= FSFE Welcomes New 'Software Interactions' Document From The European
Legal Network =
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100719-01.en.html]
FSFE is proud to welcome the release of a new educational document
on Free Software licensing. Developed by delegates of the
European Legal Network, the document helps software developers and
lawyers by making it easier to decide under which licenses they
can distribute their work.
'Software Interactions' explains in detail when a program that
contains source code under the GNU General Public License or other
Free Software licenses needs to be distributed under the same
license, and when developers can select another license. It
includes examples of potential legal or community red lines in the
field.
Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's President, says: "While no document can
provide definitive answers for such a complex subject, today's
release is a unique collaborative effort shaped over more than a
year of debate by numerous experts. It represents the first time
that linking has been discussed so broadly."
FSFE is taking the opportunity of this release to establish
a long-term home for network educational documents on the FSFE
Fellowship blog. This page will expand to include all of the
current and future documents released by the network, and is
intended to provide a simple way for people to locate and share
this material. The document is available at:
https://wiki.fsfe.org/EuropeanLegalNetwork
'Software Interactions' is the second collaborative legal
knowledge released by the European Legal Network. The first was
the Risk Grid, published in July 2009 in the 'International Free
and Open Source Software Law Review.'
FSFE has facilitated the European Legal Network since 2007. From
humble beginnings the network has now grown to contain over 240
members from 27 countries and 4 continents, and is the largest
professional legal forum for Free Software in the world. While
FSFE does not have editorial control over network discussions and
educational documents, we believe it provides great value to the
broader Free Software community by ensuring legal experts from
commercial, non-commercial and independent entities can share
experience and insight.
If you are a legal expert and would like to contribute to future
network activities, please contact FSFE at legal(a)fsfeurope.org.
== 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/
Nearly a year ago the FSF held a mini-summit for women in free software
to investigate practical ways to increase the number of women involved
in the free software community. Those that attended the summit formed
the Women's Caucus, and have been working to develop practical policy to
recommend to the FSF and the wider free software community. Today, we
are publishing the Caucus's initial findings and recommendations.
* http://www.fsf.org/news/summit-on-women-in-free-software
1. We identified a number of barriers to women's participation in free
software and strategies for overcoming these obstacles. What we found
were some fairly simple short-term solutions and some more complex
long-term solutions that are already being used successfully. Some
successful strategies we encountered in multiple projects include:
encouraging non-coding contributors, emphasizing cooperation rather than
competition and (where appropriate) implementing a mentoring program.
* http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Womenscaucus/resources/gettingstarted
2. Women who are not already involved in free software often don't feel
invited to join free software groups or projects. We have identified
strategies for groups who are looking to grow and diversify their
membership. While not always intuitive, many of these procedures are
fairly easy to implement. The resource wiki is still growing, so we
expect more resources to be added in the near future.
* http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Womenscaucus/resources
3. We noted the relative invisibility of women who are already making
significant contributions to free software. This skews women's
perception of the free software community and impacts retention. We have
created a mailing list to announce free software speaking opportunities
to women. We also worked with the FSF to pilot a successful system to
increase women's attendance at free software events by setting up a
travel fund specifically for women at our conference. By making it easy
for attendees to donate, we were able to provide travel funding for
women who would otherwise not have been able to participate. We
recommend this strategy to other free software event organizers hoping
to increase women's attendance.
* http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/admin/flossspeakher
4. Not enough young women are being exposed to free software. Middle
school and high school are when girls potentially have the time and
interest to tinker and try new things, but all too often access to
public computers means running proprietary software. The Caucus is
working on a plan to get free software into girls' hands, teach them how
to use it and how to get the most out of free software. We recommend
that the major GNU/Linux distributions start to develop programs and
materials to attract young women to use the free software they distribute.
In collaboration with the FSF, the Caucus will be creating an internship
position to help grow and further these resources and initiatives.
## About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at
http://www.fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information
about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
_______________________________________________
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our translator team http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/.)
= FSFE Newsletter - July 2010 =
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201007.en.html ]
This edition covers Neelie Kroes' statement about Open Standards, the
Free Software discussion in Saxony (Germany), and the relicensing of
WebM to be GPL compatible, and asks you all to keep in touch with your
politicians about Free Software issues.
Beside that, FSFE's strategic decision making body, the General Assembly
[1] (GA) , met in Bozen, Italy. The various outcomes of this meeting
will become apparent in the next months and years. On the operational
side we organised Fellowship meetings [2] in Tampere (Finland), Göteburg
(Sweden), Paris, Lille (France), Berlin, Düsseldorf, Siegen, (Germany),
as well as a Fellowship jabber meeting about ACTA. Stian published a new
Fellowship interview with David Reyes Samblas Martinez [3], in which he
answers questions on hardware manufacturing, e-learning and Free
Software politics.
== "Proprietary technology is a waste of money" ==
No, this is not a quote from someone out of the Free Software community.
As Karsten reported in his article [4] it was Neelie Kroes, European
Commission’s vice president, who comment at the Open Forum Europe (OFE)
meeting in Brussels on 10 June. She also said that:
"Many authorities have found themselves unintentionally locked into
proprietary technology for decades. After a certain point that
original choice becomes so ingrained that alternatives risk being
systematically ignored, no matter what the potential benefits. This is
a waste of public money that most public bodies can no longer afford."
Kroes also backed up our definition of Open Standards [5]. She made
clear that "truly open" standards "do not come with any constraints for
implementers". This is important as it means that programmers can
implement a standard in Free Software; Microsoft and others have been
trying to convince the Commission that a standard is "open" even if it
cannot be implemented in Free Software. These developments are good
news - please share them!
