[FSFE PR][EN] GPLv3 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DETAILS ONLINE - BARCELONA, CATALONIA - SPAIN, JUNE 22nd & 23rd

Joachim Jakobs press at fsfeurope.org
Tue Jun 13 11:32:01 CEST 2006


            GPLv3 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DETAILS ONLINE

            BARCELONA, CATALONIA - SPAIN, JUNE 22nd & 23rd

Marking the half-way point of the year-long public consultation process for
redrafting Free Software's cornerstone licence, the third international GPLv3
conference will host experts from Europe and from around the world.

The venue, in the heart of the city, is the Centre de Cultura Contemporània
 de Barcelona (CCCB).  There, during the two days of this event, there will
 be presentations from experts including Richard Stallman, president of FSF,
 Eben Moglen, chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, Georg Greve, president
 of FSF Europe and Harald Welte, founder of gpl-violations.org.

By far the most widely used Free Software licence, the GNU General Public
License (aka, "the GPL") ensures that everyone who receives GPL'd software is
able to use it as they wish, to modify to fit their needs, and to distribute
modified or unmodified copies.

"People sometimes have the feeling that GNU GPL has been around forever, and
they would not be entirely wrong. Published in 1991, the GNU GPL has proven
to be exceptionally successful throughout the past fifteen years," says
Greve. "With such an exceptional success, one will change as little as
possible. But there are changes in the legal and technical environment, as
well as the position of Free Software and its community, that made some
changes advisable. The process to update the licence is aiming at a global
GPLv3 drafting team, and everyone is invited to participate: Joining the
conferences is one of the best ways of doing so."

Harald Welte emphasises the threat caused by Digital Restriction Management
(DRM) to Free Software: "It has always been clear that using DRM to restrict
users is in conflict with the spirit of the GPL.  As a copyright holder of
some GPL'd software, I have already successfully enforced this out of court
with GPL version two.  The new DRM language proposed for GPLv3 is more solid
and will make this enforcement easier.  When enforcement is easy, people are
less likely to violate the licence in the first place, so the Free Software
can continue to focus on software development rather than policing licence
violations."

All presentations will be made in English, with the only exception of one
which will be in Spanish.  Translation to Spanish will be provided for the
entire conference, and translation to English will be provided for the
Spanish talk.

There is no fee for the conference, but registration is required to
guarantee a place.  Attendees are asked to email

oriordan at fsfeurope.org

with "GPLv3 registration" in the subject of the email.

The Conference's schedule and further information will be published
soon at http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/europe-gplv3-conference

About the Free Software Foundation Europe

   The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
   non-governmental organisation 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
   of 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 organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
   United States.

   www.fsfeurope.org

--
Joachim Jakobs <jj at office.fsfeurope.org
Media Relations - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Tel: +49 700 - 373387673, Ext.: 4004
Mobile: +49-179-6919565

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