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The EU is currently debating the introduction of liability rules for software, including Free Software. The relevant proposals are the AI Act, Product Liability Directive (PLD), and Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). The way they are, all proposals will harm the Free Software ecosystem and thus the society and the economy.
The Interoperable Europe Act (IEA) aims to assist public administration to share, reuse and integrate information technology and data across borders. Clear rules with concrete activities and budget are missing. The role of civil society is overlooked, and there are not yet clear definitions of Free Software and Open Standards.
The coding period of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom hacking contest has been running for almost three months now. The competition continues to be a fun contest for young hackers to test and develop their skills. The previous edition ended with 35 great projects submitted with inspiring stories behind them. Read about Andrei's and David's projects.
The Greek regulator has adopted new rules introducing Router Freedom in the country. Since 2021, the FSFE has been working with policymakers to protect the interests of end-users. Supporting civil society and industry organisations backed the FSFE and contributed positively to this new law.
Today we are celebrating Women’s Day. Thank you to everyone who is making the tech sector more inclusive! Let’s continue working together to achieve gender parity and embrace equity. There might be problems coming our way, but we also have each other. Join us and meet the FSFE Women team.
In this issue we have a podcast episode about the need that medical devices have Free Software. Watch our talks from FOSDEM and videos about legal issues when developing. Participants of YH4F are already coding. Thanks to all your contributions, our fundraising ended successfully. We bring community news from 9 countries.
On the 14th of February Free Software enthusiasts celebrated the 13th edition of the “I ❤️ Fee Software Day”! Hundreds of people and numerous organisations shared their love for Free Software and reached out to the ones behind these projects. Thank you for taking part in the celebration of our favourite type of software: Free Software.
Whether you missed FOSDEM or didn't have time to attend all of our sessions, don't worry! Have a look at all our sessions from the last edition and learn, deepen your knowledge, and improve your Free Software skills.
foss-north is a Free Software conference in Gothenburg that brings together Nordic Free Software communities. This year, the Free Software Foundation Europe is organising a track covering political and legal aspects of Free Software, as well as best practices from Scandinavia. We're looking forward to your contribution by March 5!
Youth Hacking 4 Freedom, FSFE's coding competition for young Europeans, has just started. The kick-off event took place on the 26th of January with an online meeting for the participants of this year's competition. There they got the most important information about the contest while starting to get to know each other.
Thanks to your valuable contributions, we have reached our fundraising target*. Thank you for your confidence and support, even in these difficult times. These funds will help us run our campaigns and organise events and talks to spread the word about our work, while continuing to promote software freedom.
For this episode Bonnie Mehring met with Karen Sandler to talk about her relationship with Free Software. Karen depends on a medical device to keep her heart working. This led her to become an advocate for Free Software in medical devices.
In this issue we invite public institutions to join free, decentralised social networks. Watch our info-session on German municipalities using Free Software. An FSFE volunteer doubts the reliability of AI-generated text. I Love Free Software Day is just around the corner. Celebrate with us!
On the 14th of February the FSFE community meets up in diverse cities around Europe to celebrate ‘I Love Free Software Day’. Join our events in Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Switzerland and Spain.
FOSDEM 2023 is taking place in Brussels the first weekend of February. The FSFE team will be participating at the main Free Software convention in Europe with a booth and giving some keynotes. Are you going to be there? Come to our booth and do not miss our talks!
Dortmund is opening a new chapter in Free Software Governance and inspiring municipalities all over Germany. The recording of our event on 11 January 2023 is now online. Are you interested in Free Software and working in a municipal administration or in politics? Join our new mailing list to exchange information on Free Software in municipalities!
Are you a motivated person who wants to support FSFE's activities as an intern? If your background is in computer science, law, political science or another social science field, apply to become part of our team in our Berlin office, working 35 hours per week for a period of 6 months. Join us in empowering people to take control of technology!.
