News Archive

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In addition to the regular news items listed on this page, the FSFE issues a monthly newsletter.

(2009-02-02) FSFE launches Free PDF Readers campaign
The Fellowship of the Free Software Foundation Europe is proud to announce its latest initiative: pdfreaders.org, a site providing information about PDF with links to Free Software PDF readers for all major operating systems.[Read more...]

(2009-01-23) FTF releases legal infrastructure guide for Free Software projects
FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF) is pleased to announce the release of a guide to assist with establishing legal infrastructure for Free Software projects.[Read more...]

(2009-01-20) Web browser interoperability: FSFE welcomes EC's decision and offers support
Free Software Foundation Europe welcomes the European Commission's decision and offers its support in the coming anti-trust investigation. As stated previously in a letter to the European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, anti-competitive behaviour is unacceptable, whether it occurs as 'tying' products with dominant market segments, or in circumventing standards and fair access.[Read more...]

(2009-01-20) Fellowship Interview with Enrico Zini
Enrico Zini is a long time Fellow of the FSFE and a prominent Debian developer. He has been involved in many different projects relating to Free Software and is deeply concerned about social issues. Read on for the fourth in our Fellowship interview series - "the smallest unit of freedom". [Read more...]

(2009-01-11) Results of the translation sprint

FSFE's new year translation sprint ended yesterday with a respectable result: the numerous volunteers created 49 new translations and updated 137 documents within 28 days.

FSFE's core team expresses its appreciation towards all the volunteers who contributed. You have helped a great deal by making information about Free Software and FSFE's activities available in local European languages.

(2009-01-05) FSFE - 2009 New Year's Resolution
Back at work? Still looking for a good New Year's Resolution? 2009 will be an important year for FSFE, not the least because the General Assembly will see the first Fellow elected into its midst by general election among all active Fellows of FSFE. The Fellowship will also continue to play a direct role in FSFE's activities. [Read more...]

(2008-12-18) Fellowship Interview with Johannes (Hanno) Böck
This month we interviewed Johannes Böck about CAcert, Gentoo, OpenStreetMap, privacy, security, and Free Software businesses. This is the third in our series of Fellowship interviews - "the smallest unit of freedom". [Read more...]

(2008-12-15) FSFE announces 4 weeks of translation sprint
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) announces a translation sprint for their web pages from 15 December 2008 to 11 January 2009. The aim of this sprint is to provide information about Free Software and FSFE's work in as many languages as possible. [Read more...]

(2008-12-10) FSFE adds Fellowship representation to General Assembly
Today FSFE is announcing its revised constitution, adding two Fellowship Seats to its General Assembly. This will give Fellows of FSFE a direct representation in FSFE's strategic decision making body.[Read more...]

(2008-12-08) FTF and gpl-violations release a guide to reporting and fixing licence violations
FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF) and GPL-Violations.org today released a guide to reporting and fixing licence compliance issues. This guide will help users and developers to deal with license violation reports. It explains how to make a report, what information is useful to include, and offers suggestions for how projects or businesses can deal with reports once they are received.[Read more...]

(2008-12-02) Analysis on balance: Standardisation and Patents
Following up on the "IPR in ICT Standardisation" Workshop two weeks ago in Brussels, FSFE president Georg Greve analysed the conflicts between patents and standards. The resulting paper is about the most harmful effects of patents on standards, the effectiveness of current remedies, and potential future remedies. [Read more...]

(2008-10-28) Fellowship Interview with Rolf Camps
This month Ciarán O'Riordan interviewed Rolf Camps about translating, volunteering, and awareness of Free Software in Belgium. Translations are utterly crucial for a European organisation, and it's a lot of work that doesn't get much visible credit, so Ciarán wanted to ask Rolf about motivations and what's involved. This is the second in our series of Fellowship interviews - "the smallest unit of freedom". [Read more...]

(2008-10-07) FSFE for Freedom Not Fear
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) supports Free Software so that every citizen can play an independent, active and responsible part in our information society. However, censorship of content, violations of the principle of 'Net Neutrality' and increasing online surveillance do not fit with these goals. FSFE is therefore appealing for participation in the world-wide day of action "Freedom Not Fear", which takes place this Saturday, the 11th October. [Read more...]

(2008-09-27) Happy Birthday To GNU! - The FSFE Celebrates the GNU Project's 25th Birthday!
Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the initial announcement of the GNU Project, a pioneering initiative to develop an operating system that gives all users the freedom to modify it and publish modified versions, individually or working together. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) commends the substantial achievements of GNU's first quarter-century and looks forward to furthering their shared goal of facilitating software freedoms. [Read more...]

(2008-09-26) FSFE to make legal consolidation tool available in 10 languages
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) announced today that it plans to make the Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA) available ten languages. The selected languages are English, German, French, Italian, Swedish, Serbian, Polish, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese. [Read more...]

(2008-09-22) 25 years GNU = 25% discount for 25 days
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the GNU project FSFE will be offering a 25% discount on merchandise from the 23th September until the 17th October. Please note that this discount does not apply to shipping costs. [Read more...]

(2008-08-31) Printable information material about FSFE available for download
A folder with general information about FSFE and Free Software, and some leaflets with specific information about FSFE's projects and activities are now available online in HTML and PDF format. Everybody can download, print, distribute! [Read more...]

(2008-08-22) FSFE welcomes KDE's adoption of the Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA)
"We see the adoption of the FLA by KDE as a positive and important milestone in the maturity of the Free Software community," says Georg Greve, president of Free Software Foundation Europe. "The FLA was designed to help projects increase the legal maintainability of their software to ensure long-term protection and reliability. KDE is among the most important Free Software initiatives and it is playing a central role in bringing freedom to the desktop. This decision of the KDE project underlines its dedication to think about how to make that freedom last." [Read more...]

(2008-06-18) Stabilisers for freedom: Wine 1.0
"Of course, it should be in the users interest to 'ride their bicycles independently', i.e. not having to rely on training wheels. However, the training wheels keep children from falling and give freedom to both the children and their parents. Likewise Wine helped to give freedom and security to the users. It is for this we are thankful and we recognise their work." [Read more...]

(2008-05-27) GPL-Violations.org and FSFE's Freedom Task Force to work more closely together
"It is a clear, legal fact that distributing Free Software means people must comply with the licences. GPL-Violations.org and the FTF are now building the long-term legal infrastructure for support and compliance" comments Harald Welte. Shane Coughlan adds "I believe our new agreement will help ensure sustainability for legal infrastructure to support Free Software in Europe." [Read more...]

