Ada goes to the set: let’s make an animated movie

What do a Prime Minister, an MIT professor, and a child from Rajasthan have in common? They, along with other public figures and thousands of children, love the illustrated book 'Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream'. Ada has already made it into homes and libraries around the world, and now she needs your help to reach even more kids! Help us make a film of this story to spark more kids’ interest in coding and tinkering!

'Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream', tells the story of the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software, and in the process realises how crucial it is for her and others to control technology.

"A brilliantly illustrated journey of discovery and resilience that will inspire any young mind to embrace their curiosity and create with technology." - Zach Latta, Founder of Hack Club

The story has been translated into several languages and reached thousands of children and adults through public readings. Now, we want to go one step further and create a 30 minute movie about Ada’s story! This movie, released as an Open Educational Resource, will be a tool to encourage more children, especially girls, to tinker and learn how to code, while fostering inclusiveness and accessibility. Help us to achieve this goal!.

"I like how [the story] makes a positive statement that girls can code and use computers." - Child Reviewer, Purdue

Girls have often been discouraged from getting involved in technology and becoming tinkerers and coders, which has led to technology being largely designed by men for men. Ada shows girls and young women that they can shape technology for the future they want.

"The license choice also favors translations of the work, which gave me the idea of a collaborative educational project for its French translation." - Alexis Kauffmann, Project manager, French Ministry of Education and Youth

Thanks to our volunteers and the FSFE’s supporters the story is already available in 9 languages and we are working on more. More than 18,000 copies of Ada’s story have found their way into the hands of kids around the world, and we have been able to reach more than 1,400 children with readings, follow-up discussions, and workshops.

"A wonderfully entertaining read with an empowering message for younger generations, one which will shape our world and the way we live in it." - Kaye Fogarty, teacher from a school in Marbella who did a reading with her students

Your contribution will help us to work on the 2D animated version of the book to reach an even wider audience so more children, especially girls, can hear and watch this story that encourages curiosity and tinkering. Everyone will be able to download and share it, use it in schools, and integrate it with other educational material, making a difference to the quality of IT education that is so vital for young people in our digital society.

"This modern tale is a superb parable, and a perfect illustration of the need for digital freedoms in our daily lives. The tone is positive, laughing, and optimistic for the future, so that new generations will be stronger than we have been." JB Kempf, President, VideoLAN

Your support will make a difference!. It will help us to create this movie but also to continue to spread the story of Ada through readings in different languages, and to encourage others to do so!

"This book is exactly what I want to pass on to my children!." - Canelle A., 18-year-old student translator in a Parisian high school

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LLW 2024 +++ YH4F interviews +++ Ada in France

May comes with legal news such as the Legal & Licensing Workshop and the Bitcoin lawsuit regarding the liability of Free Software developers. We also talked to two 2023 YH4F participants and our Danish local group sent an Open Letter to their parliament. Did you see that Ada & Zangemann won a prize and that the French ebook version is now available?

Table of contents

• Quote of the Month
• LLW 2024: A forum for difficult legal topics of Free Software in Gothenburg
• Meet Antoni and Tobias, YH4F participants
• Free Software developers' liability and the Bitcoin lawsuit
• Ada & Zangemann: news from France
• Danish local group initiative
• Germany: Public TV broadcasters announce ‘Streaming OS’ as Free Software
• Get involved: organize an Ada & Zangemann reading!
• Contribute to our Newsletter

Quote of the Month

"As in our democracies, the distribution of power in the field of technology is essential. And we need to show that an inclusive path is possible".

-Matthias Kirschner, thanking the Forum InCyber for the prize given to Ada & Zangemann.

LLW 2024: A forum for difficult legal topics of Free Software in Gothenburg

For the second year in a row, the Swedish city of Gothenburg hosted an edition of the Free Software Legal & Licensing Workshop (LLW), the annual conference for the Legal Network members. The 2024 edition brought new faces and great discussions and presentations on current legal and licensing issues related to technological developments such as AI.

Meet Antoni and Tobias, YH4F participants

Find out more about the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants of the 2023 edition. We are continuing this series talking with Antoni and Tobias: Antoni developed a dictionary to preserve endangered languages, and Tobias conceived a rich featured calendar.

Free Software developers' liability and the Bitcoin lawsuit

Free Software is everywhere, with studies estimating that it is present in about 96% of the applications that we use. But what are the responsibilities and liabilities of the Free Software developers? A potential threat to Free Software developers looms in the form of an ongoing lawsuit in the UK involving Bitcoin and its core developers.

