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In addition to our regular news stories, each month FSFE issues a newsletter that summarises its most important activities.
You can also receive regular updates and deeper insights on our other channels:
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As 2026 begins, we are excited to see the projects from the new edition of YH4F, kicking off this month, and to start preparing for FOSDEM! At the same time, we are looking back at the last month of 2025: from 39c3 in Hamburg to our two latest Software Freedom Podcast episodes, and our updates on the Cyber Resilience Act and our work in the Apple v. European Commission litigation.
December has arrived, and with it, our last newsletter of 2025. In the last weeks, we took part in the consultation on the Germany Stack, exchanged insights at the Article 19 2025 DMA Enforcement Symposium, and gave REUSE a new home on Codeberg. Meanwhile, registration for the next edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom is opened and we have new Software Freedom podcast episodes to listen to.
From facing Apple’s lawyer at the EU court defending interoperability to celebrating the unveiling of the 2025 YH4F winners, and finally walking through the autumn streets of Bolzano filled with Free Software enthusiasts, the past few weeks have been quite a roller coaster.
Our October newsletter comes with our Software Freedom in Europe report! As the DMA celebrates its first year, we reflect on Device Neutrality and discuss the war on ad blockers in our Legal Corner. Check out our interview about 'I Love Free Software Day' with our local group in Barcelona and listen to a new episode of our Policy & EU podcast series.
Last month we published a new article in our Legal Corner, we checked how the German government is doing after 100 days, and we provided a deeper look at the CRA on our podcast. We also attended several conferences and continue working on making gatekeepers accountable under the DMA.
In July we continued working to make the EC aware of the gatekeepers' “excuses” to avoid compliance with the DMA and we are gathering your feedback about the Cyber Resilience Act. We have also developed a Free Software tool to help us reaching out to representatives in Parliaments across Europe. And more: SFP, FOSDEM...
Summer has arrived, and with it came our annual Summer Meeting, where we spent time with our community. Learn more about the latest developments surrounding the Digital Markets Act, take a few minutes to share your perspective in our Interoperability Survey, and listen to the newest episode of our podcast. You can also read the latest news about Ada & Zangemann and Youth Hacking 4 Freedom.
May kept us quite busy attending conferences and with the kick-off of the Refund4Freedom initiative. We also went through the issue of the threshold of originality for copyrightable source code and talked in our latest episode of the Software Freedom Podcast about the tech sovereignty debate in the EU.
In April, our work on Device Neutrality continued with news and meetings on DMA; we had a PMPC meeting in Germany and talked about the German coalition agreement in one of our Podcast episodes; we also held our annual Legal & Licensing Workshop; and we published another article in our Legal Corner.
Spring is here, and so is our monthly newsletter! We want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for your continued support and generous donations. In this issue, we bring you the latest updates on the DMA, a special podcast episode on Router Freedom, highlights from our talks at Chemnitzer Linux Tag, exciting Ada news, and much more.
In the last few weeks we published our first Legal Corner article and the recordings of our talks at FOSDEM. We were happy to see pictures from the I Love Free Software Day celebrations and can't wait to meet you at CLT 2025! We are organising an online Q&A session about the DMA and Free Software. The Ada movie is finally available in Spanish!
February started with FOSDEM! It was great to meet some of you there before we meet again for “I Love Free Software Day”! In recent weeks, we shared our demands for the coming German elections, great news about Router Freedom, and an update about DMA. Moreover, the Ada movie is now available in French and we published two podcast episodes.
The new year has begun, offering 365 days to promote Free Software! As we prepare for FOSDEM and continue working on the DMA implementation, we are excited to launch the fourth edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom. We closed 2024 sharing our predictions for 2048 and taking part in the Chaos Communication Congress.
As the last month of the year rolls in, thoughts of 2025 are already taking shape. But before we dive into the new year, December is packed with news! We are participating in a hearing at the German Parliament, we keep pushing for long-term funding for Free Software, new versions of REUSE Specification and REUSE tools were released, and more!
It's November and our team heads to Bolzano for SFSCON, still thrilled by the inspiring 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom award ceremony! Last weeks we’ve also launched a new page to keep you updated on the latest developments in our involvement with the Apple vs. EC litigation. Find out the latest updates on Router Freedom, REUSE and more!
The story of Ada & Zangemann is now available as an animated movie! We’d also like to thank everyone who contributed feedback to the EC consultation, urging European policymakers to establish long-term sustainable funding for Free Software Additionally, we’ve submitted our arguments in the ongoing Apple litigation. And great news, our hoodies are back!
September is here, along with our newsletter. We have continued advocating for a Free Software budget in Europe, following the European Commission's decision to stop NGI funding, and we are intervening in Apple's lawsuit against the European Commission. YH4F got a new sponsor and its 2024 edition is in the final stage, and the ZOOOM project ended.
The EC is planning to cut its funding to NGI projects, while in Belgium a court has supported end-users’ Router Freedom rights. We also submitted feedback on the NIS2 implementation; learnt about Linqa, a Free Software platform developed with public money; and gathered with volunteers at the Summer Meeting. Listen to our new SFP episode.
The July issue is full of news! We continue to monitor and raise our concerns about DMA compliance. We call upon the EU to use Free Software for its digital infrastructure and are asking for your experiences with openwashing. And we also bring you updates on REUSE, YH4F, Ada & Zangemann...
In this issue, we explain our plans to make a movie of the story of Ada & Zangemann and we are asking for your support. A new REUSE version released; read the FSFE opinion to the European Commission on Apple’s new strategy to comply with DMA and its impact on Free Software.
May comes with legal news such as the Legal & Licensing Workshop and the Bitcoin lawsuit regarding the liability of Free Software developers. We also talked to two 2023 YH4F participants and our Danish local group sent an Open Letter to their parliament. Did you see that Ada & Zangemann won a prize and that the French ebook version is now available?
Last month, the DMA came into force and we launched a website about Device Neutrality, the EU parliament voted the CRA and the PLD, and we released a guide to get active for the upcoming EU elections. Check out the videos from the devrooms we joined at FOSDEM!
Our March newsletter is here! Last month took us to FOSDEM, while ‘I Love Free Software Day’ was celebrated all over Europe. We also launched a new SFP episode on the state of Free Software and a discussion on banking and Software Freedom. Check out some interesting reading and event recommendations!
Once again, FOSDEM did not disappoint! Meeting the Free Software community in Brussels is always one of the best moments of the year! And just before we meet again to celebrate I Love Free Software Day with the news of the Interoperable Europe Act being adopted! This newsletter also includes our first interviews with 2023 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants… and more!
We are starting 2024 with a lot of energy, looking for a policy intern and with great news: two new SFP episodes, the Router Freedom tech wiki, the ‘Ada & Zangemann’ ebook is free of charge in French, and we are looking forward to celebrating ‘I Love Free Software Day’ on 14 February!
Last month YH4F 2024 kicked off, the German Parliament received the Upcycling Android Open Letter, we discovered that the ambitious plan of the Interoperable Europe Act turned out to be watered down, we celebrated Belgium’s commitment to router freedom, and much more interesting news was out.
Our yearly report, Software Freedom in Europe 2023, is out. At the YH4F award ceremony, we learned about the awesome projects from this edition's winners, our team went to Bolzano to SFSCON, and we are happy to find out how the REUSE specification keeps on helping developers, such as the ones at the German Aerospace Center. Find these and other stories in our November issue!
October starts after celebrating the 40th anniversary of the GNU project, that marked the beginning of our Free Software movement. The new political season has started, both at the EU and the national levels. Thanks for contributing to make our What is Free Software video available in more languages… and we had the first Ada reading in Italian!
September brings the resumption of EU politics and the middle of the term of the current German government, and we look at them from a Free Software perspective. 'Ada & Zangemann' can now be ordered internationally, and you can help us translate our 'What is Free Software' video into more EU languages. And remember - rooting your device does not void its warranty.
Our August issue comes with the latest updates of the CRA and the IAE, a new episode of our Software Freedom podcast exploring Software Freedom in EU policy, and the announcement of our symposium about decentralised social networks. YH4F participants -and we too- are waiting for the jury feedback on their projects.
July is here and so is our newsletter! In this issue we have some updates on the latest status of the Interoperable Europe Act, the Cyber Resilience Act, and the Artificial Intelligence Act. The competition YH4F has just ended.
The June issue brings updates on the Interoperable Europe Act and the AI Regulation, and the publication of the conclusions of our European Router Freedom survey. We were invited to two podcast episodes and were the focus of Edri's 'Member in the spotlight'. Check out a study on net neutrality regulation and read a lovely story about Ada arriving in rural India.
In this issue, you can read about the EU project NGI Zero, LLW, the FOSS-North conference, and the struggle of Lithuanian students to avoid using proprietary 2FA. Don't miss our new SFP episode on Device Neutrality; deepen your knowledge with two interesting articles; enjoy the latest ‘Ada & Zangemann’ readings; and discover two YH4F projects.
