412 lines
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412 lines
19 KiB
HTML
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<title>FSFE - Two year executive summary, period 2005-2007 -- 30th June 2007</title>
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<center>
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<h1>Two year executive summary</h1>
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<h2>period 2005-2007</h2>
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<h2>Report for the 2007 general assembly</h2>
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</center>
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<div align="right">
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Belgium, Brussels, 30th June 2007<br />
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</div>
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<p>Six years after its start in 2001, the Free Software Foundation Europe
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(FSFE) has now grown into an organisation of 9 employees equalling 6.7
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full-time staff plus two interns. The European Core Team is fast
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approaching 30 people and there are active people in more than nine
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European countries. This report will try to summarise some of the key
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milestones of the past two years of activity.</p>
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<h3>European Union: Microsoft Antitrust Case and Investigation</h3>
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<p>After the European Union antitrust decision of March 2004, which
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issues both fines and an obligation to publish interoperability
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information for all competitors, the European Court decided December
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2004 that Microsoft should not be granted interim measures to delay
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publication of that information. So Microsoft went ahead and granted
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itself such interim measures by publishing useless information under
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terms that would not allow the only remaining competitor to use it.</p>
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<p>This situation has been ongoing throughout all of 2005, 2006 and until
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today in 2007, causing the European Commission to issue repeated fines
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against Microsoft, which apparently still are lower than the profits
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from lack of interoperability. [Press releases:
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<a href="http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q2/000105.html">1</a>
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<a href="http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000126.html">2</a>
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<a href="http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q1/000129.html">3</a>
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<a href="http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q3/000147.html">4</a>]
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</p>
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<p>FSFE's working group around its legal counsel Carlo Piana and the
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Samba Team have been working with the Commission to analyse and shed
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light on the repeated attempts to bypass the antitrust decision by
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bureaucracy and taken an active part in the big hearing in the
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European Court of First Instance in April 2006. [See
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our <a
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href="http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q2/000138.html">April
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2006 PR</a>]</p>
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<p>While waiting for the decision, which will most likely be published on
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17 September 2007, FSFE has now offered its support to the European
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Commission for the next investigation against Microsoft, this time
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about abusive behaviour in the office and internet. In this, FSFE
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represents the common working group formed with the Samba Team and
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OpenOffice.org, the main competitor of Microsoft Office.</p>
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<p>More information is available on
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our <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/">MS vs. EU page</a>.</p>
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<h3>European Union: Legislation</h3>
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<p>After years of struggle, the European Parliament finally decided in
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2005
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to <a
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href="http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q3/000109.html">bury
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the software patents directive</a>. Individual members of FSFE were
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working on the issue since 1999, the organsation itself was part of
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the software patent resistance since 2001 and in the late stages of
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the fight hired Ciaran O'Riordan to be present in Brussels.</p>
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<p>But even though that directive is dead, software patents themselves
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are not off the agenda and there are plenty of initiatives on EU level
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that also required our attention. One of them is
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the <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/">IPRED2
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directive</a> that seeks to introduce criminal measures for copyright
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and trademark infringement, although they were initially also intended
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to cover patents. That patents were excluded is one important victory
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of the first hearing for a broad alliance of groups, including many
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from the software patent debate but also consumer rights and
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industry.</p>
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<p>Besides these two, FSFE's Ciaran O'Riordan has been monitoring the EU
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legislation to not be surprised in the same way as we were with the
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first IPRED directive, where we failed to get together enough
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resistance.</p>
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<p>A lot more work remains to be done in this area.</p>
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<h3>United Nations: WIPO, WSIS and IGF</h3>
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<p><a href="http://www.wsis.org">The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)</a>
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was a two-part summit with the first summit taking place in Geneva in December 2003.</p>
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<p>In preparation for the second summit 2005 in Tunis, the Austrian
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government organised a WSIS contributory conference on "ICT and
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Creativity" with high level participants from various governments and
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intergovernmental organisations. The Free Software Foundation Europe
