European Parliament must prevent criminalisation of software vendors and
users
FSFE criticises the proposed "second Intellectual Property Enforcement
Directive" (IPRED2) for sweeping criminalisation across various areas of law
and loosely described areas of activity, including for 'attempting, aiding or
abetting and inciting.' The proposed text criminalises these acts for
infringement of many dissimilar laws including copyright, trademark, and
patents. "This threatens" according to a press release of FSFE "to introduce
intimidating degrees of punishment to activities which individuals,
community-based projects, and other small to medium-sized groups participate
in - groups that may not have sufficient money or lawyers to defend their
rights in court."
"The proposed text greatly increases the number of criminalised activities
and is very unclear on where the limits are", explains Ciaran O'Riordan,
FSFE's Brussels Representative, and continues "we understand criminal
sanctions might form a useful part of consumer protection and can deter and
help prosecution of cases of counterfeit pharmaceuticals or equipment that
could create public safety risks. But it is obvious that applying the same
sanctions to publishers and software developers is completely unnecessary
and is harmful for society."
The Directive will be voted on next week when the MEPs are in Strasbourg. If
member states already have such consumer protection laws in place, then
rejecting the Directive outright would also be a good option.
"This directive targets users, distributors, developers and publishers of
software in general, including those of Free Software," explains Georg Greve,
President of FSFE. "In combination with the lack of a strong directive
against software patentability, the directive would create incalculable risk
for all participants of the information society."
In a broad coalition with FFII, EFF, EBLIDA, and BEUC, FSFE calls on all
participants of the information society in EU member states to support the
joint amendments published on FFII's site. FSFE's open letter has been sent
to MEPs in six languages so far.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation
in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSFE.
[1] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/letter-april-2007.en.html
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 404
Mobile: +49-179-6919565
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
FSFE launches list of recommended Free Software lawyers
FSFE has launched a list of recommended Free Software lawyers
by naming Dr. Till Jaeger and Carlo Piana as knowledgeable and
reliable Free Software legal experts in Germany and Italy
respectively.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is committed to working
with lawyers throughout Europe to maximise the legal security of Free
Software and is aware that as the community matures it is important to
be able to locate professional legal advice. For this reason FSFE has
introduced a new policy for recommending legal experts in individual
countries.
The FSFE policy for recommending legal experts can be found on the
Freedom Task Force (FTF) website [1], along with details of the
individuals that FSFE recommends.
"The key thing is to help answer the question "who do I talk to?" for
people using Free Software," says Shane Coughlan, FSFE Freedom Task
Force coordinator. "We have worked with both Dr Till Jaeger and Carlo
Piana for several years and have great confidence in their ability.
We want to express this confidence in public so that Free Software
users will have a clear point of contact for legal advice."
"Supporting the growth of a strong network of legal experts in Free
Software has been on our agenda for several years now. Establishing
the Freedom Task Force was one logical step along that way," explains
Georg Greve, FSFE's president. "We will gladly continue supporting
projects with the collective competency of our legal network and will
take direct legal action on behalf of the projects that are part of
our fiduciary programme. But we also wanted to make it easier for
others with no direct connection to FSFE to find a legal expert they
can have confidence in."
"Commercial Free Software has been growing in importance for years
and I believe it's time to help formalise support for it" says Stefano
Maffuli, FSFE Italy coordinator. "I'm delighted to recommend Carlo
Piana as a point of contact for developers and companies seeking
legal advice in Italy."
Dr. Till Jaeger is a partner in the Berlin law firm JBB RechtsanwÃâ¬lte.
He represents FSFE in Germany and Harald Welte in GPL enforcement
cases. He is chair of the "Internationalization" subcommittee within
the GPLv3 process. Carlo Piana is a partner at the Milan law firm
Studio Legale Tamos Piana & Partners. Among other things, he
represents FSFE and Samba in the Microsoft vs. EC Commission Antitrust
case and lectures at the University of Milan.
Dr Till Jaeger can be contacted in the following ways:
Email: jaeger [at] jbb.de
Telephone: +49 30 443 765 0
Fax: +49 30 443 765 22
Post: JBB Rechtsanwalte, Christinenstrasse 18/19, 10119 Berlin, Germany.
