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303 lines
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<title>OLinux: Freedom, Equality and Fraternity</title>
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<h1>OLinux: Freedom, Equality and Fraternity</h1>
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Interview by <a href="mailto:allan@olinux.com.br" class="autor">Allan Vasconcellos</a> ( 17/12/2001 ), OLinux
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<a href="http://www.olinux.com.br">http://www.olinux.com.br</a>
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</p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>OLinux: What are the FSF Europe activities?</b></p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>Georg Greve:</b>
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The FSF Europe works towards all aspects of Free Software in Europe.</p>
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<p align="justify">This includes the "classical" issues of working for the GNU Project
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and supporting the development of Free Software, but this is only a
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part of our activities.</p>
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<p align="justify">Other activities are more work-intensive and often less visible, but
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usually at least as important.</p>
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<p align="justify">Free Software is one of the answers to questions raised by the
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upcoming information age, but only if society becomes fully aware of
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these questions, we can make sure that Free Software is here to
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stay. Since many people are surprised to hear this, I'd like to point
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out that society includes companies, by the way. </p>
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<p align="justify">We may be finding a different form of society sometime in the future,
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but right now business is an important part and we work towards
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explaining how Free Software benefits companies - the "We speak about
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Free Software" campaign is an example of this.</p>
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<p align="justify">At the same time we need to make sure the political and legal
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processes do not harm Free Software. All our work may be destroyed
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instantly by a law ruling Free Software illegal. This danger is more
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real than most people realise and only constant and enduring work can
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prevent such things from happening. </p>
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<p align="justify">Therefore we work as a competence center for politics, lawyers and
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press in order to help them make informed decisions and participate
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actively in the different fields.</p>
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<p align="justify">Making Free Software understood is one of the crucial issues we have
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to take care of. Only if the importance of freedom is truly
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understood, people will work to gain it and be careful not to lose it
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again.</p>
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<p align="justify">More information can be found at<br />
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<a href="/about/mission.html">https://fsfe.org/about/mission.html</a><br />
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<a href="/activities/activities.html">https://fsfe.org/activities/activities.html</a>
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</p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>OLinux: Has FSF Europe suported or influenced the French Gov. during
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the decision to adopt Free Software on the Public Administration?
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What was the FSF role in this decision?</b></p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>Georg Greve:</b>
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Yes, the Free Software community and the FSF have taken part in this
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process. Most people know that Richard Stallman has talked to several
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government officials in France, but there was more.</p>
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<p align="justify">During the past two years, activists of APRIL and AFUL have worked
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towards this legislation. As you may know APRIL is the associate
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organisation of the FSF Europe in France and its founder and
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president, Frederic Couchet is also the French chancellor of the FSF
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Europe.</p>
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<p>Along with Olivier Berger, secretary of APRIL, he has worked many
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hours on the political issues of Free Software for quite some time
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now.</p>
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<p>Of course the FSF Europe was only founded this year (we officially
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began work March 10th 2001), but I guess you could say that we did
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indeed participate in this process since our inception.</p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>OLinux:
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What do you (FSF) think about the creation of a FSF Latin
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America? Here, we need such an institution to support the Free
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Software employment on the Public Administration.</b></p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>Georg Greve:</b>I think this is a great and very important step, but also one that
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needs to be done with great care.</p>
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<p align="justify">Before founding the FSF Europe, we spent about a year discussing all
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the issues related to such a step. What is it that makes the FSF
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special? What is important to keep an eye on? The FSF has always stood
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for certain principles and values - which are not always easy to
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maintain, so it is a step that requires a lot of consideration.</p>
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<p align="justify">It seems that the FSF Europe has spawned initiatives to create FSF
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organisations around the world. We already have a FSF India and
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Masayuki Ida recently visited Europe to talk to us about our input on
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possibly creating a FSF Japan. </p>
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<p align="justify">In our discussions with Masayuki Ida or the volunteers from South
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Africa it became clear that a good way of getting things going is to
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create some sort of open Free Software association first and work
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closely with the FSF organisations around the world.</p>
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<p align="justify">Good examples of such organisations are the associate organisations of
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the FSF Europe.</p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>OLinux:
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FSF Europe "was born" from the FSF USA or it's an independent
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institution? And how is the relationship between both?</b></p>
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<p align="justify"><b>Georg Greve:</b>
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The FSF Europe and the FSF are legally independent sister
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organisations. We work closely together and in daily work it is
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usually not relevant which FSF you are working in or for.</p>
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<p align="justify">In a way this is a lot like that of other international institutions,
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such as Greenpeace or the Red Cross.</p>
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<p align="justify">Europe is currently the most active area for Free Software in the
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world, so having a European FSF seemed like a natural thing to aim
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for. When I first voiced that idea to Richard Stallman - that must
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have been about 2.5 years ago - he agreed and suggested other people
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to get in touch with for this endeavour.</p>
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<p align="justify">So we began discussing all issues related to creating a FSF Europe
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sister organisation. In November 2000 we were certain that it could be
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done and it could be done right, so we issued
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<a href="/about/history/doi.html">"Declaration of Intent"
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</a>, making the idea public.</p>
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<p align="justify">I have been working full-time on getting the FSF Europe going since
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January 2001 now. From the FSF in Boston we got some financial support
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for my work for 6 weeks and a lot of moral and personal support, which
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was of course very helpful.</p>
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<p align="justify">So it is very much a child of the European Free Software community.