In January’s Newsletter: Dortmund embraces Free Software, and Belgium is working to ensure Router Freedom. A cryptographer analyzes IT security. A digital health ecosystem licenses files with the REUSE tool. We are looking for an office coordinator. We look forward to seeing you in FOSDEM and I Love Free Software events.
The FSFE Swiss local group launches an initiative with GNU/Linux.ch to encourage public institutions to use federated free software solutions to communicate with their people. FediGov is the name of this campaign that is encouraging people to ask their governments to adopt ethical communications.
Every February 14 the Free Software community around the world comes together to celebrate the “I Love Free Software Day”. On this special day we show our gratitude for every Free Software contributor. Join us in celebrating our love for Free Software and thank all the supporters of software freedom.
A cryptographer and privacy specialist Amandine Jambert, a.k.a. Cryptie, is our guest in the 18th Software Freedom Podcast episode. With her experience, Cryptie is the perfect person to tackle some basics about Security in Free Software.
We have great news! To thank you for your support, which we appreciate even more in these difficult times, we are giving away 28 English copies of the book 'Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream'.
We are looking for an office coordinator for an open-ended 25-35 hours per week position in our Berlin office. As part of our office management team you will be the administrative backbone of our operations. Our ideal candidate has experience as an office administrator, secretary, event organiser, or another relevant administrative role.
In the framework of the REUSE Booster initiative, the FSFE provides individual assessments and direct assistance to Free Software projects in the implementation of the REUSE best practices. GNU Health, a project that combines social medicine with technology, has recently become REUSE compliant. We have talked with Dr. Luis Falcón, its founder.
The Belgian regulator BIPT has decided to safeguard Router Freedom for all connection types, including optical fiber (FTTx). The FSFE engaged in the public consultation urging policy makers to make this right a reality, and to improve monitoring over ISP practices.
The City of Dortmund, together with Berlin and Munich, is initialising the "Open Source Big 3" and setting up a "Coordination Office for Digital Sovereignty and Open Source". The Free Software Foundation Europe, the Do-FOSS initiative, and the Offene Kommunen.NRW association will provide information about these current developments in an online event on 11 January 2023.
The 2nd Legal Education Day (LED), organized by the FSFE, took place in Bolzano to help Free Software developers understand legal topics on a basic level, so that they can avoid common pitfalls, allowing their software projects to reach full potential. The LED track featured sessions on the basics of copyright law, licenses, and other legal topics.
In this issue we note the shift of the EU Digital Rights Declaration to an unclear, ambiguous text. Free Software chess engine wins its legal battle. Your contribution can help software freedom. YH4F registration. The Greek team meets after a long time.
Copyleft ensures that Free Software remains Free. Stockfish filed a lawsuit when ChessBase distributed parts of Stockfish work under a proprietary license, violating GNU GPL obligations. Checkmate! Copyleft won. Stockfish secured numerous concessions from ChessBase to respect the GPL.
Are you thinking about registering for the second edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom? But you are not yet sure? Two participants from the last edition, Héctor and Leonardo, talked with us about the projects they developed and their journey throughout the Free Software world! Discover their experiences during the first edition of YH4F.
Member states, the European Parliament, and the Commission have reached a consensus on the Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles. Although it aims to serve as a reference point for the digital transformation of Europe, it instead descends into murky waters, causing ambiguity. Its wording is unclear and it overlooks existing good proposals.
Your support and contribution for the promotion of Free Software are important for securing our continuous work, ensuring our independence, strengthening our democratic society, promoting and implementing concrete steps towards software freedom, and making it easier to use and develop Free Software.
More than 100 civil society organisations across sectors have already signed our open letter about “The universal right to install any software on any device”. Now, in the European Week for Waste Reduction, we open up the letter to be signed by individuals. Join our cause and make your voice heard!
The awards for the winners from the first edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition, Stavros, Miquel, Artur, Ekaterina, Hector, and Mark were handed over in a ceremony in Brussels. We wish them a bright future, with many contributions to software freedom.
