The FSFE empowers users to control technology with its diverse activities and concrete engagement for software freedom. Follow us and make sure to receive regular updates and deeper insights on our various channels.
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The ZOOOM (3Os) Initiative promotes innovation based on freedom of software, hardware, and data. With its recent conclusion, the FSFE hopes to inspire broader use and effective application of Free Software by business, academia, and the public sector.
The 38th Chaos Communication Congress (38C3), taking place in Hamburg from December 27 to 30, 2024. And we couldn’t miss it! Once again, the FSFE will be at the congress with an assembly and different activities in the Bits & Bäume Habitat. Do not forget to stop by!
Alexander Sander, the FSFE's Senior Policy Consultant, and Bonnie Mehring meet for their monthly update on the current policy topics. In this episode they talk about the Free Software hearing in the German Bundestag.
The 3rd edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) has officially concluded, celebrating the impressive talents of young European developers. Two of the participants in the 2024 edition are sharing insights about their projects and experiences: Vinícius developed an automatic telescope while Simon worked on bringing Free Software on the SHC devices.
We are excited to announce that the Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom will be returning for FOSDEM 2025! Join this DevRoom at the biggest annual Free Software event in Europe. This is your opportunity to submit proposals for a talk or a panel about Free Software legal and policy topics.
Join this new episode of our Software Freedom podcast in which Bonnie Mehring and Alexander Sander discussing current topics affecting Free Software in the European Union. In this episode we focus on the 27 million euros cut of funding of the Next Generation Internet initiative (known as NGI). Alex and Bonnie shed some light on the history of this European project and share the newest developments in this case.
REUSE Specification 3.3 and REUSE tool 5.0.0 are released today, making it even easier to license your code as Free Software. REUSE provides all the tools and documentation that developers need to apply standards-compliant and comprehensive licensing information to their projects, without needing to be a legal expert.
The FSFE called on the community to participate in a consultation on the European Union’s Digital Europe Programme and demanded long-term sustainable funding for Free Software after recent budget cuts. Results show its success.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen (LUGBZ) posthumously honored Bram Moolenaar, creator of the widely used Vim text editor, with the European SFS Award at SFSCON 2024. This award celebrates Moolenaar’s invaluable contributions to the Free Software community.
We are excited to be back for the South Tyrol Free Software Conference (SFSCON) on 8 and 9 November with talks, workshops and a booth! SFSCON is the place to be if you’re passionate about Free Software and want to dive into discussions on key topics, including the need for sustainable, long-term funding for Free Software projects. Come to Bolzano to learn, connect, and be inspired!.
The six winning projects, developed by young people aged between 14 and 18 and presented at the 2024 award ceremony are: a federated social network, an app to help dementia patients, software for finding events and connecting with people in your area, a unique rhythm game, and a WebApp for sharing sheets of music and lyrics.
In 2018 Italy implemented Router Freedom. However regulatory decisions in 2019 and 2023 introduced exceptions for fiber networks. The Free Software Foundation Europe has now urged Italy’s telecom regulator, AGCOM, to remove these restrictions and fully restore users' rights to choose their own equipment to connect to fiber networks.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is celebrating Ada Lovelace Day on October 8 with a special event for its supporters: the global English premiere of the animated film 'Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream'. Originally a highly successful illustrated book, now available in 10 languages and counting, the story has been adapted into a film and is licensed as an open educational resource.
In 2024, we continued to promote software freedom through our presence at conferences and events across Europe, as well as through our various activities and initiatives. Despite our ongoing financial challenges, we have actively raised our voice in defence of Device Neutrality and are advocating for a dedicated Free Software budget in Europe.
In the wake of the recent €27 million cut in the NGI funding, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is responding to growing concern by participating in a public consultation of the European Commission. The FSFE is stressing the urgent need for sustainable, long-term financial support for Free Software to ensure Europe's technological independence.
The European Commission has cut important funds for Free Software. The non-transparent decision shows the need for sustainable long-term funding to allow the EU to control its own technology. Raise your voice and take part in an ongoing consultation to ask for sustainable long-term funds for software freedom. We explain why and how.
Are you also worried and concerned about the European Commission decision to cut the funding for Free Software projects? Besides contacting European representatives you can also write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to make their readers aware of the importance of funding Free Software solutions with a long term sustainable funding.
