FSFE
/
fsfe-website


								<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>


								<html newsdate="2009-08-13" type="newsletter">

								  <version>1</version>


								<head>

								  <title>FSFE Newsletter - July 2009 </title>

								</head>

								<body>


								<h1>FSFE Newsletter - July 2009</h1>


								<p>This month has been full of activity, but one bit of news has cast a

								shadow over it all. We have learned of the death of Richard Rothwell,

								who was a prominent and respected advocate for Free Software in

								education and a Fellow. We are saying farewell to him below.</p>


								<p>Major activities of the month were: the support of our German Chapter

								to OpenRuhr initiative, the participation to a Conference hosted by

								the WIPO, an interesting Fellowship meeting in Berlin, our presence to

								RMLL in Nantes, and the publishing of our statement about the latest

								developments in the EU browser case.</p>


								<p align="right"><a href="mailto:poderi@fsfe.org">Giacomo Poderi</a></p>


								   <h3>Table of Contents</h3>

								<ol>

								<li><a href="#1" name="TOC1">Fresh air at WIPO, but old habits die hard</a></li>

								<li><a href="#2" name="TOC2">A farewell to Richard Rothwell</a></li>

								<li><a href="#3" name="TOC3">FSFE supports OpenRuhr</a></li>

								<li><a href="#4" name="TOC4">FSFE booth at RMLL Nantes, France, 07-11 July</a></li>

								<li><a href="#5" name="TOC5">Fellowship Meeting in Berlin, 09 July</a></li>

								<li><a href="#6" name="TOC6">The Fellowship interviews: Smári McCarthy</a></li>


								<strong>In the spotlight</strong>


								<li><a href="#7" name="TOC7">EU browser case: FSFE says details of settlement will be crucial</a></li>


								<strong>It happened in the past</strong>


								<li><a href="#8" name="TOC8">FSFE supporting European Commission in their case against Microsoft</a></li>


								<strong>Upcoming events</strong>


								<li><a href="#9" name="TOC9">4th Froscon, St. Augustin, Germany, 22-23 August</a></li>


								</ol>


								<p></p>


									<h3><a name="1"/>Fresh air at WIPO, but old habits die hard</h3>


									<p>On the 13 and 14 July, in Geneva, the World Intellectual Property

								Organization (WIPO) hosted the Conference "Intellectual Property and

								Public Policy Issues" with the aim of reflecting on the consequences of

								the policies that WIPO promotes. Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's president,

								attended the event and wrote an extensive report: "Fresh air at WIPO,

								but old habits die hard". He highlights that the event in itself was a

								very positive step for the organisation, which is starting to pay

								attention to the real-world impact of the policies it develops. Still,

								some troubling old mistakes remain.</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=241">https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=241</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h3><a name="2"/>A farewell to Richard Rothwell</h3>


									<p>It is with sorrow that we pay our respect to Richard Rothwell. A

								Fellow, a brilliant activist and a key figure in the UK Free Software

								community.  On 17 July, Richard passed away, tearing a hole in the

								network of the Free Software movement which will be difficult to

								fill. We want to remember him here, and to offer our condolences to

								Richard's family and closest friends.</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="http://tributestorichardrothwell.net/">http://tributestorichardrothwell.net/</a></li>

								<li><a href="http://www.richardrothwell.com/">http://www.richardrothwell.com/</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h3><a name="3"/>FSFE supports OpenRuhr</h3>


									<p>Our German chapter has decided to support the OpenRuhr initiative.

								During 2010 in the Ruhr area the 'cultural cities' will set facilities

								and plan events which will promote Free Software as a cultural technique

								for creative people in their works. Our German chapter aims at

								developing informative material to portray Free Software as a cultural

								technique.</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="http://www.openruhr.de">http://www.openruhr.de</a></li>

								<li><a href="http://openruhr.de/2009/07/23/fsfe-unterstuetzung-openruhr">http://openruhr.de/2009/07/23/fsfe-unterstuetzung-openruhr</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h3><a name="4"/>FSFE booth at RMLL Nantes, France, 07-11 July</h3>


									<p>Rainer Kersten and Michel Roche manned our booth at the 10th

								"Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libres" (RMLL), which took place in

								Nantes. RMLL is the most important Free Software event in France with

								some 5000 visitors. Rainer and Michel had a very busy four days

								explaining the basics of Free Software, and telling a large number of

								people about FSFE's work.</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="http://2009.rmll.info/">http://2009.rmll.info/</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h3><a name="5"/>Fellowship Meeting in Berlin, 09 July</h3>