(2008-04-02) FSFE concerned about quality of standardisation process
"Technologically speaking, the state of IS29500 is depressing," says Marko Milenovic of FSFE's Serbian Team and co-chair of the Serbian technical committee on DIS29500. "In large parts it is low quality technical prose that fails to use the normative terminology mandated by ISO/IEC's guidelines. We've been told to wait for the maintenance process for MS-OOXML to become usable. That ISO would knowingly approve a dysfunctional specification is disillusioning." [Read more...]

(2008-03-26) 26 March 2008: Today is Document Freedom Day!
Today is Document Freedom Day: Roughly 200 teams from more than 60 countries worldwide are organising local activities to raise awareness for Document Freedom and Open Standards. [...] Document Freedom is about giving you control of your information, it is about giving governments control of their public records, and it is about freedom of choice. You can give yourself that freedom today [...] [Read more...]

(2008-03-06) Petition calls for Open Standards in the European Parliament
At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP) still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European Union's citizens and its own MEPs. OpenForum Europe, The European Software Market Association, and the Free Software Foundation Europe today launched a petition to call on the EP to use Open Standards so that all citizens can participate in the democratic process. [Read more...]

(2008-03-05) FSFE context briefing: Interoperability woes with MS-OOXML.
FSFE has released a context briefing on Interoperability problems caused by Microsoft's Office OpenXML format: "The proposed MS-OOXML/DIS29500 specification raises serious technical and legal concerns. This context briefing highlights three examples of how the proposed specification and its practical implementation in MS Office 2007 hinders interoperability, fosters vendor dependence and results in market distortion." [Read more...]

(2008-03-01) Google helps FSFE's FTF to deliver training, attend conferences and translate documents.
"The Freedom Task Force is working to foster effective legal infrastructure for Free Software in Europe. A great deal of our work is based on engaging directly with people and Google's contribution will allow us to do this more effectively," says Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator. [Read more...]

(2008-02-28) FSFE calls on Microsoft to release interoperability information without restrictions
The European Commission has fined Microsoft 899 million Euro for anti-competitive behaviour by restricting access to interoperability information. "Microsoft is the last company that actively promotes the use of software patents to restrict interoperability. This kind of behaviour has no place in an Internet society where all components should connect seamlessly regardless of their origin," says Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe. [Read more...]

(2008-02-22) Microsoft pledge excluding primary competitors
Yesterday's media briefing by Microsoft on its its pledge to release interoperability information for flagship products contained little actual news. Over the years Microsoft has made multiple similar pledges and they at times proved to be detrimental rather than beneficial for interoperability. Examining the terms of the Microsoft's latest action shows no major change of policy. [Read more...]

(2008-02-20) 26 March: A global day for document liberation
The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation with grassroots action for promotion of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general. The DFD was initiated and is supported by a group of organisations and companies, including, but not limited to, the Free Software Foundation Europe, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, IBM, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, Inc. On 26 March 2008, the Document Freedom Day will provide a global rallying point for Document Liberation and Open Standards. [Read more...]

(2008-02-18) FSFE Context Briefing: DIS-29500 - Deprecated before use?
When ECMA submitted MS-OOXML as ECMA-376 to ISO for fast-track approval, several countries criticised overlap with the existing ISO standard ISO/IEC 26300:2006, the Open Document Format (ODF). [...] Considering that alleged preservation of idiosyncrasies is the stated reason for the entire DIS-29500 ISO process, FSFE considers it worthwhile to investigate this claim in greater depth. [Read more...]

(2008-02-14) FSFE announces the first European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software
FSFE's Freedom Task Force today announces the first European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software will be held on Friday the 11th of April in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  The venue for this meeting is the InterContinental Amstel Hotel. [Read more...]

(2008-01-18) NLnet continues to support FSFE's Freedom Task Force
FSFE's Freedom Task Force was launched in November 2006 to help support individuals, projects and businesses with Free Software licensing. The initial phase of the FTF was possible thanks to support by the Netherlands based philantropic organisation NLnet foundation. NLnet's support allowed the FTF to provide training, consultancy and to work in partnership with gpl-violations.org to resolve licence issues in the European area.  The FTF also formed networks of technical and legal experts to foster cooperation between lawyers, projects and businesses with licensing concerns.  Now, after just over twelve months of continual growth, NLnet is providing a second round of financial support to this innovative legal project. [Read more...]

(2007-12-21) FSFE supports new antitrust investigation against Microsoft
"Microsoft should be required openly, fully and faithfully to implement free and open industry standards," is the message of a letter by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) to European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. To help achieve this goal, FSFE offered its support for a possible antitrust investigation based on the complaint of Opera Software against Microsoft. The complaint was based on anti-competitive behaviour in the web browser market. [Read more...]

(2007-12-20) EU antitrust case over: Samba receives interoperability information
One case is over and interoperability won. The European Court made clear that interoperability information should not be kept secret and the agreement shows that Microsoft saw no way to continue its obstruction of interoperability in this area. This establishes a standard which everyone will have to meet from now on. [Read more...]

(2007-11-09) Welcome to life after ICT lock-in
"Vendor lock-in has become the primary problem for IT decisions in general and Free Software adoption in particular. It distorts the market and denies Free Software solutions equal competition on the merits. The problem has been that many lock-ins are invisible, for example reliance on proprietary protocols or needing to use certain document formats. Certified Open makes that lock-in visible and allows users to measure their dependency." [Read more...]

(2007-09-17) FSFE, Samba: A triumph for freedom of choice and competition
"Microsoft can consider itself above the law no longer," says Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). "Through tactics that successfully derailed antitrust processes in other parts of the world, including the United States, Microsoft has managed to postpone this day for almost a decade. But thanks to the perseverance and excellent work of the European Commission, these tactics have now failed in Europe." [Read more...]

(2007-07-27) FSFE offers to help companies adhere to Free Software licence terms
The terms of the GNU GPL licence have been confirmed as binding once again, with a German court ruling that Skype was failing to uphold its obligations as a distributor. FSFE wants to help other vendors understand their GNU GPL obligations. [Read more...]

(2007-07-16) The converter hoax
FSFE Guest Commentary on Heise.de: "Conversion between Microsoft's Office OpenXML (MS-OOXML) and the vendor-independent Open Document Format (ODF) has been proposed by Microsoft and its associates as a solution to the problems caused by Microsoft's efforts to push a format into the market that conflicts with the existing Open Standard. [...] If these converters were actually able to do what they promise to do, they would be unnecessary." [Read more...]

