2008-02-11 22:08:31 +00:00
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How much does freedom influence your life - December 9th, 2004
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<h1>
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How much does freedom influence your life?
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</h1>
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<h3>December 9th, 2004</h3>
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<p>Dear Reader,</p>
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<p>how much does freedom influence your life?</p>
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<p>We -- the the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) -- believe that
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freedom substantially influences all parts of our lives from economy,
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which would be impossible without freedom, to society, which depends
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upon freedom to uphold our cultural and social values. That is why
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freedom is priceless to us and we work hard for freedom in the digital
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society.</p>
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<p>Being a non-profit organisation, much work is done by volunteers, but
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not everything can be done that way. Working for something as
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priceless as freedom does have a cost. That is why we would like you
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to support our work, which we want to convince you of in this letter.</p>
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<p>The struggle over who controls the digital world is happening today
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and is fought with technology, law and money:</p>
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<ol>
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<li><p>Technological means: What began with the vendor lock-in effect of
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proprietary formats shall now be extended and perfected with
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technologies such as "Digital Rights Management" (DRM) and "Trusted
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Computing" (TC).</p>
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<p>Computer users, be they companies, people or governments, lose
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control over their data, which is locked away in formats they have no
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power over and for which only their vendor determines what is allowed
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and what is restricted.</p></li>
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<li><p>Legal means: Due to intensive lobbying, the TRIPS agreement came
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to pass and is now administrated by the World Intellectual Property
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Organization (WIPO), one of the United Nations agencies. This
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agreement is the reason for the "European Copyright Directive" (EUCD)
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and its ideology also found its way into the "IPR Enforcement
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Directive" (IPRED).</p>
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<p>While seemingly unrelated at first, the EUCD has found its way into
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most national laws in the EU and introduces legal grounds against
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"circumvention of technical protection measures."</p>
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<p>In other words: It makes it illegal for you to open the box into
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which your vendor has locked away your data.</p></li>
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<li><p>Monetary means: The European Commission antitrust ruling against
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Microsoft was one of the most spectacular antitrust cases, also
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because it contained the largest fine in European antitrust history,
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roughly 500 million Euro.</p>
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<p>Microsoft is trying to overthrow that ruling in European Court and
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has been soliciting supporters of the European Commission into
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withdrawing their support, namely SUN, Novell and the CCIA.</p>
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<p>Although the antitrust fine may have broken all records, the money
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Microsoft has spent on these activities is already several times that
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amount. Should Microsoft succeed with this strategy, it seems
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unlikely that the Commission would be able to successfully pursue
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antitrust measures against Microsoft ever again.</p></li>
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</ol>
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<p>These are three of the areas the Free Software Foundation Europe is
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working on. We build awareness for the dangers of DRM and TC, which we
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believe are more adequately called "Digital Restriction Management"
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and "Treacherous Computing," and work on keeping Free Software able to
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provide alternatives which preserves your freedom to access your data.</p>
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<p>We have been actively working at the United Nations World Summit on the
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Information Society (WSIS) [<a name="ref1" href="#1">1</a>] and just
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become observer at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
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[<a name="ref2" href="#2">2</a>] , which we seek to change and where we
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work with others to challenge TRIPS.</p>
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<p>And finally, we are third party in the case of Microsoft against the
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European Commission in front of the European Court [<a name="ref3"
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href="#3">3</a>] where much of the EC case now rests upon us and the
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Samba Team that we represent.</p>
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<p>Samba [<a name="ref4" href="#4">4</a>] is the last remaining
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interoperable solution and competition in the workgroup server market and
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we intend to defend its right to compete with Microsoft so you will be
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able to still have an alternative in the future.</p>
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<p>These are just some of the activities we are working on to make sure
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that you will retain your economic and social freedom in the digital
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society -- more projects can be found on our web page. [<a name="ref5"
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href="#5">5</a>]</p>
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<p>Being a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, we are working on
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these issues independently, neutrally and solely dedicated to Free
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Software as in freedom. [<a name="ref6" href="#6">6</a>]</p>
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<p>That work is supported by companies and people [<a name="ref7"
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href="#7">7</a>] who wish to see their freedom upheld and we hope that
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you will be among them, too. [<a name="ref8" href="#8">8</a>]</p>
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<p>Best regards,</p>
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<p>
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<a href="/about/greve/index.html">Georg Greve</a><br />
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President<br />
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Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)<br />
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2009-04-19 20:49:46 +00:00
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<a href="/">http://fsfe.org</a>
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2008-02-11 22:08:31 +00:00
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</p>
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2012-07-20 14:46:12 +00:00
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="1" href="#ref1">1</a>] <a name="ref1" href="/campaigns/wsis/">http://fsfe.org/campaigns/wsis/</a></p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="2" href="#ref2">2</a>] <a name="ref2" href="/activities/wipo/">http://fsfe.org/activities/wipo/</a></p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="3" href="#ref3">3</a>] <a name="ref3" href="/activities/ms-vs-eu/">http://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/</a></p>
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2008-02-11 22:08:31 +00:00
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="4" href="#ref4">4</a>] <a name="ref4" href="http://www.samba.org">http://www.samba.org</a></p>
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2009-04-19 20:49:46 +00:00
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="5" href="#ref5">5</a>] <a name="ref5" href="/projects/">http://fsfe.org/projects</a></p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="6" href="#ref6">6</a>] <a name="ref6" href="/about">http://fsfe.org/about</a></p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="7" href="#ref7">7</a>] <a name="ref7" href="thankgnus.html">http://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html</a></p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="8" href="#ref8">8</a>] <a name="ref8" href="donate.html">http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html</a></p>
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2008-02-11 22:08:31 +00:00
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</body>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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