From press at fsfe.org Tue Feb 12 17:02:26 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2019 17:02:26 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter February 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter February 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201902.ru.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 10:00:36 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2019 10:00:36 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter March 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter March 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201903.ru.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.ru.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.ru.html 12: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct 13: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct#CARE 14: https://fsfe.org/about/ku/ku.ru.html 15: https://fsfe.org/about/sander/sander.ru.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.ru.html 22: https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150916-01.ru.html 23: https://publiccode.eu/ 24: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190124-01.ru.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.ru.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.ru.html 37: https://fsfe.org/community/tools/eventregistration.ru.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 From press at fsfe.org Wed Apr 24 08:36:11 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2019 08:36:11 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter April 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter April 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201904.ru.html ] This month's newsletter highlights the presence of the FSFE's campaign"Public Money? Public Code!" in German media and its growing popularity across Europe. You can find a short reminder of the news around the newly voted Copyright Directive, as well as a short summary of what else has happened during the past month. In the Get Active section this month we remind you of the new open call the Next Generation Internet project we are part of has launched. Additionally you can find out about new events we are attending and the Web-a-thon we organise in Frankfurt am Main. == "Public Money? Public Code!" in German media == Our campaign Public Money? Public Code! [1] has really taken off, as German media WDR [2] and t3n [3] picked it up earlier this month. The FSFE's initiative received prominent support in the media from various Bundestag members, as well as digital politics activists and publicists embracing the free licenses for software receiving money from public sector. Additionally, t3n, who also supports the campaign, published an interview [4] with the FSFE's Public Policy Manager, Alexander Sander on the way public sector, like the city of Barcelona, deploys Free Software in its administration and city solutions: "The city manages to "react to the digital transformation with appropriate digital solutions". "The government's agenda today is 70 percent determined by the proposals made through Decidim." says the Public Policy Manager. He believes that administrations could save money in the long term by using free-open source software: different communities might share programs and knowledge, new software would not have to be bought at high cost or completely redeveloped." Alexander Sander also mentioned Barcelona was the first major European city to support this action. Please, feel welcome to also express your support by spreading the word and sharing our brochure [5] == Copyright Directive was adopted == The European Parliament adopted the controversial Copyright Directive by 348 votes in favour, 274 votes against and 36 abstentions. Heated discussions about the introduction of upload filters ended up in protests of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets all across Europe. You can read our press release [6] on the topic. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community of freedom fighters: https://my.fsfe.org/support [7] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Inside and Outside the FSFE == - Pablo González, the FSFE's Madrid Coordinator, was present with an info booth between March 26th and 28th at the Taller de Periodismo de Datos [8] in Medialab Prado in Madrid, Spain. He met with local journalists, hackers and data researchers interested in the FSFE's initiatives and goals, and topics like Open Standards and privacy. - We also published our #ilovefs report [9] where you can see only few of the pictures and graphics used during the day, as unfortunately, we couldn't include all the wonderful photos we saw. And you can also have insights on some numbers in statistics. - On 3 April, the FSFE's Policy Manager Alexander Sander was at the Open Platform for Open Data? [10] in Vienna, Austria. There, he talked about the challenges and contradictions of the models public administrations face when deploying software, as well as provided ways forward on how to shape the open data debate in a way that systematically promotes the public interest. - Alexander Sander also made few other presentations on that topic at the Netzpolitischer Abend [11] on 4 April in Vienna and on April 5th at the Grand Garage [12] in Linz, Austria. A full video of his talk in Vienna is also available [13]. - Marcus Moeller, the FSFE Switzerland Coordinator, gave a presentation promoting the sustainable use of electronic equipment for educational purposes and thus also promoting Free Software, on 6 April at the Open Education Day [14] in Berne, Switzerland. His presentation was given in front of teachers, people engaged with school informatics, as well as people interested in introducing and promoting Free Libre Open Source Software, Open Content or Open Hardware at their school. - On 6 April the FSFE was present with an information and merchandise booth at another event - the 18th "Linux-Infotag Augsburg" [15]. The event took place in the premises of the IT faculty of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. - On April 8th, The FSFE's Policy Analyst Alexander Sander and Programme Manager Erik Albers gave a presentation at Escola del Treball de Barcelona about our "Public Money?Public Code!" Campaign. The meetup, lead by Monica Bernardi from Dimmos, discussed public policies around Free Software, public money and how to leverage Free Software to push public administrations into the next level. You can also watch the full video [16] from the event. - This month we had local FSFE supporter meetings in Hamburg, Bonn, Kiel and Zurich, Switzerland. == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == - On 26 and 27 April, Max Mehl, the FSFE's Programme Manager, will give a keynote about Free Software as a solution to many pressing IT security problems at the Grazer Linuxtage [17]. He will look at the pros and cons and use concrete examples to illustrate why security and openness are not contradictory. If you are close by, pay a visit to his talk at the Technical University Graz. - On 11 May, the FSFE will be present with a booth at T-Dose [18] in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Visit the booth for interesting dicussions and chats about Free Software. - On 21 May, Erik Albers, the FSFE's Communication Manager, will talk at the Magdeburger Developer Days [19] about how we can help ours and future generations to safe resources with the help of software. - Between 24 and 26 May, the FSFE will host a web-a-thon in Frankfurt (Main) with the intend to have a fruitful collective work on improving the FSFE's homepage. The web-a-thon will happen at the local Chaos Computer Club [20]. Be there, or be square. == Get Active == Next Generation Internet Initiative [21]: The third call of NGI Zero Discovery and NGI Zero PET opened up on April 1st 2019, with a deadline for submissions of June 1st 2019 12:00 CET. NGI Zero Discovery [22] is seeking for project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euros - with the potential to scale them up if there is proven potential. Search should not be a gatekeeper, a black box or a privacy nightmare. If the internet is the equivalent of a global brain, we need creativity and diversity in the pathways across that brain to unlock its true potential. Search and discovery are basic human needs for humans of all ages, and we would like to put powerful new technology in the hands of future generations as building blocks for a fair and democratic society and an open economy that benefits all. NGI Zero PET [23] is seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euros - with the potential to scale them up if there is proven potential. Reliability, confidentiality, integrity and security should be the 'new normal' of the internet, something ordinary users should not have to worry about. Trust is one of the key drivers for the Next Generation Internet, and an adequate level of privacy is a non- negotiable requirement for that. The desire is to assist independent researchers and developers to create powerful new technology, and to help them put it in the hands of future generations as building blocks for a fair and democratic society and an open economy that benefits all. If your proposal ends up amongst the winners list, you will receive licensing advices and consultation from the FSFE team. == 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. Also make sure to see your event in our next newsletter. Please use our new tool [24] to announce it! Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [25], supporters [26] and donors [27] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [28], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue. Your editor, Galia Mancheva -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community of freedom fighters: https://my.fsfe.org/support [29] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://publiccode.eu/ 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M_AYj0gc_A 3: https://t3n.de/news/sascha-lobo-breites-buendnis-code-1148918/ 4: https://t3n.de/news/barcelona-touristen-hochburg-1139070/ 5: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure 6: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190326-01.ru.html 7: https://my.fsfe.org/support 8: https://www.medialab-prado.es/programas/taller-de-periodismo-de-datos-2019-sigue-el-rastro-de-la-comida 9: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190329-01.ru.html 10: https://privacylab.at/event/alexander-sander-open-platforms-for-open-data/ 11: https://netzpolitischerabend.wordpress.com/2019/03/28/programm-des-35-netzpolitischen-abends-at-am-4-april-2019-in-wien/ 12: https://grandgarage.eu/de/events/ 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqTKkFHCnz0 14: https://openeducationday.ch/ 15: https://www.luga.de/Aktionen/LIT-2019/ 16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXwq_bhjSwQ 17: https://pretalx.linuxtage.at/glt19/talk/K9YDDN/ 18: http://t-dose.org/ 19: https://md-devdays.de/Act?id=1000138 20: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2019/0525-fsfe-web-a-thon 21: https://www.ngi.eu/ 22: https://nlnet.nl/discovery/ 23: https://nlnet.nl/PET/ 24: https://fsfe.org/events/events.ru.html 25: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.ru.html 26: https://my.fsfe.org/support 27: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.ru.html 28: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.ru.html 29: https://my.fsfe.org/support From press at fsfe.org Thu May 16 08:42:33 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Thu, 16 May 2019 08:42:33 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter May 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter May 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201905.ru.html ] This newsletter edition gives special attention to the upcoming EU Elections. We are telling the story of the Spanish Pica Pica Hacklab who successfully used our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign to influence the Parliament of Asturias. Pica Pica's story takes us to the upcoming EU Elections that will bring in new MEPs into the European Parliament and so we provide advice and tips on how you can get active in promoting Free Software to them. As always, you will also read about the events the FSFE is going to be part of this month, as well as a retrospective of what has happened in the past month. == EU Elections 2019 and Free Software == "The Parliament of Asturias commits itself to the international Public Money? Public Code! [1] campaign" - this is a quote from the first demand in a recent proposal brought in by the Parliament of Asturias [2] towards its government and it marks the happy end of continuous lobbying efforts from Oviedo's local hackerspace "Pica Pica Hacklab" [3]. Pica Pica Hacklab team in front of the Parliament of Asturias after the Parliament's decision to support Public Money? Public Code! This was already the second attempt of Pica Pica to lobby the Parliament of Asturias and demand the use of Free Software within public administrations. However, in contrast to their first attempt in 2015, this time Pica Pica had "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign materials [4] at hand and used them extensively, together with their self- developed social hacking skills, to convince the politicians. Pica Pica's success story is highly motivating for local activists and so we interviewed Iyán Méndez Veiga [5], member of Pica Pica, to highlight key elements of their activities, the usage of our campaign material and their lobbying. Read how Pica Pica successfully emphasised different benefits of Free Software depending on the agenda of the political party they were talking to respectively, how they turned emails into face-to-face meetings and how they finally landed even more meetings with officials from different parties by simply walking through the Parliament's building. Pica Pica's story is not only motivating but it also clearly shows how local engagement by a small single group can influence even the highest political levels. Still, it is one story out of many, happening continuously in many parts of Europe. Be it a group of people or individuals: every talk, explanation or sometimes even the mere handing out of a well-formulated and informative leaflet [6] can make the difference and convince a decision-maker to care about Free Software. That brings us to this year's EU Elections of the European Parliament taking place next week throughout Europe, from May 23rd to 26th. Let us follow the recent example of Pica Pica and make sure that as many candidates as possible are aware of Free Software and its benefits, and convince them to join us in empowering users to control technology. This is even more important now, as forecasts predict that half of the Members in the current European Parliament will not be back in the next term. That means that there will be new members appearing on the scene that do not yet know about Free Software. Help let them know about the benefits of technologies that respect users freedom. Help us establish new contacts with advocates for Free Software in the next European Parliament's term. Seek out the candidates in your region and get in contact with them. Use our "Public Money?Public Code!" campaign [7] as a source for arguments. Find more general hints and tips [8] in our wiki. And then get out there and vote for the candidate that convinced you most concerning the topics and values that matter to you! -------------------------------------------------------------------- The European Parliament during a plenary session in Strasbourg. ( Picture by Diliff [9], CC BY-SA 3.0 [10] ) Vote for freedom and join our community: https://my.fsfe.org/support [11] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == - From May 17th to 19th the Maker Fair Berlin will take place and the local FSFE group Berlin will be present with an information booth. - On May 18th the FSFE's Policy Manager Alexander Sander will be present at the Albanian Open Source conference OSCAL [12] to promote the FSFE's "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign to the local community. - On May 21st Erik Albers, FSFE's Communication and Programme Manager, will talk at the Magdeburger Developer Days [13] about the sustainability of software and how to preserve software resources for future generations. - From May 24th to 26th the FSFE will host its own web-a-thon [14] in Frankfurt (Main) to have a fruitful collective work on improving the FSFE's homepage together. You can find all details on the corresponding wiki-page. - On May 29th, the FSFE's legal intern Lucas Lasota will present FOSS legal trends at the Libre Graphics Meetings [15] in Saarbrücken, Germany. - On June 8th, the FSFE's Project Manager Galia Mancheva will present the Public Money? Public Code! campaign to the Bulgarian tech community at TuxCon [16] in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. - On June 13th, the FSFE's President Matthias Kirschner will give a keynote about Free Software in our society at OW2con [17] in Paris, France. - On June 25th, the FSFE's Policy and Project Managers Alexander Sander and Galia Mancheva will talk about the Public Money?Public Code! campaign and the updated Copyright Directive at Libertybits [18] in Sofia, Bulgaria == Save the Date: == This year we are running the FSFE community meeting on November 15th and 16th in cooperation with the SFSCon [19] in Bolzano, Italy. The FSFE country team Italy will use this occasion to prepare and run a dedicated FSFE track during the conference and the conference day will be followed by a dedicated community day. The general Call for Participation of the SFSCon is already up and running, while the one for the FSFE track in particular will be published soon. If you are interested in the publication of the call, follow our news [20] ( RSS feed ) == What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == - On 27 April, Max Mehl, the FSFE's Programme Manager, gave a keynote at Grazer Linuxtage about Free Software and why security and openness are not contradictory. If you are curious about what he said, you can watch the keynote video [21]. - On April 27th, there was an FSFE's info-booth at the the local FLISoL event in A Coruña, Spain and on 11 May, the FSFE was present with a booth at T-Dose in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. - Alexander Sander, the FSFE's Policy Manager talked about the importance of supporting the Public Money? Public Code! campaign on May 3rd at the LWW2019 in Vienna, where the FSFE also hosted an infobooth. - FSFE booth at Linuxwochen Wien Carmen Bianca Bakker writes about elitists and laypeople [22] and uses this distinction for a comparison between the development of the Game of Thrones script with her own development and history from Spacemacs to Emacs to VSCodium and more. - Syncthing is a Free Software sync-solution on F-Droid. Andrea Scarpino explains the customizations he has done to use it for simple but automated phone backup with Syncthing [23] - Matija Šuklje sums up different way and methods [24] he used to archive and organise his bookmarks in the last years. == Get Active == As already brought up in the beginning of the Newsletter, the European Parliament's Elections are ahead and forecasts predict that many new members will be part of the next term. If you want Free Software to catch on with these Parliamentary freshmen, then you can seek out the candidates in your region and get in contact with them. We prepared a short list of actions you can take and other tips [25] in our wiki. == 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 [26], supporters [27] and donors [28] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [29], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue. Your editors, Erik Albers and Galia Mancheva -------------------------------------------------------------------- Vote for freedom and join our community: https://my.fsfe.org/support [30] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: http://publiccode.eu/ 2: http://www.picahack.org/181115%20-%20PNL%20Software%20Libre%20-%20RE35416.PDF 3: http://picapica.mindhackers.org/ 4: https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword#pmpc 5: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190514-01.ru.html 6: https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.ru.html 7: https://publiccode.eu/ 8: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/European_Elections_2019 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament#/media/File:European_Parliament_Strasbourg_Hemicycle_-_Diliff.jpg 10: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 11: https://my.fsfe.org/support 12: https://oscal.openlabs.cc/speakers/alexander-sander/ 13: https://md-devdays.de/Act?id=1000138 14: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2019/0525-fsfe-web-a-thon 15: https://opensaar.de/2019/04/libre-graphis-meeting-in-saarbruecken/ 16: http://tuxcon.mobi/ 17: https://ow2con19.sched.com/event/NzsE 18: https://libertybits.org/eventalk_speaker_category/2019/ 19: https://www.sfscon.it/ 20: https://fsfe.org/news/index.ru.html 21: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOv_5ZPcFZ8 22: https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2019-05-08-of-elitists-and-laypeople/ 23: https://scarpino.dev/posts/automated-phone-backup-with-syncthing.html 24: https://matija.suklje.name/how-i-put-order-in-my-bookmarks-and-found-a-better-way-to-organise-them 25: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/European_Elections_2019 26: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute 27: https://my.fsfe.org/support 28: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 29: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators 30: https://my.fsfe.org/support From press at fsfe.org Thu Jun 27 13:33:18 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 13:33:18 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter June 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter June 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201906.ru.html ] This month's newsletter highlights the Google/Huawei case and the greater picture it reveals to us. In the Get Active section we call for your proactivity in promoting the use of Free Software. Additionally, you can find out what happened at our Web-a-thon in Frankfurt am Main and view some media of the actions we have taken for promoting and increasing the awareness of Free Software to the wider audience, as well as see what's planned for the near future, where you can take part in. == The Google - Huawei Lessons == Last month, Google blacklisted and blocked Huawei from accessing all its proprietary components of the Android mobile operating system. The California based tech giant had to comply with the executive order issued by the U.S. government to effectively ban all American companies from trading with Huawei. While the Chinese telco will not have access to Google's proprietary components, it will nevertheless be able to use those parts of Android's operating system available under the open source licence, which is free for anyone to use. This highlights the importance that Free Software has for users, public bodies, and businesses. The Free Software Foundation Europe presented three essential lessons from this case: 1. Free Software enables control over technology: The more important technology becomes in our daily lives, the more relevant Free Software becomes for individual users. 2. The EU is overly reliant on foreign sources of technology: The European Union and its member states should invest in Free Software development and focus on supporting local Free Software organisations and businesses. This can foster greater technological independence for the EU economy. 3. Free Software gives companies technological independence.: A company that uses proprietary software is dependent on such software's vendor and the government that regulates it. The best strategy for a company to avoid this is to use as much Free Software as possible in their supply chains. Read more details about these lessons in our press release [1]. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-06 [2] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == As with every month, we are trying to spread the word and help individuals and organisations understand what Free Software is and how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self- determination. If you are interested in seeing us in action and join our cause, keep in mind the following dates and locations in the coming few months: - On July 3rd, FSFE Programme Manager Max Mehl will explain how Free Software can be the solution to many security problems at Pass the Salt [3] in Lille, France. - On July 6th, FSFE supporter Reinhard Müller will give a presentation at Tübix [4] about the development of web applications he used successfully for the development of the new online FSFE community portal [5] in Tübingen, Germany - On July 8th, the FSFE community in Bonn will have a meeting [6] discussing Free Software. - On July 22nd, the Franken community of the FSFE and the Nuremberg Hackerspace will be hosting a lecture [7] about the basics and common misunderstandings of Free Software in Nuremberg, Germany - Between August 21st and 25th the FSFE will host an assembly [8] at the Chaos Communication Camp in Mildenberg, Germany. The assembly will be part of about:freedom [9], a cluster with a focus on digital (human) rights politics, freedom of information and Free Software advocacy. It is a union of different and diverse organisations from all over the world promoting Free Software and defending and extending digital rights. There will be workshops on-site and information materials. If you are coming to the camp, drop by and have a chat with us! == What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == Since the last newsletter we have been very active in promoting the Free Software cause, by helping individuals and organisations have a better understanding of what Free Software is and encouraging them to develop and implement it in their lives. We want to share with you the events we have photos and videos for, below: - Between May 24th and 26th, the FSFE ran our web-a-thon 2019 [10]. There were 13 hackers (and more in the evenings) who met in Frankfurt (Main) to work on the FSFE's website, and of course to also celebrate our nice community and commemorate International Towel Day [11]. We aimed high and tried to get rid of many unresolved issues, some rather small, some highly important for editors, translators and of course our visitors. In the milestone "Hackathon1905" [12], we collected the issues to be worked on, and it turns out that we achieved more than we anticipated. 47 tickets and pull requests have been closed successfully. Thanks to everyone who participated, maintained the good mood throughout and to the CCC FFM [13] for hosting us patiently during the whole weekend! - Lucas Lasota, the FSFE's legal intern, presented the legal trends in Free Software at the Libre Graphics Meetings [14] in Saarbrücken, Germany on May 29th. You can watch his presentation video. [15] The Viennese FSFE supporters group participated with an FSFE info-booth at the local street festival Veganmania between June 7th and 10th in Vienna, Austria. See pictures of the event and read about the local group's successful down-to-earth approach in a report by Franz Gratzer [16]. The FSFE's president Matthias Kirschner gave a keynote about Free Software in our society at this year's OW2 on June 13th in Paris. You can watch the keynote video. [17] Our Policy Manager Alexander Sander was invited as an expert on E-Government in the Landtag Saarland, the parliament of the German federal State Saarland on June 17th. In his talk he discussed the advantages of free software in the area of e-government. You can find his expert opinion and research here [18]: The FSFE participated with a booth at the OpenExpo [19] in Madrid, Spain on June 20th where we had the chance to meet and talk to many people about Free Software. - On June 25th, the FSFE's Policy and Project Managers Alexander Sander and Galia Mancheva talked about the Public Money? Public Code! campaign and the updated Copyright Directive at Libertybits [20] in Sofia, Bulgaria == Get Active == Do you remember that some years ago the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung (TAZ) received the Document Freedom Day Award [21] for delivering its electronic paper to its subscribers in a choice of open formats, and without digital restrictions (DRM) [22]? This year, the TAZ newspaper went a step further and even launched their taz.app on f-droid [23] under a Free Software license. This is a great example for other newspapers to follow. Contact your favourite newspaper and demand they follow the TAZ's example of giving users freedom of choice and technical control. == 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! If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly contribution: https://my.fsfe.org/support [24] Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [25], supporters [26] and donors [27] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [28], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue. Your editors, The FSFE team -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-06 [29] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190520-01.en.html 2: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-06 3: https://2019.pass-the-salt.org/talks/102.html 4: https://www.tuebix.org/ 5: https://my.fsfe.org/ 6: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Bonn 7: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Franken/DigitalFestival2019 8: https://signup.c3assemblies.de/assembly/db340abb-1f28-48e0-bbd6-59035e98cb42 9: https://signup.c3assemblies.de/assembly/c1831305-457e-4199-9070-38e2ac9234de 10: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/2019/0525-fsfe-web-a-thon 11: https://mastodon.social/@3rik/102155847488969972 12: https://git.fsfe.org/FSFE/fsfe-website/milestone/10?state=closed 13: https://ccc-ffm.de/ 14: https://opensaar.de/2019/04/libre-graphis-meeting-in-saarbruecken/ 15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnNkTWLohWo 16: https://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2019/06/16/linux-week-veganmania/ 17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHXDCHX1Zhg 18: https://download.fsfe.org/policy/190607_EGov_Saarland_Stellungnahme.pdf 19: https://openexpoeurope.com/ 20: https://libertybits.org/eventalk_speaker_category/2019/ 21: https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130327-01.en.html 22: https://drm.info/ 23: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.thecode.android.tazreader/ 24: https://my.fsfe.org/support 25: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute 26: https://my.fsfe.org/support 27: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 28: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators 29: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-06 From press at fsfe.org Wed Jul 24 11:36:50 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2019 11:36:50 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter July 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter July 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201907.ru.html ] In this month's newsletter, we pay special attention to our new Testimonials page and the freshly prepared summary of the FSFE's annual Legal Licensing Workshop that took place in Barcelona. Further down, you can discover the upcoming events we are participating in and hosting, as well as see some visual details about how and where we managed to promote and extend the use of Free Software around Europe. == The Testimonials == FSFE is a charity dedicated to empowering users to control technology. Together with our community we form a movement across Europe to build our digital societies on users' and software freedom. Although there will never be enough space to shed light on all the creative minds and motivated people who have helped us grow our movement and live out our mission, we would still like to highlight at least some of our highly- valued community members who have in one way or another shaped the FSFE's profile and who continuously helped us become what we are today. In the past month, the FSFE has worked on the Testimonials page. This page is part of a series of interviews with FSFE supporters and friends who wanted to share their excitement for being part of such a diverse group of people and volunteers who shape the FSFE community across Europe while achieving our mission [1]. One of the first entries is by our French supporter and privacy expert, Cryptie, who has been using Free Software for 15 years, and has been an active part of the FSFE community for the last 6 years. You can find more such interviews, videos and testimonials on our Testimonials page [2]. Enjoy getting to know our community! == The Legal and Licensing Workshop 2019 == A big aspect of Free Software use and deployment goes through the often confusing webs of legislation. One of our big initiatives to improve understanding of Free Software legal issues is the Legal Licensing Workshop, a closed conference that we organise annually for the members of the FSFE's Legal Network. Every year, many of lawyers from Europe and all over the world attend this conference to exchange knowledge, present best practices and discuss issues surrounding Free Software licensing. With up to three days of talks in an informal and confidential atmosphere, the Workshop advances the state of the art of knowledge on topics ranging from licence compliance to patent management, from project governance to corporate responsibility. Participation to the Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop provides legal professionals not only the opportunity to share knowledge and updates on the topics they are working on, but also a chance to meet and get acquainted with each other. These two aspects, combined, foster better licence compliance by spreading best practices. The conference also provides a forum for different professionals to better understand each other, thus reducing the overall friction in the sector. The FSFE has prepared a short summary [3] of this year's Workshop. You can also find information on past years editions, if you are curious. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-07 [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == As with every month, we are trying to spread the word and help individuals and organisations understand what Free Software is and how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self- determination. If you are interested in seeing us in action and to join our cause, keep in mind the following dates and locations in the coming months: - Between August 10 and 11, the FSFE Policy Manager Alexander Sander will promote the "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative to the FrOSCon audience in Bonn, Germany. - Between August 21st and 25th the FSFE will host an assembly [5] at the Chaos Communication Camp in Mildenberg, Germany. The assembly will be part of about:freedom [6], a cluster with a focus on digital (human) rights politics, freedom of information and Free Software advocacy. It is a union of different and diverse organisations from all over the world promoting Free Software and defending and extending digital rights. There will be workshops on-site and information materials. If you are coming to the camp, drop by and have a chat with us! - Between August 24th and 25th, you will have another chance to see our booth at the second Veganmania festival in Vienna, Austria. == What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == Since the last newsletter we have been very active in promoting the Free Software cause, by helping individuals and organisations have a better understanding of what Free Software is and encouraging them to develop and implement it in their lives. We want to share with you the events we have photos and videos for, below: - The FSFE Policy Manager Alexander Sander gave a talk and attended a panel discussion during the Church Days in Dortmund between June 19th and 23rd about Free Software. You can see the full report [7] on the event and the talks. Throughout those days Alex also hosted two workshops for beginners on how to use and operate with the Open Street Map and how to use and edit on Wikipedia. - The FSFE Programme Manager Max Mehl explained how Free Software can be the solution to many security problems at Pass the SALT on July 3rd, in Lille, France. You can watch his entire presentation on our mirror [8]. - Long-time FSFE volunteer Reinhard Müller gave a presentation at Tübix [9] about the development of web applications he used successfully for the development of the new online FSFE community portal [10] on July 6th, in Tübingen, Germany. - On July 22nd, the Franken community of the FSFE and the Nuremberg Hackerspace hosted a joint lecture [11] about the basics and common misunderstandings of Free Software in Nuremberg, Germany. == Editor's choice == In the month of July you can see some technical and other not so technical findings by members of the FSFE's Planet community [12]: - Albert Astals offers some new KDE application branches [13] - Evaggelos Balaskas shared his notes on the idea to use nested-Kernel- based Virtual Machine to run minikube inside a Virtual Machine, so that minikube will create a Kernel-based Virtual Machine node, upon an Ubuntu 18.04 LTS [14]. - Matija Šuklje (Hook) shares the results of the analysis he did on the most commonly used licenses in OpenAPI [15] == Get Active == Do you want to see our newsletter also available in your language, so you can share the news with peers in your country? Don't be shy and join our team of brave translators by emailing us at contact at fsfe.org [16]. == 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 [17]. We're looking forward to hearing from you! If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly contribution: https://my.fsfe.org/support [18] Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [19], supporters [20] and donors [21] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [22], who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue. Your editor, Galia Mancheva -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-07 [23] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://fsfe.org/about/mission 2: https://fsfe.org/about/people/testimonials.ru.html 3: https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/legal-conference.ru.html 4: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-07 5: https://signup.c3assemblies.de/assembly/db340abb-1f28-48e0-bbd6-59035e98cb42 6: https://signup.c3assemblies.de/assembly/c1831305-457e-4199-9070-38e2ac9234de 7: https://www.evangelisch.de/blogs/kirchentag-2019/156935/21-06-2019 8: https://download.fsfe.org/presentations/20190703-mm-SALT-ITSec.en.mp4 9: https://www.tuebix.org/ 10: https://my.fsfe.org 11: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Franken/DigitalFestival2019 12: https://planet.fsfe.org/ 13: https://tsdgeos.blogspot.com/2019/07/kde-applications-1908-branches-created.html 14: https://balaskas.gr/blog/2019/07/14/kubernetes-with-minikube-intro-notes/ 15: https://matija.suklje.name/popular-licenses-in-openapi 16: https://fsfe.org/mailto:contact at fsfe.org 17: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletter at fsfe.org 18: https://my.fsfe.org/support 19: https://fsfe.org/contribute 20: https://my.fsfe.org/support 21: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 22: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators 23: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-07 From press at fsfe.org Fri Sep 27 08:18:17 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 08:18:17 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter September 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter September 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201909.ru.html ] In this month's newsletter, we focus our attention on the impact of Free Software on competition, in a piece written by our guest expert, Prof. Dr. Simon Schlauri. We also take the chance to announce the awesome progress we have made in the REUSE project towards making copyright and licensing easier for developers. Further down, you can discover upcoming events and information about the FSFE Annual Community meeting, as well as see some photos and video recordings from events where our community promoted Free Software across Europe. We also make some recommendations for articles you may find useful. == Free Software and its impact on competition == Our guest writer Prof. Dr. Simon Schlauri shared his expert knowledge on what the impact of Free Software on competition is. Elaborating on the legal and economic arguments on whether the release of software under a Free Software license distorts the market, this article was originally written for our "Public Money? Public Code" brochure. If you missed it, please take a look and learn more about [1] the impact that Free Software has on competition. == REUSE makes copyright and licensing easier than ever == As you most likely already know, the FSFE is running a project called REUSE [2]. Its main goal is to help developers display copyright and licensing information of their projects according to the recommended best practices. Just recently, the project released version 3.0 of their specification. The new edition is accompanied by a helper tool that makes adopting these best practices easier than ever. If you are curious for more details on the topic, we welcome you to visit the dedicated article [3]. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-09 [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == As with every month, we are trying to spread the word and help individuals and organisations understand what Free Software is and how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self- determination. If you are interested in seeing us in action and to join our cause, keep in mind the following dates and locations in the coming months: - The Open Source Summit Europe [5] in Lyon, France is happening between 28-30 October and the FSFE's Programme Manager Max Mehl will talk about the REUSE project and Free Software licensing compliance. - Between 15-16 November the FSFE Community Meeting will unite forces with the South Tyrol Free Software Conference (SFScon) [6] in Bolzano, Italy. The FSFE will have its own track and you are kindly invited to join the expert and community talks, as well as the social activites. You can read more about this on our wiki page [7]. == What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == Since the last newsletter, we have been very active in promoting the Free Software cause, by helping individuals and organisations have a better understanding of what Free Software is and encouraging them to develop and implement it in their lives. We want to share with you the events we have photos and videos for, below: - The FSFE Policy Manager Alexander Sander went to the FrOSCon [8] and gave a talk about the current state of the "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative, the full recording of which is available online [9]. Thanks to the FSFE's local group in Bonn, we were also present with a booth. It turned out that many of the visitors were truly interested in what happens at a local level, as well as how they can help and support the cause with specific actions. It was a great opportunity to have such substantial discussions and exchange of ideas and best practices. - The most frequently asked question our Viennese FSFE Group faced during the local Veganmania Summer Festival in August was why a Software organisation like the FSFE participates in a vegan festival. Their answer? The same ethical considerations that lead people to adopt a vegan life style can be applied analogously to information technologies and the use of Free Software. For more interesting insights, read their blog entry [10]. - At the Chaos Communication Camp in Mildenberg, Germany that happened between 21-25 August, the FSFE hosted its own assembly in the about:freedom [11] cluster. This cluster organised more than 50 talks, workshops and panels about the Sustainability of Software, Argumentation Trainings for Data Protection, Copyright, workshops on Free Your Android and Crypto, and measuring Internet censorship. A recording of Erik Albers' talk about the sustainability of software is also available on our channel [12] (German). Also some great photos from the Village settings are accessible online [13]. - During the NextCloud Conference in Berlin that took place on 14 September at the premises of the Technical University of Berlin, our Policy Manager Alexander Sander was part of a panel discussion dedicated on "Public Money? Public Code!". He debated on behalf of the FSFE with people representing NextCloud, the Working Group of Youth Organisations and Regional Youth Council in Germany, and the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. The full video of the debate and what was said can be seen on our video channel [14]. - As a result of our participation at events and efforts promoting the "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative during the summer, the Open Letter received 6 new supportive signatures from organisations over the last 2 months. The following organisations from around Europe and the world endorsed these principles and joined the actions on local ground: 1. OpenSaar [15] is an initiative based in the SaarLorLux region. They have dedicated their efforts to promoting Free Software in their region. 2. FOSS Bangladesh [16] is the most prominent Free Software organisation in the South Asian nation of Bangladesh and has worked with FSF [17] some time ago. 3. Peercoin Foundation [18] is an international NGO working towards the development of a Free Software blockchain. 4. Computertruhe [19] is a German NGO that repairs old computers and donates them to people in need. 5. Idealiste.cz [20] is a Czech NGO advocating for better quality ​​public services that are accessible to the general public, especially when it comes to schools, hospitals, public transport or housing. 6. Liquid Democracy [21] is a Berlin based "Think and Do Tank". Their work revolves around the development of a Free Software and digital participation tool called Adhocracy, providing users with various civic participation tools. - On 16 September, one of our independent sister organisations, the US- based Free Software Foundation (FSF), announced the resignation of Richard M. Stallman [22] as its president. == From FSFE's planet == In the months since the last newsletter and during the summer break, many things have happened. Some of them have been shared on the FSFE's Planet [23] and are directly related to the organisation while others are more into the general direction of our mission: - In his article [24], Frank Karlitschek reminds us of the bigger picture of Free Software and why the differences with proprietary solutions are not only a matter of software licenses; - On a more technical note, if you had problems installing the WackoWiki, Evaggelos Balaskas has created a helpful walkthrough [25]. - "Blocking Untrusted USB devices" [26] is a good read by Nikos Roussos, especially if you are concerned about digital security. == Get Active == The Internet Freedom Fund is Open Tech Fund's primary way to support projects and people working on open and accessible technology-centric projects. These are supposed to promote human rights, internet freedom, open societies, and help advance inclusive and safe access to global communications networks for at-risk users including journalists, human rights defenders, civil society activists, and every-day people living within repressive environments who wish to speak freely online. You can apply for this fund [27] until 01.11.2019. == 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 [28]. We're looking forward to hearing from you! If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly contribution: https://my.fsfe.org/support [29] Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [30], supporters [31] and donors [32] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [33], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native languages. Best Regards, The FSFE -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-09 [34] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190806-01.ru.html 2: https://reuse.software/ 3: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190807-01.ru.html 4: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-09 5: https://osseu19.sched.com/event/05a3272287d3def1bcb0a62ace00b730 6: https://www.sfscon.it/ 7: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/FSFECommunityMeeting2019 8: https://programm.froscon.de/2019/events/2326.html 9: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/702cb495-7a04-472c-95af-ca249816f1d4 10: http://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2019/08/27/fsfe-booth-donauinsel/ 11: https://events.ccc.de/camp/2019/wiki/Village:About:freedom 12: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/02f2666a-452a-47c9-a4b9-7c1d3a4b627b 13: https://pixelfed.social/c/73939228374994944 14: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/00577775-29d2-4064-968a-09960d48cba4 15: https://opensaar.de/en/ 16: https://www.fossbd.org/ 17: https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2013/spring/foss-bangladesh 18: https://peercoin.net/ 19: https://computertruhe.de/ 20: https://www.idealiste.cz/ 21: https://liqd.net/en/about/ 22: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190917-01.ru.html 23: https://planet.fsfe.org/ 24: https://karlitschek.de/2019/08/open-source-if-more-than-licenses/ 25: https://balaskas.gr/blog/2019/08/24/walkthrough-installation-of-wackowiki-v5512/ 26: https://www.roussos.cc/2019/08/19/usbguard/ 