# articles

feed_id: news-20201112-01
title: How (not) to set up a public warning system
uri: How-(not)-to-set-up-a-public-warning-system
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201112-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>How (not) to set up a public warning system</h1><p>
  What is the best way to alert people about catastrophes? Germany went
  with proprietary apps which caused the recent warning day ("Warntag")
  to become an official failure. We analysed the situation and found
  more robust solutions that respect user rights.
</p><p>
  The basic idea of testing emergency systems is to find potential or
  real problems. However, it is remarkable how much went wrong in
  Germany's official warning day in September. Especially the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-nationwide-emergency-warning-day-sees-bumpy-rollout/a-54877137">unreliability</a>
  of the officially advertised non-free and non-standard apps forced
  the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), that is in charge of the
  responsible Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster
  Assistance (BBK), to label the test day as a failure.
</p><p>
  The FSFE analysed the findings together with experts in civil
  protection and mobile networking to figure out why the apps failed,
  and what a more resilient and open system can look like.
</p>
  <img src="media/a356d23c.8a77a3fbd5eb790cf94b2f115f6f94f3.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/8a77a3fbd5eb790cf94b2f115f6f94f3.jpg"/>
<h2>Digital Warning Systems in Germany</h2><p>
  There are three popular publicly financed apps that can carry
  official emergency alerts to their users: Katwarn, Nina, and Biwapp.
  All three are proprietary, so non-free
  software that does not allow their users to use, study, share, and
  improve the software. Moreover, they rely on fetching emergency alerts
  from the central <em>MoWaS</em> ("modular warning system"), and forwarding
  these to the app users using their phones' WiFi or mobile internet
  connection.
</p><p>
  An overload of this central system was the main reason why many
  alerts did not reach the app users in time or at all. This did not
  come as a surprise, though. In a scenario where millions of devices
  are reached at the same time from a central instance with
  one-to-one (<em>unicast</em>) connections, network bottlenecks are
  almost inevitable.
</p><p>
  The underlying problem, however, is unnecessary complexity and duplicated
  structures. Instead of investing large amounts of public money into
  centralised systems and three proprietary apps, other states run a
  more resilient and well-tested infrastructure for distributing
  emergency messages: SMSCB, more commonly called <em>cell
  broadcasts</em>, to provide one-to-many messages.
</p><h2>Cell Broadcasts</h2><p>
  Standardised around 1990, cell broadcasts are an established method to
  send messages to all mobile network users, either in a whole country
  or limited to specific areas, in no more than a few seconds. Phones do
  not have to be registered in a specific network to receive these
  messages, and alerts with the highest priority will ring an
  alarm even if the phone is muted. And unlike SMS and mobile internet, cell
  broadcasts have a reserved channel that works even if phone cells are
  overloaded with users and messages.
</p><p>
  Furthermore, cell broadcasts can be received by every phone, no
  matter whether emergency apps, an up-to-date operating system, or
  proprietary Google/Apple services are installed. Because the
  communication is one-to-many, there are no privacy concerns either.
  These clear benefits made the European Union decide to base the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU-Alert">EU-Alert</a> system on
  cell broadcasts. As a directive, this has to be implemented by all EU
  member states before June 2022, unless a state can provide a service
  with a similarily reliable performance – which is a very high
  threshold.
</p><p>
  Regardless of these advantages, Germany chose to not base its
  emergency alert system on the SMSBC standard, unlike other countries
  such as the Netherlands, Greece, Romania, Italy, or the USA. Because
  there is no official obligation to do so, most mobile network
  providers deactivated this feature to save costs. Instead, much
  higher costs are incurred by the taxpayers to finance an isolated
  system and accompanying proprietary apps.
</p>
  <img src="media/a5e3e58b.f790c7602451468f95091e50dc7988d1.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/f790c7602451468f95091e50dc7988d1.jpg"/>
  EU-Alert/NL-Alert Cell Broadcast message in 2018.
  CC-BY-SA-4.0 by WarningMessageDelivery
<h2>Warning Apps</h2><p>
  Despite the clear advantages of cell broadcasts, warning apps have
  their justification. Users can request various information about
  other regions and past events. However, basing a
  large part of the emergency communication system on warning apps has proven to be
  too prone to single points of failure.
</p><p>
  Furthermore, because of the critical role of emergency communication systems for the public, they have
  to be <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/">Free Software</a>, and built upon <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/standards/">Open Standards</a>. Only with the
  freedoms to use, study, share, and improve software, can they be
  analysed by citizens and independent security researchers. This in
  turn increases trust and willingness to install a complementary
  warning app, as the practical experience with the Corona tracing apps
  shows.
</p><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>
  Our analysis concludes with three key findings that not only the
  responsible administrations but also other actors should keep in
  mind.
</p><ul>
  <li>
    The foundation of emergency communication from authorities
    should be a standardised, resilient system that
    is capable of sending millions of messages to as many devices as
    possible, regardless of their operating system or installed
    software. Currently, SMSBC, or cell broadcasts, seem to be the best
    possible implementation that works well in numerous states.
    Therefore, we appreciate that the EU chose to base EU-Alert on cell
    broadcasts.
  </li>

  <li>
    Warning apps can be a useful complement. Especially for publicly
    funded apps, it is crucial to develop and release the software under a
    Free Software license, following the principle of <a href="https://publiccode.eu">Public Money? Public Code!</a>.
  </li>

  <li>
    Testing warning systems is important, and the planned regular warning days
    should be maintained in the future. It is normal that errors occur
    during these tests, but they must not be glossed over. Instead
    errors must be addressed thoroughly.
  </li>
</ul><p>
  In this sense, the responsible administrations, BBK and BMI, have a lot of work
  ahead. But it is doable, both from the practical and financial
  perspectives.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20201120-01
title: Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project
uri: 2020-11-20-Call-to-apply-for-FSFE-support-for-your-local-project
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201120-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project</h1><p>It is no secret that the FSFE's activities are only possible with the priceless help of our contributors and supporters around Europe. In return we support local engagement with our expertise, information material, networks or even financially. To help formalize this process, we run our second call for FSFE community projects.</p><p>From international campaigns to local information booths, our successful spreading of software freedom is based on many shoulders from active members within our community. This is why ever since the FSFE e.V. has been keen on supporting initiatives and activities from local FSFE groups to single supporters. We happily support you with our expertise, our information material, our networks or even financially. </p>
			<img src="media/d4d1fb64.1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg"/>
		<p>To participate in the call you simply fill in your contact data and your project facts (who is doing what, when and how much it potentially will cost) and you will soon receive feedback, approval or a call back on your proposal. </p>
  <a href="https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html">Participate</a>
<p><strong>Deadline for this call will be 10 January 2021.</strong></p><p>Please spread the word within your local groups or other FSFE channels you participate, to ensure everyone knows about it. If you already have a project in mind you like to apply with, check the corresponding detailed information and fill out the form afterwards. </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202011
title: Liberté logicielle 2020 +++ Stratégie Open Source Européenne +++ Nouvelles équipières
uri: Liberté-logicielle-2020-Stratégie-Open-Source-Européenne-No
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202011.fr.html
content:
<h1>Liberté logicielle 2020 +++ Stratégie Open Source Européenne +++ Nouvelles équipières</h1><p>Dans notre lettre d'information de novembre, nous analysons notre rapport annuel "Liberté Logicielle en Europe" ainsi que la nouvelle Stratégie du Logiciel Libre par la Commission Européenne. Nous avons de nouveaux équipiers, un nouvel appel pour les projets de la communauté FSFE, REUSE prend son envol, le groupe local de Zurich recoit un prix et tant d'autres choses à découvrir.</p><h2>Liberté Logicielle en Europe 2020</h2><p>2020 est une année dont on se souviendra. Alors que beaucoup se souviendront de la pandémie, il y a eu de nombreux changements positifs en termes de Logiciel Libre ces derniers mois. En réalité, beaucoup de choses ont changé. Vous pouvez désormais lire en un document à quel point notre mouvement a été actif dans notre rapport annuel <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html">Liberté Logicielle en Europe 2020</a>.</p><p><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#europeanpolicies">L'UE et l'OMS ont suivi nos arguments</a> pour publier les applications de traçage liées au Corona financées publiquement uniquement sous une licence de Logiciel Libre. De nombreuses villes, incluant Munich, et municipalités  ont fait la promesse de s'appuyer plus sur le Logiciel Libre dans le futur. Nous avons convaincu des hackathons financés par l'argent public de publier chacun de leurs résultats comme Logiciel Libre, et le plus important parti conservateur d'Europe, la CDU Allemande, a pris la résolution de rejoindre la FSFE en demandant que le logiciel développé avec de l'argent public soit rendu disponible au public comme Logiciel Libre.</p>
    <img src="media/f325e092.6c8d43ffc1013f647affa17d8f0929d5.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/6c8d43ffc1013f647affa17d8f0929d5.jpg"/>
  <p>Nous avons convaincu le Commité des Régulateurs Européens pour les Communications Électroniques de s'aligner avec le demande de la FSFE pour que <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#routerfreedom">chaque modem et routeur reste sous le contrôle total de l'utilisateur</a>. Avec notre initiative REUSE, notre objectif est de fournir des pratiques simples et des outils d'accompagnement pour obtenir des licences interprétables par des machines. KDE, un des projets les plus importants et anciens de notre communauté, a adopté les lignes directrices de REUSE en 2020. À notre connaissance, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#reuse">environ 300 projets</a> ont bénéficié de REUSE.</p><p>Nous avons participé à de multiples consultations publiques Européennes, nous avons introduit une nouvelle manière de <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#communityprojects">financer les projets de leur communauté locale</a> pour notre communauté, nous sommes passés <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#events">des évènements physiques aux évènements en ligne</a>, avons accueilli des invités passionnants dans <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#podcast">notre Podcast Liberté Logicielle régulier</a>, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#webpresence">relancé notre site web</a>, produit un nouveau t-shirt Logiciel Libre multi-langues, et de nombreuses autres histoires à raconter.</p><p><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html">Appréciez la lecture de notre rapport annuel</a> et découvrez votre succès préféré de notre communauté en 2020. Ce succès repose sur les épaules des personnes et communautés qui supportent notre travail.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Rejoignez notre mouvement Européen maintenant</a> et faites de notre succès votre succès.</p><h2>La nouvelle Politique de Logiciel Libre Européenne manque d'idées et de mesures concrètes</h2><p>La Commission Européenne a publié sa nouvelle "Stratégie Open Source". Et, alors que la stratégie proposée reconnaît les bénéfices du Logiciel Libre, elle manque d'objectifs concrets et d'indicateurs pour son implémentation. En lieu et place de l'avancée majeure espérée, qui aurait reflété les développements actuels autour des débats sur la souveraineté numérique et l'état de l'art administratif, la Commission n'a présenté qu'une feuille de vigne (fig leaf, feuille de figuier en anglais). <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201023-01.html">Ce que la Commission Européenne a présenté représente trop peu pour une stratégie</a>. Avec un manque de descriptions claires des activités et processus ou des lignes directrices concrètes pour l'implémentation de déclarations sincères et d'indicateurs pour suivre la réussite, nous nous inquiétons que la stratégie n'aboutisse qu'à trop peu de résultats.</p>
      <img src="media/7d5a0590.7db740e55d4adfa69d1198a20589ec54.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/7db740e55d4adfa69d1198a20589ec54.png"/>
      La Commission Européenne présente une feuille de vigne (figuier en langue anglaise)
    <p>D'un point de vue général, la stratégie ne fait que répéter des engagements et activités préalables; alors que des approches pérennes et vérifiables sont cherchées en vain. Et tandis que les bénéfices du Logiciel Libre sont clairement soulignés et que la Commission est ambitieuse sur le papier pour son usage futur du Logiciel Libre, les objectifs concrets sont rares, et il manque un engagement clair sur l'utilisation du Logiciel Libre.</p><p>Avec si peu d'engagement de la Commission Européenne, il est de nouveau évident de constater à quel point les organisations de la société civile comme la FSFE ont un rôle important pour faire entendre nos solutions. Contrastant avec le manque d'inspiration de la stratégie de l'institution centrale technocratique Européenne, notre approche ascendante a aidé de nombreuses administrations publiques en Europe à trouver le chemin de la liberté "par elles-mêmes" en 2020. <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html">Lisez notre rapport annuel</a> à propos de Munich, Hambourg, Beniganim et les Pays-Bas faisant le pas vers plus de liberté logicielle.</p><p>Noël approche et nos articles promotionnels sont une surprise idéale pour vos proches ou pour vous-même. <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/order.html">Commandez maintenant</a> avant que nous de soyons à court de stock.</p><h2>Nouvelles équipières: Linda Wagener et Lina Ceballos</h2><p>Linda Wagener a rejoint l'équipe de la FSFE en tant que nouvelle assistante de bureau. Linda possède une maîtrise des arts (MA) en études de communications et a hâte de contribuer à l'organisation et la comptabilité de la FSFE, car - comme le dit Linda - <em>"Je crois en l'importance du progrès de l'accès libre à l'information et aux moyens d'étudier et de comprendre le monde."</em></p><p>Lina Ceballos est notre nouvelle stagiaire jusqu'à mars 2021. Lina est une avocate de Colombie avec une maîtrise des arts (MA) en développement et gouvernance. Lina a hâte de travailler avec notre communauté et précise : <em>"Je suis enthousiaste de faire partie de cette organisation, d'autant qu'une de mes motivations principales a toujours été la construction d'une société plus libre et transparente, dans ce cas précis, dans une société numérique."</em></p><h2>Appel à candidatures pour un soutien de la FSFE à votre projet local</h2><p>Nous poursuivons actuellement <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201120-01.html">notre second appel à projets communautaires pour la FSFE</a>. Nous vous soutenons volontiers avec notre expertise, notre matériel d'information, nos réseaux, et même financièrement. Participer est simple, il suffit de remplir <a href="https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html">un formulaire en ligne</a> d'ici au 10 janvier 2021.</p><p>Parmi les candidatures retenues lors de la dernière itération se trouve GnuLinux.ch, que nous soutenons avec de la promotion, un nouveau logo, des autocollants et un ensemble de micros pour leur podcast régulier. Un autre projet que nous allons soutenir est une série d'évènements d'installation de Freedombox, que nous allons soutenir avec des locaux. Si vous avez besoin de soutien pour un projet communautaire FSFE, n'hésitez-pas à candidater.</p><h2>Évènements à venir</h2><p>Avec de nombreuses autres organisations de droits civils (numériques), la FSFE constitue le cluster <a href="https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom">"about:freedom"</a> lors des Chaos Communication Conferences annuelles, qui sont devenues un des plus importants évènements liés au hacking en Europe. L'évènement a lieu du 27 au 30 octobre, cette année pour la première fois en ligne. Nous auditons actuellement les propositions reçues lors de notre appel à participation afin de vous offrir un large choix de contenu lié à la liberté logicielle.</p><h2>Qu'avons-nous fait ? En interne et en dehors de la FSFE</h2><ul>
  <li>Notre campagne REUSE décolle. Il y a quelques semaines, KDE a adopté les lignes de REUSE et <a href="https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool#user-content-example-demo">un nouveau screencast a été produit</a> pour montrer comment rendre un dépôt conforme à REUSE. De plus, la version iOS de l'application Corona Warn App Allemande <a href="https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios">est maintenant conforme aux spécifications de REUSE</a> et près de cent projets ont reçu l'aide du <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.html#ngi0">projet NGI0</a> de la FSFE pour en faire autant.</li>
    
        <a href="media/1c6a1826.reuse-tool.gif" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/videos/reuse/screencasts/reuse-tool.gif"/>
    
