FSFE: "Microsoft locks in customers and pushes software patents to prevent
competition."
"Microsoft's software locks in users and now the company is lobbying to get
this lock-in effect legalised by software patents" is the basic message of a
feature article Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has published on its
website [1] today.
The article - written by FSFE's vice president Jonas Öberg and FSFE's lawyer
Carlo Piana explains: "Any Business - regardless whether it is a small
startup, a global car manufacturer or a public authority - regularly runs a
net consisting of GNU/Linux-, Unix- and Apple-based machines on the one hand
and Windows on the other. Communication works fine within these two worlds.
But not in between. There, co-operation lacks - n ot due to a law of nature
but Microsoft does not want Windows to be understood by other operating
systems."
The European Commission at present is trying to force the software giant to
publish interoperability information that allows seamless communication
between these two worlds. FSFE supports the Commission as third party since
the original investigation in 2001. Monday, April 24th a five-day trial - the
longest in European history - starts in Luxembourg.
The outcome of this suit will be seminal for the future information society:
"Developers have been struggling to use reverse-engineering to replicate the
behaviour of a Windows server, but this is a very cumbersome method and it
has its limits: Without proper documentation of the protocols and
specifications, any competitor will always lag behind the company that can
introduce arbitrary changes of the interface language, as Microsoft has been
doing," FSFE president Georg Greve explains. "Software patents could add a
whole new dimension to this problem: Not only would any competitor find
themselves in an extremely disadvantaged position in trying to compete with
the monopoly. If patents are granted on these interfaces, implementing
interoperability constitutes potential software patent infringement.
Competition itself could de-facto become illegal."
So while Microsoft is still fighting to not publish specifications and
protocols to enable equal grounds for competition, at the same time it
lobbies hard to establish a legal basis for the software patents it has filed
throughout the past years. Paradoxically, the same European Commission that
fights so hard to even the grounds for competition in European Court supports
this quest that threatens to make competition itself de-facto illegal.
The feature artice points it out: "Even if the company is forced to publish
its secret software protocols or leave key features out of Windows, a
European software patent law might eventually let it stamp out competition
from Free Software. Though two previous attempts at enacting a European
software patent were defeated, Charlie McCreevy, Europe's commissioner for
Internal Markets and Services could well resurrect the project this year."
Translations of this feature article can be found in Spanish, French, Italian
and German early next week.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
[1] http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/article-20060421.en.html
1. Happy birthday FSFE
2. Pablo Machón and Xavier Reina join the FSFE core team
3. GPLv3 conference in Torino
4. gnuvox, the voice of Free Software in Italy
5. Official FSFE statement on patent system in Europe
6. Fellowship of FSFE participates to LUGConference 2006
7. Karsten Gerloff at TACD
1. Happy birthday FSFE
On 10 March 2001, the Free Software Foundation Europe has started its
work. A lot of successful work was done in these five years. The FSFE
has not only become Europe's major stakeholder for Free Software on
national, European and UN level, it has also managed to build up a large
virtual community for freedom in the digital age with the Fellowship.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000133.html
2. Pablo Machón and Xavier Reina join the FSFE core team
The Free Software Foundation Europe continues to expand its capacity
as well as its geographic presence: Pablo Machón and Xavier Reina joined
the FSFE core team. Both have been contributing precious work for years,
and they are committed to increase FSFE's activities in Spain.
3. GPLv3 conference in Torino
The FSFE organized a conference in Torino where Richard Stallman talked
about the future of Free Software and the changes in the upcoming
version 3 of the GNU General Public License. The event was well
received, with big success of public, thanks also to the collaboration
with Politecnico di Torino, NetStudent and Hipatia. Recordings of the
event are available on
http://streaming.polito.it/TFOFS
and a transcript of Richard Stallman's speech is on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/torino-rms-transcript.en.html
4. GNUvox, the voice of Free Software in Italy
Free Software Foundation Europe Chapter Italy has launched a project
to improve communication and information of Free Software in Italian.
