= FSFE Newsletter - November 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201511.pt.html ]
== FSFE to EU: Think global, go Free Software! ==
In the end of October, FSFE provided its recommendations[1] to the
European Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy, a roadmap for
European policy in digital age aimed at bringing down regulatory
barriers between 28 different national markets. In particular, the
Commission has set goals to digitalise European industries, to develop
standards for “the cloud”, “the Internet of Things”, and big data, and
to further enhance digital education.
FSFE believes that Free Software will help the EU to meet the goals set
by the Commission. However, several barriers to unleash the full
potential of Free Software still exist: in particular unharmonised
exceptions to copyright protection, software patents, unrecognised
rights of users to modify their property, and the danger of standard-
essential patents in the standardisation. We ask EU legislators to
follow our recommendations and abolish the obstacles in the way of Free
Software.
== What the cloud is going on? ==
As a part of the Commission’s Digital Single Market, the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has been requested to
identify a detailed map of the standards required to support EU policy
in “the cloud”. Your co-editor blogged[2] about their confusing position
on Free Software in the ETSI’s Cloud Standards Coordination initiative.
== FSFE’s legislative push against compulsory routers inches forward in Bundestag ==
FSFE hired our German coordinator Max Mehl as a working student to stay
on top of the compulsory routers issue. So far the FSFE, together with 9
other civil and economic organisations, sent a joint letter[3] to
members of the German Bundestag to support the bill against compulsory
routers. Forcing consumers to use a specific router provided by an ISP
undermines free and fair competition of manufacturers. In addition they
are harmful to users’ security, privacy, and independence to use their
own preferred, secure, device.
The Bundestag will consult about the bill in November, and despite the
unanimous opinion of experts, consumer protectors, and politicians who
support the bill, some members of the Federal Council aligned against
it, and adopted technically inconsistent arguments of internet providers
and network carriers.
== Remember Sony rootkit? FSFE does ==
FSFE commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sony rootkit fiasco on 31
October by posting a reminder[4] of how dangerous digital restrictions
are for user’s security, the freedom to tinker, and general purpose
computing. Before public outrage and lawsuits demanded retribution from
Sony, the rootkit had already infiltrated users’ computers, spied on
their listening habits, blocked third party software, slowed down
computer performance, created holes in user’s computer security, and
sent data back to Sony. This month FSFE reached out[5] to dozens of tech
and security journalists to team up and remind the public to protect
their digital freedoms and to be wary of digital restrictions, the same
kinds of restrictions that gave Sony access to millions of computers and
hundreds of thousands of networks.
== Get Active ==
Since last week was the 10th anniversary of when the Sony rootkit was
unveiled, spend a few minutes this month to share what happened back in
2005 with friends, family, or colleagues who have never heard of the
Sony rootkit. Sony rootkit provides a prime example of how companies
build in harmful restrictions into software to limit what consumers can
do with their own property.
== FSF’s 30th birthday finds cake, birthday wishes, and Swiss press coverage ==
In contrast to the Sony rootkit anniversary, there was also a positive
anniversary this month. On 3 October 2015 the Free Software Foundation
of Europe celebrated the Free Software Foundation’s 30th birthday[6]
with some delicious cake and many wonderful birthday wishes. Shortly
thereafter, FSFE President Matthias Kirschner spoke extensively[7] with
the largest Swiss newspaper about FSFE and the role of Free Software in
politics and the economy. Matthias’s interview complemented an
additional article[8] about Richard Stallman and Free Software activism.
== Zurich fellows offer Free Software computer ==
Fellows in Zurich started “Free Computer for Free People”[9], an
initiative to offer laptops that run completely on Free Software only.
This includes alternative firmware and free BIOS that are most often
proprietary on the majority of laptops and preclude users from
installing Free Software not authorised by the manufacturer. By reusing
used hardware, the Zurich Fellows also like to foster a sustainable use
of hardware.
== FreeRTC Mission Statement for Skype replacement ==
FSFE’s project to develop FreeRTC, that is, Real Time Communications, is
taking suggestions for how to improve their Mission Statement. The goal
is to make it as easy as possible to call other people and receive calls
from other people using solely Free Software, open standards, a free
choice of service providers and a credible standard of privacy. Sign up
to the mailing list[10] to follow the discussion and post your opinion.
== FSFE Executive Director Jonas Öberg reflects on his 1999 meeting with Richard Stallman ==
FSFE co-founder and Executive Director, Jonas Öberg reminisced[11] about
how he got involved in Free Software, including the details of his
influential trip to Boston as a 22-year-old in 1999. His story features
trips to Technology Square in Boston, attending the Free Software
Awards, and a commitment to Richard Stallman to “always be true to the
community.”
== Interview with Apache Software Foundation member, developer, and mother, Isabel Drost-Fromm ==
On 13 October, Paul Boddie commemorated Ada Lovelace Day (international
day of women in science and technology) by interviewing[12] local Berlin
resident and Free Software contributor, Isabel Drost-Fromm. Their
conversation covered technical topics (naturally), as well as advice on
managing expectations and building confidence for the transition to the
next generation of hackers, makers, and tinkerers.
Thanks to all the volunteers[13], Fellows[14], and corporate donors[15]
who enable our work.
Polina Malaja and Asa Ritz - FSFE[16]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. http://fsfe.org/activities/policy/eu/digital-single-market-comments.en.html
2. http://blogs.fsfe.org/polina/2015/10/15/what-the-cloud-is-going-on-in-etsi/
3. http://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20151028-01.html
4. http://fsfe.org/activities/drm/sony-rootkit-fiasco.en.html
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/asawritz/2015/11/04/sony-rootkit-still-making-headlin…
6. https://wiki.fsfe.org/FSF30Birthday
7. http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/digital/computer/Politisch-denkende-Menschen-ve…
8. http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/digital/computer/Politisch-denkende-Menschen-ve…
9. https://blogs.fsfe.org/mmoeller/2015/10/07/libre-laptops/
10. https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc
11. https://opensource.com/life/15/10/my-open-source-story-jonas-oberg
12. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=715
13. http://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
14. https://fsfe.org/fellowship/ams/join.php?ams=join
15. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
16. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html
= FSFE Newsletter - October 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201510.pt.html ]
== FSFE elections and other news from Bucharest ==
At this year's General Assembly in Bucharest, the FSFE elected a new
leadership team for the next two years[1]. Reinhard Müller will continue
his role as Financial Officer while your editor will assume the role as
President, with Alessandro Rubini filling in as Vice-President.
Alessandro is an electronic engineer working on device drivers and
embedded systems. He was one of the first members of the FSFE and
recently joined again to support us in our work. The FSFE's former
President, Karsten Gerloff welcomed the change and wrote about his
future steps[2].
The city of Bucharest was already warming up to Free Software several
weeks before the FSFE's arrival, as Romanian public administrations were
invited by Rogentos Linux User Group to test out two GNU/Linux-
distributions[3]. This is a first step towards more awareness for
software freedom in the country's public administration. After the
General Assembly, we discussed this news and further collaboration with
Free Software contributors from Romania, especially with our friends
from Fundația Ceata, the Romanian foundation for Free Software and Free
Culture. We found out that they are looking for skilled designers to
contribute their ideas for a new logo for the foundation. So any graphic
artists out there who are willing to flex their muscles for a good cause
can find more information on their call for submissions page[4].
