forwarded your entire email to that list.
>
> /h
>
> _______________________________________________
> diskussion mailing list
> diskussion(a)lists.se.linux.org
> http://lists.se.linux.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/diskussion
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