27: https://www.opentech.fund/funds/internet-freedom-fund/ 28: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletter at fsfe.org 29: https://my.fsfe.org/support 30: https://fsfe.org/contribute 31: https://my.fsfe.org/support 32: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 33: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators 34: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-09 From press at fsfe.org Wed Oct 30 13:16:39 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2019 13:16:39 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter October 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter October 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201910.ru.html ] This month, we focus our attention on digital restrictions and the International Day against them. To this end, we launched our first episode of the monthly Software Freedom Podcast, this time starring Cory Doctorow talking about DRM. We have published our yearly report, summing up our activities of the past 12 months and shining light on the community we build our success on. As usual, you will also discover upcoming events with the FSFE, including our Annual Community meeting, as well as recordings and information from events we participated in. == Software Freedom Podcast: 100% DRM-free == On October 12, on the International Day Against DRM [1], we launched our first Episode of the FSFE's new Software Freedom Podcast [2] starring Cory Doctorow - author and activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and extended usage of Creative Commons licenses. Doctorow's long time advocacy makes him an interesting person to address different issues included in Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). We discuss the differences between books and e-books with DRM and see how DRM changes our entire experience of reading and how that reverberates into our relationship with books and readings. Further, we dive into the economic and security aspects related to DRM and regulations of the so called Internet of Things. Listen or download our first podcast [3] absolutely DRM-free and explore with us some burning issues on digital restrictions and freedoms. Also be aware that starting with this episode, we will broadcast a monthly Software Freedom Podcast series [4] in which we invite diverse people to speak with inspirational ideas related to software freedom. In addition, we used the International Day Against DRM again to explain the dangers of DRM in relation to Free Software [5]: While Free Software is software that puts users in control of their own devices, DRM in contrast is technology that puts the user under the control of a third party. These two goals are fundamentally incompatible. DRM contradicts the FSFE's mission to empower people to control technology. You can find further information about this topic on our campaign website drm.info [6] and our printed leaflet [7]. == Software Freedom in Europe 2019 == "Software Freedom in Europe" [8] is our yearly report that gives you a breakdown of the important things the FSFE has done and achieved during the last 12 months. You will read about our ongoing work for router freedom in Europe, about the first Parliament in Europe to join our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign, about our new version of REUSE tools to help Free Software developers with easy license compliance and about much more of our multi-faceted policy work - all together aiming to create a world in which users are in control of technology! Besides our policy work and projects, we also shine light on our community and its members; because it is only through working together that the FSFE is able to form a movement across Europe to build a society based on users' and software freedom. To this end we also report about the events that we organised and participated in, from policy meetings to our web-a-thons. Enjoy the read [9] and discover your personal favourite of the FSFE's activities in 2019! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-10 [10] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == As with every month, we are trying to spread the word and help individuals and organisations understand what Free Software is and how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self- determination. If you are interested in seeing us in action and joining our cause, keep in mind the following dates and locations in the coming weeks: - Between November 8 and 11, the FSFE programme manager Erik Albers will attend the digital rights dedicated event Freedom Not Fear [11] where he will lead a workshop on European campaigns regarding digital sustainablity. - Between November 15 and 16 the FSFE Community Meeting will unite forces with the South Tyrol Free Software Conference (SFScon) [12] in Bolzano, Italy. The FSFE will have its own track and you are kindly invited to join the expert and community talks, as well as the social activities. You can find detailed information about the agenda and logistics on our wiki page [13] == What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == Since the last newsletter we have been active in promoting the Free Software cause, by helping individuals and organisations have a better understanding of what Free Software is and encouraging them to develop and implement it in their lives. We want to share with you the events, that we have photos, videos or other recordings of below: - On October 3, the FSFE Rhein-Main Local Group participated at the MouseOpener Day "Maustüröffner-Tag" [14] happening all over Germany. At this annual event, local organizations and companies open their doors to give kids insights into a broad range of topics. In Frankfurt, the FSFE local group Rhein-Main [15] supported the local Linux user group with organizing the event and giving kids the opportunity to explore computers using Free Software. About 20 young "hackers" joined the event and got to know LibreOffice, LeoCAD and Scratch. To not forget their parents, there was an info corner to explain Free Software to them. - On October 4, the FSFE Policy Manager Alexander Sander was at the "Open Source Lisbon" conference where he spoke [16] about our "Public Money? Public Code" campaign and also was part of the discussion panel on Free and Open Source Software as a business model [17]. - On October 6, the FSFE Local Group in Vienna, hosted an information booth at the annual Animal Welfare Run. The booth enjoyed a great share of attention, since it was a rather unexpected participation and runners and their friends and families were curious to find out more about Free Software. You can read more details about the event and the booth on the blog of FSFE supporters Vienna [18]. - Just in time for the elections, the Swiss Freedomvote campaign [19] was back again this year [20] - an initiative run and maintained with the support by the Local FSFE Group in Zurich [21]. The aim of the campaign is to give voters guidance about the candidates who are running for election. - The FSFE's General Assembly took place between October 11th and 13th in Essen. One part of the meeting was the re-election [22] of the FSFE's president Matthias Kirschner, vice-president Heiki Löhmus and financial officer Patrick Ohnewein for another 2 years-term by its members. - Our initative “Public Money? Public Code!” attracted the attention of the City Council of Kassel, Germany. They will discuss it as the guiding principle for any new software purchases. The proposal [23] will be discussed on November 27 by the Municipality's Financial Committee, and final decisions on implementation are expected to be made on December 9. To help implementing “Public Money? Public Code!” in the city of Kassel , we kindly ask you to send an e-mail to the members of the local Parliament and ask them to support this proposal. Their contact details can be found on Kassel's municipality page [24] under the "City Council fractions" section. If a member does not have a clear contact details, you can call the Parliament and ask for it. == Get Active == Beginning this month we broadcast our monthly Software Freedom Podcast. Make sure you do not miss any by subscribing [25] with your podcast player. == 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 [26]. We're looking forward to hearing from you! If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly contribution: https://my.fsfe.org/support [27] Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [28], supporters [29] and donors [30] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [31], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native languages. Best Regards, The FSFE -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our community: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-10 [32] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/ 2: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-1.en.html 3: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-1.en.html 4: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast.html 5: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191012-01.ru.html 6: https://drm.info/ 7: https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword#drm-leaflet 8: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.html 9: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.html 10: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-09 11: https://www.freedomnotfear.org/ 12: https://www.sfscon.it/ 13: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/FSFECommunityMeeting2019 14: https://www.wdrmaus.de/tuer_oeffner_tag/2019/ 15: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/RheinMain 16: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/a9f8fb42-fa9f-4736-b6f0-55bf803d5acd 17: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/983582a4-c190-446c-b8ec-080b953e5cc3 18: https://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/ 19: https://ch19.freedomvote.ch/ 20: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191007-01.en.html 