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was <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/wsis/">part of a workshop on "Digital Rights/Creative Commons."</a> We agreed
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to a text that was supposed to be part of the final output at the WSIS,
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only to find out in Tunis that Microsoft had manipulated these "<a href="http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20051130185547876">Vienna
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Conclusions</a>."</p>
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<!-- I'm leaving out source #11 it's redundant: -->
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<!-- http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/vienna_manipulations_on_groklaw -->
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<p>At the same summit in Tunis it was also decided to establish the
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<a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/igf/">Internet Governance Forum
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(IGF)</a> as an open forum to discuss all issues of the internet --
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except Free Software, which was too controversial for the United
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States and one particular company in Redmond. As the internet is
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largely built on Free Software and legislation on spam or cybercrime
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has the potential to be quite desastrous for Free Software developers
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around the world, FSFE participated in the first IGF in Athens in 2006
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where it also helped launch the Dynamic Coalition on <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/igf/a2k.en.html">Access to
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Knowledge and Freedom of Expression</a> and the Dynamic Coalition <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/igf/dcos.en.html">on
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Open Standards</a>.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile the debate about
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a <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/">reform of the World
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Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)</a> has seen several
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confrontational meetings in which FSFE took an active role until just
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recently it was decided that WIPO will get its "Development Agenda" to
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address the global injustice about limited monopolies on knowledge and
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information. FSFE has also started to push for <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/statement-20050721.en.html">a review of the
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software patent system</a> on a global level at WIPO.</p>
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<p>At the same time, the "<a href="http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/">Broadcasting Treaty</a>", which initially
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threatened to introduce another monopoly on top of copyright for
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broadcasters of any kind, finally seems to be off the agenda. FSFE did
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not have much resources to invest into this fight, but we have given
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our support to all the organisations that were working on this issue
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and we are glad to see this threat to freedom off the table.</p>
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<p>Over the past years, FSFE has established itself as a strong and
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stable force at the United Nations and its effectiveness is limited
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mainly by available resources, in particular staff time.</p>
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<h3>Freedom Task Force</h3>
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<p>After years of consideration and planning and following a decision of
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FSFE's 2006 general assembly in Manchester, FSFE finally launched the
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<a href="http://fsfeurope.org/ftf">Freedom Task Force (FTF)</a> under
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coordination of Shane Coughlan from FSFE's newly established Zurich
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office. The FTF combines the best principles of Free Software and the
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legal field by having expert groups and volunteers from the legal and
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technical communities, tied together through a full-time
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coordinator.</p>
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<p>From the start it has been closely coordinated and cooperating with
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gpl-violations.org established by Harald Welte in Germany who managed
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to first enforce the GNU General Public License (GPL) in court through
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Dr. Till Jaeger, who also is FSFE's legal counsel since 2001. </p>
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<p>The Freedom Task Force provides three basic services: 1. Licence
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consultancy and education, to help Free Software developers and
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companies understand the field and make sure the knowledge about the
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legal aspects of Free Software does not remain in the hands of a few,
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2. Fiduciary services, to help Free Software projects consolidate
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their legal status and make sure they can react to license violations
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while allowing them to focus on the technical and coordinative aspects
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of their projects, 3. Licence enforcement in cooperation with
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gpl-violations.org to ensure that the ground rules of Free Software
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equally apply to all.</p>
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<p>The overall resonance to the FTF has been quite positive. The first
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project to make use of the Fiduciary service
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was <a href="http://www.bacula.org">Bacula.org</a>, the most advanced
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Free Software backup solution available to date, and the FTF has
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already handled more than 180 requests since November 2006 when it was
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officially launched and built a solid legal network.</p>
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<p>So the external review by Stichting NLnet, who helped establish the
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FTF through a grant of 30k EUR, has been that the FTF has met and even
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exceeded expectations. FSFE expects this area of activites to solidify
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in the next years and is prepared to stock them up of the request for
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services keeps growing.</p>
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<h3>DRM.info</h3>
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<p>Following the discussions at the 2006 Manchester general assembly
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and on request of FSFE's sister organisation in the United States that
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had started the "<a href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org">Defective
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by Design</a>" campaign, FSFE initiated and launched DRM.info in
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October 2006. <a href="http://drm.info">DRM.info</a> was started as a