In April’s newsletter we discuss EU proposals affecting Free Software: the introduction of liability rules for software and the Interoperable Europe Act. Greece secures Router Freedom but excludes fiber connections.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
In the December Newsletter we talk about Upcycling Android, an initiative to overcome software obsolescence with Free Software. The EU is voting on the Digital Markets Act, a major step for device neutrality. Germany aims to adopt PMPC! We interview Nico Rikken for 20 Years FSFE. Meet Ada, a character in a children's book. Spot a job opportunity.
In our November Newsletter learn why device neutrality and upcycling of software are essential to make (re-)using our hardware more resource-efficient. Read about the key role translators play in the FSFE and about the loss of Router Freedom in Latvia. Watch a new video on Free Software core values, and follow our community events.
In our October Newsletter read about Till Jaeger, who knows first-hand what it takes to enforce Free Software licenses. Find out about the contest we just launched: Youth Hacking 4 Freedom. Learn about the donations by a high school yearbook team. Follow our latest activities and write down the dates of the upcoming SFScon.
In our August-September Newsletter, we celebrate the right of using a custom router in the Netherlands. We explain why every app that tackles the spread of Covid-19 has to be Free Software. We share the news of our vibrant community, following up what happened in the summertime and what lies ahead of us.
In our July Newsletter, we invite our community to join the celebrations of 20 Years FSFE, we applaud Finland for securing Router Freedom, and we look into Free Software activities for children. We are getting ready for German elections and invite you to help us support Free Software demands for public administration during the election campaign.
Dutch digital public services rely increasingly on monopolistic companies; the FSFE Dutch team actively demands digital rights. In June, we launched REUSE Booster to share legal advice with Free Software projects on copyright. We interviewed Torsten Grote, a member of the FSFE, who stressed the need to Free our Androids early on.
In our May Newsletter read about our time traveller Cory Doctorow who sends his wishes for 20 Years FSFE from utopian 2041, Router Freedom developments in Greece, Germany, and Austria as well as AI application benefits under Free Software licenses and as usual our other diverse community activities.
In our April Newsletter read about our Router Freedom Activity Package, our interview with former Vice President Fernanda Weiden, our new Software Freedom Podcast with Elisa Lindinger, our Spring Sales and as usual our other diverse community activities.
In our March Newsletter read about our supporter Luca Bonissi who forced Lenovo to pay a 20.000 Euros refund for a pre-installed Windows, about our supporter Reinhard Müller who has volunteered for the FSFE for two decades, our "I Love Free Software" report and as usual about our other diverse community activities.
In our February Newsletter, we interview our founding president Georg Greve as part of our publication series to celebrate 20 Years FSFE, we reflect on I love Free Software Day and our FOSDEM participation, we advertise our new job vacancy and as usual we report on our diverse community activities.
In our January Newsletter, read about our plans for 2021 including our upcoming birthday celebrations and our participation at FOSDEM. We roll out this year's "I love Free Software" campaign and, as usual, report about our various community activites.
In our December Newsletter, read about the German Corona Warn App being published independently to extend software freedom, learn about public code in international development cooperation, enjoy an interview with Cord-Landwehr from KDE about REUSE adoption, one about the Zurich local group receiving a DINACon award and much more.
In our Newsletter November, we review our annual report "Software Freedom in Europe" and the new Free Software Strategy by the European Commission. We have new staffers, a new call for FSFE community projects, REUSE is taking off, the local group in Zurich received an award, and so much more has happened to discover.
Read in our October newsletter about FSF's thirty-fifth anniversary, our upcoming participation at SFSCon, our technical job vacancy, and our other diverse community activities.
Read in our September newsletter about a new strong alliance formed by administrations, business and civil society organisations asking for "A place for public code". Also read about our call to apply for FSFE support for your local project, our job vacancy, and about our other diverse community activities.
In our August Newsletter, we are evaluating reasons why the European Commission should avoid using the term "intellectual property". We also asked the new government in Munich about their progress regarding Free Software, and we introduce our new Open Science Coordinator, Christian Busse. As usual, you can read about our diverse community activities.
From hackathons to apps to public administrations: Read about the recent successes in Europe regarding Free Software in our July Newsletter. Also find videos from multiple online events where the FSFE was represented and read about our diverse community activities.
In our June Newsletter read among other things about the FSFE's achievements regarding Router Freedom in Europe, about a new coalition agreement in Hamburg that puts a focus on Free Software and about the European Parliament demanding "Public Money? Public Code!". As always, also read about our diverse community activities.
Read about our demand to publish the results of publicly financed hackathons as Free Software, about a new coalition-agreement in Munich that aligns with our principles of "Public Money? Public Code!" and what happened inside the FSFE and our community. You will also read about the results of our web-sprint, about our regular podcast and an extraordinary one.
With the spreading of COVID-19 we are facing a global pandemic that requires a lot of coordinated efforts and asks for new global solutions. Our extraordinary newsletter concentrates on software freedom for global solutions, on Free Software solutions for remote connections and on how the FSFE handles the whole situation. As usual, we highlight our community activities and give tips on what you can do to edutain yourself while staying home. Enjoy the read, stay healthy, and protect freedom.
From our own pre-FOSDEM event, to the exciting FOSDEM weekend, to I love Free Software day, February was full of exciting news for the FSFE. We used these occasions to present our work, as well as to offer communities around Europe the opportunity to present their own. Read about our booths and presentations, about love and upcoming events in our February Newsletter.
2020 is not just a new year, it is the dawn of a new decade. With more and more automated systems run by software, a political representation of freedom is more needed than ever. Read in our January Newsletter about why Cory Doctorow supports the FSFE financially and why you should do so too. Read about our upcoming FOSDEM activities including our pre-FOSDEM meeting and reflections on our presence at the Chaos Communication Congress. Also we have a new Software Freedom Podcast with Harald Welte and reports from our community.
The last Newsletter of the year ends with exciting news for software freedom: the biggest conservative party in Europe, the German CDU, endorsed the principle that software developed with public money should be under a Free Software License. We further invite you to to read about the FSFE has done and achieved during the last 12 months and to dig into Florian Snow's report of our Annual Community Meeting 2019. Also you find an outlook on our participation at the biggest hacking related conference in Europe, the 36C3 and a call for your support and help to continue our mission towards empowering users to control technology.
This month, we present our Portuguese friends from ANSOL and their success story on solving the problems DRM creates in their country and gives tips on how you can take similar actions in your country. Episode 2 of the FSFE's Software Freedom Podcast is out and we dedicate it to the KDE Community and the transformations and updates they are currently undertaking. You can discover upcoming events and interesting stories with visuals from the events where our community promoted Free Software across Europe. We offer a sneak peak into this year's FSFE Annual Community Meeting in Bolzano, Italy before the official report. In the Get Active section, we ask for your help with the new "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative. We need more municipalities and public sector bodies to embrace the principles and become part of the signatories.
This month, we focus our attention on digital restrictions and the International Day against them. To this end, we launched our first episode of the monthly Software Freedom Podcast, this time starring Cory Doctorow talking about DRM. We have published our yearly report, summing up our activities of the past 12 months and shining light on the community we build our success on. As usual, you will also discover upcoming events with the FSFE, including our Annual Community meeting, as well as recordings and information from events we participated in.
In this month's newsletter, we focus our attention on the impact of Free Software on competition, in a piece written by our guest expert, Prof. Dr. Simon Schlauri. We also take the chance to announce the awesome progress we have made in the REUSE project towards making copyright and licensing easier for developers. Further down, you can discover upcoming events and information about the FSFE Annual Community meeting, as well as see some photos and video recordings from events where our community promoted Free Software across Europe. We also make some recommendations for articles you may find useful.
In this month's newsletter, we pay special attention to our new Testimonials page and the freshly prepared summary of the FSFE's annual Legal Licensing Workshop that took place in Barcelona. Further down, you can discover the upcoming events we are participating in and hosting, as well as see some visual details about how and where we managed to promote and extend the use of Free Software around Europe.
This month's newsletter highlights the Google/Huawei case and the greater picture it reveals to us. In the Get Active section we call for your proactivity in promoting the use of Free Software. Additionally, you can find out what happened at our Web-a-thon in Frankfurt am Main and view some media of the actions we have taken for promoting and increasing the awareness of Free Software to the wider audience, as well as see what's planned for the near future, where you can take part in.
This newsletter edition gives special attention to the upcoming EU Elections. We are telling the story of the Spanish Pica Pica Hacklab who successfully used our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign to influence the Parliament of Asturias. Pica Pica's story takes us to the upcoming EU Elections that will bring in new MEPs into the European Parliament and so we provide advice and tips on how you can get active in promoting Free Software to them. As always, you will also read about the events the FSFE is going to be part of this month, as well as a retrospective of what has happened in the past month.