(2007-07-11) BBC: Questions for Microsoft on open formats
Featured article by Georg Greve and Joachim Jakobs about the need for Open Standards in archival, and why using MS-OOXML risks future data loss: "Digital information could potentially be stored without loss of quality for a very long time to come. But without knowledge about the encoding, our documents will become a meaningless series of ones and zeroes to future generations, just like cave paintings are too often meaningless bits of colour on stone to us." [Read more...]

(2007-07-11) Free Software personal assistance for businesses
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has always helped the community through providing pro bono advice, and through this has discovered that businesses often require additional personal assistance. For this reason, FSFE is offering businesses a chance to get individual consultancy regarding Free Software issues at its Zurich, Switzerland office. [Read more...]

(2007-07-05) GNU GPLv3 Released
Version 3 of the GNU GPL has been released, after eighteen months of public consultation and discussion. Version 3 provides better internationalisation, more protection against software patents, and does a better job of ensuring that Free Software users can install modified software on their computers. [Read more...]

(2007-06-26) Six questions to national standardisation bodies
The following six questions relate to the application of the ECMA/MS-OOXML format to be accepted as an IEC/ISO standard. Unless a national standardisation body has conclusive answers to all of them, it should vote no in IEC/ISO and request that Microsoft incorporate its work on MS-OOXML into ISO/IEC 26300:2006 (Open Document Format). [Read more...]

(2007-05-18) The Microsoft message: Time to invest in Free Software
In an attempt to inspire fear, uncertainty and doubt in the hearts of the financial world, Microsoft alledged massive patent infringement by Free Software in a recent Fortune article. [Read more...]

(2007-04-23) European Parliament must prevent criminalisation of software vendors and users
The FSFE criticises the proposed "second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive" (IPRED2) for sweeping criminalisation across various areas of law and loosely described areas of activity, including for 'attempting, aiding or abetting and inciting.' The proposed text criminalises these acts for infringement of many dissimilar laws including copyright, trademark, and patents. [Read more...]

(2007-04-17) FSFE launches list of recommended Free Software lawyers
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is committed to working with lawyers throughout Europe to maximise the legal security of Free Software and is aware that as the community matures it is important to be able to locate professional legal advice. For this reason FSFE has introduced a new policy for recommending legal experts in individual countries. [Read more...]

(2007-02-24) Time to give back: Fellowship Raffle 2007!
"The Free Software community is built on the principle of cooperation of many very different parts. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) works exclusively for the benefit of the entire community, including the companies that make use of Free Software," explains Georg Greve, president of FSFE. "We do this work gladly and with great enthusiasm and we always remember that to a large extent this work is made possible by those who work with us and support us, in particular the many Fellows of FSFE." [Read more...]

(2007-02-01) FSFE releases solution to increase legal strength of Free Software projects
Today FSFE has released the Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA) under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence (GFDL) and the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-alike (CC by-sa) licence. The FLA is a copyright assignment that allows Free Software projects to bundle their copyright in a single organisation or person. It enables projects to ensure their legal maintainability and can be used to either assign copyright to FSFE's Fiduciary Program or to assign the rights to another organisation set up by the project team itself. [Read more...]

(2007-01-30) The Vista message: Upgrade to GNU/Linux now!
FSFE considers this a unique opportunity: With the release of Vista, users will need to upgrade to a new operating system that will feel different and require some time to get used to its functionality. The same is true for any modern GNU/Linux distribution. It is about the same investment in effort, but it will give you control over your own data. [Read more...]

(2007-01-23) FSFE becomes the legal guardian of the OpenSwarm Project
The OpenSwarm Project will be protected by FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF). Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, explains "The Freedom Task Force is here to help strengthen the legal foundation of the Free Software eco-system. The Fiduciary licence Agreement is part of this. It provides a clear way for projects to consolidate their copyright. In the case of OpenSwarm, FSFE is acting a legal guardian for the project and ensuring that the developers can focus on maturing an exciting development platform." [Read more...]

(2007-01-09) Transcript: Free Software and the Future of Freedom
In this talk, Richard Stallman explains why Free Software is defined the way it is, the technical and political choices that have gotten the Free Software movement to where it is today, and what we have to do to prepare for what's ahead. With more than 20 years of practice, Stallman also entertains while telling the story.
This transription work was undertaken by FSFE due to the very positive feedback from the transcripts about GPLv3. [Read more...]

(2006-11-21) FSFE becomes the legal guardian of the Bacula Project
Kern Sibbald, the founder and lead developer of the Bacula network backup solution, assigned his copyright to FSFE. "I wanted to underline the commitment of the Bacula Project to Free Software," said Kern. "Bacula has always been a community project and we're just solidifying that for the long-term. I am very thankful that the FSFE is providing this service because it removes an important administrative burden from the project, which allows us to focus on the task of programming." [Read more...]

(2006-11-13) Launching Freedom Task Force, Co-operating with gpl-violations.org
"We have as a primary goal to help corporations to adhere to the licences from the onset, rather than to have to enforce violations later," explains Mr. Coughlan. "We encourage those responsible for compliance for their company to contact us, so we can work together to avoid licence compliance problems, rather than having to later solve problems that could have been avoided in the first place." [Read more...]

(2006-10-03) DRM.info: Informing about the dangers of controlling private media use
Early this morning, a group of contributing organisations and authors launched DRM.info, a collaborative information platform about the potential dangers of Digital Restriction Management (DRM) initiated by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). The contributing groups come from different areas, such as digital freedom, network activism, consumer rights and libraries. [Read more...]

(2006-07-27) GPL Version 3, Draft #2 Published
After six months of public comment, the second public discussion draft of GPLv3 is now online - responding to public input about patents, Digital Restrictions Management, and global enforceability among other things. [Read more...]

(2006-07-12) Commission to Microsoft: Preventing interoperability has a price
European Commission to fine Microsoft 1.5 million Euro per day retroactively from 16. December 2005, totalling 280.5 million Euro. Should Microsoft not come into compliance until the end of July 2006, the daily fines could be doubled. These fines are a reaction to Microsofts continued lack of compliance with the European Commission decision to make interoperability information available to competitors as a necessary precondition to allow fair competition. FSFE has supported the European Commission from the start of the suit in 2001. [Read more...]