  <li>Le groupe local FSFE de Zurich a créé un site web appelé <a href="https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/">"Apprendre comme un pro"</a> (Allemand original : "Lernen wie die Profis") qui explique les besoins et bénéfices de l'utilisation de Logiciel Libre dans l'éducation. Il décrit les solutions Logiciel Libre individuelles ainsi que comment ces solutions peuvent en particulier être utilisées pour rendre l'apprentissage scolaire efficace et aisé. Ce projet a maintenant été <a href="https://awards.dinacon.ch/gewinner2020/">récompensé par un prix spécial de la conférence Dinacon</a> - une conférence sur la pérennité numérique. La FSFE est fière du succès du groupe local de Zurich et vous invite à trouver <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#communityprojects">d'autres projets locaux encourageants en 2020 dans notre rapport annuel</a>.</li>
  <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201019-01.html">De nombreuses sessions ont été organisées par la FSFE pour la rencontre SFScon de cette année</a>. Nous entretenons une relation durable avec cette conférence. <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191205-01.html">L'an dernier, nous avons célébré notre rencontre communautaire annuelle à la SFScon</a>. Cette année, nous nous sommes concentrés sur des conférences lors desquelles des difficultés légales sont exposées et les développements politiques actuels sont analysés. Des questions pratiques concrètes sur la conformité ont été traitées ainsi que des questions sur l'apprentissage automatique (machine learning) et des problèmes survenant lors du développement d'un smartphone libre. Lors des conférences de nos propres équipiers, <a href="https://www.sfscon.it/talks/public-money-public-code/">Alexander Sander a parlé de notre campagne "Argent Public ? Code Public !"</a> et <a href="https://www.sfscon.it/talks/challenges-ahead-for-router-freedom-in-europe/">Lucas Lasota des "Défis à venir pour la liberté logicielle en Europe"</a>.</li>
  <li>La FSFE a participé à la consultation par la Commission Européenne sur les <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12579-Interoperable-digital-public-services-European-Interoperability-Framework-evaluation-strategy/F1148140">"Services publics inter-opérables – Évaluation et stratégie du European Interoperability Framework"</a> par notre mise en avant du rôle crucial que le Logiciel Libre et les Standards Ouverts jouent pour l'inter-opérabilité.</li>
  <li>La FSFE demande l'établissement du Logiciel Libre comme standard pour le logiciel financé par l'argent public et une surveillance orientée données des stratégies adoptées, avec des indicateurs mesurables de l'évolution du progrès dans notre retour de consultation sur les <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12311-eGovernment-services-across-the-EU-ISA-programme-final-evaluation/F1168719">"services eGovernment de par l'Europe (programme ISA²) - évaluation finale"</a> par la Commission Européenne.</li>
  <li>L'Allemagne a testé son système d'alerte publique lors d'une journée officielle d'alerte en septembre. Les applications propriétaires impliquées ont causé ce qui est devenu un échec officiel. <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201112-01.html">Nous avons analysé la situation</a> et trouvé des solutions robustes, respectant les droits des usagers.</li>
  <li>Thomas Friese <a href="https://tasmo.rocks/zwei-jingles/#der-jingle-zum-software-freedom-podcast">a publié un article de blog</a> (DE) dans lequel il raconte l'histoire derrière le générique du <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast.html">Software Freedom Podcast</a>  et apporte des aperçus du travail créatif.</li>
  <li>Une coalition d'organisations en Suisse a produit la série d'évènements 7at7. Dans son édition de novembre, la campagne FSFE <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.html#nocloud">There is no cloud</a> a fait partie d'une <a href="https://7at7.ch/nov2020/">exposition virtuelle sur "faire campagne pour les droits numériques"</a>.</li>
  <li>D'octobre 2020 à mars 2021, notre expert légal Lucas Lasota <a href="https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/9fc90637b3b9487c84db/">conduit une formation sur la licence logicielle à l'Université Humboldt</a>.</li>
  <li>Notre expert politique Alexander Sander a donné des conférences sur notre compagne "Argent Public ? Code Public !" à la <a href="https://events.opensuse.org/conferences/oSLO/program/proposals/3247">Conférence Virtuelle openSUSE + LibreOffice</a>, à la <a href="https://open-web-lounge.org/">non-conférence Open Web Lounge / CMS</a>, au <a href="https://osseu2020.sched.com/event/eCVu">Open Source Summit Europe</a> et à la <a href="https://pretalx.2020.fosscomm.gr/fosscomm-2020/talk/V3GTG8/">FOSSCOMM2020</a>.</li>
  <li>Notre président Matthias Kirschner a tenu une conférence sur <a href="https://www.franken.de/veranstaltungen/kongress/knf-kongress-2020/">"The long road to freedom"</a> à la conférence KNF.</li>
  <li>Comme de nombreux groups locaus FSFE, l'équipe Hollandaise a maintenant débuté ses réunions régulières en ligne.</li>
  </ul><h2>Equipez-vous (autrement dit : Soyez actifs)</h2><p>Noël approche et si vous souhaitez rendre un proche heureux et faire passer le message du Logiciel Libre par la même occasion, <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/index.html">visitez notre magasin en ligne</a>. Nous proposons un t-shirt Logiciel Libre multi-langues pour hommes et femmes, en jolies couleurs et avec l'impression d'un gros cœur. Nos t-shirts "No Cloud" et "Public Money? Public Code!" passent aussi bien en environnement professionnel que privé. Et nos "100 Freedoms" mettrons un sourire sur le visage de tous les initiés. </p><p>Nous avons des badges, des magnets et pour les parents nous avons nos très demandés bavoirs et t-shirts pour enfants mentionnant "I am a fork ()".</p><p>Nous ne pourrons pas renouveler notre stock avant Noel. Alors <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/index.html">procurez-vous votre cadeau spécial</a> avant qu'il ne soit trop tard !</p> 
    <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/order.html"/>
    Nos produits promotionnels sont une bonne surprise pour vos proches à Noël - et toute l'année.
  <h2>Participez à notre lettre d'information</h2><p>Si vous souhaitez partager vos opinions, photos ou actualités, merci de nous les envoyer. Comme toujours, notre adresse est newsletter@fsfe.org. Nous sommes impatients de vous lire !</p><p>Si de plus vous souhaitez nous soutenir ainsi que notre travail, rejoignez notre communauté et aidez-nous avec <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202011">un don ou une contribution mensuelle</a>.</p><p>Merci à notre communauté, tous les <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute">volontaires</a>, <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a> et <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donatrices et donateurs</a> qui rendent notre travail possible. Et merci à <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators">nos traductrices et traducteurs</a>, qui vous permettent de lire cette lettre d'information dans votre langue maternelle.</p><p>Votre éditeur,
  Erik Albers</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl">Soutenez notre travail par un don</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: episode-8
title: SFP#8: How to tell my mother that Free Software can cost money?
uri: SFP-8-How-to-tell-my-mother-that-Free-Software-can-cost-money
url: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-8.fr.html
content:
<h1>SFP#8: How to tell my mother that Free Software can cost money?</h1><p>
In this Software Freedom Podcast episode Bonnie Mehring and Matthias Kirschner talk about the monetary costs of Free Software. On the example of a conversation Bonnie had with her mother, both discover ways of explaining the world of Free Software and how to answer common questions and misunderstandings about software freedom.
</p><p>
For this episode we talk about why Free Software can cost money. Bonnie Mehring and Matthias Kirschner discuss the topics: How can I pay for Free Software and why is it important to pay and thereby support Free Software? What are the different models of earning money with Free Software and where is the difference of earning money as an individual or as a company. Throughout this conversation both explain the concept of Free Software and talk about some of the most common questions. This is the perfect episode for explaining to your loved ones what Free Software is.
</p><p>Read more:</p><ul>
  <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/">What is Free Software?</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://k7r.eu/there-is-no-free-software-company-but/">There is no Free Software company - But!</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/commercial-floss.html">Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) is Commercial Software</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCDE3gNAP08">The core values of software freedom</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ngi/ngi.html">Next Generation Internet</a></li>
</ul><p>If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate/">donation</a>.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20201208-01
title: German Corona tracing app available without Google services
uri: German-Corona-tracing-app-available-without-Google-services
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201208-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>German Corona tracing app available without Google services</h1><p>
  A handful of Free Software developers today achieved what official
  bodies have been missing for months: They have made available the
  German Corona Warn App for tracking Covid-19 risk contacts in a
  version that is completely free of dependencies on Google and
  available in the F-Droid, the Free Software app store.
</p><p>
  Already in April this year, the FSFE <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200402-02.html">formulated two fundamental
  requirements for so-called Corona apps</a>. First, there must be no
  obligation to use them, and second, they must be available as Free
  Software. At first glance, the German <em>Corona Warn App</em> (CWA)
  published in June, meets these criteria, like many others in Europe
  by now. However, the exchange of device keys via Bluetooth, on the
  basis of which the risk is calculated, is handled by an underlying
  interface.
</p>
  <img src="media/b9e145e9.4c841b6189a6d77a8061a94ee30b6d1b.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/4c841b6189a6d77a8061a94ee30b6d1b.jpg"/>
<p>
  The problem is that this interface software, called <em>Exposure
  Notifications API</em> and significantly developed by Apple and
  Google, is largely proprietary. This means it cannot be freely used,
  investigated, distributed and improved. In Google's Android operating
  system it is also necessary to install and use the Play Services.
  These Google services intervene deeply in the system and undermine
  the digital sovereignty of the users. By default, this prevents the
  use of many Corona apps for people who value <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/android/">privacy and software freedom on their
  Android devices</a>.
</p><h2>Volunteers solve problems step by step</h2><p>
  A first major improvement was provided by Free Software developer and
  FSFE supporter Marvin Wißfeld in September. He <a href="https://mastodon.social/@larma/104630652216622243">built the
  exposure notification functionality into microG</a>, a Free Software
  implementation of the proprietary Google services. This allows at
  least people who own a <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/android/">Google-free
  Android phone</a> and have microG installed to use various Corona
  apps.
</p>
  <img src="media/d44890f7.35a91da85f747e4c4621ce5e8e336b73.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/35a91da85f747e4c4621ce5e8e336b73.png"/>
  
    Free Software implementation of the underlying Exposure
    Notification API in microG
  
<p>
  A few days ago, Christian Grigis, Fynn Godau, Marcus Hoffmann and
  Marvin Wißfeld went one step further. They <a href="https://codeberg.org/corona-contact-tracing-germany/cwa-android">integrated
  the exposure notification component of microG directly into the
  German Corona Warn App</a>. This so-called Drop-In-Replacement
  enables even people who have neither the Google services nor their
  Free Software alternative microG installed, to use the CWA. In
  addition, as of today they are <a href="https://f-droid.org/packages/de.corona.tracing/">making the app
  available on F-Droid</a>, an app store with exclusively Free
  Software. This is therefore also advantageous for those users who
  have installed microG or Google services, but prefer to obtain their
  software via F-Droid for security and convenience reasons.
</p><p>
  microG main developer and FSFE supporter Marvin Wißfeld adds:
</p>
  <p>
    "The previous solution of installing microG is often out of the
    question for various reasons. But the new app from F-Droid,can also
    be run without problems on all current smartphones from, for
    example, Huawei some of which have been delivered without Google
    services since mid-2019. The German government and the RKI may have
    lost thousands of users of the Corona Warn App in recent months,
    as only Google and Apple users were targeted."
  </p>
<p>
  It is now up to the responsible bodies, the German government, the
  Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and their contractors SAP and T-Systems,
  to <a href="https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android/issues/1483#issuecomment-734491614">incorporate
  the changes into the main development branch</a>, and thus to pull
  together with the Free Software community. In addition, this method
  can in principle also be used for Corona apps in other countries.
</p><h2>Free Software once again in a pioneering role</h2><p>
  We see a familiar pattern here: the Free Software community <a href="https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/issues/5">presents
  a problem and a possible solution</a>, but is <a href="https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/issues/5#issuecomment-627848335">turned
  away</a> until volunteers solve the problem themselves with unpaid
  work and without official support. In this case, the resources of the
  authorties and companies involved would have easily sufficed to make
  these significant improvements themselves, or at least to support
  them. It is laudable that the CWA was consistently developed and
  published as Free Software from the very beginning, but it lacked the
  necessary consistency to remove technically and meanwhile unnecessary
  dependencies on proprietary software.
</p><p>
  The FSFE appeals to governments and administrations to publish
  developed software as Free Software, to break dependencies on
  Google's and Apple's app stores and instead make their apps
  installable from independent sources like F-Droid, and to renounce
  proprietary dependencies. As Wißfeld explains, the Corona Warn App
  already offers concrete additional advantages in the fight against
  the pandemic:
</p>
  <p>
    "The free implementation has the potential - in the spirit of Free
    Software - for improvements that Google's proprietary interface
    does not allow. For example, it would be possible to display the
    time of a high risk encounter. This could - if the user voluntarily
    provides the data - help public health authorities to identify
    hotspots or clusters, or be used for statistical purposes to
    increase the effectiveness of protective measures."
  </p>
<p>
  We would like to thank all persons involved who made the use of the
  Corona App in Germany possible without having to accept any loss of
  software freedom.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20201210-01
title: Public code for publicly financed international development cooperation
uri: Public-code-for-publicly-financed-international-development-cooperatio
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201210-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Public code for publicly financed international development cooperation</h1><p>International development cooperation is increasingly digitised. Free Software thus is becoming a fundamental technology to reach the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. Together with experts in the field, the FSFE summarises these interrelations in an article and demands publicly funded software to be published as Free Software.</p><p>Inherent attributes of Free Software and its communities include equal access to the sources, an international culture of sharing and developing software together for the benefit of everyone. While many of us find these freedoms to be universally acceptable, we see that this is not the case once we look in the world of proprietary software. Unfortunately, the same is to be said for the distribution of natural resources around the globe.</p><p>In 2015 the United Nations General Assembly set the Sustainable Development Goals, aiming at "a better and sustainable future for all" by trying to reduce inequalities and offer equal access to the most basic resources of our societies like food, health and education. International development cooperation strives to achieve the UN sustainability goals by improving global conditions and the empowering of local partners. In some extend similar as to software freedom, existing dependencies should be reduced and new dependencies avoided at all costs.</p>
				<img src="media/8793cced.954d4f464602dd534ab90dd976e2547c.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/954d4f464602dd534ab90dd976e2547c.png"/>
			<p>Nowadays, international development cooperation is becoming increasingly digitised and shifting its focus towards digital cooperation. Whether in agriculture, industrial production, health care or public administration, the development and maintenance of modern social processes is no longer conceivable without software. To some extent functional software becomes the basic technology of social organization as well as of modern administrative services. The roll-out of proprietary software, however, exacerbates the dependencies of users in the developing countries on the currently market-dominating software industry from the present industrial countries. Free Software, in contrast, allows emancipation and independence of its users - be they individuals or state-owned organisations.</p><p>Free Software allows development investments once made to be reused around the globe without (further) license costs and without legal or technical restrictions. The simultaneous publication of its source code on public code repositories also enables one's own software development to profit from reusing, improving and republishing by other actors around the globe. In terms of international cooperation, the freely licensed source code serves as a basis for organized or self-empowered knowledge multiplication and transfer. Free Software allows the development of digital cornerstones and provides international standards without creating new monopolies and dependencies.</p>
			<img src="media/23c7b0fc.e8f6276f2ac83265355b17088d51c7ce.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/e8f6276f2ac83265355b17088d51c7ce.jpg"/>
		<p>The reasons just mentioned show that Free Software is an essential part of any sustainable digital development. Consequently, the "Principles for Digital Development" require the publication of software, data and standards under free licenses. The FSFE, together with experts from the German Corporation for International Cooperation, has analyzed and put together <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/developmentcooperation/">the main benefits for international development cooperation when relying on Free Software in one article</a>. </p><p>The article is part of our series about the <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/">basics of Free Software</a>. It delivers background on the ongoing process of digitisation in international devlopment cooperation, its effects and the status quo. It sheds light on the multiple benefits that international development cooperation can profit from, when using and developing Free Software. They build reason <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/developmentcooperation/#pmpc-for-development-cooperation">the FSFE demanding that in all international development cooperation, any software development (co-)financed with public money be published as Free Software</a>.</p>
				<p><a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/developmentcooperation/">
						Read the article
				</a></p>
			Nico Lück, co-author of the article and expert from the German Corporation for International Cooperation sums up: "Minimising dependencies and building up local partner capacities fosters sustainability of IT solutions: Free Software and other open resources are the enabling instruments to be preferred and promoted for sustainable development cooperation."<p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20201211-01
title: FSFE Local Group Zurich receives DINAcon Award
uri: FSFE-Local-Group-Zurich-receives-DINAcon-Award
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201211-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE Local Group Zurich receives DINAcon Award</h1><p>In 2019, the FSFE's local group  Zurich has launched the "Learn like the pros" campaign. Goal of the campaign is to present solutions for the use of Free Software in education. Recently, the campaign was awarded the DINACon Award. On this behalf we interviewed the coordinators Ralf Hersel and Gian-Maria Daffré.</p><p>Unfortunately, non-Free Software is still increasingly used in the educational environment. Proprietary software however does not offer students and teachers the opportunity to study and adapt the functionality and principles of the software in use. In order to promote the digital maturity and sovereignty of the students as well as the teaching staff, Free Software should be consistently used in education instead. In order to get one step closer to this goal, the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Zurich">FSFE local group Zurich</a> has picked up the topic with its own campaign called <a href="https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/">"Lernen wie die Profis"</a> (German for "Learning like the pros"). The content of the campaign includes arguments and background information about the use of Free Software in the educational environment - combined with concrete solution and software proposals.</p>
				<a href="https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/"/>
			<p>Recently the campaign won the <a href="https://awards.dinacon.ch/gewinner2020/">DINAcon Special Award 2020</a>. This is an award for the campaign, but also for the local engagement and commitment of the FSFE local group Zurich. We took this award as an opportunity to introduce the campaign through an interview with the local Zurich coordinators Ralf Hersel and Gian-Maria Daffré ('Giammi').</p>
		
			
				<img src="media/56802cc0.32cdef458ba0503c57a89779722d9f16.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/small/32cdef458ba0503c57a89779722d9f16.jpg"/>
			
		

		
			<p>
				Ralf Hersel has been involved since 2015, when the Tuxeros group merged with FSFE's Zurich local group. Since 2020 he is the coordinator of the group.
			</p>
		
	
		
			
				<img src="media/054893b1.6818812743e98326b4db2d26cd23489f.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/small/6818812743e98326b4db2d26cd23489f.jpg"/>
			
		

		
			<p>
				Gian-Maria Daffré ('Giammi') has also been a member of the local group in Zurich since 2015, where he is vice-coordinator. Giammi is also coordinator of the Swiss team.
			</p>
		
	<p><strong>FSFE: 2020 is a year in which e-learning and remote digital learning has increased in use and distribution worldwide. Is this a development to be welcomed and to what extent have these developments influenced the individual digital sovereignty of students?</strong></p><p><strong>Ralf and Giammi:</strong> 'Welcomed' is probably the wrong word for the circumstances, which have been caused by the pandemic. We would rather see it as a necessity introduced by reality. E-learning already existed before, but not to the extent that we currently see. Due to the deferral from physical to digital space the significance of digital sovereignty has increased enormously. Both, students and teachers, are confronted with a situation for which they were not prepared; neither mentally nor technically.</p> 
		
		
		
		<em>"Our task is to help understand digital
		sovereignty as an essential criteria for self-determined decisions and to establish action accordingly."</em>
		
		<p>The concept and meaning of 'digital sovereignty' is still far from being consciously adopted by those affected. Unfortunately, the popularity of proprietary applications like Zoom and Microsoft Teams just proves that. Our task is to help understand digital
		sovereignty as an essential criteria for self-determined decisions and to establish action accordingly.</p>
		
		
		
