1. FSFE and Digicomp announce Free Software Licensing course
2. Meeting Libre 2007 in Miraflores, Spain
3. FSFE at eLiberatica 2007 in Romania
4. Richard Stallman in Sweden
5. ConfSL, LUGConf and Fellowship meeting in Cosenza, Italy
6. Linuxtag in Berlin
7. Linuxwochen tour through Austria
8. Donations now tax-deductable in Switzerland
1. FSFE and Digicomp announce Free Software Licensing course
The Swiss training academy Digicomp is now offering Free Software
licensing courses delivered by FSFE's Freedom Task Force Coordinator
Shane Coughlan. The courses are intended for project managers,
developers and technicians who wish to become more knowledgeable
regarding code distribution options and give practical examples of
integrating Free Software into business models. These courses will take
place for the first time on the 25th and 26th of June, with additional
courses being offered on the 10th and 11th of September and the 10th and
11th of December 2007. More information can be found here:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/trainingcourse
2. Meeting Libre 2007 in Miraflores, Spain
FSFE's associate organisation in Spain, the Free Knowledge Foundation,
has organised the LibreMeeting 2007, the first International Free
Knowledge Meeting of Madrid. Georg Greve presented the FSFE while
Ciarán O'Riordan spoke about the GPLv3.
3. FSFE at eLiberatica 2007 in Romania
Brasov, Romania right in the heart of Transylvania was the place that
the Romanian Free Software community chose for its 2007 eLiberatica
conference to share knowledge and build awareness for Free Software in
Romania. FSFE president Georg Greve gave one of the keynotes on Open
Standards and freedom of competition and also participated in the
panel on the future of knowledge regulation.
4. Richard Stallman in Sweden
On the 16th of May 2007, Richard Stallman held a speech in Gothenburg
(Sweden). The speech, Free Software and Beyond: Human Rights in the Use
of Software and Other Published Works, can be downloaded (audio) here:
http://www.fsfe.org/en/content/download/32738/202513/file/rms-speech-gbg-sw….
On the 17th of May 2007, Richard Stallman held a speech in Linköping
(Sweden). The speech, Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer
Networks, can be downloaded here:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/upplysning/film/20070517_RMS/RMS_2007-05-17_Digif…
5. ConfSL, LUGConf and Fellowship meeting in Cosenza, Italy
The Italian Free Software community met in Cosenza for three events at
the same time: the ConfSL2007, the LUGConf and a Fellowship meeting.
In total, everyone enjoyed three days of talks, workshops and plain good
fun. Stefano Maffulli and Shane Coughlan were there representing FSFE
and during the LUGConf Fellow Marco De Rossi presented the recently
formed Milan Advocacy group.
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/maffulli/rants/(tag)/cosenza
6. Linuxtag in Berlin
Like the years before, FSFE was present with a booth at Linuxtag in
Berlin, where people from FSFE and volunteers informed about Free
Software and answered lots of questions.
7. Linuxwochen tour through Austria
"Linuxwochen" is the name of a series of events in Austria that take
place every year around May. This year, FSFE was present in Eisenstadt,
Graz, and Vienna.
8. Donations now tax-deductable in Switzerland
FSFE is glad to announce that donations are now tax-deductable in
Switzerland after it has been recognised as charitable public interest
organisation by the authorities in the Kanton of Zürich, where FSFE's
Swiss offices are located. Your donation is essential to make our work
possible, for more information please take a look at
http://fsfeurope.org/help/donate-2007-ch
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
The MS message: Time to invest in Free Software
In an attempt to inspire fear, uncertainty and doubt in the hearts of
the financial world, Microsoft alledged massive patent infringement by
Free Software in a recent Fortune article. [1]
According to Microsoft the Linux kernel violates 42 patents, Free
Software graphical user interfaces violate 65 patents, OpenOffice.org
productivity suite violates 45 patents, Free Software email clients
infringe 15 patents and other unspecified Free Software programs
infringe 68 patents.
On the grounds of these hitherto unsubstantiated claims, Microsoft now
seeks to cash in on the work of all the companies and developers that
earn their living through Free Software.
"Microsoft has built an empire in which it benefits from every
transaction. It can bolster and break companies at will and each and
every inhabitant of their world needs to financially pledge their
allegiance in certain intervals," explains Georg Greve, FSFE's
president. "Now that they are losing market share to a free market
economy built on Free Software, they again try to impose their vig on
the work of others."