This month's newsletter highlights the presence of the FSFE's campaign"Public Money? Public Code!" in German media and its growing popularity across Europe. You can find a short reminder of the news around the newly voted Copyright Directive, as well as a short summary of what else has happened during the past month. In the Get Active section this month we remind you of the new open call the Next Generation Internet project we are part of has launched. Additionally you can find out about new events we are attending and the Web-a-thon we organise in Frankfurt am Main.
This month's newsletter highlights the new project the FSFE recently joined and the funding opportunities it offers, that you may want to take advantage of. You can get the latest updates on the Copyright Directive reform and the hottest news regarding Article 13, as well as a short summary of what else has happened during the past month. In the Editor's choice section this month you can find interesting news on developments with the Radio Equipment Directive, and find out who else have expressed their support for our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and what they have to say about it.
This month's Newsletter is introducing our new expert policy brochure "Public Money? Public Code" and reflecting the importance of source code availability for trust and security in critical IT-infrastructure. As always the Newsletter gives an overview about the talks given and the booths set-up by our community as well as a short summary of what we have done - this month including FOSDEM, 35C3, FOSS4SMEs and the Next Generation Internet. As a "get active" item, this month we encourage you to participate in our IloveFS-campaign.
The second half of 2018 was full of interesting developments for the Free Software community and its environment. In our December newsletter, we would like to shed light on three major developments that have the potential for long-lasting changes to the Free Software world and what these changes mean for the FSFE's work in 2019 and beyond.
For 17 years, the FSFE has been empowering people to have control over their technology, and we get better at it every year. To help you understand how we work and what we do, we have just published "Software freedom in Europe", the yearly report about the FSFE and our activities.
Historically, Microsoft has used software patents to slow down Free Software adoption in businesses and public administration, by claiming patent infringement of important Free Software components and taking billions of dollars from Free Software re-distributors. In recent years, however, Microsoft approached themselves more and more with the Free Software community. In October, this led to Microsoft's next big step to join the LOT Network and the Open Invention Network (OIN), two organisations that aim to solve problems created by software patents towards the GNU/Linux systems.
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)
On July 5, The European Parliament rejected the mandate to fast-track the controversial legislation intended to reform online copyright. 318 MEPs voted against the draft law amended by the Legal Affairs (JURI) committee, compared to 278 in favor. The legislation now opens up for a new round of amendments, before being sent for a second vote in September.
From July 7 to 9, the FSFE will run its annual community meeting in conjunction with the Libre Software Meeting in Strasbourg, France. On the weekend of July 7 + 8, we are very excited to run a track, set up with speakers of our community and friends to cover several burning topics regarding Free Software. Our track covers business topics like marketing for Free Software and funding Free Software projects as well as policy topics from tinkering in Brussels to success factors for Free Software implementations in public services as well as contemporary important issues regarding diversity in Free Software, software freedom in the cloud, and many more. You can find an overview of our topics on the dedicated wiki page.
Following a more than a decade long tradition, the FSFE once again led its annual Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop (LLW) in Barcelona, Spain, as a meeting point for world-leading legal experts to debate over issues and best practices surrounding Free Software licences. This year we decided to bring the event back to its roots and to emphasise the "Workshop" part in its original title. Our 3-day conference attracted around 120 legal experts and came with an unprecedented amount of parallel tracks and interactive sessions designed to dive into the most contentious topics in the legal world of Free Software.
On March 19, the Free Software Foundation Europe together with OpenMedia, jointly delivered a petition signed by more than 11.000 individuals, who ask European politicians to save internet from the irreversible dangerous impact of the ongoing copyright reform, and in particular Article 13, which imposes preventive blocking of online code repositories. These signatures were addressed to the EU co-legislators: the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and received by MEP Julia Reda, the shadow rapporteur in the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) which drives the main parliamentary effort in the current copyright reform.
With the FSFE's Public Money? Public Code! campaign not only do we demand that code paid for by the people should be available to the people. We also highlight good examples of public code so other decision makers can learn from it. One very good example is Article 68 and Article 69 of the "Codice Amministrazione Digitale", an Italian law requiring public administrations inside Italy to prefer internally made solutions and Free Software solutions over proprietary ones. In addition, these administrations have the duty to share the source code and documentation of any software developed with public money. These laws put Italy at the forefront of European legislation in favour of public code.
"Funds that come from the citizens have to be invested in systems that can be reused and open to a local ecosystem" says Francesca Bria, Commissioner of Digital Technology and Innovation of Barcelona. She is the driving force behind the City's Digital Transformation Plan, which - among other things - aims to establish the use of Free Software and open data in the city's administration.
The Free Software Foundation Europe looks back on a very exciting year. While on one hand we managed to take our regular campaigns like I love Free Software and Ask Your Candidates to a new level with extraordinary activities, we also started three new major activities this year that will keep running in 2018 and beyond. These are Public Money Public Code, Save Code Share and the Reuse Initiative.
The FSFE's Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA) was initially introduced in 2002, to address the challenge of managing rights and content within a Free Software project over long periods of time. The FLA is a well-balanced contributor agreement, which gives the trustee, responsible for managing the rights within a Free Software project, power and responsibility to make sure the contributed software always remains free and open. This way the project, together with all the respective contributors, is protected against any possible misuse of power by a new copyright holder.
The EU is currently revising its copyright rules in its proposal for the EU Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market, so that they may be more suitable for the modern digital age. Instead of recognising the realities of how different content is being shared online, the current EU Copyright Directive proposal, and in particular its Article 13 targeted at online hosting providers, threatens our ability to access public code repositories and share code online.
Digital services offered and used by our public administrations are part of the critical infrastructure of 21st century democratic nations. Due to restrictive software licences, however, many public bodies do not have full control over their digital infrastructure. Although publishing publicly funded software under a free licence generates great benefits for governments and civil society, policy makers are still reluctant to improve legislation in this area. It is time to change this. At the FSFE, we want European legislation requiring that publicly financed software developed for public sector must be made publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. If it is public money, it should be public code as well!
Sharing one's knowledge and enhancing collaboration are core principles of the Free Software community. Therefore, the FSFE is happy to now provide its supporters and registered volunteers a platform to create and manage Git repositories with a comfortable web interface under git.fsfe.org.
After a round of public consultation last year, the 'new' European Interoperability Framework (EIF) was finally published in March 2017. In alignment with our answers to the public consultation, and with the general responses from citizens and businesses that demanded more Free Software within public e-services, the revised EIF includes a recommendation to public administrations across Europe to ensure a level playing field for Free Software and demonstrate active and fair consideration of using Free Software when offering e-services.
From 10 to 24 April 2017 the FSFE ran the ninth annual vote for a Fellowship representative to represent the FSFE's community and Fellowship in the FSFE's General Assembly. The General Assembly consists of members of the FSFE e.V. and is FSFE's legal body. It is responsible for strategic planning, budgeting, agenda-setting, exonerating, and the electing and recalling of the Executive Council and the Financial Officer. And the winner of this year's election is ... Daniel Pocock!
Last December, Germany joined the Open Government Partnership and now has until June 2017 to develop and decide on an action plan. Increased transparency and continuous reporting, governmental effectiveness and citizen-friendly administration are all part of the goals of Open Government.
In February, the news about LiMux shook the world. LiMux, a project run by the city of Munich and completed in 2013, constitutes one of the finest examples of vendor-neutral administration based on Free Software; during its execution phase, 15,000 personal computers and laptops used by public administrations were migrated to Free Software.
"Open Science" is an emerging movement that asks to transfer the four freedoms that we practice in Free Software into science. Although it is still emerging, Open Science receives more and more strategic importance for decision-makers. In the eyes of financial ministers of the European Union, Open Science produces and uses a lot of Open Data, which in turn has the potential for big economic benefits. The "European Cloud Initiative", for example, is part of the European Commission's strategy for Open Science, intended for building a "competitive data and knowledge economy in Europe". It aims at strengthening Europe's position in data-driven innovation and is thus considered to become an important part of the European Digital Single Market. Or, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development puts it: "Encouraging the sharing and re-use of research data could generate more value for public money".
This year, the FSFE celebrated its 15th birthday. 15 years of empowering users, supporting communities, and pushing for better legislation. 15 years during which we saw that all activities, even if considered small at the time, can become big when we work together. 15 years during which we saw that that all activities, even if considered impossible at the time, can succeed when we stand together. Together, we have even succeeded against the heaviest lobbying of large interest groups. All of this would not have been possible without the continuous support of our community, contributing thousands of hours of their work time and backing us financially. If you are a frequent reader of our newsletter, and you like our work but you are not yet part of our community ... then consider joining the FSFE!
Since 2005, the FSFE has maintained two distinct brands: the FSFE and our Fellowship. While this made sense initially, we've grown increasingly uncomfortable with the way this created a separation between the Fellows and the FSFE as two separate entities, despite the fact that we're all working together! Accordingly, we've reduced our activities promoting the "Fellowship" as something distinct from the FSFE, and now talk more about "FSFE Groups" rather than "Fellowship Groups", for our local groups.
