= FSFE Newsletter - December 2015 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201512.sv.html ]
== From the FSFE ==
== MEPs in support of our amendments ==
The European Parliamentary committees for Internal Market and Consumer
Protection (IMCO) as well as Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) issued
their joint own-initiative report based on the Commission's Digital
Single Market Strategy. FSFE's policy team analysed their report and
proposed changes to include standards that are open, minimalistic, and
implementable with Free Software, to integrate users' control over their
data and to make sure that the single open science cloud is implemented
with Free Software.
The report received more than 1000 amendments from Members of the
European Parliament (MEPs), several of whom supported our points and
proposed amendments. This shows increased awareness in the Parliament
towards the importance of Free Software in "cloud computing", big data
and standardisation, as well as in public sector. Shadow rapporteur
Cornelia Ernst even highlighted the need to address Free Software during
her talk in the joint meeting of IMCO/ITRE on 10 November. This month,
on December 14, the Parliament will vote for the final version of the
report.
Although the report is non-binding and the Commission is not obliged to
follow the Parliament's recommendations, the fact that our amendments
were supported by several MEPs is an important step. Especially in the
Parliament that is usually less receptive when it comes to the issues
concerning digital rights and Free Software.
== Germany passed law against compulsory routers ==
After three years of intensive lobbying by the FSFE[1] and other
organisations, the German Parliament as well as the second chamber, the
Federal Council, passed a law against compulsory routers but for free
choice of the user. This is an important step towards consumer
protection and fair competition of manufacturers. Free choice also
empowers users to take care of critical features like security or
privacy on their own preferred device. The law will become effective in
the mid of 2016 and should set an example across Europe. We will support
similar legislation wherever needed.
== Sony Rootkit makes headlines 10 years later ==
In the end of October FSFE reminded of the dangers posed by technical
restrictions on technology to promote everyone's right to tinker. As a
result, the topic got picked up by the press and the FSFE info page was
linked with at least a dozen articles from several big name news
sources. Our ex-intern Asa Ritz summarised[2] in his blogpost the media
coverage we received.
== What else have we done? ==
- FSFE president Matthias Kirschner gave a talk about the computer as a
universal machine[3] at Codemotion Berlin, and ran a workshop about
restrictions on technical restrictions at the "Open IT Summit"[4] in
Berlin. In a podcast, Matthias argued against a "non-military clause"
in Free Software licenses[5].
- FSFE community coordinator Erik Albers and FSFE legal team coordinator
Matija Šuklje participated at Copycamp Warsaw[6] to host a booth and
Matija to gave a talk about "Implications of the EU Copyright Reform
on Free Software".
- FSFE was present at FSCONS[7] in Goteborg, Sweden. Christian Kalkhoff
wrote about his FSCONS experience[8] in a blogpost.
- FSFE had its booths also at Open Source Summit in Paris[9], at
Linuxday in Dornbirn[10], Austria, at T-Dose in Eindhoven,
Netherlands, and at OpenRheinRuhr Oberhausen[11], Germany.
== Take Action ==
- If you like to meet us in person, you will meet members, staff and
community of the FSFE at our booth at FOSDEM[12]. And if you go to
this year's Chaos Communication Congress, #32C3[13], then do not miss
to pass by the FSFE assembly[14], participate in one of our sessions
or simply take a break in our "Free Software lounge".
- The FSFE Education team is redesigning its educational leaflet. If you
like to join or share ideas, feel free to participate on the wiki
page[15].
- The local group FSFE Zurich started a Free Software photo book to show
people that use Free Software. If you like, you can be part of it.[16]
- In our Free Your Android campaign we highlight the importance of
Replicant as a 100% free Android-based operating system. We are happy
to see that business grows, that start to sell phones with Replicant
pre-installed[17] and we hope there are more companies who follow this
example.
- If you like what we have done in 2015 and you like us to continue the
good work in 2016 or even grow stronger, then consider to support us
with a donation[18] or to become a sustainable member[19]. Funding is
crucial to our existence.
== Out of the community ==
- A new team got established: North Rhine-Westphalia is the biggest
state of Germany with currently three local FSFE groups. This month,
they had an inaugural meeting of a state-wide action group, the Team
NRW[20]. Besides coordination, the primary tasks shall be the
education of teachers[21].