"This is a good example of the impact of software patents. The main
effect of such patents is not innovation, but monopolisation and
establishing a licence to sue, or at least to slander," comments
Shane Coughlan, FSFE's coordinator for legal activities. "Unfortunately
Novell has given these ludicrous claims false credibility by entering
into an agreement with Microsoft, and paying Microsoft for a promise
not to sue its customers."
FSFE lawyer Carlo Piana continues: "I understand why Microsoft insists
on the Novell deal, but it is not a reliable example. If one examines
the recent history of the agreements between the two companies,
Microsoft does not seem to be the one selling something. Two years
ago Microsoft convinced Novell to withdraw antitrust claims against
Microsoft, and thus its support to the European Commission [2], for
monetary compensation. On the most recent deal the money apparently
went in the same direction. Paying your infringer nearly one billion
dollars in two years is quite an odd way to show reliance on your
patents portfolio."
Novells CEO, Ron Hovsepian, has indeed published a letter [3] in which
he contradicts Microsofts claims about violation of software patents
in Free Software. But since Microsoft paid good money for the deal
they apparently wanted some return on their investment and they
selected FUD.
"Companies that sign up with Novell as a result of this deal are
wasting their shareholders' money. There is no substance to these
claims, and no need to pay anything to Microsoft to use a system that
Microsoft had no part in," explains Georg Greve, FSFE president.
"If there is a lesson to be learned from this, it is that Microsoft is
getting desparate and does not know how to counter Free Software with
innovation," continues Greve. "This is a good proof of the business
success of Free Software, which is extremely stable not only
technologically, but also legally. So if you are a smart financial
analyst, this is the time to invest in Free Software."
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation
in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSFE.
[1]
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/
[2] http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q4/000118.html
[3] http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/community_open_letter.html
1. FSFE launches list of recommended Free Software lawyers
2. FSFE action on IPRED2 "Criminalisation" Directive
3. Transcript of Richard M. Stallman's speech in Brussels online
4. FSFE at A2K2 conference in Yale Law School
5. Georg Greve and Jonas Öberg in Belgrade, Serbia
6. Ivan Jelic joining European Core Team of FSFE
7. Merchandise available via web order
8. Get active: join the translation team!
1. FSFE launches list of recommended Free Software lawyers
The Free Software Foundation Europe has started to maintain a list of
lawyers who are experienced an knowledgeable in the field of Free
Software. With the work done within the Freedom Task Force, FSFE has
already built up a track record of successful cooperation with
professional lawyers. Building up this list of recommendations makes
it possible for people outside the FSFE to benefit from these positive
experiences.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/network.en.html
2. FSFE action on IPRED2 "Criminalisation" Directive
FSFE's Ciarán O'Riordan has been busy in Brussels and Strasbourg during
April. The European Parliament has been discussing, and has since voted
on, the European Commission's proposal to criminalise "attempting,
aiding or abetting and inciting" practically all infringements of
patents, copyright, and trademarks. O'Riordan has been explaining the
harms this creates for society's general freedom to participate in
software development, distibution, and commerce. In this, invaluable
help was provided by the FSFE translators team. The result of the vote
was that patents have been excluded and some minor safeguards have been
added. More work will be required in the coming stages of this
directive.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/ipred2.en.html
3. Transcript of Richard M. Stallman's speech in Brussels online
FSFE has invited Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project and head
of the Free Software Foundation, to Brussels to present the latest
draft of GPLv3. His speech was then transcribed by Ciarán O'Riordan and
put online.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/brussels-rms-transcript.en.html
4. FSFE at A2K2 conference in Yale Law School
The Information Society Project of the Yale Law School organised its
second conference on Access to Knowledge (A2K) with over 300 leading
scholars and activists from over 40 countries. Instead of discussing
issues of knowledge and information only from the perspective of
monopolisation and limitations, A2K approaches the area from the
question of rights and necessary access. Free Software plays a central
role in this and FSFE president Georg Greve moderated the panel on
technologists and their influence on society
5. Georg Greve and Jonas Öberg in Belgrade, Serbia
Organised by the Free Software Network (FSN) Serbia, FSFE president and
vice-president Georg Greve and Jonas Öberg visited Belgrade to meet Free
Software activists from Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. In the evening,
Georg Greve spoke about Free Software and its political influence on
democracy and Jonas Öberg gave a talk on the SELF project and Free
Software education at a local cultural center.
