For eight years now, the Free Software Foundation Europe has been
working tirelessly for basic rights and freedoms in an increasingly
software-driven society. The 11th of March 2009 sees another major
milestone passed, with its 2^3 (eighth) birthday being celebrated by
its friends, Fellows and associates.
"The world of Free Software has developed dramatically since FSFE was
founded, and FSFE was a core part of that change," Greve observes.
"Free Software has won its first antitrust action. We helped to bring
issues of interoperability and standardisation to the forefront of the
debate, with OOXML being the culmination of this debate. As a
consequence, more governments and public institutions have begun to
ask questions about the sovereignty of their software and data."
In the fast-moving Free Software world, FSFE has often found itself in
at the forefront of new developments. While public campaigns like the
annual Document Freedom Day and the recently launched pdfreaders.org
campaign have been the most visible aspects of FSFE's work, many other
activities have received less publicity because of their inherent
behind-the-scenes nature.
Over the course of the last eight years, FSFE has been working
intensively at the United Nations, has promoted Free Software interests
at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), contributed to
the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), taken part in discussions at the
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and taught project
managers of the World Bank about Free Software. FSFE has worked with the
European Commission not just as part of its antitrust work, but also
through research and development funding under the framework
programmes, been directly involved in these projects, and has assisted
the Commission by offering input into policy-setting initiatives.
Work in international policy-setting fora always involves a conflict
between getting the word out and affording the confidentiality
necessary to the process involved. Proclaiming victory publicly can
often mean bringing about defeat, and a carefully maintained reputation
is the key to being able to convey the right message, in the right
place, at the right time.
From assisting in legal matters through its Freedom Task Force (FTF) and
overseeing the development of Internet regulation, to ensuring
interoperability and keeping software patents at bay, FSFE has played an vital
role in shaping the future environment for Free Software.
In 2005, FSFE initiated its community programme, the Fellowship, which
besides being a major source of funding for FSFE has grown to be a
highly successful independent network in its own right, with projects,
meetings and celebrations taking place in several countries. Matthias
Kirschner, Fellowship Coordinator for FSFE, explains that the
Fellowship has chosen to mark the 2^3 birthday event with a special
edition of the Fellowship Interview series, in which Georg Greve
explains the history behind FSFE and how he came to found it. The
interview is available at http://fellowship.fsfe.org/interviews/greve/.
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.
You will find further information about the work of the FSFE at
http://fsfeurope.org
FSFE engages in the EU browser case
Free Software Foundation Europe today announces that it will support
the European Commission's antitrust investigation against Microsoft
and to this effect it has formally requested to be admitted as an
interested third party.
The investigation began on the 16th of January when the European Commission
DG Competition reported that it had issued a statement of objections regarding
Microsoft's abuse of web standards and the tying of Internet Explorer (IE)
to the Windows Operating System product family. It is based on a complaint
submitted by Opera, a European company involved in web browser development,
which FSFE publicly supported in 2007.
FSFE considers anti-competitive behaviour unacceptable, whether it
occurs through 'tying' products, or in circumventing standards and
fair access. FSFE will seek to support all processes that ensure
competition and enable innovation.
FSFE promotes freedom of choice and protects Open Standards. This
includes working against abuse of standards through proprietary
extensions that unlawfully segment the Internet. FSFE welcomes the
participation of any company in the browser market, including the
optimisation of their products to work well on target platforms.
But no company should be in a position to dictate what the Internet
will look like by leveraging platform dominance into erosion of
standards through control of server and client.
FSFE President Georg Greve comments: "Antitrust law has to step in
when there is consistent and massive abuse of a dominant position that
is damaging competition in other areas. In this case, Microsoft first
used the platform monopoly to create artificial ubiquity for Internet
Explorer, and then modified the standards on both ends to
distort compatibility and competition."
"The design decisions that give IE better integration than alternative
browsers and to change web standards in undocumented ways were not
technologically justified. The consequences that made the intervention
of the European Commission necessary were intended, not
accidental,"Greve concludes.
"Microsoft's pleas to be in favour of competition and interoperability
must be followed by real acts of goodwill," states Carlo Piana,
counsel for FSFE. "So far we have seen little of it: recent actions
taken against Free Software are eloquent. We will be restless in
demanding that real competition be restored and that all players are
treated equally."