The aim is to send the message "Free Software, Free Society" beyond the
borders of the Free Software community. The fist step of this project
is the blog GNUvox.info, the daily source of information about Free
Software in Italian.
http://gnuvox.info/
5. Official FSFE statement on patent system in Europe
Ciaran O'Riordan drafted FSFE's response to the European Commission's
questionnaire "On the patent system in Europe" which has been delivered
and is now online:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/swpat/fsfe-patstrat-response.en.html
The deadline for submitting responses has been extended to April 12th,
so FSFE encourages free software supporters to do so - possibly based on
FSFE's response.
6. Fellowship of FSFE participates to LUGConference 2006
LUGRoma organized one of the best community driven events of the past
years in Italy. The Fellowship of FSFE participated officially with
Stefano Maffulli. Many other Fellows where at the Conference, some of
themalso as members of LUGs. The conference allowed meeting many people
of the community and listening to suggestions and criticisms. There was
time to discuss the proposal of Austrian Fellow Stephan Peijnik (sp) for
an international meeting of Fellows and find volunteers for the
organization of the event. Join the discussion on
https://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/sp/free_software_blog/multi_national_free_s…
More info, in Italian:
http://www.lugroma.org/contenuti/eventi/lugconf06https://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/maffulli/rants/impressioni_dalla_lugconfere…
7. Karsten Gerloff at TACD conference
In Brussels, Karsten Gerloff represented FSFE at a conference about "The
politics and ideology of intellectual property". The event was organised
by TACD (Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue), a forum of 65 consumer
organisations from the EU and the US. For two days, researchers and
activists discussed the intellectual background of copyrights and
patents. Karsten established new contacts and strengthened FSF Europe's
connections to other NGOs working for Access to Knowledge alongside FSF
Europe.
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Dear All,
Alea iacta est - the raffle has taken place. And the winners are...
Andrea Di Dato, Italy
Wouter van Heyst, Netherlands
Andrea and Wouter both will receive a HP Compaq Notebook - both pre-installed
with Debian GNU/Linux.
We congratulate the lucky winners and thank all of you for joining this great
community!
kind regards
Joachim Jakobs
P.S. If you also wish to add your support and contribution to FSFE's
work, you can sign-up online at https://www.fsfe.org/join_us
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may
participate in a digital society. Therefore the Freedoms to use,
copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free
Software definition- allow equal participation in the information
age. 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. The
FSFE was founded in 2001 as the European sister organisation of the
Free Software Foundation in the United States.
Further information: http://www.fsfeurope.org
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 4004
Mobile: +49-179-6919565
To find out what keeps the digital society going
please check our Free Software press review today at
https://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/jj/pressreview
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
FSFE celebrates its fifth birthday: "Seeing an even greater need
today for strong coordinated actions to protect everyones freedom!"
The Free Software Foundation Europe celebrates its fifth birthday
today. FSFE President Georg Greve looks back at the Foundation's
history so far: "To me, it is exciting what we have achieved in five
years since our formation - AGNULA, one of the first projects funded
by the European Commission to be published as Free Software; our
efforts in the Microsoft antitrust suit; the great success we had, in
association with others, in preventing software patents in Europe last
year; our eminent standing at UN level and last but not least our
fellowship, which we initiated last year. I would have never expected
these prosperities in such a short time."
FSFE's workload continues to grow at a substantial rate. "If FSFE
didn't already exist, then there would be an even stronger reason
today to found it, than when we did, five years ago", says Jonas
Öberg, Vice-President of FSFE. Explaining his reasons, Öberg
continues: "Some markets in information technology are saturated. So
there is almost no market growth possible anymore. This is why
proprietary businesses worldwide try to bind their customers as
tightly as possible with any technical, political and legal means
available. This kind of 'customer retention' is often not in the
customers' interests."
The arenas FSFE is called upon to work and comment upon continues to
change too. "In the past few years, we have seen technologies such as
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) encroach on users' freedoms and
restrict where and how they can use data or media they own or
purchased. These restrictions can not be tolerated in a society where
we to such a large extent build upon our past and present to create
our future, and the FSFE will work very hard to prevent these
technologies from becoming the norm" says Jonas Öberg.
"International businesses are lobbying heavily in favour of a legal
basis for software patents and the intensification of copyright
law. Politicians should consider carefully whether their economy in
fact benefits from this kind of market monopolisation", Georg Greve
says.