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collaborative platform with strong design and solid information and
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including various renowned groups and individuals. The launch was
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accompanied by demonstrations against DRM in various European cities,
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including Zurich, Gothenburg, London.</p>
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<p>Takeup of the initiative did not meet expectations, though, due to a
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variety of reasons, so the platform is undergoing reconsideration.</p>
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<h3>GNU GPLv3</h3>
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<p>The revision of the <a href="http://gplv3.fsf.org">GNU General
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Public License (GPL) to version 3</a> was one of the most challenging
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activities throughout the past two years. Free Software Foundation
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Europe (FSFE) was <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3">one of
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the main contributors to the effort of bringing transparency</a> into
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the process and details of the revision of the GNU General Public
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License (GPL) through participation in the international conferences
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on GPLv3 in Boston, Porto Alegre and Tokyo, as well as organisation of
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the international conference on GPLv3 in Barcelona.</p>
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<p>FSFE's Ciaran O'Riordan also contributed much to the transparency
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of the debate through
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his <a
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href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/#transcripts">transcripts</a>
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of important speeches which have helped many thousand people
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understand GPLv3 better.</p>
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<p>Additionally, FSFE's regional teams organised various local events and
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meetings on GPLv3 and FSFE representatives spoke about GPLv3 at a
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large number of events.</p>
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<h3>Science, Education and Learning in Freedom (SELF)</h3>
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<p>FSFE was centrally involved in the planning of
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the <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/projects/self/">EU project SELF</a>
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with partners from around the world, including people involved FSF
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India and FSF Latin America. Henrik Sandklef, Jonas Oberg, Mathias
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Klang, Georg Greve and others from FSFE are involved in this project
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to build a Free Software repository with Free educational material
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about Free Software and Open Standards that is going to export its
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material in Open Standards for other e-Learning platforms.</p>
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<p>FSFE's role in the project is coordinative, substantive, and legal,
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where it will provide the fiduciary for the resulting software through
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its Freedom Task Force (FTF) to ensure long-term sustainability of the
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project.</p>
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<p>More information is available
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on <a href="http://selfproject.eu">the SELF web site</a>.</p>
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<h3>Fellowship</h3>
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<p>Launched in February 2005, <a href="http://www.fsfe.org">the
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Fellowship of FSFE</a> has grown into a considerable community of
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people who share a strong commitment to freedom in the digital age. As
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foreseen, every Fellow helps to sustain FSFE's activities: the
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self-determined Fellowship contributions amount for a significant
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amount of FSFE's budget, so helps FSFE to keep the lights on.</p>
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<p>These contributions also show that the Fellows are willing to put
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their money where their mouth is -- something that has proven
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effective to increase the weight of the Free Software message in the
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political work FSFE is doing.</p>
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<p>But the idea of the Fellowship has also proven to go far beyond that.</p>
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<p>Fellows
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have <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/img/zrh_hoist">raised
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their flag</a> in various places around the world and have come
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together to organise concrete activities to bring Free Software into
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schools (Austria) or simply to meet at "freedom parties" in Berlin or
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Milano to get together and discuss the issues that move us.</p>
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<p>In several places the Fellows have started local initiatives with
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regular meetings, either on a regional or national level, and in
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November 2006, the Fellowship had
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its <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/meetings/2006_bolzano">first
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international meeting in Bolzano</a>, Southern Tyrol, Italy.</p>
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<p>Ultimately activity through the Fellowship is one of the best ways to
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get involved in FSFE. A living demonstration of this is FSFE Fellow
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Shane Coughlan, now Freedom Task Force Coordinator for the FSFE. Two
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years ago, he was not on our radar. But when he became active as a
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Fellow, gave presentations on FSFE and the Fellowship out of his own
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initiative, and actively sought to become involved in the work, it
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took him very little time to be integrated into FSFE.</p>
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<h3>Ongoing Activities</h3>
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<p>With any organisation such as FSFE there are
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always <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/">a million things to
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keep running</a> that stay unnoticed when they are done well, and only
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show up when they don't. Three activities for which this is
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particularly true are the Office, the Web page and the translation
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efforts, which generally get very little recognition, but are seminal
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to keep FSFE running.</p>
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<p>In the past two years, FSFE's main logistic and administrative