									<p>The Berlin Fellowship group met on 9 July at the Newthinking Store, at

								Tucholskystrasse 48. On the meeting's agenda was an interesting debate

								with representatives of youth organisations of various political

								parties.  Members of the Junge Union Brandenburg, Jungen Liberalen

								Brandenburg, Grüne Jugend, Piratenpartei, and SDS.Berlin presented

								their views about Free Software issues and answered questions from

								other participants. Lena Simon recorded the event, which we will

								publish shortly on our Fellowship platform.</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=301">https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=301</a></li>

								<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Berlin">https://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Berlin</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h3><a name="6"/>The Fellowship interviews: Smári McCarthy</h3>


									<p>This month, Stian Rødven Eide interviewed Smári McCarthy: a thoughtful

								anarchist and practical chaos technician with a deep interest in Free

								Software and democracy. The interview addressed various aspects of

								Smári's life from his work at the Fab Lab, to the Icelandic Society for

								Digital Freedoms, concluding with his views on a "crowdsourced

								democracy".</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=72">https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=72</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h2>In the spotlight</h2>


									<h3><a name="7"/>EU browser case: FSFE says details of settlement will be crucial</h3>


									<p>In 2007, Opera Software presented the European Commission with a formal

								complaint regarding Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer (IE) to its

								operating systems. We decided to follow the development of this issue

								and we officially offered our help as interested third party to the

								Directorate General for Competition.</p>


									<p>On January 2009, the European Commission DG Competition issued a

								statement of objections against Microsoft which recently led the

								company to consider a settlement. While the offer of a settlement is

								an important achievement for the European Commission, we believe that

								it is the details which will make all the difference. A settlement

								that simply looks good will not be enough. We need to be sure that any

								agreement between Microsoft and the Commission really puts Free

								Software on an equal footing with proprietary competitors, and allows

								for free competition in the web browser market.</p>


								<p>Our press release, which outlines some details of the settlement that

								should be carefully considered, is available here:</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090728-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090728-01.html</a></li>

								</ul>


								<p>Relevant links:</p>

								<ul>

								<li><a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2009q1/000231.html">Press release</a></li>

								<li><a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2009q1/000228.html">Press release</a></li>

								<li><a href="https://download.fsfe.org/policy/letters/20071219-opera-antitrust.pdf">https://download.fsfe.org/policy/letters/20071219-opera-antitrust.pdf</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h2>It happened in the past</h2>


									<h3><a name="8"/>FSFE supporting European Commission in their case against Microsoft</h3>


									<p>Five years ago, Microsoft appealed against the European Commission

								antitrust decision. The Directorate General for Competition called for

								cooperation upon FSFE and Samba. A call that we did not miss: on 27

								July 2004 we had already participated to the preliminary hearing of

								the appeal in Luxembourg. That was the beginning of what would become

								the greatest success for FSFE and for Free Software in the legal field

								in 2007, when Microsoft was ordered by the European Court of First

								Instance to share interoperability information with the Samba team.</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2004q3/000069.html">Press release</a></li>

								</ul>


									<h2>Upcoming events</h2>


									<h3><a name="9"/>4th Froscon, St. Augustin, Germany, 22-23 August</h3>


									<p>We will be present with a booth at the 4th Froscon in St. Augustin,

								Germany. The conference is organised by the Department of Computer

								Science of the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, with the

								help of Fachschaft of Computer Science, LUUSA and FrOSCon e.V.

								For coordination we will use the booth@ mailing list and the Fellowship

								Wiki.</p>


								<ul>

								<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Froscon-2009">https://wiki.fsfe.org/Froscon-2009</a></li>

								<li><a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/booth">https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/booth</a></li>

								</ul>


								<p></p>


								<p>You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on</p>

								<a href="/news/newsletter.html">https://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html</a>


								<p>You can join the Fellowship and find how to support us on</p>

								 <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">https://my.fsfe.org/donate</a>

								 <a href="/contribute/contribute.html">https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html</a>


								<p>You can order our merchandise at</p>

								 <a href="/order/order.html">https://fsfe.org/order/order.html</a>


								</body>

								</html>

								<!--

								Local Variables: ***

								mode: xml ***

								End: ***

								-->