FSFE’s ‘TEDective’, a program helping to analyse public spending, wins first prize in the EU Datathon and our very own Youth Hacking 4 Freedom contest starts again. An EU draft law might end secure chats. Citizens in Sweden have a say with the Free Software Decidim and the FSFE Switzerland asks administrations to join federated social media.
The registration for the second edition of “Youth Hacking 4 Freedom”, the FSFE’s hacking competition for teenagers from all over Europe, has started. This contest offers young people aged between 14 and 18 the opportunity to challenge themselves, meet like-minded people and win cash prizes.
The first edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom contest has ended. After 5 months of coding, over 35 young people came up with outstanding projects. Three of them will be introduced to you in this interview. Ekaterina, the mind behind Music Companion, Miquel who developed Smart Table Assistant and Alexia, the creator of a basic password manager.
In this 17th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast Matthias Kirschner and Petter Joelson uncover how Free Software can be a tool for citizens to actively participate in their local community. Petter invites you into the world of Decidim and explains what citizen participation should look like.
The sixth edition of EU Datathon, the EU’s open data competition, came to a close last week with the awards ceremony. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) won the first prize in the challenge ‘transparency in public procurement’ with a program that helps analyse how public administrations in the European Union spend their money.
Surely you have already heard about the controversial EU draft law on mandatory chat control with the supposed aim to effectively tackle child sexual abuse. This law implies the monitoring and scanning of the communications of citizens – even the securely encrypted end-to-end one.
After a year of coding and evaluation the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition comes to an end, giving us amazing projects. Who won? The six winning programs offer sign language transcription, a smart table robot, a personal assistant, a music tutorial, file sharing, and a homework manager. All Free Software.
In this issue, we discuss the rising awareness for Free Software in France. We share our plans for monitoring the implementation of Device Neutrality principles. A hackerspace in Albania shares the ‘Public Money! Public Code’ demand. We are looking for a working student to be our next system administrator assistant.
We continuously work to promote Free Software in Europe. In 2022 we addressed technological sustainability, advocated in the DMA and AI act on European level, and defended Router Freedom in Europe – among other activities. To reach younger people, we organised a coding competition for teenagers and published a children's book on software freedom.
We are looking for a working student to support our work in empowering people to control technology. The person will support the FSFE's technical infrastructure by working with our system administrators. The work is 10 hours per week in the Berlin office and home office is possible at a later stage.
In this episode of the Software Freedom Podcast, Bonnie Mehring speaks with Hugo Roy about his long involvement with the FSFE. Hugo is also very active in the French Free Software community and gives us an overview of the standing of Free Software in France.
In this issue we look into the software development of Librem 5 phone and of Phosh, the popular graphical environment for Linux phones. And booths are back! We are happy to discuss Free Software in person again.
A broad alliance of 13 organisations from the fields of environmental protection, digital policy, development cooperation and academia publishes a catalog of demands to show political solutions towards a more sustainable digital society. This as a prelude to the upcoming conference for digitization and sustainability "Bits & Bäume".
Since the launch of the “Public Money? Public Code!” initiative, it has grown a lot and experienced an increase of support. Now there is a new and fun way of showing your support for “Public Money? Public Code!”. With the new SharePic-Template, everybody can show their support of the campaign.
We are looking for a reliable and driven intern to support the FSFE's policy activities and contribute to our work to empower people to control technology. The person will work 35 hours per week with our team in the FSFE Berlin office for a six month period.
Librem 5 runs the fully convergent PureOS, which means you can take your desktop with you within your phone. Its dedicated graphical environment, Phosh, is becoming a popular option for Linux phones. Guido Günther, one of Purism’s main developers, reveals details of Librem’s software development in this interview.
In this issue we share an uplifting podcast episode on the progress of the Upcycling Android campaign. We have a work position in the FSFE staff. Greece is about to secure Router Freedom except for fiber connections. Community news comes from Aarhus, Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Zurich, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Translators, and Women.
