GPL-Violations.org and FSFE's Freedom Task Force to work more closely together
Coordinators of the FSFE Freedom Task Force (FTF) and GPL-Violations.org
recently met in Berlin to discuss future cooperation. The two organisations
have agreed to deepen their partnership, building on their combined work
since the launch of the FTF in October 2006.
GPL-Violations.org will be pro-actively working on cases and seeking
resolutions where violations occur. The FTF will continue and expand
its educational and networking activities to ensure awareness of best
practice and help support people with their use of the licences.
"Since GPL-Violations.org was launched the software market in Europe has
changed significantly," states Harald Welte, founder of GPL-Violations.org.
"It is a clear, legal fact that distributing Free Software means people
must comply with the licences. GPL-Violations.org and the FTF are now
building the long-term legal infrastructure for support and compliance."
Key outcomes of the new arrangement between the FTF and GPL-Violations.org
include an agreement that GPL-Violations.org will assist the FTF in
getting a second full-time staff member. This will help the FTF to
deliver services such as answering common licensing questions, offering
training and consultancy, resolving licensing issues, helping projects
consolidate copyright and acting as a legal guardian for fiduciary
programme members.
"GPL-Violations.org has been critical in building understanding of
licensing in Europe, and it has also been critical in the development
of the FTF," say Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator. "I believe our new
agreement will help ensure sustainability for legal infrastructure to
support Free Software in Europe."
"The key thing now is to look to the future. The FTF facilitates a
European Legal Network with coverage of seventeen European countries
and over 100 members. I'd like to encourage European businesses and
projects with legal counsel, or individual lawyers, to join this
network. It provides an excellent forum for sharing knowledge about
legal aspects of Free Software licensing and making new contacts."
The Freedom Task Force can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf/
The Freedom Task Force can be emailed at ftf at 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.
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 Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
About gpl-violations.org
In the past 30 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 license 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/
Media contact:
gpl-violations.org
Harald Welte
Email: laforge(a)gpl-violations.org
Issues around standardisation continued to make headlines during April.
However, other important areas of focus were also under discussion around
the world.
In Amsterdam, FSFE's Freedom Task Force hosted the first European Legal and
Licensing Workshop, leading to broad agreement between many European
stakeholders on methods of improving legal infrastructure for Free Software
in Europe. In Brazil, the 9th FISL conference provided a forum for various
discussion about the adoption and evolution of free technologies.
The Fellowship and FSFE volunteers were also active. The Fellows in Berlin
had a booth at a distribution release party and the Italian volunteers worked
on building the structure to ensure long-term sustainability for their team.
Please consider how you can contribute to our movement. You can visit
http://fsfeurope.org/contribute for suggestions of ways to get involved.
Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. FTF workshop leads to broad agreement on European licensing infrastructure
2. Lack of quality in standardisation a serious problem
3. Licensing as a strategic imperative, speech at FISL
4. Fellowship Group at Ubuntu Release Party in Berlin
5. Italian team: new mailing list and renewed blog
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
6. Linuxwochen, Vienna, Austria (2008-05-15 to 2008-05-17)
7. Fellowship meeting in Vienna (2008-05-17)
8. LinuxTag 2008, Berlin, Germany (2008-05-28 to 2008-05-31)
9. 'Strategic implementation of Free Software in business' speech at eLiberatica (2008-05-30)
1. FTF workshop leads to broad agreement on European licensing infrastructure
The recent European Legal and Licensing Workshop hosted by FSFE's Freedom Task
Force lead to productive discussions and broad agreement on important focus
areas in Free Software licensing between commercial and non-commercial
stakeholders. The event took place in Amsterdam during early April and was
attended to capacity. Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, states that "this marks
an example of the growing maturity of Free Software in Europe. We have a great
deal to do to ensure strong infrastructure to support the community, but as
this workshop showed, the will and ability to create the infrastructure is
present in all stakeholders." Documentation from the workshop will be
released to the public shortly.
2. Lack of quality in standardisation a serious problem
"FSFE published its 'Six questions to national standardisation bodies'
before the September 2nd vote last year. [1] Considering the statements
about progress made on MS-OOXML, one would have hoped that at least one
of these questions enjoyed a satisfactory response," states FSFE's
German Deputy country coordinator Matthias Kirschner. He continues:
"Unfortunately that is not the case. Issues like the 'Converter Hoax' [2]
and the 'Questions on Open Formats' [3] are still equally valid. As the
'Deprecated before use' [4] and 'Interoperability woes with OOXML' [5]
documents demonstrate, MS-OOXML interoperability is severely limited in
comparison to Open Standards. In addition to these issues, there are the
legal concerns that were raised by various parties. [6]"
FSFE vice-president Jonas Öberg states: "Governments have to start
asking themselves what the ISO seal of approval really means. As
demonstrated by the MPEG standards, it never meant that something
qualifies as a meaningful 'Open Standard.'"