For FSFE's previous statements, please see:
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2007/news-20071221-01http://fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090120-02
For FSFE's letter to the European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes,
please see:
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/20071219-opera-antitrust.pdf
Background
FSFE previously supported the European Commission's DG Competition
in its 2001 investigation against Microsoft's non-disclosure of
interoperability data. This was the first time the Free Software
community became involved in such a case, and helped lead to a final
decision in 2004 against Microsoft demanding that interoperability
information be made public.
The ruling was upheld by a 2007 ruling at the European Court of
First Instance, and eventually, Samba and the entire community
received access to the interoperability information upon conditions
compatible with the GNU General Public License, which is now being
implemented into better and more interoperable software that will
benefit the entire IT ecosystem.
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.
Further information about FSFE's work is available at http://fsfeurope.org.
Press contact:
Georg Greve <greve @ fsfeurope.org>
Shane Coughlan <coughlan @ fsfeurope.org>
Carlo Piana <carlo @ piana.eu>
Contact
* Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
* Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
* Sweden: +46 31 7802160
* Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
* UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
The Fellowship of the Free Software Foundation Europe is proud to
announce its latest initiative: pdfreaders.org, a site providing
information about PDF with links to Free Software PDF readers for all
major operating systems.
"Interoperability, competition and choice are primary benefits of Open
Standards that translate into vendor-independence and better value for
money for customers," says FSFE president Georg Greve. "Although many
versions of PDF offer all these benefits for formatted text and
documents, files in PDF formats typically come with information that
users need to use a specific product. pdfreaders.org provides an
alternative to highlight the strengths of PDF as an Open Standard."
The coordinators of pdfreaders.org, Hannes Hauswedell and Jan-Hendrik
Peters, are pleased to present the latest revision of the site with
short and compact information how users can seize the full benefits of
both Open Standards and Free Software.
"Free Software gives us control over the software we use, and Open
Standards give us control over our data and allow implementations by
many different groups," explains Jan-Hendrik Peters. "We wanted to
show that with the Portable Document Format people can have both."
Hannes Hauswedell adds: "Similar to a Free Software project we started
off with an idea, provided a first implementation, received lots of
feedback, and worked that into a better version of the site. We are
grateful to all the people who got involved. This was a collaborative
effort that would not have been possible without all the contributors."
"The site offers buttons in several languages that we encourage
everyone to put next to PDF files offered on their sites," explains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's Fellowship Coordinator. "We hope that in a
year from now, no PDF is offered without the vendor-independent
alternative buttons of pdfreaders.org."
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090202-01.en.html
FTF releases legal infrastructure guide for Free Software projects
2009-01-23, Zurich, Graeme West, FSFE
FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF) is pleased to announce the release of a
guide to assist with establishing legal infrastructure for Free Software
projects.
The guide [1] gives tips on how Free Software projects can consolidate
their legal position. It includes information about setting up legal
entities, dealing with copyright issues, managing trademarks, and best
practices for project management.
"When projects start to become successful, it's important for their
members to consider what structures will scale successfully, be
compatible with the founding principles, and protect the integrity of
the project community", says Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator. "This
guide provides a starting point for internal debate, and can help
projects prepare a description of their requirements for consultation
with experts."
"Every project is different, but all can benefit from ensuring they
have a sound legal basis", explains Graeme West, FTF Intern. The guide
was authored by FTF staff in consultation with members of the FTF
European Legal Network. It is available as part of the newly redesigned
FTF web site [2], where other guides on topics like licence compliance
can also be found.
[1] http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/building-legal-infrastructure
[2] http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf/
About the Freedom Task Force
The Freedom Task Force is an activity run by Free Software Foundation
Europe to help people understand Free Software licensing and the
opportunities it presents. We offer educational services, facilitate
larger infrastructure activities and manage FSFE's legal affairs.
Our goals are to share knowledge about Free Software law, to
safeguard the interests of Free Software projects, to connect
experts in this field and to help other groups achieve similar goals.
We believe in positive, constructive dialogue and seek at all times
to support the long-term sustainability of Free Software.
The FTF's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
You can contact us via email: ftf @ fsfeurope.org
You can phone us at:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 Ext. 22
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73 Ext. 22
Sweden: +46 31 7802160 Ext. 22
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 Ext. 22
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 Ext. 22
Press contact: Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
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.
FSFE's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Sweden: +46 31 7802160
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
Further information: http://www.fsfeurope.org
Web browser interoperability: FSFE welcomes EC's decision and offers support
On the 16th of January the European Commission DG Competition reported
that it had issued a statement of objections regarding Microsoft's
tying of Internet Explorer (IE) to the Windows Operating System
product family. This action builds on a complaint originally
submitted by Opera, a European company involved in web browser
development.