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</p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>OLinux:
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Which is FSF's purposes for Education?</b></p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>Georg Greve:</b>
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Free Software in Education is something that is extremely important
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because everyone should grow up using software freely. </p>
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<p align="justify">There is a lot of initiatives in and around Free Software and
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Education that work towards similar goals, but very often they do not
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coordinate their efforts enough and sharing experience is something
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that is also not done effectively enough.</p>
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<p align="justify">In order to support these initiatives, the FSF Europe has begun
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gathering initiatives in and around Free Software and Education, one
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of them, Ofset, has even become associate organisation of the FSF
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Europe, in order to network them more effectively and enable them to
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share their experience.</p>
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<p align="justify">It would be very useful to bring all these initiatives together at
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some point to discuss the issues in person - if we find volunteers to
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organise it, we would be glad to support such a summit next year.</p>
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<p align="justify">The FSF Europe itself advocates the importance and advantages of Free
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Software to politicians at every opportunity.</p>
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<p align="justify">
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<b>OLinux:
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What exactly is the campaign: "We speak about Free Software?"</b></p>
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<p align="justify"><b>Georg Greve:</b>
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The "We speak about Free Software" campaign is an initiative to raise
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awareness for Free Software with businesses. Also it allows companies
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to distance themselves from the hype built around "Open Source" and
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show that they have really understood the issues behind Free Software
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and that they feel committed to it.</p>
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<p align="justify">Funny enough, the idea for this campaign was born in Milano, Italy
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this year, where some Free Software businesspeople complained about
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the abuse and fuzziness of the term "Open Source" and asked whether we
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couldn't do anything to advocate the term Free Software again, which
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is what they would prefer to use.</p>
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<p align="justify">Of course we were willing to help, so we assembled some of the reasons
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why Free Software is the superior term and concept and put them online
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at <a href="/activities/whyfs/whyfs.html">https://fsfe.org/activities/whyfs/whyfs.html</a>.</p>
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<p align="justify">You might find it interesting that Bruce Perens, co-founder of the
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Open Source movement and author of the Open Source Definition was
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among the first to let us know he welcomes this campaign and asked us
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to add his name to the list of supporters.</p>
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<p align="justify"><b>OLinux:
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In which stage is the adoption of Free Software all over
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Europe currently?</b></p>
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<p align="justify"><b>Georg Greve:</b> Europe is definitely the region with the strongest acceptance for Free
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Software right now, but there are huge regional differences. Most
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advanced are Germany and France, where politicians slowly become aware
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of the issues and have made a few first legislative steps in favor of
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Free Software - although this is still not as far as we would like it
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to be.</p>
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<p align="justify">Other countries, like Italy, still have more work to do. In some cases
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much more work. We're on it. :)</p>
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<p align="justify"><b>OLinux:
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Do you think Free Software can overcome the property softwares
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someday?</b></p>
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<p align="justify"><b>Georg Greve:</b> I'm not certain whether I like the word "overcome" in this context.</p>
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<p align="justify">Our goal is to have Free Software available for everyone and every
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task. People should be given the freedom of choice to do anything they
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want with Free Software. Noone should ever have to use proprietary
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software. </p>
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<p align="justify">So we do not want to make proprietary software illegal, we rather want
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to make sure that noone is forced to use proprietary software and
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everyone understands that proprietary software is a bad choice.</p>
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<p align="justify">This means we seek to inform people why they should prefer Free
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Software. It is my firm belief that there is no reason to use
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proprietary software while there are compelling reasons to use Free
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Software, but this is a decision everyone should make for her- or
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himself.</p>
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<p align="justify">Given that the disadvantages of proprietary software are so obvious
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once you know where to look, I am quite confident. Given that even
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people from the Free Software community still fall for marketing
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schemes like "value added" proprietary software additions, we still need to spread
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the word, though.</p>
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<p align="justify">Allowing people to make such informed decisions and making sure they
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are still capable of making this decision is what the FSF Europe is
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working for.</p>
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<p align="justify"><b>OLinux:
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What do you think about Microsoft's market policy? And about
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the process of EU against Microsoft?</b></p>
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<p align="justify"><b>Georg Greve:</b> The FSF Europe has applied for third-party status in the EU
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investigation against Microsoft to make sure that EU officials get
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proper information about Free Software and to pledge for open markets,
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which inevitably means Free Software.</p>
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<p align="justify">I can only emphasise that although Microsoft makes a very visible
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target, they are not the big devil. They are the natural consequence
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of a system based on proprietary software.</p>
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<p align="justify">Still they are one of the most visible representatives of the
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proprietary system and they play dirty, which is something we should
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not accept. This is nothing new, it is just that we have found
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ourselves in the focus of their interests because Free Software has
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been too successful.</p>
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<p align="justify">The best quote in this context is probably from Ghandi: "First they
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ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you
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win."</p>
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<p align="justify"><b>OLinux:
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Could you send a message for the brazilian fans of Free
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Software.</b></p>
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<p align="justify"><b>Georg Greve:</b> Keep on spreading the word. What we do today will influence the future
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of mankind for the next 200 years to come - we have to make sure that
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people understand the issues of Free Software and the importance of
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freedom. </p>
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<p align="justify">Do not let anyone tell you these issues were irrelevant or otherwise
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harmful, they are not. Only by talking about freedom and philosophy
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will we be able to explain these issues to people, so please keep
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talking about it and explain it to everyone who is interested in
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listening.</p>
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<p align="justify">Freedom counts!</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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