Newsletter

FSFE Newsletter September 2018

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Limited exclusion for Free Software in the Copyright Directive

On September 12, the European Parliament rejected the mandate to fast-track the controversial legislation intended to reform online copyright. After its previous rejection in July, they voted again on this package – and this time it was adopted. However, with amendment 143 and 150 of the current copyright reform proposal, we now have at least a limited exclusion for “open source software developing platforms (..) within the meaning of this Directive”. (consolidated document)

This exception is partially a result of our SaveCodeShare Campaign. Nearly 13.000 individuals have already signed our open letter asking to preserve the ability to share and build software online, and lots of Free Software supporters raised their voice. Please continue to support this campaign as the debate is not over yet.

In the next step, the European Parliament and the Council are starting the Trialogue, moderated by the European Commission. This debate will most likely continue until the beginning of next year. We will closely follow this process and will continue to raise our voice for Free Software. If you like to support our work, join us as a supporter.

"Go open today, there's no excuse not to"

Within our Public Money? Public Code! campaign, we run a series of interviews that highlight good examples and use-cases as best practices. This time we conducted an interview with Timo Aarnio, GIS Expert at the National Land Survey of Finland and product owner for Oskari software. Oskari is an award-winning Free Software platform for browsing, sharing and analysing geographic information from distributed data sources. Read about its background, its development practices and a network with over 38 organisations from both the public and private sector.

From left to right: FSFE community members


Help us to demand Public Money? Public Code!


What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE

Open positions at FSFE

We currently have open positions for an internship as well as for a "Bundesfreiwilligendienst". Read about internships, previous interns and currently open positions on our internships page

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@fsfe.org. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks to our community, all the volunteers, supporters and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editor,
Erik Albers


Help us to demand Public Money? Public Code!