Free Software Foundation Europe welcomes the European Commission's
decision and offers its support in the coming anti-trust
investigation. As stated previously in a letter to the European
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, anti-competitive behaviour is
unacceptable, whether it occurs as 'tying' products with dominant
market segments, or in circumventing standards and fair access.
"Web browsers are becoming a critical platform for home and business
computing," says Shane Coughlan, legal coordinator at FSFE. "The
market previously failed to prevent unfair distortion of the desktop
environment and we cannot allow such practices to be repeated."
"It is important that no business in Europe is allowed to institute
any policy of embracing, extending and extinguishing competition
either through manipulation of interoperability information or through
abuse of a dominant position by unfair tying and bundling of
products," says Georg Greve, FSFE President. "Microsoft is a company
that has previously been convicted of market distortion in the Work
Group Server market, and we would welcome if the Commission also took
up the antitrust complaint initially lodged in early 2006 by the
European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) regarding market
abuse in other areas."
For FSFE's previous statement on this issue please see:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2007/news-20071221-01
For FSFE's letter to the European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes
please see:
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/20071219-opera-antitrust.pdf
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://fsfeurope.org
Press contact: greve(a)fsfeurope.org
General contact:
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Sweden: +46 31 7802160
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
I'm happy to begin my first newsletter with a call for financial
support. To stay financially independent, FSFE relies on the Free
Software community. We have the pure goal of protecting users' rights
and spreading software freedom, and this is enabled by a large number
of people making small and medium sized donations. Like you.
To protect everyone's freedom to write software, and to spread
software freedom, please help us encouage people to join the
Fellowship (http://fellowship.fsfe.org/), or to make a donation and
get listed on our Thank GNUs page.
Ciaran O'Riordan, FSFE Brussels Office
1. Analysis of Patents in Standardisation
2. FSFE thanks Jonas Oberg for years of work as Vice President
3. FTF talks strategy with the European embedded Linux industry
4. Get your 'Windows Tax' rebate!
5. Project spotlight: UN & WIPO lobbying
6. This time in 2007
7. Upcoming events
1. Analysis of Patents in Standardisation
Following up on the November "IPR in ICT Standardisation" Workshop in
Brussels, FSFE president Georg C. F. Greve analysed the conflicts between
patents and standards. The result is a paper about the most harmful
effects of patents on standards, the effectiveness of current
remedies, and potential future remedies.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/os/ps
2. FSFE thanks Jonas Oberg for years of work as Vice President
FSFE's General Assembly would like to thank Jonas Öberg for his years
of service as Vice President of FSFE. His hard work has ensured the
functioning of internal structures such as financial and policy
setting. As vice-president, Jonas was a driving force in two
restructurings of the organisation and his efforts will be visible in
FSFE for years to come.
Taking over as interim Vice President until the next General Assembly
meeting, FSFE would like to welcome aboard Pablo Machon.
3. FTF talks strategy with the European embedded Linux industry
Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, delivered a talk
entitled 'The strategic implementation of Free Software in business'
at the CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2008 on Friday 7th
November in Ede, Netherlands.
Shane discusssed how successful implementation of a Free Software
business strategy is assisted by the kind of generic market knowledge
which members of the FTF's European Legal Network have been working to
develop over the past several months.
FSFE was also present at the NLUUG conference which took place the
previous day, to spread the word and connect with local FSFE Fellows.
4. Get your 'Windows Tax' rebate!
Members of FSFE's German chapter are in the process of collecting
information about how to reclaim the cost of Microsoft Windows licensing
fees from computer hardware manufacturers.
The Fellows are collaborating in a public wiki page, and we would like to
invite contributions. Showing which firms have fair policies on this
issue is a great way of making it easy for consumers to incorporate
this into their buying decisions, and thus influence corporate policies.
If you have been able to gain a refund from a manufacturer, please share
your knowledge.
http://wiki.fsfe.org/Windows-Tax_Refund
5. Project spotlight: UN & WIPO lobbying
Our work within international treaty processes is some of our most
important, but also some of our least visible. The meetings
themselves are rarely discussed in the media, and most of the work
happens in many private discussions beforehand. You don't get in by
just knocking on the door, and you don't change policy by just
collecting business cards and emailing your suggestions around.
