183 regels
8.9 KiB
HTML
183 regels
8.9 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
|
|
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>Our Work in 2011</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h1>Our Work in 2011</h1>
|
|
<p>FSFE turned ten this year. How things have changed! Today, Free
|
|
Software is not just mainstream, it's the market leader in many
|
|
areas, whether on web servers, mobile devices, in the embedded sector,
|
|
or in high-performance computing. The advantages of Free Software have
|
|
proved so compelling that today, any electronic device you pick up is
|
|
likely to have some Free Software inside it.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>But have we really won? Many of these devices are still locked down, so we
|
|
can't change the software on them if we want to. Our mobile phones may
|
|
run Free Software, but many of them still lock us into services
|
|
controlled by someone else. Free Software may be everywhere, but it is
|
|
still constantly under threat from software patents, from outlandish
|
|
interpretations of copyright, and from the brutal forces of a software
|
|
market built around selling licenses for proprietary programs. We have
|
|
a long way to go until software freedom becomes the default on every
|
|
computer.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>In this letter, you'll find a short overview of some of the things we
|
|
in FSFE -- Fellows, volunteers, staff -- worked on this year. There
|
|
is a lot more than will fit these pages. Please see our website for a
|
|
full overview of our work in 2011, and lots of links.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Freedom in a world of networked services</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Telling people about Free Software is one of FSFE's main reason to
|
|
exist. Software freedom concerns everyone, and this year, we've
|
|
probably managed to reach a broader set of people through conferences
|
|
and events than ever before. FSFE people spoke at meetings as diverse
|
|
as LinuxCon Europe in Prague (see <a
|
|
href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/10/28/free-software-policy-issues-at-linuxcon-europe/">Karsten's blog</a> for his intervention), a <a
|
|
href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=215">Feminist Festival in Manchester
|
|
(UK)</a>, and a <a href="http://piana.eu/korea_fosscon">legal conference in
|
|
Seoul, South Korea</a>. In Germany, we
|
|
continued a series of monthly radio interviews on one of the major
|
|
nationwide stations.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>At many of these events, our topic was power and control in a world of
|
|
networked services. How do we stay in control of our computing when it
|
|
doesn't happen on our own computers anymore? Can we build services
|
|
that are convenient, accessible from anywhere, independent from the
|
|
devices we use -- and still keep our freedom? Two years ago, this
|
|
looked like a distant dream. Now, our <a href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/CloudComputing">list of distributed projects</a>
|
|
working towards precisely these goals has grown to impressive
|
|
length. We helped to boost the movement towards distributed systems by
|
|
explaining the idea to a wider audience, and by organising conference
|
|
tracks on the topic, for example at this year's <a
|
|
href="http://2011.rmll.info/?lang=en">RMLL</a> in Strasbourg,
|
|
France. We also highlighted the topic in connection with the
|
|
distributed <a href="http://yacy.net/en/">YaCy</a> search engine, creating
|
|
quite a <a
|
|
href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/alessandro.polvani/2011/11/30/yacy-gets-an-extraordinary-press-coverage/">splash around the world</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Patent warfare goes nuclear</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="/campaigns/swpat/swpat.en.html">Software patents
|
|
</a>came back on the agenda in a big way this year. The
|
|
discussion was all about how software patents are used to hurt
|
|
competition in the software market. There were several huge battles
|
|
around patent portfolios, with the stakes increasing each time, as
|
|
Microsoft, Apple and others chose software patents as the most
|
|
important stick to beat their competitors with. Free Software is
|
|
constantly at risk of being caught in the middle and trampled over. So
|
|
we hoisted the Free Software flag, rode into battle, and fought as
|
|
hard as we could. We got in touch with competition authorities in the
|
|
US and Germany, and <a href="http://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/novell-cptn.en.html">explained to them</a> why Free Software is crucial for
|
|
competition in the software market, and how patents hurt Free
|
|
Software. <a href="http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110420-01.en.html">We won the first round</a>, when the authorities prevented
|
|
Microsoft from getting hold of Novell's patent portfolio. We are still
|
|
waiting for a decision in the <a href="http://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/nortel.en.html">similarly structured sale of Nortel's
|
|
patents</a> to a consortium led by Apple, with Microsoft on board again.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Patents weren't the only thing that kept our legal and policy people
|
|
