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8.4 KiB
HTML
184 line
8.4 KiB
HTML
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<html newsdate="2011-06-04" type="newsletter">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - June 2011</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - June 2011</h1>
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<h2>The 899 Million question: Microsoft, European Commission, and Free
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Software</h2>
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<p>What would you do with a monopolist, who uses his dominant position in one
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area to create monopolies in other areas as well? The European Commission has
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decided in 2004 that Microsoft has to provide competitors with information how
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to connect a workgroup server with computers running Microsoft Windows. Since
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the main competitor to Microsoft’s workgroup server is the Free Software Samba
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project, the Commission made it clear that Microsoft had to release
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interoperability information in a way that is compatible with Free Software
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licenses like the GNU GPL. The Commission's 2004 decision did not require
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Microsoft to publish innovative information, it asked for simple information
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how Microsoft computers talk to each other.</p>
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<p>But Microsoft played for time, even when the Commission imposed a fine of
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two million Euro for every day that Microsoft did not make the required
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interoperability information and documentation available in a way that the
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Samba team could make use of it. That gave Microsoft three more years to gain
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profit from its monopoly position.</p>
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<p><a href="/activities/ms-vs-eu/timeline.html">After losing an
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appeal in October 2007</a>, Microsoft finally made the required
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interoperability information available for a one-time fee of EUR 10,000. This
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gives Free Software groups access to Microsoft’s protocol specifications, but
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does not give them a license to the patents that Microsoft holds in this area.
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Microsoft only offers patent licenses under conditions that are fundamentally
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incompatible with the GNU GPL. So the Samba team has a license to use
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Microsoft’s protocol specifications, but not its patented technologies. At
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least those patents are identified, and the Samba team can work around them
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with considerable effort until we fix the problem of software patents as a
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whole.</p>
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<p>Microsoft appealed the fine. On the 24th of May another hearing took place.
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Like in the rest of the process, FSFE was again present, together with the
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Samba team, giving crucial input to ensure that Free Software can compete on
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market. Karsten Gerloff wrote about the hearing in his blog article <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/05/27/samba-case-hearing-how-microsofts-gamble-backfired-2/">"Samba
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case hearing: How Microsoft’s gamble backfired"</a>, and you can also read <a
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href="http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110530202005299">Groklaw
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interview with Karsten Gerloff and Carlo Piana</a>. A ruling on the
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Microsoft’s appeal is expected in the second half of the year.</p>
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<h2>Antifeatures + DRM</h2>
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<p>How many times have you been forced to watch those copyright notices at the
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beginning of a DVD, without the chance to fast-forward? Or would you miss it,
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if no mobile phone would have a SIM lock?</p>
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<p>On the 4th of May our American sister organisation organised the "Day
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Against DRM". There were several <a
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href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org/highlights-2011-day-against-drm">articles,
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events, and radio shows about this topic</a>. Your editor was interviewed by
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Dradio Wissen on the subject of Antifeatures, which also includes digitial
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restriction management (DRM).</p>
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<p>An antifeature is a feature, which is implemented by the developer on
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purpose, but which user does not want. So, it is not about bugs or missing
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functionality, but about functions which the vendor added intentionally to
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restrict the user.</p>
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<p><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=797">Your editor's interview and
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corresponding article</a> explain some examples, like how printer vendors
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prevent others from producing printers' cartridges, the sim lock in mobile
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phones, the option to get rid of additional software commercials on laptops, or
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the copyright notices and the region code for DVDs.</p>
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<p>With Free Software adding antifeatures simply isn't lucrative. Every user
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has the freedom to change the software and to share those changes with others.
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So when one person removes an antifeature, all other users will benefit from
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this work. In Free Software new features are implemented either if someone pays
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for them, or if someone is convinced that this is an important feature and s/he
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has spent spare time on it. Therewith Free Software is more honest and more
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transparent towards users.</p>
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<p>Benjamin Mako Hill <a
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href="http://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2007/fall/antifeatures/">wrote more about
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antifeatures</a> and also gave several talks about it, e.g. at <a
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href="http://projects.mako.cc/media/revealing_errors_lca2010.ogv">Linux Conf
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Australia 2010 (Ogg-Theora)</a>, or <a
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href="http://ftp.stw-bonn.de/froscon/2010/hs12/theora/hs12_-_2010-08-22_12:45_-_en_-_antifeatures_-_benjamin_mako_hill.ogv">FrosCon
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(Ogg-Theora)</a>.</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>As British Telecom plan to roll out new music subscription service to
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their 5.5 million broadband customers, <a
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href="/freesoftware/standards/bt-open-letter.html">our UK Team has asked BT to make
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user freedom one of the product's key features.</a></li>
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<li>The German Foreign Office is turning away from Free Software, and the
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German Government is entangling itself in contradictions. <a
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href="/news/2011/news-20110511-01.html">The assessment of our German team
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is,</a> that the reaction of the Government to an inquiry by "Bündnis
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90/Grüne" shows that the government either does not understand
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important aspects of Free Software or is deliberately offending Free Software
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in general as well as Free Software companies in particular. We set up a <a
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href="https://etherpad.fsfe.org/1TyQlboVdF">public comment plattform</a>,
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and ask you to participate.</li>
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<li>The <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/04/free-software-in-education-marchapril-2011/">Free
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Software in Education update is out for March/April 2011</a>. Besides,
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there is an <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/05/free-software-in-education-survey-in-uk/">education
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survey in the UK.</a></li>
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<li>The German team <a href="/news/2011/news-20110520-01.html">commented the
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replies to our question to the political parties in Bremen.</a></li>
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<li>From the <a href="https://planet.fsfe.org">planet aggregation</a>: </li>
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<ul>
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<li>This month's <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=308">Fellowship
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interview with Florian Effenberger</a>, is out. He was the previous
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Marketing Project Lead for OpenOffice.org and now founding member and part
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of the Steering Committee at The Document Foundation.</li>
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<li>There are again new issues of Free Software and law related links for
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<a href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/245">30.4.-6.5.</a> <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/246">7.5.-22.5.</a>, and <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/247">23.5.-29.5.</a>.</li>
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<li>Fellow <a
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href="https://jancborchardt.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/freeing-web-games/">Jan-Christoph
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Borchardt wrote about Free(ing) web games.</a></li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get active: Translate our Ask your Candidates page</h2>
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<p>In the coming month we will do more in our <a
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href="/activities/elections/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates.html">"Ask Your Candidates"</a>
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activity. You can already help us by translating this page into your native
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language. Like on all pages click on the <a
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href="/source/activities/elections/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates.xhtml">source
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code link</a> at the buttom of the page. Translate the page and then send it
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to translators@lists.fsfe.org. If you are interested to help us more regularly
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with translations, please take a look at our <a
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href="/contribute/translators/translators.html">translator
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page</a>.</p>
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<p>Regards,<br/>
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<a href="/about/people/kirschner">Matthias Kirschner </a> - <a href="/index.html">FSFE</a></p>
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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="https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml">Fellowship Blog Aggregation</a><br />
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<a href="/about/contact.html#community">Free Software Discussions</a> </p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="newsletter"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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