== FSFE’s evaluation of the EU Parliament copyright report ==
In July, the European Parliament adopted its recommendations for
copyright reform initially drafted by MEP Julia Reda, and the FSFE
released[5] its assessment of the final report that was approved in the
Parliament after considerable amount of amendments. While some
improvements exist in the Parliament's final report over current
legislation, there are enough problems that it should be reconsidered,
especially in regards to Free Software. In particular, the report fails
to adequately address Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) that can
still hinder the use of works that fall under copyright exceptions, and
it does not provide a possibility for software developers to contribute
their works directly to the public domain.
In the next step, the Commission will publish their proposal on
copyright reform sometime before the end of 2015. We ask the Commission
to take the copyright reform even further and ensure that no exception
to copyright should be ever limited by technological restrictions, to
provide for a fully harmonised set of exceptions, and to publish all
works that are publicly funded under a Free Software licence.
== Tidying up PDFreaders ==
While wrapping up our PDFreaders campaign[6] it is worthy to highlight a
few success stories in particular. Our German Coordinator, Max Mehl,
blogged[7] about the success of the campaign in German government. In
fact, the campaign was so successful, the German "Migration Guide" now
includes a titbit about us, saying "If PDF documents are provided
publicly authorities shall no longer only recommend Adobe Acrobat Reader
for displaying them, but for example use the HTML templates provided by
the FSFE on their websites for downloading alternative PDF readers", as
well as recommending officials to expand to Free Software as viable
alternatives.
The FSFE helped to bring out the best in Free Software PDF readers for
the private sector as well. Our very own Polina Malaja was able to catch
up[8] with our former PDFreaders campaign coordinator, Hannes
Hauswedell, about his conversation with Google back in 2011 about
releasing Pdfium software as Free Software. Finally in 2014, Hannes's
request came to fruition. Now, we are not saying our campaign caused the
Pdfium release, but we would like to think our campaign played a part in
it.
== Something completely different ==
- FSFE Switzerland, in cooperation with the Swiss Open Systems User
Group, sent out hundreds of letters to different political candidates
asking them to participate in their online questionnaire,
Freedomvote[9], as a way to collect candidates' opinions of various
digital issues that are sometimes overlooked like e-voting, open data,
Free Software, and data security. The results were posted online for
citizens to make more informed decisions about who they will vote for
on election day on 18 October.
- Paul Boddie interviews FSFE Fellow Nico Rikken[10] from the
Netherlands. Nico's background is in electrical engineering, and he
provides insight into open hardware and education policy amongst other
things.
- On 1 September the Parisian High Court reaffirmed that software
patents are illegal in Europe under the European Patent
Convention.[11] However, this success comes only as a silver lining,
considering that the plaintiff in this case was actually granted a
patent from the European Patent Office.
- According to Felix Greve's PhD thesis, the German constitution
requires vendor-neutral ICT standards to ensure interoperability in
public administration and elsewhere[12]. The current lack of
interoperability rules are a major barrier to the country’s uptake of
Free Software.
- FSF certified Taurinus X200 laptop[13] to respect users' freedom. It
also removes Intel's Management Engine (ME) which is a secret and
proprietary software that allows remote access to the computer over a
network, changing and upgrading the BIOS configuration, or wiping the
disk. ME has full access to the computer with a wide functionality and
could be a very useful security measure, but only if the owner of the
device has the ability to control it.
- Public Administration: The UK government publishes an authoritative
ODF guide[14] about integration of ODF with enterprise software in
public procurement, the Italian military is switching to LibreOffice
and ODF[15] making it Europe’s second largest LibreOffice
implementation, at the Debian Conference "DebConf15" the city of
Munich showed that they are a major contributor to Free Software by
sharing software solutions and best practices[16], and Open Forum
Europe's Karel De Vriendt provided insight[17] into the thinking
behind European Commission's call for tender concerning Microsoft
products that will further increase the vendor lock-in in public IT
sector.
- From the planet aggregation[18]:
- Daniel Pocock argues that the only way to avoid scandals like the
one with VW[19] in the future is to ensure everyone's freedom to
see and modify the source code in the equipment that controls our
lives.
- Dominic Hopf (now an official intergalactic diplomat) and new
Fellow Pascal Wittmann, organised a booth at a Software Freedom
Day (SFD) event in Kiel[20] and gave a presentation about F-Droid.
- On a wet day in Frankfurt, the FSFE booth made a splash among
visitors at the annual Rotlintstraßenfest who were eager to learn
more about software freedom. Guido Arnold provides more details on
this popular outdoor event.[21]
- Meanwhile FSFE Fellow Michael Stehmann summarised his SFD
experience in Cologne (in German)[22].
- Our Executive Director Jonas Öberg gave a rundown on the logistics
behind running a successful event[23].
- Carsten Agger was busy organising the LibreOffice Hackfest in
Aarhus[24].
- Tobias Platen criticises[25] just how allegedly "free" Purism
Librem computers actually are.
- André Ockers explains how concerned citizens in the Netherlands
convinced a Dutch government agency to use an Open Document
format[26], and
- Paul Boddie asks "Random Questions" about the Fairphone's source
code availability"[27].
== Get Active: Nominate people and projects for the Free Software Award ==
Often users do not realise that they are using Free Software. Sometimes
we need to explicitly state that fact. For instance the new upgrade of
WordPress[28] includes a tab with a reference to the GNU General Public
License and the four freedoms of Free Software, explicitly informing the
Wordpress community about the importance of freedom underlying their
software.
However, very often a lot of amazing Free Software developers and
projects out there do not get the recognition they deserve. Right now
the FSF is accepting nominations for the 18th annual Free Software
Awards[29] for people and projects who have improved the world using
Free Software. There are two awards, one for people who have advanced
the movement, and another for a project that has fulfilled a crucial
societal need through the use of Free Software. Please submit your
nominations until 1 November.
Thanks to all the volunteers[30], Fellows[31] and corporate donors[32]
who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner[33] - FSFE[34]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150922-01.pt.html
2. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2015/09/18/please-welcome-fsfes-new-president/
3. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/145574
4. https://ceata.org/comunicate/international-challenge-logo-for-ceata.html
5. https://fsfe.org/activities/policy/eu/20150918-Assessment-Of-The-Report-On-…
6. https://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.en.html
7. http://blog.mehl.mx/2015/german-government-wants-authorities-to-advertise-p…
8. http://blogs.fsfe.org/polina/2015/09/10/free-pdf-reader-for-the-web-browser/
9. https://freedomvote.ch/
10. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=672
11. https://www.april.org/en/paris-high-court-reaffirms-ban-software-patents
12. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/145984
13. http://www.fsf.org/news/now-fsf-cerified-to-respect-your-freedom-taurinus-x…
14. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/145658
15. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/145784
16. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/145626
17. http://www.openforumeurope.org/windows-dressing/
18. http://planet.fsfe.org
19. http://danielpocock.com/the-only-way-to-ensure-the-vw-scandal-never-happens…
20. http://blog.dmaphy.de/2015/09/how-to-travel-intergalactic-way-free.html
21. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2015/09/fsfe-info-booth-at-rotlintstrasenfest-i…
22. http://blogs.fsfe.org/stehmann/?p=1554
23. http://blogs.fsfe.org/jonas/?p=20
24. http://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/2015/09/28/organizing-this-years-libreoffice-co…
25. http://blogs.fsfe.org/tobias_platen/2015/09/22/why-i-wont-buy-the-libre/
26. https://blogs.fsfe.org/ao/2015/09/26/why-we-convinced-a-dutch-government-ag…
27. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=1129
28. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/wordpress-brings-the-freedom-to-the-front
29. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-is-improving-the-world-through-free-…
30. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.pt.html
31. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
32. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.pt.html
33. https://fsfe.org/about/kirschner
34. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html
= FSFE Newsletter - September 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201509.pt.html ]
== FSFE supports users' control over their online data ==
Nowadays we use online services for everything and increasingly provide
our data to them. However we also lose the control of our own data more
than ever. Together with other organisations FSFE supports the
publication of the User Data Manifesto 2.0[1] which promotes users'
basic rights to control their data while using online services.