Greve continues: "FSFE's work continues unabated as we try to give
freedom to computer users and developers. To further this, we aim to
establish a Freedom Task Force (FTF) and a GNU Business Network
(GNUbiz). FTF looks to provide a stable legal network which will help
Free Software developers and businesses if threatened by unfounded
legal attacks. GNUbiz aims to catalyse the Free Software business by
bringing together developers, system vendors, users and other
participants. Whilst in their early stages of planning, we hope to see
their fruits in the not too distant future".
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
1. Gareth Bowker joins General Assembly of FSFE
2. Free Knowledge Foundation associates with FSFE
3. UN Consultations on Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
4. UN WIPO: Provisional Committee on a Development Agenda (PCDA)
5. FSFE's office moves to Düsseldorf
6. Second Fellowship meeting in Berlin
7. Microsoft antitrust case: 2 million EUR per day
8. FSFE at FOSDEM
9. FSFE organises SWPAT roundtable in Brussels
10. Fellowship: Get a 3 month LWN subscription and win a notebook!
1. Gareth Bowker joins General Assembly of FSFE
After Gareth Bowker has been working in the FSFE Team for a long time,
the Free Software Foundation Europe is glad to announce that he has
joined the general assembly. With this step, Gareth has committed
himself to the work of FSFE in the long term and agreed to accept legal
and political responsibility for FSFE's work.
His dedication strengthens FSFE's role within the United Kingdom and
is warmly welcomed by everyone in the Team.
2. Free Knowledge Foundation associates with FSFE
The Free Knowledge Foundation, a Spanish non-profit organisation, has
become the first FSFE associate organisation in Spain. Both FKF and
FSFE are looking forward to a close cooperation and many fruitful
projects. Together with FKF, the next step will be to build up the
Spanish Team for FSFE.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000128.html
3. UN Consultations on Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
As one of the outcomes of the UN World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS), UN secretary-general Kofi Annan asked to organise
consultations on the establishment of an Internet Governance
Forum. The reason for these consultations was to determine the scope
and mandate of the IGF. Statements were rather diverse, and ranged
from "domain name issues only" to "all aspects of the internet,
including spam, cybercrime, privacy and online identities" in scope
and "pure discussion forum" to "global public-policy setting body" in
mandate. FSFE's president Georg Greve participated in the meeting to
help maintain the interests of Free Software, the FSFE statement and
more information are available in his blog:
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/(tag)/IGF
4. UN WIPO: Provisional Committee on a Development Agenda (PCDA)
Last year's series of Inter-Governmental Inter-Sessional Meetings
(IIM) on a potential reform of the United Nations World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO) ended in a deadlock, largely due to a
blockade by the United States. As a result, the last general assembly
decided to hold two week-long PCDA meetings, the first of which took
place last month in Geneva. FSFE was represented by its president Georg
Greve and former intern and now Team member Karsten Gerloff, who worked
hard to help push for reform in WIPO. The first FSFE statement is
available online at
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/statement-20060223.en.html
The second statement can be found in Georg Greve's blog, Karsten
Gerloff also has some more information:
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/(tag)/WIPOhttp://www.fsfe.org/fellows/gerloff/blog/(tag)/WIPO
5. FSFE's office moves to Düsseldorf
After its initial founding in 2001, Free Software Foundation Europe
has maintained a small distribution and administrative office in the
Villa-Vogelsang in Essen. The office was kindly provided by Reinhard
Wiesemann of the Villa-Vogelsang, FSFE's visionary patron, who also
allowed Martin Gerwinski to spend part of his time paid by the
Linuxhotel to also work on FSFE office tasks. The rest of the time was
volunteered by Martin Gerwinski. Both Martin and Reinhard deserve and
have our sincere thanks and appreciation for their important
contribution.
As FSFE has been growing rapidly over the past year, the office work
is now too much to be handled on this basis, which is why FSFE is glad
to introduce Rainer Kersten. He has entered FSFE's paid staff to take
care of the necessary administrative work and is working with FSFE's
head of office Werner Koch to establish the new office in Düsseldorf.
6. Second Fellowship meeting in Berlin
For the second time, Fellows in Berlin met to discuss and coordinate
their activities. FSFE is happy to see Fellows taking initiative, and
is working with them to constantly improve the infrastructure that
can be used freely by the Fellows. Currently, the possibility of
creating ad hoc mailing lists is being worked on, and a Wiki is planned.