Find more about it

Ada & Zangemann: news from France

• ‘Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream’ has been awarded the 2024 Youth Book Prize of the InCyber Forum Europe. This is the first time this prize has been awarded to a children's book.
• 300 copies of Ada & Zangemann were distributed to teachers at the Journée du Libre Éducatif 2024. The book was presented at this fair, that this year was held in Paris, by two of the students who translated it.
• More great news! The French publisher CFE editions published an online version of "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream": https://ada-lelivre.fr/.

Danish local group initiative

The FSFE Danish local group has sent an Open Letter to the IT spokespersons of all the political parties in the Danish Parliament, entitled “Digitalisation problems can be solved with Free/Open Source Software”. In this letter, the local group pointed out several examples of cases in which using proprietary software is harming citizens’ rights and privacy, for example the municipalities' strong wish to use proprietary software (Google Classroom) in schools, which is actively sharing students' private data to Google in violation of the GDPR.

The local group is currently waiting for an official answer from the parliamentarians though they have already received positive responses.

You can check the letter (in Danish) here.

Germany: Public TV broadcasters announce ‘Streaming OS’ as Free Software

The German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have announced that they will integrate their media centres in future and publish their code as Free Software. Under the name ‘Streaming OS’, the software will be available to the general public under a Free Software licence.

In their announcement, the directors of the broadcasters emphasise that by publishing the code, they want to give something back to society that it has previously paid for. ARD and ZDF are thus addressing the core idea of our FSFE initiative ‘Public Money? Public Code!’. We are looking forward to seeing Streaming OS and its code in 2025!

The Berlin group of the FSFE participated in the 2024 edition of the Umweltsfestival (Environmental Festival) together with Bits&Bäume Berlin and KDE Eco. Our volunteers explained to festival attendees the sustainable use of computers with Free Software as well as other FSFE initiatives such as Public Money, Public Code and even answered questions about the Fediverse.

Get involved: organize an Ada & Zangemann reading!

Do you want to help spread the word about Free Software to the younger generations? You can do it with an Ada & Zangemann reading! If you like children, this is an easy and a great way to talk to them about Free Software. And everyone who has done it has found it a really rewarding and enriching experience!

If you are interested in facilitating a reading of the book in schools or libraries, write to contact@fsfe.org.

Contribute to our Newsletter

We would love to hear from you. If you have any thoughts, pictures, or news to share, please send them to us at newsletter@fsfe.org. You can also support us, contribute to our work, and join our community. We would like to thank our community and all the volunteers, supporters, and donors who make our work possible, with a special mention to our translators who make it possible for you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editor, Ana

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LLW 2024: A forum for difficult legal topics of Free Software in Gothenburg

For the second year in a row, the Swedish city of Gothenburg hosted an edition of the Free Software Legal & Licensing Workshop (LLW), the annual conference for Legal Network members. The 2024 edition brought new faces and great discussions and presentations on current legal and licensing issues related to technological developments such as AI.

Under a sunny and blue sky, the beautiful Swedish city of Gothenburg once again hosted FSFE’s Free Software Legal & Licensing Workshop (LLW), a two and a half day conference for members of the Legal Network community to meet face-to-face and share legal expertise in a safe space. It was great to have attendees engaging with the speakers in interesting legal discussions, as well as to see them use the venue to engage in impromptu discussions on legal theory, policy, and case law related to Free Software topics. This shows how valuable this conference has become for Free Software legal professionals, who arrived from Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and the importance of a healthy community to encourage discussion of the most current Free Software legal topics and to network in order to build a culture of knowledge exchange in the legal sector.

Discussion, even controversial, can help legal experts to make better decisions while accomplishing the mission of empowering users to control technology. Good examples are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, that continued to be hot topics during this year’s edition, with a number of discussions on the conference agenda touching on the legal ramifications of AI developments on software and licensing.

Nevertheless, there were many other developments from the past year for attendees to discuss as well, from new legislative initiatives and case law in various jurisdictions within and outside the European Union, to presentations to introduce various community-initiated compliance tools, to conversations about more philosophical ideas regarding Free Software and community.

"I have been working for 2 years in this field now. In the past 2 days I learnt more on those topics than in the 2 years before", said one participant in LLW 2024

This conference also gives newcomers who may be a little shy about participating in discussions on the mailing list a chance to introduce themselves and meet various more established members of the community in person. The FSFE believes in the importance of supporting young professionals, which is why this conference also offers a mentoring programme, so that experienced members can help integrate newcomers into the Free Software legal community, as well as to help them build professional connections and expertise.