This work is vital because these international agreements trump the
European Parliament and our national governments. If an agreement is
made at the international level, then the European Parliament has to
obey it, and so do our national governments. Another reason for us
doing this work is that we happen to have a President who has a talent
for this, Georg Greve.
Some information about this work is available on our website:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/igf/igf.en.htmlhttp://fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/wipo.en.htmlhttp://fsfeurope.org/projects/wsis/wsis.en.html
6. This time in 2007:
This time last year, FSFE was involved in the United Nations Internet
Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, delivering training courses
in Nijmegen, and holding FTF events in Linz, Lausanne, Nijmegen and
Düsseldorf - among many other activities.
Amazing progress has been made in the last year. FSFE's influence in
international institutions has grown, and the FTF continues to build
legal infrastructure for Free Software through its training,
documentation and outreach activities. If you'd like to know more about
what was going on in November last year, please see the newsletter
archives:
http://mailman.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q4/000190.html
7. Upcoming events
An up-to-date list of our upcoming events can be found at:
http://fsfeurope.org/events/events.en.html
When this newsletter was being written, we had the following upcoming list:
2008-12-18: Fellowship Christmas get-together in Gothenburg, Sweden
2008-12-19: Zurich, 'Licensing questions and other legal issues' workshop
2008-12-19: Monthly Fellowship meeting in Vienna, Austria
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
Europe, 15 December 2008.
[Online: http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20081215-01.en.html]
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) announces a translation
sprint for their web pages from 15 December 2008 to 11 January 2009. The
aim of this sprint is to provide information about Free Software and
FSFE's work in as many languages as possible.
As one of its most important means of communication with the public,
FSFE hosts a web site at http://www.fsfeurope.org/. Translating the
texts and making them available for people with different native
languages has always been important, and thanks to the untiring work of
dozens of volunteers all around Europe, the pages are available in up to
26 different languages.
Translating FSFE's web pages is a huge task. More than 250 pages are
online, and several pages per week are added or updated and require new
translations. There's always something left to do. More help is always
welcome.
So FSFE announces a four weeks translation sprint from 15 December 2008
to 11 January 2009, combined with a call for new volunteers. The job: to
translate from English to other European languages, and to proofread
translations. The mission: to fill as many translation gaps as possible.
The candidate: you.
Translating and proofreading texts is a precious contribution to the
work of FSFE and an excellent chance to spontaneously take part in its
activities without long-term obligations. And it's a great chance to
contribute in a way that doesn't cost money.
Interested? Willing to spend some time on the future of Free Software?
Ready to join one of FSFE's largest volunteer groups? Have a look at the
information page about webpage translations [1]! And if you have further
questions, don't hesitate to send an email to translators (at)
fsfeurope.org. Some of the language groups have already declared some
language-specific goals for the sprint [2] - will you be helping your
group to reach them?
[1] http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators/web.en.html
[2] http://wiki.fsfe.org/TranslatorsSprint
--
Reinhard Müller
Free Software Foundation Europe
Volunteer coordinator for web pages and translations
[for immediate release]
FSFE adds Fellowship representation to General Assembly
Today FSFE is announcing its revised constitution, adding two
Fellowship Seats to its General Assembly. [1] This will give Fellows
of FSFE a direct representation in FSFE's strategic decision making
body.
The Fellowship is FSFE's larger community. [2] Launched in 2005, it
provides a meeting place with regular online and offline activities, a
framework for activity and cooperation, a migration path into the
organisation, and one of the most important ways of supporting FSFE's
work in all areas, providing both resources and political support.
Now the Fellowship also provides a path into the General Assembly.
In early 2009, FSFE will post a call for nominations among all Fellows
who have been with the organisation for at least a year. Before the
next convening of the General Assembly, candidates will come up for
election among all Fellows in time for the first Fellowship Seat to be
filled. The second seat will be defined the year after. Those elected
will serve a two year term and there will thus be one election per
year from now on.
The required constitutional change to allow for this was prepared
after the 2007 General Assembly and adopted unanimously by the eight
members of the GA represented at FSFE's 2008 annual meeting from June
6th to 8th in the FSFE Zurich office.
Georg Greve, FSFE's President, commented: "We were convinced that we
should introduce an element of accountability towards and strategic
involvement of the Fellows in FSFE. More than an advisor or an
observer, we wanted this involvement to be as an equal. Of course we
were eager to put this into practice soon, but constitutional changes
should never be taken lightly since a hasty change could have severe
consequences. So we did it as fast as our responsibility to FSFE
allowed and are glad we got it done now so that next year's General
Assembly meeting will already be with the first Fellow."
