-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Ask Your Candidates - Berlin / Zürich Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:17:24 +0200 From: Matthias Kirschner mk@fsfe.org To: team-reports@fsfeurope.org, germany@fsfeurope.org

Our "Ask Your Candidates Campaign" https://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/ is running well. After we covered the elections in Bremen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Baden Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz (all Germany), Vienna (Austria) in 2011, and the Federal election in Germany 2009, we now covered the elections in Berlin and Switzerland. I received very good feedback for the campaign until now.

A lot of Free Software developers, users, and companies like this campaign. As it is not that much work, after we now have a framework, we should continue to invest in it.

The goal of our ongoing activity "Ask Your Candidates" (AYC) is challenging local, regional, and national politicians on their position on Free Software is a very important ongoing activity. Particularly in the run-up to elections, engaging candidates and parties in software related questions can have a big impact.

- PR Berlin Election (done by the German team, special thanks to Olaf Buddenhagen): https://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110913-01.de.html. Coverage: - Prolinux:

http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/17493/fsf-europe-vergleicht-parteipositionen-... - Heise:

http://www.heise.de/open/meldung/Berlin-Parteien-kennen-sich-mit-freier-Soft... - My blog http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=815 and on Netzpolitik

https://netzpolitik.org/2011/berlin-hauptstadt-der-freien-software-parteien/

- PR Swiss Election (done by the Zürich Fellowship Group, special thanks to Marcus Möller): https://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110919.de.html. Coverage: - Linux Magazin http://www.linux-magazin.de/content/view/full/62443 - Prolinux:

http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/17509/schweizer-politiker-zu-freier-software-... - My blog http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=818 also on Netzpolitik

https://netzpolitik.org/2011/freie-software-in-den-schweizer-national-und-st...

For reference, here the questions in English which Sam and I worked on:

- 1.a. Do you plan to promote the use of Free Software? If so, how will you do this?

- 1.b. Do you plan to promote the interests of small and medium sized Free Software companies; and so, how?

- 2. Non-Free Software is only modifiable with the permission of its owner. This restriction had led to service monopolies and vendor lock-in in both the public and private sector. Do you plan to act against existing service monopolies of this nature?

- 3.a. Strict adherence to Open Standards in public sector ICT enables fairer competition amongst tenderers. Do you agree with the Free Software Foundation Europe's Definition of Open Standards (http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.en.html)?

- 3.b. Will you work to achieve strict adherence to Open Standards in the public sector? If so, how do you plan to do this?

- 4.a. Is your party planing to promote the usage of Free Software in state education?

- 4.b. Does your party intend to promote the teaching of transferable ICT skills, rather than product or vendor specific knowledge?

- 5. Many public sector organisations advertise non-Free Software on their websites, such as promotions for 'Adobe Reader'. What is your opinion on this kind of advertising, and do you have any plans concerning it?

- 6.a. In Germany software is covered by copyright law and, like literature, is therefore unpatentable. Nevertheless, patents on software continue to be granted by patent offices. The technology monopolies that these patents result in lead to legal uncertainty for software companies and hamper innovation in all European companies. What is your position on software patents?

- 6.b How will you prevent them from threatening the growth of Germany's economy?