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Refund4Freedom +++ Legal Corner +++ SFP

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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.

Collage of pictures: an illustration of a hand removing a sticker that looks like the Windows logo. Behind it, you can see the word freedom; an image of a computer with some lines of code and the word copyright on top with a question mark; and a picture with info material from the FSFE from stickers to postcards to posters.

Table of contents

Quote of the Month

“It was love at first sight with Ada & Zangemann: stickers on my laptop, and a spark in my classroom. The real magic happens when my high school students enter primary schools and I tell the younger kids: ‘Go on, adopt a big kid.’ You can see their eyes light up with wonder as they whisper to each other, connected by curiosity and joy"

Giacomo Alessandroni, engineer and teacher. Organizer of Ada & Zangemann readings in Italy with a focus on robotics.

Refund4Freedom project: Kick off in Italy!

Refund4Freedom, a new initiative by the Italian Linux Society (ILS) and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) launched on 29 May. This project wants to make it easier for computer users to claim refunds for unused pre-installed software. By demanding refunds for unwanted pre-installed software, Refund4Freedom helps users avoid unnecessary costs while encouraging device neutrality and user-controlled choices. Refund4Freedom is one of a broader set of activities empowering end-users' rights. More about it

By the way, support for Windows 10 ends on 14 October 2025, but the End of 10 campaign, which encourages users to keep using their current hardware by switching to Free Software operating systems, is there to help. The FSFE suopports this initiative.

SFP#34: Policy and EU: Tech sovereignty debate in the EU

Dive with us into the inner workings of the European Parliament and learn about their approach on technological sovereignty. In this 34th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast, Alex and Bonnie discuss the current debate in the European Union and pay special attention to the current European technological sovereignty and digital infrastructure INI.

As a general rule, software source code is by default protected by copyright. Copyright holders create Free Software by applying a Free Software license to their code. Creative works, such as source code, nevertheless must be sufficiently original in nature before they can be protected by copyright. Exactly what is this “threshold of originality”, and are there types of code that are not automatically protected by copyright?

Read more

FSFE booth at T-DOSE

At the stages: participating in conferences around Europe

We have been busy in May as we have participated in several conferences around Europe: Salmorejo Tech in Córdoba (Spain), DORS/CLUC in Zagreb (Croatia), re:publica in Berlin (Germany), Hackmeeting HackIT in Cagliari (Italy), and T-DOSE 2025 in Eindhoven (The Netherlands).

Lucas Lasota, FSFE Legal Programme Manager, gave a talk online on 27 May about how the Digital Markets Act (DMA) relies on interoperability as one of its regulatory tool in Art. 6(7).

Two women and two men sitting at a table and someone on the foreground talking with a microphone
Gabriel Ku Wei Bin, FSFE Legal Programme Manager, participated in a panel discussion on software freedom and machine learning in Warsaw, during the local celebrations of 40 years of software freedom.

We will be also busy in June attending events such as DevConf CZ, openSuse Conference 2025, and many more... Find out more on events.fsfe.org!

Share your thoughts: why are you supporting Software Freedom?

This year, we are celebrating 40 years of software freedom, and we want to hear from you about why this is important to you! Send us a brief quote to contact@fsfe.org. Tell us why you support it and what it means to you! We will use the best ones to update our testimonials page and other communication channels!

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