[1] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions
[2] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-converter-hoax
[3] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions-for-ms
[4] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-idiosyncrasies
[5] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-interoperability
[6] http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/stdlib/offdoc/mision
3. Licensing as a strategic imperative, speech at FISL
Shane Coughlan, FSFE's Freedom Task Force Coordinator, delivered a speech on
the strategic importance of Free Software licensing at this years FISL event
in Porte Alegre, Brazil. FISL has grown to be perhaps the largest Free
Software event in the world. This year it was attended by 7,000 people
and notable speakers included Jon 'Maddog' Hall, Theodore Ts'o from the
Linux Foundation and Mitchell Baker from Mozilla Corporation. Well known
European faces like Knut Yrvin from Trolltech and Bram Moolenaar, the creator
of VIM, were also present.
4. Fellowship Group at Ubuntu Release Party in Berlin
The Berlin Fellowship Group attended the "Hardy Heron" release event in
Berlin's cbase and featured a talk from Fellow Torsten Grote about Gobuntu --
which aims to be a complete free (as in free speech) GNU/Linux operating system
-- and the importance of Free Software in general. The group also had a booth
there which attracted many interested visitors who were very eager to learn
about Free Software. While Ubuntu is not entirely Free Software, it has
helped a lot to make Free Software accessible to many people. The Berlin
Fellowship wanted to build on this and foster discussion about our goal of
having 100% Free Software available to everyone.
If you would like to join in the fun, please note that the Berlin Fellowship
meets every second Thursday in the month at the Newthinking Store,
Tucholskystr. 48 in 10117 Berlin at 19:30 pm.
5. Italian team: new mailing list and renewed blog
The Italian team of the FSFE has just launched a new public discussion
mailing list about Free Software and FSFE activities in Italy. All
Italian fellows, volunteers and interested people are invited to join us
and come up with ideas, proposals and any kind of questions. You can
subscribe to the new fsfe-it@ list at:
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-it
Also, Gnuvox (http://www.gnuvox.info), the blog on Free Software and
Free Culture maintained by the Italian team, has just been renewed
thanks to the TIS Free Software Center in Bolzano. We have some
interesting plans for the future, and we invite all italian Fellows and
bloggers to follow Gnuvox , submit comments and new posts too: you can
contact the editorial team at: pr-it(at)fsfeurope.org
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
6. Linuxwochen, Vienna, Austria (2008-05-15 to 2008-05-17)
>From 15 to 17 May, an event of the Linuxwochen Austria will take place in the
building of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Rudolf-Sallinger-Platz 1, 3rd
district, Vienna. A group of Fellows will be present with a booth where they
inform about FSFE, the Fellowship, and Free Software in general. Admission is
free for the whole event.
7. Fellowship meeting in Vienna (2008-05-17)
The twenty-second Austrian Fellowship meeting is integrated in the Linuxwochen
event in Vienna. Fellows and other interested people can meet at the FSFE
booth during the whole event to discuss, and at the end of the last day of
the event, we will join the Linuxwochen After-Show-Party.
8. LinuxTag 2008, Berlin, Germany (2008-05-28 to 2008-05-31)
As in the last years FSFE will be present with a booth at LinuxTag 2008. It
takes place at Berlin's Expo Center under the Funkturm. FSFE will inform
visitors about various aspects of Free Software, like the Freedom Task Force,
software patents, the SELF project, GPLv3, our work in the United Nations, or
the Fellowship of FSFE. Also it is planned to sell T-shirts from FSFE and
books about Free Software.
9. 'Strategic implementation of Free Software in business' speech at eLiberatica (2008-05-30)
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, will deliver a speech entitled 'Strategic
implementation of Free Software in business' at the eLiberatica conference
in Romania on the 30th of May.
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.
It has been another busy month for software freedom. Open Standards have
continued to dominate discussions in ICT with the MS-OOXML proposal being
accepted by ISO as a standard. FSFE and numerous other parties have observed
this process from the beginning and have reason to be concerned about the state
of international standardisation. You could read more about this in our
lead story below.
Document freedom, open access and software licensing are increasingly
important topics of discussion. Awareness of these issues has never been
higher but at the same time the challenges faced have never been so difficult.