Greece is one step closer to securing Router Freedom, but regulators are excluding fiber (FTTH) connections from the legislation. A coalition of organisations, allies of the FSFE, is now requesting that lawmakers reconsider this and thus safeguard the freedom of all users.
In November 2021 the FSFE has launched the new campaign "Upcycling Android". If you haven't already upcycled your phone or you are curious to learn more about the campaign listen to our new Software Freedom Podcast episode with the campaigns manager Erik Albers.
We are looking for a Senior Project Manager Communication for 20-25 hours per week in our Berlin office. This is a great opportunity to help amplify the importance of software freedom, so that every human can use, study, share, and improve software and thereby support other fundamental rights like freedom of speech, press, and privacy.
In this issue, read about nine administrations innovating and saving money with Free Software, a Dutch coalition calling for fair digital education, and how a sustainable telecom sector is attainable with Free Software. Volunteers organise ‘Public Money? Public code!’ tour in Italy.
A network of nine cities in Germany shows the benefits of ‚Public Money? Public Code!‘
Code paid by the people should be available to the people! Volunteers will present the ‘Public Money? Public Code!’ campaign in Trento, Bologna, and Caltanissetta. If you live in Italy, now you have a perfect chance to learn more about the initiative and support it.
Students should not have to use proprietary software to participate in the educational process. The FSFE joins the Dutch ‘Coalition Fair Digital Education’ supporting privacy-respecting solutions involving Free Software in schools.
Together with the Alliance of Telecommunication Terminal Equipment Manufacturers (VTKE), the FSFE organised the online event "The Future of Router Freedom in Austria" where decision makers could debate with industry and civil society stakeholders on the future developments regarding the free choice of terminal equipment in Austria.
As a contribution to a consultation organised by the European telecom regulator, BEREC, the FSFE calls for increasing the level of digital sustainability in the telecommunications sector by safeguarding device neutrality and establishing the right to install any software on any device.
In this Issue: an alliance of 46 entities - and counting - supports the universal right to install any software on any device. Free Software is being considered for inclusion in the EU Declaration of Digital Rights. FSFE's transparency in public procurement app gets to EU Datathon finals. Italian FSFE volunteers prepare tour.
Early this year, the Commission proposed a draft for an EU Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles that aims to guide the digital transformation in the EU. Now the European Parliament has agreed on a text and Free Software makes part of it.
Today the European Parliament passed a resolution on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a huge majority of 495 votes in favor, 34 against and 102 abstentions. There are many references to the advantages of Free Software included in the text - the FSFE now urges the Parliament to transfer its own position into the AI regulation.
The FSFE publishes an open letter, co-signed by 38 organisations and companies, to ask EU legislators for the right to install any software on any device, including full access to hardware. These rights support reusability and longevity of our devices. The alliance is composed of entities from environmental, economic, and technological sectors.
Technology experts and ecologists join forces in the Bits & Bäume ('Bits and Trees') conference in October 2022 in Berlin. This year the FSFE is part of its organising committee. We look for exciting talks and insights about how Free Software can help realising a sustainable digital society. Share your expertise and apply until 7 June.
Austria has introduced a reform law for the telecommunications sector which will affect the ability of consumers to choose and use their own routers and modems. Together with the Alliance of Telecommunication Terminal Equipment Manufacturers (VTKE) the FSFE is organising a session on "The Future of Router Freedom in Austria".
On 26 January 2022, the European Commission presented its proposal for the EU Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles which will serve as a reference point in the future and as a common EU vision of our digital rights. The declaration is now being discussed in the European Parliament and Council, and Free Software should become part of it.
In our April Newsletter, we welcome the promising developments on AI in the EU. We address the German Government to demand a clear budget for Free Software. We interview Plasma Mobile developer Bhushan Shah, and talk with Elektra Wagenrad in a podcast episode about Mesh Networking. We congratulate KDE on the world's first eco-certified software.