		
		<p><strong>In this light, the FSFE's Zurich local group has launched the campaign "Learning how the
	  Professionals", "to promote the use of Free Software in schools and
	  universities". What exactly does the concept of "Learning for
	  the professionals" include?</strong></p><p>The 'Learn like the pros' campaign has three goals:</p> 
			<ol>
				<li>Inform about the importance of digital sovereignty at educational institutions.</li>
				<li>To show concrete solutions for the use of Free Software systems in education.</li> 
				<li>Cite positive examples where schools and universities have taken up the challenge and successfully completed a transformation towards Free Software.</li>
			</ol>
		<p><strong>Is the campaign specifically tailored towards the Swiss audience or is the collected knowledge of universal validity?</strong></p><p>At the FSFE local group Zurich we think both, locally and globally. The
		concrete alignments however depend on the target audience. For example, one of our
		campaigns, <a href="https://freedomvote.ch/">'Freedomvote'</a>, is targeting the political process in Switzerland. Also our
		Participation in Swiss events - such as Informatiktage Zürich, Open Education Day,
		DINAcon or our training series 'Selfhosting' at DigiComp - focus on
		the Swiss market. The campaigns 'Fotobuch' and <a href="https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/">'Lernen wie die Profis'</a>, and
		the news channel <a href="https://gnulinux.ch/">'GNU/Linux.ch'</a> however are targeting to the European, respectively German
		society.</p><em>"The team and all involved were convinced by the positive power of the
		of the name."</em><p><strong>How did you come up with the campaign, was there an initial spark and how
  did the implementation work?</strong></p><p>The idea of addressing educational institutions has been fermenting for some years now in
		our heads. Different ideas were discussed, tried out and
		discarded. An important milestone was <a href="https://home.cern/news/news/computing/migrating-open-source-technologies">CERN's decision to withdraw from
		Microsoft and to rely more on Free Software</a>. This event
		gave Ralf the idea to develop a campaign and give it the name 'Learning like the pros' (#LwdP). 
		We coordinated this in the team and all invovled were convinced by the positive power of the
		of the name. 'Learning like the pros' attracts the curios mind of research among female and male students. When professionals use Free Software, students will do alike.</p><p><strong>The FSFE local group Zurich recently won the DINAcon award for
  campaign. What does this award mean for you and for the project?</strong></p>
		
			
				<img src="media/ced17d72.a00ef515187f639c4a1725225729cfef.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/a00ef515187f639c4a1725225729cfef.jpeg"/>
			
		

		
			<p>
				Since there was only one nomination in the award category 'Open Education', we have been very pleased 
			that DINAcon created a new category especially for us, the 'Special Award'. 
			We are very happy about this award, because it is
		the first one ever and because it means that we have an appreciation and support
		which we can use as a reward for our work. It is
		a great motivation for the past and future efforts in
		this FSFE campaign.
			</p>
		
	
			
			Ralf Hersel, Coordinator of the FSFE lokal group Zürich on behalf of the DINACon Special Award 2020. (in German)
		<p><strong>Are there experiences and learnings you would like to share with others?
  Maybe with a view to other local groups of the FSFE who might
  plan a similar project?</strong></p><p>There are many experiences and lessons that we can learn from this project.
		On the one hand, we got to know many like-minded initiatives, such as
		Digitalcourage's commitment to Free Software in schools.
		Especially with regard to the current developments in Baden-Württemberg, we were
		astonished by the commitment of civil society actors towards digital sovereignty in
		schools.</p>
		
		
		
		<p>On the news portal GNU/Linux.ch, which is maintained by Ralf and Lioh,
		there were many helpful discussions and ideas on this topic. Besides the
		many positive experiences we can also draw a worrying conclusion from the
		FSFE campaign work. The <a href="https://gnulinux.ch/die-wenigen-die-mueden-die-open-source-entwickler">metaphor of the few and tired Free Software
		developers</a>, also applies to this project work.</p>
		<p>Background: <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Zurich">The FSFE local group Zurich</a> exists since 2010. Current coordinators are Ralf Hersel with Gian-Maria Daffré as vice-coordinator. Prior to the "Learn like the pros" campaign presented in this article, the group has already launched the campaign <a href="https://freedomvote.ch/">Freedomvote</a>. The group meets every second Thursday of the month. Usually at the digital agency Liip in Zurich, currently online via Big Blue Button. If you feel like joining the group now, just drop by.</p>
		
		
		
		<p>If you don't live in Zurich and now feel like getting actively involved in a local FSFE group, then <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups">see if there is a group in your city</a>. Or join our <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-de">German language mailing list</a>. And please support our association with a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">small donation</a>.</p>
	<p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20201215-01
title: Interview with A. Cord-Landwehr about REUSE adoption in the KDE community
uri: Interview-with-A-Cord-Landwehr-about-REUSE-adoption-in-the-KDE-commun
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201215-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Interview with A. Cord-Landwehr about REUSE adoption in the KDE community</h1><p>In just three years, our REUSE initiative has successfully changed licensing practices of at least over five hundred projects. From its adoption by NGI0 projects to a Corona Warn App to KDE, 2020 marks another successful year of this campaign. We used the chance to speak with Andreas Cord-Landwehr about REUSE adoption in the KDE community.</p><p>In 2017, the FSFE launched its REUSE campaign and it not only has received many important updates since then but also an overwhelming international attention. Since <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190807-01.html">the release of version 3.0</a> last year, we have been focusing on supporting Free Software projects in adopting the underlying best practices. And 2020 marks another successful year of this initiative.</p>
                    <a href="https://reuse.software"/>
                <p>On one hand this is thanks to <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.html#ngi0">the FSFE's role as a consortium member of the Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0)</a>. In this position, the FSFE's legal team assists all participating software projects with any Free Software copyright and licensing issues that they may run into. And we are encouraging and assisting the projects in becoming REUSE compliant. More than 150 projects that we are reviewing in the scope of our NGI0 involvement are in process of adopting the REUSE specifications and many of them are already REUSE compliant.</p><p>Recently we became aware of a very prominent project who applied our REUSE best practices, the <a href="https://api.reuse.software/info/github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-server">German Corona Warn App Server</a> and its iOS app. This is another milestone in our message that any <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200402-02.html">Corona tracing apps - being developed with public money - having to be published as Free Software</a>. Followed by <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201208-01.html">the great success Free Software hackers achieved</a> in publishing a "Corona Warn App" version that is completely free of pre-existing dependencies on Google.</p><p>But the news that made us most happy this year regarding REUSE was about a project that is even more prominent in our community: one of the biggest and oldest Free Software projects, the well-known KDE community, <a href="https://community.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy#License_Statements">included REUSE in their licensing policy</a> and they already <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/reuse/2020q3/000095.html">migrated all their frameworks to the recommended standard</a>. To shed light on the reasons and practices behind this huge step we conducted an Interview with Andreas Cord-Landwehr, long-term developer at KDE.</p>
        
            
                <img src="media/333c19ae.265f3b58d0409b7671ffccd309f4a0f82x.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/thumb/265f3b58d0409b7671ffccd309f4a0f8@2x.jpeg"/>
            
        

        
            <p>
                Andreas Cord-Landwehr joined the KDE Community in 2011 and since then primarily contributed 
                to KDE's educational software applications. His main interests today are KDE 
                frameworks and exploring the usage of KDE software in embedded systems. He 
                believes that Free Software is a key factor in solving many 
                problems of today in a way, which proprietary software never could achieve.

            </p>
        
    <p><strong>FSFE: How did you become aware of the REUSE project? How can one imagine the road from bringing up the idea to its actual implementation in such a large community as KDE is?</strong></p><p><strong>Cord-Landwehr:</strong> During our annual KDE conference in 2019, we had a workshop for planning the next major release of our libraries, commonly known as KDE Frameworks. During that session we talked about improving our license consistency by introducing SPDX identifiers, a core element of REUSE's best practices. Our goal was to establish automatic tools that would help to ensure license statement quality. This is quite important to KDE, because we have a long history and there are even files in our codebase, which are actually older than some of our contributors. Thus, those files might have seen many edits and license versions over the years.</p>
            
            <em>"From the outside, it might look that the process of deciding and implementing something like REUSE might be tedious in a big community. But actually, it was quite straight-forward."</em>
            
        <p>From the outside, it might look that the process of deciding and implementing something like REUSE might be tedious in a big community. But actually, it was quite straight-forward: as a kickoff I sent a proposal mail to our community list to start the discussion. In response to this, I was made aware of the REUSE initiative for the first time. And since the feedback was quite positive, the discussion resulted in a proposal to change our license policy with the goal to make it REUSE compatible. This proposal was <a href="https://cordlandwehr.wordpress.com/2019/12/31/reuse-machine-readable-license-information/">backed with a detailed blog post</a> that explained the background and the reasoning why to follow REUSE.</p> 
        
        <p>Well, the discussion quickly went to, "Yeah, let's do it" - and so we did. Of course, after some waiting time to ensure that everybody was aware of the move.</p><p><strong>What are the KDE frameworks that you made REUSE compliant?</strong></p><p>KDE Frameworks are a set of libraries on top of Qt. Many of these libraries provide useful stand alone functionality, like a library for handling archive files like zip, a library for barcode generation, a UI framework for touch interfaces etc. And then there are also those that help to make KDE software more consistent and integrated. As such, our KDE frameworks are a product of their own and especially the first group of libraries are used in many projects and businesses that build on top of Qt. For these "customers" of our frameworks, it is very important to have a clear licensing statement and ways to assure the statement is true.</p><em>"We spend quite some time in manual checking of license consistency and even relicensing of files. For me, it was a key goal to simplify and improve this process by involving automatic checks and tools."</em><p><strong>Why is it actually important for KDE  to clarify licensing and copyright of their code?</strong></p><p>We have many libraries containing source code that originates from different decades and originally might even have been developed for another library. To ensure that we still get distributable artifacts, we have a license policy which focuses on movability of source code within our code base. However, errors can be made and we spend quite some time in manual checking of license consistency and even relicensing of files in order to gain a desired outbound license of a library or application. For me, it was a key goal to simplify and improve this process by involving automatic checks and tools.</p><p><strong>Have you ever tried other approaches of standardised licensing efforts? What do you like about REUSE in particular?</strong></p><p>Over the years I saw other approaches for standardising licensing, but at the end, there are two key features of REUSE for me: even simple tools or scripts suffice to check REUSE compliance and to get data out of the license statements. Which is important because it allows to create custom tooling tailored to your project's needs. Secondly, REUSE focuses on being simple to use for developers. In a big community like KDE you often have newcomers or one-time contributors and it helps a lot if they can state licenses correctly and consistently with ease.</p>
                    <a href="media/1c6a1826.reuse-tool.gif" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/videos/reuse/screencasts/reuse-tool.gif"/>
                <p><strong>In which steps and with which tools did you reach complete REUSE compliance in the KDE frameworks? </strong></p><p>The main tool we use for our conversion is <a href="https://invent.kde.org/sdk/licensedigger">licensedigger</a>. This is a self-crafted tool that I started with the only purpose of converting traditional license headers, with all their quirks and funny different statements, to well-formed REUSE compatible license headers. It also assists with the initial conversion of a code repository by adding the required license text files and reporting an overview of the used licenses. For the conversion we use a dedicated tool because we wanted to enforce a very strict license detection mechanism, and it allows to focus on reviewing the reference license texts that are added to the tool instead of reviewing every single license header when it gets replaced. As soon as a repository is converted to being REUSE compatible, we switch to use <a href="https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool">the REUSE tool</a> to do quality assurance.</p> 
        
        <p>Another, still emerging tool, is a CMake build system plugin I created to instrument the REUSE tool together with the build system information, in particular which source file is compiled into which artifact. This allows to generate license consistency checks as simple unit tests, which warn the developer if accidentally incompatible licenses are combined.</p><em>"Believe it or not, there are nicer things in the world than doing or reviewing license statement conversions all day long."</em><p><strong>What are the next steps for REUSE in KDE?</strong></p><p>Our codebase is big and major parts are still waiting to be converted into being REUSE compatible. But there is progress! And I am extremely happy that this progress comes from many different people and not just from one person. Believe it or not, there are nicer things in the world than doing or reviewing license statement conversions all day long :-)</p>
            
            
        <p><strong>If you could change or improve one thing in REUSE, what would it be?</strong></p><p>So far we mostly talked about inbound licenses. But I think that for compiled languages like C++ it is important to also take binary artifacts and their outbound licenses into the picture. This is a task that many distributions handled over the years with custom license checkers and an enormous amount of manual review, to ensure that the source licenses are compatible with the distributed outbound licenses.</p>

        <p>I believe that it is possible to find a way that states the outbound license in a standardised way, which would make those statements reusable for users of a binary artifact. This would allow a completely new dimension of automatic license compatibility checks.</p><p><strong>Thank you very much for this interview!</strong></p><p>If you like the REUSE initiative, please consider donating to the FSFE. Help us keep our work going and assist more projects to become REUSE compliant. With this button you can dedicate your donation to financing the REUSE project in particular and help to get our message heard.</p>

    Donate Now

<p>In addition you can do it like Greg Kroah-Hartman and help us by spreading the word about our REUSE initiative. Let people know about the benefits of standardised and machine-readable licensing by following the REUSE guidelines, point them to the <a href="https://reuse.software">REUSE homepage</a> or write about it in your favorite communication channels. You can <a href="media/1c6a1826.reuse-tool.gif" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/videos/reuse/screencasts/reuse-tool.gif">use our new screencast for your promotion</a>.</p>
                        <img src="media/4d3fa0e4.dae264593e4ef4e660d89c08672d4b49.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/dae264593e4ef4e660d89c08672d4b49.png"/>
                <p>Companies are invited to become <a href="https://reuse.software/supporters/">REUSE sponsors</a> and thereby support the REUSE initiative sustainably.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202012
title: CWA without Google +++ International development cooperation +++ KDE interview
uri: CWA-without-Google-International-development-cooperation-KDE-i
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202012.fr.html
content:
<h1>CWA without Google +++ International development cooperation +++ KDE interview</h1><p>In our December Newsletter, read about the German Corona Warn App being published independently to extend software freedom, learn about public code in international development cooperation, enjoy an interview with Cord-Landwehr from KDE about REUSE adoption, one about the Zurich local group receiving a DINACon award and much more.</p><h2>German Corona tracing app available without Google services</h2><p>Christian Grigis, Fynn Godau, Marcus Hoffmann and Marvin Wißfeld achieved what official  bodies have been missing for months: They have made available the German "Corona Warn App" (CWA)  for tracing Covid-19 risk contacts in a  version that is completely free of dependencies on Google and is available in F-Droid, the Free Software app store. </p><p>Initial release of the CWA was in June and the FSFE's demand that <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200402-02.html">any Corona tracking app must be used voluntarily and be Free Software</a> has been followed. However, the implemented exchange of device keys via Bluetooth, on the basis of which the risk is calculated, is handled by an underlying  interface called Exposure Notifications API, which was, significantly, developed by Apple and  Google and was largely proprietary. One also had to use proprietary Google Play Services or the iTunes store to install it.</p>  
			<img src="media/b9e145e9.4c841b6189a6d77a8061a94ee30b6d1b.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/4c841b6189a6d77a8061a94ee30b6d1b.jpg"/>
		<p>So while on the one hand we were satisfied that the publicly funded CWA has been released as Free Software, we raised the question <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200720-01.html#id-health-care-apps-as-free-software">what is all this freedom worth if the solution depends on third-party proprietary blobs?</a> And if one has to use proprietary software to install them? </p><h3>Indepently published in F-Droid</h3><p>A first major improvement towards fixing this issue was <a href="https://mastodon.social/@larma/104630652216622243">provided by Free Software developer and  FSFE supporter Marvin Wißfeld</a> in September. He built the exposure notification functionality into <a href="https://microg.org/">microG</a>, a Free Software  implementation of the proprietary Google services. This allowed at  least people who owned a <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/android/index.html">Google-free Android phone</a> and had microG installed to use various Corona apps. </p><p>A few days ago, Christian Grigis, Fynn Godau, Marcus Hoffmann and  Marvin Wißfeld went one step farther. They <a href="https://codeberg.org/corona-contact-tracing-germany/cwa-android">integrated  the exposure notification component of microG directly into the  German Corona Warn App</a>. This so-called Drop-In-Replacement  enables even people who have neither the Google services nor their  Free Software alternative microG installed, to use the CWA. They also <a href="https://f-droid.org/packages/de.corona.tracing/">made the app available on F-Droid</a>, an app store with exclusively Free  Software. </p><p>We would like to thank all persons involved who made the use of the CWA in Germany possible without having to accept any loss of  software freedom. Furthermore, the FSFE appeals to governments and administrations to publish  developed software as Free Software, to break dependencies on  Google's and Apple's app stores and instead make their apps installable from independent sources like F-Droid and to renounce  proprietary dependencies.</p><h2>FSFE demands public code in international development cooperation</h2><p>International development cooperation is increasingly digitised. Whether in agriculture, industrial production, health care or public administration, the development and maintenance of modern social processes is no longer conceivable without software. Free Software thus is becoming a fundamental technology to reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. International development cooperation strives to achieve the UN sustainability goals by improving global conditions and the empowering of local partners. As in the case of Software Freedom in general, in international development cooperation existing dependencies should be reduced and new dependencies avoided at all costs.</p>
			<img src="media/23c7b0fc.e8f6276f2ac83265355b17088d51c7ce.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/e8f6276f2ac83265355b17088d51c7ce.jpg"/>
		<p>Together with experts in the field, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201210-01.html">the FSFE summarises these interrelations in an article</a> and <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/developmentcooperation/index.html#pmpc-for-development-cooperation">demands that publicly funded software in international development cooperation be published as Free Software</a>.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Start the new year as a supporter of the Free Software Foundation Europe</a></p><h2>Upcoming events</h2><ul>
		<li>Together with many other civil (digital) rights organisations, the FSFE forms the cluster <a href="https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom">"about:freedom"</a> during the annual Chaos Communication Congresses, which have come to be among the biggest hacking-related events in Europe. The event takes place from the 27th to the 30th of December. The schedule is not yet final but there will be many talks about various topics regarding software freedom. From the FSFE staffers, Lucas Lasota speaks about "Net neutrality 2.0:  Router Freedom and device neutrality in Europe".</li>
		<li>Our <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202002.html#fsfe-pre-and-post-fosdem">Pre-FOSDEM events</a> in the recent years have been highly successful thanks to your contributions. Now we will go one step further: integrate our fruitful exchange directly into FOSDEM! We are therefore pleased to announce that we will co-organise the upcoming <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/">Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom at FOSDEM 2021</a>.  The event will take place online and we are looking forward to your exciting submissions. The <a href="https://lists.fosdem.org/pipermail/fosdem/2020q4/003145.html">Call for Participation</a> is running until 20 December 2020. </li>
	</ul><h2>PMPC Video in Dutch</h2><p>FSFE supporters from the Netherlands created a Dutch video translation of the popular Public Money? Public Code! campaign video. After a sneak preview on the 25th of November in the Netherlands online get-together, <a href="https://publiccode.eu/nl/#about">you can now watch it yourself</a>. </p>
			