6. Ivan Jelic joining European Core Team of FSFE
Ivan Jelic, founder and chairman of the Free Software Network Serbia,
is FSFE's latest addition to its European Core Team of committed
volunteers. Ivan will be coordinating the Serbian Team of FSFE and
also work on FSFE's system administration, one of the current
bottlenecks.
7. Merchandise available via web order
T-shirts and other merchandise from FSFE has always been sold at various
events and tradeshows. However, sometimes a booth runs out of a
specific design or size, and people have repeatedly requested a way to
order T-shirts online. The webmasters team has now created a new
online order page with pictures, descriptions, and an overview of the
available sizes.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/order/order.en.html
8. Get active: join the translation team!
The Free Software Foundation Europe is an international organisation.
Having information available in as many languages as possible is
essential to reach people all over Europe, and translating web pages,
press releases, and other texts is a task for which FSFE depends heavily
on the work of volunteers. There's always something to translate or to
proofread, so if you want to support FSFE's work directly and
efficiently, join the translation team!
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators.en.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
European Parliament must prevent criminalisation of software vendors and
users
FSFE criticises the proposed "second Intellectual Property Enforcement
Directive" (IPRED2) for sweeping criminalisation across various areas of law
and loosely described areas of activity, including for 'attempting, aiding or
abetting and inciting.' The proposed text criminalises these acts for
infringement of many dissimilar laws including copyright, trademark, and
patents. "This threatens" according to a press release of FSFE "to introduce
intimidating degrees of punishment to activities which individuals,
community-based projects, and other small to medium-sized groups participate
in - groups that may not have sufficient money or lawyers to defend their
rights in court."
"The proposed text greatly increases the number of criminalised activities
and is very unclear on where the limits are", explains Ciaran O'Riordan,
FSFE's Brussels Representative, and continues "we understand criminal
sanctions might form a useful part of consumer protection and can deter and
help prosecution of cases of counterfeit pharmaceuticals or equipment that
could create public safety risks. But it is obvious that applying the same
sanctions to publishers and software developers is completely unnecessary
and is harmful for society."
The Directive will be voted on next week when the MEPs are in Strasbourg. If
member states already have such consumer protection laws in place, then
rejecting the Directive outright would also be a good option.
"This directive targets users, distributors, developers and publishers of
software in general, including those of Free Software," explains Georg Greve,
President of FSFE. "In combination with the lack of a strong directive
against software patentability, the directive would create incalculable risk
for all participants of the information society."
In a broad coalition with FFII, EFF, EBLIDA, and BEUC, FSFE calls on all
participants of the information society in EU member states to support the
joint amendments published on FFII's site. FSFE's open letter has been sent
to MEPs in six languages so far.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation
in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSFE.
[1] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/letter-april-2007.en.html
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 404
Mobile: +49-179-6919565
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
FSFE launches list of recommended Free Software lawyers
FSFE has launched a list of recommended Free Software lawyers
by naming Dr. Till Jaeger and Carlo Piana as knowledgeable and
reliable Free Software legal experts in Germany and Italy
respectively.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is committed to working
with lawyers throughout Europe to maximise the legal security of Free
Software and is aware that as the community matures it is important to
be able to locate professional legal advice. For this reason FSFE has
introduced a new policy for recommending legal experts in individual
countries.
The FSFE policy for recommending legal experts can be found on the
Freedom Task Force (FTF) website [1], along with details of the
individuals that FSFE recommends.
"The key thing is to help answer the question "who do I talk to?" for
people using Free Software," says Shane Coughlan, FSFE Freedom Task
Force coordinator. "We have worked with both Dr Till Jaeger and Carlo
Piana for several years and have great confidence in their ability.
We want to express this confidence in public so that Free Software
users will have a clear point of contact for legal advice."
"Supporting the growth of a strong network of legal experts in Free
Software has been on our agenda for several years now. Establishing
the Freedom Task Force was one logical step along that way," explains
Georg Greve, FSFE's president. "We will gladly continue supporting
projects with the collective competency of our legal network and will
take direct legal action on behalf of the projects that are part of
our fiduciary programme. But we also wanted to make it easier for
others with no direct connection to FSFE to find a legal expert they
can have confidence in."
