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<html newsdate="2010-11-04" type="newsletter">
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2010-12-17 16:41:14 +00:00
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - November 2010</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - November 2010</h1>
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2020-05-01 09:03:48 +00:00
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<p>This edition explains how we counter the lobby work of
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proprietary organisations at the European level, what we do at the United
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Nations level to inform more people about the dangers of software patents, what
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we are doing to get rid of non-free software advertisement on public websites,
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and what you can do to make a change.</p>
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<p>Beside that the Document Foundation was formed to take care of the
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development of Libre Office. More and more organisations raise awareness about
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government spendings on non-free software, like the <a
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href="http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.ch/2010/10/beschwerde-ans-bundesgericht/">parlamentarian
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group Digital Sustainability in Switzerland</a> and our associated
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organisation <a href="http://ansol.org">ANSOL</a> in <a
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href="http://listas.ansol.org/pipermail/ansol-imprensa/2010-September/000085.html">Portugal</a>
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(Portuguese). The Austrian Fellows asked the political parties in Vienna about
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2020-06-10 05:25:06 +00:00
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their <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/vienna/Wahl2010">stance on Free
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Software related issues</a>, the Fellowship interviews started again with a
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2020-06-11 05:35:21 +00:00
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<a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=119">new interview with
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Leena Simon</a>, Karsten gave a talk about "Power and Freedom" at Tedx <a
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2020-06-08 05:00:52 +00:00
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href="https://download.fsfe.org/torrents/TEDxEutropolis-Karsten_Gerloff-Power_and_Freedom.ogv.torrent">which
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was recorded</a> (bittorent), and I (Matthias) informed the listeners of
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Dradio Wissen about <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=679">Free Software
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licenses</a> (German).</p>
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<h2>Facts against BSA's fictions on Open Standards</h2>
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2020-07-17 13:58:04 +00:00
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<!-- @translators: https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/standards/bsa-letter-analysis.html and
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https://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101016-01.en.html might help with
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translations. -->
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<p>Open Standards are always a hot topic in Brussels. Where Open Standards go,
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Free Software can easily follow. That's why <a
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2020-06-11 05:35:21 +00:00
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=408"> we're pushing for Open
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Standards</a> in the rules and recommendations that the European Commission
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makes for public bodies across Europe. For example we document the changes of
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EU's new interoperability recommendations ( <a href="/freesoftware/standards/eifv2.html">
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European Interoperability Framework</a>), we
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<a href="/freesoftware/standards/ps.html"> publish analysis</a>, and with <a
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href="http://www.documentfreedom.org">Document Freedom Day</a> we raise
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awareness for the topic in a wider public.</p>
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<p>But not everyone out there likes Open Standards. The Business Software Alliance
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(BSA), a lobby group for proprietary software, is pressuring the European
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Commission to remove the last traces of support for Open Standards from the
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latest version of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF).</p>
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<p>We obtained a <a href="/freesoftware/standards/bsa-letter-ec.pdf">copy of a letter</a>
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sent to the Commission by the BSA. We <a
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href="/freesoftware/standards/bsa-letter-analysis.html">analysed their arguments</a> and
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explained why their claims are false, and why Open Standards are key to
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interoperability and competition in the European software market. In short we
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dealt with the following points:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Restriction-free patent licensing opens up participation and promotes
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innovation</li>
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<li>The example standards cited by the BSA are irrelevant to the software field</li>
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<li>(F)RAND licensing in software standards is unfair and discriminatory</li>
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<li>The BSA's letter to the Commission isn't supported by its own membership, much less by the software industry as a whole</li>
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<li>(F)RAND is incompatible with the most widely used Free Software licenses</li>
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<li>Restriction-free specifications will promote standardisation, competition and
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interoperability</li>
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</ul>
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<p>We sent a <a href="/freesoftware/standards/bsa-eif-letter-fsfe-response.pdf">letter</a>
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with those arguments to the European Commission to support Open Standards and
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interoperability, and <a href="/news/2010/news-20101016-01.html">informed the
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press about it</a>. Although this topic is quite complex, several media
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outlets picked it up. You might especially be interested in an article by Glyn
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Moody about <a
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href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2010/10/a-final-few-words-on-frand-licensing/index.htm">"A
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(Final) Few Words on FRAND Licensing"</a>.</p>
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<h2>WIPO - Fighting software patents at WIPO</h2>
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<p>But why wait until we have to deal with topics at the European level? We
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always try to fix them at the root, so we work in some committees of the World
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Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). From October 11-15, WIPO's Standing