			Ralf Hersel, Coordinator of the FSFE lokal group Zürich on behalf of the DINACon Special Award 2020. (in German)
		<p>Nico Rikken, the FSFE coordinator Netherlands who mainly coordinated the project, <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/nico.rikken/2020/11/02/recording-a-public-money-public-code-video-translation/">wrote a detailed blog-post about the whole process</a> - from subtitle translation to the audio recording to its final editing and mastering. Nico wrote it for your curiosity but also for you to pick it up: <em>"I wrote this blogpost, to encourage you to do it too and save you time by suggesting a methodology. In the process I learned some new skills and got to use some free software that was new to me."</em></p><p>With the Dutch version, the Public Money? Public Code! campaign video is now translated and audio-dubbed in seven languages  (DE, EN, FR, IT, NL, PT, RU) and subtitled in nine languages (DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, NL, PT, SK, RU). If you would like to see your language added to the list, get in contact with Nico or the FSFE. </p><h2>What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE</h2><ul>
		<li>In just three years, our <a href="https://reuse.software">REUSE initiative</a> has successfully changed licensing practices of over five hundred projects. In 2020 one of the biggest and oldest Free Software projects, the well-known KDE community, included REUSE in their licensing policy and migrated all their frameworks to the recommended standard. We took this opportunity to <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201215-01.html">speak with Andreas Cord-Landwehr, development engineer at KDE, about REUSE adoption in the KDE community</a>.</li>
		
			<img src="media/5caf720b.265f3b58d0409b7671ffccd309f4a0f8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/265f3b58d0409b7671ffccd309f4a0f8.jpg"/>
		
		<li>In 2019, the FSFE's local group in Zurich launched the <a href="https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/">"Learn like the pros" campaign</a>. The goal of the campaign is to present solutions for the use of Free Software in education. Recently, the campaign was awarded the DINACon Special Award. On this occasion, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201211-01.html">we interviewed the local coordinators Ralf Hersel and Gian-Maria Daffré</a> about the background and the success of this campaign.</li>
		
				<a href="https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/"/>
			
		<li>On the 25th of November the European Parliament adopted the resolution <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2020-0318_EN.html">"Towards a more sustainable single market for business and consumers"</a> in which they call on the Commission "to establish a consumers’ ‘right to repair". The document acknowledges the problems of software obsolescence as a limitation to hardware's life-time longevity. Unfortunately, the document misses the chance to tackle the problem with solutions offered by Free Software licensing, e.g. the obligation to freely license software code after its support ends. The FSFE will follow the process and raise its voice for software freedom as a means  towards a more sustainable IT.</li>
	</ul><h2>From the Planet</h2><ul>
		<li>Bdale Garbee looks back on a long history of debian packaging and <a href="https://gag.com/bdale/blog/posts/Shifting_Emphasis.html">encourages other Debian package maintainers with the right skills and motivation to consider adopting some of his packages</a>. </li>
		<li>Albert Astals Cid shows and explains software obsolescence he experienced with his Android phone OnePlus2 and <a href="https://tsdgeos.blogspot.com/2020/12/planned-obsolence-for-android-phones.html">how he solved it using the CustomROM LineageOS</a>. </li>
		<li>Sebastian Schauenburg writes about <a href="https://www.schauenburg.nl/posts/2020/11/11_st_xft_and_ubuntu.html">his favorite terminals</a> and how he solved a bug for the st terminal emulator.</li>
	</ul><h2>Get Active: 20 years of FSFE</h2><p>This time we do not have a particular get active item for you but a general reminder that next year we shall have  had 20 years of FSFE and we would like to celebrate that with you. So watch our news.  There will be some interesting backgrounds on the FSFE's history. We will introduce you to some of our well-established community members and also dig into past success stories as well as some funny fails we made. In particular watch out for the  several participative campaigns we are planning; we look forward to seeing many of you taking part. </p><h2>Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project</h2><p>We are currently <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201120-01.html">running our second call for FSFE community projects</a>. We happily support you with our expertise, our information material, our networks, or even financially. Participating is as simple as filling out <a href="https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html">a short online form</a> until 10 January 2021.</p><p>Among the successful applications in the last round is  GnuLinux.ch, which we support with promotion, a new logo, stickers, and a microphone set for their regular podcast. Another project we will support is Freedombox install events, which we will support with premises. If you need support for a FSFE community project, don't hesitate to apply.</p>
			<img src="media/d4d1fb64.1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg"/>
		<h2>Contribute to our newsletter</h2><p>If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
  them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking
  forward hearing from you!</p><p>If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and
  support us <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202012">with a
  donation or a monthly contribution</a>.</p><p>Thanks to our community and all the <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute">volunteers</a>,
  <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a>, and <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donors</a> who make our work possible. And thanks to
  <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators">our translators</a>, who enable you to read
  this newsletter in your native languages.</p><p>Your editor,
	Erik Albers</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl">Support us with your donation</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210119-01
title: FSFE is hiring a part-time technical expert
uri: FSFE-is-hiring-a-part-time-technical-expert
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210119-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE is hiring a part-time technical expert</h1><p>
  We are looking for a person with a strong technical background to support
  projects with software engineering and expertise. The person will work
  part-time, either in our Berlin office or remote.
</p><h2>About the FSFE</h2><p>
  Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
  control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
  lives and it is important that technology empowers rather than
  restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
  understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
  fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
</p><p>
  The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
  Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and
  self-determination. It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers
  to Free Software adoption, encourages people to use and develop Free
  Software, and provides resources to enable everyone to further
  promote Free Software in Europe.
</p><p>
  We are involved in <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/">many activities</a> in the
  legal, economic, political and technical areas around Free Software.
  Our work is made possible by a community of volunteers, supporters,
  donors, and staff.
</p>
  <img src="media/55beb2bb.7c078dc9c5de4757f682d832d93d3aa7.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/7c078dc9c5de4757f682d832d93d3aa7.jpg"/>
<h2>Main responsibilities</h2><ul>
  <li>Working closely with project and program coordinators, and supporting them
  with technical evaluations for our work in the areas of policy, legal and
  public awareness.</li>
  <li>Software engineering of existing and new tools that are used inside and
  outside the organisation. For example, the tools offered by the FSFE's <a href="https://reuse.software">REUSE initiative</a>.</li>
  <li>Providing technical and practical expertise for Free Software on mobile
  devices, e.g. for the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/android/">Free Your Android</a>
  activity. That may include updating documentation, preparing workshops, or
  offering training to multipliers.</li>
</ul><h2>Qualifications</h2><ul>
  <li>Ability to communicate well, and to translate technical topics to other
  experts in policy, legal and public awareness, and vice versa.</li>
  <li>Willingness and ability to get acquainted with new topics within a short
  time.</li>
  <li>Fluency in written and spoken English. Other European languages are
  considered an asset.</li>
  <li>Solid programming knowledge, especially Python.</li>
  <li>Experience with Android and methods to gain as much software freedom as
  possible on mobile devices.</li>
  <li>Understanding of modern software development collaboration and tools like
  Git and CI systems.</li>
  <li>Enthusiasm for the principles of Free Software and its community.</li>
  <li>Knowledge about Free Software licensing is considered an asset.</li>
</ul><h2>Attitude</h2><p>
  We are looking for a reliable, well-organised team player who contributes
  their technical expertise to various topics, in the form of code, research
  and communication. You are able to self-organise your time budget, and work
  effectively and efficiently. Software freedom is not only a tool for you, but
  something you deeply care about.
</p><p>
  Furthermore, you are a great communicator and feel comfortable to look over
  the rim of your tea cup. You are good at learning new things quickly, and
  explaining these to others in verbal and written form is fun for you. On the
  other hand, you are willing and able to familiarise yourself with and
  incrementally improve existing processes and tools.
</p><h2>Working time</h2><p>
  The desired working time would be 10 to 20 hours per week. You can either work
  in the Berlin office or remotely. Of course you could combine this job with
  another activity.
</p><h2>How to apply</h2><p>
  To apply, please send a maximum one-page cover letter – including the desired
  hours per week and your salary expectation – and a maximum two-page CV (only
  PDFs are accepted) by email to jobs@fsfe.org, with the subject "technical
  expert". Please do not include pictures of yourself in the application.
</p><p>
  Your personal data will be deleted 3 months after we have made our decision.
  The closing date for applications is <em>Sunday, 21 February 2021</em>.
</p><p>
  Free Software is meant to serve everyone regardless of their age, ability or
  disability, gender identity, sex, race, nationality, religion or sexual
  orientation. Hence, we encourage applications from all backgrounds and promise
  to judge all applications on merit, without reference to any of the
  characteristics listed. To promote diversity and equality in the Free Software
  community, we shall give preference to applicants who identify as part of a
  traditionally marginalised demographic in technology for applications of equal
  strength.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202101
title: FSFE's plans for 2021 +++ #IloveFS +++ FOSDEM
uri: FSFE-s-plans-for-2021-IloveFS-FOSDEM
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202101.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE's plans for 2021 +++ IloveFS +++ FOSDEM</h1><p>In our January Newsletter, read about our plans for 2021 including our upcoming birthday celebrations and our participation at FOSDEM. We roll out this year's "I love Free Software" campaign and, as usual, report about our various community activites.</p><h2>FSFE's plans for 2021</h2><p>In the last weeks, we have constantly developed our message of software freedom for 2021. And with so many exciting things surrounding FSFE's activities in the upcoming months, we are looking forward to realize them. </p>
		  <img src="media/40e0efa6.843a04b75486fb3db95cd3aa6f85bb0e.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/843a04b75486fb3db95cd3aa6f85bb0e.jpg"/>
			Although working remotely, we are looking forward and thinking big for 2021.
		<p>The FSFE will celebrate its birthday as we turn 20 in 2021. 20 years of defending user's rights and spreading software freedom. We want to use that momentum to speak, show and reflect on our activities in the past 20 years. And we want to give momentum to our community because it is on their shoulders that we have built our movement and our networks, which form a well-known pan-European Free Software expert interest representation called Free Software Foundation Europe. More information on this in the next newsletter.</p><p>As we turn 20, we will continue to have to deal with the current global situation, for instance by running our events online this year. Our running campaigns will be updated and we will launch a brand-new campaign "Upcycling Android" towards the second half of the year – stay tuned.</p><p>Now looking a bit into the closer future, our event team is doing its best to offer you a pleasant FSFE online experience at FOSDEM, the biggest Free Software conference in Europe. Not only are we offering a digital booth and our annual pre-FOSDEM community meeting, we will also co-coordinate the Legal and Policy  Devroom. For more information, see below. Not to forget that right after FOSDEM there will be the: </p><h2>I love Free Software day 2021</h2><p>More than any other year, we feel it is important this year to come together and celebrate the annual <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/">"I love Free Software day"</a> on 14. February. After months of a dark and physically distanced winter, we invite you to show your faces and your love towards the philosophy that unites us all, our love for Free Software. </p>
		  <img src="media/db6de094.a9ae2caa9aa75d66af2d376960f60d49.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/a9ae2caa9aa75d66af2d376960f60d49.png"/>
			Show your face for "I love Free Software Day 2021"
		<p>To bring us all together on the same virtual page, we have prepared a brand new "I love Free Software" activity for you. <a href="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics">Use our graphics</a> to share your love with your friends, family, colleagues and the Free Software community and to virtually unite. Simply take a picture of yourself that you like and write down in a few words why you love Free Software. Then fill our share-pic generator and share the result in your favourite channels or via social media. By using the hashtag #IloveFS you make sure that we also see it - or by pinging our account directly in the respective social media channel. If none of that works for you, we are also happy to receive your image in an email to contact@fsfe.org.</p><p>We are really looking forward to celebrating #IloveFS with you!</p><p>Start the new year as a supporter of the Free Software Foundation Europe</p><h2>Upcoming events</h2><ul>
		<li><p>The FSFE will be present at FOSDEM, the biggest annual Free Software happening in Europe. While FOSDEM normally takes place in Brussels, this year it will happen online. Max Mehl gives a talk about the <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/reuse/">"Best practices for declaring copyright and licenses"</a> and Lucas Lasota will speak about Router Freedom. The FSFE will be present with a digital booth that you can visit to talk with people. There will also be some events happening "at the booth". Unfortunately, not all details from the organisers are available at the time of writing this newsletter, so we cannot dig into more details or offer links right now. Please follow us on social media (<a href="https://mastodon.social/@fsfe/">Mastodon</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/fsfe/">Twitter</a>) or visit the <a href="https://fosdem.org/">official page</a> during the event to find our booth.</p>
		<p>Apart from the digital booth, for the first time the FSFE will co-organise the Legal and Policy Devroom at FOSDEM. We will also continue with our traditional pre-FOSDEM meeting the day before FOSDEM, on Friday 5 February 2021. This meeting is our community get-together and will be kicked-off with a keynote by Cory Doctorow.</p></li>
		<li>I love Free Software Day: As every year on 14 February the Free Software community is celebrating the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/">"I love Free Software Day"</a>. Don't miss showing your love on that day, following the hashtag #IloveFS and listening to <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast.html">our upcoming special IloveFS podcast episode</a>. </li>
	</ul><h2>What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE</h2><ul>
		<li>The FSFE was present with a digital representation at this year's online Chaos Communication Congress, called "Remote Chaos Experience " or #rC3. Together with our cluster <a href="https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom">about:freedom</a> we created a map for the <a href="https://links.rc3.world/">rC3-world</a> and produced a <a href="https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-86253-opening_session">joint presentation video</a>. Since we used to sing the Free Software song at our booths at the CCC, we also transferred this happening into the digital world and invited folks to <a href="https://mastodon.social/@fsfe/105463999431351392">join and sing the Free Software song together in a Jitsi room</a>.</li>
	
	
	
	  <img src="media/3128fbec.b349b8cb474cbfad6c6fbcf8ad639ae0.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/b349b8cb474cbfad6c6fbcf8ad639ae0.jpg"/>
		The cinema in the about:freedom cluster was presenting a joint video of all organisations that were part of the cluster.
	


