178 lines
7.7 KiB
HTML
178 lines
7.7 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2011-08-04" type="newsletter">
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - August 2011</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - August 2011</h1>
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<h2>Inside stories by a critical thinker</h2>
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<blockquote><p>"If people do not understand why their computing is related to
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their freedom, it’s because nobody explained them properly" (Bernhard
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Reiter)</p></blockquote>
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<p newsteaser="yes">Bernhard Reiter is one of FSFE's founders and architect of the original German
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team. He participated in setting
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up three important Free Software organisations: FreeGIS.org, FFII, and
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FossGIS. Besides that, he is founder and Executive Director of Intevation GmbH, a
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company with exclusively Free Software products and services since 1999.
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</p>
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<p>Interesting stories about setting up FSFE, challenges for Free Software, and
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more are covered in <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=341">this month's
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Fellowship interview</a>.</p>
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<h2>Become a Critical Thinker: Get Rid of "Intellectual Property"</h2>
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<p>A lot of people talk about "intellectual property". When using this term, they
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usually mix different things like copyright, patents, trademarks, also right to a name,
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utility patents, business models, or even geographical indications. If you want to
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think critically and clearly about challenges in the digital age, you should
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separate those different issues.</p>
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<p>If you really need a term to cover all that, you should use one which is not
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that much biased. There are some suggestions in the articles mentioned below, like the
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term "Limited Intellectual Monopolies".</p>
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<p>But in 90% cases there is actually only one monopoly concerned.
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Discussions will be much more productive if everybody knows what you
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are talking about. So, if someone says "we need more protection of "intellectual
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property", ask them what that means, perhaps it means they want to have
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software patents. If someone says "we need to limit the scope of "intellectual
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property", you should ask if they want to restrain copyright, patents or even abolish trademarks.</p>
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<p>You can read more about this in Richard Stallman's article <a
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href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html">"Did You Say
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'Intellectual Property'? It's a Seductive Mirage"</a>, Georg Greve's <a
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href="/campaigns/wsis/issues.html">"Fighting intellectual poverty (Who owns
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and controls the information societies?)"</a>, and your editor's <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=810">interview with Dradio Wissen</a> (in
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German).</p>
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<h2>Support FSFE in critical thinking</h2>
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<p>For FSFE it is important that all of you support us. This way our work does not depend on
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single donors, and we can continue to think and communicate
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critical to promote software freedom.</p>
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<p>It is now possible to <a href="/donate/donate.html">donate us
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monthly and yearly</a> by <strong>credit card</strong> and in Germany also by
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<strong>direct debit</strong>. Beside that, in the Netherlands donations to FSFE can now be
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deducted from income tax (before it was only possible in Germany and
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Switzerland). If we get more than 20 new donors, your editor promises that he
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will not write the word "critical" in the next newsletter.</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Richard Stallman wrote an article <a
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href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,775218,00.html">"Resist
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the Temptations of the Cloud!"</a> (<a
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href="http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,774766,00.html">German
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version</a>) in the German Magazine "Spiegel".</li>
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<li><a href="http://pdfreaders.org">PDFreaders.org</a>. It is boring to
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follow up bugs, but it does not take a lot of time and has a good effect. In
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Italy volunteers again managed to close 13 bugs last month. Your editor gave
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two talks in Brazil about the <a
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href="/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.html">PDFreaders campaign</a> to motivate
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people to fix bugs in Latin America, and our UK
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coordinator Sam Tuke is organising a PDFreaders bug hunt in Manchester. If
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you live around, join other Free Software advocates on Saturday, August 13,
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between 15.00-17.30 at <a
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href="http://madlab.org.uk/content/stamp-out-the-ads-free-software-pdf-reader-sprint/">MadLab
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hackerspace</a> to find and remove UK Government adverts for non-Free PDF
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Readers. Cake and Pizza provided!</li>
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<li>New German Free Software Business Association: Lisog (124 members) and
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LIVE Linux-Verband (103 members) now <a
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href="http://www.linux-verband.de/news/detail/opensource/pressemitteilung/">merged
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into the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA)</a> (German).</li>
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<li>FSFE will take part at the Desktop Summit, a joint conference organised
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by the GNOME and KDE communities in Berlin, Germany, 6 - 12 August 2011 at
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the Humboldt University. Our president Karsten Gerloff will give a talk on
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<a
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href="https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/free-desktops-europes-public-sector">"Free
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desktops for Europe's public sector"</a> and Bernhard Reiter will talk
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about <a
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href="https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/daily-melee-paid-people-within-free-software-initiatives-how-they-tick-how-keep-the">"Daily
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Melee: paid people within Free Software initiatives - How they tick, how
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to keep them and the art of behaving if you are one"</a>. (All events are
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available on <a href="/events/events.html">our event page</a> and in the <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents">Fellowship calendar</a>.</li>
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<li>From the <a href="http://planet.fsfe.org">planet aggregation</a>: </li>
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<ul>
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<li>CERN launched its Open Hardware License 1.1 and Open Hardware
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Repository. IBM promised to give its Lotus Symphony source code to the
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Apache Foundation, and W3C wants to invalidate Apple's Widget software
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patents. Read the legal news from <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/250">27.6.-3.7.</a> <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/251">4.7.-10.7.</a>, and <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/252">11.7.-18.7.</a>.</li>
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<li><a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/bjg/2011/07/gnu-hackers-meeting-in-paris-25-28-august-2011/">Brian
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Gough has announced the GNU Hackers meeting</a> which will take place on
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25. August – 28. August in Paris. There are about 45 GNU maintainers
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and contributors registered so far and speakers include Jim Meyering,
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Stefano Zacchiroli, and Jim Blandy.</li>
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<li>Why are students developing Free Software for the public sector? Read
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<a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/07/students-developing-free-software-for-the-public-sector/">in
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Guido Arnold's weblog</a> how students get involved in Free
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Software.</li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get active: Read and distribute "crime story"</h2>
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<p><a
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href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/22/138576167/when-patents-attack">"When
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patents attack"</a> is a good story from investigative journalists on
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software patents, which reads like a crime story. Your editor recommends you
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to read it so you have good arguments in future. If you like it, distribute
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the article among your colleagues and friends.</p>
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<p>Regards,<br/>
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<a href="/about/kirschner">Matthias Kirschner </a> - <a href="http://www.fsfe.org">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="http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml">Fellowship Blog Aggregation</a><br />
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<a href="/contact/community.html">Free Software Discussions</a> </p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag>newsletter</tag>
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<tag>Matthias Kirschner</tag>
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</tags>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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