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Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) had its 15th session. We participate
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there because the committee discusses questions related to patents and
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standards.</p>
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<p>Our main goals in the committee are to convince WIPO member states and WIPO
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staff that software should not be patentable, explain to them the relation
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between standards and patents from the perspective of Free Software, and make
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them understand how rules must be shaped so that their countries can get the
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most out of Free Software.</p>
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<p>In our most important statement <a
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href="/activities/wipo/statement-20101013.html">"Statement on the relation
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between standards and patents at WIPO SCP/15"</a> we explain why software
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standards must be implementable in any software or business model, including
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those based on Free Software. We argued that when patents are included in
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software standards, they need to be licensed in a manner that does not restrict
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their implementation in any way. Besides the absence of any other restriction,
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that means royalty-free licensing to any party implementing the standard.</p>
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<h2>PDFreaders: 2162 public websites advertise non-free software</h2>
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<!-- @translators@ this is the same text like
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2020-07-03 05:02:24 +00:00
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https://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101102-01.en.html the only change is that
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it says "we" instead of "FSFE". -->
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<p>One month, one campaign, one goal: getting rid of non-free software
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advertisements on public websites. In four weeks, we received reports
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concerning <a href="/activities/pdfreaders/buglist.html">2162 European
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institutions who advertise non free PDFreaders</a>. Apart from the 305
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activists who participated to the search, 1500 individuals, 46 businesses and
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38 organisations signed our <a
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href="/activities/pdfreaders/petition.html">Petition For The Removal Of
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Proprietary Software Advertising On Public Websites</a>. Now that the hunt
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is over, it's time to chase up those websites which encourage visitors to
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jeopardise their freedom. It's time to stamp out the ads!</p>
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<p>Highly motivated volunteers searched the internet for public websites that
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advertise for non-free software and reported <a
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href="/activities/pdfreaders/buglist.html">2162 institutions</a>. Some of
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them, like Massimo Barbieri and Lucas Bickel individually reported more than
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350! Alessandro Albini, Rainer Schmitz, and Павел Харитонов (Pavel Kharitonov)
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also made a remarkable contribution in reporting around 50 institutions
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each.</p>
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<p>But we will not stop with a list of institutions. In the coming weeks, we
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will <a href="/activities/pdfreaders/letter.html">send letters to the
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institutions</a> to draw their attention to their unfair advertising. In the
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name of the signatories of the <a
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href="/activities/pdfreaders/petition.html">petition</a>, we will ask the
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institutions to either remove any recommendation for non-free software from
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their website, or give a choice of several programs.</p>
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<h2>Get active: stamp out the ads!</h2>
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<!-- @translators@ this is the same text like
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https://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101102-01.en.html the only change is that
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it says "we" instead of "FSFE". -->
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<p>Wherever you are, whatever time you have, you can contribute to the removal
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of non-free software adverts on public website. The amazing work of the ads
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hunters and <a href="/contribute/translators/translators.html">
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our translators</a> has laid a firm foundation for the next phase. Now it is
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up to you to enable us to get things done. You can make a difference! Help us
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2020-07-06 10:07:31 +00:00
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to <a href="/activities/pdfreaders/letter.html"> translate the letter into
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missing languages</a> or <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate"> donate to the PDF
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readers campaign fund</a> to help cover the 1600 EUR for postage and the
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extra costs of administration to deliver the messages throughout Europe. Help
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us stamp out the ads!</p>
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<p>Hope to see you at <a href="http://www.fscons.org">FSCONS</a>,<br /> <a
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2020-04-30 13:18:01 +00:00
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href="/about/people/kirschner/kirschner.html">Matthias Kirschner</a>- FSFE</p>
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<p>-- <br />
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<a href="/index.html">Free Software Foundation Europe</a><br />
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<a href="/news/news.rss">FSFE News</a><br />
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<a href="/events/events.rss">Upcoming FSFE Events</a><br />
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2020-06-13 05:30:49 +00:00
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<a href="https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml">Fellowship Blog Aggregation</a><br />
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2023-02-09 14:42:02 +00:00
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<a href="/about/contact.html#community">Free Software Discussions</a> </p>
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2010-12-17 16:41:14 +00:00
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="newsletter"/>
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<tag key="frand"/>
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<tag key="united-nations"/>
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<tag key="pdfreaders"/>
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<tag key="campaigns"/>
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<tag key="pdfreaders"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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