21: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Zurich 22: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191014-01.en.html 23: https://wwwsvc1.stadt-kassel.de/sdnet4/sdnetrim/UGhVM0hpd2NXNFdFcExjZdVAqtDsyk6NI6JGuDt3FofJuLfmVwORJMBbm95QJXFk/Antrag_FDP-FW-Piraten_101.18.1330.pdf 24: https://wwwsvc1.stadt-kassel.de/sdnet4/fraktionen 25: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast.html 26: https://fsfe.org/mailto:newsletter at fsfe.org 27: https://my.fsfe.org/support 28: https://fsfe.org/contribute 29: https://my.fsfe.org/support 30: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 31: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators 32: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-09 From press at fsfe.org Wed Nov 27 11:50:05 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2019 11:50:05 +0000 Subject: FSFE Newsletter November 2019 Message-ID: = FSFE Newsletter November 2019 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201911.ru.html ] This month, we present our Portuguese friends from ANSOL and their success story on solving the problems DRM creates in their country and gives tips on how you can take similar actions in your country. Episode 2 of the FSFE's Software Freedom Podcast is out and we dedicate it to the KDE Community and the transformations and updates they are currently undertaking. You can discover upcoming events and interesting stories with visuals from the events where our community promoted Free Software across Europe. We offer a sneak peak into this year's FSFE Annual Community Meeting in Bolzano, Italy before the official report. In the Get Active section, we ask for your help with the new "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative. We need more municipalities and public sector bodies to embrace the principles and become part of the signatories. == How DRM was fixed in Portugal == DRM technologies restrict individuals from doing things with their media that are otherwise perfectly legal. For example we might not be able to put together a mix of music files we bought legally or to lend an e-book to a friend. Even backups can be restricted. Following up with the Day against DRM, in November we published a guest article [1] by our friends from the Portuguese Association for Free Software (ANSOL), Paula Simões and Marcos Marado. Together with the Portuguese Association for Free Education (AEL) they were working towards resolving the DRM policies in Portugal for 15 years. They finally accomplished the solution they sought and in their article they shared with you the insights of that success. ANSOL and AEL have been able to show policy makers what was wrong with DRM and how its implementation hinders citizens and other actors from exercising their rights and take advantage of the legally foreseen copyright exceptions. Their story may inspire you to do the same in your country or simply learn insights on how policy-making can be influenced for the better. == Podcast Episode 2 - A closer look at the KDE community with Lydia Pintscher == The November episode of the newly launched Software Freedom Podcast is dedicated to the international Free Software Community KDE. At the FSFE we have some history of working together with KDE, whereof one of the biggest projects was the Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA) [2], a topic that we also discuss in this Podcast. Our guest Lydia Pintscher is KDE's Vice President, and in this episode she shares how the KDE community developed and changed throughout time and how their team managed solving some of the most pressing social and generational challenges the KDE community is facing. In addition, Lydia Pintscher talks about KDE's priorities. For example, their work on making their applications more consistent, so they run smoothly on your machines. Listen to the second Episode of the Software Freedom Podcast [3] to learn how KDE sees their involvement with relation to Android and the mobile area. You will also hear how KDE places themselves in terms of technological sustainability or scenarios where the connected device is no longer a phone, tablet or desktop. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Support our work with a donation: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == As with every month, we are trying to spread the word and help individuals and organisations understand what Free Software is and how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self- determination. If you are interested in seeing us in action and to join our cause, keep in mind the following dates and locations in the coming weeks: - On November 28th, the Local Group of FSFE in Zurich will host a workshop [5] under the name "There is no cloud, just other people's computers". People who decide to participate will learn how to run their own cloud to store and share files, photos, contacts, calendars and more, and have the opportunity to try different cloud services. The session is free of charge, but it requires a pre-registration. == What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == Since the last newsletter we have been active in promoting the Free Software cause by helping individuals and organisations have a better understanding of what Free Software is and encouraging them to develop and implement it in their lives. We want to share with you the events we have photos, videos or other recordings below: - Between October 11th and 12th, the Greek FSFE Community joined the annual Free and Open Source Software Conference - FOSSCOM. This year the Greek town of Lamia took turn in hosting it and attracted Free Software enthusiasts from the area. The FSFE's booth attracted people interested in what Free Software technology could offer in comparison to the proprietary. Most questions were addressing the conversion into a more privacy-oriented use of cloud solutions and asked about Free Software alternatives to famous apps and services for their Android phones. - On 18 October the FSFE Local Group from Zurich was present with an infobooth at the 3rd Dinacon conference in Bern. People were visiting the FSFE stand to discuss and ask questions on Free Software Licensing and taking informative leaflets and stickers. - The FSFE Community in The Netherlands hosted an information booth and gave a presentation at the LocHal Open Source event in Tilburg on 2 November. The Dutch FSFE coordinator Nico Rikken also gave a talk about the four freedoms we hold so dearly. He explained the concepts of each freedom, each illustrated with a cooking recipe analogy ,a software user example, and a business example. - This year, the FSFE's Community Meeting joined the SFScon - one of Europe's most established annual conferences dedicated to Free Software. The FSFE ran a fully dedicated track on Saturday, 16 November, that covered various topics:The policy activities FSFE works on and is developing further, such as the new action item part of the “Public Money? Public Code!” campaign. As part of this session we shed a light on how we contact mayors and municipalities across Europe. The Router Freedom session discussed the consultation we responded to, where we explain to Regulators why it is important for the users to be able to fully control their own routers. More practically oriented talks also gave insights to new knowledge about the use and benefits of Free Software and Open Standards in tourism, legal basics for Free Software Licenses and many more. The presentations from the talks are already available for downloading at the event's wiki page [6]. We are publishing a full report with pictures from our Annual Meeting soon, so long stay tuned. - Lucas Lasota prepared an activity package for people and organisations interested in Router Freedom, so they can advocate their own freedom of choice. To learn more about it, read his article Router Freedom: getting back the control over your own router [7]. - The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications(BEREC) wrote guidelines for the National Regulators across EU on Router Freedom. The FSFE provided them with a feedback on their public consultation [8], telling them why it is essential for users to have control over their own Routers. == Editor's choice == - "New challenges for Free Software business models" [9] is an article by Björn Schiessle, who gives useful information to people who want to make money with Free Software and build sustainable and strong Free Software companies. - In their last newsletter [10], The Open Source Observatory (OSOR) explains how France and Italy work on linking their source code repositories with others and provides a picture of the current state of the Federation of EU repositories - a project launched and promoted by OSOR and the EU Commission. == Get Active == The "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign launched an initiative [11] looking for more publicly funded bodies (administrations, schools, hospitals and etc) to sign our open letter [12]. This month, we kindly ask you to join the cause by sending emails and letters to mayors, municipalities, or any other head of administrations across cities in your country. You can use the example letter [13] as a template, calling public sector administrations to sign in the campaign. == 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! If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly contribution: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 [14] Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [15], supporters [16] and donors [17] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [18], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native languages. Best Regards, Galia Mancheva -------------------------------------------------------------------- Support our work with a donation: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 [19] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191113-01.ru.html 2: https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/fla.ru.html 