From press at fsfe.org Tue Feb 12 17:02:24 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2019 17:02:24 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter February 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter February 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201902.fi.html ] This month's Newsletter is introducing our new expert policy brochure "Public Money? Public Code" and reflecting the importance of source code availability for trust and security in critical IT-infrastructure. As always the Newsletter gives an overview about the talks given and the booths set-up by our community as well as a short summary of what we have done - this month including FOSDEM, 35C3, FOSS4SMEs and the Next Generation Internet. As a "get active" item, this month we encourage you to participate in our IloveFS-campaign. == FSFE publishes expert brochure about “Public Money? Public Code!" == Convincing decision-makers why more public code would benefit us all should be easy. There are so many good arguments for putting publicly funded code under a Free Software licence: Tax savings, transparency, and innovation – just to name a few. But, in practice, we experience that there are still a lot of basics that need to be explained. Starting with: What is Free Software? Why should governments develop Free Software? What are Free Software business models? To answer these questions and give practical guidelines to decision-makers, we have published a policy brochure that presents the most important facts and arguments about publicly funded code. This publication [1] answers decision-makers' most common questions and refutes widespread misunderstandings about Free Software. In several articles and contributions from experts, the brochure presents successful Free Software use-cases and inspiring legislation that show that change is already taking place. Overall, the brochure provides practical guidance for moving the modernisation of public infrastructure forward and hints at how procurement guidelines can be updated to include the strong points of Free Software. Downloads and prints are available under a Creative Commons license [2] Among the contributions included in the brochure, that feature experts from various fields, is an interview with Francesca Bria, Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer for the City of Barcelona, who drives the modernisation of Barcelona's public infrastructure. She says: "The Barcelona City Council supports the FSFE's campaign 'Public Money, Public Code', because we need alliances to make Free Software the default setting in the public sector. The digital public infrastructure that we use should be a public good, owned and controlled by the citizens." == About publishing source code to establish trust in critical infrastructure == In many countries, the Chinese company Huawei is facing distrust after allegations of potential state espionage. The company is one of the largest manufacturers of 5G equipment, the upcoming generation of cellular mobile communications. To ensure that the products and the underlying infrastructure are safe, network providers and politicians proposed an inspection of the equipment's source code. The FSFE welcomes [3] this move to recognize the importance of source code availability , but is afraid that the proposed solution falls too short. Allowing inspection of the secret code by selected authorities and telephone companies might help in this specific case, but will not solve the general problem. Instead, to establish trust in critical infrastructure like 5G, it is a crucial precondition that all software code powering those devices is published under a Free and Open Source Software licence. On this basis, everyone can inspect the code, not only for backdoors, but for all security risks. Only these freedoms allow for independent and continuous security audits which will lead citizens, the economy, and the public sector to trust their communication and data exchange. Furthermore, in order to verify code integrity – so that the provided source code corresponds to the executable code running on the equipment – it is either necessary that there are reproducible builds in case of binary distribution, or that providers are brought into the position to compile and deploy the code on their own. "We should not only debate the Huawei case but extend the discussion to all critical infrastructure." says Max Mehl, FSFE Programme Manager. "Only with Free and Open Source Software can transparency and accountability be guaranteed. This is a long-known crucial precondition for security and trust. We expect state actors to immediately implement this solution not only for the Huawei case but for all comparable IT security issues." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community of freedom fighters! [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == - On January 14 and 15, our project manager Gabriel Ku Wei Bin attended a kickoff meeting in Amsterdam of the Next Generation Internet [5] project, funded by the European Commission and administered by the NLNet Foundation in the Netherlands. The FSFE joins the project to provide guidance to applicant technologies involved in the project to ensure that their final products are compliant with Free Software licensing best practices. - On January 16 and 17 the FSFE's project managers Galia Mancheva and Max Mehl joined the FOSS4SMEs [6] meeting in Dublin and shot videos for the online lessons the e-learning platform of the project is launching later this year. Stay tuned for further updates on the project’s website [7]. - Björn Schießle, FSFE coordinator for Germany, gave a talk [8] on using strong copyleft to build a sustainable business at the Copyleft Conference on February 4th in Brussels. - On January 23 Alexander Sander, the FSFE's EU public policy programme manager, joined a panel at Eurocieties Society Forum in Barcelona. Sander talked about how cities and public administration can foster Free Software and involve the local ecosystem in developing digital services based on Free Software and open standards. - Paul Boddie writes about "An Absence of Strategy?" [9] in which he argues that "installing Free Software over it" is no longer enough in the world of mobile devices. He claims that instead