FSFE Newsletter - May 2013

Mon May 6 14:35:08 CEST 2013

= FSFE Newsletter - May 2013 =

[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201305.en.html ]

Note: As Matthias Kirschner is on vacation, this edition of the monthly
Newsletter is written by Erik Albers. Enjoy!

== Document Freedom Day 2013 ==

Every year on the last wednesday of March, Document Freedom Day
(DFD)[1]takes place: the global day to raise awareness of Open
Standards, organised by the FSFE. It has been amazing to see year by
year how the message of freedom and Open Standards has continued to
spread around the world. This year, there were 59 events in 30
countries, and many first time participants, including Niger, Indonesia
and the United States.

1. http://www.documentfreedom.org/

Highlights from Document Freedom Day include more than a hundred press
articles[2]and blogs, Libre Office's publication of a new migration
guide[3], support from Lawrence Lessig[4], and a storm of social media
coverage and opening up discussions.

2. http://www.documentfreedom.org/press.en.html
3.
http://documentfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/tdf-migrationwhitepaper1.pdf
4. http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2013/news-20130315-01.en.html

But let's not forget: all these events were organised by local groups.
Among them were many FSFE Fellowship groups[5], a wide variety of other
Free Software community organisations, and teams of friends who care
about Open Standards. So, this is a big thank you to everybody who made
this year's DFD so successful! It is awesome to see how Free Software
and Open Standards connect people around the world. Read the extended
report online[6].

5. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipGroup?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
6. http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2013/news-20130419-01.en.html

== Free Software LegalLicensing Workshop ==

In early April, we held our annual Free Software LegalLicensing Workshop
in Amsterdam. More than 70 Free Software legal experts from the Legal
Network[7]came together for two days in order to share their knowledge
and discuss cutting-edge questions in the field.

7.
https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/network.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305

Topics discussed this year included recent court rulings, patent-related
developments, and transferring Free Software licensing ideas to
hardware. Stefano Zacchiroli, Debian's (now former) project leader,
delivered a keynote speech, describing the community perspective on
legal issues[8].

8. https://lwn.net/Articles/546411/

Several talks at the conference were covered by LWN, for example those
by Eben Moglen[9], Daniel German[10]and Anthonia Ghalamkarizadeh[11].

9. https://lwn.net/Articles/547379/
10. https://lwn.net/Articles/547400/
11. https://lwn.net/Articles/546678/

== FSFE welcomes Ceata as associate organisation ==

A new foundation from Romania and Moldova has joined FSFE's program of
associate organisations[12]. Ceata[13]has been promoting Free Software
and culture since 2008, and in February this year was officially
incorporated. The group, based in Bucharest with local chapters in Cluj
and Chișinău, organises conferences on Free Software, Free hardware,
and Free culture. Ceata also develops their own applications, translates
programs into Romanian, and participates in international campaigns.
Fundația Ceata and FSFE will now join forces[14]and work more
effectively on promoting software freedom in Romania and throughout
Europe.

12.
https://fsfe.org/associates/associates.en.html#id-funda%C8%9Bia-ceata?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
13. http://ceata.org/
14.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130424-01.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305

