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102 lines
5.0 KiB
102 lines
5.0 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2016-02-05">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>European Free Software Policy Meeting 2016</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>European Free Software Policy Meeting 2016</h1>
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<p>Traditionally, Brussels is the place to go for Free Software enthusiasts
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and developers at the end of January. During <a href="http://fosdem.org">FOSDEM</a>,
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hundreds of experts talk about their beloved project and discuss the past,
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present and future of Open Source. It is a great place for meeting like-minded people.</p>
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<div class="captioned right" style="max-width: 650px; width: 53%">
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<a href="/graphics/2016-policy-meeting-reda-damas.jpg">
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<img src="/graphics/2016-policy-meeting-reda-damas.jpg" alt="1" width="100%"/>
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</a>
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</div>
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<p>At the afternoon before the start of the conference, the <a href="/index.html">Free Software Foundation Europe</a> and <a href="https://openforumeurope.org">OpenForum Europe</a> organised a meeting of representatives of Free Software related
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action groups of all sorts. 19 organisations were present. The purpose of
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the meeting was to learn about each others activities, with an emphasis
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on public policy related actions.</p>
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<p>It was great to have Julia Reda, Member of the European Parliament,
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with us at the meeting. She spoke about the Parliament's initiative to
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ask the Commission to take an initiative to improve the quality control
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practices around essential Free and Open Software used in critical
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infrastructures <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/eu-fossa/home">(FOSSA)</a>
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and about the support for Free Software as expressed in
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<a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P8-TA-2016-0009&language=EN&ring=A8-2015-0371">the Parliament's report on the Digital Single Market initiative</a>
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of the Commission. In this report, the Parliament:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><p>"Considers that software providers should better promote the
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security advantages of open source software and security-related software
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upgrades to users; calls on the Commission to explore an EU-wide
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coordinated vulnerability disclosure programme, including the repair of
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known software vulnerabilities, as a remedy against the abuse of software
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vulnerabilities and security and personal data breaches".</p></li>
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<li><p>"Urges the Commission and the Council to increase the share of
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free and open source software and its reuse in and between public
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administrations as a solution to increase interoperability".</p></li>
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<li><p>"Calls for the increased use of free and open source software,
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particularly in educational establishments and public administrations".</p></li>
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</ul>
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<p>Pierre Damas, a representative of the IT department of the European
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Commission presented the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/informatics/oss_tech/index_en.htm">Open
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Source Software strategy of the Commission</a>, demonstrating the importance
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Free Software has for the Commission's IT infrastructure and the
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commitment of the Commission to use Open Source Software as the basis
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for all software development that has the potential to be re-used
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elsewhere.</p>
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<div class="captioned left" style="max-width: 650px; width: 53%">
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<a href="/graphics/2016-policy-meeting-groups.jpg">
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<img src="/graphics/2016-policy-meeting-groups.jpg" alt="2" width="100%"/>
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</a>
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</div>
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<p>Each of the organisations present made a short presentation on the
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nature of the organisation and on its major public policy related campaigns.
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As major policy issues came forward the lack of possibilities to offer
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Free Software in public tendering procedures, mainly due to lock-in effect
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and the use of non-open standards and proprietary formats and the
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continuous pressure of big proprietary software providers on politicians
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to reverse decisions that favour the use of Open Source Software in public
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administrations. Many organisations are also interested to work around
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the question if software the development of which is paid for by taxpayer's
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money should, in principle, be made available under a Open Source/Free
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Software license which grants everybody the right to use it for any
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purpose, to study how it works, to share it with others, and to improve
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it.</p>
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<p>We agreed that we have to continue working on the goals we share and
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exchange information with each other. To do so we will set up a
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mailinglist to continue discussions between the participants, and other
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groups working on Open Source policy issues in Europe. In order to maintain
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this collaboration, we are determined to make the pre-FOSDEM meeting a
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tradition, so Free Software groups can meet up and exchange views and
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ideas.</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="policy">Policy</tag>
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<tag key="openstandards">Open Standards</tag>
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<tag key="european-commission">European Commission</tag>
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<tag key="european-parliament">European Parliament</tag>
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<tag key="public-administration">Public Administration</tag>
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</tags>
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</html>
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