In the effort of adopting digital policies aligned with people's fundamental rights, the European Parliament is in the process of finding a position on the legal framework for the development and use of AI technologies. The FSFE is following this process so Free Software is included, innovation is fostered, control enhanced, and trust strengthened.
The traffic light coalition must anchor its goals for the digitisation of Germany, based on Free Software, as set out in the coalition agreement in the 2022 federal budget. Otherwise, there is a risk of cementing dependencies on individual vendors and losing sovereignty and innovative power.
What are my options if I want to run my phone with Free Software? For our Upcycling Android campaign we interviewed Plasma Mobile developer Bhushan Shah about running a privacy-respecting and secure GNU/Linux phone ecosystem on your phone.
With this episode the Software Freedom Podcast opens the door to the fascinating and sometimes complex world of mesh networking. And who better than Elektra Wagenrad can take us on this journey? Elektra is one of the original developers of the B.A.T.M.A.N. protocol and of the Mesh Potato project.
KDE's universal document viewer Okular is the first software to be awarded the Blue Angel ecolabel. The FSFE congratulates Okular to this milestone that confirms more environmental benefits of using and developing Free Software. Together with our Upcycling Android initiative we campaign for universal user freedoms in the EU in the upcoming months.
At the end of the week, the new German government will have been in office for 100 days. The coalition agreement contains ambitious statements on the use of Free Software (also known as Open Source), but so far nothing has been implemented. On the contrary: dependencies are to be further cemented.
Since 2010 the Free Software Foundation Europe has been organising the yearly "I Love Free Software Day". Together with hundreds of Free Software enthusiasts we celebrated our love for Free Software on the 14th of February. To all of you who took part and celebrated the "I Love Free Software Day", we would like to thank you so much.
In our March Newsletter, we share some much needed good news: people donated 60 children's books about software freedom to public libraries. The FSFE calls for the right to install Free Software. The first Upcycling Android workshop is happening in Berlin. The local group in Aarhus, Denmark, meets after a long time.
At the Free Software Foundation Europe, we advocate for the universal right to install and de-install any operating system and software on any device. The update of the European ecodesign gives a historical chance to make this right part of European legislation. Our Upcycling Android campaign marks the beginning of our activities.
At the prominent annual conference for Free Software, FOSDEM, we exchanged opinions and chatted with people from the Free Software community. We raised awareness on wider issues that impact our movement in the Legal and Policy Devroom, co-hosted by the FSFE. Enjoy the videos from the talks and stay in touch via Matrix until the next FOSDEM.
In our February Newsletter, we invite you to our Games Event to celebrate the "I Love Free Software" Day on February 14th. Listen to our podcast episode with Stanislas Dolcini from the game '0 A.D.: Empires Ascendant'. FOSDEM was just concluded and the FSFE was there! We complete our celebrations for 20 years FSFE in an interview with past interns.
The FSFE is eager to support its community with diverse Free Software communication channels. We are happy to announce that we have recently added Matrix to this list. After successful beta tests, every FSFE supporter and volunteer can now create their own Matrix account. We will also use our instance for the FSFE’s virtual booth during FOSDEM!
Every 14th of February, people around the world celebrate the “I Love Free Software Day”. On this day we show our love for Free Software and thank all the people contributing to software freedom. This year, we are organising a whole event dedicated to Free Software games.
As in 2021, this year's FOSDEM will take place online. But this is neither stopping us from once again co-hosting the Legal and Policy Issues Devroom nor from being present with a digital booth. We are excited and look forward to presenting you an interesting programme throughout the whole weekend.
The upcoming "I Love Free Software Day" will focus on Free Software Games. One of the most famous Free Software games is "0 A.D.: Empires Ascendant". In this episode Bonnie Mehring talks with Stanislas Dolcini, the project leader of 0 A.D., about the game itself, the project, and how the game became Free Software.
