FTF: European Legal Network
The European Legal Network is a professional network of legal experts facilitated by the FTF. Members get to know each other, share information and cooperate to increase the availability of best practice knowledge available in Free Software licensing. The network has over 150 participants across 27 countries and four continents, and includes a broad spectrum of interests engaging in Free Software. The European Legal Network appears to be the largest legal support structure for Free Software in the world. It is expected that it will cover all the EU27 nations by June 2009.
We can assist in finding legal experts in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the UK. We also maintain contacts in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the USA. If you want to find a legal expert in a country near you, please contact us.
If you are a legal expert interested in participating in the European Legal Network please let us know. We are particularly interested in finding experts in the EU27 countries where we don't already have coverage.
Some network delegates are explicitly recommended by FSFE. To be explicitly recommended the delegate must contribute significantly to Free Software and be approved by the governing council of FSFE.
Explicitly recommended lawyers:
Germany
Dr. Till Jaeger is a partner in the Berlin law firm JBB Rechtsanwälte.
He represents FSFE in Germany and Harald Welte in GPL enforcement
cases. He is chair of the "Internationalization" subcommittee within
the GPLv3 process.
Email: jaeger [at] jbb.de
Telephone: +49 30 443 765 0
Post: JBB Rechtsanwälte, Christinenstrasse 18/19, 10119 Berlin, Germany.
Italy
Carlo Piana is a lawyer and Free Software advocate based in Milan. Among other things, he has represented FSFE and Samba in the Microsoft vs. EC Commission Antitrust case and is helping and advising many other Free Software projects to obtain necessary interoperability information following the victory in that case. He is also active in the promotion of Open Standards and lectures at the University of Milan.
Email: carlo [at ] piana.eu
Web: ("Law is Freedom") http://www.piana.eu
Professional website: ("Law is Freedom") http://law.piana.eu
Telephone:+39 347 8835209
Post:Avv. Carlo Piana, Piazza Castello 24, 20121 Milan, Italy.
Explicitly recommended technical experts:
Germany
Harald Welte is a kernel programmer, the founder of GPL-Violations.org and one of the primary engineers behind the creation of the OpenMoko Free Software telephone project.
Email: laforge [at] gnumonks.org
The Netherlands
Armijn Hemel is a system administrator and a primary member of the GPL-Violations.org team.
Email: armijn [at] uulug.nl