- At the local meeting of FSFE Düsseldorf, Andreas Schreiber talked
about the open source strategy of Germany’s Aerospace Centre DLR[22]
and this event was picked up by the European Open Source
Observatory[23]
- After offering pre-flashed Libreboot Laptops at freie.computer[24] the
local group FSFE Zurich now decided to start doing Flashdays[25]
- Daniel Pocock reports about team building around SIP and XMPP
communication in Debian and Fedora[26], and Daniel has also written a
quick start to use Blender for video editing[27]
- Marcus Möller customised Fedora 23 in a Freed version[28], which
includes linux-libre kernel and Icecat webbrowser. All proprietary
firmware has been removed.
== Good Free Software News ==
At the *EU* level: the European Parliament calls upon the Commission for
the systematic replacement of proprietary software by verifiable Free
Software in all the EU institutions[29]. In *Italy*, the Italian
Ministry of Defence is replacing Microsoft Office with LibreOffice[30]
on 150,000 PCs in what is Europe’s second largest LibreOffice
implementation. Meanwhile, the second most important industrial city in
Southern Italy, Bari, is about to complete its transition to
LibreOffice[31] and the ODF. At the same time in *Switzerland*, the
council of Bern ordered the IT department to end its dependence on
proprietary software[32], and replace proprietary software by Free
Software solutions. The same example was followed in *Denmark* where the
city of Aarhus is requiring the use of open IT standards for all of its
future IT projects[33] in order to rid itself of IT vendor lock-in.
Lastly, recent study in *France* confirmed that country's administration
is still a large enabler of Free Software in France[34]. According to
the study, the Free Software market is growing on a linear trend and
will grow by 9% annually until 2020.
This was the final newsletter in 2015. Thank you very much for your
attention. You will receive the next newsletter in the beginning of
February 2016.
BTW: We are still experimenting with new ways and formats for our
newsletter. Please feel free to give us your feedback at
fellowship(a)fsfeurope.org.
Happy Christmas and a Happy GNU-year!
Your editors Polina Malaja and Erik Albers FSFE[35]
--
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Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/timeline.html
2. http://blogs.fsfe.org/asawritz/2015/11/04/sony-rootkit-still-making-headlin…
3. http://berlin2015.codemotionworld.com/talk-detail/?detail=1958
4. http://www.gruene-fraktion-berlin.de/offener-it-gipfel
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/podcast-on-non-military-use-clause-in-gnu-gpl/
6. http://copycamp.pl/en/
7. https://fscons.org/2015/
8. https://blogs.fsfe.org/softmetz/?p=63
9. http://www.opensourcesummit.paris/
10. http://www.linuxday.at/
11. http://openrheinruhr.de/
12. https://fosdem.org/2016/
13. https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Main_Page
14. https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Assembly:Free_Software_Foundation_…
15. https://wiki.fsfe.org/Reasons_for_schools_to_use_Free_Software
16. http://freie.software
17. https://tehnoetic.com/tehnoetic-s2-phone-replicant
18. https://fsfe.org/donate/donate
19. https://fsfe.org/join
20. https://blogs.fsfe.org/stehmann/?p=1629
21. http://blogs.fsfe.org/wromey/2015/11/22/grundungssitzung-des-nrw-teams-der-…
22. http://blogs.fsfe.org/stehmann/?p=1592
23. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/147875
24. https://freie.computer/
25. https://blogs.fsfe.org/mmoeller/2015/11/27/flashdays-are-coming/
26. http://danielpocock.com/building-teams-around-sip-and-xmpp-in-debian-and-fe…
27. http://danielpocock.com/quick-start-blender-video-editing
28. https://blogs.fsfe.org/mmoeller/2015/11/04/freed-ora-23-workstation-availab…
29. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20151110-01.en.html
30. http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500256578/Free-software-gains-ground-in…
31. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/146281
32. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/bern-council-demands-transi…
33. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/denmark%E2%80%99s-aarhus-in…
34. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/147785
35. https://fsfe.org/index.sv.html