busy. We helped to fend off a legal challenge to the GPL's fundamental
|
|
principles in Germany, and participated in another <a
|
|
href="/news/2011/news-20110525-01.en.html">hearing</a> in the
|
|
still-ongoing <a
|
|
href="/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.en.html">antitrust case of the EU
|
|
vs Microsoft</a>. We provided the
|
|
European Commission with <a href="http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20111206-01.en.html">input on how best to spend 80 billion Euro</a> in
|
|
research and development funding, talked to several members of the
|
|
European Parliament about software patents, and supported the build-up
|
|
of a Free Software user group in the parliament. We helped some
|
|
countries such as the UK to come up with better ways of buying
|
|
software for the public sector, and highlighted how the European
|
|
Commission was doing it precisely wrong when it again decided to <a
|
|
href="/news/2010/news-20101207-01.en.html">lock
|
|
itself into Microsoft's products</a> for many years to come. The
|
|
<a href="/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.en.html">PDFreaders</a>
|
|
campaign managed to remove advertisements for proprietary
|
|
software from a quarter of all <a
|
|
href="/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.en.html">reported
|
|
websites</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Our <a href="/activities/ftf/ftf.en.html">Legal Department</a>
|
|
organised another edition of the highly
|
|
successful annual workshop for legal experts on Free Software. This
|
|
year, we were invited to organise a similar <a
|
|
href="http://piana.eu/korea_fosscon">event in Seoul</a>, South
|
|
Korea, which provided a lot of new angles and fresh inspiration.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>New hands on deck</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>We were happy to welcome <a href="http://matija.suklje.name/">Matija
|
|
Šuklje</a>, who took over coordination of our Legal Department from <a
|
|
href="/about/coughlan/coughlan.en.html">Shane Coughlan</a>. <a
|
|
href="/about/sandklef/sandklef.en.html">Henrik Sandklef</a>, a
|
|
GNU
|
|
hacker and university teacher, replaced <a
|
|
href="/about/weiden/weiden.en.html">Fernanda Weiden</a> as FSFE's
|
|
Vice
|
|
President. Bernhard Reiter handed over his role as coordinator
|
|
of the
|
|
German team to <a href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/">Torsten Grote</a>.
|
|
<a href="/about/tuke/tuke.en.html">Sam Tuke</a> took on the task
|
|
of building up
|
|
FSFE's activities in the UK.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Together, we'll make a difference</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>If we managed to handle such a wide range of complex challenges, it was
|
|
thanks to you, our supporters, donors, and volunteers. Without you, none of this
|
|
work would be possible. Thank you! </p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Looking ahead, there are many challenges for Free Software in 2012. Microsoft
|
|
is trying to extend its stranglehold to the hardware market with an initiative
|
|
called "<a
|
|
href="http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement">SecureBoot</a>". We will stand up for our freedom to install Free
|
|
Software. The Netherlands are currently locking everyone in their education
|
|
system into a proprietary platform, and <a
|
|
href="/campaigns/nledu/nledu.en.html">we are campaigning
|
|
hard </a>to unlock education there. Public software procurement shows no signs
|
|
of fixing itself, so
|
|
we will educate authorities and push for better rules and practices.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>For all this and more, we will need your help. We are currently working hard
|
|
to make it even easier to participate in FSFE's work, for example in the
|
|
<a href="/activities/education/education.en.html">education
|
|
team</a> and the newly launched policy team.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>All this work <a
|
|
href="http://fsfe.org/about/funds/funds.en.html">costs
|
|
money</a>. In 2011 we were able to complete our campaigns
|
|
and appointments with a budget of just 287,000 Euro. In 2012 we
|
|
need to do even more. If we receive enough new donations we would
|
|
be able to hire two part time employees (~43k), and intensify our
|
|
work on public procurement (~20k) This would require an increased
|
|
budget of 364,000 Euro, and allow FSFE to have a significantly
|
|
greater impact. To secure and increase our work, we need to raise
|
|
103.500 Euro by the end of January. If we reach this goal, we will
|
|
be financed for the whole of 2012. Every contribution,
|
|
including yours, will help to fill the gap.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Together with you we will continue to make a real difference for Free
|
|
Software in 2012 and beyond. Thank you for joining us in this struggle.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>I wish you wonderful holidays and a very happy New Year!</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>With best regards,</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Karsten Gerloff</p>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
<timestamp>$Date: 2011-12-08 12:00:47 +0100 (Fri, 08 Dec 2011) $ $Author:
|
|
alessandro.polvani $</timestamp>
|
|
<author id="gerloff" />
|
|
</html>
|
|
<!--
|
|
Local Variables: ***
|
|
mode: xml ***
|
|
End: ***
|
|
-->
|