(2006-06-13) GPLv3 international conference details online
Marking the half-way point of the year-long public consultation process for redrafting Free Software's cornerstone licence, the third international GPLv3 conference will host experts from Europe and from around the world.
The venue, in the heart of the city, is the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). There, during the two days of this event, there will be presentations from experts including Richard Stallman, president of FSF, Eben Moglen, chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, Georg Greve, president of FSF Europe and Harald Welte, founder of gpl-violations.org. [Read more...]

(2006-05-19) Europe to host 3rd International GPLv3 Conference: Barcelona, Spain, June 22nd & 23rd
The conference will take place in Barcelona, Spain, and the exact venue will be announced soon. In January, a year-long public consultation process for updating the GNU General Public License was launched. Commonly called "the GPL", this licence is used by the majority of Free Software to detail the distribution terms of the software. [Read more...]

(2006-05-09) FSFE welcomes KDE e.V. as new associate organisation
The KDE e.V. - a registered non-profit organisation that represents the K Desktop Environment (KDE®) in legal and financial matters - and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) are proud to announce their associate status, working together for the promotion and protection of Free Software on users' desktops in Europe and worldwide. [Read more...]

(2006-04-27) Samba and FSFE: "Microsoft - obstacle to innovation in the digital society!"
"Businesses and public authorities have to pay prices that are kept high by Microsoft's refusal to share interoperability information with its competitors, as is common practice in the industry," explains Andrew Tridgell, president and founder of the Samba Team in his presentation on behalf of Free Software Foundation Europe in European Court today. [Read more...]

(2006-04-27) Microsoft: "Our software patents preclude interoperability"
Carlo Piana, Free Software Foundation Europe's lawyer on the case explains: "The interventions made perfectly clear that the Blue Bubble only existed in the lawyers' pleadings. Meanwhile, Microsoft left no doubt as to the legal nature of that Bubble: a conglomerate of 46 patents that it claims it holds on ADS, whose main effect is to prevent interoperability and, eventually, competition." [Read more...]

(2006-04-21) FSFE: "Microsoft locks in customers and pushes software patents to prevent competition."
"Microsoft's software locks in users and now the company is lobbying to get this lock-in effect legalised by software patents" is the basic message of a feature article Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has published on its website today. [Read more...]

(2006-04-03) Notebook Raffle: And The Winners Are...
The notebook raffle has taken place and two lucky Fellows from Italy and Netherlands won a HP Compaq Notebook, pre-installed with Debian GNU/Linux. [Read more...]

(2006-03-10) FSFE celebrates its fifth birthday
Seeing an even greater need today for strong coordinated actions to protect everyones freedom [Read more...]

(2006-02-26) FSFE not fooling around: Join the Fellowship and win a Free Software notebook!
FSFE's way to say thank you for the support: Like last year's PDA, donated by xtops.de the Free Software Foundation Europe will be raffling off two HP notebooks to all active Fellows on 1 April this year. For two lucky Fellows, April Fool's Day will be anything but foolish. [Read more...]

(2006-02-16) FSFE to Microsoft: stop complaining, and start complying!
"After several years of investigation, the original ruling in 2004, and a European Court case lasting close to two years, we now have to conclude that Microsoft never had any intention to comply with the antitrust ruling," comments Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). "We were forced to witness years of delays, stalling and playing for more time during which Microsoft has made no attempt to allow interoperability and competition with its competitors, including Free Software such as Samba." [Read more...]

(2006-02-14) FKF and FSFE teaming up: FKF official associate organisation of FSF Europe
The Free Knowledge Foundation / Fundación Conocimiento Libre (FKF) and Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) are proud to announce their new official associate status, working together for the promotion and protection of Free Software in Spain. [Read more...]

(2006-01-26) EU antitrust case: "Microsoft offers poisoned apple"
"It now seems clear this was just another marketing ploy: Yesterday Microsoft acted like a robber that, when asked to please put away the gun, tosses you a grenade." [Read more...]

(2005-11-23) FSFE files application for leave to intervene in antitrust suit against Microsoft
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) filed an application for leave to intervene in the antitrust suit against Microsoft today. Georg Greve, President of FSFE said: "The more Microsoft is able to purchase its opponents' solidarity, the more important FSFE's commitment to freedom and interoperability is." These days, FSFE meets adversaries of freedom in various venues: In Brussels, the 'Intellectual Property Rights European Enforcement Directive' (IPRED2) is being pushed by the rights-holding industry, and Microsoft has shown that it was able to rewrite the Vienna Conclusions on ICT and Creativity for the UN World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). [Read more...]

(2005-10-19) Early comment on new Microsoft Shared Source Licenses
"Microsoft finally seems to have made a step forward on their long march towards giving their users freedom: [...] Given previous Microsoft statements about the Copyleft approach and in particular the GNU GPL as 'viral', 'cancerous' and 'communist', seeing Microsoft now publish licenses applying the very same principles seems quite an evolution." [Read more...]

(2005-10-14) FSFE urges European Commission to keep defending European economic interests
"We congratulate Microsoft on effective use of their considerable financial resources: First they manage to pay off Sun, then Novell and the CCIA. Now they convinced Real Networks to serve their own head on a silver platter for just US $761 Million" [Read more...]

(2005-09-30) Statement of FSFE and FSF Latin America to the 2005 WIPO General Assemblies
Not continuing what was begun, or changing from a horse to a mule midstream, as the honored Indian delegate so eloquently put it, would be wasting the time and effort spent on this initiative by all sides, North and South. For this reason we strongly support the notion of letting the IIM process finish what it began. [Read more...]

(2005-09-06) Announcing the GPL Version 3 Development and Publicity Project (GPLv3)
Stichting NLnet donate 150,000 EUR to support GPLv3 activities
The project will bring together thousands of organisations, software developers, and software users from around the globe during 2006, in an effort to update the world's most popular Free Software licence. The GPLv3 promises to be one of the largest participatory comments and adoption efforts ever undertaken. [Read more...]

(2005-08-30) TuxMobil GNU/Linux Award 2005 granted
The TuxMobil GNU/Linux Award 2005 has been granted to OpenEmbedded, OpenZaurus, PI-Sync, KWlanInfo and BlueZ, in recognition of their efforts in users freedom. [Read more...]

(2005-07-21) WIPO IIM/3: WSIS PCT: WIPO should prevent software patents, shorten copyright
During the third Inter-Sessional, Inter-Governmental Meeting (IIM) on a Development Agenda (IIM/3), Georg Greve delivered a statement on behalf of the WSIS Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks (PCT) Working Group of Civil Society, in which the working group asked WIPO to proactively prevent software patent legislation on a global level: [Read more...]