"Commercial Free Software has been growing in importance for years
and I believe it's time to help formalise support for it" says Stefano
Maffuli, FSFE Italy coordinator. "I'm delighted to recommend Carlo
Piana as a point of contact for developers and companies seeking
legal advice in Italy."
Dr. Till Jaeger is a partner in the Berlin law firm JBB RechtsanwÃâ¬lte.
He represents FSFE in Germany and Harald Welte in GPL enforcement
cases. He is chair of the "Internationalization" subcommittee within
the GPLv3 process. Carlo Piana is a partner at the Milan law firm
Studio Legale Tamos Piana & Partners. Among other things, he
represents FSFE and Samba in the Microsoft vs. EC Commission Antitrust
case and lectures at the University of Milan.
Dr Till Jaeger can be contacted in the following ways:
Email: jaeger [at] jbb.de
Telephone: +49 30 443 765 0
Fax: +49 30 443 765 22
Post: JBB Rechtsanwalte, Christinenstrasse 18/19, 10119 Berlin, Germany.
Carlo Piana can be contacted in the following ways:
Email: carlo.piana [at] avvocatinteam.com
Telephone: +39 02 7000 6392
Fax: +39 02 7611 3344
Post: Studio Legale Tamos Piana & Partners, Palazzo dell'Elfo, Via Ciro
Menotti 11, 20129 Milano, Italy
[1] www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation
in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSFE.
Contact:
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 ext 408
Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73 ext 408
Sweden: +46 31 7802160 ext 408
Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 ext 408
UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 ext 408
Shane Coughlan, FTF Co-ordinator, FSFE extension: 408
1. FTF introduces useful tips for compliance
2. Talk about GPLv3 in Brussels
3. STACS kickoff meeting in Paris
4. FSFE thanks Google for sponsoring 1 year of internship
5. Introducing FSFE's new interns
6. Announcing a new Italian Fellowship meeting
1. FTF introduces useful tips for compliance
The Freedom Task Force (FTF) is proud to announce another little step
towards making Free Software licensing information more accessible. In
partnership with our volunteers we have introduced useful tips for GNU
GPL compliance to help users and vendors make the most of Free Software
and to provide a stepping stone to authoritative information resources
on the Internet. Thanks to the hard work of our translators these
guides are available in English, Portugese, and Dutch, with French and
German versions coming soon.
Useful tips for users:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-users.html
Useful tips for vendors:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors.html
2. Talk about GPLv3 in Brussels
As part of FSFE's ongoing efforts to raise awareness and explain what is
happening in the GPLv3 process, Ciaran O'Riordan organised a talk by
Richard Stallman on GPLv3. A transcript of which is already online.
The event was co-organised by Association Electronique Libre.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/brussels-rms-transcript
3. STACS kickoff meeting in Paris
STACS (Science, Technology and Civil Society) is an EU funded project
that aims to bridge the gap between civil society and research. It will
do this by preparing Civil Society Organisations through a series of
training sessions. This will help them to build the capacity to
approach scientific questions and research.
Through a series of workshops STACS will also seek to attract
researchers to cooperation with Civil Society Organisations by
identifying research topics and helping people meet each other for
potential future projects in EU's 7th Framework Program.
Within this project, FSFE will organise a workshop and a training
session about Free Software. FSFE is also involved in the creation of
the public web page of the project, making sure it only consists of
Free Software.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/stacs/
4. FSFE thanks Google for sponsoring 1 year of internship
Started in 2004, internships at FSFE have given several young people the
chance to learn all about Free Software and work as part of FSFE's Team.
These interns typically come from backgrounds in management, social
science, law and administration to help educate the next generation of
managers and scientists about Free Software. As a result of the
positive experience with previous interns and many requests from
potential candidates, FSFE hopes to extend and evolve its internship
programme. FSFE would like to thank Google for helping us realise this.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/internship.en.html
5. Introducing FSFE's new interns
Guillaume Yziquel is FSFE's new intern in Zürich, and will be working
there up to the beginning of September. Guillaume was born in Grenoble,
and obtained a master's degree in mathematics at the École
Polytechnique, near Paris, in 2006. He has been an end-user of Free
Software since 2001, when he met the VLC development team. He will
focus on the promotion of open standards and assist the Freedom Task
Force, while also taking care of day-to-day issues as Georg Greve's
assistant.