7. Microsoft antitrust case: 2 million EUR per day
Last month was also the moment when the European Commission finally
decided to stop allowing Microsoft to ignore its antitrust obligations
and faced them with the obligation of paying 2 million EUR for each
day they remain in non-compliance with the ruling. Microsoft is still
trying to play for more time, so FSFE has spoken up in support of the
commission.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000129.html
8. FSFE at FOSDEM
As every year, Free Software Foundation Europe participated in one of
Europe's classic: FOSDEM in Brussels. Georg Greve, Ciaran O'Riordan,
Henrik Sandklef, Pablo Machón and Reinhard Müller presented various
aspects of FSFE's work in a series of short talks. Volker Dormeyer,
FSFE booth coordinator and long-term Team member, did an outstanding
job in coordinating the booth. A team of 16 people from the FSFE and
associates, especially the Free Knowledge Foundation and Wilhelmtux,
gathered for this event and helped turn it into a great success.
9. FSFE organises SWPAT roundtable in Brussels
Originally masquerading themselves as 'computer implemented
inventions', software patents are now lurking under the plans for a
'Community patent' for which the European Commission is seeking
input. FSFE took this as an opportunity to organise a round table with
Francisco Mingorance, BSA, Pieter Hintjens, FFII and Ciaran O'Riordan
of the Free Software Foundation Europe. German journalist Stefan
Krempl moderated the discussion to which journalists across Europe
were invited.
10. Fellowship: Get a 3 month LWN subscription and win a notebook!
The Fellowship of FSFE is an essential part and building block of
FSFE's work. It makes possible much of what you can see above, and
helps make visible the number of people who care about these issues.
FSFE greatly appreciates the help and support of all Fellows, and is
glad to see this community for digital freedom grow.
For all that support, FSFE would like to give something that goes beyond
our work and words. Thanks to Jonathan Corbet, there is a new "thank
GNU" for all new or renewing Fellows: a gratis 3 month subscription to
LWN, which every Fellow will receive by email upon confirmation of
his/her renewal or subscription.
http://www.lwn.net
Also, all Fellows that are fully activated by 1 April 2006 have the
opportunity to win one of two HP notebooks, kindly provided by HP.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000131.html
If you wish to support FSFE's work, sign up now:
http://www.fsfe.org/join/
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
[for immediate release]
Free Software Foundation Europe
not fooling around on April Fool's Day:
Like last year's PDA, donated by xtops.de [2] the Free Software
Foundation Europe will be raffling off two HP notebooks [3][4] to all
active Fellows on 1 April this year. For two lucky Fellows, April
Fool's Day will be anything but foolish.
"This is a great start into the second year of our Fellowship,” says
Georg Greve, president of FSFE. "The Fellowship is essential to our
activities. It allows us to pursue activities like the Microsoft
antitrust case, or our work at the United Nations. These may seem far
away, but if we do not defend our freedoms also in these places, we
are bound to lose them everywhere."
"Very often we find obstacles like proprietary drivers, or hardware
for which the specifications are simply lacking. Hardware
incompatibility and lack of specification documents are the pressing
problems we face today," explains Werner Koch, FSFE's Head of Office.
"Commitment towards Free Software is becoming an increasingly
important factor for hardware sales: It is important for Free Software
customers to be taken seriously and have assurance that their hardware
will run Free Software," concludes Georg Greve. He finishes: "Right
now only very few hardware companies truly commit themselves to Free
Software. We hope that will change soon and thank HP for their
support."