According to the manifesto, users must control the access to their data,
they have to know if their data is stored by the online services, and
they have to be able to freely choose a platform without being forced to
vendor lock-in. The manifesto is a good starting point for the debate
about users' rights online, and FSFE looks forward to other
organisations joining the effort to stand for online services that
respect users' fundamental rights.
== Compulsory routers: Another one bites the dust ==
The router, although often a device covered with dust in some corner at
home, is an important part of your local network and phone. A lot of
users in Germany do not own this device, although it stands in their
home and they pay for its power. At least that is still the case. On
August 12th, the German Federal Ministry of the Economy (BMWi) passed a
reworked draft bill[2] that would free users from compulsory router
lock-in. The draft ensures that internet users in Germany can use
whatever routers they want to connect to the internet.
The bill now has to be adopted by the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) and
the Federal Assembly (Bundesrat). So far the comments concerned only a
small formal ambiguity, but we have to make sure this law passes without
any negative changes and that it is afterwards implemented. We have a
detailed update[3] which also describes how you can help us in Germany
at the moment! Besides that we summarised the issue[4] and we are
constantly updating our timeline[5] so in case this topic comes up in
your country, you can reuse our arguments.
== New German Coordinators and dissolving the German association ==
In his blog post your editor outlined[6] the process of streamlining the
FSFE by dissolving the last remaining country chapter, known as the FSFE
Chapter Germany e.V. This step was decided last year in November with
the goal to remove some bureaucratic burdens associated with maintaining
a legal entity. However as you can read in the article, dissolving an
organisation is not as easy as it may sound; but we hope to complete
this process in April of next year.
FSFE is happy to announce that Max Mehl and Björn Schießle became the
new coordinators of the German team last month, and from now on will
hopefully not spend many hours per year dealing with bureaucracy. Both
have been a part of FSFE for a long time now and have been helping us to
achieve our goal to empower people to control technology[7]. Just
recently, Björn wrote an article on the German blog Netzpolitik.org
about the User Data Manifesto[8] (see above in English), and Max just
published an update on compulsory routers as mentioned above, along with
an article on Netzpolitik.org about it[9].
== Something completely different ==
- Paul Boddie started with the Fellowship interviews again: he talked
with Neil McGovern[10] who is a Fellow of the FSFE from the United
Kingdom and the current Debian Project Leader.
- Hugo Roy, FSFE's deputy legal coordinator wrote an article[11] (in
French) about a copyright case between Skype and a French software
company which decompiled parts of Skype in order to, allegedly, build
a system interoperable with it. Interestingly enough, the court found
that company's disclosure of the source code was illegal, but that
using the code to build a new interoperable program was legal.
- FSFE has a new role in the Bacula project[12]. Over the coming months,
the FSFE will wind down its previous role as a fiduciary for Bacula,
effectively transferring its copyright to Kern. However, the FSFE will
continue to work with Kern and contributors to ensure that Bacula will
remain as Free Software, as per our original agreement.
- Next month FSFE will have a booth at the "Rotlintstraßenfest" in
Frankfurt on 19 September and a booth at the "Kieler Open Source and
Linuxtage" from 18-19 September.
- From the planet aggregation[13]:
- Nikos Roussos was guided by Open Street Map during his vacations
and afterwards he spent time to improve the Open Street Map[14]
with the data he gathered during his trip so everybody will
benefit from it again.
- Daniel Pocock published the second part[15] of his how-to about
"recording live events like a pro".
- Paul Boddie commented on the new Fairphone[16] and wrote about his
passion[17] for microcomputer systems from the 1980s and his
experience with PCB design.
- Mario Fux unveils the secret ingredient for the success of the
"Randa Meetings"[18] -- the KDE meetings in the Swiss Alps --
which took place for the sixth time this year.
- On a more technical side Peter Bubestinger, FSFE's Austrian
coordinator and technician at the National Video-Archive, wrote
about rescuing videotapes[19].
- Kevin Keitzer wrote about some SSH magic in "Connecting to a
server’s web interface over SSH"[20], and about how to track
airplanes and do other interesting things with "software-defined
radio on GNU/Linux"[21].
== Get active: translate and improve translations of our mission statement ==
"Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives. It is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights..." That is how
FSFE's recently updated mission statement starts[22]. We hope that it
will help us to get more people to understand what we are doing. We
already have translations into Albanian, Dutch, English, Finnish, Greek,
Italian, Portuguese, and Turkish.
Please help us to get more translations[23], and to check the exisiting
translations for easy readability for everybody.
Thanks to all the volunteers[24], Fellows[25] and corporate donors[26]
who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE[27]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. http://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150829-01.html
2. http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/PDF/Gesetz/gesetzentwurf-der-bundesregier…
3. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150902-01.html
4. https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/routers.html
5. https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/timeline.html
6. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/dissolving-our-association/
7. http://fsfe.org/about/mission.html
8. https://netzpolitik.org/2015/user-data-manifesto-2-0/
9. https://netzpolitik.org/2015/der-lange-weg-des-routerzwangs-zur-endgeraetef…
10. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=683
11. http://www.lemondedudroit.fr/le-monde-du-droit-le-quotidien-des-juristes-da…
12. http://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150817-01.en.html
13. http://planet.fsfe.org
14. http://www.roussos.cc/2015/08/07/post-vacations-map-editing/
15. http://danielpocock.com/recording-live-events-like-a-pro-part-two-video
16. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=1000
17. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=1070
18. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mario/?p=336
19. http://blogs.fsfe.org/pb/?p=158
20. http://blogs.fsfe.org/the_unconventional/2015/08/27/web-interface-over-ssh/
21. http://blogs.fsfe.org/the_unconventional/2015/08/31/sdr-on-linux/
22. https://fsfe.org/about/mission.html
23. http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.html
24. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.pt.html
25. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
26. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.pt.html
27. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html
= Boletim Informativo FSFE - Agosto 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201508.pt.html ]
== Resposta à consulta da UE sobre direitos de autor, patentes e segredos comerciais ==
No início do mês, a FSFE respondeu à “Consulta sobre contratação pública
e propriedade intelectual”, iniciada pela Comissão Europeia. De acordo
com a Comissão o objectivo inicial da consulta era “recolher evidências,
opiniões e comentários sobre o respeito dos direitos de propriedade
intelectual e segredos comerciais em procedimentos de contratação
pública”, e concluir se há a necessidade de um guia para as autoridades
públicas a este respeito.