== "Free" State of Saxony argues against Free Software ==
Already in May German politicians had a discussion about Free Software
in the Free State of Saxony's state parliament. I (Matthias) published
an analysis about this discussion [6] (in German). The state government
talks about strategic reasons against Free Software, but does not name
any of them. The CDU and the FDP say they do not want to influence the
market. On the other hand the state government educates all their pupils
with software from a monopolist and advertises Adobe's proprietary
software on their websites. In their tenders they do not ask for Free
Software, but complain that there are too few Free Software service
providers and programs. Beside that they use the term "market standards"
against Free Software.
That such discussions happen in parliament are a very good sign. They
mean that politicians have to think about Free Software, and that we can
all enter discussion with politicians about Free Software, too. That is
why we asked people from Saxony to send their politicians feedback on
the discussion, and to write them what they liked about the discussion
and ask questions like ‘when politicians talk about strategic reasons
against Free Software, what are these reasons?’. The speech by Neelie
Kroes quoted above is also something that you can point politicians to.
== Free Video Formats / Software licenses ==
In May, Google updated the license for their WebM project [7] to make it
GPL-compatible. As explained in the last issue [8] WebM is important so
users do not have to install the non-free flash plugins anymore, but
have a free video format to play and encode videos.
WebM was already Free Software, as the rightsholders stated in the
licence that users have the freedom to use, study, share, and improve
it. The problem was that its license was not compatible with the GNU
General Public License (GPL) [9].
There are a lot of Free Software licenses [10], but the GNU GPL is the
most famous Free Software copyleft license and is used by a large
percentage of Free Software. It ensures the four freedoms and adds the
condition that those freedoms remain intact in further distribution of
the software.
If people use the same licence or at least GPL-compatible licences, then
programmers can exchange code freely, and easily, so programmers do not
have to reinvent the wheel again but can use already existing code. That
is why it is so important that programmers use the GNU AGPL [11], GPL,
LGPL [12], or a compatible Free Software license for their software.
There is also an article by David Wheeler which is worth reading, why
you should make your software GPL compatible [13], like WebM does now.
== Get active: Give your politicians continuous feedback ==
Our mission is to explain the concept of Free Software to as many people
as possible. This month the German team had a booth at the GNU/Linuxtag
in Berlin and explained Free Software to all the different visitors,
gave interviews and speeches about "Freedom in the cloud" and common
misunderstandings about Free Software. Depending on the audience you
should use slightly modified explanations. To support Free Software
supporters, we are providing links to video [14] and audio [15] files,
as well as transcripts of speeches [16].
As Fellow [17] you automatically have an account there, but you can just
register for a guest account [18] and help us to make those pages a good
resource for people who want to learn from others how to best explain
the benefits of software freedom.
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE
1. http://www.fsfe.org/about/members.en.html
2. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents
3. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/david-reyes-samblas-martinez/
4. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=359
5. http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.en.html
6. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=589
7. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/googles-updated-webm-license
8. http://www.fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201006.en.html
9. http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html
10. http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/
11. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html
12. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html
13. http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/gpl-compatible.html
14. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Video
15. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Audio
16. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Transcripts
17. http://fellowship.fsfe.org
18. http://wiki.fsfe.org/UserGuide?action=newaccount
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://www.fsfe.org>
FSFE News <http://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <http://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
= Bolzano, please don't waste your money =
== FSFE supports open letter from LUGBZ to Province of South Tyrol ==
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100702-01.en.html ]
Dear Minister Roberto Bizzo,
on 25 May 2010 the regional government authority of Bolzano decided to
spend 2.2 million EUR over the next three years to renew software
licenses from Microsoft Ireland, and to buy additional licenses. All
this was done without a public call for tender, making it impossible for
competing suppliers of similar software to make offers of their own.
We ask you to rethink this decision. It will influence your strategic
position over a much longer time frame than the three years for which
the licenses will last.
The European Commission’s vice president Neelie Kroes said on June 13
2010 in Brussels [1]:
"Many authorities have found themselves unintentionally locked into
proprietary technology for decades. After a certain point that
original choice becomes so ingrained that alternatives risk being
systematically ignored, no matter what the potential benefits. This is
a waste of public money that most public bodies can no longer afford."
With your decision to buy Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft Office
communication server software without evaluating Free Software
alternatives you will increase your organisation's dependence on
Microsoft. You will take your IT systems further down the one-way street
of proprietary formats and proprietary software, locking in your
organisation's own data along with that of the citizens of Bolzano.
You are also running the risk of accusations about the improper handling
about procurement processes. The protracted lawsuit against the Swiss
Federal Administration [2], which is still ongoing, provides an example
of the possible legal consequences.
The decisions you are making today will have an impact for the years to
come. Breaking out of the lock-in will only become more expensive over
time, as you risk turning more of your valuable data into digital toxic
waste.
Rather than throw good money after bad, we ask you to step back from
your deal with Microsoft, and issue a public call for tender open to all
suppliers. When making a choice about the future solution for your
organisation, we urge you to consider the strategic freedom which Free
Software, Open Standards and open file formats provide, rather than
deepening your dependence on a single vendor.
You might also wish to investigate the opportunities that such a
strategy would provide for local businesses in the province of
Bolzano-Bozen, which has successfully turned itself into a Free Software
hub.
In the interest of the citizens of Bolzano-Bozen, we urge you to accept
the offer of a dialogue extended to you by local Free Software experts
at the GNU/Linux User Group Bolzano (LUGBZ) and the Free Software
Foundation Europe. We stand ready to advise you on your strategic
options in software procurement, and discuss the opportunities afforded
by Free Software and Open Standards.
Sincerely,
Karsten Gerloff
President,
Free Software Foundation Europe
http://fsfe.org
1. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/10/300&forma…
2. http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/news-solutions-applications/red-hat-sues-…
== 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/