we need a strategy and an organisation that brings together collective efforts and practical action to identify ongoing projects and propose actual solutions towards constructing sustainable, community-driven, and user-protecting devices. - Frank Karlitschek predicts [10] that 2019 will be a very good year for privacy, open source and decentralized "cloud" [11] software. It could be the year where Free Software, federated and self-hosted technology hits the mainstream. - Björn Schießle wrote [12] about Free Software being a "new cultural technique", a collective achievement done in a socio-cultural context, requiring social interaction and participation. And as such, it requires special attention by policy makers and society. - Marcus Moeller, Country Coordinator of the FSFE in Switzerland, set up a Swiss association Faircomputer [13] for which he and his contributors are collecting used Laptops. These devices are then checked, repaired, cleaned and equipped with Free Software. The refurbished machines are given away for free to interested people around Germany, Austria and Switzerland, only charging a small amount for the warranty to ensure they can be used without any hassle for years. - Between Christmas and New Year, the FSFE was organising a cluster "about:freedom" together with like-minded organisations at the Chaos Communication Congress, the biggest community driven hacker congress in Germany. Inside the cluster, the FSFE was present [14] with an assembly, a booth, and running its own track [15]. From the FSFE we had Susanne speaking about her self-made "smartphone" [16] ( video [17] ), Katharina Nocun about data collecting Amazon [18] ( video [19] ) and Erik Albers about the best of Fdroid [20] ( video [21] ) - In the beginning of February, the FSFE was present at FOSDEM, the biggest community-driven Free Software event in Europe. We had formal and informal meetings and social evenings, and were running an information booth throughout the event. - On January 19, FSFE joined the Dutch Linux user group NLLGG meeting in Utrecht to set up a booth and have a chat about Free Software and related topics. - Local FSFE community meetings happened this month in Hamburg [22], Bonn, Frankfurt (Main) [23], Madrid [24], Zurich [25] and Berlin [26]. If you would like to see your local FSFE meeting listed here, please announce it with our improved event announcement tool [27]. - The European Commission expands its bug bounty programme [28] called EU-FOSSA2. Software developers who find security vulnerabilities in the selected Free Software will be awarded between EUR 3,000 and EUR 25,000 for critical bugs. == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == - The FSFE will be present with a booth at Chemnitzer Linuxtage from March 16 to 17 in Chemnitz, Germany, and is looking forward to having a chat with you about Free Software or FSFE. Erik Albers, programme manager for the FSFE will give a workshop [29] about how to make the best of your Android(-fork) by using FDroid. If you like to get in contact beforehand or join the booth team, have a look at the discussion [30] in our Discourse installation. == Get Active == On February 14, our community around the globe celebrates "I love Free Software" Day [31]. We would like to encourage you to be part of our online campaign by creating, sharing or simply enjoying love messages all around the world dedicated to Free Software and the people behind it. Enjoy the day, share and refuel your energy! As in previous editions, we are looking forward to seeing you spreading all kind of materials, be they texts, pictures, graphics, scripts or whatever comes to your mind, to show your love to Free Software. Throughout the day, we will share your contributions around the globe on our media channels and collect them for a nice write-up about the love you have for our communities. If you share something, remember to use the hashtag *#ilovefs*, or if you happen to use the IloveFS visuals [32] on your web platform, website or a blog, please, let us know, so we can include it in our stream. == Contribute to our newsletter == If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter at fsfe.org. We're looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [33], supporters [34] and donors [35] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [36], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue. Your editor, Erik Albers -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community of freedom fighters! [37] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190124-01.html 2: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure.html 3: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190205-01.html 4: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2018-02 5: https://nlnet.nl/PET/background/ 6: https://fsfe.org/activities/foss4smes/foss4smes.html 7: https://www.foss4smes.eu/ 8: https://2019.copyleftconf.org/schedule/presentation/12/ 9: https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=2386 10: https://karlitschek.de/2019/01/2018-and-2019/ 11: https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword#nocloud 12: https://www.schiessle.org/articles/2019/01/02/cultural-techniques/ 13: https://faircomputer.ch 14: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2018/wiki/index.php/Assembly:Free_Software_Foundation_Europe 15: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2018/wiki/index.php/Assembly:Free_Software_Foundation_Europe#Our_Sessions 16: https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2018/Fahrplan/events/9681.html 17: https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9681-butterbrotdosen-smartphone 18: https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2018/Fahrplan/events/9858.html 19: https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9858-archaologische_studien_im_datenmull 20: https://pretalx.35c3oio.freifunk.space/35c3oio/talk/UFZYAS/ 21: https://media.freifunk.net/v/35c3oio-74-f-droid-pimp-your-android-fork-with-the-best-free-software-apps 22: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Hamburg 23: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/RheinMain 24: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Madrid 25: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Zurich 