Christof Thim joined the FSFE as an intern at the Swedish team in
Gothenburg. Christof received his diploma in business informatics at
the Berlin School of Economics. After that, he decided to study
sociology, politics and economics at the University of Potsdam.
Christof got in touch with Free Software during his work at IBM in 2001.
In Gothenburg, he will be primarily concerned with the Swedish part of
the SELF Project and the preparation of proposals on the 7th Framework
Programme of the EC.
6. Announcing a new Italian Fellowship meeting
A Fellowship meeting is being organised in these days. It will happen
in Cosenza on 13 May in a beatiful area in southern Italy. It will be
an occasion for Fellows to meet and bring forward the ideas proposed
during the first international meeting in Bolzano. Details of the event
are being sorted out as this is written, mainly in Italian on
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/meetings/2007_cosenza and on fsfe.org forums.
The Fellowship meeting will also be preceeded by two whole days of
scientific conference about Free Software. Details are also in English
on http://confsl.org.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
1. Fiduicary License Agreement released under GFDL/CC-by-sa
2. FSFE announces big raffle among all Fellows
3. FSFE at FOSDEM in Brussels (Belgium)
4. Ciarán O'Riordan at SkyCon in Limerick (Ireland)
5. End of internship of Maria Luisa Carli
6. System administration murphy weeks
7. Get Active: Join the SELF project!
1. Fiduicary License Agreement released under GFDL/CC-by-sa
Making Free Software projects legally maintainable is increasingly
important. This includes maintaining the ability to relicence, ensure
licence compliance, and to ensure clean copyright.
FSFE's Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA) is a copyright assignment
carefully crafted to help Free Software projects consolidate their
copyright to a single organisation or person.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/fla/fla.en.html
The FLA was originally developed and released in 2002 with a grant to
allow people use the agreement for their own purposes. FSFE has now
released a new revision of the FLA under the terms of both the GNU
Free Documentation License (GFDL) and the Creative Commons
Attribution/Share-alike (CC by-sa) license.
Project can choose to either apply to be part of FSFE's Fiduciary
Programme and make use of the legal network of the Freedom Task
Force or adapt the FLA to consolidate copyright into their own
organisation using their own legal experts.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q1/000168.html
2. FSFE announces big raffle among all Fellows
As it did in the past years, FSFE wants to thank all Fellows for their
support, which is essential in making its work possible. For this
purpose, several companies sponsored hardware and books of the 2007
Fellowship raffle, which will be held 1 April 2007. FSFE would like to
thank all the companies that donated the gadgets and is happy to pass
these gifts on to its supporters.
http://www.fsfe.org/rafflehttp://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q1/000170.html
If you wish to become an essential part of all the activities of FSFE
and would also like to get your chance to win some of the many
gadgets, join the Fellowship now:
http://www.fsfe.org/join
3. FSFE at FOSDEM in Brussels (Belgium)
Like the years before, the Free Software Foundation Europe was present
with a booth at FOSDEM, one of the biggest Free Software conferences
in Europe. This year, FSFE shared the booth with its Spanish
associate organisation, the Free Knowledge Foundation.
Shane Coughlan presented the Freedom Task Force in a lightning talk,
and Georg Greve held the closing talk titled "Beyond GPLv3". An
amazing total number of twenty members and volunteers of FSFE shared
the work on the booth, answered questions, and talked to interested
people.
You can find some more information, some pictures and links to the
video recordings in the following blog entries:
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/life_after_fosdemhttp://fsfe.org/en/fellows/shane/communicating_freely/podcast_interviews_wi…
4. Ciarán O'Riordan at SkyCon in Limerick (Ireland)
Ciarán O'Riordan represented FSFE at a computer science conference
named SkyCon. He spoke about GPLv3, presenting the current state and
the work ahead.
5. End of internship of Maria Luisa Carli
FSFE's first intern in FSFE's Zürich office and Freedom Task Force,
Maria Luisa Carli, had to go back to Italy just after FOSDEM to finish
her studies with an additional course. Marilu is planning to stay
involved in FSFE's activities, though.
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/mlc981/marilu_s_blog
6. System administration murphy weeks
February was a dark month of system administration at FSFE, starting
when one of its core servers going down due to a double hard disk crash
in the system RAID-1 array, followed by an almost simultaneous network
outage at the backup location, making all backups inaccessible.