The FSFE’s hacking competition for young Europeans successfully concluded its six-month programming period on 30 June, with the submission of the participants’ projects. Now, it's the jury's turn to evaluate the work of the participants. We are also happy to announce a new sponsor for the contest, OpenSSF.
The Free Software Foundation Europe is intervening in litigation brought by Apple against the European Commission before the Court of Justice of the European Union. Apple is seeking to avoid DMA obligations related to its App Store and the interoperability of its operating system. The FSFE aims to protect Free Software against monopolistic corporate control.
The Free Software Foundation Europe is intervening in a litigation brought by Apple against the European Commission before the Court of Justice of the European Union. The case relates to Digital Markets Act, with Apple seeking to avoid obligations related to its App Store and the interoperability of its operating systems. The FSFE aims to hold Apple accountable under the DMA to protect Free Software against monopolistic corporate control.
After the recent news that funding for the Next Generation Internet initiative would be cut for the next phase of Horizon Europe, the European Commission has expressed vague support for Free Software. Unfortunately it is failing to provide concrete examples on how to do so. This has highlighted the fragility of funding for Software Freedom and the need for change in the long-term.
Linqa is a bilingual collaboration platform whose code is Free Software and developed using public money. It helps the daily work of the Franco-German Forum for the Future, a public institution that fosters collaboration among actors in France and Germany. We dive into the roots of Linqa with the people behind it.
The Next Generation Internet initiative has supported Free Software projects with funding and technical assistance since 2018. Despite its proven success, the European Commission made the decision to cut this funding in the current draft for the Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme. This decision highlights the larger problem of the lack of motivated and sustainable public funding for Free Software projects.
Together with NLnet Labs and the Open Source Security Foundation, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) submitted feedback on the NIS2 implementation act, pointing to the need of protecting the European Free Software ecosystem.
In an historic ruling within the EU, a Belgian court has upheld the decision of the country’s regulator to introduce Router Freedom for fiber networks. The objections, raised by a local internet service provider, were deemed unfounded. This landmark decision represents a significant victory for consumer rights, and we urge other national regulators to follow this example.
For our 25th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we are happy to welcome Hannes Mehnert, one of the MirageOS core developer. Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE, and Hannes talk about MirageOS. This episode gives an overview of everything from the basics to the future of MirageOS.
The FSFE calls upon the European Commission to use Free Software to ensure a secure and resilient digital infrastructure. Software freedom will also benefit the economy, civil society and democracy.
After six months of programming there are only a few days left until the end of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom 2024. We are very excited to see this year's projects and to learn more about the participants and their work during the past months. Before we dive into the new projects, let us take a deeper look at last year's winner, Davide Rorato.
Together with nine stakeholders organisations, the FSFE has submitted a joint position paper to the European Commission, with whom we are working on the implementation of the Digital Markets Act. This paper, supported by legal and data-backed arguments, addresses Apple’s non-compliance with the law, particularly concerning software freedom, alternative Free Software app stores and interoperability obligations.
REUSE helps make a project's licensing and copyright status more transparent, ensure that third-party code is properly attributed, and make the project's code easily reusable. This tool is currently used worldwide and its specification has been adopted by several corporate and institutional projects. We spoke to Matija Šuklje of Liferay International, one of the companies that has adopted REUSE.
We got an email, a few weeks ago, that caught our attention. It came with a donation explaining that it was made in the name of an employee network at SUSE. We decided to investigate, asked the people responsible, and today we want to share this awesome story with you. (Note - this is also a great idea for an initiative to ask your company about).
EU elections debate: FSFE Netherlands coordinator adds voice for Free Software to Amsterdam's digital city debate. Now it's your chance to highlight the importance of Free Software in the lead-up to the upcoming European Elections next week.
What do a Prime Minister, an MIT professor, and a child from Rajasthan have in common? They, along with other public figures and thousands of children, love the illustrated book 'Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream'. Ada has already made it into homes and libraries around the world, and now she needs your help to reach even more kids! Help us make a film of this story to spark more kids’ interest in coding and tinkering!