26: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Berlin 27: https://fsfe.org/community/tools/eventregistration 28: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/eur-3000-eur-25000 29: https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2019/en/programm/beitrag/269 30: https://community.fsfe.org/t/chemnitzer-linuxtage-2019-standteam/216 31: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/ 32: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/artwork/artwork.html 33: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute 34: http://fsfe.org/join 35: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 36: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators 37: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-02 From press at fsfe.org Wed Mar 20 10:00:35 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2019 10:00:35 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter March 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter March 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201903.fi.html ] This month's newsletter highlights the new project the FSFE recently joined and the funding opportunities it offers, that you may want to take advantage of. You can get the latest updates on the Copyright Directive reform and the hottest news regarding Article 13, as well as a short summary of what else has happened during the past month. In the Editor's choice section this month you can find interesting news on developments with the Radio Equipment Directive, and find out who else have expressed their support for our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and what they have to say about it. == European Commission Next Generation Internet Initiative == The European Commission launched an initiative called "The Next Generation Internet" and the FSFE is part of its NGI0 consortium [1]. The Initiative's purpose is to create technologies for a better internet where the individual user's best interests are the top priority. In other words, internet technologies that respect human rights and important values like privacy, openness, transparency, cooperation, and protection of data. To help achieve these objectives, the Initiative runs two branch projects, led by the NLnet Foundation [2], in order to award grants to applicant technologies that attest to those ideals. The FSFE's role is to provide Free Software licensing recommendations and consultation in these projects: NGI0 PET [3] deals with technologies that enhance privacy and trust on the Internet. It awards grants to applicants that can provide people with new instruments to keep their data on the Internet confidential, while still being able to act freely and independently online. NGI0 Discovery [4], deals with technologies that enhance the ability to search for information on the Internet. The project confers grants to applicants that can help strengthen how we search for and discover content on the internet in such a way that supports important social values, such as freedom of expression, privacy, and transparency. The best suited solutions would ensure that searching for information is less centralised with as few intermediaries as possible. All granted technologies will be based on and be made available as Free and Open Source Software. The NGI0 consortium acts as a sort of advisory body for successful applicants and assists them with their technologies in specific areas, such as security and accessibility. In this context, the FSFE facilitates their software licensing, advising them on how to properly apply best licensing practices, and making sure their technologies are licensed and compliant. Calls for applications for both projects are renewed every 2 months. They are currently in the midst of their 2nd call, the deadline of which is 1 April 2019. The first call, which ended in February, resulted in over a hundred submissions from countries not only from Europe, but also from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. If you are interested in getting funding to develop your relevant technology, you can apply here [5]. == Copyright and Article 13 - What happened and what's next == Despite uncertainties and controversies along the way, the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive seems to be reaching the end of the road. There are many steps to finalise a legal text in the EU, but now the EU Member States and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on a consolidated text [6]. The next step is for the Directive to be voted in the plenary session at the end of March/in early April. As reported [7], the original proposal could have regulated the platforms software developers use, cooling incentives to innovate and making software more fragile in Europe. It was in response to this that the OpenForum Europe and the FSFE started the SaveCodeshare.eu [8] campaign. Together we wrote letters, petitions, and held meetings and events in Brussels and in EU member states. Article 13 now excludes “open source software development and sharing platforms” from its scope (see article 2(5) in the provisional agreement [9]. This one unintended consequence has at least been avoided. From a wider perspective, no matter how the vote turns out, we were able to raise awareness and understanding of what drives software development in Europe today among many policymakers. We explained how the software ecosystem operates, the pervasive use of Free and Open Source software licenses, and the commercial nature of Free and Open Source Software. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community of freedom fighters: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-02 [10] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Inside and Outside the FSFE == - The four universal freedoms of Free Software offer fertile soil for emancipating technologies without restrictions towards gender or any other backgrounds. However, women have traditionally been and still are under-represented in those bodies and communities shaping these technologies. It is time to change that. On March 8, the International Women's Day, we used the occasion to share the FSFE's ongoing efforts to improve gender balance and ensure gender equality [11]. - As a way to help ensure that in the FSFE everyone can, at all times, feel at ease to participate without fearing any form of attack, reprisal or harassment, we adopted a Code of Conduct [12] and installed a CARE team [13]. To further support the aims of the CARE Team, we welcome Gabriel Ku Wei Bin [14] as a new member. - On February 23rd Alexander Sander [15], FSFE's policy analyst, spoke about our Public Money - Public Code [16] campaign at the "Winter Kongress Digitale Gesellschaft" in Zurich, Switzerland ( watch the video [17] ). At the same event, Marcus Moeller, the FSFE's Coordinator for Switzerland, and Michel Ketterle presented the next version of Freedomvote [18]. Freedomvote is a campaign [19] and a Free Software [20] that enables local groups to run political and electoral campaigns by themselves. FSFE local groups have already been using it to run campaigns in the Netherlands in 2017 [21] and in Switzerland in 2015 [22] - Katharina Nocun, Internet activist and FSFE Freelancer, together with Basanta E. P. Thapa from Fraunhofer Fokus presented the ongoing Public Money - Public Code [23] campaign and our new expert policy brochure [24], and used this occasion to talk about ways public procurement can be modernised. The presentation took place on March 5th at c-base in Berlin, hosted by the Netzpolitischen Abend [25] - (Watch the video) [26] - From March 16th to 17th, FSFE's booth and staff could be spotted at the Chemnitzer Linuxtage [27] in Chemnitz, Germany. Erik Albers [28], FSFE's Programme Manager, gave a workshop about F-Droid [29], G-Droid, and the most useful Free Software apps to help people use more Free Software on their mobile phones. - Another place you could inform yourself about the FSFE and have a chat with our supporters was at the the Dutch Linux Usergroup NLLGG [30] on March 16th, in Utrecht, the Netherlands. - FSFE supporter André Klöpfel was interviewed [31] (DE) by Deutschlandfunk Marktplatz about how to install a Linux Distro for beginners. - This month we had local FSFE supporter meetings in Madrid, Hamburg, Frankfurt (Main), Berlin and Bonn. == Editor's choice == - Protect freedom on radio devices: raise your voice today! [32] - Alert on an upcoming threat from a new EU regulation. In this entry Max explains in greater detail how a single article in the EU Radio Equipment Directive [33] has the capacity to make installing a custom piece of software on most radio devices (like WiFi routers, smartphones and embedded devices) impossible. Read his blog to find out how you can contribute to the better development of events. - Public Money? Public Code! campaign in EDRi's Newsletter EDRigram [34]: "Publicly funded software has to result in public code." Read their opinion on our initiative. == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == - Pablo González, FSFE's local Coordinator Madrid, will be present with an info-booth from March 26th to 28th at the Taller de Periodismo de Datos [35] in Medialab Prado in Madrid, Spain. Pass by to get to know local Madrid supporters and the FSFE. == Get Active == We have a cool tool [36] for announcing events and promoting them on our website and social channels. If you would like us to include your event in our next newsletter and website, feel welcome to try out the event submission tool [37] == Contribute to our newsletter == If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter at fsfe.org. We are looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [38], supporters [39] and donors [40] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [41], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue. Your editor, Galia Mancheva -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community of freedom fighters: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-03 [42] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://www.ngi.eu/about/ngi-zero/ 2: https://nlnet.nl 3: https://nlnet.nl/PET/ 4: https://nlnet.nl/discovery/ 5: https://nlnet.nl/propose/ 6: https://juliareda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Copyright_Final_compromise.pdf 7: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171130-01.fi.html 8: https://savecodeshare.eu/ 9: https://juliareda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Copyright_Final_compromise.pdf 10: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-03 11: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190308-01.fi.html 12: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct 13: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct#CARE 14: https://fsfe.org/about/ku/ku.fi.html 15: https://fsfe.org/about/sander/sander.fi.html 16: https://publiccode.eu/ 17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHI3rR9UmqA&pbjreload=10 18: https://www.digitale-gesellschaft.ch/kongress/2019/talks/freedomvote_-_eine_transparenzinitiative/ 19: https://freedomvote.ch/ 20: https://github.com/freedomvote/freedomvote 21: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170302-01.fi.html 22: https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150916-01.fi.html 23: https://publiccode.eu/ 24: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190124-01.fi.html 25: https://digitalegesellschaft.de/portfolio-items/netzpolitischer-abend/ 26: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya-NY1d2e9c&pbjreload=10 27: https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2019/en 28: https://fsfe.org/about/albers/albers.fi.html 29: https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2019/en/programm/beitrag/269 30: https://nllgg.nl/bijeenkomst/20190316 31: https://srv.deutschlandradio.de/dlf-audiothek-audio-teilen.3265.de.html?mdm:audio_id=705107 32: https://blog.mehl.mx/2019/protect-freedom-on-radio-devices-raise-your-voice-today/ 33: https://fsfe.org/activities/radiodirective/ 34: https://edri.org/fsfe-publicly-funded-software-has-to-result-in-public-code/ 35: https://www.medialab-prado.es/programas/taller-de-periodismo-de-datos-2019-sigue-el-rastro-de-la-comida 36: https://fsfe.org/community/tools/eventregistration.fi.html 37: https://fsfe.org/community/tools/eventregistration.fi.html 38: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute 39: http://fsfe.org/join 40: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 41: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators 42: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-03