In the final publication about 20 Years FSFE, we want to thank everyone who has worked for the organisation in an internship position. We contacted eight former interns and asked them about their time at the FSFE and their current involvement with Free Software.
A large part of our work is possible thanks to the contribution of our volunteers. This was not the exception. Our Public Money? Public Code! brochure is now translated into Spanish, and we hosted an event to share this great news with our community. GNUHealth, Pica Pica HackLab, Lliurex, Linkat, and KDE took part in our event.
In our January Newsletter, we recognise the importance of the Digital Markets Act as a mostly positive development for software freedom. Read how the lack of public code cost Stockholm €100 million. Our System Hackers team unravel what lies behind the FSFE infrastructure. Vincent Lequertier stresses that AI needs transparency. FOSDEM is coming up.
With our 12th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we dig into the history and the beginning of enforcing Free Software licences, especially the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL). Together with Till Jaeger, who has been working alongside Harald Welte for enforcing the GNU GPL in the first court cases in Germany, we talk about the long way we have come since those early days.
Max Mehl and Bonnie Mehring talk about the REUSE initiative and the newly launched REUSE Booster programme. This 11th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast is the perfect match for you if you are interested in Free Software licensing and curious about how REUSE and its tools make that easier for developers and users.
In our 10th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we talk with Elisa Lindinger from Superrr Lab. Together we discuss problems faced by Free Software projects and how to tackle them. In a broader frame we discover what would be needed for a more sustainable digital infrastructure and talk about the work Elisa does for this aim.
For this episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we talk about the background of the "I Love Free Software Day" and how it all began 11 years ago. Discover together with Bonnie Mehring why Free Software developers, advocates, activists and contributors think this special day is so important for Free Software.
In this Software Freedom Podcast episode Bonnie Mehring and Matthias Kirschner talk about the monetary costs of Free Software. On the example of a conversation Bonnie had with her mother, both discover ways of explaining the world of Free Software and how to answer common questions and misunderstandings about software freedom.
For the seventh episode of our Software Freedom Podcast we talk with Vincent Lequertier about transparency, fairness, and accessibility as crucial criteria for artificial intelligence (AI) and why it is important for our society to release AI software under a Free Software license.
We invited Miriam Ballhausen to talk with us about copyright enforcement. She is a German lawyer who focuses on software, data protection, copyright law and specifically Free Software copyright. This is the sixth regular episode of the Software Freedom Podcast for which we invite experts from our community.
For our Software Freedom Podcast we talk with people who have inspiring ideas about software freedom. In this special episode, we talk with Dr. Luis Falcón and Dr. Axel Braun about the Free health and hospital information system GNU Health.
For our Software Freedom Podcast we talk with people who have inspiring ideas about software freedom. In this episode, we talk with Professor Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, about regulation of society, offline as well as online, about the different means of regulation, and shed light on regulations through code.
In the monthly Software Freedom Podcast we talk with people who have inspiring ideas about software freedom. In this episode, we talk with Carmen Bianca Bakker about the REUSE project. By this we are covering the very broad topic of software licensing and the problems there, which REUSE is able to solve with three simple steps.
Once a month, we talk with people who have inspiring ideas about software freedom. In this third episode, our guest is Harald Welte, Free Software programmer and activist. Harald discusses with us his current projects regarding mobile phone communication and the general status of Free Software in this area.
We are back with the second episode of our Software Freedom Podcast! Once a month, we talk with people who have inspiring ideas about software freedom. In this episode, we talk with Lydia Pintscher from KDE about the development of the KDE community, the different KDE projects and the issues they will be tackling over the next two years.
We have a Podcast! Starting with this episode, we will talk once a month with people who have inspiring ideas about software freedom. In our first episode of our Software Freedom Podcast, we address the issue of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) together with Cory Doctorow, a British-Canadian writer, political activist, and co-editor of the blog boingboing.net. Cory Doctorow is a prominent supporter of software freedom and a less restrictive copyright law. His books are published under Creative Commons licenses.