(2005-07-06) No software patents in Europe, FSFE requests EPO review instrument
After years of struggle, the European Parliament finally rejected the software patent directive with 648 of 680 votes: A strong signal against patents on software logic, a sign of lost faith in the European Union and a clear request for the European Patent Office (EPO) to change its policy: the EPO must stop issuing software patents today. [Read more...]

(2005-06-28) Karlsruhe Memorandum against Software Patents 2005
Members of the European Parliament have been given a copy of the Karlsruhe Memorandum against Software Patents 2005. Issued by Free Software Foundation Europe, this memorandum collected more than 200 signatures at this year's GNU/LinuxTag conference in Karlsruhe. Citing scientific evidence, the text argues that software patents in Europe will hurt jobs and innovation. Among the supporters are leaders of some of Europe's biggest trade union groups. [Read more...]

(2005-06-25) And the Fellowship-PDA goes to...
Giovanni Angoli is the lucky winner of the Sharp SL-C1000 raffled at GNU/LinuxTag 2005 in Karlsruhe, Germany. FSFE congratulates Giovanni and thanks Werner Heuser of Xtops.DE who sponsored the PDA for Fellowship of FSFE! [Read more...]

(2005-06-08) Raffle of handheld computer with GNU/Linux to a lucky Fellow
Xtops.DE has sponsored a handheld computer which will be raffled on June 25 at 14:00 CEST. The winner will be chosen at random from all FSFE Fellows whose contribution has been received before that date. [Read more...]

(2005-06-07) Microsoft abuses the good will of Ms. Kroes at the expense of European economy
"Microsoft abuses the good will of Ms. Kroes" - "European Commission is about to enter legal house-to-house fighting!". Comment of the FSFE on the latest Microsoft proposal. "The European Court decided in December 2004 that Microsoft is to publish this information immediately. This proposal, if accepted, will effectively revert the court decision for the most serious competitor of Microsoft in this market." [Read more...]

(2005-06-06) Software patents -- a danger to democracy
Open letter to Mr Borrell Fontelles, President of the European Parliament. On July 6th, European Parliament will have to decide on the "Software Patents" directive. By relying on undefined terms and ineffective limits, the text that the Council has handed to the Parliament would allow patents on software standards, business methods, and website development. [Read more...]

(2005-06-03) GNU/LinuxTag event page now online
Europe's biggest Free Software conference, the GNU/LinuxTag in Karlsruhe, is less than three weeks ahead. The FSFE has set up a page to gather, list and publish information about its activities there. [Read more...]

(2005-05-31) Join the revolution: internship position at FSFE
"The FSFE is a great place to work, and I've enjoyed almost every single day. In few other companies or organisations would I have had the chance to do useful work and learn in an international context like I did here. Take this chance, if you can." [Read more...]

(2005-05-20) FSFE Executive Summary 2003-2005
On 7th May 2005, the general assembly of FSFE met in Vienna, Austria to review the activities of the past year and plan ahead for the next year to come. As this was the end of the second electorial period for FSFE's extended executive committee, the executive committee presented another two-year executive summary. [Read more...]

(2005-05-02) Software patents vs Microsoft antitrust suit: European Commission is going to undermine some of its best work
Open letter to Mr McCreevy, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. "The European Commission is currently involved in a historic antitrust suit with Microsoft. [...] Unfortunately, that unique success is now in danger of becoming a meaningless victory." [Read more...]

(2005-04-19) FSFE welcomes FSF Latin America
After some months of discussions including FSFE president Georg Greve, a team of Free Software advocates in Latin America published their declaration of intent to join the global network of Free Software Foundations. [Read more...]

(2005-04-13) FSFE statement at WIPO IIM, Geneva
Statement at Inter-Sessional, Inter-Governmental Meeting (IIM), 11-13 April 2005: "We explicitly support the Friends of Development in their statement that no tool should ever be promoted for its own sake and should therefore be beyond review. [...] Essential building blocks of human creativity, such as access to knowledge and freedom to participate in society and economy should once again become the norm, not the exception. [...]" [Read more...]

(2005-04-05) Software patents putting International Financial Report Standards (IFRS) in danger
Open Letter to staunchly pro-software patent European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association: "We would like to inform you how software patents pose a threat to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as all the ideas used in these standards will be implemented in software and would therefore be patentable." [Read more...]

(2005-03-31) How to make Microsoft respect European Authorities
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and the Samba Team have presented terms explaining how Microsoft could be brought into compliance with the decision of the European Court of First Instance of December 2004. [Read more...]

(2005-03-21) FSFE to help bring Microsoft to its feet
Pushed by the FSFE, the EU antitrust case against Microsoft is gathering momentum again. "We will help the Commission to bring Microsoft to its feet and move towards re-establishing competition", Georg Greve, FSFE's president. [Read more...]

(2005-03-07) European Cities will suffer from software patents
Letter to Catherine Parmentier, Chief Executive Officer of EUROCITIES: "With the introduction of software patents, European cities would have to be aware of dramatically increasing costs and an increasingly difficult legal situation with high risks for the administration." [Read more...]

(2005-02-28) Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom!
"We stand up to protect our freedom to shape and participate in a digital society that respects liberty and privacy." With this slogan, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) started its fellowship program at the FOSDEM fair for Free Software last weekend in Brussels. [Read more...]

(2005-02-11) Microsoft seeking to bypass decisions of European Court
Microsoft has published an agreement which allows Free Software projects like SAMBA to use the software interface information, but bans it from publishing the software as Free Software. [Read more...]

(2005-02-11) UN WGIG: Commented Papers Available
On 1st February 2005, the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) published a set of 20 issue papers concerning "Internet Governance." Together with its associate organisation La Fundación Vía Libre, the Free Software Foundation Europe managed to comment on the paper on "Cyber security, cybercrime", which, among other things, asked to outlaw the art of finding elegant solutions to non-obvious problems ("hacking") and the paper on "Intellectual Property Rights", which for instance asked to "balance human rights with the interests of rights-holders." [Read more...]

(2005-02-07) Software patents harm banks
Once Basel II becomes widely used, a dramatic increase in software patent infringement lawsuits for this area is likely to occur on a global basis. Any bank or any of its customers for Basel II based software may become target of such legal action -- the risk is incalculable and can bring about multi-billion Euro lawsuits. [Read more...]