As Free Software becomes more accepted, so too do the attempts by those
supporting restrictions and constraint to undermine our movement. We need
your help to ensure that logic, fairness and decisions for the benefit of all
continue to be heeded by decision-markets in Europe and beyond. If you
have some free time, please visit http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/ and
see how you can contribute to our success.
Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. MS-OOXML approved by ISO, FSFE concerned about standardisation process
2. FSFE context briefing: Interoperability woes with MS-OOXML
3. Document Freedom Day - young but strong
4. Keynote at Chemnitzer Linux-Tagen, Germany
5. FSFE co-launches Open Parliament initiative
6. Speech on Free Software licensing and the GPLv3 at OSiM USA
7. FTF delivers licensing courses in Zurich, Switzerland
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
8. (2008-04-19) Linuxwochen, Krems, Austria
9. (2008-04-19) Linuxwochen, Graz, Austria
10. (2008-05-15 to 2008-05-17) Linuxwochen, Vienna, Austria
1. MS-OOXML approved by ISO, FSFE concerned about standardisation process
Microsoft received Ecma's approval for the partial documentation of its
Office 2007 file format in December 2006 as Ecma-376. Ecma then filed
Ecma-376 for ISO approval as DIS29500. This raised concerns that in
spite of claims to the contrary this would turn out to be a strategic
move to get ISO approval at all cost for pure marketing purposes.
FSFE's own experience in some countries and the reports about various
irregularities around the world confirmed that concern. These concerns
also overshadow the final approval of MS-OOXML as an ISO standard. ISO
certification was never a seal for Open Standards, as demonstrated by
patent-encumbered formats like MPEG. But if technically deficient
documentation gets ISO approval, it questions ISO on a much more
fundamental level.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2008q2/000206.htmlhttp://www.fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/what_s_wron…http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/re_enacting_the_parrot_sketch
2. FSFE context briefing: Interoperability woes with MS-OOXML
FSFE released a context briefing on interoperability problems caused by
Microsoft's Office OpenXML format: "The proposed MS-OOXML/DIS29500
specification raises serious technical and legal concerns. This context
briefing highlights three examples of how the proposed specification and
its practical implementation in MS Office 2007 hinders interoperability,
fosters vendor dependence and results in market distortion."
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080305-01
3. Document Freedom Day - young but strong
We are happy to announce that the first Document Freedom Day was a
complete success. Great response we received from the teams during the
preparations and registration process, resulted with lots of activities
on March 26th all over the globe. DFD Teams did their best to pass the
message of document freedom and importance of Open Standards. DFD flags
were hoisted around the world in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, North
and South America.
Events and activities of more than 200 DFD teams ranged for street
events and speeches to an award for the German governmental body that adopted
good policies in the field of Document Freedom and Open Standards. We are
expressing our biggest gratitude to all DFD teams for being part of the
community and contribution in making DFD08 successful.
http://documentfreedom.org/
4. Keynote at Chemnitzer Linux-Tagen, Germany
Shane Coughlan, the coordinator of FSFE's Freedom Task Force, delivered the
keynote speech at Chemnitzer Linux-Tagen at 13:00 on the 1st of March. The
title of the keynote was 'Free Software in the ICT mainstream' and covered
issues ranging from licensing through to Free Software on the desktop. The
key message of the speech was that we have come a long way, and now that we
are a mainstream technology we can accomplish even more. The big question
remaining for each individual is simply "what will I contribute to this?"
http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2008/vortraege/detail.html?idx=223
5. FSFE co-launches Open Parliament initiative
The Open Parliament petition was launched in March to initiate a review of
the European Parliament's policies regarding internal software use and file
formats for published information. If this petition gathers enough support
to launch a review, FSFE will have a guiding role in the process. The
official petition is an internal matter for the European Parliament, but
there is also an online petition where FSFE asks free software supporters to
show their support. This petition was co-launched with OpenForum Europe and
ESOMA. More information on this will be published soon on the fsfe.org
blogs.
http://www.openparliament.eu/
6. Speech on Free Software licensing and the GPLv3 at OSiM USA
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, delivered a speech entitled 'Analysing
Whether GPLv3 Has Improved Free Software Licensing' at OSiM USA on Tuesday
the 12th of March in San Francisco. The speech covered topics ranging from
the creation of GPLv3 and its place in licensing through to examining the
place of GPLv3 in tomorrow's market. Reaction was positive and productive
discussions with telecommunications companies took place afterwards.
