[FSFE PR][SV] FSFE Newsletter - March 2012

press at fsfeurope.org press at fsfeurope.org
Mon Mar 5 17:04:40 CET 2012


= FSFE Newsletter - March 2012 =

[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201203.en.html ]


== Subway information screen: Good or bad? ==

"7500 dead people in the last year, daily up to 100." That is what your
editor read on the subway news screen in Berlin. While discussing with
DFD volunteer Julia Fuchs[1]what is wrong -- your editors reading
skills, his basic mathematical skills, or the news agency -- something
else popped up: our FreeYourAndroid.org campaign[2]! Unfortunately your
editor was too slow to make a picture of that. But as the German news
agency DPA covered the official campaign start[3], we had a very good
press coverage, so a lot of people read about how you can use Free
Software on mobile phones. The campaign manager Torsten Grote is
currently gathering all the press coverage, please send news and blog
stories about #FreeYourAndroid to press[4] fsfeurope.org[5].

1. http://documentfreedom.org/contact.en.html
2. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/android/android.en.html
3. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120228-01.en.html
4. mailto:press at fsfeurope.org
5. mailto:press at fsfeurope.org


== The Why in Free SoftWare! ==

On February 14th many people in the Free Software community celebrated
the"I love Free Software day"[6]. You can read the full report with nice
pictures[7]. In case you sometimes feel frustrated or demotivated in
future, you can read why others love Free Software[8]. Here is one love
declaration by Dr. Stefano Zacchiroli, Debian Project Leader, Scientist
and Free Software Developer:

6. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/ilovefs.en.html
7. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120223-01.en.html
8. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/2012/whylovefs.en.html

"I love Free Software because we depend more and more upon software, in
every moment of our lives. It is software that handles our email and
social network activities when we communicate; it is software that
controls our ovens and fridges when to prepare our meals; it is software
that drives cars and airplanes when we travel around the world; it is
software that keeps many of us alive when we need hospital equipment or
bio-medical devices like pacemakers. A world without Free Software means
being held hostage by proprietary software authors that run our lives. I
love Free Software because it can set us free."


== More motivation: FOSDEM! ==

If you still need more motivation for writing, documenting, or promoting
Free Software, you probably have not been at FOSDEM. This event is
always a challenge for FSFE's team but also one of the events which
increases our motivation[9]. Long talks with other Free Software
activists from all over the world, answering questions about our current
work[10]and our campaigns[11], making sure all people who want a FSFE
T-shirt[12]get one, coordinating work with Fellowship groups[13]all over
Europe, and having some time to socialise (=drinking Belgium beer).
Beside that in the Legal and Policy Issue DevRoom Hugo Roy participated
in a panel discussion about application stores[14], and our sister
organisation's Executive Director John Sullivan gave a talk entitled "Is
Copyleft Being Framed?", which is also discussed in the current FaiF
OggCast[15].

9. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=263
10. http://fsfe.org/projects/work.en.html
11. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/campaigns.en.html
12. http://fsfe.org/order/order.en.html
13. http://wiki.fsfe.org/CategoryFellowshipGroup
14. http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2012/02/fosdem-2012-panel-on-application-stores/
15. http://faif.us/cast/2012/feb/28/0x23/


== Comics and Free Software ==

When you see computers attached to human brains, makerbots scanning your
body, creating perfectly fitting clothes for you (unless they are on
drugs), you realise that Free Software will be even more important in
future. At the moment this stuff happens e.g. in Transmetropolitan[16],
one of your editor's favourite comics. Lots of comic-related things have
happened during the last weeks: Fellow Thomas Leske started translating
the web comic Mimi and Eunice into German, read e.g."A World Without
Poop"[17]( or the German version[18]) connected with the article"Did You
Say 'Intellectual Property'? It's a Seductive Mirage" by Richard
Stallman[19]; there was a good"Faceboogle Comic" on distributed
systems[20]; our sister FSF is starting a webcomic contest about
Restricted Boot[21]; and at the time of writing this our intern Erik
ordered 5000 "Join the Fellowship" comic version leaflets[22].

