143 lines
7.0 KiB
HTML
143 lines
7.0 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2030-07-20">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<meta name="description" content="A message about our recent successes towards software freedom in Europe despite the crisis" />
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<meta name="keywords" content="fsfe covid19 corona pmpc publiccode" />
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<title>(Y)our recent successes towards software freedom in Europe (despite the crisis)</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>(Y)our recent successes towards software freedom in Europe (despite the crisis)</h1>
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<p>The spread of Covid-19 brought dramatic and drastic changes for us and our societies. And thus shed light on the global need for global solutions like Free Software is. A short summary about the recent successes towards software freedom in Europe we achieved together with your help and despite the crisis. </p>
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<p>The spread of Covid-19 brought dramatic and drastic changes for us and our
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societies. One of the things most of us experienced was to stay at home or in
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quarantine. Apart from severe consequences people have been facing, suddenly
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many people also have been forced to work from home. In response, our
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community was quick and eager in helping people to stay in control of
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technology. In the very beginning already, our community members gathered
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knowledge and <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200403-01.html)">wrote a guide to freedom respecting online collaboration and
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communication tools into our wiki.</a></p>
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<p>In our official channels, the FSFE focused early on highlighting that <a href="/news/2020/news-20200408-01.html">global
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problems need global solutions</a>. And on explaining why <strong>only Free Software
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creates global solutions and cooperations</strong>. We received positive feedback and
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we luckily have seen tremendous success with our message: the European Union,
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the World Health Organsation and the EU eHealth Network followed our
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arguments and they now recommend to any COVID-19 contact tracing app
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development to be published as Free Software. Many countries followed their
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recommendations, for example StoppCorona in Austria, PrivateTracer in the
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Netherlands, the Corona Warn App in Germany or eRouška in Czech Republic.</p>
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<p>This is a huge success for software freedom! And it is a result of our daily
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work we all persistently invest in Free Software advocacy. <strong>Since almost 20
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years the FSFE is part of an ever growing freedom respecting community in
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Europe.</strong> We gather reliable expertise and consultancy and continuously explain
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the public and political representatives the benefits of software freedom.
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Now, in the face of the crisis, national and international players finally
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seem to realize the advantages of Free Software.</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/ab03df8aad289367c8d03410b8b13b05.jpg" alt="A puzzle that creates a globe" />
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<figcaption>Free Software creates global solutions.</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h2>Health care apps as Free Software</h2>
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<p>Hopefully, the decision to publish Covid-19 health care apps as Free Software
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alone helps to change mindsets of decision-makers in the long run. But also
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the viral effect the preceding discussions and decisions had are priceless. In
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international and national major news agencies they reported about health care
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apps to become Free Software and the benefits involved. In several countries
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we have seen a coalition of scientists, data protection agencies, ministries
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and politicians who argued in favor of software freedom. And every time they
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do, <strong>more people understand why software freedom matters for our society</strong>. And
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any time more people understand the importance of software freedom, it is
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likely some of them join our cause.
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</p>
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<p>These developments are part of the success of our work and they show that even
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in dramatic crisis you can help people to understand the benefits of
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controlling technology. On the other hand there is still a lot to do. Many
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countries still encourage the use of proprietary tracing apps. In other
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countries - for example the Corona Warn App developed in Germany - the
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tracing apps themselves are Free Software but they depend on proprietary
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"Exposure Notification Framework" only accessible by installing the
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proprietary Google Play services. Also you need to use a proprietary app
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market to install the app itself. Then <strong>what is all freedom worth if the
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solution depends on third-party proprietary blobs?</strong> And if you have to use
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proprietary software to install them?
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</p>
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<h2>Public administrations for Free Software</h2>
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<p>If we take a look at the big picture and away from the COVID-19 apps, <strong>many
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administrations recently have announced to follow our road to freedom</strong>.
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<a href="/news/2020/news-20200610-01.html">Hamburg</a> wants to focus more on Free Software, <a href="/news/2020/news-20200630-01.html">Munich</a> commits to "Public
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Money? Public Code!", <a href="/news/2020/news-20200424-01.html">the Netherlands</a> commit to Free Software by default,
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the Spanish Municipality of <a href="/news/nl/nl-202007.html#-dinero-p-blico-c-digo-p-blico-">Benigànim</a> signs our Open Letter of the "Public
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Money? Public Code!" campaign and the German city of <a href="/news/2020/news-20200630-01.html">Bühl</a> uses Free Software
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to connect their citizens. We like to help them on their journey and ask more
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to join! We like to make sure people understand that this is a long term
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activity and offer help and guidance.</p>
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<p><strong>Now is a good time to raise awareness about our topic within new audiences</strong>.
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Based on the shoulders of our long term work, the recent successes and the
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public discussions about Free Software we like to speed up the path towards a
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Europe build on Free Software. Please help us to convince more decision-takers
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and to supply them with good material to understand the benefits of Free
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Software.</p>
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<p><strong><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=cwanews">Join us as a supporter</a> and help us with a financial contribution</strong> so we can
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boost our work, repeat our recent successes and help people understand why
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Free Software is important for our future:</p>
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<h3><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=cwanews">Join us as a supporter and make our success your success!</a></h3>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/c2dae610ff67340f2e0642ed6088cb5c.jpg" alt="Tux + GNU + IloveFS" />
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</figure>
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<p><strong>The FSFE wishes you all an enjoyable and healthy summer in (software) freedom.</strong></p>
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<p>PS: A financial support towards the FSFE is tax-deductible in some countries.
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They say it is good for your karma in any country around the globe.</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="pmpc">Public Money? Public Code!</tag>
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<tag key="covid19">Covid-19</tag>
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</tags>
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<discussion href="https://community.fsfe.org/t/485"/>
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<image url="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/ab03df8aad289367c8d03410b8b13b05.jpg"/>
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</html>
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