We appreciate all Legal Network members who took the time to participate in person and hope to see them again next year. It is extremely heartening for us to see the Free Software legal community grow in strength and knowledge with regular meetings like the LLW.

We want to thank our sponsors: Intel, Red Hat, Microsoft, Amazon, Bosch, Ericsson, Siemens, Volvo, Bird & Bird, Google, the law firm Heuking, and the Open Invention Network.

The Legal Network

The Legal Network is a neutral, non-partisan group of experts in different fields involved in Free Software legal issues. Currently the Legal Network has over 400 participants from different legal systems, academic backgrounds and affiliations.

The aim of the Legal Network is to promote discussion and foster better knowledge of the legal constructs that back Free Software. The conversations on the Legal Network are intended to be dynamic, thought-provoking, and up to speed with the most recent developments.

The Legal Network is a safe space to promote legal knowledge about Free Software so that companies can make strategic decisions about Free Software development based on an understanding of how Free Software licensing and other related legal issues work. This allows Free Software developers and legal professionals who work within larger companies to continue to contribute to software freedom.

Admission to the Legal Network is restricted, and the discussions held there are confidential. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the content of the mailing list is contained away from the larger Free Software community. The Chatham House Rule applies to all discussions on the Legal Network mailing list and at Legal Network events, which enables members to use the information received, but not to reveal the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker or any of the participants involved in the discussion.

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Meet Antoni and Tobias, YH4F participants

Find out more about the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants of the 2023 edition. We are continuing this series talking with Antoni and Tobias: Antoni developed a dictionary to preserve endangered languages, and Tobias conceived a rich featured calendar.

Antoni and Tobias participated in YH4F in 2023, being both currently in their last year of high school. Antoni is Polish and he developed the Endangered Languages Dictionary, software with the purpose of keeping languages at risk of extinction alive, valuing the contribution of native language speakers. Tobias comes from the Netherlands, and he developed Plan2Go, a calendar webapp he got the idea for while talking with his friends.

Read along to learn more about these projects and their developers!

FSFE: Hi Tobias and Antoni! Can you introduce yourselves before explaining your projects?

Tobias: I’m Tobias from the Netherlands and I’m 17 years old. I love programming and helping others by making software. Sometimes I play video games or make stuff for video games.

Antoni: My name is Antoni, I am a high school student from Poland. I’m mainly a linguistics and computer science nerd, but am also interested in sociology, psychology, cultural studies, literature, and philosophy. I would like to study computer science and classics.

FSFE: What is the project you developed for YH4F 2023? How does it work?

Antoni:

Endangered Languages Dictionary (ELD) project The landing page of the Endangered Languages Dictionary

Tobias: I developed Plan2Go with the idea to make a planning app that is fully customisable and with many features. The front end has been coded with HTML and CSS, and the calendar and customisations are made using JavaScript. You can get access to the calendar by using the website hosted on GitLab Pages, by cloning the code and building the source, or by using the desktop app.

The main page of Plan2Go with example events

Tobias: Once you are in, you see an overview of the current month and you can click to add new events. If you click on an existing event, you can view more details about it and you can delete it. If you click above an event, you can add another event. Using the “Back” and “Next” buttons you can go back and forward in months. When an event starts, you could get a notification [not fully working, see below in the interview]. Overall, its key features are: multiple events per day, theme switcher, exporting and importing iCals, secret Easter Eggs, PWA installable and a desktop app version available.

Plan2Go example event details window

FSFE: What motivated you to create this software?

Antoni: I wanted to provide an online presence of the endangered languages to prevent their native speakers, especially the young ones, from abandoning their tongues. I believe “if you aren’t online, you don’t exist” to be an unjust rule. This dictionary was going to be the first step in achieving this.

Tobias: Mostly, the idea came while talking with my friends, who just started programming. We made a whole list of stuff that we could make, and we shared this list publicly. Eventually, I just let my friends choose what to do. They chose to go with a planner, and we made that.

FSFE: Your projects are Free Software! When and how did you get in touch with the movement?