After some changes to the FSFE's internship program in early September, we're happy to be able to announce an opening for a technical intern with the FSFE. We're seeking an intern who can work with us for three months in our Berlin office, learning about Free Software and the FSFE, while at the same time contributing to rewriting parts of our technical infrastructure.
Thank you for contributing to making the FSFE Summit this past weekend a huge success! We were excited to see so many familiar faces and we're eager to meet again soon. Of course, the FSFE Summit was not the only thing going on in the past month. In this newsletter you can read about our community's other activities. In the October newsletter, we will share more of what happened at the Summit. Stay tuned for more!
The goal of the "Free and Open Source Security Audit" (FOSSA) pilot project is to increase the security of Free Software used by European institutions. The FSFE has been following the project since early 2014. Recently, the European Commission published the first round of deliverables based on their interviews with stakeholders. While the FSFE is in full support of this European initiative, the implementation of the project leaves us concerned. FOSSA's first analysis lacks an understanding of Free Software; it includes several factual errors; and it was based on poorly conducted general interviews. FSFE President Matthias Kirschner and FSFE Fellowship Representative Mirko Böehm, who were both interviewed for the project, have summarised the most evident shortcomings in the recent FOSSA publications. However, looking from another perspective: FOSSA is still in its first stages and with the help of more Free Software experts, we can get FOSSA going in the right direction. The FSFE will continue to closely follow FOSSA's upcoming implementations. In case you have any comments or feedback concerning the initiative, please do not hesitate to share your thoughts with us on our discussion list or directly to the attention of Matthias Kirschner. This way, we will make sure that all relevant concerns will be communicated to the EU.
The FSFE provided the European Commission with our input in regard to the ongoing revision of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF). The EIF aims to promote enhanced interoperability in the EU public sector, and is currently going through its third revision since 2004. Whilst the draft version gives preference to Open Standards in delivering public services, it also promotes harmful FRAND (so-called "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory") licensing terms for standards. In practice, these are highly anti-competitive and unfit not only for Free Software but for the whole software sector in general. In addition, the draft also ignores the proven relationship between interoperability and Free Software: many national frameworks explicitly require their national services to be based on Free Software. We asked the European Commission to address these and other shortcomings and ensure interoperability in an efficient way.
FSFE together with 72 organisations signed a letter to the EU telecom regulators in support of strong net neutrality rules in the on-going negotiations for the guidelines on the implementation of the recently adopted EU Regulation 2015/2120. The Regulation creates a basis for strong net neutrality, and FSFE together with other organisations from all over the world asks the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communication (BEREC) and the 28 national telecom regulators to uphold these rules and to establish strong net neutrality guidelines around Europe.
As a part of the Digital Single Market strategy, the European Commission has published the communication on ICT standardisation priorities as one of the key factors in the digital economy. FSFE welcomes the overall approach taken in the communication in favour of more open standards and a greater inclusion of Free Software communities into standardisation processes.
We published our position on the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU (adopted in May 2014) that demands from device manufacturers to check each device software's compliance. At first sight, this may sound reasonable but it has highly negative implications on user rights and Free Software, fair competition, innovation, environment, and volunteering – mostly without large benefits for security. The directive needs to be implemented in member states before 13 June 2016. We have formulated several proposals to EU institutions and EU member states with concrete steps to solve these issues.
For the 6th time in a row we asked everyone to express their gratitude and appreciation towards Free Software contributors on Valentine's Day. Check out our #ilovefs 2016 report and see who got acknowledged this year through countless blog posts, pictures, artwork, memes, personal notes and many more. Don't forget to mark next year's 14 February as "I love Free Software" Day to continue this nice tradition of acknowledging the people and hard work of everyone behind Free Software. We thank all participants who found time to say "thank you" and for making #ilovefs 2016 such a success!
In 2016, the Free Software Foundation Europe is looking forward towards an exciting year. This is the year when we are celebrating our 15th birthday and that will give us the chance to look back, to see and show how your support brought us here. However, we are also looking forward to mastering the challenges ahead.
The European Parliamentary committees for Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) as well as Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) issued their joint own-initiative report based on the Commission's Digital Single Market Strategy. FSFE's policy team analysed their report and proposed changes to include standards that are open, minimalistic, and implementable with Free Software, to integrate users' control over their data and to make sure that the single open science cloud is implemented with Free Software.
In the end of October, FSFE provided its recommendations to the European Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy, a roadmap for European policy in digital age aimed at bringing down regulatory barriers between 28 different national markets. In particular, the Commission has set goals to digitalise European industries, to develop standards for “the cloud”, “the Internet of Things”, and big data, and to further enhance digital education.
At this year's General Assembly in Bucharest, the FSFE elected a new leadership team for the next two years. Reinhard Müller will continue his role as Financial Officer while your editor will assume the role as President, with Alessandro Rubini filling in as Vice-President. Alessandro is an electronic engineer working on device drivers and embedded systems. He was one of the first members of the FSFE and recently joined again to support us in our work. The FSFE's former President, Karsten Gerloff welcomed the change and wrote about his future steps.
Nowadays we use online services for everything and increasingly provide our data to them. However we also lose the control of our own data more than ever. Together with other organisations FSFE supports the publication of the User Data Manifesto 2.0 which promotes users' basic rights to control their data while using online services. According to the manifesto, users must control the access to their data, they have to know if their data is stored by the online services, and they have to be able to freely choose a platform without being forced to vendor lock-in. The manifesto is a good starting point for the debate about users' rights online, and FSFE looks forward to other organisations joining the effort to stand for online services that respect users' fundamental rights.
Earlier this month, FSFE answered to the “Consultation on the respect of intellectual property in public procurement procedures”, initiated by the European Commission. According to Commission the initial purpose of the consultation was to “gather evidence, opinions and feedback regarding the respect of intellectual property rights and trade secrets in public procurement procedures”, and assess whether there is a need for a guide for public authorities in this regard.
While looking into the Digital Single Market (DSM) package, our president Karsten Gerloff noticed that the EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger neglected to publish his recent meetings with lobbyists. So Karsten reminded the Commission about their transparency commitment. Meanwhile Oettinger's Head of Cabinet, Michael Hager, explained that a long-term sickness leave in the cabinet has led to a delay in publishing the meetings, and they updated the lists of meetings.
On the first Wednesday of May, a coalition of digital liberties organizations, including FSFE, and a multitude of individual activists held the International Day Against DRM 2015 to raise awareness about digital restrictions management, a pervasive and deeply entrenched mechanism designed to plunder the citizenry of the concept of ownership.
The European Commission has published a new version of its strategy for the internal use of Free Software. The FSFE provided input to the Commission during the update phase and while the strategy is broadly similar to the previous version, there are some improvements.
Our new Executive Director Jonas Öberg gave a talk at Libreplanet, and visited Boston to meet FSF board members and staff. In his blog posts he wrote about his meetings with Matthew Garret, Benjamin Mako Hill, Bradley Kuhn, Henry Poole from FSF's board, FSF's staff as well as FSF's Executive Director John Sullivan discussing how to improve cooperation and the two main challenges he sees for FSFE:
We believe that proprietary standards and software patents are barriers to Free Software adoption. To get rid of those barriers we have to help the public administration to understand this, too. That is why last month we responded to a consultation on the interaction of standards and patents by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
Come February 14 and our website will be turning pink and heart-laden to celebrate the creators of Free Software. We have taken the opportunity on every Valentine's Day since 2010 to celebrate not only our loved ones, but also the dedicated people working very hard to ensure that we have the option to use Free Software.
The Earth has once again completed a full, customarily counted revolution. Here at FSFE we have been busy throughout 2014, working hard to ensure that users remain in control of their devices and that Free Software may once compete on a level playing field for public tenders. More information, including the extent of our limited success and our future prospects, on both these issues and our other frontiers may be found in our annual report for 2014, penned by our President Karsten Gerloff.
The new European Commission is currently setting the direction of its policy making for the coming five years. The FSFE is in frequent contact with Commission staff, who currently see open doors for Free Software in Brussels. We want to make sure to use this momentum to push for changes on software procurement, standardisation, and device sovereignty. So our president Karsten Gerloff participated in several meetings.
The city of Munich runs Free Software on more than 15.000 workplace computers and has saved over 11.000.000€ in return. During the migration to Free Software, they consolidated their heterogeneous IT in 51 places with 1000 IT employees and 22 IT departments. Despite these challenges most users are happy with the migration and say they do not want to switch back (in German). And all of this happened in the front-yard of Microsoft's German headquarters.
When buying a laptop, it can be difficult to avoid paying for a Microsoft Windows licence since many laptops come bundled with one. This “Windows Tax” has artificially increased hardware prices for Free Software users who do not want to use Microsoft's operating system. We as Free Software users want to support the development of Free Software instead of non-free software like Microsoft Windows.
The freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and privacy are essential preconditions for a Free Society. If it lacks one of those freedoms, it is difficult to maintain the others. As a society, it is important to defend those freedoms, especially in light of fundamental changes such as the one introduced by the ubiquity of computers. Such changes can threaten old freedoms and can create the need for new ones. So now software freedom is crucial to distribute and balance power in society. The FSFE is convinced that a free society needs the freedoms which only Free Software can offer. That is, why we advocate Free Software.
In the olden days a common citizen of a republic going about their everyday business was quite, shall we say, free. While tending to their chores they would occasionally need a new tool or some advice, but the old Latin proverb scientia potentia est dictated the limits of their freedom to be the limits of their knowledge: if they needed a new tool and lacked the knowledge to make it, they became dependent on the toolmaker only to obtain the tool.
Imagine you take some friends to a café, but instead of hot and cold beverages, the menu features information on measures of ensuring digital privacy. Like "https everywhere" as a starter, "GnuPG e-mail encryption" for the main course, and "tosdr.org" (information about terms of services) as dessert. Such cafés already exist in the Netherlands. At the German speaking FSFE meeting in Essen, Felix Stegerman, our Deputy Coordinator Netherlands, presented his plans to set up more privacy cafés and why he thinks it is the right time and a good opportunity for Free Software to do so in other places as well.
You care about privacy and you are either paying an e-mail provider, or even run your own mail server to keep autonomy, control, and privacy over your email. You do this because you want to make sure that no big company has copies of all of your personal email. Still, this does not prevent other companies from getting their hands on your data. It is not enough to merely take care of your own security, if you seek to increase your security. You have to convince your peers to increase their security, too: like Jacob Appelbaum says, security is interdependent.
You probably heard about the bug in the Free Software OpenSSL nicknamed "heartbleed". The FSFE already welcomed the industry initiative to fund critical Free Software projects, and the topic was discussed in several blog articles on the planet: Sam Tuke wrote about his impression, Hugo Roy shared an XKCD comic explaining how heartbleed works, and Martin Gollowitzer wrote about what the Heartbleed bug revealed to him about StartSSL certificate authority.
Although more entrepreneurs and politicians understand the importance of Open Standards, people do not see the connection with their daily life. That is why on 26 March we again organised Document Freedom Day (DFD). This year we had a lot of new materials: new leaflets in different languages explain Open Standards, and a nice comic shows why you should use Open Standards so you do not have problems with your files when you are old.
The UK government is making progress towards less vendor lock-in. In January, they published a few principles for future government IT contracts. They want to break the dominance of the big software companies who provided the vast majority of software and services to the UK government.
More public administrations using Free Software means more money for the development of Free Software and less problems for citizen using Free Software communicating with their authorities. In January the Italian government has made Free Software the default choice for public administrations. The Italian Digital Agency issued new rules saying that all government organisations in the country must consider using Free Software before buying licenses for proprietary programs. The rule, which has been discussed for over a year, has now been reaffirmed. Carlo Piana, who participated on FSFE's behalf in the working group, wrote: "Now public administrations have no excuse not to comply with the guidelines. There are no more excuses, there is no room for ambiguous interpretations."
Many hackers (including us, of course!) have been enjoying the various festivities occurring around the winter solstice. But, alas!, the time to dwell on Christmas presents and enjoy a family recess is no more – the Yule has gone, the year has been made anew, and the fight for freedom and liberty demands our attention once more. Hence, it is only fitting to begin with a short review of what 2014 has got in store for us during the next few months.
In 2005 we started giving crypto cards to individuals who donated to us and have become Fellow of FSFE. We believe it is important to remind people about Free Software tools to encrypt our communications. Besides since FSFE was founded in 2001, we have been explaining that those 40 digits on our business cards are about encryption and why this is important. 8 years later, the topic encryption hit ithe media, and it is now mentioned in every newspaper in Europe. This is good and bad at the same time: We currently face the problem that media attention is very high but it does not mean we have more resources to deal with it. We would like to work more on these issues but we also cannot stop working on other long term topics.
At the first glance some devices might look like crap. Why should anyone buy them? Some people laughed at your editor when he bought his Open Moko Neo Freerunner. You could buy cheaper devices with a faster CPU, more RAM, more disk space, nicer casing, better network connection, better microphone and speakers at that time.
On 27 September 1983 Richard Stallman announced the GNU project. An initiative that started with a programmer's frustration over a broken printer driver has changed our society. The idea of software that everyone can use, study, share and improve has proven powerful.
F-Droid is a project that provides Free Software applications for Android via a repository system, much like most package systems of the GNU/Linux distributions. This differs from other mobile app markets, like Google Play or Apple's AppStore, since the client and server side software respect your freedoms and do not force you to register an account to use them. F-Droid's settings will value your privacy: although you can choose to enable it, by default it does not show programs which 1) show advertisement, 2) track and report your activity, promote 3) non-free add-ons or 4) non-free network services, or 5) depend on other non-free apps. That is why since the beginning of FSFE's "Free Your Android" campaign we point people to F-Droid.
Because Android is Free Software and gratis, the non-free software competition cannot compete with it, therefore the market has less alternatives, thus the consumer suffers from this lack of competition. In a nutshell that is the argumentation of the so-called "Fair Search" coalition. Essentially they are asking the European Commission to favour a restrictive business model over a liberal one, which is exactly the opposite of what competition regulators should do in order to achieve a fair market.
Unfortunately sometimes companies forget their responsibility when using Free Software in their products. Someone has to make sure that companies are reminded from time to time. That's what we do with our compliance work. After our volunteers found a GNU GPL violation in a workshop in May 2012, we handed all the evidence to Harald Welte from gpl-violations.org and his lawyers. They processed the case and we were now informed that we won the case.
No Free Software programmer wants them but unfortunately they are still granted: software patents. They monopolise ideas about software, so programmers cannot use them. In April the German Parliament (the 'Bundestag') has introduced a joint motion against software patents. It urges the German government to take steps to limit the granting of patents on computer programs. After the first hearing in Parliament, your editor was invited as an external expert to the legal committee meeting on May 13th.
Every year on the last wednesday of March, Document Freedom Day (DFD) takes place: the global day to raise awareness of Open Standards, organised by the FSFE. It has been amazing to see year by year how the message of freedom and Open Standards has continued to spread around the world. This year, there were 59 events in 30 countries, and many first time participants, including Niger, Indonesia and the United States.
From February 1st to February 3rd thousands of people went to Brussels to participate in FOSDEM -- the Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting. At FOSDEM you have the opportunity to meet developers and contributors from nearly all major Free Software projects. FSFE is always there to talk with people about ongoing developments and the needs and contributions in the Free Software community. So it is a good place to exchange information, talk with very interesting people, plan future activities, and meet all the people you would usually just have e-mail contact with.
We want software as a tool to help society. Software patents are a threat to this as they add legal and financial risks to software development and distribution by giving the patent holders legal power to completely prohibit software developers from using patented ideas.
On 7th November, several political candidates standing in the Manchester Central By-election participated in the "Manchester Digital Debate", organised by our UK coordinator Sam Tuke and the Open Rights Group (ORG). The event is part of FSFE's "Ask Your Candidates" campaign, which aims to provide an opportunity to engage (local) politicians with digital concerns that they typically do not address.
Most of the participants in our Free Your Android workshops are concerned whether rooting your device (e.g. an Android phone) and replacing its operating system with something else voids your statutory warranty as consumer. We asked our legal coordinator Matija Šuklje and FSFE legal council Carlo Piana to analyse the problem. Their answer is: No. "Just the fact that you modified or changed the software of your device, is not a sufficient reason to void your statutory warranty. As long as you have bought the device as a consumer in the European Union." Read throughout their analysis.
The Free Software community celebrated the worldwide Software Freedom Day, held annually the third Saturday in September, with diverse events and meetings. Our local Fellowship group in Manchester met to test and discuss what alternative there is to Skype. They did extensive testing and published the results.
More and more people start using mobile phones with Android. But in order to be in full control over your phone, you have to install another Android firmware on them. To make this phone liberation easy we started the Free Your Android campaign.
For the first time, the European Parliament (EP) is about to release one of its own programs as a Free Software. The program in question is called AT4AM, short for "Automatic Tool for Amendments". The Parliament is making laws, and AT4AM automates a lot of the formalities associated with the legislative process.
The FSFE's goal is to ensure that the owners of IT devices are always in full and sole control of them. This fundamental principle is recently being challenged. For maintaining sustained growth in the development and use of software, the broad availability of general purpose computers is crucial. This month the FSFE published its "Secure Boot" analysis.
There are two major terms connected to software that can be freely used, studied, shared and improved: Free Software and Open Source. You can also find different combinations and translations of those terms like FOSS, Libre Software, FLOSS and so on. Reading articles about Free Software or listening to people involved in Free Software often raises the question: Why do they use one term or another and how they differ from each other?
