198 行
8.9 KiB
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198 行
8.9 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2011-05-04" type="newsletter">
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - May 2011</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - May 2011</h1>
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<h2>Competition authorities: Free Software protects competition</h2>
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<p newsteaser="yes">882 software patents, likely related to GNU/Linux, in the
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hands of people who could use them to pressure Free Software companies and
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developers? Maybe in the hands of Microsoft, which has for years used nebulous
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patent claims to extract licensing fees from companies that use the Linux
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kernel in their products. This month the German and the US competition
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authorities approved the sale of those patents to CPTN, a consortium consisting
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of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, and EMC. But, barring nasty surprises in the still
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to be published detailed decision, we neutralised the danger for Free
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Software.</p>
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<p>Software patents are a very complex matter, and competition authorities are
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not used dealing with them. So beginning from December 2010 we explained
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to the German competition authorities why the patent sale was highly problematic.
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In our <a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20101222.html">first</a>, and <a
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href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20110406.html">second</a> submission we
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explained the mechanics that some companies use to compete in the software
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market, and how they preserve their monopolies. </p>
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<p>In their press release the authorities have not only highlighted the
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importance of Free Software for competition, and that actual patent lawsuits
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are anticompetitive but also that threatening with patent lawsuits, like the
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fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) strategies from some non-free software
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companies, can be anticompetitive.</p>
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<p>So for the first time, competition authorities have acknowledged the
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essential part of Free Software for competition, and that patent lawsuits by
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dominant market participants can be anticompetitive. This will also be
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important for future debates, when the behaviour of big non-free software
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companies has to be evaluated from a competition law perspective.</p>
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<p>As the devil is in the details, we hope to hear about the exact wording of
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the CPTN contracts <a href="/campaigns/swpat/novell-cptn.html">to evaluate
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them</a>. Such work is very time consuming, and we would not be able to keep
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track of those activities, without the support of <a
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href="/donate/donate.html">one time donations</a> and regular ones by <a
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href="/join.html">our Fellows</a>.</p>
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<h2>Mission is possible</h2>
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<!-- Translator notice. Parts from
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http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110421-01.en.html -->
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<p>To date, 17 percent of the public institutions, <a
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href="/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.html">we contacted</a>, already
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replied and removed the non-free PDF reader advertisements from their websites.
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The current progress of the campaign can be seen on <a
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href="/campaigns/pdfreaders/buglist.html">our buglist</a>. Until now we have
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only received one negative reply. However, as about 83 percent of the contacted
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institutions have not responded yet, we want to remind them about the letter we
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have sent, and ask for a reply. This works only with your help. To take part,
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follow the actions from our <a
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href="/campaigns/pdfreaders/follow-up.html">follow-up guide</a>. In short
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this is:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>have a look at organisations in your country which appear as not having
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answered yet,</li>
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<li>contact and remind them of FSFE's letter on inadmissibility of advertising
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of proprietary software by public institutions, and</li>
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<li>ask them to remove the proprietary software advertising from their
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websites.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>If you discover non-free PDF reader advertisement, and is not on our list,
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you are encouraged to contact them on your own. For public institutions use a
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modified version of <a href="/campaigns/pdfreaders/letter.en.html">our
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letter</a>, for companies and non-profits we are working on a template, after
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volunteers have convinced organisations like <a
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href="http://www.greenpeace.de/themen/energie/nachrichten/artikel/deutschlands_energieriesen_zu_05_prozent_nachhaltig/">Greenpeace
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Germany</a> to link to pdfreaders.org instead.</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Data stored per-user, and under the user's control. That is the aim of
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the unhosted web. This project is covered by this month <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=299">Fellowship
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interview with Michiel de Jong</a>. If you want to discuss this in person
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with Michiel, he will help as one of our booth volunteers for one day during
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<a href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents/Linuxtag%20berlin">Berlin's
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Linuxtag</a>. </li>
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<li>Free Software for the public sector: We have provided input for the
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European Commission <a href="/news/2011/news-20110418-01.html">on modernising
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the way in which public bodies buy software</a> and related services.</li>
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<li>At the moment fellows are starting new <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/">Fellowship groups</a> in <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Augsburg">Augsburg</a> (Germany) and <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Manchester">Manchester</a> (UK). For the
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Manchester group our British coordinator Sam Tuke created a good
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presentation template about the Fellowship which is now linked from the
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<a href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/MeetingHowTo#General">meeting howto</a>.</li>
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<li>Noteworthy articles from the <a href="http://planet.fsfe.org">Fellowship
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planet</a> include:</li>
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<ul>
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<li>Timo Jyrinki's article about his <a href="
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http://losca.blogspot.com/2011/04/tuning-old-but-free-phone-video-now.html">
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presentation of "tuning an old but free phone"</a> with corresponding
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videos from <a href="http://www.fscons.org">FSCONS</a>, </li>
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<li>Carlo Piana's article <a href="http://piana.eu/it/node/265">"Doors
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opened at Openoffice"</a> about Oracle's announcement that they want to
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make OpenOffice.org a community developed project,</li>
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<li>and Lena Simon's article <a
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href="http://www.stud.uni-potsdam.de/~leena/2011/04/alte-mythen-in-der-digitalen-gesellschaft/">about
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the old myths in a digital society</a> (German) which also covers some
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issues we have to explain often. </li>
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</ul>
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<li>Groklaw's well deserved pension. Groklaw is shutting down and <a
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href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/farewell-groklaw-and-thanks">like
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our sister organisation</a> we would like to thank them for their good
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work.</li>
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<li>Free Software licensing, Free Software business, software patents, and
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other topics from a legal point of view are covered in Matija's Free Software
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and law related links. Editions are available for <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/239">29.03.-17.04.</a>, <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/241">18.04.-24.04.</a>, and
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<a href="http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/244">25.04.-29.04.</a>. </li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get Active - Internships at FSFE</h2>
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<p>We are looking for smart, motivated interns to join <a
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href="/about/team.html">our team</a>. Apply for an <a
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href="/contribute/internship.html">internship position</a> yourself, or
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distribute the information about it. We offer:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>a challenging and exciting time with a dynamic NPO working internationally,</li>
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<li>a close-up view of organisational and community processes, </li>
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<li>a chance to take the initiative and put your ideas into practice, and</li>
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<li>the opportunity to meet and work with Free Software advocates across Europe.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Beside the current interns <a href="">Natalia Evdokimova</a>, and <a
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href="/about/jean/jean.html">Nicolas Jean</a>, past interns include our
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Italian coordinator <a href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/poderi/">Giacomo Poderi</a>,
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Fellowship representative <a href="/about/roy/roy.html">Hugo Roy</a>, our
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president <a href="/about/gerloff/gerloff.html">Karsten Gerloff</a>, UK
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coordinator <a href="/about/tuke/tuke.html">Sam Tuke</a>, Swedish team member
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<a href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/julipan/">Stian
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Rødven Eide</a>, education team coordinator <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/riepernet/">Thomas Jensch</a>, and <a
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href="/about/kirschner/kirschner.html">your editor</a>, who was FSFE's first
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intern. So as you can see, the internship is a good start to get more involved
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in FSFE.</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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