2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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2010-12-17 17:39:57 +00:00
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<html newsdate="2010-07-04" type="newsletter">
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2020-04-15 09:46:59 +00:00
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2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - July 2010</title>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - July 2010</h1>
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<p newsteaser="yes">This edition covers Neelie Kroes' statement about Open
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Standards, the Free Software discussion in Saxony (Germany), and the
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relicensing of WebM to be GPL compatible, and asks you all to keep in touch
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with your politicians about Free Software issues.</p>
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2010-06-30 07:56:18 +00:00
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<p>Beside that, FSFE's strategic decision making body, the <a
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2017-06-16 12:23:34 +00:00
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href="/about/team.html">General Assembly</a> (GA) ,
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2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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met in Bozen, Italy. The various outcomes of this meeting will become
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2010-06-30 07:56:18 +00:00
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apparent in the next months and years. On the operational side we organised
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2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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<a href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents">Fellowship meetings</a> in
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Tampere (Finland), Göteburg (Sweden), Paris, Lille (France), Berlin,
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Düsseldorf, Siegen, (Germany), as well as a Fellowship jabber meeting about
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ACTA. Stian published a new <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/david-reyes-samblas-martinez/">Fellowship
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interview with David Reyes Samblas Martinez</a>, in which he answers
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questions on hardware manufacturing, e-learning and Free Software
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politics.</p>
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<h2>"Proprietary technology is a waste of money"</h2>
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<p>No, this is not a quote from someone out of the Free Software community.
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2010-06-30 07:56:18 +00:00
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As <a href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=359">Karsten reported in his
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article</a> it was Neelie Kroes, European Commission’s vice president, who
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2010-07-27 07:58:11 +00:00
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commented at the Open Forum Europe (OFE) meeting in Brussels on 10 June. She
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2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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also said that:</p>
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<blockquote><p>"Many authorities have found themselves unintentionally locked
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into proprietary technology for decades. After a certain point that
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original choice becomes so ingrained that alternatives risk being
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systematically ignored, no matter what the potential benefits. This is a
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waste of public money that most public bodies can no longer
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afford."</p></blockquote>
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2010-06-30 07:56:18 +00:00
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<p>Kroes also backed up <a
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2012-07-20 14:46:12 +00:00
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href="/activities/os/def.html">our definition of Open
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Standards</a>. She made clear that "truly open" standards "do not come with
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any constraints for implementers". This is important as it means that
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programmers can implement a standard in Free Software; Microsoft and others
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have been trying to convince the Commission that a standard is "open" even if
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it cannot be implemented in Free Software. These developments are good news -
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please share them!</p>
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<h2>"Free" State of Saxony argues against Free Software</h2>
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<p>Already in May German politicians had a discussion about Free Software in
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2010-06-30 07:56:18 +00:00
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the Free State of Saxony's state parliament. I (Matthias) published an <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=589">analysis about this
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discussion</a> (in German). The state government talks about strategic
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reasons against Free Software, but does not name any of them. The CDU and the
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FDP say they do not want to influence the market. On the other hand the state
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government educates all their pupils with software from a monopolist and
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advertises Adobe's proprietary software on their websites. In their tenders
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they do not ask for Free Software, but complain that there are too few Free
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Software service providers and programs. Beside that they use the term
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"market standards" against Free Software.</p>
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<p>That such discussions happen in parliament are a very good sign. They mean
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that politicians have to think about Free Software, and that we can all enter
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discussion with politicians about Free Software, too. That is why we asked
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people from Saxony to send their politicians feedback on the discussion, and
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to write them what they liked about the discussion and ask questions like
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‘when politicians talk about strategic reasons against Free Software, what
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are these reasons?’. The speech by Neelie Kroes quoted above is also
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something that you can point politicians to.</p>
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<h2>Free Video Formats / Software licenses</h2>
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2010-06-30 07:56:18 +00:00
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<p>In May, Google <a
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href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/googles-updated-webm-license">Updated
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the license for their WebM project</a> to make it GPL-compatible. As
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2010-06-30 07:59:29 +00:00
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explained <a href="/news/nl/nl-201006.en.html">in the last
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issue</a> WebM is important so users do not have to install the non-free
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flash plugins anymore, but have a free video format to play and encode
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videos.</p>
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<p>WebM was already Free Software, as the rightsholders stated in the licence
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that users have the freedom to use, study, share, and improve it. The problem
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was that its license was not compatible with the <a
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href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html">GNU General Public
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License (GPL)</a>.</p>
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<p>There are <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/">a lot of Free
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Software licenses</a>, but the GNU GPL is the most famous Free Software
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copyleft license and is used by a large percentage of Free Software. It
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ensures the four freedoms and adds the condition that those freedoms remain
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intact in further distribution of the software.</p>
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<p>If people use the same licence or at least GPL-compatible licences, then
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programmers can exchange code freely, and easily, so programmers do not have
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to reinvent the wheel again but can use already existing code. That is why it
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is so important that programmers use the <a
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2010-06-30 08:22:25 +00:00
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href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html">GNU AGPL</a>, GPL, <a
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href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html">LGPL</a>, or a compatible Free
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Software license for their software. There is also an article by David
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Wheeler which is worth reading, <a
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href="http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/gpl-compatible.html">why you should
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make your software GPL compatible</a>, like WebM does now.</p>
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2010-07-26 14:50:42 +00:00
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<h2>Get active: Support us gathering speeches about Free Software</h2>
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2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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<p>Our mission is to explain the concept of Free Software to as many people as
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possible. This month the German team had a booth at the GNU/Linuxtag in
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Berlin and explained Free Software to all the different visitors, gave
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interviews and speeches about "Freedom in the cloud" and common
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misunderstandings about Free Software. Depending on the audience you should
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use slightly modified explanations. To support Free Software supporters, we
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are providing links to <a href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/Video">video</a> and <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/Audio">audio</a> files, as well as <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/Transcripts">transcripts of speeches</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="http://fellowship.fsfe.org">As Fellow</a> you automatically have an
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account there, but you can just <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/UserGuide?action=newaccount">register for a
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guest account</a> and help us to make those pages a good resource for
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people who want to learn from others how to best explain the benefits of
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software freedom.</p>
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2020-04-30 13:18:01 +00:00
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<p>Regards,<br /> <a href="/about/people/kirschner/kirschner.html">Matthias Kirschner</a>- FSFE</p>
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2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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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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<a href="http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml">Fellowship Blog Aggregation</a><br />
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<a href="/contact/community.html">Free Software Discussions</a> </p>
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</body>
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2010-12-07 16:39:09 +00:00
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<tags>
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2020-04-26 11:32:25 +00:00
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<tag key="newsletter"/>
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<tag key="matthias-kirschner"/>
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<tag key="gpl">GNU GPL</tag>
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<tag key="licensing"/>
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<tag key="europeancommission"/>
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<tag key="openforumeurope">Open Forum Europe</tag>
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<tag key="webmasters"/>
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2010-12-07 16:39:09 +00:00
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</tags>
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2010-06-29 12:41:56 +00:00
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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