As you can read and see in this years report, Document Freedom Day 2012 was celebrated with 54 events in 23 countries and in 19 world languages. It was the biggest DFD in history with over 26 talks, over 6 awards for Open Standards, lots of other events and the press coverage counted almost one hundred articles. FSFE coordinated between all the different events, awarded several organisation, and in Germany mailed over 370 and called over 170 politicians about Open Standards. Several of these politicians, from a range of political parties, did activities for DFD. FSFE also send out 100 information packages including handcuffs to suggested people including several politicians, CEOs, and the Pope. EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes used our handcuffs in a public speech, which resulted in a lot of additional press coverage including the front page of the Guardian Online. FSFE is eager to hear more reports of what recipients of the package did with the handcuffs.
A "project" is always temporary, in the narrow sense of the term. Some Free Software people use "project" to refer to long lasting initiatives instead. Your editor also did this, until Bernhard Reiter convinced him to use different terms for people, the result they create, and temporary concerted actions. After several people in FSFE encouraged Bernhard to write down his thoughts, he now published an article arguing: By adopting the more widespread use of the term project, Free Software initiatives will be more successful. "Free Software is here to stay, prepare your mind for this situation.", writes Bernhard.
"7500 dead people in the last year, daily up to 100." That is what your editor read on the subway news screen in Berlin. While discussing with DFD volunteer Julia Fuchs what is wrong -- your editors reading skills, his basic mathematical skills, or the news agency -- something else popped up: our FreeYourAndroid.org campaign! Unfortunately your editor was too slow to make a picture of that. But as the German news agency DPA covered the official campaign start, we had a very good press coverage, so a lot of people read about how you can use Free Software on mobile phones. The campaign manager Torsten Grote is currently gathering all the press coverage, please send news and blog stories about #FreeYourAndroid to press@fsfe.org.
Smartphones are small computers that we carry around all the time. Unfortunately, most smartphones are not controlled by us, the users, but by the manufacturers and the operators. Even Android phones are being shipped with non-free software and proprietary add-ons that usually do not work in the full interest of us. Software updates will only keep to be available if the manufacturer still has a commercial interest in your device. The applications available from the official market are most of the time non-free. Nobody is allowed to study how they work and what they really do on your phone. Sometimes they do not work exactly as you want, but sometimes they might even contain malicious features.
Competition authorities are investigating the sale of 6000 patents from Nortel, a bankrupt telecommunications equipment manufacturer, to a consortium of Apple, Microsoft and four other companies.
Who controls what you find on the internet? Search engines are a vital connection between you and information. In the eyes of the FSFE, it is important that users can be independent. That is why we spread awareness about the 1.0 release of YaCy, a peer-to-peer search engine. Read about YaCy at our press release, Karsten Gerloff's blog entry or choose one of the many news sites who wrote about it, including Wall Street Journal, BBC News, The Telegraph or TAZ.
How long should copyright last? Should living beings or software be patentable? The World Intellectual Property Organisation deals with this sort of questions. Since 2004, we are involved in the WIPO to make sure they do not harm Free Software. Our most important demand is that when it comes to copyright and patents, the benefits should be weighed against the costs.
FSFE Fellow Michael Clemens has a solution for all of you out there who want to know when their laundry in the washing machine is done. In his article he explains how to build get a "Laundruino", based on the Free Software microcontroller Arduino, which informs you of the status of your laundry cycle.
The first day in a new organisation always is quite intensive, many new people, procedures, so much information. Our new intern Eszter Bako it was even more intense. She spent her first day with FSFE at the Desktop Summit, surrounded by nearly 800 people talking about strange things such as KDE, Gnome, Qt, GTK, Plasma, Git, QML, D-Bus, or about how to build a toaster. For beginners the Free Software community can give a strange impression.
Bernhard Reiter is one of FSFE's founders and architect of the original German team. He participated in setting up three important Free Software organisations: FreeGIS.org, FFII, and FossGIS. Besides that, he is founder and Executive Director of Intevation GmbH, a company with exclusively Free Software products and services since 1999.
Imagine that you've just bought a computer with pre-installed Free Software. After some time you decide to install additional software made by someone else. The vendor that sold you your computer, however, does not approve, and decides to sue the people who made the additional software that you installed. Sounds like purchasing a computer from that vendor was not such a great idea!
What would you do with a monopolist, who uses his dominant position in one area to create monopolies in other areas as well? The European Commission has decided in 2004 that Microsoft has to provide competitors with information how to connect a workgroup server with computers running Microsoft Windows. Since the main competitor to Microsoft’s workgroup server is the Free Software Samba project, the Commission made it clear that Microsoft had to release interoperability information in a way that is compatible with Free Software licenses like the GNU GPL. The Commission's 2004 decision did not require Microsoft to publish innovative information, it asked for simple information how Microsoft computers talk to each other.
882 software patents, likely related to GNU/Linux, in the hands of people who could use them to pressure Free Software companies and developers? Maybe in the hands of Microsoft, which has for years used nebulous patent claims to extract licensing fees from companies that use the Linux kernel in their products. This month the German and the US competition authorities approved the sale of those patents to CPTN, a consortium consisting of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, and EMC. But, barring nasty surprises in the still to be published detailed decision, we neutralised the danger for Free Software.
One room with a bed, a desk, and a sofa. That was the situation when your editor started working as an intern for FSFE in Georg Greve's one room appartment in Hamburg in 2004. FSFE started with its operations in March 2001 as the first sister organisation of the FSF in the US. We have come a long way since then. First of all, our interns don't get Georg's mandatory cooking lessons any more, instead they now have their own desks and do not have to work from the sofa any more. Second, we now have the Fellowship which leads to a growth of volunteers and activities:
"On 27th January facebook was shut down in Egypt. For the moment this stopped the protests. Media assumes that this is due to the influence of Mubarak's granddaughter who is Mark Zuckerberg's girl-friend." Of course this is not true. But with software which is controlled by one company, something like this can happen. What if the owner of the social network would have been an Egypt company? Would this company have been able to resist state pressure?
Videos on the internet often prove to be literal nuisance to Free Software users. Several websites required the non-free flash video plugin to view videos. Perhaps also your friends were wondering why you are not able to watch youtube videos within your web browser, and thought you are a freak when you started downloading videos with youtube-dl. With gnash and other programs which are able to play flash video directly the situation improved. But flash is still a pain annoying both for Free Software users and developers.
Their mission is to bring Free Software into schools and universities. Their new task is to gather information about their stakeholders, and create targeted leaflets. And I am sure the favourite colour of the coordinators Thomas Jensch and Guido Arnold is Fellowship green. That's our education team.
This edition covers the current developments in Open Standards policy, some basic information about software patents, an update from FSCONS about distributed computing, and how you can support us in the end of the year.
This edition explains how we counter the lobby work of proprietary organisations at the European level, what we do at the United Nations level to inform more people about the dangers of software patents, what we are doing to get rid of non-free software advertisement on public websites, and what you can do to make a change.
In this edition we discuss the misleading term "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" (FRAND), we explain what we are doing about centralised computer systems and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and update you on our current campaign to end non-free software commercials by public institutions.
In this edition we are covering Free Software in education, distributed Free Software solutions as alternative to centralised services, some ways to celebrate what we -- the Free Software community -- already achieved, and how you can participate in the European football championship even if you are not interested in football.
The focus of this edition is Free Software in the public sector: on a national level within the United Kingdom, in the Italian region of Bozen, and in the Austrian city of Linz. We introduce a new definition of mnemonic Open Standards, and invite you to participate in upcoming local Free Software events.
This edition covers Neelie Kroes' statement about Open Standards, the Free Software discussion in Saxony (Germany), and the relicensing of WebM to be GPL compatible, and asks you all to keep in touch with your politicians about Free Software issues.
May was quite busy, for the first time we participated in a big church event to inform visitors about Free Software. We analysed the European Commission's Digital Agenda, and there was news about free video formats.
In January, FSFE was awarded the Theodor Heuss Medal as a "trendsetting organisation". This recognition for the hard work of the past years was a good start into the new year.
Despite the temperatures dropping below zero all over Europe and the Christmas holidays approaching, FSFE kept working as usual for software freedom. The major news of December are that we have begun to restructure our website, added Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as webmaster deputy coordinator, and published a statement on the EC's settlement with Microsoft in the browser antitrust case. Read on to learn more about what we did in December.
November: another month full of activities and work to do for FSFE. Among other things we launched the Fellowship grant project, fought for Open Standards in the European public sector, had an excellent time at the FSCONS in Sweden, and participated in WIPO to ensure that Free Software principles are respected. To keep FSFE strong and independent, we have launched our year-end fund raising campaign: Cooking for Freedom.
