= FSFE: EC's browser case settlement with Microsoft =
FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free
Software is excluded from interoperability
[Permanent URL: http://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091216-01.en.html ]
16 December 2009, 16:10 CEST, Berlin, Germany
Free Software Foundation Europe congratulates the European Commission on
pushing Microsoft to give users greater choice between different
browsers. "The selection screen will make users aware that they can make
their own choices," says Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's President. "We are glad
that FSFE has helped the Commission to put limits to Microsoft's desktop
monopoly."
The Commission announced today that it has settled its antitrust case
against Microsoft regarding web browsers. FSFE participated in the case
as an interested third party. "Microsoft has abused its dominant market
position to push out competitors by tying its own browser to the Windows
operating system," says Gerloff. "The company's continued refusal to
comply with Open Standards[1] also means that many websites today are
designed to work only with Internet Explorer, leaving users of other
browsers at a disadvantage."
== Interoperability ==
The European Commission is also investigating the way Microsoft prevents
competitors from interfacing with many of its desktop productivity
programs. Microsoft has offered a unilateral commitment. Yet these
promises are useless for Free Software developers, since they exclude
commercial use of Microsoft's interoperability information.
Carlo Piana, FSFE's legal counsel, says: "The patent commitments are
clearly insufficient, because they don't allow commercial exploitation.
This keeps out competition from Free Software, which in many areas is
the biggest competitor to Microsoft's programs. Instead, Microsoft will
continue to threaten commercial Free Software developers and their
customers with patent FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt)."
FSFE's President Karsten Gerloff says: "We welcome the Commission's
decision to keep the interoperability investigation open while it
monitors whether Microsoft's promises help to promote competition. We
are confident that the Commission will take action if the commitment
doesn't improve things for Free Software."
[1] http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.en.html
== What is the European Interoperability Framework ==
The EIF is a set of interoperability guidelines documents and
initiatives conducted under the auspices of the IDABC (Interoperable
Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations,
Businesses and Citizens) Programme. The EIF supplements the various
National Interoperability Frameworks in the pan-European dimension.
== 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.
http://fsfe.org
== Contact ==
Karsten Gerloff
President
Free Software Foundation Europe
e-mail: press at fsfeurope.org
mobile: +49-176-96904298
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) Newsletter - November 2009
November: another month full of activities and work to do for FSFE.
Among other things we launched the Fellowship grant project, fought for
Open Standards in the European public sector, had an excellent time at
the FSCONS in Sweden, and participated in WIPO to ensure that Free
Software principles are respected. To keep FSFE strong and independent,
we have launched our year-end fund raising campaign: Cooking for Freedom.
Giacomo Poderi
1. WIPO meeting on implementation of Development Agenda, Geneva, Switzerland, 16-20 Nov
2. Fellowship Jabber meeting: Free Software in Education
3. FSCONS 2009, Lindholmen, Sweden 13-15 Nov
4. The Nordic Free Software Award to Simon Josefson and Daniel Stenberg
5. FSFE takes action on the problems of the EIF v2
6. The Fellowship grants
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
7. FSFE calls for donations: Invest in freedom!
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
8. Launch of the Freedom Task Force
UPCOMING EVENTS
9. European "Open Source" and Free Software Law Event, Brussels, Belgium, 09 Dec
1. WIPO meeting on implementation of Development Agenda, Geneva,
Switzerland, 16-20 Nov
Thanks to the consistent support by FSFE and other organisations, the
World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Development Agenda is
finally on the way to implementation. Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's President,
participated to the event in Geneva to help WIPO make use of Free
Software and Open Standards. In the meeting, WIPO's member states
discussed the mechanisms for monitoring the progress of WIPO's
Development Agenda in practice.
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/wipo/wipo.html
2. Fellowship Jabber meeting: Free Software in Education
On November 18, more than 25 Fellows joined a chat session to follow
Thomas Jensch's introduction to the FSFE's Education project. Thomas
talked about the general scope of the project and about specific
challenges to be met before bringing to full active status the project,
such as gathering information on the different European education
systems, and developing good strategies for being effective also at the
level of Universities. Afterwords, the Fellows asked questions and
provided interesting feedbacks to Thomas.
