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Newsletter

EU election +++ DMA & Apple +++ REUSE tool

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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.

Picture collage showing an illustration of Ada, REUSE software logo, and an illustration of a city hall

Table of contents

Quote of the Month

“Socks. I want the socks. I love the FS socks. And if you have, others too”

-FOSDEM 2024 FSFE attendant-

Take action! Talk to your politicians, like our FSFE Netherlands coordinator

In a couple of days, the European citizens will choose their next representatives in the European Parliament. Get active to ensure that Software Freedom is part of the larger political debate!

The FSFE Netherlands coordinator has added his voice for Free Software to Amsterdam's digital city debate. Now it's your chance to highlight the importance of Free Software in the lead-up to the upcoming European Elections next week.

FSFE Netherlands coordinator question (in Dutch):"I think in March something beautiful happened in Amsterdam: the proposal 'Amsterdam Digital Independent' (or 'autonomous') was adopted. I was wondering: in it open source is mentioned to promote autonomy, but also to promote transparency. I would say this aligns with the points of the NSC. What will you do in Europe to bring that further and to support governments and municipalities to really make progress with free and open source software?"

REUSE v.3.1.0a1

The REUSE tool v3.1.0a1 has just been released! This is an alpha release that includes the new REUSE.toml functionality that replaces .reuse/dep5 (which is being soft-deprecated). The main purpose of REUSE.toml is to resolve .reuse/dep5 scenarios as described in https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool/issues/779: if a file has a header and is also covered by .reuse/dep5, and the two sources of information disagree about the licence, which licence applies?

In three steps, REUSE software addresses a fundamental problem with Free Software licensing at its source: what licence is a file licensed under, and who owns the copyright? The REUSE project consists of a set of best practices and a tool that makes it easy and simple to add this legal information to every single file in a project.

We are working on releasing version 3.2 of this tool soon, so stay tuned!

Apple's approach to DMA will harm Free Software

The FSFE continues to work on the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), monitoring the strategies adopted by affected companies (gatekeepers), and their impact on Free Software. We submitted a comprehensive stakeholder position to the European Commission on how Apple cannot be compliant with DMA, and their strategy will reinforce their anti-competitive position. Our report lists that:

This study received substantial contributions from experts and other organizations including F-Droid, Onion Browser, and AppFair.

Image showing one of FSFE staffers participating sitting with a laptop and talking to a microphone on the table
FSFE at the DMA compliance workshop about Apple

This report concludes that, while the DMA aims to promote contestability and fairness, Apple's proposed changes may reinforce its monopolistic behaviour by restricting software freedom, strengthening the dependency of developers and users on its own services and products, and increasing switching costs.

The report also sets forth how integrity of operating systems must not be used for summarily imposing restrictions on 3rd party app stores

Ada goes to the set: let’s make an animated movie!

The illustrated book 'Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream' has made it into homes and libraries around the world. Now we need your help to reach even more kids! Help us make a film of this story and continue doing readings to spark more kids’ interest in coding and tinkering!

Stories from our community

On 25 and 26 May, the RoboCup France Junior took place in Bordeaux. Nursery and primary kids presented their robots while the teens and young adults competed with theirs in various competitions from soccer to rescue. On Sunday 26 May, Théo (15y) and Émilie (12y), two young French supporters, repurposed some of their local robot club (CDSR) booth into their first FSFE booth! They proudly shared FSFE stickers and presented the children's book Ada & Zangemann.

Also in France, in this case in Lyon, FSFE volunteer Vincent Lequertier participated in the Days of the Software Libre (JDLL is its acronym in French) with two readings of the illustrated book "Ada & Zangemann: Un conte sur les logiciels, le skateboard et la glace à la framboise".

And in the Netherlands, André Ockers, volunteer and deputy coordinator of the Dutch FSFE team, presented (in English) the Free Software Foundation Europe at WikiconNL 2024, the annual conference on Wikipedia, Wikimedia, digital heritage, and free access to information in a changing world.

Do not forget to check out planet.fsfe.org; our blog aggregator has several articles that you might find interesting!

And even more: LibreItalia, DORS/CLUC 2024 and esLibre 2024 conferences

At the beginning of May, we took part in the LibreItalia Conference. It was a great occasion to meet and chat with the Italian Free Software community. We had the possibility to talk about Public Money? Public Code! and engage with a younger audience thanks to the Ada and Zangemann story!

A bit later last month, we participated in DORS/CLUC, a conference in Zagreb with two talks, one about "Making AI Really Open: The Current Landscape of Free Software and AI Licensing" and another about "When our routers are not free: the challenges for an Open and Neutral Internet".

Finally, we travelled to Valencia to attend esLibre 2024. There we presented the competition YH4F, talked about CRA, PLD, and liability in Europe and explained why Free Software is important for our society!

Our talks from esLibre and DORS/CLUC were recorded so we will upload them in our usual channels as soon as they are available!

Image collage showing different FSFE staffers giving talks at DORS/CLUC and esLibre

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