7. FTF delivers licensing courses in Zurich, Switzerland
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, delivered two training courses in Zurich,
Switzerland as part of the Free Task Force programme to increase awareness
and understanding of software licensing issues. On the 7th of March a half
day session entitled 'Free Software in the public sector' was delivered, and
on the 21st of March another half day session entitled 'Introduction to Free
Software licensing' was presented to an audience of local Free Software
advocates and activists. If you are interested in helping the FTF with its
outreach programme and would like to have training sessions in your area,
please contact the FTF as soon as possible:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/contact
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
8. (2008-04-19) Linuxwochen, Krems, Austria
On Tuesday 15 April 2007 at 16:15, Reinhard Müller gives a speech about open
standards and free document formats at a Linuxwochen event at the Danube
University Krems. The FSFE also has a booth at the event where it informs
about its work and about Free Software in general. Admission is free for the
whole event.
http://lug.krems.cc/linuxtag2008/
9. (2008-04-19) Linuxwochen, Graz, Austria
On Saturday 19 April 2007 at 12:00, Reinhard Müller gives a speech about open
standards and free document formats at Linuxwochen event at the University of
Applied Sciences "Johanneum" in Graz. The FSFE also has a booth at the event
where it informs about its work and about Free Software in general.
Admission is free for the whole event.
http://www.linuxtage.at/
10. (2008-05-15 to 2008-05-17) Linuxwochen, Vienna, Austria
>From 15 to 17 May, an event of the Linuxwochen Austria will take place in the
building of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Rudolf-Sallinger-Platz 1, 3rd
district, Vienna. A group of Fellows will be present with a booth where they
inform about FSFE, the Fellowship, and Free Software in general.
Admission is free for the whole event.
http://www.linuxwochen.at/
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.
Media release 2 April 2008
FSFE concerned about quality of standardisation process
Today the International Standards Organisation (ISO) approved
Microsoft's Office OpenXML format as ISO/IEC standard 29500 despite
severe technical and legal concerns with the specification that have
been raised by various parties.
"FSFE published its 'Six questions to national standardisation bodies'
before the September 2nd vote last year. [1] Considering the statements
about progress made on MS-OOXML, one would have hoped that at least one
of these questions enjoyed a satisfactory response," states FSFE's
German Deputy country coordinator Matthias Kirschner.
He continues: "Unfortunately that is not the case. Issues like the
'Converter Hoax' [2] and the 'Questions on Open Formats' [3] are still
equally valid. As the 'Deprecated before use' [4] and 'Interoperability
woes with OOXML' [5] documents demonstrate, MS-OOXML interoperability is
severely limited in comparison to Open Standards. In addition to these
issues, there are the legal concerns that were raised by various
parties. [6]"
"Technologically speaking, the state of IS29500 is depressing," says
Marko Milenovic of FSFE's Serbian Team and co-chair of the Serbian
technical committee on DIS29500. "In large parts it is low quality
technical prose that fails to use the normative terminology mandated by
ISO/IEC's guidelines. We've been told to wait for the maintenance
process for MS-OOXML to become usable. That ISO would knowingly approve
a dysfunctional specification is disillusioning."
FSFE vice-president Jonas Öberg states: "Governments have to start
asking themselves what the ISO seal of approval really means. As
demonstrated by the MPEG standards, it never meant that something
qualifies as a meaningful 'Open Standard.'"
Öberg continues: "Now it seems that ISO could be the wrong forum for
standards development in information technology in general. It seems to
work too slowly or too poorly to make the ISO brand meaningful in the IT
world. We'll have to see whether ISO can repair its own processes enough
to become a meaningful participant."
"Governments that seek to gain control over their own data and ensure
long-term archival of public records independently from any specific
vendor will need to establish other criteria in their public
procurement," concludes Georg Greve, FSFE's president. "Programs like
'Certified Open' that seek to assess the actual interoperability and
independence are likely to play a larger role in the future." [7]
[1] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions
[2] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-converter-hoax
[3] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions-for-ms
[4] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-idiosyncrasies
[5] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-interoperability
[6] http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/stdlib/offdoc/mision
[7] http://www.certifiedopen.com
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
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
26 March 2008: Today is Document Freedom Day!
Today is Document Freedom Day: Roughly 200 teams from more than 60
countries worldwide are organising local activities to raise awareness
for Document Freedom and Open Standards. To support the initiatives
surrounding the first day to celebrate document liberation, DFD
starter packs containing a DFD flag, t-shirts and leaflets have been
sent to the first 100 registered teams over the past weeks.
In a world where records are increasingly kept in electronic form,
Open Standards are crucial for valuable information to outlive the
application in which it was initially generated. The question of
Document Freedom has severe repercussions for freedom of choice,
competition, markets and the sovereignty of countries and their
governments.