Na nossa resposta, nós reafirmamos várias questões que devem ser
endereçadas no tópico geral da consulta. Por exemplo no que diz respeito
a patentes de software, explicámos que é impossível contratar software
que não está a violar nenhuma patente, e que os direitos dos detentores
de direitos de autor não devem ser desvalorizados por patentes de
terceiros. Além disso, a FSFE argumentou que todo o software financiado
publicamente deve ser publicado e distribuído como Software Livre por
omissão, para que todos possam usar o software para os seus próprios
propósitos e providenciar melhores serviços para as autoridades públicas
como retorno.
A nossa estagiária actual Polina Malaja sumariou as nossas respostas e
escreveu sobre a consulta num artigo no seu blog[1], e tornou as nossas
respostas disponíveis na wiki da FSFE[2].
== Como lidar com restrições de firmware ==
O objectivo da FSFE é garantir que os donos de dispositivos tecnológicos
estão sempre em total e único controlo deles. Durante os últimos anos
este princípio fundamental tem sido desafiado por desenvolvimentos como
o UEFI “Secure Boot”[3], ou a BIOS proprietária. Isto é software de
baixo nível que é executado quando liga o seu computador. Ele inicializa
o hardware e pode estar desenhado para restringir os utilizadores de
instalar software que não é “autorizado” pelo fabricante. Este
desenvolvimento foi também um tópico na aprentação deste editor[4] na
Akademy deste ano em Corunha/Espanha, que dá uma visão sobre como
resolver estas restrições fabricadas.
Uma das formas de contornar estes desenvolvimentos é usar firmware
alternativo de arranque. Há várias formas de ter o firmware proprietário
que vem por omissão substituído por análogos livres. O nosso associado
Kevin Keijzer explica em detalhe como "fazer com que um beaglebone black
fique com o Coreboot"[5], e como "gravar o Libreboot num Lenovo X200 com
um Raspberry Pi"[6]. Outro associado André Ockers explica num artigo no
seu blogue como é que obteve um Thinkpad T60p com Trisquel e
Libreboot[7].
Para além de trabalhar em firmware de arranque livre alternativo, temos
também de olhar para o futuro. Temos de pensar sobre como extender as
ideias do Software Livre para o hardware. O Richard Stallman escreveu
sobre isso no seu artigo "Porque precisamos de desenhos digitais de
hardware livres"[8].
== Algo completamente diferente ==
- Entre 24 e 26 de Julho, a FSFE teve o seu Encontro de Coordenadores
Europeus 2015 (ECM15) em Essen. Entre muitos tópicos, os nossos
coordenadores discutiram estratégia, uma proposta para reestruturar a
comunidade e a comunicação da FSFE, tal como o nosso trabalho em
campanhas e junto à imprensa. Para mais informação por favor leia o
artigo no blogue do Erik Albers[9].
- A equipa de educação da FSFE actualizou o seu sítio web[10]. Dê uma
olhada, envie-nos comentários, ou melhor ainda: junta-se à nossa
equipa de educação para promover o uso de Software Livre nas escolas e
Universidades.
- O editor, Matthias Kirschner, foi entrevistado antes da Akademy. A
entrevista está disponível no sítio web do KDE[11]. Abrange questões
sobre a sua primeira distribuição GNU/Linux, porque estudou ele
política e gestão, como é que se envolveu na FSFE, como é que o
Software Livre está ligado ao progresso da sociedade, tal como o seu
envolvimento em seminários de primeiros socorros num ambiente
selvagem. (Victorhck traduziu a entrevista para Espanhol[12].)
- A Comissão Europeia publicou o editor de legislação LEOS como Software
Livre[13]. Pode ser usado para redigir e processar automaticamente
textos legais. Actualmente o software suporta textos legais emitidos
pela CE, mas pode ser extendido para suportar outros processos
legislativos.
- Dois bons desenvolvimentos em França: por um lado o Governo Francês
publicou modelos[14] para serem usados por oficiais de aquisição
quando estiverem a requisitar soluções de ICT baseadas em Software
Livre. Os modelos incluem cláusulas de procuração de Software Livre
que impelem os programadores a organizar código contribuído. Por outro
lado, a França quer a sua administração pública prioritize o formato
ODF em detrimento do Microsoft OOXML (ver um artigo no Register[15] ).
- A 3 de Outubro de 2015 a FSF celebra o seu trigésimo aniversário em
Boston. É um motivo para celebrar. Como sua organização irmã, convida-
mo-vos a organizar pequenas festas de aniversário[16] pela Europa,
também. Diga-nos se planear algo, para que promovamos a celebração.
- Do planeta agregador[17]:
- Riccardo Iaconelli ecreveu sobre WikiFM[18], um projecto KDE que
tem como objectivo disseminar conhecimento livre e aberto pelo
mundo, na forma de livros técnicos e notas de cursos. É difigido a
estudantes, investigadores e aprendizes contínuos, com manuais e
conteúdo sobre assuntos tão variados como cálculo básico até
“Desenhando com QML” (já usado pela High Energy Physics Software
Foundation).
- Daniel Pocock expliça[19] como gravar eventos ao vivo com o seu
telemóvel e um microfone de lapela.
- Guido Arnold reportou a Galiza introduzindo mais de 50 000
estudantes ao Software Livre[20], e uma escola em Espanha a mudar
para o usod de Ubuntu/Linux[21] nos seus PCs nas salas de aula e
gabinetes.
== Seja activo: Contribua para o nosso gerador de sítios web estáticos ==
Deste 2002 que a FSFE isa um gerador de sítios web estátios para a nossa
presença web. A primeira versão foi escrita por Jonas Öberg, que é agora
o Director Executivo da FSFE. No mês passado introduzimos uma nova
versão para a instância de testes do nosso sítio web. Neste artigo no
seu blog, o webmaster da FSFE Paul Hänsch sumariza as suas novas
funcionalidades, e limitações[22]. Assim, se estiver interessado em
melhor a presença web da FSFE a um nível técnico, leia isto e contacte a
nossa equipa web.
Obrigado a todos os voluntários[23], Associados[24] e doadores
corporaticos[25] que tornam o nosso trabalho possível,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE[26]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. http://blogs.fsfe.org/polina/2015/07/24/fsfe-answers-to-the-consultation-on…
2. https://wiki.fsfe.org/Free_Software_in_public_procurement
3. https://fsfe.org/campaigns/generalpurposecomputing/secure-boot-analysis.pt.…
4. https://dot.kde.org/2015/07/25/akademy-talks-day-1
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/the_unconventional/2015/06/08/setting-up-a-beaglebone…
6. https://blogs.fsfe.org/the_unconventional/2015/06/06/libreboot-x200-raspber…
7. https://blogs.fsfe.org/ao/2015/05/29/how-i-got-a-thinkpad-t60p-coreboot-gnu…
8. http://www.wired.com/2015/03/need-free-digital-hardware-designs/
9. https://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2015/07/30/european-coordinators-meeting-2015/
10. http://fsfe.org/activities/education/education.html
11. https://dot.kde.org/2015/07/15/akademy-2015-keynote-matthias-kirschner
12. https://victorhckinthefreeworld.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/entrevista-a-matth…
13. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/144375
14. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/144729
15. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/22/french_government_computer_agency_r…
16. http://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-invites-the-free-software-community-to-its-30th…
17. http://planet.fsfe.org
18. http://blogs.fsfe.org/ruphy/2015/07/announcing-wikifm/
19. http://danielpocock.com/recording-live-events-like-a-pro-part-one-audio
20. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2015/07/galicia-introducing-over-50-000-student…
21. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2015/07/we-dont-use-free-software-we-want-somet…
22. http://blog.plutz.net/The_FSFE_org_buildscript.html
23. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.pt.html
24. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
25. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.pt.html
26. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html
= FSFE Newsletter - July 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201507.en.html ]
== FSFE pokes the European Commission on its transparency commitment ==
While looking into the Digital Single Market (DSM) package, our
president Karsten Gerloff noticed that the EU Commissioner Günther
Oettinger neglected to publish his recent meetings with lobbyists. So
Karsten reminded the Commission about their transparency commitment.
