= FSFE Newsletter November 2019 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201911.fi.html ]
This month, we present our Portuguese friends from ANSOL and their
success story on solving the problems DRM creates in their country and
gives tips on how you can take similar actions in your country. Episode
2 of the FSFE's Software Freedom Podcast is out and we dedicate it to
the KDE Community and the transformations and updates they are currently
undertaking. You can discover upcoming events and interesting stories
with visuals from the events where our community promoted Free Software
across Europe. We offer a sneak peak into this year's FSFE Annual
Community Meeting in Bolzano, Italy before the official report. In the
Get Active section, we ask for your help with the new "Public Money?
Public Code!" initiative. We need more municipalities and public sector
bodies to embrace the principles and become part of the signatories.
== How DRM was fixed in Portugal ==
DRM technologies restrict individuals from doing things with their media
that are otherwise perfectly legal. For example we might not be able to
put together a mix of music files we bought legally or to lend an e-book
to a friend. Even backups can be restricted. Following up with the Day
against DRM, in November we published a guest article [1] by our friends
from the Portuguese Association for Free Software (ANSOL), Paula Simões
and Marcos Marado. Together with the Portuguese Association for Free
Education (AEL) they were working towards resolving the DRM policies in
Portugal for 15 years. They finally accomplished the solution they
sought and in their article they shared with you the insights of that
success. ANSOL and AEL have been able to show policy makers what was
wrong with DRM and how its implementation hinders citizens and other
actors from exercising their rights and take advantage of the legally
foreseen copyright exceptions. Their story may inspire you to do the
same in your country or simply learn insights on how policy-making can
be influenced for the better.
== Podcast Episode 2 - A closer look at the KDE community with Lydia Pintscher ==
The November episode of the newly launched Software Freedom Podcast is
dedicated to the international Free Software Community KDE. At the FSFE
we have some history of working together with KDE, whereof one of the
biggest projects was the Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA) [2], a topic
that we also discuss in this Podcast. Our guest Lydia Pintscher is KDE's
Vice President, and in this episode she shares how the KDE community
developed and changed throughout time and how their team managed solving
some of the most pressing social and generational challenges the KDE
community is facing.
In addition, Lydia Pintscher talks about KDE's priorities. For example,
their work on making their applications more consistent, so they run
smoothly on your machines. Listen to the second Episode of the Software
Freedom Podcast [3] to learn how KDE sees their involvement with
relation to Android and the mobile area. You will also hear how KDE
places themselves in terms of technological sustainability or scenarios
where the connected device is no longer a phone, tablet or desktop.
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== Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE ==
As with every month, we are trying to spread the word and help
individuals and organisations understand what Free Software is and how
Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-
determination. If you are interested in seeing us in action and to join
our cause, keep in mind the following dates and locations in the coming
weeks:
- On November 28th, the Local Group of FSFE in Zurich will host a
workshop [5] under the name "There is no cloud, just other people's
computers". People who decide to participate will learn how to run
their own cloud to store and share files, photos, contacts, calendars
and more, and have the opportunity to try different cloud services.
The session is free of charge, but it requires a pre-registration.
== What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
Since the last newsletter we have been active in promoting the Free
Software cause by helping individuals and organisations have a better
understanding of what Free Software is and encouraging them to develop
and implement it in their lives. We want to share with you the events we
have photos, videos or other recordings below:
- Between October 11th and 12th, the Greek FSFE Community joined the
annual Free and Open Source Software Conference - FOSSCOM. This year
the Greek town of Lamia took turn in hosting it and attracted Free
Software enthusiasts from the area. The FSFE's booth attracted people
interested in what Free Software technology could offer in comparison
to the proprietary. Most questions were addressing the conversion into
a more privacy-oriented use of cloud solutions and asked about Free
Software alternatives to famous apps and services for their Android
phones.
- On 18 October the FSFE Local Group from Zurich was present with an
infobooth at the 3rd Dinacon conference in Bern. People were visiting
the FSFE stand to discuss and ask questions on Free Software Licensing
and taking informative leaflets and stickers.
- The FSFE Community in The Netherlands hosted an information booth and
gave a presentation at the LocHal Open Source event in Tilburg on 2
November. The Dutch FSFE coordinator Nico Rikken also gave a talk
about the four freedoms we hold so dearly. He explained the concepts
of each freedom, each illustrated with a cooking recipe analogy ,a
software user example, and a business example.
- This year, the FSFE's Community Meeting joined the SFScon - one of
Europe's most established annual conferences dedicated to Free
Software. The FSFE ran a fully dedicated track on Saturday, 16
November, that covered various topics:The policy activities FSFE works
on and is developing further, such as the new action item part of the
“Public Money? Public Code!” campaign. As part of this session we shed
a light on how we contact mayors and municipalities across Europe. The
Router Freedom session discussed the consultation we responded to,
where we explain to Regulators why it is important for the users to be
able to fully control their own routers. More practically oriented
talks also gave insights to new knowledge about the use and benefits
of Free Software and Open Standards in tourism, legal basics for Free
Software Licenses and many more. The presentations from the talks are
already available for downloading at the event's wiki page [6]. We are
publishing a full report with pictures from our Annual Meeting soon,
so long stay tuned.
- Lucas Lasota prepared an activity package for people and organisations
interested in Router Freedom, so they can advocate their own freedom
of choice. To learn more about it, read his article Router Freedom:
getting back the control over your own router [7].
- The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications(BEREC)
wrote guidelines for the National Regulators across EU on Router
Freedom. The FSFE provided them with a feedback on their public
consultation [8], telling them why it is essential for users to have
control over their own Routers.
== Editor's choice ==
- "New challenges for Free Software business models" [9] is an article
by Björn Schiessle, who gives useful information to people who want to
make money with Free Software and build sustainable and strong Free
Software companies.
- In their last newsletter [10], The Open Source Observatory (OSOR)
explains how France and Italy work on linking their source code
repositories with others and provides a picture of the current state
of the Federation of EU repositories - a project launched and promoted
by OSOR and the EU Commission.
== Get Active ==
The "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign launched an initiative [11]
looking for more publicly funded bodies (administrations, schools,
hospitals and etc) to sign our open letter [12]. This month, we kindly
ask you to join the cause by sending emails and letters to mayors,
municipalities, or any other head of administrations across cities in
your country. You can use the example letter [13] as a template, calling
public sector administrations to sign in the campaign.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and
support us with a donation or a monthly contribution:
https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 [14]
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [15], supporters [16] and
donors [17] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[18], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native languages.
Best Regards,
Galia Mancheva
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1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191113-01.fi.html
2: https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/fla.fi.html
3: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-2.fi.html
4: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911
5: https://www.digicomp.ch/events/it-professionals-events/referat-free-softwar…
6: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/FSFECommunityMeeting2019#Agenda
7: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191028-01.fi.html
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191120-01.fi.html
9: https://www.schiessle.org/articles/2019/11/17/new-challenges-for-free-softw…
10: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/joinup/newsletter-specific-archive-issue.cfm?…
11: http://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC
12: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
13: http://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC#Example_le…
14: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911
15: https://fsfe.org/contribute
16: https://my.fsfe.org/support
17: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
18: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
19: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911