		<li>Our project manager <a href="https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-54981-net_neutrality_2_0_router_freedom_and_device_neutrality_and_in_europe#t=110">Lucas Lasota gave a talk about Router Freedom at the Remote Chaos Experience rC3</a>.  The talk provided an overview of the recent successes for Router Freedom and the legal challenges against net neutrality in Europe.</li>
		<li><a href="https://gnulinux.ch/gln006-podcast">Our programme manager Max Mehl participated in the GNU/Linux News Podcast by GNU/Linux.ch</a> (German) with one of the topics covering the principle of "Public Money? Public Code!" to be applied on publicly funded mobile phone apps. </li>
	</ul><h2>Job vacancy</h2><p><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210119-01.html">We are looking for a person with a strong technical background</a> to support  projects with software engineering and expertise. The person will work part-time, either in our Berlin office or remotely. The closing date for applications is Sunday, 21 February 2021. </p><h2>Contribute to our newsletter</h2><p>If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
  them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking
  forward hearing from you!</p><p>If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and
  support us with a
  donation or a monthly contribution.</p><p>Thanks to our community and all the <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute">volunteers</a>,
  <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a>, and <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donors</a> who make our work possible. And thanks to
  <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators">our translators</a>, who enable you to read
  this newsletter in your native languages.</p><p>Your editor,
	Erik Albers</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl">Support us with your donation</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210203-01
title: Coming soon: I Love Free Software Day 2021
uri: Coming-soon-I-Love-Free-Software-Day-2021
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210203-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Coming soon: I Love Free Software Day 2021</h1><p>People around the world work hard to maintain Free Software and we rely on Free Software to keep us connected. On this year's I love Free Software day let us think about the developers, contributors, designers, those who promoted the use of Free Software and many more who spend their time to share, improve and create Free Software. On 14 February we show our love and thank those who work for Free Software.</p><p>Free Software is created and supported by people who put a lot of hard work into it. Physical distancing in recent months dramatically showed us how important Free Software is to keep us connected with our loved ones. It is Free Software that enabled us to participate in conferences, university or school classes, or to simply enjoy virtual lunch breaks with our colleagues. The people behind those tools have outgrown themselves to provide us with a good user experience, to fix bugs and implement wishes.</p><p>For this year's I love Free Software Day, let us think about all those who worked for our favourite piece of Free Software, and especially those people who called for and promoted the use of Free Software.</p><h3>A simple thank you makes all the difference</h3><p>To say thank you to all these contributions and promotions of Free Software, the annual <a href="https://ilovefs.org">I love Free Software</a> day is the perfect opportunity. On 14 February, people all over the world show their love and appreciation to software freedom in general or specific projects they use.</p>
      <img src="media/1775720e.Polina_Malaja.png" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/people/Polina_Malaja.png"/>
          Let's celebrate #ilovefs day!
 <p>Everybody can join the I love Free Software day and share their love for Free Software. We prepared several activities for you. For the first time on #ILoveFS we created a <a href="media/fe67bb4d.ilovefs.png" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/ilovefs.png">picture template</a>, which everybody can use to create a share-pic saying why they love Free Software. If you like the template, you can <a href="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/">download all sources</a>, add your picture and your personal thank you message and the share pic is ready to go for your preferred communication channel. If you share it on social media platforms please use the hashtag <strong>#ilovefs</strong> so we can boost your message. Every thank you is welcome and appreciated!</p>
      <img src="media/3e5c3777.2e4c1c26d5e718acbd2432a15a3c22c8.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/small/2e4c1c26d5e718acbd2432a15a3c22c8.jpeg"/>
          Show your love for Free Software, #ilovefs
 <p>Join us on "I love Free Software" day and let the world know which tool kept you connected with your loved ones, your family and friends! Or follow others to read which Free Software tool they enjoyed most during their time in home office. Maybe you use some Free Software instant messenger or started playing a Free Software game with your friends? Or what made a difference for the use of Free Software in your school, university or workplace? Is there someone you want to say thank you to and show your appreciation for their work? For more ideas and suggestions visit our <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/">"I love Free Software Day" action page</a> and join our community in showing your love for Free Software by saying thank you!</p><h3>We love Free Software and Software Freedom Podcast</h3><p>On this special occasion we also created a <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast">Software Freedom Podcast</a> episode for the "I love Free Software Day". In the upcoming episode Matthias Kirschner and Bonnie Mehring discuss the background of the I love Free Software Day and Bonnie continues to speak with Free Software developers, advocates, activists and contributors why it is important to say thank you.</p><p>Background: This is the 11th edition of the "I love Free Software Day", which is annually celebrated on 14 February. The "I love Free Software Day" has become an important tradition for the Free Software community. So let's keep this tradition alive and come together on Sunday, 14 February, to celebrate software freedom.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210204-01
title: 20 years FSFE: Interview with Georg Greve, founder president
uri: 20-years-FSFE-Interview-with-Georg-Greve-founder-president
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210204-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>20 years FSFE: Interview with Georg Greve, founder president</h1><p>
  In 2021 the Free Software Foundation Europe turns 20. A moment that we like to use to celebrate our community and who has accompanied us in the past or still does with a series of publications. In our first publication we look back where everything got started and conducted an interview with the FSFE's first president Georg C. F. Greve.
</p><p>
  It was Georg Greve who in April 2001 handed all necessary documents to the notary in Hamburg, Germany, to officially register the association "Free Software Foundation Europe". Which was only the last official step after many weeks of preparation and strategy meetings beforehand. Neatly with the official registration, Georg Greve became the first President of the newly founded FSFE and led the organisation in a full-time capacity until June 2009. On 18 December 2009 <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100428-01.html">Georg Greve was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon</a> by the Federal Republic of Germany for these years and his achievements in Free Software and Open Standards.
</p><p>
  20 years later we interview Greve about the creation of FSFE, his first days in office and how it evolved from there.
</p><h3>Interview with founding president Georg Greve</h3><p>
		<strong>FSFE: Can you please tell us how everything started: When and why was the idea born to create the FSFE and how did it go from there to its offical registration in April 2001?</strong>
	</p>
	<p>
		<strong>Georg Greve:</strong> Having been fascinated by technology and its ability to shape our daily life, I got involved in the GNU Project around 1995 when Richard Stallman discovered a small program that I had written. A few years later while writing the Brave GNU World it became clear to me that we needed something like the FSFE for a variety of reasons. On the one hand the European scene in Free Software had become really strong, perhaps even dominant at the time. But its culture and its approaches hadn't really registered with the majority of US organisations. 
	</p>


	<img src="media/783e5338.570f1c66e67bb504f2a3c5ef849f876b.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/570f1c66e67bb504f2a3c5ef849f876b.jpg"/>
	Portrait of Georg Greve, founder president of FSFE


	<p>
		Perhaps even more importantly there was an evidently growing disconnect between the analysis on which the US organisations had been built, and the reality of technology adoption and usage. The world evolves very fast, which means that an answer which was perfectly on point two years ago may be completely out of place today. The principles do not change, but the pace of change necessitates that our answers to today's challenges based on those principles must sometimes co-evolve with a similar pace. I felt we needed a more dynamic, evolving organisation than what I had seen so far. One that can embrace and live change, and one that can come up with the right answers for the current time continuously. 
	</p>

	<p>
		So in order to start FSFE I reached out to Richard who put me in touch with a couple of people he trusted and thought up to the task of creating the first Free Software Foundation outside the US. Over a couple of months we started discussing first internally and later pitched the idea to the public. Afterwards it all moved rather rapidly and it took only a few months until we had the organisation off the ground.
	</p>

	<p>
		<strong>How was it in the first months and years to start working and lobbying as a not-before-existing pan European civil society association that at the same time came with a kind of historic heritage  from a pre-existing Free Software community? At what point have you  been sure that the FSFE has been made to stay?</strong>
	</p>

	<p>
		The first years were rather tumultuous. It became self evident very quickly that this organisation needed someone to dedicate themselves fully to the task. The others felt that I would be the right person for the job and I would have regretted not having given this my best shot. So out of my small one room flat in Hamburg I started working full time for FSFE, an  organisation that started to win some crucial first supporters, but was still far from being able to pay a normal salary. 
	</p>



	<a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/swpat/swpat.html"/>
	Georg Greve speaks on a rally against software patents during Linuxtage Berlin 2004. CC-BY Hans Joachim-Baader



	<p>
		Those early days had existential threats almost every week, and more than once it seemed we had bit off more than we could chew. Between Microsoft requesting that we pay their court fees on <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q4/000122.html">the European Antitrust Case</a>, which the court fortunately rejected, to struggles with those who felt we should take a more "canonical" approach and just follow the leader, the time held plenty of excitement. But it was also very educational.
	</p>
 I had the privilege to have some truly outstanding people by my side from the start and discover so many more throughout the years. 

	<p>
		And we got to basically create our own play book on several topics, including how to build support for Free Software in many traditional industries, national governments and both the European Commission and the United Nations. That work has been intensive, with many long nights, and fraught with complexity. But also very rewarding because tiny adjustments to this enormous lever can bring such profound changes. 
	</p>

	<p>
		So these years can be described as many things, but boring they were not, and I had the privilege to have some truly outstanding people by my side from the start and discover so many more throughout the years.
	</p>
	


	<p>
		As to when I was convinced that FSFE was here to stay? Probably when I stepped down and the organisation continued to function and grow. That to me was the test that I had managed to build an organisation that was not dependent on me alone, and would survive my passing. This was what we had set out to do in 2001, and in 2009 it was clear that indeed we had achieved that goal.
	</p>

	<p>
		<strong>What is your personal highlight that the FSFE has achieved during  your presidency?</strong>
	</p>

	<p>
		There have been so many highlights and special moments that come to mind. I vividly remember <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.html">when the European Court of Justice had ruled in our favour</a>. Together with Jeremy Allison and Carlo Piana we found ourselves back in the hotel doing a podcast for Groklaw. I think the excitement of those moments comes out rather clearly. The first time we took the floor at the United Nations and found our positions taken up by other participants. There are so many moments big and small all the way to a deeply touching farewell back in Spain. 
	</p>

	<p>
		In the end, what stands out more than anything else is all the people. It is deeply humbling when someone takes time out of their own life to spend a weekend in a city helping set up the booth, spending countless hours talking to people and answering questions. And all the supposedly small tasks people have done, even if it is "just" translating a single web page.
	</p>

	<p>	
		It is that support and the sense of working together for a shared goal that stands out more than anything.
	</p>
	

	
	


	<p>
		<strong>In all the years that you have been President of the FSFE, what did you like most about the association and its community? </strong>
	</p>

	<p>
		To me what stands out more than anything is probably the passion and conviction of the community. It's the special vibe of a comparatively small group that shares a common goal, even though sometimes it may not seem that way. There is enormous diversity in opinions. Technology is a universal tool, so the people in the Free Software community are naturally a subset of a very diverse society with sometimes quite different fundamental opinions about life.
	</p>


	<img src="media/cd82d207.a37dbb0fcf678fa265ab0dba12412095.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/a37dbb0fcf678fa265ab0dba12412095.jpeg"/>
	A lot of action during the very first General Assembly of the FSFE on 6 May in 2001. Picture CC-BY-SA 4.0 Peter Gerwinski.




	<p>
		So we had fans of Berlusconi - who today would likely be fans of Trump - sitting alongside former communist group members discussing constructively what it would take to make Free Software succeed across all of society. That at times took a great deal of tolerance, as well as wisdom to avoid topics that would only serve to splinter the group and distract from the mission that FSFE was founded for, which was all about software freedom.
	</p>
	
	
		To me what stands out more than anything is probably the passion and conviction of the community. 

	<p>
		There have always been attempts of certain political streams in society to make Free Software their own. But we always made an active effort to not let any party or social movement influence the group too much and sought balance by actively reaching out to the opposite part of the political spectrum for as long as it was clearly driven by rational thought, the scientific method, and democratic principles. That's not been terribly easy, either, and is hardly ever black and white, but the result was a community that is very rich in opinions and perspectives. 
	</p>
	
	<p>
		I firmly believe it is healthy to be confronted with opinions that otherwise you would not find in your social circles and filter bubbles.
	</p>


	<p>
		<strong>Looking back what was the most important thing you learnt from your work at the FSFE? </strong>
	</p>

	<p>
		My time with FSFE has blessed me with a lot of great experiences and opportunities. When working with such an incredible number of extremely smart people across so many cultures it is basically impossible not to learn something each day. And while there was a lot of technology, most learning was in politics, social science, economics but also personal development. My background is in Physics because it was the best foundation to my ideal of the universal science education I was seeking.  Understanding what makes this world tick has been a fascination of mine for as long as I can remember. 
	</p>

	<p>
		The most important lesson is perhaps the simplest. There is almost no limit to what can be achieved as long as there is relevance, timeliness and focus. While it sounds like a platitude, the true challenge is in actually applying it. There are so many worthwhile and good things that one should do that it is terribly easy to get distracted. Simultaneously, relevance is a function of the world around us, and since work takes time it is a function of the world we're heading toward, not the world we're seeing today. But look too far ahead and you may run out of steam, patience or support before that change has happened.
	</p>

	<p>
		And to be perfectly honest I'm still trying to learn how to apply that lesson myself. 
	</p>


	<img src="media/dd28f14b.0e347f5f20de7ccc13a2469eda863221.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/0e347f5f20de7ccc13a2469eda863221.jpeg"/>
	Volker Dormeyer, Werner Koch, Marcus Brinkmann and Georg Greve (from left to right) at the "FSF Europe" booth in 2001 during FOSDEM. (CC-BY-ND 3.0 by Oliver Berger/Free Software Foundation)

	<p>
		<strong>And what is a story that still makes you laugh or smile when you remember it?</strong>
	</p>

	<p>
		Those were crazy years, and we laughed a lot.
	</p>

	<p>
		Like when kyrah came to the Vienna General Assembly in the morning and told us she had been dreaming that Reinhard ate one of our assembly members, only to be told off by me that this is strictly not allowed. Apparently she had been traumatised by last night's events when Reinhard finished everyone's enormous Schnitzels - an event that earned him the honorary title of "Schnitzelmonster." In true Reinhard fashion he carried this title with dignity and even turned it into <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Fun/Schnitzelmonster">a legendary song</a> that we sung together in years to come. 
	</p>

	<p>
		There were so many moments we all broke down with hysterical laughter. In hindsight I think it was our ability to laugh together that made it such a special time. Black humour, not taking yourself too seriously, and a good amount of self irony were certainly always appreciated and I believe them all to be virtues even today.
	</p>


	<p>
		 <strong>As a last question, what do you wish the FSFE for the next 20 years?</strong>
	</p>

	<p>
		It is my personal belief that people should reinvent themselves to some extent every 10 years or so. For organisations that time is around 20 years. FSFE was founded when FSF was approaching its 20 year anniversary. It was a rejuvenation from the outside. My wish is that FSFE manages to rejuvenate itself from the inside.
	</p>

	<p>
		The world has changed so much since we started back then. Relevance today will be based on very different parameters and needs to include answers to shifts like decentralised finance, self-sovereign identity, and the internet of things. All of these change the basis on which our world functions and the way in which people interact with technology. Especially the "old guard" in community has for instance traditionally held a certain disdain and arrogance toward blockchain either as a buzzword that's slapped onto things to fool investors and has no other justification, or as a play thing of morally corrupt high frequency traders or speculators.
	</p>

	<p>
		And while I myself have been foolish enough to hold that viewpoint at some point in my life, I am convinced today that it is fatal to relevance to still hold on to those convictions today. Same for identity, which has been undergoing dramatic changes, driven by its centralisation in the hands of GAFA. This is something we saw coming, along with the dangers of  social media. But that wave swallowed everyone whose answer was "Just say no." It did not work for Reagan, and it not work for the Free Software community - and our own positive answers lacked conviction, relevance and scale.
	</p>
	
	What I wish FSFE is the courage to be brave, diverse, controversial and tolerant in the years to come. 
	

	<p>
		To brutally exaggerate and oversimplify: FSFE now has the choice to rest safely on its knowledge of moral superiority and the knowledge we'll be able to tell people we told them so when they get burned in future. Or it can boldly go where no Free Software organisation has gone before and actively embrace and tackle these topics to which we should already have answers.
	</p>

	<p>
		So what I wish FSFE is the courage to be brave, diverse, controversial and tolerant in the years to come. 
	</p>
	
	<p>
		Because society needs a voice that is independent and with well thought out opinions on these crucial transformations that are happening today. 
	</p>