Matthias Kirschner, the Fellowship Coordinator added "Because this is
the first year, we're going to have to work hard to give the Fellows a
way to get to know each other. Each candidate will have a platform,
so it will be possible for the voters to know them, but we also want
the candidates to know the voters. As well as improving the technical
infrastructure on fsfe.org, we'll be increasing the number of regional
Fellowship meetings in the coming months."
Pablo Machon, FSFE's Vice President, said: "We modelled our voting
system on that used by Debian. It's a well tested method and has
proven to be resistant to voting anomalies. To be a candidate,
someone has to have been a Fellow for one year already. This is
because we want the Fellowship representative to know the organisation
and what it's like to be a Fellow. For voting, all Fellows can vote
as soon as they sign up."
[1] http://fsfeurope.org/about/legal/constitution.html
[2] http://fellowship.fsfe.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://www.fsfeurope.org/
Contact
* Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
* Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
* Sweden: +46 31 7802160
* Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
* UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
FTF and gpl-violations release a guide to reporting and fixing licence
violations
2008-12-08, Zürich, Graeme West, FSFE
FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF) and GPL-Violations.org today released a
guide to reporting and fixing licence compliance issues.
This guide will help users and developers to deal with license violation
reports. It explains how to make a report, what information is useful to
include, and offers suggestions for how projects or businesses can deal
with reports once they are received.
The guide is released as part of the strategic partnership between the
FTF and GPL-Violations.org, who work together to improve licensing
awareness and compliance in Europe. It is located on the new FTF
website, http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf, along with information on how
projects and businesses can get help with understanding Free Software
licences. Translations into several European languages will be made
available during coming weeks from the FTF website.
"The best way to solve compliance issues is to prevent them happening in
the first place", says Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator. "We work to
support this by educating the community at large. When problems do
occur, we want people to be able to share information and resolve them
effectively."
About the Freedom Task Force:
The Freedom Task Force is a project run by Free Software Foundation
Europe to help people understand Free Software licensing and the
opportunities it presents. We offer educational services, facilitate
larger infrastructure activities and manage FSFE's legal affairs.
Our goals are to share knowledge about Free Software law, to
safeguard the interests of Free Software projects, to connect experts
in this field and to help other groups achieve similar goals. We
believe in positive, constructive dialogue and seek at all times to
support the long-term sustainability of Free Software.</p>
The FTF's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
You can contact us via email: ftf @ fsfeurope.org
You can phone us at:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 Ext. 22
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73 Ext. 22
Sweden: +46 31 7802160 Ext. 22
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 Ext. 22
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 Ext. 22
Press contact: Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
About gpl-violations.org:
In the past 40 months, gpl-violations.org has helped uncover and
negotiate more than 100 GPL violations and has obtained numerous
out-of-court settlement agreements. The gpl-violations.org project
is a not-for-profit effort to bring commercial users and vendors of
Free Software into compliance with the licence conditions as set
forth by the original authors. The project was founded and is
managed by Mr. Harald Welte, a Linux Kernel developer and Free
Software enthusiast.
For more information on the project, its mission, milestones and
goals, please see http://gpl-violations.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.
FSFE's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Sweden: +46 31 7802160
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
Further information: http://www.fsfeurope.org
[for immediate release]
Following up on the European Commission's "IPR in ICT Standardisation"
workshop two weeks ago in Brussels, FSFE president Georg Greve analysed
the conflicts between patents and standards. The resulting paper is
about the most harmful effects of patents on standards, the
effectiveness of current remedies, and potential future remedies.
>From the article:
"[...] Both patents and standards derive their justification from the
public benefit, yet upholding one deprives the other of its
function. Standards seek to counteract monopolies, patents establish
them. Or, as Tomoko Miyamoto, Senior Counsellor of the Patent Law
Section in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said
in her presentation: Patent thickets and patent hold-ups arise from
legitimate exploitation of the exclusive rights intentionally
conferred by patents. They are a normal and intended consequence of
the patent system. [...]"
The article is available in full text at:
http://fsfeurope.org/standards/ps
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.
You will find further information about the work of the FSFE at
http://fsfeurope.org/.
Contact
* Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
* Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
* Sweden: +46 31 7802160
* Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
* UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7