Meanwhile Oettinger's Head of Cabinet, Michael Hager, explained that a
long-term sickness leave in the cabinet has led to a delay in publishing
the meetings, and they updated the lists of meetings.
But it turned out Karsten was not the only one interested in Oettinger's
meetings[1]. A few days after Karsten's reminder the Spiegel and other
media published news stories about it. According to Spiegel Online’s
figures, 90% of the Commissioner’s meetings were with corporate
representatives, business organisations, consultancies and law firms.
Only 3% of his meetings were with NGOs. Of the top ten organisations
he’s meeting with, seven are telecoms companies, most of whom are
staunchly opposed to net neutrality.
Without the EU's transparency commitment, it would have been almost
impossible to research this. This shows how important such transparency
commitments are and it shows how important it is that organisations and
individuals actually monitor such publications. Furthermore we hope that
from now on Oettinger better balances his meetings, so he hears
different sides of an issue, and can make an informed decision.
== TiSA: intransparent treaty might prevent digital sovereignty ==
Nowadays countries start to demand the source code for software they
procure. If they sign the currently negotiated Trade in Services
Agreement (TiSA) they might be forbidden to continue doing so.
End of May, a draft of TiSA (Trade in Services Agreement) was leaked.
TiSA is yet another international agreement, like the Trans-Atlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), or the Comprehensive Economic
and Trade Agreement (CETA). It is apparently negotiated by 51 countries
including the EU. In the section “Transfer or Access to Source Code”[2]
the leaked version prevents countries to give priority to Free Software:
1. No Party may require the transfer of, or access to, source code of
software owned by a person of another Party, as a condition of
providing services related to such software in its territory.
2. For purposes of this Article, software subject to paragraph 1 is
limited to mass-market software, and does not include software used
for critical infrastructure.
We believe that a trade agreement should not force signatory countries
to give up control over their IT infrastructure for decades to come. On
the contrary, companies should provide the source code if the public
administrations demands it, as well as the corresponding rights to use
the software for any purpose, to share the software with others, as well
as to adopt the software for their own needs without anyone else's
permission.
== Something completely different ==
- Copyright directive: In an important step towards modernising the EU's
copyright laws, the Legal Affairs committee of the European Parliament
adopted a report on the Copyright Directive by MEP Julia Reda. FSFE,
which provided input to the MEPs[3] of the Legal Affairs committee
ahead of the vote, views the adopted report as largely positive[4].
The European Parliament is scheduled to hold a plenary vote on 9 July
2015 on the subject.
- Education: The German state of Saxony-Anhalt is forcing their pupils
to use a variety of Microsoft services by making it mandatory for
every public school. The plan was arranged by the Minister of Finance
without knowledge of neither the data protection officer, nor the
ministry of education. Erik Albers wrote about that[5] (in German) and
afterwards Fellows in Saxony filed a petition against this
procedure[6], which everybody – also outside Saxony-Anhalt – can sign
and promote.
- FSFE Internal: About two years ago, Karsten Gerloff decided that he
would eventually move on from his role as FSFE’s president. FSFE has
been preparing the leadership transition ever since. As he wrote in
his blog post[7] June was the last month for him actively handling
operations at FSFE. Karsten currently takes two months of parental
leave, and at FSFE’s General Assembly in September, FSFE's General
Assembly will elect his successor.
- Events: Our active volunteer Guido Arnold was giving a keynote “Free
Software in Education”[8] at the 22nd DORS/CLUC in Zagreb, and Franz
Gratzer reports from the FSFE's booth at Veganmania[9]. This vegan
festival in Vienna lasted for four days, with 70 organisations and
companies having booths there.
- From the planet aggregation[10]:
- In his series “Three steps towards more privacy on the Net”[11]
Jens Lechtenbörger explains how to setup Firefox with Tor/Orbot on
Android[12].
- Imagine you want to install GNU/Linux on ~10 old computers, and
all you have is a slow 10kb/s internet connection. Max Mehl faced
this problem and wrote “splitDL”, a small Bash script which splits
huge files into several smaller ones and downloads them[13].
- Timo Jyrinki takes a look at the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition
(2015) which is shipped with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS[14].
- Daniel Pocock documents how to use Blender for video editing[15]
with the included non-linear video editing system.
- And Erik Albers writes how he learned to love the NASA[16].
== Get active: Tell us about active groups in Europe ==
There are many groups in Europe who do advocacy and lobby work for
software freedom. Some have done this work for many years, some just
started doing it. Unfortunately often they do not know from each other's
existence, and therefore cannot benefit from a knowledge exchange.
We want to make sure the FSFE does not overlook other Free Software
activities in Europe, so we can learn from each other and improve our
way of empowering more users to control their technology. That is why
this month we ask you to tell us about the active groups working for
software freedom in Europe[17].
Thanks to all the volunteers[18], Fellows[19] and corporate donors[20]
who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE[21]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2015/06/24/lots-of-attention-for-oettingers-t…
2. https://netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/TISA-Annex-on-Electronic-Commerce.pdf
3. https://fsfe.org/activities/policy/eu/20150605-Comments-On-Reda-Report.en.h…
4. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150616-01.en.html
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2015/06/03/sachsen-anhalt-verkauft-seine-schulen-…
6. https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/vorvertrag-partnerschaft-des-la…
7. https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2015/06/18/farewell-for-now/
8. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2015/06/free-software-in-education-keynote-at-d…
9. http://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2015/06/11/fsfe-fellowship-and-freie-it…
10. http://planet.fsfe.org
11. http://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2015/06/09/three-steps-towards-mo…
12. http://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2015/06/09/firefox-with-tororbot-…
13. http://blog.mehl.mx/2015/splitdl-downloading-huge-files-from-slow-and-unsta…
14. http://losca.blogspot.de/2015/06/quick-look-dell-xps-13-developer.html
15. http://danielpocock.com/quick-start-blender-video-editing
16. http://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2015/05/21/how-i-learned-to-love-the-nasa/
17. https://public.pad.fsfe.org/p/GroupsForSoftwareFreedomInEurope
18. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
19. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
20. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
21. https://fsfe.org/index.en.html
= FSFE Newsletter – June 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201506.pt.html ]
== For whom the bell tolls? ==
On the first Wednesday of May, a coalition of digital liberties
organizations, including FSFE, and a multitude of individual activists
held the International Day Against DRM[1] 2015 to raise awareness about
digital restrictions management, a pervasive and deeply entrenched
mechanism designed to plunder the citizenry of the concept of ownership.
Along with numerous other defenders of consumer rights and digital
liberties we published a statement asking legislators to guarantee the
traditional right to tinker[2] with our property. This was necessitated
by both the prior steady erosion of the rights to repair and modify our
belongings and the renewed push by various manufacturing companies, like
John Deere[3], one of the largest manufacturers of agricultural
equipment, to deny their customers the right to modify their own
property in whatever way the customers wish, using bad laws like the US
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which forbid consumers to circumvent
or remove certain defects from their purchases.