Carlo Piana can be contacted in the following ways:
Email: carlo.piana [at] avvocatinteam.com
Telephone: +39 02 7000 6392
Fax: +39 02 7611 3344
Post: Studio Legale Tamos Piana & Partners, Palazzo dell'Elfo, Via Ciro
Menotti 11, 20129 Milano, Italy
[1] www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation
in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSFE.
Contact:
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 ext 408
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73 ext 408
Sweden: +46 31 7802160 ext 408
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 ext 408
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 ext 408
Shane Coughlan, FTF Co-ordinator, FSFE extension: 408
1. FTF introduces useful tips for compliance
2. Talk about GPLv3 in Brussels
3. STACS kickoff meeting in Paris
4. FSFE thanks Google for sponsoring 1 year of internship
5. Introducing FSFE's new interns
6. Announcing a new Italian Fellowship meeting
1. FTF introduces useful tips for compliance
The Freedom Task Force (FTF) is proud to announce another little step
towards making Free Software licensing information more accessible. In
partnership with our volunteers we have introduced useful tips for GNU
GPL compliance to help users and vendors make the most of Free Software
and to provide a stepping stone to authoritative information resources
on the Internet. Thanks to the hard work of our translators these
guides are available in English, Portugese, and Dutch, with French and
German versions coming soon.
Useful tips for users:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-users.html
Useful tips for vendors:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors.html
2. Talk about GPLv3 in Brussels
As part of FSFE's ongoing efforts to raise awareness and explain what is
happening in the GPLv3 process, Ciaran O'Riordan organised a talk by
Richard Stallman on GPLv3. A transcript of which is already online.
The event was co-organised by Association Electronique Libre.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/brussels-rms-transcript
3. STACS kickoff meeting in Paris
STACS (Science, Technology and Civil Society) is an EU funded project
that aims to bridge the gap between civil society and research. It will
do this by preparing Civil Society Organisations through a series of
training sessions. This will help them to build the capacity to
approach scientific questions and research.
Through a series of workshops STACS will also seek to attract
researchers to cooperation with Civil Society Organisations by
identifying research topics and helping people meet each other for
potential future projects in EU's 7th Framework Program.
Within this project, FSFE will organise a workshop and a training
session about Free Software. FSFE is also involved in the creation of
the public web page of the project, making sure it only consists of
Free Software.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/stacs/
4. FSFE thanks Google for sponsoring 1 year of internship
Started in 2004, internships at FSFE have given several young people the
chance to learn all about Free Software and work as part of FSFE's Team.
These interns typically come from backgrounds in management, social
science, law and administration to help educate the next generation of
managers and scientists about Free Software. As a result of the
positive experience with previous interns and many requests from
potential candidates, FSFE hopes to extend and evolve its internship
programme. FSFE would like to thank Google for helping us realise this.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/internship.en.html
5. Introducing FSFE's new interns
Guillaume Yziquel is FSFE's new intern in Zürich, and will be working
there up to the beginning of September. Guillaume was born in Grenoble,
and obtained a master's degree in mathematics at the École
Polytechnique, near Paris, in 2006. He has been an end-user of Free
Software since 2001, when he met the VLC development team. He will
focus on the promotion of open standards and assist the Freedom Task
Force, while also taking care of day-to-day issues as Georg Greve's
assistant.
Christof Thim joined the FSFE as an intern at the Swedish team in
Gothenburg. Christof received his diploma in business informatics at
the Berlin School of Economics. After that, he decided to study
sociology, politics and economics at the University of Potsdam.
Christof got in touch with Free Software during his work at IBM in 2001.
In Gothenburg, he will be primarily concerned with the Swedish part of
the SELF Project and the preparation of proposals on the 7th Framework
Programme of the EC.
6. Announcing a new Italian Fellowship meeting
A Fellowship meeting is being organised in these days. It will happen
in Cosenza on 13 May in a beatiful area in southern Italy. It will be
an occasion for Fellows to meet and bring forward the ideas proposed
during the first international meeting in Bolzano. Details of the event
are being sorted out as this is written, mainly in Italian on
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/meetings/2007_cosenza and on fsfe.org forums.
The Fellowship meeting will also be preceeded by two whole days of
scientific conference about Free Software. Details are also in English
on http://confsl.org.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html