	<p>
		 <strong>FSFE: Thank you very much!</strong>
	</p>
<h3>About "20 years FSFE"</h3><p>
	In 2021 the Free Software Foundation Europe turns 20. This means two decades of <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/about.html">empowering users to control technology</a>. 
</p>
	<img src="media/0409b849.53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png"/>
<p>
	Turning 20 is a time that we like to take a breath and to look back on the road we have come, to reflect the milestones we have passed, the successes we have achieved, the stories we have written and the moments that brought us together and that we will always joyfully remember. In 2021 we like to give momentum to the FSFE and even more to our pan-European community. The community that has and always will form the shoulders on that our movement relies on. 
</p><p>
	<strong>20 years of FSFE  is meant to be a celebration to everyone who has accompanied us in the past or still does. Thank you for contributing your piece of the puzzle that shapes the FSFE and setting the foundation for the next decades work of the movement for software freedom. </strong>
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210204-02
title: FOSDEM21: Legal and Policy Issues Devroom agenda
uri: FOSDEM21-Legal-and-Policy-Issues-Devroom-agenda
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210204-02.fr.html
content:
<h1>FOSDEM21: Legal and Policy Issues Devroom agenda</h1><p>As every year, the FSFE will be present at FOSDEM, the biggest annual Free Software happening in Europe. In 2021, the FSFE is honored 
		to co-organise the Legal and Policy Devroom at FOSDEM. We are excited and look forward to presenting you an interesting programme throughout the whole weekend.</p><p>While FOSDEM normally takes place every year in the Free University of Brussels, this year it will for the first time happen online. Also for the 
		first time, the FSFE will co-organise the <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/">Legal and Policy Devroom on Saturday and Sunday at 14:00 CET.</a></p>
			<img src="media/c138fc3d.7b2decf9e5cdf0fb5155a60810cf1ee1.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/7b2decf9e5cdf0fb5155a60810cf1ee1.jpg"/>
			FSFE FOSDEM booth
		<p>FOSDEM's Legal and Policy Issues Devroom addresses important <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/freesoftware.html#synonyms">Free Software (also called Open Source Software)</a>
		related policy or legal topics. Our community has substantial expertise in this area yet there are few venues to discuss these matters in a forum open to all. Hackers, 
		developers, contributors, lawyers, policy experts, and community leaders all possess expertise in these matters. At the Legal and Policy Issues Devroom we come together 
		for a fruitful exchange on these questions:</p><p>On Saturday we start with an <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/ecoss/">interview with Evangelos Tsavalopoulos from the European Commission</a> on the new Open 
		Source strategy of the Commission. The strategy was presented on 21 October 2020 and we will shed light on the first activities since then and address critical voices that 
		have been raised in the last months.</p><p>The interview will be followed by a talk at 15:00 CET by Deb Nicholson and  Hong Phuc Dang on: 
		<a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/avoiduscentric/">Open Source Culture is Very US-Centric, But It Shouldn't Be. How Can We Make FOSS Truly Global?</a></p><p>At 15:30 we will learn more about Software and Hardware Freedom in Health public policy. Fabio Balli, Adriana Groh and Luis Falcon will be on a panel and 
		<a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/healthpublicpolicy/">discuss the extent to which the use of Free Software and open hardware can be used in the public health sector</a>. 
		The panel will be moderated by Karen Sandler.</p><p>The panel will be followed by a talk of Sven Franck who addresses the issue of lacking financial base for software projects. He demands 
		<a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/fosstaxbreak/">Give open source a (tax) break </a> at 16:30</p><p>The closing panel of the day starts at 17:00 and focuses on licence compliance questions: John Sullivan, Miriam Ballhausen, Davide Ricci and Eilís Ní Fhlannagáin will 
		discuss: <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/compliancepanel/">Open Source and Free Software License Compliance And Users - Do Present Compliance Practices 
		Assure Software Freedom for Device Users?</a> The panel will be moderated by Bradley M. Kuhn.</p><p>On Sunday, Vittorio Bertola will kick off the day with a talk on <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/digitalmarketsact/">Open Source, Interoperability and the 
		Digital Markets Act - New European regulation proposals to open up the dominant platform </a> at 14:00.</p><p>At 14:30, this talk will be followed by a talk on licensing issues in a large community by Cornelius Schumacher: 
		<a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/qtproprietaryrelicensing/">Protecting against proprietary re-licensing with a community contract - 
		How the KDE Free Qt Foundation ensures software freedom for twenty-five years and counting</a></p><p>At 15:30, the FSFE’s Deputy Legal Coordinator Lucas Lasota will present an overview on the current state of <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/netneutrality/">
		Router Freedom in Europe and the consequences for Free Software users worldwide</a>.</p><p>At 16:00 we will have another discussion on licencing, this time about a specific court case: Giovanni Battista Gallus, Fabio Pietrosanti, Carlo Piana and Alberto Pianon 
		will talk about <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/agplcompliance/">the first AGPL compliance case settled in an Italian Court</a>.</p><p>To close the devroom, the organisers of the Legal and Policy Devroom – Max Mehl and Alexander from the FSFE, Karen Sandler and Bradley Kuhn from Software Freedom Conservancy, 
		and Richard Fontana from Red Hat – will <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/organizerslegalpolicy/">summarise the issues of the day and tackle some topics that have been 
		missing on the agenda</a> at 17:00.</p><p>Beside the talks at the Legal and Policy Issues Devroom you should also consider attending the talk by Max Mehl on 
		<a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/reuse/">REUSE - Best practices for declaring copyright and licenses</a> which will take place at the OpenChain devroom on Saturday at 15:45.</p><p>If you want to stay updated and are interested in our other activities and talks around FOSDEM you can visit <a href="https://stands.fosdem.org/stands/free_software_foundation_europe/">our 
		digital booth</a> or follow us on social media. Also visit the <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/">official FOSDEM page</a> during the event for general updates.</p><p>We are all looking forward e-meeting you during FOSDEM for fruitful exchange, debates and networking.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210209-01
title: The FSFE is hiring a "Project Manager" with focus communications and sustainability
uri: The-FSFE-is-hiring-a-Project-Manager-with-focus-communications-and-s
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210209-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>The FSFE is hiring a "Project Manager" with focus communications and sustainability</h1><p>
  We are looking for a person with a communications background to support
  us in our running and upcoming projects, including our upcoming digital
  sustainability campaign. The person will work full-time in our Berlin
  office. 
</p><h2>About the FSFE</h2><p>
  Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
  control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
  lives and it is important that technology empowers rather than
  restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
  understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
  fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
</p><p>
  The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
  Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and
  self-determination. It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers
  to Free Software adoption, encourages people to use and develop Free
  Software, and provides resources to enable everyone to further
  promote Free Software in Europe.
</p><p>
  We are involved in <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/">many activities</a> in the
  legal, economic, political and technical areas around Free Software.
  Our work is made possible by a community of volunteers, supporters,
  donors, and staff.
</p>
  <img src="media/ae57ecc9.22c54386008cefe65600d313ac54475e.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/22c54386008cefe65600d313ac54475e.jpg"/>
<h2>Main responsibilities</h2><ul>
  <li>Working closely with other staff and volunteers to support them writing news items, press releases, mailings, the newsletter, website pages, leaflets and other communications, about our work for software freedom.</li>
  <li>Work together with our team behind our campaign about Free Software and sustainability in the smartphone sector on the communication strategy and the implementation of it.</li>
  <li>Coordinate communication for upcoming project focusing on teenagers.</li>
  <li>Find, create and improve visual material for our communications.</li>
  <li>Help to draw general project concepts and implement them with continuous updates.</li>
  <li>Coordinate small communication projects on your own.</li>
  <li>Communicate with our contributors on different campaigns, boosting engagement and channel feedback and replies.</li>
</ul><h2>Qualifications</h2><ul>
  <li>Good written communication skills with the ability to quickly come up with inducing or encouraging writings and to address different target audiences.</li>
  <li>Experience in basic video, graphic and image editing (e.g. for news, share pics, memes, ...) and willingness to do so with Free Software tools.</li>
  <li>Ability to create and run short term communication projects within different communication channels on your own, evaluate and reflect outcome afterwards. </li>
  <li>You can sharpen a message in written form or with graphics, and you can engage with the reactions on different communication channels. </li>
  <li>Fluency in written and spoken English; other EU languages are considered an asset.</li>
  <li>Ability to get acquainted to new topics within a short time.</li>
  <li>Knowledge how to use a GNU/Linux laptop is a plus.</li>
  <li>Basic knowledge of HTML and Git or willingness to learn it.</li>
  <li>Knowledge about digital sustainability, work experience in a non-profit or with children and teenagers are considered an asset.</li>
</ul><h2>Attitude</h2><p>We are looking for a reliable, well-organised team player who wants to
learn new things fast and contributes their creative communication
skills to our volunteers and staff to make the world a better place for
future generations.</p><p>You care about social and political change for they next generations.
Want to help our staff and volunteers to explain a younger audiences why
it is important to have the freedom to use, study, share, and improve
software. And you are interested to discover and promote the
opportunities Free Software offers to tackle the climate crisis.</p><p>While raising awareness about the FSFE's work for software freedom on
fast moving communications you want to work sustainable and keep the
long-term focus on the FSFE’s mission.</p><h2>Working time</h2><p>
  The position is full time, 35 hours per week at the moment limited for 2
  years. You will work with our team in the Berlin office, unless official
  regulations do not allow coming or recommend staying home. 
</p><h2>How to apply</h2><p>
  To apply, please send a maximum one-page cover letter including your salary
  expectation and a maximum two-page CV (only PDFs are accepted) by email to
  jobs@fsfe.org, with the subject "Project Manager - Communication". Please do
  not include pictures of yourself in the application.
</p><p>
  Your personal data will be deleted 3 months after we have made our decision.
  The closing date for applications is <em>Sunday 14 March 2021</em>.
</p><p>
  Free Software is meant to serve everyone regardless of their age, ability or
  disability, gender identity, sex, race, nationality, religion or sexual
  orientation. Hence, we encourage applications from all backgrounds and
  promise to judge all applications on merit, without reference to any of the
  characteristics listed. To promote diversity and equality in the Free
  Software community, we shall give preference to applicants who identify as
  part of a traditionally marginalised demographic in technology for
  applications of equal strength.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: episode-9
title: SFP#9: I Love Free Software Day
uri: SFP-9-I-Love-Free-Software-Day
url: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-9.fr.html
content:
<h1>SFP#9: I Love Free Software Day</h1><p>
For this episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we talk about the background of the "I Love Free Software Day" and how it all began 11 years ago. Discover together with Bonnie why Free Software developers, advocates, activists and contributors think this special day is so important for Free Software.
</p><p>
In this ninth episode, Bonnie Mehring and Matthias Kirschner cover one of the oldest FSFE campaigns: "I Love Free Software Day". Together, they explore the early days of the campaign and dive into the many special moments it has provoked. For this episode Bonnie has invited prominent members of the Free Software community to share their thoughts on the importance of saying thank you to Free Software contributors. These include Lydia Pintscher from KDE, Greg Kroah-Hartmann from Linux Foundation, Florian Effenberger from The Document Foundation, Miriam Ballhausen from the FSFE's Legal Network, Pamela Chestek also from the Legal Network and member of the OSI Board, Polina Malaja from the FSFE's CARE Team and CENTR, and Greg Farough from the Free Software Foundation.
</p><p>Read more:</p><ul>
 <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/">What is Free Software?</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/">I Love Free Software Day</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/">Join "I Love Free Software Day" by creating your own share pic</a></li>
</ul><p>If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate/">donation</a>.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210214-01
title: Join us I Love Free Software Day 2021
uri: Join-us-I-Love-Free-Software-Day-2021
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210214-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Join us for I Love Free Software Day 2021</h1><p>Today on the "I Love Free Software Day" we want to celebrate and share our love for Free Software. With this special day we say thank you to all the Free Software friends who supported, developed, campaigned, translated and worked for Free Software. On 14 February, let us show our love and thank all those people involved in Free Software.</p>
  <img src="media/e5607593.1c34030eea9b41fc27097bfb3e8cb31d.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/small/1c34030eea9b41fc27097bfb3e8cb31d.jpeg"/>
<p>For eleven years we have celebrated I Love Free Software day. Together, with you, we have created magical memories over the past by showing our love for Free Software. For today's I Love Free Software day we want to continue celebrating our favourite kind of Free Software!</p><p>To join the <a href="https://ilovefs.org">I Love Free Software Day</a> is easy. You can just send a simple thank you message with the hashtag <strong>#ilovefs</strong> via your favourite social network or you can use the brand-new <a href="media/fe67bb4d.ilovefs.png" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/ilovefs.png">picture template</a> for creating your own share-pic. Join us in today's celebration for Free Software by showing our appreciation for the effort put into the Free Software projects we use on a daily basis.</p>
      <img src="media/d1b47998.Andrc3a920Ockers.png" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/people/Andr%c3%a9%20Ockers.png"/>
          Let's celebrate #ilovefs day!
 <p>For your listening pleasure we produced a new <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-9.html">Software Freedom Podcast</a> episode for this I love Free Software Day featuring Greg Farough, Greg Kroah-Hartman, Lyida Pintscher, Florian Effenberger, Miriam Ballhausen, Pamela Chestek and Polina Malaja. In this episode Matthias Kirschner and Bonnie Mehring talk about the background and the importance of the I Love Free Software Day for our community.</p>
      <img src="media/dd7a4fd8.Francesca_Indorato.png" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/people/Francesca_Indorato.png"/>
          Let's celebrate #ilovefs day!
 <p>Let's join the celebration and share your love for Free Software!</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210219-01
title: Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project
uri: 2021-02-19-Call-to-apply-for-FSFE-support-for-your-local-project
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210219-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project</h1><p>It is no secret that the FSFE's activities are only possible with the priceless help of our contributors and supporters around Europe. In return we support local engagement financially, with our expertise, information material and networks. To help formalize this process, we run our next call for FSFE community projects.</p><p>From international campaigns to local information booths, our successful spreading of software freedom is based on many shoulders from active members within our community. This is why ever since the FSFE e.V. has been keen on supporting initiatives and activities from local FSFE groups to single supporters. If you currently look for financial funding for your FSFE activity, we are happy to support you. </p>
			<img src="media/d4d1fb64.1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg"/>
		<p>To participate in the call you simply fill in your contact data and your project facts (who is doing what, when and how much it potentially will cost) and you will soon receive feedback, approval or a call back on your proposal. </p>
  <a href="https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html">Participate</a>
<p><strong>Deadline for this call will be 18 April 2021.</strong></p><p>Please spread the word within your local groups or other FSFE channels you participate, to ensure everyone knows about it. </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202102
title: FSFE20 +++ IloveFS +++ Poste vacant
uri: FSFE20-IloveFS-Poste-vacant
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202102.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE20 +++ IloveFS +++ Poste vacant</h1><p>Dans notre lettre d'information de février, nous nous entretenons avec notre président fondateur Georg Greve dans le cadre de notre série de publications célébrant les 20 ans de la FSFE, nous revenons sur la journée I love Free Software et sur notre participation au FOSDEM, nous annonçons un nouveau poste vacant et nous rapportons comme toujours nos diverses activités communautaires.</p><h2>20 ans de FSFE : entretien avec Georg Greve, président fondateur</h2><p>En 2021, la Free Software Foundation Europe a 20 ans. Cela signifie deux décennies à assister les utilisateurs afin de contrôler les technologies.  C'est un moment que nous souhaitons utiliser pour revenir sur le chemin parcouru, pour réfléchir sur les étapes que nous avons franchies, les succès que nous avons rencontrés, les histoires que nous avons écrites, les moments qui nous ont rassemblés, et dont nous nous souviendrons toujours avec joie. En 2021, nous aimerions donner de l'élan à la FSFE et plus encore à notre communauté pan-Européenne. La communauté qui est et a toujours été la base sur laquelle repose notre mouvement.</p>
        <img src="media/cd82d207.a37dbb0fcf678fa265ab0dba12412095.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/a37dbb0fcf678fa265ab0dba12412095.jpeg"/>
        Beaucoup d'action lors de la toute première Assemblée Générale de la FSFE le 6 mai 2001. Photo CC-BY-SA 4.0 Peter Gerwinski.
    <p>Nous pensons que 20 ans de FSFE constituent en premier point la célébration de toutes celles et ceux qui nous ont accompagnés par le passé et qui nous accompagnent encore. Merci d'avoir apporté votre pierre à l'édifice qui forme la FSFE aujourd'hui et pour avoir établi les fondations pour les décennies de liberté logicielle à venir.</p><p>Une des activités que nous envisageons pour célébrer notre communauté est de mettre en lumière certains des individus qui ont joué un rôle important dans l'histoire de la FSFE jusqu'à maintenant. Dans la première publication de notre série #FSFE20, nous revenons là où tout a commencé et nous avons mené un <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210204-01.html">entretien avec le premier prśeident de la FSFE, Georg C. F. Greve</a>.</p><p>C'est Georg Greve qui,<a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2001q2/000003.html">en avril 2001, a fourni tous les documents nécessaires au notariat d’Hambourg</a>, Allemagne, afin d'enregistrer officiellement l'association "Free Software Foundation Europe e.V.". Après quoi, Georg Greve devint le premier Président de la FSFE nouvellement fondée et a dirigé l'organisation à plein-temps jusqu'en juin 2009. Le 18 décembre 2009 <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100428-01.html">Georg Greve a reçu la Croix Fédérale du Mérite sur ruban</a> de la République Fédérale d'Allemagne pour ces années et ses réalisations pour le Logiciel Libre et les Standards Ouverts.</p>
            <img src="media/f625538f.e8cc82ee35aa8205008dd323cd034658.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/e8cc82ee35aa8205008dd323cd034658.jpg"/>
            Portrait de Georg Greve, président fondateur de la FSFE
        <p><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210204-01.html">Profitez de notre entretien</a> et découvrez les premières années de la FSFE, à quel point <strong>"ces premiers jours ont connus des menaces existentielles presque chaque semaine, et comment il nous est arrivé d'avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre."</strong></p><h2>Journée I love Free Software 2021</h2><p>Comme tous les and le 14 février, la communauté mondiale pour le Logiciel Libre a célébré la <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/">"Journée I love Free Software"</a>. Nous profitons de ce jour spécial pour remercier les amies et amis du Logiciel Libre qui supportent, développent, font campagne, traduisent et travaillent pour le Logiciel Libre.</p><p>Comme la plupart d'entre nous connaît une distanciation physique depuis plusieurs mois, nous avons cette année pensé à une tout nouvelle activité pour la journée #IloveFS lors de laquelle tout le monde a été convié à se montrer et se réunir virtuellement. A cet effet, nous avons créé un patron de photo (<a href="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/">sources</a>) que tout le monde peut utiliser pour créer une photo-partage et montrer son amour du Logiciel Libre.</p>
            <a href="https://twitter.com/Karolingva/status/1360984626551001088"/>
        
            <a href="https://twitter.com/joseserralde/status/1361393499673944066"/>
        <p>Quoi dire ? Nous avons été submergés par la participation et le soutien énorme que nous avons reçu de par le monde. Nous avons pu collectivement montrer quelle part importante le Logiciel Libre occupe dans nos vies et remercier les personnes en coulisses de la création de Logiciel Libre. Pendant la journée, #IloveFS et #FreeSoftware ont été de loin les sujets les plus en vogue parmi <a href="https://mastodont.cat/@feditrends/105732091894548377">les hashtags les plus utilisés dans le Fediverse</a>. Attendez-vous à plus de détails, chiffres et images dans le rapport à venir, alors restez à l'écoute.</p><p>Cette année, nous avons aussi créé un <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-9.html">épisode spécial du Software Freedom Podcast</a> pour la journée I Love Free Software. Bonnie Mehring et Matthias Kirschner ont discuté du contexte de la journée I Love Free Software Day et Bonnie s'entretient avec des développeurs, défenseurs, activistes et contributeurs du Logiciel Libre sur ce qui rend cette journée si importante.</p><p>Cette année, la FSFE célèbre son 20e anniversaire. Soutenez notre travail pour les 20 ans à venir</p><h2>Poste Vacant</h2><p><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210209-01.html">Un poste de chef de projet avec des bases en communication est ouvert</a> pour nous aider dans nos projets en cours et à venir, incluant notre campagne à venir sur la durabilité numérique. Cette personne sera employée à temps plein, soit dans nos bureaux à Berlin ou à distance. La date limite pour les candidatures est le dimanche 14 mars 2021.</p>
  <img src="media/ae57ecc9.22c54386008cefe65600d313ac54475e.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/22c54386008cefe65600d313ac54475e.jpg"/>
<h2>Appel aux applications pour un soutien de la FSFE à votre projet local</h2><p>Notre <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20210219-01.html">troisième appel aux projets pour la communauté FSFE</a> est en cours. Nous vous soutenons volontiers avec l'aide financière dont vous avez besoin. Participer est aussi simple que remplir un court <a href="https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html">formulaire en ligne</a> d'ici à avril 2021.</p>
            <img src="media/d4d1fb64.1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg"/>
        <p>Dans le passé, nous avons entre autres soutenu l'équipe nationale Suisse pour son équipement de podcast et l'impression d'autocollants pour <a href="https://gnulinux.ch/">gnulinux.ch</a>. Nous avons convenu de payer la location de salles pour des évènement d'installation de freedom box, libéré les fonds matériels pour créer un panneau LED promotionnel pour les stands FSFE et nous soutenons la mise à jour de la brochure "toolbox Free Software" à propos du Logiciel Libre dans l'éducation. Si vous avez besoin de soutien financier pour un projet FSFE communautaire, n'hésitez pas à candidater.</p><h2>Qu'avons-nous fait ? En interne et en dehors de la FSFE</h2><ul>
        <li><p>La FSFE a présenté un stand au FOSDEM, l'évènement annuel pour le Logiciel Libre le plus grand d'Europe. Alors que le FOSDEM se tient normalement à Bruxelles, cette année il s'est tenu en ligne et les organisateurs ont réussi l'exploit incroyable de conduire une conférence avec plus de 30 000 participants sur Matrix. Dans le programme officiel, Max Mehl a donné une conférence sur les <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/reuse/">"meilleures pratiques pour la déclaration de droits d'auteur de de licences"</a> et Lucas Lasota sur la <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/netneutrality/">"Neutralité du Net et Logiciel Libre : la Liberté du choix de routeur en Europe"</a>. La FSFE a été là aussi présente avec un stand numérique.</p>