"We are very happy about the response and activities that teams around
the world have scheduled," says Ivan Jelic, DFD Coordinator.
"Activities we have heard about range from local speeches and
information events through to prizes being given to governmental
bodies that adopted good policies in the field of Document Freedom and
Open Standards. It will be a challenge to document everything that is
taking place today."
"Who controls your valuable information? This question has become
central for the distribution of power and wealth in the networked
society," explains Georg Greve, president of FSFE. "Document Freedom
is about giving you control of your information, it is about giving
governments control of their public records, and it is about freedom
of choice. You can give yourself that freedom today by switching to
one of the many Free Software applications that support the Open
Document Format and that run on many different platforms!"
A list of Free Software applications that support ODF is available at
http://documentfreedom.org/Applications
Greve concludes: "Along with many others around the world, FSFE's
teams in several countries will be spending the day distributing
information about Open Standards and Document Freedom. My greetings
and gratitude go to everyone participating in this global effort,
particulary FSFE's young Serbian team who did the main work on DFD
regardless of a very difficult local situation!"
How you can get active
The Document Freedom Day is a collaborative effort.
You can make a difference by linking to http://documentfreedom.org,
generate your own artworks or use the ones available at
http://documentfreedom.org/Artwork or generate your own.
You could also print out some of the DFD leaflets at
http://www.documentfreedom.org/2008/DFD_Starter_Pack#Leaflet
and give them to your co-workers, family or friends. And if you feel
creative, consider taking pictures or small video testimonials that
show the world what Document Freedom means to you!
About the Document Freedom Day
The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation
with roughly 200 active teams worldwide. It is a day of grassroots
effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the
relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in
general.
Document Freedom Day is supported by a large group of organisations
and individuals, including, but not limited to Ars Aperta, COSS,
Esoma, Free Software Foundations Europe and Latin America, IBM, NLnet,
ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, OSL, iMatix, Red Hat, Sun
Microsystems, Inc., The Open Learning Centre, Opentia, Estandares
Abiertos.
The list of DFD supporting groups can be found
http://documentfreedom.org/Who
The list of DFD Teams is available at
http://documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams
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
It has been an exceptional month. The European Commission has fined
Microsoft an additional 899 million Euro for continuing to restrict
access to interoperability information prior to October 2007 and the
ISO Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva failed to address most of the
serious issues and ultimately ended up waving through the bulk of ECMA
responses without review. Public awareness of issues relating to
software freedom have been raised dramatically.
Perhaps the key word for this month is precedent. The EC anti-trust
fine is the first of its kind in Europe and draws a line regarding
fair access and good corporate behaviour in Europe. The MS-OOXML
process has clearly demonstrated how international standardisation is
struggling to meet current needs. Fairness, access and lack of
restrictions have become central to debates around the evolution of
the digital sphere. New precedents are being set which enshrine these
values, and where such precedents do not exist it is becoming clear
that they need to be created. This is good news for Free Software and
it's good news for society at large.
Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. Microsoft's so-called 'interoperability' pledge excludes primary competitors
2. FSFE calls on Microsoft to release interoperability information without restrictions
3. FSFE at FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium
4. SELF conference in Sofia, Bulgaria
5. FSFE participates in a global day for document liberation
6. FSFE announces the first European Licensing and Legal Workshop
7. Jonas Öberg in Sofia, Bulgaria
8. FSFE Context Briefing on DIS-29500: Deprecated before use?
9. "Fairware" for the Protestant Church in Gemany
10. Late breakfast for Rhineland Fellows
11. RMS in Berlin
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
12. Free Software in the public sector' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
13. Speech on Free Software licensing and the GPLv3 at OSiM USA
14. FSFE booth at OpenCamp in Rome, Italy
15. Introduction to Free Software licensing' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
16. Strategic implementation of Free Software
1. Microsoft's so-called 'interoperability' pledge excludes primary competitors
The Microsoft pledge to release interoperability information for
flagship products contained little actual news. The announcement
confirmed that Microsoft was planning to use its software patent
portfolio against interoperating products by requiring a patent
license for all commercial activity. This is consistent with its
previous attempts at allowing competition only where it provides no
actual challenge to its monopolies.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080222-01
2. FSFE calls on Microsoft to release interoperability information without restrictions
The European Commission has fined Microsoft 899 million Euro for
anti-competitive behaviour by continuing to restrict access to
interoperability information. "Microsoft is the last company that
actively promotes the use of software patents to restrict
interoperability. This kind of behaviour has no place in an Internet
society where all components should connect seamlessly regardless of
their origin," says Georg Greve, president of the Free Software
Foundation Europe.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080228-01
3. FSFE at FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium
Like the years before, Free Software Foundation Europe had a booth at FOSDEM,
one of the biggest Free Software conferences in Europe. This year FSFE shared
its booth with the Free Knowledge Foundation, a Spanish associate organisation
[1]. About fifteen team members and volunteers from FSFE helped out at the
booth by answering questions and talked to interested people. One of the big
topics was Document Freedom Day, and everyone at the booth helped explain its
importance [2].
