[FSFE PR][EN] FSF Europe Newsletter

Free Software Foundation Europe press at fsfeurope.org
Mon Jan 9 13:13:34 CET 2006


1. Celebrating the 20th newsletter
2. Georg Greve at LACFREE in Recife in Brazil
3. Henrik Sandklef at Chalmers University in Gothenburg
4. Karsten Gerloff at the 22nd CCC in Berlin
5. Voicing security concerns against personal pressure
6. Free Software energy in Northern Ireland


1. Celebrating the 20th newsletter

This is the 20th edition of the Free Software Foundation Europe's
monthly newsletter. Written by the FSFE team for the community, the
newsletter has become an important means to inform interested people
about FSFE's activities. Thanks to the excellent work of the FSFE
translators team, the newsletter is available in at least 4 languages
every month, most of the time even 5 or 6 languages.


2. Georg Greve at LACFREE in Recife, Brazil

While Brazil generally has a reputation as one of the leading Free
Software nations, the Brazilian Northeast has had very little activity
in this area. That is why UNESCO supported the Latin American and
Caribbean Conference on Free Software Development and Usage (LACFREE)
in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, a city with social inequality
statistics comparable to Namibia. FSFE's president Georg Greve
participated in no less than four workshops: one about the Free
Software Foundations and our international network, one about Free
Software in Education and Culture, one about Legal issues of Free
Software and one about Free Software and eGovernance, totalling in no
less than four speeches and 12 hours of panel time in just three
days. Additionally, he gave interviews for a state newspaper and a
community radio.

  http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/lacfree_2005


3. Henrik Sandklef at Chalmers University in Gothenburg

Henrik Sandklef held a presentation at the Chalmers University of
Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The topic he talked about included
the concept of Free Software, the Free Software Foundations, the GNU
project, and current threats to software freedom like IPRED or DRM.


4. Karsten Gerloff at the 22nd CCC in Berlin

At the Chaos Computer Club's 22nd Chaos Communication Congress in
Berlin, Germany, Karsten Gerloff gave a talk on Free Software, Access to
Knowledge and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). At
the center of the talk was the importance of Access to Knowledge for
culture and development.


5. Voicing security concerns against personal pressure

Thomas Maus, a German IT security consultant, gave a talk at the Chaos
Communication Congress in which he raised concerns about electronic
health file systems as planned in Germany and possibly other countries.
Last year he did a talk about examining one test system finding major
security problems. Subsequently there have been various attempts to
suppress his questions. The 2005 talk included some details how this was
done. While the problems of the planned health system are a scandal in
itself, this is also a major example that legislation forbidding reverse
engineering or examining digital restriction systems can be and will be
used to make it practially impossible for a public to inspect and
criticise large and vital computer systems. Single experts like Mr. Maus
can be pressured too easily. This is why the FSFE supported him and made
it possible that this information is public now.

One of our press release is available in German:

  http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release-de/2005q4/000081.html

You will find the two talks online at (in German):

   http://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/fahrplan/events/546.en.html

The one from 2004 had not been available for almost a year.


6. Free Software energy in Northern Ireland

There has been a recent flurry of interest in Free Software in Northern
Ireland, both within industry associations and GNU/Linux users.  During
December, Ciaran O'Riordan was in contact with many individuals and
organisations, and took part in a Free Software workshop in Newry.  Lack
of central communication points was highlighted as a core problem, so,
to assist coordination of Free Software activities, FSFE is pleased to
announce the launch of the fsfe-ni mailing list:

  http://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-ni


You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html


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