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Newsletter

"Back to school" for EU and German policy +++ Ada available worldwide

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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.

Picture collage with an image of an Android robot inside a wrench; an image of the Bundestag with a magnifying glass in the foreground; and an image of the cover of the book Ada & Zangemann

Table of contents

  1. Halftime for the German government: Thank you for the fine words, now let the deeds speak!
  2. Liability, Interoperability, & Free Software in EU: what we are expecting
  3. ‘Ada & Zangemann’: available now in English worldwide
  4. Unleash the potential of your phone: Rooting your device does not void its warranty
  5. Take Action! Contribute to translate our ‘What is Free Software’ video
  6. Chaos Communication Camp 2023 and FrOSCon
  7. foss-north videos and more conferences on the way!
  8. Join us as an intern and make a difference!
  9. Quote of the month
  10. Contribute to our Newsletter

Halftime for the German government: Thank you for the fine words, now let the deeds speak!

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with an alliance of civil society and the Free Software industry, calls on the German government to implement a sustainable digital policy and to provide the necessary funds in the federal budget now.

Liability, Interoperability, & Free Software in EU: what we are expecting

After the summer recess, EU institutions are resuming their activities at the end of August. In the coming months, we expect to see the adoption of legislation that could have an impact on Free Software: the Cyber Resilience Act, the Product Liability Directive, the AI Act, and the Interoperable Europe Act. What does all this legislation mean for Free Software and its community?.

‘Ada & Zangemann’: available now in English worldwide

From 29 August the English version of the book "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream" has been available internationally. The book tells the story of the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software and realises how important it is for her and others to control technology.

Unleash the potential of your phone: Rooting your device does not void its warranty

As users we sometimes face the issue of rooting our devices. We may want to regain control of our device or we may want to keep using a device with an outdated operating system. But we are afraid of losing our legal warranty. Let’s be clear: Just rooting your device and installing new software will not void the statutory warranty.

Image from the video What is Free Software explaining the four freedoms

Take Action! Contribute to translate our ‘What is Free Software’ video

If you read our email, you already know this. We want to translate our video "What is Free Software" into more European languages! This video explains in less than 3 minutes why Free Software is important, and each translation costs about 250 Euros. Therefore, all contributions until the end of September will be used to help our community in Europe to get the video in their native languages. Help us spreading this message or making a small contribution to support this campaign!

Chaos Communication Camp 2023 and FrOSCon

One of our favourite events was back this summer: Chaos Communication Camp 2023! This event brought together technologists, activists, and enthusiasts to discuss, share, and celebrate technology, privacy, and freedom in Brandenburg, Germany. This year, the Free Software Foundation Europe joined the campers as part of the 'Bits und Bäume' village.

Take a look at our talks from the event and see what else we did.

Before that, on the first weekend of August, visitors to FrOSCon in St. Augustin could learn more about Free Software at the FSFE booth. One focus of the conference was Free Software in German administrations. We gave a talk about the German Sovereign Workplace (the recording can be found here) and one of our volunteers - and her daughter! - delighted a young audience with their reading from the book "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream".

foss-north videos and more conferences on the way!

🇸🇪 Last April we attended foss-north, where FSFE co-organised a track on political, social, and legal issues around Free Software. Among other great speakers, there was a keynote by Lina Ceballos, on the Interoperable Europe Act. It took some time, but finally we have the videos of this event! Watch all the interesting talks from the comfort of your own home! And we hope to see you there next year (as a speaker or as a participant 😉).

🇷🇸 You can also join us in our next events! We will be participating in the Balkan Computer Congress - BalCCon2k23 in Novi Sad, Serbia, talking about Device Neutrality and NGI (8-10 September).

🇵🇹 The NGI initiative will also be explained in "Festa do Software Livre" in Aveiro, Portugal, where we will also talk about Router Freedom (16-17 September) and also there but a few days later (30 September) we will discuss Device Neutrality at the "Encontro Nacional de Estudantes de Informatica”.

🇮🇹 On September 16, we will be celebrating Software Freedom Day in Nembro (Italy) with the first reading in Italian of the book ‘Ada & Zangemann’.

🇩🇪 In Germany, we will be at PITS 2023 - Public-IT-Security (21 September) in Berlin, in Cologne we will discuss the role of decentralised social media platforms in our society (22 September), and then we will be at Bitkom (27 September) with a talk about the Cyber Resilience Act.

🇨🇭 And if you are around, celebrate with us the 40th Anniversary of GNU! On 27 September, at the Volkshaus in Biel/Bienne (Switzerland), join the GNU community to celebrate this occasion and help build a future where users' computing freedom extends further than ever.

Remember that you can find all the information about these and other events in fsfe.org/events.

Image of the GNU 40 Anniversary

Join us as an intern and make a difference!

Have you heard about Free Software and you want to know more about it? Are you already a Free Software advocate and do you want to help to bring software freedom to our society? Then our paid internships are for you!. Learn by doing and gain knowledge and technical skills through an internship with us.

Quote of the Month

"It's a hit -- in the first week my kid has read this book 3 or 4 times already, and says this book explains my work on software freedom finally in a way that's easily understandable". Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy, talking about the book "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream".

Contribute to our Newsletter

We would love to hear from you. If you have any thoughts, pictures, or news to share, please send them to us at newsletter@fsfe.org. You can also support us, contribute to our work, and join our community. We would like to thank our community and all the volunteers, supporters, and donors who make our work possible, with a special mention to our translators who make it possible for you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.


Your editor,
Ana Galán