== FSFE is looking for a systems architect ==
Due to sustained growth we have experienced in the last few years, our
infrastructure has developed into a state where it is no longer able to
fulfil our needs. Therefore, we are looking for a systems architect[4]
to help us document our existing infrastructure dependencies, develop
this into a maintainable architecture, and help our system
administrators migrate our services to the new architecture.
If you have a good grasp of Free Software, creating technical
documentation, virtualization, MTAs, database servers, and web services
and you wish to help us ensure scalability and continued availability of
both Fellowship services and our internal tools, then you are welcome to
apply by contacting our Executive Director, Jonas Öberg[5]. This is your
chance to gain a deeper understanding of the technical challenges faced
by our volunteers and staff, and help us overcome these hurdles!
== Something completely different ==
- Guido Arnold, FSFE's edu-team coordinator, held a keynote at DORS/CLUC
in Zagreb about Free Software adoption in education throughout Europe
and wrote a short post about it[6].
- Our President Karsten Gerloff has written a blog post explaining why
Facebook's new option to encrypt e-mail notifications using the
OpenPGP standard is useless[7]. The bottom line is that on Facebook
you are the product and the new “feature” will neither guard your data
from overreaching law enforcement nor advertisers willing to pay.
- Our associate[8] Fundaţia Ceata[9] is organizing a conference called
Coliberator '15[10] from June 6th to 7th in Bucharest, Romania. The
conference has featured our president Karsten Gerloff and the founder
of the Free Software movement, Richard M. Stallman, as keynote
speakers during previous editions.
- From the planet aggregation:
- Our Fellow Kevin Keijzer writes about liberating a Thinkpad
T60p[11] for another Fellow, André, who reviews the
experience[12].
- Daniel Pocock is showing people how to use Blender for video
editing[13].
- Max Mehl, a former intern, is writing about his current
volunteering experience in Africa[14]. Max offers a rather
strange, but eye-opening perspective on the way Tanzanians
perceive technology.
== Get active: call on legislators to oppose TTIP, CETA ==
This newsletter started with DRM; it will also end with DRM:
unscrupulous actors are attempting to use secretly negotiated trade
agreements TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) and
CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) to make it extremely
difficult for future governments to get rid of current bans on
circumventing digital restrictions mechanisms. Instead, they would force
governments to impose ever-harsher penalties on anyone who dares to
tinker with their property.
We at FSFE would rather avoid that future. Hence, we are asking you to
contact your elected representatives both in the European parliament and
various legislative bodies throughout Europe and let them know that you
wish European laws to remain the province of European legislators. Ask
them to oppose secretly negotiated[15] treaties; ask them to demand
transparency and openness; and, most importantly, do it now and tell
your legislators about the things you like to do with your possessions.
It would also be nice if you could tell them what you would be unable to
do if those secretive trade agreements were ratified, but you cannot: we
do not know the current state of the negotiations. This is quite
annoying, but despair not: most of our elected representatives are also
in the dark, and they are unlikely to enjoy it. This offers us a unique
opportunity to tune them against the deals before they are finalized and
presented for ratification: let us get our representatives to oppose
these deals while they can make a decision based on democratic
principles and need not yet decide whether the economic perks outweigh
the proposed harm to a free society.
Thanks to all the volunteers[16], Fellows[17] and corporate donors[18]
who enable our work,
Heiki Lõhmus[19], FSFE[20]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. https://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm
2. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150506-01.pt.html
3. http://copyright.gov/1201/2015/comments-032715/class%2021/John_Deere_Class2…
4. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150527-01.pt.html
5. https://fsfe.org/about/oberg/index.pt.html
6. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2015/06/free-software-in-education-keynote-at-d…
7. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2015/06/01/facebook-offers-to-send-you-encryp…
8. https://fsfe.org/associates/associates.pt.html
9. https://ceata.org/
10. http://coliberator.ro/2015/
11. http://blogs.fsfe.org/the_unconventional/2015/05/08/flashing-coreboot-on-a-…
12. https://blogs.fsfe.org/ao/2015/05/29/how-i-got-a-thinkpad-t60p-coreboot-gnu…
13. http://danielpocock.com/quick-start-blender-video-editing
14. http://blog.mehl.mx/2015/technology-and-free-software-in-tz/
15. https://blogs.fsfe.org/lucile.falg/2014/08/11/ttip-policy-laundering-a-few-…
16. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.pt.html
17. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
18. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.pt.html
19. https://fsfe.org/about/repentinus/index.pt.html
20. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html
= FSFE Newsletter - May 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201505.pt.html ]
== A secret Free Software action plan by the European Commission ==
The European Commission has published a new version of its strategy for
the internal use of Free Software. The FSFE provided input to the
Commission during the update phase and while the strategy is broadly
similar to the previous version, there are some improvements[1].
Unlike previous versions, this time the strategy is accompanied by an
action plan aimed at putting it into practice. However, the action plan
is not public, so it is not possible to assess the Commission's progress
towards its own goals. We would welcome it, if the Commission would soon
publish its action plan.
== Interpretation of law restricting Free Software in Switzerland ==
FSFE's goal is that software which is developed with tax money has to be
released as Free Software. By doing so the public administration would
strengthen and stimulate a fair IT market.
In Switzerland, there is currently uncertainty regarding the development
and release of Free Software by public contractors. The trigger for this
was the development and release of the software “OpenJusticia” by the
Swiss Federal Supreme Court. The federal council now wants to examine
whether the publication of Free Software by the federal administration
can be allowed explicitly. The FSFE demands a clarification[2], so that
publicly-financed software can be legally and unambiguously released as
Free Software.
== Worldwide 63 events about Open Standards ==
This year again volunteers around the world, accompanied by
international organisations as well as politicians and public services
joined our demand for document freedom. The global Document Freedom Day
had 63 local events in 31 countries on 4 continents. Read our 2015
report[3] to learn about political activities, new cartoons and
illustrations, and have a look at pictures from the events including
tasty DFD cakes.
== Something completely different ==
- We published a statement on the changed relations between the FSFE and
Kern Sibbald[4]. If you are a developer who has contributed to Bacula,
we recommend that you look at what Fiduciary Licence Agreements or
copyright assignments you have agreed to, and make sure that you fully
understand how this termination affect you. If you are not sure, you
are welcome to email us and we will do our best to assist you. Please
take a look at our FAQ on this issue first[5].
- On 6 May 2015 the FSF is organising the International Day Against DRM.
You can still print out some DRM leaflets[6], distribute them during
the day, and talk with your friends and colleagues about the harm of
digital restriction measures. Previously the FSF highlighted the
problems with the new Apple products[7] concerning proprietary
software and Digital Restrictions Management technologies distributed
with its products and services.
- The German Greens want[8] the Government to increase the support for
Free Software. FSFE has helped them with a enquiry in parliament about
the move to non-free software in the German Foreign Office. You can
help us to evaluate the Governments answers[9] (in German).
- Guido Arnold gave a talk about FSFE's education team at the Chemnitzer
Linuxtage. The video “Advantages and barriers of Free Software in
education” is now online[10] (you can for example use youtube-dl to
download it).
- From the planet aggregation[11]:
- Paul Boddie wrote a detailed blog post why Open Hardware and Free
Software is not just for the geeks[12].