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office moved from Essen to Dusseldorf. Thanks to the good work of
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former Head of Office Werner Koch, the office in Dusseldorf was built
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up solidly with a small footprint and we found three very energetic
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and competent people who have been running a very smooth office:
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Angelina Bartlett, Anja Vorspel and Rainer Kersten. FSFE also opened
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small offices in Zurich and Brussels for the legal and EU policy work,
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which are staffed by Shane Coughlan and Ciaran O'Riordan,
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respectively.</p>
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<p>The web page is often the main point of contact for people with FSFE
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and required lots of work over the past two years, from putting the
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<a href="http://fsfeurope.org/order/">new order interface online</a>,
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improving the underlying technology and adding more information.</p>
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<p>Last year FSFE also managed to find and implement a new visual
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identity along which the web page has been redesigned. All of these
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steps are important to make sure the message goes out to those who
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need to hear it.</p>
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<p>And finally the translation team has slowly grown into a group of
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volunteers that make translations fast and effectively into various
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languages, a work that is not only time consuming and difficult, but
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also important to lower the communication barrier with many people
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around the world.</p>
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<h3>FSFE Network</h3>
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<p>The Free Software Foundation network grew significantly in various
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ways. One was the founding of FSFE's sister organisation in Latin
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America, the <a href="http://www.fsfla.org">Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA)</a>, which
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FSFE supported both spiritually as well as practically by hosting
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their services on one of its virtual servers.</p>
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<p>FSFE's network
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of <a href="http://fsfeurope.org/associates/">associate
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organisations</a> now spans 14 organisations in 12 countries,
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namely</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.affs.org.uk">AFFS</a>, UK</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ansol.org">ANSOL</a>, Portugal</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.libre.org">FKF</a>, Spain</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ffii.org">FFII</a>, Germany</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ffis.de">FFIS</a>, Germany</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ffs.or.at">FFS</a>, Austria</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.fsij.org">FSIJ</a>, Japan</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.fsn.org.yu">FSN</a>, Serbia</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.vialibre.org.ar">Fundacion Via Libre</a>, Argentina</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ifso.ie">IFSO</a>, Ireland</li>
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<li><a href="http://ev.kde.org">KDE e.V.</a>, Germany</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ofset.org">OFSET</a>, France</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.vrijschrift.org">Vrijschrift</a>, Netherlands</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.wilhelmtux.ch">Wilhelmtux</a>, Switzerland</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Events</h3>
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<p>As in the past years, FSFE has been present at many events to talk
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about various aspects of Free Software, to meet the community and to
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help others join our community. Events that FSFE has participated to
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over the past years include, but are not limited to:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>2nd CCC, Berlin</li>
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<li>5th Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre, Rosario</li>
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<li>A2K Meeting, London</li>
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<li>A2K2@Yale, United States</li>
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<li>A2K@Yale, United States</li>
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<li>ATTAC Germany Summer Academy</li>
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<li>British Computer Society, London</li>
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<li>Campus Party, Valencia</li>
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<li>ChaosControl Conference, Vienna</li>
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<li>ConfSL, Cosenza</li>
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<li>FISL, Brazil</li>
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<li>FOSDEM, Brussels</li>
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<li>GPLv3 Conferences</li>
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<li>HGKZ, Zurich</li>
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<li>III Encontro de Software Livre do Amazonas, Manaus</li>
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<li>Internet Days, Stockholm</li>
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<li>Internet Hungary 2005</li>
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<li>Internetdagarna, Stockholm</li>
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<li>Java Conference Milano</li>
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<li>KDE Conference, Dublin</li>
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<li>LACFREE, Recife</li>
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<li>LWE, Utrecht</li>
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<li>LinuxTag, Berlin</li>
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<li>LinuxTag, Wiesbaden</li>
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<li>LinuxWorld Expo, Frankfurt</li>
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<li>LinuxWorld Expo, Milano</li>
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<li>Linuxwochen, Vienna</li>
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<li>Meeting Libre 2007, Miraflores de la Sierra</li>
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<li>OpenOffice.org Conference, Koper - Capodistria</li>
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<li>SANE, Delft</li>
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<li>SERCI Workshop, Helsinki</li>
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<li>SFScon, Bolzano</li>
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<li>STACS kickoff, Paris</li>
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<li>Svenska Linuxforeningen</li>
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<li>TACD Conference, Brussels</li>
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<li>Trophees du Libre, Soissons</li>
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<li>Tweakfest, Zurich</li>
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<li>Valtellinux, Caiolo</li>
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<li>Wizards of OS, Berlin</li>
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<li>dorkbot.swiss, Zurich</li>
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<li>eIFL workshop, Kiev</li>
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<li>eLiberatica 2007, Brasov</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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