[1] http://www.libre.org/
[2] http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/michael_kallas/images/fosdem_2008/document_f…
4. SELF conference in Sofia, Bulgaria
Jonas Öberg, vice president of the FSFE, participated in a SELF
conference in Sofia, Bulgaria the 10th of February, where he gave a
talk about e-learning and Free Software. The talk was part of an event
that took place during a SELF board meeting in Sofia, and gathered
teachers and activists from the area.
5. FSFE participates in a global day for document liberation
The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation
with grassroots action for promotion of Free Document Formats and Open
Standards in general. The DFD was initiated and is supported by a
group of organisations and companies, including, but not limited to,
the Free Software Foundation Europe, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe,
IBM, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, Inc. On 26 March 2008, the Document
Freedom Day will provide a global rallying point for Document
Liberation and Open Standards.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080220-01http://documentfreedom.org/
6. FSFE announces the first European Licensing and Legal Workshop
FSFE's Freedom Task Force announced the first European Licensing and
Legal Workshop for Free Software will be held on Friday the 11th of
April in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The event is targeted towards
large projects and medium to large enterprises wishing to discuss
their existing licence compliance processes. Parties attending are
expected to contribute to issues ranging from process development
through to optimising purchasing contract language for the benefit of
the European Free Software community.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080214-01
7. Jonas Öberg in Sofia, Bulgaria
Jonas Öberg, vice president of the FSFE, gave a talk on the 7th of
February in an event about ICT use in public administrations. His talk
was about how to do procurement of Free Software, using knowledge
gained from Sweden, and took place in Sofia, Bulgaria.
8. FSFE Context Briefing on DIS-29500: Deprecated before use?
When ECMA submitted MS-OOXML as ECMA-376 to ISO for fast-track
approval, several countries criticised overlap with the existing ISO
standard ISO/IEC 26300:2006, the Open Document Format (ODF). [...]
Considering that alleged preservation of idiosyncrasies is the stated
reason for the entire DIS-29500 ISO process, FSFE considers it
worthwhile to investigate this claim in greater depth. The result of
this investigation is a compact context briefing.
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-idiosyncrasies
9. "Fairware" for the Protestant Church in Gemany
For many years now the churches have supported fair trade. Because of this the
ethical principles of Free Software are a real match with the IT needs of
churches.
A practical start to introducing Free Software was undertaken on the 23th of
February. In an event of the Protestant Church in Verden (near Bremen, Germany),
the use of "Fairware", as they called Free Software, was discussed. Bernhard
Reiter gave a lecture on Free Software and answered several questions of the
interested audience. The event was very successful. Thanks to Andreas Bergmann
and Detlev Rakebrand who have organized the event and are promoting Free
Software within their communities.
10. Late breakfast for Rhineland Fellows
At 2008-03-02 the second "late breakfast" of the Fellows at Rhineland took
place in the Duesseldorf Office of FSFE. There were twice as many people as
at the first "late breakfast". Upgrade problems, free geo data and IT
security in enterprises were the topics discussed while enjoying coffee
and breakfast . There are now plans to make this a regular event.
11. RMS in Berlin
On his visit to Europe, Richard Stallman gave a speech on the history
and philosophy of Free Software in Berlin. The local Fellowship group
together with the newthinking-store put up a booth to inform the
visitors about ways to participate in the Free Software movement.
Around 200 people listened to Richard Stallman's speech, which was
concluded with a round of questions and the recitation of "The Free
Software Song"[1]. The Fellowship group really enjoyed the speech and
the fruitful discussions with the participants afterwards.
http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.html
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
12. Free Software in the public sector' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, will deliver a training course
examining how Free Software can be used in the public sector on Friday
the 7th of March. The course will be delivered between 13:00-16:00 at
the FSFE Zurich office. There is no cost to attend this course, but
due to limited space all those wishing to come should register their
interest beforehand through the FTF contact form.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/form.html
13. Speech on Free Software licensing and the GPLv3 at OSiM USA
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, will deliver a speech entitled
'Analysing Whether GPLv3 Has Improved Free Software Licensing' at OSiM
USA on Tuesday the 11th of March in San Francisco. The speech will
cover topics ranging from the creation of GPLv3 and its place in
licensing through to examining the place of GPLv3 in tomorrow's
market.