This not only took down FSFE's main web site, but also that of our
Latin American sister, which we are supporting with a virtual
server. With some work we managed to get things back to operational
state on another machine, and will hopefully be able to bring the
crashed server back to life soon.
FSFE's infrastructure is mainly volunteer-organised, including the
Fellowship portal, the further evolution of which is mainly held back
by lack of administrator and developer time. If you wish to volunteer
to help on these issues and could maybe even see yourself getting
involved more deeply, please get in touch with either:
fellowship-hackers (at) fsfeurope.org
system-hackers (at) fsfeurope.org
7. Get Active: Join the SELF project!
SELF (Science, Education and Learning in Freedom) is a project to
develop a platform for the collaborative sharing and creation of free
educational materials on Free Software and Open Standards. It will
also try to fill this platform with some initial material. The
project is funded by the European Commission for a period of two
years, from summer 2006 to summer 2008.
http://www.selfproject.eu/
During the first half year, the focus was on the analysis of existing
material. Now, the implementation phase starts, both for the platform
(developed at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in Mumbai)
and the conversion of existing material.
FSFE has set up a mailing list for coordination of FSFE's work:
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/self
There is also a general mailing list for the SELF project:
http://mail.selfproject.eu/mailman/listinfo/discussion
So if the project sounds interesting to you, please subscribe to the
mailing lists, and contribute to the work!
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Boston, Massachusetts, USA---Wednesday, March 7th 2007---The Free
Software Foundation announced details for its annual associate member
and activist meeting to be held at MIT, Cambridge, MA, on Saturday,
March 24th, 2007.
Keynote speakers Richard Stallman (FSF president) and Eben Moglen (FSF
director and legal counsel) will each address the "Year of the Upgrade"
theme, looking at what issues will demand the free software movement's
attention after the new version of the GNU General Public License
(GPLv3) is released.
This year's meeting will have the ceremony for the FSF's annual free
software awards, where winners of the "Award for the Advancement of Free
Software" and the "Award for Projects of Social Benefit" will be
announced and recognized. Previous winners have included community
luminaries like Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt and Alan Cox and the
community project Wikipedia.
The meeting will also feature practical discussion among FSF members and
its board of directors about ways to increase free software adoption and
strengthen the free software movement. Staff members will discuss
current FSF campaigns and projects, eliciting feedback and input to
shape plans for the coming year.
Peter Brown, FSF executive director said, "The FSF has had a busy year
revising the GNU General Public License and campaigning successfully
against Digital Restrictions Management. We see 2007 as a year of
opportunity to significantly increase free software adoption, and our
annual meeting will help us develop our priorities for the year ahead".
Now in its fifth year, this annual gathering has become a sounding board
for activities of the Foundation, and a place to develop ideas with the
free software community. As part of an interactive "Members Forum"
session, Benjamin "Mako" Hill, activist and researcher at MIT's Media
Lab, will speak about the impact of free software philosophy on
copyright and culture in a presentation called "Defining Free Culture".
The full schedule of speakers and details for registration and attendees
is published at http://www.fsf.org/associate/meetings/2007.
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. Their web site, located at www.fsf.org,
is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to
support their work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Their
headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
Media Contact: John Sullivan Free Software Foundation <pr(a)gnu.org>
Phone: +1-617-542-5942
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org>
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FSF aims for partnership with hardware manufacturers
Boston, MA---March 1, 2007---The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today
released a paper entitled, "The road to hardware free from
restrictions", detailing ways major hardware manufacturers with power
in the market can work with the free software community to establish a
"mutually beneficial relationship."
The paper, available at,
http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/how_hardware_vendors_can_help.html,
recommends manufacturers take action in five areas: supporting free
software drivers, ending the "Microsoft Tax", removing proprietary
BIOS locks, supporting a free BIOS, and rejecting Digital Restrictions
Management.
Peter Brown, FSF executive director, said, "With the growing
utilization of free software and the rejection of Microsoft's Vista,
large vendors like HP, Dell, Lenovo and Sun have the opportunity and
responsibility to acknowledge the market for hardware suitable for
free software users---hardware that meets ethical requirements for
user freedom, privacy and security. We hope that this paper will focus
attention on what needs to get done in the coming months."
A draft of the paper was first sent on January 10, 2007 to HP and Sun
Microsystems for their comment. Since then, several related
developments have demonstrated that the ideas in "The road to hardware
free from restrictions" are widely held within the technology
community.
Kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman's open offer to all manufacturers
for free Linux kernel driver development has generated a sizable
response. Dell's recent solicitation of customer feedback was met
primarily with proposals to make all Dell machines optionally
available without Microsoft Windows, replacing it with either no
operating system or with a choice of GNU/Linux distributions.
Suggestions for Dell to support LinuxBIOS and to build their laptops
with hardware fully supported by free software drivers were also
popular choices.
In the paper, the Free Software Foundation expresses its eagerness to
build on this momentum by assisting hardware vendors interested in
making the recommended changes, and it encourages vendors to take a
fresh look at this largely unexplored opportunity.
----
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. Their web site,
located at www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about
GNU/Linux. Donations to support their work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.
Press Contact: For more information about this announcement or to
schedule an interview, please contact Peter Brown or John Sullivan at
+1-617-542-5942 or pr(a)fsf.org.
####
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org>
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
Time to give back: Fellowship Raffle 2007!
FSFE announces Fellowship Raffle 2007 at FOSDEM meeting in Brussels, Belgium
"The Free Software community is built on the principle of cooperation
of many very different parts. The Free Software Foundation Europe
(FSFE) works exclusively for the benefit of the entire community,
including the companies that make use of Free Software," explains
Georg Greve, president of FSFE. "We do this work gladly and with
great enthusiasm and we always remember that to a large extent this
work is made possible by those who work with us and support us, in
particular the many Fellows of FSFE."
Stefano Maffulli, FSFE's Fellowship coordinator explains: "There are
many ways to support FSFE's work, and they are all important, but the
Fellowship is special: It is a community of people who take
responsibility to contribute on a yearly basis to keep the foundation
running and many of them are active in the Fellowship meetings and
other activities."
Maffulli continues: "Companies support FSFE to show that they
appreciate our work, and in turn we like to show that we appreciate
our fellows. This year we're delighted to do that through sharing
gadgets that were provided by companies who support Free Software:
Welcome to the 2007 Fellowship Raffle!"
On 1st of April 2007, FSFE will raffle the following devices and books
among all its Fellows:
- 1 Free Software Greenphone [1] by Trolltech
- 3 Developer Discount codes for N800 Internet Tablets (further information
[2])[3], by Nokia
- 2 Free Software based routers KWGR614 [4] , by NETGEAR
- 1 LinSoft BTP-PC amounting to 500 EUR [5], by linsoft.de
- 4 USB smart card readers SCR-335 [6], compatible with the Fellowship
crypto card on all GNU/Linux distributions, by kernelconcepts.de
- 30 German books (among German speaking Fellows only) [7], by linuxland.de
- 2 Omnikey PCMCIA CardMan 4040 [8], compatible with the Fellowship
crypto card on all GNU/Linux distributions, by xtops.de
"We hope that this raffle will not only provide us with an opportunity
to thank all our Fellows, but will also help to inform more people
about the Fellowship and the work of FSFE," explains Joachim Jakobs,
FSFE's media coordinator. "For this reason we are providing web buttons
for download that link directly to the Fellowship raffle web page."
Stefano Maffulli adds: "This is the third and biggest Fellowship
raffle so far. To reflect FSFE's long-term mission and vision, we will
probably start to introduce special raffles based on how long people
have been part of the Fellowship already."
"The Free Software Foundation Europe thanks all sponsors for their
support and for providing these prizes to our Fellowship community.
We hope that people will have fun with this raffle and the hunt for
buttons, because fighting for freedom should also be fun," says
Georg Greve.
He concludes: "At the same time this is an important job that sometimes
can be serious and difficult. So we hope that many more people will
come and share both the fun and the hard work with us."
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation
in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSFE.
[1] http://www.trolltech.com/products/qtopia/greenphone/greenphone_pricing
[2] http://maemo.org/maemowiki/N800DeveloperDeviceProgram
[3] http://europe.nokia.com/phones/n800
[4]
http://www.netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGateways/GWirelessRouters/KWGR614…
[5] http://www.linsoft.de//engine/productG/workstation/SessionID/
[6] http://www.kernelconcepts.de/products/security.shtml
[7] http://www.linuxland.de/books_cd/
[8] http://fsfe.org/raffle/
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj at office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 404
mobile: +49-179-6919565
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)