                        <img src="media/b81e0b45.906558005910a82b268ad223a91223b1.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/906558005910a82b268ad223a91223b1.jpg"/>

                        L'équipe du stand de la FSFE au FOSDEM, sur et devant l'écran

        

        <p>En plus du stand numérique, pour la première fois la FSFE a co-organisé la <a href="https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/">Legal and Policy Issues Devroom</a> au FOSDEM. Et nous avons maintenu notre traditionnel meeting pre-FOSDEM, la jour précédant le FOSDEM, cette année avec un discours de Cory Doctorow. Un rapport détaillé de notre participation au FOSDEM sera bientôt disponible, incluant des vidéos de la Legal and Policy Issues Devroom. D'ici là, restez à l'écoute.</p></li>
        <li>Le coordinateur juridique adjoint de la FSFE, Lucas Lasota, a <a href="media/ebc6ecc6.lasota_jipitec20-11_3_2020_.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.jipitec.eu/issues/jipitec-11-3-2020/5188/lasota_jipitec%20-11_3_2020_.pdf">publié un article sur la "Neutralité du Net et la Liberté du Choix des Routeurs et Modems en Europe"</a> dans le JIPITEC, un journal juridique réputé.</li>
        <li>Le coordinateur adjoint de la FSFE pour la France Vincent Lequertier a mis à jour la bibliothèque Python <a href="https://pypi.org/project/fair-loss/">fair loss</a>, une bibliothèque utilisée pour solutionner les questions d'équité en intelligence artificielle en minimisant la discrimination lors de l'apprentissage de modèles. Cette mise à jour inclut de nouvelles fonctions et des corrections de bugs. Lisez les <a href="https://gitlab.com/vi.le/fair-loss/-/releases/0.5">release notes</a> et la <a href="http://vi.le.gitlab.io/fair-loss/">documentation actualisée</a> pour plus de détails !</li>
        <li>Lors de la journée I love Free Software, le groupe local de Berlin a tenu une célébration en ligne où chaque participante et participant a eu la chance d'avoir cinq minutes pour présenter sa ou son meilleur Logiciel Libre.</li>
        <li>Aussi lors de la journée I love Free Software, les utilisateurs Wikidata Ainali and Abbe98 ont procédé à des éditions en direct de Wikidata et ont commenté leur processus intellectuel et ce qu'ils font ainsi que pourquoi ils le font. Grâce à kle journée #IloveFS​, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkAirxHj-Ps">dans cet épisode</a> ils ont observé la description existante du Logiciel Libre dans Wikidata et montré comment il est possible d'ajouter des données dans Wikidata.</li>
        <li>Le 17 février, l'équipe nationale FSFE de Hollande a tenu son rassemblement virtuel mensuel.</li>
        <li>L'équipe nationale FSFE de Hollande a commencé ses <a href="https://broncode.org/#timeline-2021-03-17">préparatifs pour l'audience sur la Debat Direct App</a> - Vous pouvez aider à assurer une diffusion en direct du procès sur internet.</li>
        <li>Alexander Sander a donné une <a href="https://www.jef-rlp.de/2021/02/12/vortrag-alexander-sander-zu-freier-opensource-software-bei-den-jef/">conférence sur "Argent Public ? Code Public !"</a> pour les Young European Federalists en Allemagne.</li>
        <li>Matthias Kirschner a participé à un panel de discussion sur les opportunités, les obstacles et les incitations au Logiciel Libre dans les administrations publiques (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCUBGeuPnlI">Video</a>, <a href="https://www.heise.de/news/Abhaengigkeit-der-oeffentlichen-Verwaltung-von-Microsoft-Co-ist-gigantisch-5058500.html">Article d'information</a>). Ce panel faisait partie de l'évènement "digital state online", se concentrant sur des sujets tels que l'administration, la société et la souveraineté numériques.</li>
        </ul><h2>Nouvelles du monde</h2><ul>
        <li>Carsten Agger a profité de l'occasion de la journée I love Free Software Day pour <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/2021/02/14/i-love-free-software-a-story-told-on-ilovefs-day/">écrire son histoire</a>, de son premier contact avec le Logiciel Libre du temps de ses études à la création plus tard d'un groupe local FSFE jusqu'en 2019 où il rejoint l'assemblée générale de la FSFE.</li>
        <li>Lors de la journée I love Free Software, <a href="https://k7r.eu/shelter-take-a-break-from-work/">Matthias Kirschner a remercié les contributeurs de Shelter</a>. Shelter est une appli que vous pouvez utiliser pour créer un second profile sur votre smartphone pour y isoler certaines applications. Par exemple les applications que vous n'utilisez que pour votre travail, ou les applis pour lesquelles vous souhaitez limiter l'accès aux données de votre smartphone.</li>
        <li>Carmen Bianca Bakker a rédigé une réflexion sur les quatre libertés et le <a href="https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2021-02-12-destination-status-quo/">"Destination status quo"</a></li>
        </ul><h2>"Montrez votre soutien" (aussi "Devenez actifs")</h2><p>Si vous soutenez la FSFE, nous aimerions que si vous pouviez <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/graphics/sponsoring/sponsoring.html#id-supporter-buttons">utiliser nos ravissants boutons</a> pour montrer votre soutient à la FSFE et votre intérêt pour le Logiciel Libre. Peu importe si vous l'intégrez à votre page web, à votre réseau social ou si vous l'imprimez et le collez sur votre tasse : montrez votre soutien à la FSFE et connectez-vous à d'autres personnes faisant de même.</p><h2>Participez à notre lettre d'information</h2><p>Si vous souhaitez partager vos opinions, photos ou actualités, merci de nous les envoyer. Comme toujours, notre adresse est newsletter@fsfe.org. Nous sommes impatients de vous lire !</p><p>Si de plus vous souhaitez nous soutenir ainsi que notre travail, rejoignez notre communauté et aidez-nous avec <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202006">un don ou une contribution mensuelle</a>.</p><p>Merci à notre communauté, tous les <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute">volontaires</a>, <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a> et <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donatrices et donateurs</a> qui rendent notre travail possible. Et merci à <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators">nos traductrices et traducteurs</a>, qui vous permettent de lire cette lettre d'information dans votre langue maternelle.</p><p>Votre éditeur,</p><p>Erik Albers</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202006">Soutenez notre travail par un don</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210302-01
title: Refund of pre-installed Windows: Lenovo must pay 20,000 euros in damages
uri: Refund-of-pre-installed-Windows-Lenovo-must-pay-20-000-euros-in-damag
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210302-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Refund of pre-installed Windows: Lenovo must pay 20,000 euros in damages</h1><p>
In a historic judgment in Italy, in a case initiated by FSFE supporter Luca Bonissi, Lenovo was ordered to pay 20,000 euros in damages for abusive behaviour in denying to refund the price of a pre-installed Windows licence. In a motivating gesture for the Free Software cause, Luca donated 15,000 euros to the FSFE. 
</p><p>
We all know how frustrating it is to buy a brand new computer and realise that it comes with a pre-installed proprietary operating system. Some companies have adapted their unfair behaviour and established clearer procedures for consumers to obtain the refund for paid licences of software they do not want to use. However, some computer manufacturers like Lenovo still make it very hard for consumers, forcing them to assert their rights in expensive and exhausting lawsuits. This is the successful story of Luca Bonissi, an Italian developer and long-term FSFE supporter and volunteer, in his relentless quest for getting a Windows licence refund, and how Lenovo was ordered to pay 20,000 euros for its unlawful behaviour during the court proceedings. 
</p><h2>Lenovo and pre-installed Windows: market and consumer abuse</h2><p>
It should go without saying that everyone should be able to freely choose the operating system to run on their personal computers. <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/freesoftware">Free Software</a> is about granting the liberty for people to freely run software they desire and, consequently, decline the software not respecting their freedom. But Microsoft and the vast majority of hardware manufacturers dishonour this principle by dictating which operating system their customers must use, forcing them to run Windows even when they simply do not want to. 
</p><p>
In March 2018, Luca bought a brand-new Lenovo Ideapad convertible tablet and decided he wouldn't run Windows on it. Instead, he <a href="media/f9b14292.01-chat_con_ServizioClienti_Lenovo.pdf" data-original-source="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/01-chat_con_ServizioClienti_Lenovo.pdf">contacted Lenovo</a> to file a request for refund and return of the pre-installed Windows. What followed was a truly legal and bureaucratic quest which consumed years, several court proceedings, and much resilience and determination from Luca. 
</p><h3>Two years, two lawsuits and much money spent - all because of a 42-euro licence</h3><p>
After having his requests pretentiously denied twice by Lenovo, Luca tried to seek help from the <a href="https://agcm.it/">Italian Competition and Market Authority (AGCM)</a>. However, when he realised that these efforts were fruitless, Luca decided to take legal action against Lenovo. 
</p><p>
Due to the low cost of the Windows home licence, Luca could start the proceedings before a court for small cases without the assistance of a lawyer. However, in the face of Lenovo's aggressive defence, Luca sought professional help. In June 2019, the Justice of the Peace of Monza <a href="media/00fb8fdd.10-Sent_930-2019_Bonissi-Lenovo-origtext-anonim.pdf" data-original-source="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/10-Sent_930-2019_Bonissi-Lenovo-origtext-anonim.pdf">recognised</a> Luca's right to reimbursement and ordered Lenovo to refund 42 euros for the Windows licence and 130 euros for court costs.  
</p><p>
Lenovo was dissatisfied with the verdict. The company summoned "heavy legal artillery", and appealed, indicating 15 grounds on which the sentence had to be revised in a <a href="media/4b354da2.11-Atto_citazione_appello-anonim.pdf" data-original-source="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/11-Atto_citazione_appello-anonim.pdf">59-page document</a>. Lenovo's disproportionate and complex arguments imposed on Luca the necessity to defend himself with a lawyer on the appeal too. By now, the refund request, which could have been resolved by a simple email if Lenovo acted in good faith, was already lasting more than two years and cost several hundred euros for Luca. 
</p><h3>The outcome: 20,000 euros in damages for consumer abuse</h3><p>
Finally, in December 2020, the Court of Monza <a href="media/92798fc5.16-SentenzaAppelloLenovo_14510968s-IT-anonim.pdf" data-original-source="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/16-SentenzaAppelloLenovo_14510968s-IT-anonim.pdf">rejected</a> all Lenovo's arguments, confirming that the right to reimbursement of the pre-installed software was due. The sentence pointed out that the manufacturer itself had expressly assumed this obligation in the Windows licence.  But that is not all: in a historic decision, the court imposed upon Lenovo punitive damages amounting to 20,000 euros for abuse of the appeal procedures. Lenovo forced its customer to take part in a disproportionate and unnecessary legal process. The court also noted that this case is an example of the arrogance and prevarication of a giant company against a modest consumer. In the end, the court ruled that the sum was to be paid to Luca, by way of compensating for the damage caused by aggravated procedural liability. 
</p><p>
This decision is a major win against tech companies' questionable commercial practices of hindering a consumer's ability to get a refund for pre-installed proprietary software. However, the price ordinary people have to pay to get their rights is still high, as Luca reminds:
</p>"Although the reimbursement was recognised, seeking it can be economically disadvantageous for consumers. The high litigation costs and risks, as well as the low economic return, constitute a strong deterrent which prevent anyone pursuing a refund for pre-installed Windows. Considering that the normal consumer does not have the technical and legal skills to face such case without a lawyer, and the risk that the manufacturers could drag the case out for several years, it will be very unlikely anyone feels encouraged to sue tech giants, unless sentences such as that of the Court of Monza force manufacturers to comply with their own licences and develop better refund policies".
        <img src="media/56d3bbf2.8cea6aa1d571495c8405133e9c735bdf.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/8cea6aa1d571495c8405133e9c735bdf.png"/>
<h2>What was taken from Free Software returned to Free Software</h2><p>
For decades, computer manufacturers have artificially increased hardware prices for users of GNU/Linux with a mandatory payment to Microsoft by bundling computers with a Windows licence. As seen, producers like Lenovo do not comply with their own terms and make it almost impossible for customers to get a refund for non-used Windows licences. The best treatment is still prevention. Users are best advised to buy hardware from vendors which offer computers with Free Software or which sell it without proprietary software in the first place.
</p>
	<img src="media/54884299.d534afb7636cafbee2ec91bda7283ec0.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/d534afb7636cafbee2ec91bda7283ec0.png"/>
	Everyone should be able to run the software they want on their computer.
<p>
Some manufacturers have defined better policies and procedures to obtain the refund, but for others the users have to write insistently, and, as a last resort, file a lawsuit. In 2019, <a href="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_hp/">Luca initiated a similar case against HP</a>, in which he also achieved a favourable decision in December 2020. Several FSFE volunteers have shared their experiences in getting the Windows refund. We are extremely grateful to all of them, especially to Luca who also shared the <a href="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/">documentation</a> and procedures in the updated <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/WindowsTaxRefund/Italy">wiki page for Italy</a>.
</p><p>
Notwithstanding the several hurdles imposed by Microsoft and hardware manufacturers, we recommend that everyone ask for a refund of the unused Windows licences when buying a new PC. These insidious practices must not prevail in scaring Free Software users away from enjoying their liberty of running any software they choose. In a deeply motivating act, Luca <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donated 15,000 euros</a> from the recovered damages to the FSFE, encouraging people to stand their ground for their rights.
</p><p>
Since its foundation in 2001, the FSFE has been working to foster Free Software in Europe and beyond. With our concrete activities, based upon the <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/ourwork">three pillars of our work</a>, we focus on protecting and extending user rights. Some of our actions run for many years, some are aimed at short-term developments, but all are part of our mission: to empower users to control technology. You can also get involved, and together we can improve the treatment of Free Software users by large tech companies
</p>
	<img src="media/babbd56e.dd3557bac3956a64521d172e32569377.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/dd3557bac3956a64521d172e32569377.jpg"/>
	"The Monza decision demonstrated that is possible to reverse the unacceptable behaviour of big techs. What was taken away from the Free Software community has now been returned to it. I encourage everyone to fight back for their legitimate rights!" - Luca Bonissi.
<h2>Further materials</h2><p>
A special thanks is due to Luca for compiling in a very methodical and organized way all the documentation involved in the lawsuits related to the Windows licence refunds.
</p><ul>
  <li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/WindowsTaxRefund/Italy">Wiki page</a> for Windows refunds in Italy (English and Italian).</li>
  <li><a href="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/">Complete documentation</a> on the Lenovo case (Italian).</li>
  <li><a href="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_hp/">Complete documentation</a> on the HP case (Italian).</li>
  <li><a href="https://sistemainoperativo.it/#fattisentire">Documentation</a> for Windows refunds involving other companies (Italian).</li>
</ul><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210305-01
title: 20 Years FSFE: Interview with Reinhard Müller
uri: 20-Years-FSFE-Interview-with-Reinhard-Müller
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210305-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>20 Years FSFE: Interview with Reinhard Müller</h1><p>
     In 2021, the Free Software Foundation Europe turns 20. This is a moment that we want to use to celebrate our community with a series of publications. In our second publication we interview Reinhard Müller who has contributed as a volunteer since 2002 in various roles from local activities to the European core team.
    </p><p><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Supporters/reinhard">Reinhard Müller claims</a> that his T-shirt folding capabilities are legendary. Without denying this fact, anyone who has worked with Reinhard on behalf of the FSFE can confirm that his dedication to Free Software and the FSFE is legendary as well. Reinhard joined the FSFE as a volunteer in its first year and met in person with the volunteers behind the FSFE's very first booth at FOSDEM in 2002. In the years following, Reinhard held many different positions inside the FSFE community. Reinhard became a founding member of the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/TeamAustria">Austria country team</a>, joined the FSFE's General Assembly as an official member and even helped to run the organisation for several years as  Financial Officer and part of the FSFE's Executive Council. In all these positions Reinhard helped shape the organisation of the FSFE and still does, so much that many people are surprised when they hear that Reinhard is a volunteer and not a paid staffer of the FSFE.</p>
    <img src="media/b698d707.8cd95551cc5b7031cbc7b69547fd55b7.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/8cd95551cc5b7031cbc7b69547fd55b7.jpg"/>
    Reinhard Müller socialising at the General Assembly 2015.
<p>Besides his official positions, Reinhard never stopped contributing. That means listing all of his contributions in one webpage basically seems impossible, but we try to mention a few: Reinhard engaged as a local volunteer in the Vienna group and the FSFE's country team Austria, organised and ran countless number of booths in Austria, in Germany and his favorite one every year at FOSDEM. Apart from these local engagements, Reinhard is always eager to shape the FSFE's European engagement by participating in the European core team discussions and decisions. And although Reinhard already had a lot of responsibility with the FSFE's yearly bookkeeping and communication with donors as our financial officer, he additionally spent his free time with countless contributions to the website, including his constant optimisations of our self-written static website generator and the automatisation of information material orders. Not forgetting to mention that in all his contributions and positions, he always aimed at making himself replaceable at the same time by maintaining comprehensive and understandable documentation of his work and hand-overs.</p><p>Finally, anyone who has met Reinhard before will agree that his most obvious and visible contributions are his highly social skills. Be it as the good spirit behind the booth, during intense and funny conversations after the booth is closed or deep at night when Reinhard performs one of his self-written songs about the FSFE: Thank you very much for being with the FSFE in the last 20 years and we hope you stay with us in the next 20 years!</p><h3>Interview with Reinhard Müller</h3><p>
        <strong>You were looking for opportunities to get involved in the Free Software movement when you saw the announcement that the Free Software Foundation Europe was going to be founded. What made you curious about the FSFE and do you remember the first contact you had with the FSFE? How did it evolve from there?</strong>
    </p>
    <p><strong>Reinhard Müller:</strong> The thing about the FSFE which attracted me most was that there was something being started in Europe. Back 20 years ago, the whole Free Software community looked very US-centric to me, and I thought that an European organisation would make it easier for me to get involved.</p>

    <p>At some point I started to write occasional emails to the public discussion list and contributing my view about topics like whether it should be possible to make money from Free Software, or whether the FSFE should take money from companies. Funny how some discussions seem to come up again and again even after 20 years...</p>

Back 20 years ago, the whole Free Software community looked very US-centric to me, and I thought that an European organisation would make it easier for me to get involved.