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/education/education.html
3. FSCONS 2009, Lindholmen, Sweden 13-15 Nov
The Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit (FSCONS) which took place
in Lindholmen, Göteborg, Sweden was a great success. FSFE's Swedish Team
co-organised the event, and FSFE got a very friendly reception in an
engaging atmosphere of Free Software, hackers and technology people.
Martin Gollowitzer, deputy Fellowship coordinator, organised a OpenPGP
Card Workshop, Matthias Kirschner, Fellowship coordinator, and Andreas
Tolf Tolfsen moderated a workshop on the restructuring of our website.
Hannes Hauswedell presented a talk about PDFreaders.org. Finally, Adrian
de Groot and Karsten Gerloff held two sessions respectively about the
Freedom Task Force and FSFE's work for the public sector.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=380http://wiki.fsfe.org/FSCONS-FSFE
4. The Nordic Free Software Award to Fellow Simon Josefson and Daniel
Stenberg
This year, Nordic Free Software Award presented during FSCONS reflected
the globalisation of the internet and the critical importance of network
services for all software users. The award went to two excellent hackers:
Simon Josefson and Daniel Stenberg. Simon is a member of the Fellowship
and was rewarded for his long-lasting and excellent work on the network
security packages GNUTLS and GNU Sishi of the GNU Project. Daniel's
contributions to curl, libcurl and many other packages were considered
crucial to the Free Software community.
http://fscons.org/awardhttp://blog.josefsson.org/2009/11/15/nordic-free-software-award-2009/
5. FSFE takes action on the problems of the EIF v2
Early this month, FSFE commented on a worrisome leaked draft of the
European Interoperability Framework v2 (EIF). The current EIF serves as
a cornerstones for interoperability in Europe. The draft for the second
version is a clear step backwards. FSFE worked hard to prevent this
document to be adopted by putting pressure on EU members states and by
tracking the 'evolution' of the EIF v2 draft. We also published a press
release explaining why the current version is unacceptable for Free
Software and for the European IT sector.
http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091127-01.htmlhttp://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/eifv2.html
6. The Fellowship grants
This month FSFE launched an important initiative to award outstanding
Free Software activists with Fellowship grants that will cover the
Fellowship contribution for one year. Three grants each month will be
assigned during the next 12 months. Everybody who is actively working for
Free Software but cannot afford the Fellowship contribution can apply for
the grant.
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/grant.en.htmlhttp://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091109-01.html
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
7. FSFE calls for donations: Invest in freedom!
FSFE has been working for the Free Software community in Europe and
beyond since 2001. Donations have always been crucial to sustain our
work. They allow us to remain independent of any company or government,
in order to do what is best for Free Software.
In November we published a call for donations, so that the new year will
find us ready to take on the many and demanding challenges of 2010.
Karsten Gerloff published a letter explaining the reasons to donate to
FSFE.
This year, there is a special reward for the biggest donor of 2009.
That person will share a cooking session with two people from FSFE's
executive team. Software and cooking are both about creativity and
freedom, and we are looking forward to an afternoon or evening of
inspired discussions.
If you believe in our work or you benefited from it, if you believe in
Free Software principles and you want them to be defended: invest in
freedom!
http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091118-01.html
Relevant links:
http://www.fsfe.org/donate/letter-2009.htmlhttp://www.fsfe.org/donate/donate.html
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
8. Launch of the Freedom Task Force
After many preparations, in November 2006 we finally launched the Freedom
Task Force (FTF). The project required sound planning and lot of efforts
before it could be announced. In short time, thanks to Shane Coughlan's
excellent work as the project's coordinator, the FTF became a key
knowledge centre in Europe for Free Software licensing issues.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000162.html
UPCOMING EVENTS
9. European "Open Source" and Free Software Law Event, Brussels, Belgium,
09 Dec
Adriaan de Groot, FTF Coordinator, will hold a speech entitled "Use the
Source -- but what is it?" at the European "Open Source" and Free
Software Law Event (EOLE) on 9 December in Brussels.
http://eolevent.eu/
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html
You can join the Fellowship or find how to support us on
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/joinhttp://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html
You can order our merchandise at
http://fsfe.org/order/order.html
Copyright 2009, Free Software Foundation Europe <pr(a)fsfeurope.org>.
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