(2005-02-07) TUX&GNU@school 8th edition
The column TUX&GNU@school 8th edition is now available. In this edition, Mario Fux presents GAMGI, Skolelinux and the KDE Edutainment project. In future, the column will be published in five languages (German, English, French, Swedish and Spanish). [Read more...]

(2005-01-03) Software patents are bad for your health
Software patents are putting the wealth of the software patent lobby over the health of citizens in Europe and around the world. [Read more...]

(2004-12-22) A great day for SAMBA, Free Software and Europe
Bo Versterdorf, President of the European Court, has today rejected Microsoft's appeal to delay execution of the sanctions.
"Those who value freedom and competition have received two nice christmas gifts this week. First, new EU member Poland does not allow the introduction of innovation- and job-killer software patents through the diplomatic back-door. And now the European Court decides that Microsoft should not get another four years to further harm its competitors" says Georg Greve, President of the FSFE. [Read more...]

(2004-12-10) How much does freedom influence your life?
The Free Software Foundation Europe believes that freedom is priceless and works hard for freedom in the digital society. Being a non-profit organisation, much work is done by volunteers, but not everything can be done that way. Working for something as priceless as freedom does have a cost. That is why we would like you to support our work. [Read more...]

(2004-12-06) Software patents detrimental to European power supply business
The European Union is on the way to introduce a legal basis for software patents in Europe. While you may consider this a topic outside your daily business, it is likely to become the cause of serious security problems to European power supplies. [Read more...]

(2004-11-25) FSFE becomes WIPO observer
In the scope of the FSFE WIPO project team, the FSFE will work with other players to change WIPO from an organisation that is solely oriented towards monopolisation of knowledge to one that is aimed at increasing the intellectual wealth of all of humankind through a more flexible, sustainable and effective tool set. [Read more...]

(2004-11-24) Freedom is priceless, but has a cost!
"Those who wish to see freedom of market restored should be aware that never can someone with deeper pockets divert support already given to FSFE, as it happened with the CCIA. This independence is priceless, but not without cost. The only thing that might therefore be able to stop us is lack of resources because of lack of support." [Read more...]

(2004-11-23) First South Tyrolean Free Software Conference
As Free Software becomes even more important in South Tyrol, the GNU/Linux User Group Bozen/Bolzano/Bulsan has developed the traditional Linux Day into the three day South Tyrolean Free Software Conference. [Read more...]

(2004-11-09) For the FSFE, the battle continues
Microsoft has steadily been soliciting supporters of the European Commission antitrust case to withdraw their support for the Commission by offering a series of financial settlements. The agreement with Sun Microsystems to withdraw has now been joined by financial settlements with Novell and the CCIA, in which they also agreed to withdraw from the case. [Read more...]

(2004-11-01) A compulsory insurance against software patents is like firefighting with petrol!
The preceding European Commission (EC) was campaigning actively for the introduction of software patents in Europe. This campaign was against the information and evidence showing that this would lead to considerable risk to the European economies. [Read more...]

(2004-10-25) Now accepting donations by credit card via PayPal
Supporting the work of FSFE has just become easier for those who prefer to donate by credit card and/or via the PayPal service. [Read more...]

(2004-10-14) Ensuring increased Intellectual Wealth
Common declaration: "We are convinced that new answers sometimes require new questions, not more careful repetition of old questions. [...] We need a World Intellectual Wealth Organisation, dedicated to the research and promotion of novel and imaginative ways to encourage the production and dissemination of knowledge." To view the list of signatories, please follow the link. [Read more...]

(2004-10-04) Allianz Group will suffer because of software patents
Have you ever considered offering general insurance for stock brokers against the risk of losing money? As absurd as this sounds, the European Commission is seriously considering equivalent measures at the moment. [Read more...]

(2004-09-29) MS vs. EU: "No settlement in sight, FSFE ready for battle"
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) casts doubts on the increasing rumors that Microsoft is willing to settle the antitrust case against the EU Commission, which is due to come to Court later this week. [Read more...]

(2004-09-24) Anniversary of the decision of the European Parliament about software patents
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) commemorates the anniversary of the software patents decision by the European Parliament on 24th September. "The parliament voted for a restrictive way to grant software patents in Europe. That decision was wise as it accounted for the numerous recommendations of scientists throughout the world. For this reason, we would like to encourage the parliament to maintain an attitude to this matter that is consistent with its previous decision - to withstand the pressure by certain lobbying parties." the President of FSFE Georg Greve emphasises.

(2004-09-20) FSFE: "Microsoft's bugs result in the corporation having a multiple personality" - "customers should know who they are dealing with!"
Having been plagued by permanent problems with viruses, worms and other bugs, software-giant Microsoft seems to be developing a multiple personality. "Microsoft's customers should wonder about the sanity of their business partner", remarks Joachim Jakobs, Press Speaker for the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). [Read more...]

(2004-09-15) FSFE mourns death of Ralf Niemand
Free Software activist Ralf Niemand, member of the Wilhelmshaven GNU/Linux User Group, contributor to the SkoleLinux project and volunteer of the Free Software Foundation Europe died of terminal illness on September 14th 2004. His death was much too early and came as a shock to all who have known him. He will be missed.

(2004-09-06) Open letter to Prime Minister Dr. Balkenende
Europe should conserve a competitive advantage and prohibit a legal basis for software patents: "During the dutch Presidency of the European Union you have the best opportunity to initiate this revision." [Read more...]

(2004-08-16) Introducing Wilhelm Tux, the new FSFE associate
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Wilhelm Tux proudly declare that Wilhelm Tux, a Swiss Free Software organisation, has officially become associate organisation of the FSFE. [Read more...]

(2004-08-12) Donations to the FSFE in the United Kingdom
Due to substantial bank fees charged for international money transfers, small donations or standing orders are too expensive to be send directly to the Free Software Foundation Europe bank account. To rectify this, FSFE in july 2004 entered into an agreement with UK based associate organisation AFFS to collect donations and transfer them in larger batches.
FSFE welcomes donations through the simple interface at (only bank cards from UK are accepted): [Read more...]

(2004-08-05) Software patents no bigger threat to Free Software than to proprietary software
In reaction to the decision by the City of Munich to re-evaluate its migration plans to Free Software, the Free Software Foundation Europe points out that software patents are equally a significant problem for both Free Software and proprietary software alike. [Read more...]

(2004-08-02) Open letter to IBM
Software patents will destroy the foundations of IBM's future: "So while IBM is transforming in reaction to the arms race, upon its sudden end, IBM will find itself having become a grotesquely deformed giant with a suddenly useless weapon where all its energies go into sustaining that deformation." [Read more...]

