= FSFE Newsletter April 2018 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201804.pt.html ]
== More than 11.000 signatures handed over to the EU legislators asking to change dangerous copyright reform proposal ==
On March 19, the Free Software Foundation Europe together with
OpenMedia, jointly delivered a petition signed by more than 11.000
individuals, who ask European politicians to save internet from the
irreversible dangerous impact of the ongoing copyright reform, and in
particular Article 13 [1], which imposes preventive blocking of online
code repositories. These signatures were addressed to the EU co-
legislators: the European Parliament and the Council of the European
Union, and received by MEP Julia Reda, the shadow rapporteur in the
European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) which drives the
main parliamentary effort in the current copyright reform.
All signatures have been collected jointly by our Save Code Share [2]
campaign that highlights the threats that current EU copyright reform
imposes on Free Software, and Save the Link [3] that highlights how
current proposals aim at censoring online links.
Although it seems to be difficult to finally achieve a complete deletion
of Article 13, we have seen some positive developments in the position
of JURI when it comes to revising the initially proposed text [4] by the
European Commission. The proposed compromise amendments say, among other
things, that code sharing services will be excluded from an obligation
to install arbitrary upload filters and monitor its users' activities.
However, in the current text, this only applies for code sharing
services which act for "non-commercial" purposes. Such references to
"non-commercial" services still leave plenty of room for legal
uncertainty when it comes to liability of online code hosting services.
In conclusion, Article 13 continues to be a threat to Free Software that
is not in any definition connected to being "non-commercial".
Together with Open Forum Europe and other allies we keep on working hard
to ensure that legislators understand the differences and needs of Free
Software in Europe. If you like to support our work, sign our letter
[5], tell other people about it or help us with your financial support
[6].
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Join our community of freedom fighters. [7]
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- Our system hackers set up Discourse [8] as a new volunteer-run service
provided by the FSFE. It is still in a beta phase and currently serves
as a test case for specific topics. Over time we will evaluate whether
it fits in the FSFE’s communication setup and community. We would like
to invite you to become part of this new service, help us improving it
and enjoy the discussions: community.fsfe.org [9]
- Isabel Drost-Fromm published her own nomination statement [10] to the
Apache Software Foundation board to help bring more transparency to
people outside the foundation.
- Jens Lechtenbörger explains how he uses meta-data files and emacs-
reveal to automatically display [11] proper licensing and attribution
information in his presentations.
- Daniel Kulesz compares different ROMs [12] for Android phones
regarding questions of freedoms included, security, support and more
aspects.
- The FSFE team Italy was present at "Merge-it" with a session about our
"Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and the current state of its
implementation in Italy and EU.
- The System Hackers [13] held a meeting during Easter, to talk about
how to improve its internal workflow and the digital services provided
by the FSFE. The team was able to set new policies regarding services
maintenance, add more documentation, define the steps needed to comply
with the GDPR, and agreed on long-term goals.
== Get Active ==
The FSFE's community meeting 2018 will be part of the Libre Software
Meeting (LSM, also known as RMLL) in Strasbourg and vice versa. LSM is
maybe the biggest community-driven Free Software meeting in France and
therefore offers an exciting environment for the FSFE community to meet
up itself as well as to connect with the broader Free Software
community. On this occasion, the FSFE will also organise an own track on
the first days of LSM, on 7/8/9 of July. The call for participation [14]
is running until April 30. Do not miss it. This is your chance to
combine taking part in the FSFE's community meeting and to give a talk
at the LSM 2018 at the same time.
So, before you forget it, apply now [15]!
One of our topics will be "Digital Education" [16] - a topic that ranges
from school education via code literacy to the understanding of ethical
concepts behind information technology. But you are free to propose
other topics. Generally, we look forward for inspiring talks and
workshops covering golden cages and user's liberation - in educational
environments as well as in our everyday lives.
== 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 [17]. We're looking
forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [18], supporters [19] and
donors [20] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[21], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editors,
Erik Albers and Polina Malaja
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1: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171130-01
2: https://savecodeshare.eu/
3: https://savethelink.org/
4: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/proposal-directive-europ…
5: https://savecodeshare.eu/#sign-letter
6: http://fsfe.org/join/savecodeshare
7: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-04
8: https://community.fsfe.org/
9: https://community.fsfe.org/
10: http://blog.isabel-drost-fromm.de/posts/my-board-nomination-statement-2018.…
11: http://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2018/04/01/oer-figures-with-licen…
12: https://blogs.fsfe.org/kuleszdl/2018/04/02/looking-for-a-secure-smartphone-…
13: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/System-Hackers
14: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180414
15: https://rmll2018.info/conferences/RMLL2018/program/proposals/new
16: https://2018.rmll.info
17: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletterATfsfeDOTorg
18: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
19: https://fsfe.org/join
20: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
21: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators
22: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-04