Antoni: One day, at school, I was chatting with a classmate and introduced Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to him. He replied he preferred VirtualBox, as “it is open source” After I explained to him that he was wrong [VirtualBox is licensed under GPL, but the extensions are proprietary], and the openness of the source code of WSL, he asked for evidence, and he got it. After examining the codebase, he wrote me: “It is quite similar to the situation when you would paint a beautiful white shirt in brown just to wallow it in the mud. (of course the shirt is Linux)”. This has influenced me to the degree that I got pushed even further in that direction than my classmate.

Tobias: I always only made software for myself, I began to do it more seriously when I found out that other people might also want my software. So I published it online, without any license.

FSFE: So it seems that at the time you did not know that by default, if you do not specify a license, it is copyrighted.

Tobias: Yes, I discovered Free Software licenses thanks to YH4F!

FSFE: Both projects are very interesting and ambitious. Why did you decide to code them from scratch, rather than to contribute existing projects?

Tobias: It’s always nice to have one [project] that you can completely modify the way you want. If you are going to contribute to other projects that are already kind of finished, there is only a little bit of stuff that you might be able to add. We had about six months, and I did not really think I could just spend all of it contributing to just an existing project. Most probably, I would have been done before the end of the coding period. Above all, it is very helpful to know what’s behind a project you build from scratch by your own.

Antoni: I didn’t find any Free Software similar to mine, though I didn’t actively do any in-depth research. If it comes to the value of ELD, it is low-bandwith friendly as it doesn’t depend heavily on stylesheets. Additionally, this also implies a decrease of resources. needed only to render a webpage!

FSFE: How was the experience of developing your software during YH4F 2023?

Antoni: What I enjoyed the most was the fact that this is not only a competition, but also an opportunity to learn something, just by participating! I think that is mainly because of the long timespan given and the short list of requirements.

Tobias: I liked the whole thing! You can program stuff, you can join meetings with other participants and have a discussion. For example, you can explain your project and then get some feedback. That’s the deal: making software and getting feedback from others. And just having fun.

FSFE: What are the future plans for your project?

Antoni: I would like to share the message to conserve endangered languages because it is quite sad that we are losing linguistic diversity. The world would be less interesting and less rich. About extending the project, I am going to pause its development, and get back to it once I have resources, such as time and money.

Tobias: If I find the time and I get an idea to add something to the software or just fix a feature that does not work right now (like the time notifications) then I will work on it. Otherwise, I will just leave it as it is right now.

FSFE: Thank you Antoni and Tobias. We wish you a bright future and a lot of success with your plans!

The 2024 edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom is still going on now! The coding period ends on 30 June and you can still take part in the 2024 edition via last minute registration. Check out the YH4F website to find out all the details of this competition or feel free to reach out to the organisers via mail!

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Are Free Software developers at risk?

Free Software is everywhere, with studies estimating that it is present in about 96% of the applications that we use. But what are the responsibilities and liabilities of the Free Software developers? A potential threat to Free Software developers looms in the form of an ongoing lawsuit in the UK involving Bitcoin and its core developers.

Bitcoin (BTC) is a cryptocurrency created in 2009 that operates under the MIT Free Software licence. After its creator disappeared, a group of software developers continued to develop Bitcoin independently. Currently, Dr. Craig Wright, who claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin, is suing the Bitcoin developers in the UK courts through his company, Tulip Trading Limited (Tulip). This company claims to have lost £3 billion worth of bitcoin due to a hack that compromised the private keys, resulting in the loss of access to the funds. In this lawsuit Tulip is demanding that the Bitcoin developers provide access to the lost Bitcoin, arguing that the developers have a legal obligation to provide access or offer equitable compensation or damages.

As such, this legal case is currently drawing attention to the issue of Free Software developers' liability, in particular the extent to which they are responsible to their users.

UK High Court’s opinion: Developers have no legal duties or a duty of care in this case, but they do have certain duties in some specific situations.

The High Court considered whether software developers and controllers of digital asset networks bear legal obligations to cryptocurrency holders who rely on their software. The court ruled in favour of the developers, stating that as a "fluctuating body of individuals", the developers could not realistically maintain ongoing obligations. The court rejected the notion that developers should be compelled to provide software updates upon the request of digital asset owners, emphasising the absence of any explicit commitment or assurance by the developers. Regarding the alleged tortious duties, the Court determined that the developers did not owe Tulip a duty of care, highlighting that Tulip's loss was solely economic.

A duty of care is a legal responsibility imposed on an individual that requires them to follow a level of reasonable care when conducting any acts that could endanger others.