For the second year in a row, the Swedish city of Gothenburg hosted an edition of the Free Software Legal & Licensing Workshop (LLW), the annual conference for Legal Network members. The 2024 edition brought new faces and great discussions and presentations on current legal and licensing issues related to technological developments such as AI.
Find out more about the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants of the 2023 edition. We are continuing this series talking with Antoni and Tobias: Antoni developed a dictionary to preserve endangered languages, and Tobias conceived a rich featured calendar.
Free Software is everywhere, with studies estimating that it is present in about 96% of the applications that we use. But what are the responsibilities and liabilities of the Free Software developers? A potential threat to Free Software developers looms in the form of an ongoing lawsuit in the UK involving Bitcoin and its core developers.
European citizens will hit the ballot boxes from 6 to 9 June 2024 to choose their next representatives in the European Parliament. As the campaign heats up, it is important to get active and ensure Software Freedom is part of the larger political debate. How can you do this? Find practical advice on how to advocate for Free Software in the coming months!
Once again we co-organised our now well-known Legal & Policy Issues Devroom during FOSDEM 2024. The discussions in this track covered important issues for Software Freedom, such as CRA, RHEL, GPL termination, where discussed. Thanks to everyone who participated in it!
The FSFE helped to organise a FOSDEM devroom about Free Software in the European legislative landscape. It was the first time that this devroom was held and got a lot of interest from the community, that engaged in fruitful discussions about current EU policy topics.
With today's votes on CRA and PLD on the introduction of liability rules for software, a broad exception for Free Software was made, so that after long and intense debates individual developers and non for profit work are safeguarded.
As the Digital Markets Act comes into effect today, Device Neutrality starts to become a tangible reality in the European Union. While acknowledging the new law, the FSFE alerts that this is only the first step and further commitment is necessary.
At the beginning of February, FSFE volunteers and staffers went back to Brussels to take part in FOSDEM 2024 with a booth and talks. While for some of us this has become an awesome yearly experience, it was the first time for others. Thanks to everyone who came to FOSDEM, visited our booth for a nice chat, and joined us during our social events!
Together with hundreds of people and several organisations, we have celebrated another "I Love Free Software Day" on 14 February! On this day, we reached out to Free Software contributors to say Thank you! To all who joined us this time: Thank you for participating in this 14th edition of the "I Love Free Software Day" ❤️❤️❤️!
Have there been any changes for Free Software in Europe or the USA in the last year? How is Free Software viewed by legislators? What can we do to support software freedom? Karen Sandler and Alexander Sander are active in the Free Software movement and share their views on the current status of Free Software in our society.
On 14 February, Free Software communities around the world gather to celebrate developers, maintainers, and contributors of Free Software projects. Take part in one of the many events across Europe that celebrate this day!
Today the Interoperable Europe Act has been adopted in plenary with 524 votes in favour, 18 against and 97 abstentions. Although some of the potential of the regulation got undermined, the Act as a whole is an important opportunity for Free Software and its community to contribute to an interoperable Europe. The FSFE will closely monitor its implementation.
It is that time of the year again. FOSDEM will take place in Brussels on 3 and 4 February 2024. The Free Software Foundation Europe will be there with most of its staff and some of our volunteers! Are you planning to attend? If so, come meet us at our booth!
Find out more about the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants of the 2023 edition. We are starting this series talking with Jannes and Aaron: both worked on projects related to school education, and it is particularly interesting to see how these two projects approached different aspects with a similar spirit.
In the framework of the ITS Academy LAST project, the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Edulife Foundation, the operational partner of ITS Academy LAST, have developed a two-year agreement to deliver educational content to students about Free Software legal aspects, policy and public awareness.
The Next Generation Internet (NGI) Zero consortium, of which the FSFE is a partner, has just unveiled the NGI0 Commons Fund. This new public fund will award 21.6 million euro to small and medium R&D projects developing Free Software technologies that can improve the Internet.
The Free Software Foundation Europe, along with more than 10.000 hackers, took part in the 37th Chaos Communication Congress. It was a great pleasure to be back in Hamburg and to join the Chaos family for another amazing four-day congress. Thank you all for coming and participating in the Chaos!
Every year, on 14 February, the FSFE, together with Free Software organisations around the globe, celebrates “I Love Free Software Day”: a special day of appreciation to all the contributors to Free Software projects, large or small.