October has been a dense, vibrant and challenging month for FSFE. We have done more work than will fit the limits of this letter. For this reason, after reading the newsletter, please visit the news section of our website to have a complete overview of our work:
The Software Freedom Day is one of the main events in the Free Software community in September, and it is an event we never miss: this year FSFE celebrated in Leipzig, Vienna and Hamburg with the help of our Fellows. Thanks to them, the campaign "Ask your candidate about Free Software!" for the German elections became a great success.
August traditionally is a month with a lower level of activity due to holidays. Still, a lot of things happened under FSFE's and the Fellowship's roofs.
This month has been full of activity, but one bit of news has cast a shadow over it all. We have learned of the death of Richard Rothwell, who was a prominent and respected advocate for Free Software in education and a Fellow. We are saying farewell to him below.
June has definitely been a thrilling month. Besides our ongoing activities with Fellowship meetings, participations to events such as the LinuxTag in Berlin, most of our energy and attention were directed at the General Assembly (GA) held in Miraflores de la Sierra.
May has been an hot month for us. Not only because the first real sunbeams start showing up all-over Europe, but mainly because during the whole month we run our first-ever voting process to elect a Fellow representative to FSFE General Assembly (GA). Moreover, we published our call for applications as coordinator and staff positions in our legal department, and our Austrian team concluded its challenging and satisfying tour across the whole Austria, by participating to "Linuxwochen Eisenstadt".
Do you know one thing that makes Free Software sustainable? You! Yes, it is your support that allows us to operate across the whole Europe and at different levels to promote and defend Free Software principles. Amongst other things, your donations made possible the planning and coordination of the Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop. They allowed the Austrian team to participate in many public events across the whole Austria and to continue having an intern in our Zurich office.
If you were wondering when the newsletter would come back, stop wondering - it's back! We apologise for the delays in delivering the newsletter over the past few months and assure you that our monthly newsletter will now resume the task of updating you regularly about FSFE activities.
October marked the beginning of a planning phase in FSFE. As well as planning our campaigns for next year, we've been working on some actions for around the upcoming festive season. Alongside the internal discussions, we've been asking the community for ideas when we go to events or hold Fellowship meetings.
This was an important month for Free Software. Not only was Software Freedom Day held (as always) on the 20th, but this years marks the 25th anniversary of the GNU Project. Celebrations took place across Europe and our Fellows continued to support Free Software in local areas with enthusiasm and passion.
The most exciting thing this month is the amount of Fellowship activity we are seeing around Europe. It's great to see more and more local meetings, giving Free Software supporters a chance to hang out together and share views.
FSFE's activities have been varied over the last month. It's promising to see the increase of Fellowship activities across Europe. We are looking forward to seeing more local groups appear and to hearing about their activities on all levels. One of the most important parts of supporting Free Software is sharing knowledge in your own community.
Housekeeping items are the least popular of all tasks in any organisation, and any organisation that is working under pressure has a tendency of accumulating them. That is why after the intensive work of the past year to build up and grow the Freedom Task Force, work on antitrust and OOXML issues, and various other activities, FSFE had some of them as well. Fortunately, after substantial preparation and three intensive days, FSFE's General Assembly in June managed to take care of them and send everyone home highly motivated and with a full task list. The results of this will become slowly visible throughout the coming year.
Issues around standardisation continued to make headlines during April. However, other important areas of focus were also under discussion around the world.
It has been another busy month for software freedom. Open Standards have continued to dominate discussions in ICT with the MS-OOXML proposal being accepted by ISO as a standard. FSFE and numerous other parties have observed this process from the beginning and have reason to be concerned about the state of international standardisation. You could read more about this in our lead story below.
It has been an exceptional month. The European Commission has fined Microsoft an additional 899 million Euro for continuing to restrict access to interoperability information prior to October 2007 and the ISO Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva failed to address most of the serious issues and ultimately ended up waving through the bulk of ECMA responses without review. Public awareness of issues relating to software freedom have been raised dramatically.
January has been a month full of activity both on the grassroots community level and in broad topics like Free Software legal infrastructure. The local Fellowship groups in Berlin and Duesseldorf are very active, and Duesseldorf's Fellowship is planning to expand to nearby cities in the coming months. Meanwhile, FSFE and gpl-violations.org have been deepening their partnership to ensure fair use of Free Software licences in the European area.
The last month of 2007 was pretty exciting, with the biggest news being the release of interoperability information by Microsoft in connection with the European antitrust case. The SAMBA project has arranged full access to specifications necessary for communication competitive alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary products. Of course, this does not mean that Microsoft's monopolistic behaviour has been resolved. A new antitrust case may be undertaken after complaints by Opera Software that Microsoft has willfully distorted the web browser marketplace. It's also important to note that this does not in any way solve the problem with patents on software. Such patents are still being granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in violation of current law, and the FSFE is encouraging the European Commission to take actions to permanently abolish patents on software, both in theory and practice.
Welcome to FSFE's exceptionally full November newsletter. In Europe FSFE has been involved in speeches, meetings, training courses and public betas of new technology. On the global level we have been participated in the recent Internet Governance Forum meeting in Brazil.
Topics: Welcome to FSFE's October newsletter. This month, issues of interoperability, sustainable ICT and Free Software in education have been receiving attention. There are also changes inside FSFE, with the Fellowship reviewing its infrastructure and long-term projects like the FTF European Legal and Technical networks continuing to expand. Exciting times indeed.
Topics: Microsoft antitrust: A victory for Free Software and freedom of competition, WIPO: FSFE calls for interoperability and Open Standards, Freedom Task Force signs MoU with TIS Free Software Center, Southern Tyrol, Italy, Videos of FSFE president Georg Greve with Chilean Minister of Economy, FSFE supports protest against increased surveillance of digital communication, FSFE presents FSCONS and The Scandinavian Free Software Award, FSFE at OpenExpo, Switzerland, Get active.
Topics: FSFE engages with irregularities in the ISO voting process, FTF informal legal network now covers sixteen European countries, Two days of Free Software in Chile, The Fellowship site now supports multiple languages, First distributed Fellowship meeting, FSFE German Team at FrOSCon, Fellows of the Rhein/Ruhr area holding monthly talks, Building the Fellowship in Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Karlsruhe, FSFE supports demonstration "liberty instead of fear", September 22nd, Speeches about SELF, Open Standards and Free Software in Argentina, Free Software and Free Documentation licence consultations.
Topics: Mythbusting MS-OOXML, First Swedish Fellowship meeting held in Gothenburg, Free Software on Exit festival 2007, Novi Sad, Serbia, Freedom in the hills: the Bergtagung, GNU GPL licence confirmed once again in a court of law, Submit Free Software projects to the Trophées du Libre, Ongoing work of spreading GNU GPLv3 understanding, Tell a friend about the Fellowship, share this newsletter.
Topics: FSFE's General Assembly and the first Benelux fellowship meeting, GPLv3 and LGPLv3 have been released, Free Software personal consultancy for businesses, Six questions to national standardisation bodies, Georg Greve in India, FTF useful tips translated to Asian languages, Free Software in Austrian Schools, Get your friends to support the Fellowship and FSFE.
Topics: FSFE and Digicomp announce Free Software Licensing course, Meeting Libre 2007 in Miraflores, Spain, FSFE at eLiberatica 2007 in Romania, Richard Stallman in Sweden, ConfSL, LUGConf and Fellowship meeting in Cosenza, Italy, Linuxtag in Berlin, Linuxwochen tour through Austria, Donations now tax-deductable in Switzerland.
1. FSFE launches list of recommended Free Software lawyers 2. FSFE action on IPRED2 "Criminalisation" Directive 3. Transcript of Richard M. Stallman's speech in Brussels online 4. FSFE at A2K2 conference in Yale Law School 5. Georg Greve and Jonas Öberg in Belgrade, Serbia 6. Ivan Jelic joining European Core Team of FSFE 7. Merchandise available via web order 8. Get active: join the translation team!
Topics: FTF introduces useful tips for compliance, Talk about GPLv3 in Brussels, STACS kickoff meeting in Paris, FSFE thanks Google for sponsoring 1 year of internship, Introducing FSFE's new interns, Announcing a new Italian Fellowship meeting.
Topics: Fiduicary License Agreement released under GFDL/CC-by-sa, FSFE announces big raffle among all Fellows, FSFE at FOSDEM in Brussels (Belgium), Ciarán O'Riordan at SkyCon in Limerick (Ireland), End of internship of Maria Luisa Carli, System administration murphy weeks, Get Active: Join the SELF project!.
Topics: FSFE becomes the legal guardian of the OpenSwarm Project, Transcript of Richard Stallman on the Free Software movement, Windows Vista released - FSFE recommends switching to GNU/Linux, Get Active: Join the Revolution!.
Topics: Looking back and forward, Georg Greve at "Nexell informiert", Get Active: Join the Fellowship!.
Topics: First international Fellowship conference, Freedom Task Force started, FSFE becomes the legal guardian of Bacula.org, Inaugural meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, Fifth international GPLv3 conference, Trophees du Libre, Introducing Mathias Klang, FSFE at public events, Get Active: tell your company about FSFE!.