- Franz Gratzer published an open letter to everymothercounts.org
about their Apple advertisement[13].
- Mirko Böhm summarised his experiences about parsing Emacs OrgMode
files, the EU patent debate, and his vacation[14].
- Riccardo (ruphy) Iaconelli announced, that he is back
blogging[15], after he has done research at CERN and launched
WikiFM.
- And your editor explained how to share multiple links on
Android[16].
== Get active: Check the remaining advertisement for non-free software ==
We currently wrap-up the PDFreaders campaign, and we need your help to
measure our success.
Started in 2009 FSFE’s goal with the campaign was to get rid of
advertisement for proprietary PDF readers. We focused on the websites of
public administrations, and many people helped us gather contact details
for over 2000 public websites which advertised non-free software. Many
people helped us to contact the public administrations, governments were
made aware of it and published guidelines. Until now we know that 772 of
the 2110 bugs were fixed, which is a 36% success rate.
But for most countries we did not check the status for several months
now. That is why we need your help to make one final round. We are
looking for volunteers who can help us by checking websites in their
native language, following the step-by-step guide at the end of your
editor's blog post[17].
Thanks to all the volunteers[18], Fellows[19] and corporate donors[20]
who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE[21]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150401-01.pt.html
2. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150306-01.pt.html
3. http://documentfreedom.org/news/2015/news-20150408-01.html
4. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150414-01.pt.html
5. https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/faq-bacula.pt.html
6. https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.pt.html#drm-leaflet
7. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/watch-your-freedom-because-apples-not
8. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/german-greens-want-increase…
9. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150401-02.pt.html
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyDi6pkc6l8
11. http://planet.fsfe.org
12. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=908
13. http://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2015/03/28/open-letter-to-everymotherco…
14. http://creative-destruction.me/2015/04/04/parsing-emacs-orgmode-files-eu-pa…
15. http://blogs.fsfe.org/ruphy/2015/04/back-on-the-web/
16. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/sharing-multiple-links-on-android/
17. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/final-pdfreaders-advertisement-squashing/
18. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.pt.html
19. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
20. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.pt.html
21. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html
= FSFE Newsletter - April 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201504.pt.html ]
== Jonas Öberg visiting Boston without a pink backpack ==
Our new Executive Director Jonas Öberg[1] gave a talk at Libreplanet,
and visited Boston to meet FSF board members and staff. In his blog
posts[2] he wrote about his meetings with Matthew Garret, Benjamin Mako
Hill, Bradley Kuhn, Henry Poole from FSF's board, FSF's staff as well as
FSF's Executive Director John Sullivan discussing how to improve
cooperation and the two main challenges he sees for FSFE:
- analysing Free Software from legal, technical, and social dimensions
and ensuring that any challenges to Free Software within those areas
are met,
- assuring that in a world of free and open everything, Free Software is
what ties everything together: you can not have open data, open
ecology, open government or open educational resources without Free
Software.
Furthermore he looks back to his first visit, at that time in his
capacity as GNU webmaster, in December 1999 with a pink backpack.
== FSFE supporting the Christoph Hellwig GNU GPL enforcement lawsuit ==
FSFE welcomes the action which Christoph Hellwig and the Software
Freedom Conservancy are taking[3] to bring VMware into compliance with
the GNU General Public License.
Free Software is a public resource, and it is governed by legal rules
and social norms. Anyone who draws on this resource without respecting
those rules and norms damages the community at large. The great majority
of such problems are successfully resolved through dialogue and
goodwill. It is only when dialogue fails that legal steps become
necessary in order to protect this resource which we all share.
While FSFE regrets that this lawsuit has arisen, we believe that
safeguarding Free Software against those who try to appropriate for
themselves what belongs to us all is of the utmost importance.
== Joint statement on the use of Open Standards in the European Commission ==
Open Standards are formats and protocols which everybody can use free of
charge and restriction and for which no specific software from a
particular vendor is required. It is important that every EU citizen and
company should have the right to communicate and interact with its
administration using Open Standards exclusively, and not be forced to
install and use software from any specific vendor.
At Document Freedom Day (DFD), the international day to celebrate and
raise awareness of Open Standards, April (the French Free Software
organisation), European Digital Rights (EDRi), Open Forum Europe (OFE),
the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA), and FSFE published a joint
statement. Besides generally highlighting the topic, the statement
focuses on the improper use of standards in the context of applying for
EU programmes[4]. (A full report about the 60 DFD events in 31 countries
will be published at the beginning of April.)
== Something completely different ==
- Just how transparent does the European Parliament have to be? In its
own rules of procedure, the Parliament has set itself the high
standard of conducting its affairs in “utmost transparency”. Our
president Karsten Gerloff reports[5] from an interesting discussion
“Ensuring utmost transparency – Free Software and Open Standards under
the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament”, and what that
means in practice.
- The German Ministry of Economics published a first draft law to ban
compulsory routers (German)[6]. Except missing enforcement measures
FSFE welcomes the draft. We update the timeline[7] and our overview
pages[8] so people outside German could reuse our experiences to fight
compulsory routers in other countries, too.
- At a panel discussion, organised by the European Patent Office, about
patents, standards, and Free Software your editor experienced an
unexpected but positive turn[9].
- The New Yorker notes the 30th anniversary of the GNU Manifesto and
published a longer article about Richard Stallman and the start of GNU
and copyleft[10].
- This year the Free Software Award[11] went to Sébastien Jodogne for
his work on Free software Medical imaging with his project Orthanc and
to Reglue, which gives GNU/Linux computers to underprivileged children
and their families in Austin, Texas.
- FSFE welcomes Nicolas Dietrich in its General Assembly. He was elected
by our sustaining members, and thereby holds one of the two Fellowship
GA seats[12].
- From the planet aggregation[13]:
- Peter Bubestinger explains how he saved the songs of a friend's
iPod with Free Software[14].
- In his new job, former FSFE intern Nicolas Jean published EvQueue,
a job scheduler and queuing engine, as Free Software[15].
- Paul Boddie wrote about the BBC Micro Bit[16], a computing device,
which the BBC plan to give to each child in the UK starting
secondary school.
- Franz Gratzer highlighted some English interviews held during
FOSDEM[17], and wrote about the booth presence of freie.it, which
was founded by some members of FSFE’s Viennese Fellowship group,
as a web platform to help people who are interested in using Free
Software but who do not want to administrate their own computers.
- Fellow Karl Beecher explained why his company Endocode supports
FSFE as silver donor[18], and
- Mirko Böhm, also part of Endocode, wrote about his activites[19],
including meeting with Jonas Öberg, FSFE’s new Executive Director.
- Nico Rikken wrote about his discussions with the Fairphone
producers[20]
- Mario Fux wondered if Konqi -- the KDE mascot -- is male or
female[21].
- And Daniel Pocock explains how you can become your own OpenID
provider[22].
== Get active: Spread the message with Free Software merchandise ==
During the last weeks, many people ordered our “There is no cloud, just
other people's computers” stickers[23]. Now Rich Folsom wrote a Chromium
Browser add-in[24], which converts “the cloud” to “other people's
computers”.
Since so many people like the slogan, we now also have the corresponding
“There is no cloud, just other people's computers”[25] bags in our
webshop. Furthermore we have a new Open Standard t-shirt with robots in
fitted light blue or a non-fitted khaki, the “I love Free Software”
t-shirt in light blue, or a fitted “Hacking for Freedom” t-shirt in
grey, as well as the metallic “GNU/Linux inside” stickers and a golden
GNU pin.