To join the Fellowship of FSFE and maybe win one of the laptops, sign
up online at http://www.fsfe.org/join
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
[1] http://www.fsfe.org
[2] http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q2/000106.html
[3] HP Compaq nx6125 Notebook PC (PZ092UA) (some details may be different)
* Debian GNU/Linux preinstalled
* AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology
* Sleek industrial design starting at 5.99 lb/2.72 kg and 1.22-inch/31.0mm thin at front
* ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Chipset
* 512-MB DDR SDRAM, upgradeable to 2048-MB maximum
* Up to 80-GB 5400 rpm hard drive
* Integrated ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 with up to 128-MB allocated system memory
* Optional Integrated 802.11a/b/g or 802.11b/g wireless LAN module
* Integrated Bluetooth® on select models
* 6-in-1 Media Reader
* NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Controller
* Touchpad with scroll zone
* Protected by three-year standard parts and labor warranty - certain restrictions and exclusions apply
To find out what keeps the digital society going please check our Free
Software press review today at http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/jj/pressreview
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
Media Contact: Free Software Foundation <pr(a)gnu.org>
Phone: +1-617-542-5942
BOSTON - February 21, 2006 - The 2nd international GPLv3 conference
will take place on April 21st & 22nd in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The
international GPLv3 conferences are part of a year-long public
consultation process to update GNU General Public License ("the GPL")
which today protects the freedom of 100s of millions of software users
and is the most used Free Software license in the world.
The conference will take place during the 7th International Free
Software Forum, which takes place from April 19th to the 22nd.
Like the current GPL, version 3 will work to guarantee that all users
of software distributed under its terms have the freedom to examine,
share, and modify that software.
Version 2 of the GPL was released in 1991. It is now being updated to
account for changes in the legal and technical environment in which
software licenses operate, and to protect against new threats to the
freedoms of software users such as software patents and Digital
Restrictions Management (DRM).
The new version will also incorporate what has been learned over the
last 15 years about enforcing a single software license in varying
legal systems around the world, and with the 2nd international GPLv3
conference, the current draft of GPL version 3 will receive particular
scrutiny from lawyers and software users of Latin America. A main
goal of these conferences is to get input from free software users in
all parts of the world.
The main changes in the text are those which would make GPLv3
compatible with other Free Software licenses. That is to say that
programmers will be able to combine GPLv3-covered code with code
distributed under some other Free Software licenses which version 2
would have prohibited.
We invite you join us at FISL for the second round of presentations
and discussions, with both international and Latin American
perspectives.
Confirmed speakers include Richard Stallman, founder and president of
Free Software Foundation (FSF), who will introduce the new draft, and
Richard Fontana, lawyer at Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), who
will provide legal interpretation. Expert panelists form across Latin
America will lead discussion on license internationalization, DRM,
software patents, and license compatibility.
The Conference's schedule and further information will be published
soon at http://gplv3.fsf.org/wiki/index.php/International_conferences
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.
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org>
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
FSFE to Microsoft: stop complaining, and start complying!
"After several years of investigation, the original ruling in 2004, and
a European Court case lasting close to two years, we now have to conclude
that Microsoft never had any intention to comply with the antitrust
ruling," comments Georg Greve, president of the Free Software
Foundation Europe (FSFE). "We were forced to witness years of delays,
stalling and playing for more time during which Microsoft has made no
attempt to allow interoperability and competition with its
competitors, including Free Software such as Samba."
"It makes a very sad and worrysome statement about the quality and
reliability of software engineering at Microsoft if they indeed do not
have proper interface specifications and documentation for their
considerably complex and organic systems, as Microsoft have repeatedly
maintained," explains Jonas Öberg, vice-president of FSFE. "That
'hundreds of Microsoft employees and contractors' [1] were apparently
not able to produce this documentation in almost two years further
undermines the confidence in Microsoft's technological prowess."
"That Microsoft now questions the competency and integrity of a
Trustee they themselves helped appoint is outrageous. All the parties
involved in the case found the Trustee showed an intimate competence
and understanding," says Carlo Piana, the lawyer representing FSFE on
the case: "How do they now dare maintain that he is biased? Because he
is not willing to lie against all evidence? We support the Commission
all the way, and possibly beyond. And: If Microsoft wanted to know how
it could easily comply, they just had to ring Volker Lendecke, member
of the Samba Team, one of our technical experts, as we offered them"
"Microsoft has behaved as if they consider themselves above the law
and any decision by the European Commission. The aggressive stance
they now take towards a Commission that was unbelievably patient with
Microsoft further confirms that view," concludes Georg Greve. "Microsoft
strove very hard to be the first company to leave the European
Commission no choice but to impose daily fines for the first time in
European antitrust history. Microsoft deserves to be granted what they
worked for so vehemently and be brought to compliance the hard way."
