FSFE Newsletter - May 2015

press at fsfeurope.org press at fsfeurope.org
Mon May 4 15:23:09 CEST 2015


 = FSFE Newsletter - May 2015 =

[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201505.nl.html ]

 == A secret Free Software action plan by the European Commission ==

The European Commission has published a new version of its strategy for
the internal use of Free Software. The FSFE provided input to the
Commission during the update phase and while the strategy is broadly
similar to the previous version, there are some improvements[1].

Unlike previous versions, this time the strategy is accompanied by an
action plan aimed at putting it into practice. However, the action plan
is not public, so it is not possible to assess the Commission's progress
towards its own goals. We would welcome it, if the Commission would soon
publish its action plan.

 == Interpretation of law restricting Free Software in Switzerland ==

FSFE's goal is that software which is developed with tax money has to be
released as Free Software. By doing so the public administration would
strengthen and stimulate a fair IT market.

In Switzerland, there is currently uncertainty regarding the development
and release of Free Software by public contractors. The trigger for this
was the development and release of the software “OpenJusticia” by the
Swiss Federal Supreme Court. The federal council now wants to examine
whether the publication of Free Software by the federal administration
can be allowed explicitly. The FSFE demands a clarification[2], so that
publicly-financed software can be legally and unambiguously released as
Free Software.

 == Worldwide 63 events about Open Standards ==

This year again volunteers around the world, accompanied by
international organisations as well as politicians and public services
joined our demand for document freedom. The global Document Freedom Day
had 63 local events in 31 countries on 4 continents. Read our 2015
report[3] to learn about political activities, new cartoons and
illustrations, and have a look at pictures from the events including
tasty DFD cakes.

 == Something completely different ==

- We published a statement on the changed relations between the FSFE and
  Kern Sibbald[4]. If you are a developer who has contributed to Bacula,
  we recommend that you look at what Fiduciary Licence Agreements or
  copyright assignments you have agreed to, and make sure that you fully
  understand how this termination affect you. If you are not sure, you
  are welcome to email us and we will do our best to assist you. Please
  take a look at our FAQ on this issue first[5].

- On 6 May 2015 the FSF is organising the International Day Against DRM.
  You can still print out some DRM leaflets[6], distribute them during
  the day, and talk with your friends and colleagues about the harm of
  digital restriction measures. Previously the FSF highlighted the
  problems with the new Apple products[7] concerning proprietary
  software and Digital Restrictions Management technologies distributed
  with its products and services.

- The German Greens want[8] the Government to increase the support for
  Free Software. FSFE has helped them with a enquiry in parliament about
  the move to non-free software in the German Foreign Office. You can
  help us to evaluate the Governments answers[9] (in German).

- Guido Arnold gave a talk about FSFE's education team at the Chemnitzer
  Linuxtage. The video “Advantages and barriers of Free Software in
  education” is now online[10] (you can for example use youtube-dl to
  download it).

- From the planet aggregation[11]:

    - Paul Boddie wrote a detailed blog post why Open Hardware and Free
      Software is not just for the geeks[12].

    - Franz Gratzer published an open letter to everymothercounts.org
      about their Apple advertisement[13].

    - Mirko Böhm summarised his experiences about parsing Emacs OrgMode
      files, the EU patent debate, and his vacation[14].

    - Riccardo (ruphy) Iaconelli announced, that he is back
      blogging[15], after he has done research at CERN and launched
      WikiFM.

    - And your editor explained how to share multiple links on
      Android[16].


 == Get active: Check the remaining advertisement for non-free software ==

We currently wrap-up the PDFreaders campaign, and we need your help to
measure our success.

Started in 2009 FSFE’s goal with the campaign was to get rid of
advertisement for proprietary PDF readers. We focused on the websites of
public administrations, and many people helped us gather contact details
for over 2000 public websites which advertised non-free software. Many
people helped us to contact the public administrations, governments were
made aware of it and published guidelines. Until now we know that 772 of
the 2110 bugs were fixed, which is a 36% success rate.

But for most countries we did not check the status for several months
now. That is why we need your help to make one final round. We are
looking for volunteers who can help us by checking websites in their
native language, following the step-by-step guide at the end of your
editor's blog post[17].

Thanks to all the volunteers[18], Fellows[19] and corporate donors[20]
who enable our work,
Matthias Kirschner - FSFE[21]

-- 
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>

  1. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150401-01.nl.html
  2. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150306-01.nl.html
  3. http://documentfreedom.org/news/2015/news-20150408-01.html
  4. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150414-01.nl.html
  5. https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/faq-bacula.nl.html
  6. https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.nl.html#drm-leaflet
  7. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/watch-your-freedom-because-apples-not
  8. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/german-greens-want-increased-support-open-source
  9. https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150401-02.nl.html
 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyDi6pkc6l8
 11. http://planet.fsfe.org
 12. https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=908
 13. http://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2015/03/28/open-letter-to-everymothercounts-org-apple-advertisement/
 14. http://creative-destruction.me/2015/04/04/parsing-emacs-orgmode-files-eu-patent-debate-and-vacation/
 15. http://blogs.fsfe.org/ruphy/2015/04/back-on-the-web/
 16. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/sharing-multiple-links-on-android/
 17. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/final-pdfreaders-advertisement-squashing/
 18. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.nl.html
 19. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
 20. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.nl.html
 21. https://fsfe.org/index.nl.html


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