If you want to spread the Free Software message at work, conferences, or
when you are shopping, you can order the equipment on our merchandise
page[26].
Thanks to all the volunteers[27], Fellows[28] and corporate donors[29]
who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE[30]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150302-02.pt.html
2. http://blogs.fsfe.org/jonas/?p=14
3. http://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html
4. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150325-01.pt.html
5. https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2015/03/26/909/
6. http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/PDF/P-R/referentenentwurf-gesetz-zur-ausw…
7. https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/timeline.pt.html
8. https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/routers.pt.html
9. https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/unexpected-turn-at-panel-discussion-on-software-p…
10. http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-gnu-manifesto-turns-thirty
11. https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-award-winners
12. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150316-01.pt.html
13. http://planet.fsfe.org
14. http://blogs.fsfe.org/pb/?p=147
15. http://blogs.fsfe.org/nicoulas/?p=175
16. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=878
17. http://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2015/03/01/fosdem-2015-some-interviews/
18. http://computerfloss.com/2015/03/endocode-proud-to-sponsor-free-software-fo…
19. http://creative-destruction.me/2015/03/11/fancy-dinners-cgroups-and-namespa…
20. http://nicorikken.eu/blog/fairphone-back-to-the-drawing-board/
21. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mario/?p=283
22. http://danielpocock.com/the-easiest-way-to-run-your-own-openid
23. https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.pt.html#promo-material
24. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cloud-to-other-peoples-co/kkpbkgb…
25. https://fsfe.org/order/order.pt.html
26. https://fsfe.org/order/order.pt.html
27. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.pt.html
28. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
29. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.pt.html
30. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html
= FSFE Newsletter - March 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201503.pt.html ]
== FSFE's reply to EU consultation on patents and standard ==
We believe that proprietary standards and software patents are barriers
to Free Software adoption. To get rid of those barriers we have to help
the public administration to understand this, too. That is why last
month we responded to a consultation on the interaction of standards and
patents by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal
Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
In our response[1], we focused mainly on how software patents negatively
affect competition and innovation in the software market. We also
highlighted that so-called “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory”
(FRAND) licensing terms are in practice a grave discrimination against
Free Software. In many segments of the software market, these programs
are the most significant competition to non-free offerings. So the FSFE
recommends that standards organisations instead implement the successful
patent licensing policies of the W3C and other bodies, and make the
restriction-free licensing of standard-essential patents mandatory.
If you want to help us to promote Open Standards, please participate in
this year's Document Freedom Day (see this month's get active item at
the end of the newsletter).
== Free Software as integral part of Open Educational Resources ==
The more we see classic educational environments equipped with
computers, the more important becomes an education system that teaches
every student to be in control of their technology. For the FSFE, the
basis for this is Free Software.
Together with other partners in the “Bündnis Freie Bildung” (Free
Education Alliance) we published a position paper about the creation and
usage of Open Educational Resources (OER)[2]. The paper has a specific
focus on the creation and usage of OER inside the German educational
system. It should be mandatory to publish educational resources
including software that has been paid with public money under free
licences. Furthermore, the position paper demands that educational
institutions should consider the compatibility with Free Software
already during the development or extension of their IT infrastructures.
By this it envisions to have “all educational resources usable without
any legal or technical barriers”.
If you want to know more about what happened in the education field
connected with Free Software, read the January Education team report[3].
== What happened on the “I love Free Software” day? ==
On 14 February 2015 people all over the world showed Free Software
contributors their appreciation. It was the fifth year we asked people
to participate in the “I Love Free Software” day. This year's report
shows a variety of love declarations that happened this day[4],
including blog posts, pictures, comics, poems, and an #ilovefs Android
library.
We want to thank everybody who motivated Free Software contributors at
this year's “I love Free Software” day, and ask everybody to mark 14
February in their calendars to motivate the people who enable us to
control our technology.
== Something completely different ==
- Hannes Hauswedell from the German team wrote an update about the
situation with secure texting. The last months Hannes and others
wanted to improve the situation with Textsecure, which unfortunately
did not work out until now. So Hannes changed his mind and is now
recommending kontalk[5].
- Fellow Cory Doctorow wrote an article in the Guardian imagining how it
would look like “If dishwashers were iPhones”[6].
- Christian Kalkhoff reported from FSFE's Munich group meeting in
January[7]. To find upcoming local meetings close to you, please have
a look at our event page[8].
- The Fellowship election for one of the seats in FSFE's General
Assembly is running until 6 March 2015. All sustaining members should
have received the voting instructions to decide between Nicolas
Dietrich, Max Mehl, and Felix Stegerman[9]. So if you have not yet
voted, do it now!
- From the planet aggregation[10]:
- After there have been plenty of reports of Lenovo shipping
products with a form of adware known as Superfish, Paul Boddie
asks what Lenovo's reasoning was[11], and from whom they want
their money in future.
- Max Mehl has been asked by a friend why he is “investing so much
time in the FSFE instead of putting more energy in other
organisations with more focus on privacy issues.” In his blog
post[12], he answers that question.
- Mirko Böhm summarised his last weeks[13] including what he worked
on with his students, about amendments to Julia Reda's report,
software patents, and Qt programming.
- Daniel Pocock wrote about the 3rd birthday of Lumicall[14].
- Christian Kallhoff reports from his experience to fix a bug in
Free Software[15].
- Nico Rikken wrote about understanding software and why it is not
magic[16], and about the freedom Ubuntu phone offers[17].
== Get active: Be a part of Document Freedom Day 2015! ==
Every year since 2008, people who care about a free information society
celebrate Document Freedom Day[18] to raise awareness of Open Standards.
This year again people around the world come together on 25 March to
talk about access to communications, run local public activities, and
generally spread the word about Open Standards in a dozen different
ways.
We are offering promotion materials in many languages, and artwork you
can remix, share and improve to publicise your own event. If you are
running a local event, we may be able to offer funding of your local
activities or your local print runs - thanks to DFD's sponsors. To get
inspired, take a look at what other groups from Mexico to Japan did last
year[19].
Participate in DFD 2015![20]
Thanks to all the volunteers[21], Fellows[22] and corporate donors[23]
who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE[24]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150218-01.pt.html
2. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150210-01.pt.html
3. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2015/02/free-software-in-education-news-january/
4. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150303-01.pt.html
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/h2/2015/02/23/secure-texting-part-ii/
6. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/if-dishwashers-were-iphon…
7. https://blogs.fsfe.org/softmetz/?p=53
8. https://fsfe.org/events/events.pt.html
9. https://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipElection_2015
10. http://planet.fsfe.org
11. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=852
12. http://blog.mehl.mx/2015/in-the-end-freedom-is-what-matters/
13. http://creative-destruction.me/2015/02/26/student-papers-reda-report-amendm…
14. http://danielpocock.com/lumicall-third-birthday
15. https://blogs.fsfe.org/softmetz/?p=60
16. http://nicorikken.eu/blog/software-isnt-magic/
17. http://nicorikken.eu/blog/ubuntu-calling-for-freedom/
18. http://documentfreedom.org
19. http://documentfreedom.org/news/2014/news-20140424-01.html
20. http://documentfreedom.org/getinvolved.html
21. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.pt.html
22. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
23. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.pt.html
24. https://fsfe.org/index.pt.html