(2004-07-27) FSFE in front of European Court
FSFE to challenge Microsoft in its appeal against European Commission: Among general interests of Free Software, the FSFE will specifically be representing the interests of the SAMBA team, a Free Software cooperation developing the only remaining competing implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocols that permit interoperability between various operating systems and the MS Windows family. [Read more...]

(2004-07-26) RSS feeds of news and event announcements available
Our web team has created automatic RSS feeds for news and upcoming events. Feeds are focus and language dependent.
The URL for the news feed is http://www.focus.fsfeurope.org/news/news.language.rss, while you find the event feed at http://www.focus.fsfeurope.org/events/events.language.rss. For example, for German speaking news and the German focus, you would choose http://www.germany.fsfeurope.org/news/news.de.rss.
For your convenience, the news and event pages contain links to the RSS feed URLs.

(2004-07-06) Open letter to Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
"Research should be able to earn its money also on the market!" - say politicians - so we, the Free Software Foundation Europe, understand when researchers use creative ways to get a better income. But even researchers should take care not to bite the hand that feeds them. This danger is real, especially with the actual software patent discussion. [Read more...]

(2004-07-01) FSFE issues call for donations
The projects of the FSFE are multifaceted: participation in the German government's delegation at the "World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)", consulting with the European Union during the establishment of the framework programmes, participation in AGNULA, a project to build a fully Free Software distribution for professional musicians and multimedia authors and also the maintenance and advancement of the GNU General Public License (GPL). This diversity costs a lot of money: travels round the world, production of information and marketing material, personnel cost. [Read more...]

(2004-06-29) Join our translators and proofreaders team!
With the growing attention the FSF Europe attracts in many countries, the need has arised to build up a flexible, responsive, and well coordinated translator team.
Translating and proofreading texts is a precious contribution to the work of the FSF Europe and an excellent chance to spontaneously take part in the activities of the FSF Europe without long-term obligations. [Read more...]

(2004-06-21) AGNULA: a "vivid ecosystem" for developers and users of free multimedia software
"Creating artistic licence by Free Software technology" might have been the motto of AGNULA (A GNU/Linux Audio distribution - www.agnula.info): within the scope of the EU project two GNU/Linux distributions for Debian and Red Hat were developed that are targeted specifically at professional musicians and multimedia authors. [Read more...]

(2004-06-10) Report and pictures from South America available
Having toured South America from May 20th, 2004 until June 10th, 2004, Georg Greve put a short summary of his activities there online along with some pictures. [Read more...]

(2004-05-19) Software patents: A bad day for Europe
"Europe is about to finally give up on the goal of its heads of states and governments to become the 'most competitive knowledge-based region' until 2010 and has repeatedly failed democratically. It is unfortunate that the optimism and trust placed in the German government was somewhat premature. Yesterday was not a good day for Europe and Germany!" [Read more...]

(2004-05-14) FSFE welcomes German government on its way towards a clear position in the discussion around software patents
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) "welcomes the commitment of the Federal Government of Germany to freedom from software patents as being of extreme importance for innovation in Europe", Georg Greve, president of FSFE, comments in a press release. [Read more...]

(2004-05-10) APRIL disassociates from FSFE
Today the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) complied with the explicit request to please remove the "Association for Promotion and Research in Libre Computing" (APRIL) from the list of associate organisations. The request was made by APRIL president and FSFE member Frederic Couchet along with his resignation from FSFE. [Read more...]

(2004-05-10) Open letter to all citizens of Europe
What happens in government, society and economy as a whole if these developments are not stopped? We bar people from being creative. We put societal development into the hands of bureaucrats bullying us for their own benefit at every turn. To use the words of the Czech President Vaclav Klaus "The EU is not about freedom and openness, but about bureaucratisation, regulation and harmonisation". If we leave this discussion to others, we may prove him right. [Read more...]

(2004-05-04) European action week against Software Patents (SWPAT)
The Free Software Foundation Europe and the Foundation for a Free Informational Infrastructure endorse an action week from May 10th to 14th to inform citizens, economy and politics about the harmful consequences of this initiative. In the course of this action week demonstrations and panel discussions in many European cities will take place. To inform you ex ante we have enclosed the joint position of FSFE and FFII concerning software patents (see below). [Read more...]

(2004-03-24) FSFE welcomes three new members from Austria
After years of successful cooperation through their membership in the "Verein zur Förderung Freier Software" (FFS), Austria's associate organisation of the FSF Europe, Georg Jakob, Karin Kosina and Reinhard Müller have now officially joined the ranks of the FSFE. [Read more...]

(2004-02-18) FSF defends the GNU GPL against SCO attacks
The FSFs have no doubt that the litigation between SCO against IBM and Novell cannot affect the users of the GNU/Linux operating system.
Professor Eben Moglen of Columbia University, pro-bono general counsel of FSF North America, has published a paper that will help Free Software developers and end-users understand the legal issues and business risks involved in using the Linux kernel. [Read more...]

(2004-02-09) Article: "On 'Intellectual Property' and Indigenous Peoples"
Article by Georg Greve: "The system and ideology of 'intellectual property' has evolved exclusively to cater to the needs of large Northern media corporations. Northern societies, and in particular their artists and authors, have massive problems with that system themselves.
It is precisely for this system that the digital divide and current power inequalities are as large as they are." [Read more...]

(2003-12-15) Debriefing: World Summit on the Information Society
(Geneva) From December 10th until 12th, 2003 the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) took place in Geneva, Switzerland, adopting on United Nations level a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action towards a global information society. [Read more...]

(2003-12-01) WSIS: Free Software, Free Society
(Geneva) During the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Civil Society Patents, Copyright, Trademarks (PCT) Working Group is holding a workshop "Free Software, Free Society" with a group of top speakers, including Richard Stallman and Lawrence Lessig.
The workshop will take place December 10th, 2003 from 17:00-20:00 in the Palexpo building in Geneva, Switzerland. [Read more...]

(2003-07-12) Free Software prominently represented at the UN- Conference
(Karlsruhe) From July 15th to 18th, a preparative conference towards the World Summit on the Information Society will be held in Paris, at which the future and destination of the information- and science- society shall be discussed as requested by the UN- General Assembly.
As a nominee from the coordinating circle of the German Civil Society for the WSIS, Georg Greve, president of the FSF Europe will take part in the meeting as a member of the German governmental delegation. [Read more...]