Topics: DRM.info platform launched, Introducing Shane M. Coughlan and Maria Luisa Carli, FSFE helped liberating Italian ZIP code database, FSFE at LWE fairs in Utrecht (Netherlands) and London (UK), FSFE Swedish Team at the Internet Days in Stockholm (Sweden).
Topics: Regional and international Fellowship meetings, FSFE at the Wizards of OS in Berlin, Georg Greve at SERCI workshop in Helsinki, Finland, FSFE at WIPO General Assembly, Other public appearances.
Topics: Moving forward in the GPLv3 public consultation process, SELF project issues call for material, New office in Sweden, School of Art and Design Zürich donates hosting services to FSFE, Giacomo Poderi ends his internship, Alex Antener joins the core team.
Topics: SELF project officially launched, Second draft of the GPLv3 presented, Bernhard Reiter spoke at University of Bayreuth (Germany), Free Software at Campus Party in Valencia (Spain), Experts Meeting on Internet Governance Forum, Microsoft fined another 1.5m EUR per day, 280.5m EUR total, FSFE servers moved.
Topics: GPLv3 conference in Barcelona, FSFE at UN WIPO PCDA/2, Anja Vorspel hired part time to help in FSFE office, Georg Greve at dorkbot.swiss, Linuxwochen in Linz (Austria), Stefano Maffulli at Java Conference Milano.
1. FSFE at Linuxtag in Wiesbaden (Germany) 2. Free Software workshop at Academy of German Army 3. FSFE at several events in Milan (Italy) 4. GPLv3 at SANE and UKUUG evening talks 5. Georg Greve at HGKZ university in Zürich (Switzerland) 6. Karsten Gerloff at eIFL workshop in Kiev (Ukraine) 7. FSFE General Assembly in Manchester 8. Linuxwochen in Vienna (Austria)
Topics: Two lucky Fellows win a notebook, Giacomo Poderi starts internship at FSFE, FSFE core team continues to grow, Ciarán O'Riordan and Gareth Bowker speak in London, Free Software Forum in Brasil, Access to Knowledge Conference in USA, Hearing for Microsoft antitrust case.
Topics: Happy birthday FSFE, Pablo Machón and Xavier Reina join the FSFE core team, GPLv3 conference in Torino, gnuvox, the voice of Free Software in Italy, Official FSFE statement on patent system in Europe, Fellowship of FSFE participated in LUGConference 2006, Karsten Gerloff at TACD.
Topics: Gareth Bowker joins General Assembly of FSFE, Free Knowledge Foundation associates with FSFE, UN Consultations on Internet Governance Forum (IGF), UN WIPO: Provisional Committee on a Development Agenda (PCDA), FSFE's office moves to Düsseldorf, Second Fellowship meeting in Berlin, Microsoft antitrust case: 2 million EUR per day, FSFE at FOSDEM, FSFE organises SWPAT roundtable in Brussels, Fellowship: Get a 3 month LWN subscription and win a notebook!.
Topics: Fellowship meetings in Vienna and Berlin, Discussion about Free Software in Austrian schools started, First draft of GPLv3 presented, Microsoft still trying to avoid competition.
Topics: Celebrating the 20th newsletter, Georg Greve at LACFREE in Recife in Brazil, Henrik Sandklef at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Karsten Gerloff at the 22nd CCC in Berlin, Voicing security concerns against personal pressure, Free Software energy in Northern Ireland.
Topics: First Austrian Fellowship meeting, Tweakfest in Zürich, UN World Summit on Information Society, LinuxWorld Expo in Frankfurt/Main, Seminar in Dublin about preventing software patentability, Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre in Rosario (Argentinia), LinuxDay in Italy, Removal of Free Software from WSIS "Vienna Conclusions", Welcoming the Free Software Foundation Latin America.
Topics: Fellowship portal migrated to eZ publish, Joint Statement of FSFE and FSF Latin America to WIPO GA, WSIS workshop on internet governance and human rights, Workshop about Free Software in Austrian schools, Internet Hungary 2005, Valtellinux in Caiolo (Italy), Internetdagarna in Stockholm (Sweden), FSFE's political message in Ireland, Georg Greve in Brazil, Real Networks leaves antitrust EU case, Microsoft's new "shared source" licenses.
Topics: IPRED2 - the new attack against freedom, Stichting NLnet donate 150,000 EUR to support GPLv3 activities, Alessandro Rubini in Slovenia, Stefano Maffulli at the OpenOffice.org Conference in Slovenia.
Topics: Heading towards the GPLv3, Karsten Gerloff at the ATTAC Germany summer academy, AFFS General Meeting, Improving the infrastructure.
Topics: European Parliament rejects software patent directive, Svenska Linuxföreningen's yearly meeting, Summer School on Libre Software in Castellón, Jornades de Programari Lliure in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Third inter-sessional WIPO meeting in Geneve, FSFE at What The Hack, Expanding the network of Free Software organisations.
Topics: WSIS/WSA Contributory Conference in Vienna, Austria, Round table in Venice, Italy, Podium discussion about software patents in Kiel, Germany, ChaosControl conference in Vienna, Austria, WIPO meeting in Geneve, Switzerland, GNU/Linuxtag in Karlsruhe, Germany, Karlsruhe Memorandum on software patents, Europython in Göteborg, Sweden, 1ere Conference Nationale de Logiciels Libres, Aleppo, Syria, Lobbying against software patents, Karsten Gerloff finished internship with FSFE.
Topics: General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, Access to Knowledge (A2K) meeting in London, UK, Romanian discussion mailing lists, LinuxWorldExpo in Milano, Italy, Linuxwochen Wien, Vienna, Austria, Software patent conference in Udine, Italy, Alessandro Rubini in Bologna, FSFE very active in Brussels, Freedom Party in Berne, Switzerland, FSFE looks for new intern.
Topics: Ciaran O'Riordan working full-time for FSFE, IFSO becoming associate organisation, WIPO IIM on "Development Agenda", FSFE office in Hamburg, Fellowship SmartCards being sent out, Freedom party in Milano, Teaching the World Bank, FSF Latin America on its way, Nordic University Computer Club Conference in Sweden, Alessandro Rubini speaks at University in Lecce, Web pages translated to 14 languages.
Topics: Henrik Sandklef becomes a member of the FSFE association, Fellowship a big success, Karsten Gerloff begins internship with FSFE, Freedom Party in Berlin, Free Software Workshop in Damascus, Conference on Free Software in Istanbul, Free Software Conference in Sarajevo, Linuxforum in Copenhagen, Microsoft trial getting increased public attention, Georg Greve visits FSF in Boston.
Topics: Fellowship of FSFE announced, Comments on WSIS/WGIG papers, Wilhelm Tux hits the apple, Software patents: the battle continues..., Microsoft tries to bypass European Court decision.
Topics: FSFE in Dublin, FSFE at World Social Forum (WSF), HP donates two servers, Continued tour through Italy, Activities against software patents.
Topics: Poland disapproves software patent directive in EU Council, First victory for EU and FSFE in Microsoft trial, FSFE Chapter Italy meets the Italian audience, Chapter Italy awarded Prof. Stefano Rodotà, Other public appearances.
Topics: FSFE stands firm in Microsoft case, FSFE gains observer status at the WIPO, Intensifying world wide co-operation, Two FSFE members attending SFScon, Other public appearances.
Topics: From WIPO to WIWO, Via Libre becoming associate organisation, FSFE at the LWE in Frankfurt, Other public appearances, FSFE watches the Municipality of Pavia, Italian system integrator, Engineering, chooses GNU GPL, Donations via PayPal.
Topics: FSFE self-conception, Is Microsoft happy that the FSFE is included in their appeals process?, FSFE intervenes at the European Court, FSFE at the Ars Electronica, GNU/Linux World Expo in Milan, Italy, FSFE at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Spanish press release mailing list now available.
Topics: Announcing Wilhelm Tux as a new associate organisation, Software patents discussion, Donating to the FSFE in the United Kingdom, Speech at the KDE Community World Summit.
Topics: FSFE supporting European Commission in their case against Microsoft, Widely noticed interview in "Die Zeit", Writing new licenses often counterproductive, RSS feeds for FSFE news and events available, FSFE supports the declaration of Caceres, Investigations on the impact of Free Software on companies.
Topics: Georg Greve in South America, Wizards of OS, Firenze Tecnologia becomes Patron of FSF Europe, Sources-switch, the Italian coordination effort of communities, Introducing Matthias Kirschner, GNU/Linuxtag in Karlsruhe, Strengthening the global Free Software network, Demonstration against software patents, Introducing the translators team, Fundraising campaign.
Topics: introducing the FSFE newsletter, EU Council decision on software patents directive, AGNULA, welcoming FSFE press speaker Joachim Jakobs, Georg Greve in South America, protecting Free Software from over regulation, other important public appearances.