14. FSFE booth at OpenCamp in Rome, Italy
The FSFE will be present with a booth at the OpenCamp event
organized by the Sapienza Linux User Group in Rome on 15th March
(http://barcamp.org/OpenCamp). The booth will offer FSFE
merchandising, information about current activities and a meeting
point for all interested people and Fellows.
15. Introduction to Free Software licensing' training course in Zurich, Switzerland
Shane Coughlan, FTF coordinator, will deliver a training course to
introduce people to Free Software licensing concepts on Friday the
21st of March. The course will be delivered between 13:00-16:00 at the
FSFE Zurich office. There is no cost to attend this course, but due to
limited space all those wishing to come should register their interest
beforehand through the FTF contact form.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/form.html
16. Strategic implementation of Free Software
On the 2nd of April FSFE and its Freedom Task Force (FTF) will give a
course on the Strategic implementation of Free Software in Business in
collaboration with the Internet Academy. The course will take place in
Stockholm, Sweden. Those wishing to come should register their
interest beforehand through the FTF contact form.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/form.html
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.
New petition calls for Open Standards in the European Parliament
Brussels – 6 March 2008.
At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive
behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP)
still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European
Union's citizens and its own MEPs. OpenForum Europe, The European
Software Market Association, and the Free Software Foundation Europe
today launched a petition to call on the EP to use Open Standards so
that all citizens can participate in the democratic process.
Graham Taylor, Chief Executive of OpenForum Europe says: "The benefits
of the Internet were achieved from Open Standards, freedom of access,
participation for all, innovation where it really mattered. Not
proprietary lock-in and monopoly. Government and Parliament need to
show leadership in ensuring full participation for all its citizens.
Pieter Hintjens, General Secretary of Esoma explains, "Small businesses
are moving to modern Open Standards like Open Document Format, yet to
write to their MEPs they have to switch back to old proprietary formats?
The EP should lead the way in open government, starting with Open
Standards for documents and recordings."
Ciaran O’Riordan, FSFE adds, "If our elected representatives don't like
a software package or its terms of use, they should be able to choose
another software package. This issue and the promotion of Open
Standards must be tackled together to get past a chicken and egg
problem: Not being able to choose your software often means you're stuck
with one vendor's proprietary format, and using that proprietary format
means you, and everyone you communicate with, is shoe-horned into using
the same vendor's software. For FSFE, it is important that MEPs be able
to choose Free Software."
The signatories are encouraging citizens and other stakeholder groups to
publicly support the objectives of the petition by signing up on
www.openparliament.eu
Background
It is the right of all citizens to be able to freely communicate with
their elected representatives, and have full and free access to the
proceedings of Parliament. In today’s electronic world of the internet,
email and video streaming, citizens rightly have high expectations on
the European Parliament to ensure full participation without technical
restriction. Yet it is a fact that the domination of current suppliers,
unless challenged, does impose unnecessary restriction, forcing citizens
to purchase specific software, maintaining lock-in to that supplier and
limiting competition and choice.
Openness is all about the freedom to innovate, integrate and
participate. For example there are already internationally approved
standards for document exchange, supported by a multitude of competitive
main stream products - yet these standards are unsupported by the
European Parliament, which instead only supports products based on
proprietary protocols. Not only does this potentially increase cost,
restrict access and impact social inclusion, but it restricts the
opportunity to take advantage of new innovation offered by tomorrow's
technology.
The co-signatories of this Petition call on the European Parliament to
open up their IT systems, maximising the use of Open Standards and
ensure full democracy for its citizens.
About OFE
OpenForum Europe is not-for-profit, independent of any organisation
and was launched in March 2002 to accelerate, broaden and strengthen
the use of Open Source Software in business and government. OFE
pursues the vision of an open, competitive European IT market by 2010
in line with the European Commission i2010 Strategy, with the mission
of facilitating open competitive choice for IT users. OFE is supported
by major IT suppliers and works closely with the market, both direct
and via national associates and partners. www.openforumeurope.org
About Esoma
The European Software Market Association (Esoma) is the voice of the
independent IT firms, professionals, and consumers. Founded in January
2007 by the FFII, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the removal
of barriers to competition in IT and largely responsible for the
rejection of the EU software patent directive in July 2005, Esoma
promotes healthy practices on the software market. Esoma fills the gap
for a European trade association speaking specifically for SME IT
firms.As a not-for-profit organisation, it is mostly funded from
membership fees and donations. www.esoma.org
About FSFE
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.