(2003-06-24) FSF Europe concludes two successful first years.
(Milano) Last weekend, the Free Software Foundation Europe held its 2003 general assembly in Milano, Italy. After two years of operation, it was time to draw a first summary and also hold elections. [Read more...]

(2003-06-21) Report: Two year executive summary
The 2003 general assembly of the FSF Europe in Milano, Italy on June 21st 2003 seems like a good opportunity to briefly recap some of the activities during the first two operational years of the FSF Europe. [Read more...]

(2003-05-20) Article: Free Software in Europe
The Spring 2003 issue of the Public Service Review - European Union with a foreword by Romano Prodi is featuring an article by Georg C. F. Greve, president of the FSF Europe. The article explains some of the major benefits Free Software has to offer and how they can be built upon. [Read more...]

(2003-02-08) Larry Lessig receives FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software
Press-release of the Free Software Foundation: "Brussels, Belgium - Saturday, February 8, 2003 - The Free Software Foundation (FSF) bestowed today its fifth annual FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software. FSF President and founder, Richard Stallman, presented the award to Professor Lawrence Lessig for promoting understanding of the political dimension of free software, including the idea that 'code is law'. Lessig has also promoted ideas similar to free software in other related fields." [Read more...]

(2003-02-03) Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA) V1.0 released
Press-release of the FSF Europe: "The Free Software Foundation Europe is proud to announce the first publicly available version of its Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA); an agreement that will help securing the legal stability of Free Software by allowing the FSF Europe to act as the fiduciary for Free Software authors and projects." [Read more...]

(2002-12-18) FSF Europe calls for participation
Press-release of the FSF Europe: "The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) invites all companies, organisations and research institutes interested in Free Software projects funded by the European Commission to join their effort." [Read more...]

(2002-06-13) FFII Associated with FSF Europe
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is now an official associate organisation of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). The FFII is the first associate organisation of the FSF Europe based in Germany. [Read more...]

(2002-06-04) Two Expressions of Interest (EoI) from FSF Europe
In response to a call from the European Commission, the FSF Europe submitted an expression of interest for each of the instruments of the sixth framework programme (FP6). [Read more...]

(2002-05-27) FSF Europe completes successful first year
On May 26th 2002, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) finishes its second general assembly, completing the first year of activities. Members from Sweden, Italy, Germany and France drew a summary of last years activities, analyzed the current situation of Free Software and exchanged plans and visions for the upcoming year. [Read more...]

(2002-04-30) Recommendation by the FSF Europe and supporting parties
The FSF Europe and supporting parties has submitted a recommendation for the 6th European Community Framework Programme: "Free Software is a concept that has fundamentally changed the way some parts of the IT sector are working towards a more stable, lasting and sustainable approach with higher dynamics and increased efficiency. It is obvious that the first region to adopt and support this principle on a larger scale can profit enormously and get a head-start in the information age." [Read more...]

(2002-04-28) Invitation to European Copyright Directive Alert miniconference
On Monday 29 April 2002, at 6pm in London, we invite you to join the European Copyright Directive Alert miniconference. Organised by the Campaign for Digital Rights it will explain the dangers of the EUCD. Unless it is stopped before December 2002, it will become legal in each European country. [Read more...]

(2002-04-24) FSF Europe present at first LiLit meeting
On Friday 26 April 2002, the Free Software Foundation Europe will be present at the first LiLiT meeting in Liège, Belgium. During this evening (night ?-) session, we will focus on the best means to explain the ethical value of Free Software. A global view of the on going actions will hopefully allow everyone to figure out how to promote and defend the Free Software ideals. [Read more...]

(2002-01-31) FSF Europe at the Free and Open Source Software Developers Meeting
Between the 16th and 17th of February, 2002, the Free and Open Source Software Developers Meeting will take place in Brussels, Belgium. Among the visitors will be Richard M. Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation and Georg C. F. Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe. The FSF Europe welcomes all members of the press who wish to meet the members and volunteers of the foundation. [Read more...]

(2002-01-18) ANSOL becomes associated organisation of the FSF Europe
"This collaboration is a very important step for the Portuguese and European free software community. Problems faced by the free software community in Portugal are similar to those faced in other European countries; by joining forces with FSFE we can solve this problems more efficiently" said Jaime Villate, founding member of ANSOL. [Read more...]

(2001-12-17) "Freedom, Quality and Fraternity" OLinux interview iwth Georg C. F. Greve
"[...] Keep on spreading the word. What we do today will influence the future of mankind for the next 200 years to come - we have to make sure that people understand the issues of Free Software and the importance of freedom. [...] Freedom counts! " [Read more...]

(2001-11-28) FSF Europe appoints new Vice President
Jonas Oberg was appointed new Vice President of the FSF Europe: "The future of Free Software depends a lot on what we do today. I plan to work to preserve the ability to use and develop Free Software in all of its forms, for example by helping to extend the efforts already underway against software patents and helping the media, government and companies understand the underlying issues of Free Software." [Read more...]

(2001-11-19) We Speak about Free Software
Launch of the "We speak about Free Software" campaign: There are compelling reasons to think and speak about Free Software and its philosophy. It is rather common knowledge this applies to society as a whole, but it has not yet been widely understood that it benefits companies, as well. Therefore the FSF Europe launches this campaign on behalf and with support of several Free Software companies. [Read more...]

(2001-09-20) FSF Europe receives charitable status in Germany
FSF Europe e.V. (the central association) receives confirmation of its charitable status in Germany by the authorities.

(2001-08-26) Georg Greve talks about "Copyright in the internet age"
Slides (in German) available at http://gnuhh.org/work/presentations/IFA-2001/.

(2001-07-20) Richard Stallman inaugurates Free Software Foundation-India
[Read more...]

(2001-07-16) FSF Europe in German magazine
The FSF Europe is mentioned in the German magazine FOCUS issue 29/2001, page 106 in a story about the GNU/LinuxTag.

(2001-06-29) FSF Europe at LinuxTag and Libre Software Meeting
The FSF Europe will be present at the LinuxTag and Libre Software Meeting for the first time. Please see the press release for additional information. [Read more...]

(2001-05-07) FSF Europe general assembly is over
The FSF Europe general assembly is over. See the press release and photos by Olivier Berger and photos by Peter Gerwinski. [Read more...]

(2001-04-24) First general assembly of the Free Software Foundation Europe
[Read more...]

(2001-04-24) Free Software Foundation Europe finishes founding process
[Read more...]

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