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
[1] http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/feb06/02-15EUStatement.mspx
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 4004
Mobile: +49-179-6919565
To find out what keeps the digital society going
please check our Free Software press review today at
https://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/jj/pressreview
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
FKF and FSFE teaming up: FKF official associate organisation of FSF Europe
14 February 2006
Madrid/Hamburg
The Free Knowledge Foundation / Fundación Conocimiento Libre (FKF) and
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) are proud to announce their new
official associate status, working together for the promotion and
protection of Free Software in Spain.
Following a decision at the last foundation board meeting of FKF to
co-operate more closely with FSF Europe, as well as a decision by the
members of the FSFE Team, both organisations are delighted to announce
their official co-operation. The FKF is the first associate organisation
of the FSFE in Spain, a country with a strong Free Software community.
"Our adversaries are usually multi-national groups, funded heavily by
multi-national companies. If we are to defend Free Software and all
that is related to it against their encroachments, then we need to be
equally present," explains Georg Greve, President of Free Software
Foundation Europe. "That is why FSFE started out as a multi-national
organisation from the outset, building teams across cultural and
language barriers to work together to further Free Software. We are very
happy to welcome another group to our large family."
"While we are focused on Free Knowledge, Free Software, Free Standards
and Intellectual Wealth dissemination, Free Software is at the centre
of our work, as the initiating and inspiring phenomenon of this new
way of understanding knowledge.", says Pablo Machón, President of
FKF. "The FSFE has always been an inspiration for our work. Becoming
an associated organisation of FSFE is, thus, a natural consequence of
sharing ideals, a long-term vocation, and working together towards
the same goal."
About the Free Knowledge Foundation (FKF)
The Free Knowledge Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in
Spain and focused on Free Knowledge, Free Software, Free Standards
and Intellectual Wealth dissemination. The FKF promotes the concept
of knowledge as being publicly and freely accessible for both usage
and contribution.
www.libre.org
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
Contact
FSF Europe:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve at fsfeurope.org>
phone: +49-40-23809080
fax: +49-40-23809081
FKF:
Pablo Machón <pablo at libre.org>
phone / fax: +34 91 8445346
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 4004
Mobile: +49-179-6919565
To find out what keeps the digital society going
please check our Free Software press review today at
https://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/jj/pressreview
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
1. Fellowship meetings in Vienna and Berlin
2. Discussion about Free Software in Austrian schools started
3. First draft of GPLv3 presented
4. Microsoft still trying to avoid competition
1. Fellowship meetings in Vienna and Berlin
Matthias Kirschner organised the first Fellowship meeting in Berlin.
Bernhard Reiter, FSFE's coordinator for Germany, was there to inform
about FSFE's work. A good discussion evolved, and interest in more
regular meetings was clearly voiced.
In Vienna, Karin Kosina and Reinhard Müller had invited to the second
Austrian Fellowship meeting. There was a very good discussion about
Free Software in Austrian schools.
While it was decided to stick with bi-monthly meetings in Vienna,
Berlin might even see monthly meetings if enough volunteers are found
to help with the organisation. Upcoming Fellowship meetings will be
announced on the FSFE events page as usual:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/events/events.en.html
2. Discussion about Free Software in Austrian schools started
Most schools in Austria still use and teach mostly proprietary
software. While many schools show very good initiatives towards the
adaption of Free Software, there is still a long road ahead. The FSFE
has created a mailing list meant for general discussion about Free
Software in Education in Austria, without being focussed on a specific
project or type of school.
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-at
3. First draft of GPLv3 presented
The MIT in Boston, USA, hosted the first international conference on
the GPLv3. Georg Greve, Stefano Maffulli and Ciaran O'Riordan
represented the FSFE on this event that marks the first milestone of
the way towards a new version of the world's most successful Free
Software license.
4. Microsoft still trying to avoid competition
In a press release, Microsoft announced licensing Windows Server
source code instead of specifications, claiming to thus meet the
requirements put before them by the European Commission. FSFE was once
again quick to explain how this announcement is a mere attempt to
distract from Microsofts non-compliance with the European Court order,
and a tactical ploy to endanger Free Software developers: after having
seen such Windows source code, a developer writing interoperable
software is potentially subject to copyright infringement lawsuits
brought about by Microsoft.
Several media, including the Wall Street Journal and the International
Herald Tribune, followed FSFE's explanations on this issue.
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html