For further information please contact:
Graham Taylor, Chief Executive of OFE, +44(0)1372 815168
Pieter Hintjens, General Secretary of ESOMA, +32 (0)475 235 984
Ciaran O’Riordan, FSFE, +32(0)477 364 419
FSFE context briefing: Interoperability woes with MS-OOXML
FSFE has released a context briefing that highlights three examples of
how the proposed MS-OOXML specification and its practical implementation
in MS Office 2007 hinders interoperability, fosters vendor dependence
and results in market distortion. The proposed MS-OOXML/DIS29500
specification continues to raise serious technical and legal concerns.
At the recent ISO Ballot Resolution Meeting for the proposed
specification more than 1,000 technical concerns and proposed
dispositions required discussion. Participants were only able to
discuss between 20 to 30 dispositions and to accept approximately 200
minor editorial corrections in the allocated time. Around 900
dispositions were not addressed.
"The standardisation process is being tested quite extensively by this,"
says Shane Coughlan, FSFE's legal coordinator. "It is important that
standards are open and do not exclude anyone. Interoperability and
access are not optional components of a fair digital society."
FSFE's perspective is that there is only one reasonable response by
national bodies: move DIS29500 out of the FastTrack process by voting
“DISAPPROVE, with comments” and suggest methods of handling the proposed
specification through the normal ISO process, ideally by convergence
into ISO/IEC 26300, the Open Document Format (ODF).
For more information see:
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-interoperability
Download a PDF copy of the context briefing (1.3M):
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-interoperability.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.
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
Media contact: Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
mobile: +41792633406
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
Google helps FSFE's Freedom Task Force to deliver training, attend
conferences and translate documents.
Google has made a donation to assist FSFE's Freedom Task Force with
delivering training courses, attending conferences and localising
documents.
"The Freedom Task Force is working to foster effective legal
infrastructure for Free Software in Europe. A great deal of our work is
based on engaging directly with people and Google's contribution will
allow us to do this more effectively," says Shane Coughlan, FTF
Coordinator. "Training, physical presence in countries and providing
materials in local languages are essential aspects of building a
coherent pan-European community."
"Free Software Foundation Europe has been working to promote and protect
Free Software in Europe for many years and the Freedom Task Force is a
good example of their long-term approach to supporting the community,"
says Jeremy Allison, Member of the Technical Staff - Software Engineer,
Google. "I believe that they are doing useful work and I'm proud to see
Google supporting their activities."
FSFE's Freedom Task Force helps individuals, projects and businesses
understand Free Software licensing and the opportunities that it
presents. The activities of the FTF includes providing training
courses, consultancy and operating a European Legal and Technical
Network. It fosters best practice throughout the European Free Software
community.
The FTF is operated on a non-profit basis under the auspices of Free
Software Foundation Europe.
For more information about the FTF or the first European Licensing and
Legal Workshop please contact Shane Coughlan:
The Freedom Task Force can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf/
The Freedom Task Force can be emailed at ftf at 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.
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 Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
FSFE calls on Microsoft to release interoperability information
without restrictions
The European Commission has fined Microsoft 899 million Euro for
anti-competitive behaviour by restricting access to interoperability
information through unreasonable royalty payments prior to October
2007. This is in addition previous fines of 497 million Euro and 280
million Euro applied in the same investigation, resulting in a total
penalty of 1.676 billion Euro.
"Microsoft is the last company that actively promotes the use of
software patents to restrict interoperability. This kind of behaviour
has no place in an Internet society where all components should connect
seamlessly regardless of their origin," says Georg Greve, president of
the Free Software Foundation Europe.
"The idea that interoperability information for software can be
restricted by software patents is simply unacceptable," comments Shane
Coughlan, head of FSFE's Freedom Task Force. "The Commission is now
recognising this issue in the context of understanding that patent
royalties can distort the market. We have to ensure that such
distortion does not occur again. If Microsoft wants to act in good
faith it should release all the interoperability information for its
products on a royalty free basis."
"Microsoft have abused their monopoly position to prevent competition
and choice," says Jonas Oberg, vice-president of Free Software
Foundation Europe. "Yesterday's decision by the Commission is step
towards correcting this but Microsoft are still reaping the benefits of
their abuse. We need to act to restore a free market in European software."
Context - The European Commission press release:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/318&format=HT…
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
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Sweden: +46 31 7802160
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7
Media contact: Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, FSFE extension: 408
mobile: +41792633406
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org