[FSFE PR][EN] FSF Europe completes successful first year

Free Software Foundation Europe team at fsfeurope.org
Mon May 27 10:01:14 CEST 2002


Press-release of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe)
For immediate release

FSF Europe completes successful first year

(Paris) On May 26th 2002, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF
Europe) finishes its second general assembly, completing the first
year of activities. Members from Sweden, Italy, Germany and France
drew a summary of last years activities, analyzed the current
situation of Free Software and exchanged plans and visions for the
upcoming year.

"The past year has been a difficult one for the IT industry, but a
very successful one for the FSF Europe." says Jonas Oberg,
Vice-President of the FSF Europe. "Following our plans last year, we
were able to establish good connections with the Free Software
community throughout Europe and the world, bringing the number of
associates of the FSF Europe up to seven organizations in six
countries."

In the political field, the FSF Europe has been able to deliver
serious impulses for Free Software. Its recommendation for the
upcoming 6th framework programme of the European Commission was backed
by over 50 companies, associations, research institutes and
consortiums. Also the FSF Europe participated in making Free Software
a topic during the French presidential elections.

"The FSF Europe established a well-working cooperation with the Free
Software community and organizations in France. Together we approached
politicians from the big parties." says Frederic Couchet, French
chancellor of the FSF Europe. "As a result, all major candidates
issued statements about their position on Free Software and software
patents."

"The fear of software patents getting established in Europe is casting
a shadow at all Free Software activity right now, our assembly not
being an exception." explains Bernhard Reiter, German chancellor of
the FSF Europe.  "It is clear that the FSF-Europe will stay engaged to
ensure that the position of the Free Software community on this and
other political topics is heard."

To ensure the persistance and continuity of Free Software is another
seminal topic on the agenda of the FSF Europe for the next year.

"Most Free Software developers and many companies are not yet aware
that legal maintainability can be as important as technical
maintainability for software." says Georg C. F. Greve, President of
the FSF Europe. "Raising awareness for these issues and offering a
solution to this problem will be an important step to secure the
long-term future of Free Software."

These two areas of interest are supplemented by the activites of the
FSF Europe in the 5th European framework programme within the AGNULA
project, which aims to provide an entirely Free Software GNU/Linux
distribution for professional audio users and will be announced
shortly. 

"The words of the Mayor of Florence and the President of Tuscany at
the press conference following the kick-off meeting in April have shown
that Free Software is becoming part of the political agenda for
parties in Italy." says Stefano Maffulli, new member of the FSF Europe
and designated Italian chancellor. "We are glad that the Centro Tempo
Reale initiated this project and asked the FSF Europe to provide Free
Software competence, vision and also legal maintainability for it."


About the FSF Europe:

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.

  More information: http://fsfeurope.org/


Contact:
   Georg C. F. Greve <greve at gnu.org>
   Tel: +49-40-23809080
   Fax: +49-40-23809081

Further press contact information is available at 
http://fsfeurope.org/press/.



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