16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmetropolitan
17. http://mimiandeunice.com/2010/07/31/a-world-without-poop/
18. http://mimiandeunice.minimalstaat.de/content/eine-welt-ohne-h%C3%A4ufchen
19. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
20. http://my.pages.de/dsn-vn/
21. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/enter-the-restricted-boot-comic-contest-defend-user-freedom-on-tablets-and-smartphones
22. http://download.fsfe.org/advocacy/leaflets/fellowship-leaflet-nyr2.en.pdf


== Something completely different ==

- Last minute inclusion: Congratulations to Nikos Roussos[23]who is the
  winner of the Fellowship election 2012. The election results are
  available on the voting platform[24], more information on this will
  f*e*llow soon.
- "When elephants dance, the smaller wildlife gets crushed." Read our
  press release"Google/Motorola deals create balance of terror on
  software patents"[25]to find out why our president talks about
  animals.
- We asked you to join the ACTA protests[26], like your editor several
  Fellows joined the protests[27], and it was also a topic on FSFE's
  planet aggregation[28], like Karsten's"ACTA, First, do no
  harm"[29]blog entry.
- Our Fellows continuously update the Windows Tax Refund wiki page[30].
  Now it also covers the new decision by a French court[31], according
  to which Lenovo has to pay €1920 for forcing French laptop buyer to
  pay for Windows operating system.
- As an organisation which depends on donations[32]FSFE felt honored and
  happy to receive the Mozilla grant[33]. Thanks a lot to Mozilla for
  this support.
- FSF announced they will work on"JavaScript License Web Labels"[34], so
  it will be easier for you in future to only allow Free Software
  JavaScript code running in your browser.
- A selection from the Fellowship planet aggregation[35]:Can you
  imagine: being prevented from copy-pasting something from a webpage!
  Unethical HTML5 content-restriction proposal (aka DRM)[36].
- Heiki is asking you to give him quotes[37]so our web team[38]can use
  them to pimp our website.
- Find out what Mark Lindhout, the author of new Fellowship blog theme
  pome,[39]suggests to do with politicians who refuse to gain a basic
  understanding of the mechanisms they try to mandate[40].
- Matija Šuklje wrote about"We, the Web kids[41] faith restored in our
  youth"[42].
- And we have Hugo Roy's article"Free Software v. “Open Source”
  community?"[43], which -- like all the other topics -- you can discuss
  on our public mailing lists
  <http://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>.

23. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipElection_2012
24. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/w8/~andru/cgi-perl/civs/results.pl?id=E_491367a425d39945
25. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120214.01.en.html
26. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120210-01.en.html
27. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fast_edi/?p=279
28. http://planet.fsfe.org
29. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/03/01/acta-first-do-no-harm/
30. http://wiki.fsfe.org/WindowsTaxRefund
31. http://www.techworld.com.au/article/414500/lenovo_ordered_pay_1920_making_french_laptop_buyer_pay_windows_too
32. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
33. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120204-01.en.html
34. https://www.fsf.org/news/announcing-js-labels
35. http://planet.fsfe.org
36. http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2012/02/%E2%80%9Cunethical%E2%80%9D-html5-content-restriction-proposal-aka-drm/
37. http://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/english/2012/02/13/call-for-fsfe-fellowship-quotes/
38. http://fsfe.org/contribute/web/web.en.html
39. http://blogs.fsfe.org/blog/2012/02/05/new-blog-theme-pome/
40. http://blogs.fsfe.org/marklindhout/2012/02/the-threat-of-digital-incompetence-%E2%80%94-censorship-codified-into-law/
41. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/256
42. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/256
43. http://blog.hugoroy.eu/2012/02/23/free-software-v-open-source-community/

-


== Get Active: Be like the European Commission! ==

While Open Standards are threatened in the UK[44], we are working
hard[45]to counter such relapses. The latest success is that the
European Commission confirmed to take part in the DFD event in
Brussels[46].

44. http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/public-sector/2012/01/microsoft-hustled-uk-retreat-o.html
45. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=309
46. http://erikjosefsson.eu/sites/default/files/global_dfd_invite.html

In this regard we ask you to be like the EC: join DFD 2012
activities[47]. In the next days we will have the official call for
activities, but you can already write the campaign team an e-mail[48]to
get your activity on the website. If you still need inspirations for
your own event take a look at proposed activities[49].

47. http://documentfreedom.org/2012/events/events.en.html
48. http://documentfreedom.org/contact.en.html
49. http://documentfreedom.org/getinvolved.en.html

Thanks to all the Fellows[50]and donors[51]who enable our work,
50. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
51. donate/thankgnus.en.html

Matthias Kirschner- FSFE


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