3: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-2.ru.html 4: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 5: https://www.digicomp.ch/events/it-professionals-events/referat-free-software-foundation-europe-fsfe-self-hosting#8 6: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/FSFECommunityMeeting2019#Agenda 7: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191028-01.ru.html 8: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191120-01.ru.html 9: https://www.schiessle.org/articles/2019/11/17/new-challenges-for-free-software-business-models/ 10: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/joinup/newsletter-specific-archive-issue.cfm?archtype=specific&newsletter_service_id=832&newsletter_issue_id=18462&page=1&fullDate=Wed%2013%20Nov%202019&lang=default 11: http://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC 12: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/ 13: http://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC#Example_letter 14: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 15: https://fsfe.org/contribute 16: https://my.fsfe.org/support 17: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 18: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators 19: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 From press at fsfe.org Tue Dec 17 12:57:38 2019 From: press at fsfe.org (press at fsfe.org) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2019 12:57:38 +0000 Subject: CDU wants public code +++ Community Meeting +++ 36C3 Message-ID: = CDU wants public code +++ Community Meeting +++ 36C3 = [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201912.ru.html ] The last Newsletter of the year ends with exciting news for software freedom: the biggest conservative party in Europe, the German CDU, endorsed the principle that software developed with public money should be under a Free Software License. We further invite you to to read about the FSFE has done and achieved during the last 12 months and to dig into Florian Snow's report of our Annual Community Meeting 2019. Also you find an outlook on our participation at the biggest hacking related conference in Europe, the 36C3 and a call for your support and help to continue our mission towards empowering users to control technology. == Biggest conservative party in Europe aligns with our demand for public code == During the last week of November, Germany's conservative party "CDU" had their 32nd Annual Conference in Leipzig. As part of the event, the party updated their convention and included a tribute towards Free Software in their Chapter for Digital Innovation. With this update, the CDU resolved to join the FSFE in demanding that software developed with public money should be publicly available as Free Software [1]. The CDU's party convention resolution states: "[...] This is why the following will apply to all (public) digitalisation projects in Germany in the future: the awarding of contracts and funding will be subject to compliance with the principles of open source and open standards. Software financed by public funds should serve all citizens. In addition, free and open APIs should facilitate access for independent developments." (Translation provided by the FSFE) We are happy to see that the good energy and resources the FSFE community dedicates on creating, translating and promoting the campaign's objectives keeps increasing support from major public stakeholders. "We now expect the CDU to immediately work within the government to create the legal basis for publicly funded software to be released under a Free- and Open-Source Software license." says Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE. == End of the Year Retrospective == At the end of this Year, we are inviting you to take a moment to read about the important things the FSFE has done and achieved during the last 12 months. In our recently published Annual Report [2] we cover the biggest and most important activities of the FSFE in 2019. You will find insights about our campaigns and projects, about our policy work, our community and its members. Read for example about the first Parliament in Europe who joined our demand for public code or about how we aim at bringing together environmental communities and digital rights communities to discover the sustainability of Free Software. Maybe you are interested in our write- up of the updated set of best practices within our REUSE project or you like to discover the diverse community who form the FSFE ... Whatever you are most into, enjoy the read [3], discover your personal favourites and be assured that we keep on advocating for software freedom in Europe throughout 2020! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Support our work with a donation [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------- == Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE == - The FSFE will be present at the annual Chaos Communication Congress, the 36C3, happening from 27 to 30 December in Leipzig. We will host our own assembly [5] and organize the cluster "about:freedom" [6]. A cluster that brings together like-minded organizations from the digital-rights hemisphere and also from the environmental communities within our child-cluster "about:future" [7]. As usual the FSFE is running its own track with many sessions and workshops, covering various topics regarding Free Software. Find more info in our event announcement [8] and If you are going to 36C3, check out the regularly updated wiki page [9]. - As every year, the FSFE will be present at FOSDEM, Europeans biggest Free Software conference with a booth and talks. More details about our participation at FOSDEM will follow in January. == What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE == - On November 28, the Local Group of FSFE in Zurich organised a workshop [10] under the name "There is no cloud, just other people's computers". The participants were shown how to run "their own cloud" where they can store and share files, photos, contacts, calendars and more. All attendies were given the opportunity to try different cloud services. - From November 15 to 16 we have been inviting to this year's FSFE Community Meeting that was composed of social meetups, breakout- sessions, future-plannings and an official track organised by the FSFE as part of the SFSCon. If you like to get a feeling of the good vibe we had, read the report by Florian Snow [11]. But also if you like to catch up on the talks and presentations we had, you find slides and videos of most of the presentations linked from the same report. - We have a new multilingual t-shirt [12] in our shop: Now you can show your love for Free Software in 24 languages! Get one for Christmas or at least before the next "I love Free Software"-Day [13] : ) - Surprise your friends, families or colleagues with our special edition of Christmas cards [14] dedicated to the 4 freedoms to use, study, share, and improve. == Get Active == 2019 was a year with a lot of challenges and we have seen quite some changes within the Free Software environment. On one hand Free Software usage is as widespread as never before and our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign receives a lot of endorsement - on the other hand Free Software is constantly under threat. Big economic players buy into Free Software and politicians create laws that directly endanger software freedom. Not to forget that with every proprietary app developed by a public authority or solely offered on a proprietary platform, more citizens are forced every day to expel their freedom. And with every app more, the threshold gets higher for everyone to break free from the proprietary world and from vendor lock-ins. Since 2001, the FSFE promotes software freedom and on this road we have achieved many things - but protecting freedom never ends. Help us mastering the upcoming challenges and support software freedom in Europe by donating to us now: https://my.fsfe.org/donate [15] == 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! If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly contribution: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 [16] Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [17], supporters [18] and donors [19] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators [20], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native languages. Best Regards, Erik Albers -------------------------------------------------------------------- Support our work with a donation [21] -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Free Software Foundation Europe FSFE News Upcoming FSFE Events Fellowship Blog Aggregation Free Software Discussions 1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191125-01.ru.html 2: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.ru.html 3: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.ru.html 4: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201912 5: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:Free_Software_Foundation_Europe 6: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom 7: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:future 8: https://fsfe.org/events/index.ru.html#id-the-fsfe-assembly-at-the-chaos-communication-congress-36c3-in-leipzig-germany 9: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom 10: https://www.digicomp.ch/events/it-professionals-events/referat-free-software-foundation-europe-fsfe-self-hosting#8 11: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191205-01.ru.html 12: https://fsfe.org/order/index.ru.html#tshirt-multilingual-black 13: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/index.ru.html 14: https://fsfe.org/order/#card-christmas-blue 15: https://my.fsfe.org/donate 16: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 17: https://fsfe.org/contribute 18: https://my.fsfe.org/support 19: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus 20: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators 21: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201912