However, the court recognized that, in certain cases, software developers have specific duties. For instance, developers must exercise caution to avoid harming users' interests and may have an obligation to remedy bugs or faults in the system.

The court also acknowledged that the disclaimer in the MIT license, broadly disclaims liability for software issues. However, the court did not confirm whether this disclaimer absolved BTC Network developers of responsibility for its operation. This is because:

• the MIT disclaimer has never been litigated, and the court is free to decide and set precedent.
• such disclaimers are not easily found when using software.

UK Court of Appeal’s opinion: Arguable that developers owe some fiduciary legal duties

On appeal, the Court of Appeal (the second highest court in the UK) overturned the High Court's decision, concluding that it was at least arguable that the developers owe fiduciary legal duties to cryptocurrency owners. The court noted the exclusive control of the Bitcoin software code by a small group of developers and their decision-making role on behalf of all Bitcoin owners, resembling fiduciary responsibilities. The court also noted that only a handful of developers have exclusive access to the Bitcoin software code on GitHub. For example, if a Bitcoin owner notices a bug, he or she is unable to fix it because only the developers with access can do so, and they have to agree to do so. In the eyes of the court, this is a clear exercise of the de facto power of the developers. The court completely missed the point that no one can prevent others from applying a fix to the code - that is part of the fundamental freedom that comes with Free Software: if the developers of a particular repository refuse to apply needed fixes, the community can fork the project and bypass those developers.

Furthermore, code is speech. Freedom of expression includes expression in the language of computer code as well. Imposing disproportionate duties on Free Software developers forces them to change their code, and therefore infringes on their freedom of expression. The court also observed that the developers have a positive duty to fix bugs and code errors and a negative duty to refrain from acting in their own self-interest.

In summary, Tulip's case raises significant legal questions, and according to the latest developments, Tulip must prove ownership of the alleged stolen bitcoins in a preliminary trial.

Chilling effect on Free Software development?

Common law in the UK (and other countries) is developed through court decisions and precedents. When a court makes a decision in a case, it establishes a legal precedent that serves as a guide for future cases with similar circumstances. Lower courts generally have to follow the precedents set by the higher courts. Courts in common law countries tend to also borrow concepts and precedents from other countries if there is no local precedent available. The law and legal scholarship around Free Software developers’ duties is underdeveloped and almost non-existent. If Tulip succeeds in their case, it may set an international legal precedent, opening the floodgates to litigation. This means that any user of Free Software could potentially sue developers for alleged breaches of duty.

A fiduciary duty, as claimed by Tulip, refers to the legal duty of a person or entity to act in the best interests of another party, typically referred to as the beneficiary or principal. This duty is characterized by trust, confidence, and reliance on the fiduciary to act ethically and responsibly on behalf of the beneficiary. Fiduciary duties exist in only very specific relationships, like those of trustees, solicitors, agents, partners, and company directors. Attaching these duties to Free Software developers is unprecedented and disproportionate.

Free Software production, a catalyst for technological innovation, relies on voluntary contributions. Imposing fiduciary duties (or any disproportionate duties) on developers could deter them from participating in Free Software projects, fearing legal repercussions. This could lead to a chilling effect, where developers opt for more restrictive licensing, or refrain from sharing their code altogether, or release the software only in jurisdictions where there are no duties out of fear of litigation. The results of such an effect would be disastrous; stifling innovation and potentially halting the progress of specific Free Software endeavours.

In essence, if the court rules in favour of Tulip, it can have far-reaching consequences that can be detrimental to the Free Software developers in the following ways:

1. Courts may impose an active duty on Free Software developers to fix what the courts deem to be problematic issues.
2. In future courts may impose an active duty on Free Software developers to not cause any bugs that impact users. This can potentially expose the developers to litigation for just letting through a bug or failing to spot a bug.
3. Courts may also impose obligations on Free Software developers that require them to compromise the cryptographic integrity guarantees of the software. This could involve mandates to weaken encryption algorithms or provide backdoor access, directly undermining the security measures designed to protect user privacy and data confidentiality. Such orders would not only compromise the effectiveness of encryption software but also the tools such as secure file deletion or data recovery.

Free Software development thrives on the collaborative efforts of developers worldwide, continually evolving. The developers’ autonomy inherent in Free Software must not be jeopardized by the fear of unjust litigation. FSFE remains vigilant in safeguarding against threats to developer autonomy that could stifle innovation. In the light of these concerns, we call upon the developers to persist in their invaluable work without fear.

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