== Something completely different ==

- The German Parliament (the 'Bundestag') has voted on a joint motion
  against software patents[15]. The resolution urges the German
  government to take steps to limit the granting of patents on computer
  programs. The Parliament's resolution reminds the government that,
  under the EU's Computer Programs Directive, software is covered by
  copyright, not patents. It calls on the government to finally put the
  directive's "copyright approach" into practice, and make German law
  more concrete in this regard. It also points out that the restrictions
  which patents impose are incompatible with the most widely used Free
  Software licenses.
- The winner of the election for FSFE's Fellowship GA[16]is Heiki
  "Repentinus" Ojasild[17]. The election period for this year's
  Fellowship GA seat ended on March 15, and proved exciting to the end.
  Thanks to all Fellows who participated in the process and made this a
  valuable experience for the Fellowship and for FSFE.
- Please welcome the latest Fellowship group, from Bari, South
  Italy[18]! The way the group was formed was unprecedented in FSFE
  history: As a former GNU/Linux user group, 15 people joined FSFE
  simultaneously to create a new Fellowship group. According to the
  members, they took this step in order to be more active on a political
  level in future.
- The chancellor of the "Freie Universität Berlin" has asked all staff
  to use exclusively 'Apple iTunes U' for the publication of University
  materials, such as recordings of lectures. To access University
  resources therefore, students now have to use Apple iTunes, which
  excludes users of Free Software operating systems, and includes a
  variety of anti-consumer measures to lock them in to the service. FSFE
  has written to the chancellor explaining why University resources
  should be available without software barriers (German)[19].
- As part of the Ask Your Candidates campaign[20], FSFE has sent out
  'voting benchmarks' ("Wahlprüfsteine") for all three elections in
  Germany, that will be in autumn this year. The aim is to obtain public
  statements on Free Software policies and committments from parties
  which are hoping to be elected. Some responses have already been
  received and will be published soon.
- FSFE participated in the Chemnitzer Linuxtage conference[21]this
  month. The FSFE booth received lots of attention, and many people
  approached the team to ask about campaigns. Free Your Android proved
  to be a hot topic, generating many questions and ideas. Reinhard
  Müller, FSFE's Financial Officer, gave a talk entitled "Free
  yourself: how to save the world in five easy steps", and Erik Albers,
  Fellowship Deputy Coordinator, gave a presentation on Free Your
  Android. Erik was in Freeing frenzy this month, and delivered the same
  talk at Cebit in Hannover[22], Germany. The conference organisers
  filmed and hosted a video of the talk[23], but unfortunately only in
  Adobe Flash.
- From the planet aggregation[24]:
- Hugo explains why the HTML5[25] video[26] tag has been a
  failure[27]and still is. He argues that we need to weigh in to the
  political process which is shaping HTML5, and to fight the surrounding
  Fear Uncertainty and Doubt[28]to keep the Internet a place where
  everyone is free to express themselves - without having to ask for
  permission or signing a restricted-patent-license.
- Mia Julia Eley encourages women that are interested in technology and
  engineering[29]to apply for GNOME's Outreach Program for Women[30].
  "Plenty of women out there have skills that could benefit the Free
  Software movement and the barrier to entry should be clearly
  understood" she states.
- Torsten Grote reports about the latest changes in CyanogenMod's
  [http://www.cyanogenmod.org/] privacy policy. Before, they were
  collecting anonymised data for statistical purposes including the
  option for everyone to opt-out. Suddenly, this opt-out feature was
  removed and a tracking feature was added that sends the collected data
  to Google Analytics, too. After some days, the first decision was
  reversed, that means you have the option to opt-out again. But, still,
  if you agree that your data will be sent to CM, it will also be sent
  to Google Analytics. Read all details on Torsten's Blog[31].
- Paul Boddie reflects about "The Academic Challenge: Ideas, Patents,
  Openness and Knowledge" and argues why Universities should insist on
  freedom of knowledge instead of just defending openness of knowledge.
  Read why there should be no commercialisation of academia and no
  monopolization of ideas[32].
- Did you already set up your Fellowship card? If not, you might be
  interested in a'How To' which was made by Jens Lechtenbörger[33]to
  support the already existing Fellowship How[34]to.
- Beside this, Jens Lechtenbörger also explains why, for privacy
  reasons, Ubuntu users should not update to Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04[35],
  but instead stick with version 12.04 LTS.
- Finally, some fun: Henrik Sandklef shows how to use your calendar for
  artistic purposes[36], in this case to illustrate the Fellowship
  Plussy

15.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130422-01.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
16.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130319-01.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
17.
https://www.wiki.fsfe.org/Fellows/repentinus?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
18. https://www.wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Bari?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
19.
https://netzpolitik.org/2013/kein-open-education-aber-itunes-u-e-learning-strategien-deutscher-universitaten
20.
https://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
21. http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2013/
22. http://www.cebit.com
23. http://www.techcast.com/events/cebit13/di-1600/?q=di-1600
24. http://planet.fsfe.org?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
25.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2013/04/a-small-lesson-about-patent-fud/?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
26.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2013/04/a-small-lesson-about-patent-fud/?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
27.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2013/04/a-small-lesson-about-patent-fud/?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
28. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
29.
https://blogs.fsfe.org/mia/2013/04/10/programming-oportunities-for-women/?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
30. https://live.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen
31.
https://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/2013/04/03/cyanogenmod-removes-tracking-opt-out-reverses-decision-still-uses-google-analytics/?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
32. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=134&pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
33.
https://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2013/04/19/how-to-set-up-your-fellowship-card/?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
34.
https://wiki.fsfe.org/Card_howtos/Card_with_subkeys_using_backups?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
35.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/jens.lechtenboerger/2013/04/19/ubuntu-search-still-broken-in-13-04-beta/?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
36. http://sandklef.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/fsfe-graphics-with-owncloud/

== Get active: oppose integration of DRM into HTML5 ==

FSFE, FSF and other prominent organisations defending digital freedom
have prepared a joint letter to the World Wide Web Consortium and its
member organisations urging them to reject the Encrypted Media
Extensions (EME) proposal[37]. This proposal aims at incorporating
support for Digital Restriction Management (DRM) into HTML5 and might
become a threat to Free Software users. P lease join us[38]in calling on
the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and its member organizations to
reject the Encrypted Media Extensions proposal (EME).

37.
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130423-02.en.html?pk_campaign=enewsletter&pk_kwd=201305
38. http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5

Thanks to all the Fellows and donors who enable our work,
   Erik

-- 
Free Software Foundation Europe - http://fsfe.org

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