    <p>My first in-person contact to the FSFE was at FOSDEM 2002, where I met Volker Dormeyer at the FSFE booth and had a nice conversation with him. I'd never have thought that this would be the start of such a long tradition - I've been with the FSFE at each FOSDEM ever since, except for the virtual one this year.</p>

    <p>Very soon I also started to join the discussions and physical meetings of the FSFE's Austrian associate organisation, from which the Austrian country team of the FSFE evolved later.</p>


    <img src="media/671d2927.a1da864a7a0c8ae3510c527c93e2323b.JPG" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/a1da864a7a0c8ae3510c527c93e2323b.JPG"/>
    For Reinhard Müller it is sometimes hard to decide what is the higher source of energy: spending some time at the beach or run a booth for the FSFE.

    <p>
        <strong>FSFE: Although you never got paid from the FSFE, from 2007 to 2017 you have been taking over the responsibility of the financial officer at the FSFE, and
        you still keep contributing heavily in our financial team. What are the
        financial challenges for a volunteer driven European NGO?
        </strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        I think the biggest challenge is the contradiction between the desire on
    the one hand to plan ahead for the association's activities, and thus
    also its expenditure, and the impossibility on the other hand to predict
    the future development of incoming donations.</p>

    <p>At the FSFE, we are fortunate to be able to alleviate this problem in
    two ways: firstly, our numerous supporters ensure that we receive
    regular and predictable payments with their monthly or annual
    contributions, and secondly, we have been able to build up financial
    reserves over the past years that allow us to compensate for
    fluctuations. Both factors allow us to act freely and without regard to
    any interests of our corporate donors.
        </p>




    <p>
        <strong>FSFE: What is the most important thing so far that you learnt from your work at the FSFE?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        Don't think in weeks or months, but in years, if not decades. Enjoy your
        successes, but don't overestimate their long-term impact. Don't
        overestimate the impact of setbacks, either. And always plan your
        activities in a way that they can survive the point at which you
        personally lose interest in them.
    </p>



Ever since it has been started, the "I love Free Software" campaign has been my favorite.
    <p>
        <strong>FSFE: And what is your personal favorite activity, campaign or message that
    the FSFE has done or is still doing? </strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        Ever since it started, the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/">"I love Free Software"</a> campaign has
        been my favorite. It sends a thoroughly positive message, it helps to
        remind people of the benefits of free software, and it offers everyone a
        low-threshold and easy way to participate.
    </p>


    <img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/328fb2b5088b43f1c88b7d8a74425407"/>
    Reinhard Müller participating in his favorite campaign.

    <p>
        <strong>FSFE: Many people know you from your happy face behind FSFE booths all around
        Europe, especially at FOSDEM. What is so fun about it that you travel hundreds
        of kilometers to spend a weekend at an FSFE booth?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        It's the people I meet there. With a trip to such an event, I get the
    possibility to meet and talk in person with exactly those people I work
    with over the internet during the rest of the year, and I also meet
    people less tightly associated with the FSFE who just come to the booth,
    buy a T-shirt and tell us that we're doing great work. Both are an
    essential source of energy and motivation for me for the work I do in
    the FSFE.

    </p>



    <p>
        <strong>FSFE: From all the moments behind the FSFE booth, can you tell us one of the
    stories that still warm up your heart or that always makes you laugh or smile
    when you remember it?
    </strong>
    </p>


    <p>
        Once at FOSDEM, when I still was rather new in the FSFE, Alan Cox, a
    well-known leading Linux kernel developer, happened to stand near our
    booth, and when somebody asked him about the latest news regarding
    software patents, he pointed to our booth and said: “ask them, they know
    that stuff better than me”. At that moment, I felt incredibly proud
    being a part of the FSFE, and I think it somehow helped me shape my
    vision of this organisation: let all the excellent Free Software
    developers in this world do their work and save their backs from the
    political or legal issues they don't want to mess around with.
    </p>


    <p>    
    However, the most beautiful memories are more related to the hours
    around the actual events: spending the LinuxTag social event sitting in
    the lawn, playing the guitar and singing, taking the metro after FOSDEM
    with 10 FSFE volunteers and 30 "I love Free Software" balloons, playing
    the piano in the Cafe Kafka in Brussels, or just spending insanely long
    evenings in restaurants, bars, and hotel lobbies with extensive discussions about how to change the world to the better.
    </p>


    <p>
         <strong>FSFE: As a last question, what do you wish the FSFE for the next 20 years?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        May the FSFE always keep a healthy balance between professionalism and
        openness to volunteer contributions, never lose its roots in the Free
        Software community, keep a dedicated and highly effective team of paid
        staff, and at the same time continue to affirm to volunteers that their
        work is important and valued. Success in the FSFE's activities will
        result from that naturally.
    </p>


    <p>
         <strong>FSFE: Thank you very much!</strong>
    </p>
<h3>About "20 Years FSFE"</h3><p>
    In 2021 the Free Software Foundation Europe turns 20. This means two decades of <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/about.html">empowering users to control technology</a>. 
</p>
    <img src="media/0409b849.53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png"/>
<p>
    Turning 20 is a time when we like to take a breath and to look back on the road we have come, to reflect the milestones we have passed, the successes we have achieved, the stories we have written and the moments that brought us together and that we will always joyfully remember. In 2021 we want to give momentum to the FSFE and even more to our pan-European community, the community that has formed and always will form the shoulders that our movement relies on. 
</p><p>
    <strong>20 Years FSFE is meant to be a celebration of everyone who has accompanied us in the past or still does. Thank you for contributing your piece of the puzzle that shapes the FSFE and setting the foundation for the next decades' work of the movement for software freedom. </strong>
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210311-01
title: FSFE at FOSDEM 2021
uri: FSFE-at-FOSDEM-2021
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210311-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE at FOSDEM 2021</h1><p>FOSDEM, the biggest annual Free Software event in Europe, took place again this year on the first weekend in February. 
		As every year, we organised a community event before FOSDEM and this year we also co-organised the Legal and Policy Devroom for the first time.</p><p>While FOSDEM normally occurs every year in the Free University of Brussels, this year it happened online for the first time - and completely 
		with Free Software. FOSDEM had more than 25 simultaneous talks at times, with accompanying interactive text-based chat rooms, live Q&amp;A with the 
		speakers on video, and “hallway track” breakout rooms after each talk where speakers and attendees could join video chat together and discuss the talk. 
		According to the main FOSDEM organisers, they had a <a href="https://nitter.nixnet.services/_ShinIce/status/1358461185537044488">peak of 33,600 attendees</a>. 
		This year, FSFE is also honoured to have co-organised the Legal and Policy Devroom at FOSDEM for the first time. And like every year, we hosted a great 
		community event before FOSDEM, this time with a keynote from Cory Doctorow. </p>
            <img src="media/4ed763ee.0be979798dd328b6010cdb379168e649.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/0be979798dd328b6010cdb379168e649.png"/> 
            Cory Docotrow at FSFE's Community Event
        <h2>FSFE PRE-FOSDEM Community Event</h2><p>We started this years FOSDEM with a social meeting on Friday evening. Cory Doctorow gave a keynote for our FSFE PRE-FOSDEM community event on 
		internet monopolies and software freedom - a lecture you should not miss.</p>
        
        <h2>FOSDEM21: Legal and Policy Devroom agenda</h2><p>FOSDEM's Legal and Policy Issues Devroom addresses important Free Software related policy or legal topics. Our community has substantial 
		expertise in this area, yet there are few venues to discuss these matters in a forum open to all. Hackers, developers, contributors, lawyers, 
		policy experts, and community leaders all possess expertise in these matters.</p><p>Together with our co-organisers Karen Sandler and Bradley Kuhn from Software Freedom Conservancy, and Richard Fontana from Red Hat, 
		we discussed at the final panel the most important issues of the dev room and also tackled some topics that have been missing on the agenda. 
		This might be a good first video for you to get an overview of our devroom.</p>
        
        <h2>Free Software strategy of the Commission</h2><p>On 21 October 2020, the European Commission approved their new "Open Source Software Strategy 2020-2023" of the Commission. We had an 
		interview with Evangelos Tsavalopoulos from the European Commission on this. In the interview we asked important questions about this strategy 
		and also addressed pressuring questions by our community.</p>
        
        <h2>Router Freedom</h2><p>FSFE’s Deputy Legal Coordinator, Lucas Lasota, presented an overview on the current state of router freedom in Europe. New rules on EU has created 
		challenges router freedom, given that IAPs will be able to limit the right based on "objective technological necessity". The talk will go through 
		the historical aspects and future developments in Europe, why Free Software is a fundamental enabling element, and how people can get involved.</p>
        
        <h2>Health public policy</h2><p>In a panel moderated by Karen Sandler on Software and Hardware Freedom in health public policy, Fabio Balli, Adriana Groh and Luis Falcon discussed
        the extent to which the use of Free Software and open hardware can be used in the public health sector. The Corona crisis has clearly shown us that 
        we also need to work together in the area of software and hardware. For example Hackathons were held in various countries to find software solutions 
        to counter this crisis. The development of tracing apps or solutions for hospitals and health authorities has also shown that Free Software can help many 
        people and that isolated solutions are counterproductive. The panel discussed what lessons we can learn from the crisis and how Free Software and Open 
        Hardware must be used in the future. </p>
        
        <h2>Funding for Free Software projects</h2><p>In a talk by Sven Franck the question of funding for Free Software projects was addressed. He demands to give Free Software a tax break. 
        He presented several initiatives from the Libre Endowment Fund ("Fonds de Dotation du Libre" in French) - from financing feature development of 
        Free Software to releasing a 4G/5G base station as open hardware or supporting litigation against the French government's decision to host 
        Health Data on Microsoft servers.</p>
        
        <h2>Licencing and Compliance</h2><p>We also addressed questions on licencing and compliance. Bradley M. Kuhn moderated a panel with John Sullivan, Miriam Ballhausen, 
        Davide Ricci and Eilís Ní Fhlannagáin on the question if present compliance practices assure software freedom for device users? Compliance 
        with Free Software licenses remains a perennial topic of discussion among policy makers in our community. However, little attention is 
        paid to the motivations why these licenses have specific requirements. Specifically, at least for copyleft licenses, the licenses seek to 
        bestow specific rights and freedoms to the users who receive the software integrated into the devices they use. This panel discussed the 
        challenges and importance of assuring downstream can actually utilize the compliance artifacts they receive with products as intended by the license.</p>
        
        <p>A talk by Cornelius Schumacher from KDE addressed how a large community and a company worked together in terms of licensing: "Protecting 
        against proprietary re-licensing with a community contract - How the KDE Free Qt Foundation ensures software freedom for twenty-five years 
        and counting". This presentation will explain the community contract, how it augments the dual-licensing model, and how it has evolved and 
        served its purpose for 25 years and counting. It will also discuss the lessons learned and how it can serve as a model for other organisations.</p>
        
        <p>And Giovanni Battista Gallus, Fabio Pietrosanti, Carlo Piana and Alberto Pianon discussed the first AGPL compliance case settled in an Italian Court. 
        Globaleaks is an AGPLv3+ SaaS application for anonymous whistleblowing, developed by the Hermes Center. After receiving a prototype, the Italian Anticorruption 
        authority (ANAC) re-published a version under EUPL, modifying attribution &amp; copyright statement, removing reasonable notice from GUI, and failing to fully 
        comply with source code obligations. After several attempts for an off-court solution, the question was finally settled by the parties, restoring the correct 
        license, and the other issues. There are several lessons to be learned by this controversy. License compatibility and the other Free Software obligations 
        (including conveying the corresponding source code) are not to be taken lightly, and require a good degree of knowledge and expertise, especially when 
        they are related to an application which has been implemented by several public administrations. </p>
        
        <h2>Digital Markets Act</h2><p>Also actual legislative proposals have been addressed. Vittorio Bertola gave a  talk on Free Software, Interoperability and the Digital 
        Markets Act proposing new European regulation to open up the dominant platforms. The European Commission recently proposed new regulations 
        (DSA/DMA/DGA) to protect democracy and restore openness and competition. The talk will introduce them and their economic and political background; 
        it will then focus on a specific point, the requirement for dominant platforms to interoperate with third parties, though only in limited cases, 
        using messaging and social media as example. </p>
        
        <h2>Free Software Culture</h2><p>Deb Nicholson and Hong Phuc Dang asked if Free Software culture is too us-centric and argued why it should not be so. Free Software is made 
        up of a truly global community of tinkerers, collaborators, and innovators. In this conversation, Deb Nicholson and Hong Phuc Dang look at the 
        global state of Free Software policy and talk about why no particular country -- especially the US -- should be centered.</p>
        
        <h2>REUSE - make licensing easy for humans and machines alike</h2><p>Beside the talks at the legal and policy devroom, our Programme Manager Max Mehl gave a talk on "REUSE - Best practices for declaring copyright 
        and licenses" at the OpenChain devroom. With three simple steps, REUSE makes adding and reading licensing and copyright information easy for both 
        humans and machines. This presentation will guide you through the REUSE best practices and shows how to make clear licensing simple.</p>
        
        <p>We hope you enjoyed this year's FOSDEM as much as we did. We are already looking forward to the next FOSDEM. </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210317-01
title: "I Love Free Software Day" report for 2021
uri: I-Love-Free-Software-Day-report-for-2021
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210317-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>"I Love Free Software Day" report for 2021</h1><p>This year we celebrated the 11th edition of the "I Love Free Software Day". Every year on 14 February we show our love for Free Software and say thank you to the people working for software freedom. To all of you who took part and celebrated the "I Love Free Software Day", we - the Free Software Foundation Europe - would like to thank you so much.</p><h3>"I Love Free Software Day" 2021</h3><p>For this year's "I Love Free Software Day" we tried something new. Together with FSFE's volunteer Florian Snow we created some <a href="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/">share pictures</a> for sharing our love for Free Software. Those share pics could be used to create a personalised message saying why you love Free Software. The pictures could then also be shared on social media.</p><p>Our second novelty this time was our <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-9.html">Software Freedom Podcast Episode</a> which provides a nice background of the origin and last 11 years of the "I Love Free Software Day". For the episode, Bonnie Mehring also invited several people from popular Free Software communities and asked them to share their thoughts about "I Love Free Software Day" and its importance.</p><p>Similar to the last years we have been heavily present on social media, and due to the current pandemic, had not planned for any offline events. But this did not prevent us from celebrating and sharing our love for Free Software. Here are the numbers and figures for "I Love Free Software Day" 2021. In the Fediverse #ilovefs was the most used hashtag!</p>
  <img src="media/8076f06e.48e32abb131f01fda1bf0dae235ae51b.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/48e32abb131f01fda1bf0dae235ae51b.png"/>
<h3>Numbers and Statistics for "I Love Free Software Day" 2021</h3><p>As in previous years, a lot of us were active in the Fediverse and on Twitter. We counted 411 tweets on Twitter and 210 toots in the Fediverse using the hashtag #ilovefs. People from all over the world joined the "I Love Free Software Day" via social media and tweeted and tooted from at least 328 different places. The most messages were published during the 14th of February, around noon (CET). Thanks to our former intern and current volunteer <a href="https://www.jayvii.de">Jan Weymeirsch</a> who wrote a <a href="https://git.fsfe.org/janwey/ilfs-data">scraper to collect and analyse the data</a>, we have concrete numbers and visuals to support them:</p><a href="media/1a1bb1d9.3a51d938c0281e5fc09764c8bd890a9b.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/3a51d938c0281e5fc09764c8bd890a9b.png">

  
    Spreading love for Free Software online #ilovefs

</a><a href="media/d03b190a.e71507fb8b0e8b1b6e3a691780194c4c.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/e71507fb8b0e8b1b6e3a691780194c4c.png">

  
    Time-plot for spreading love for Free Software online #ilovefs

</a><h3>Celebrating together</h3><p>Some people were inspired by the new share pic design and designed their own to show the world why they think it is important to use Free Software and to say thank you. This year, both people and organisations used the opportunity to send a big thank-you to those working so hard for software freedom during the year.</p>
  <img src="media/cd0e2ab1.09c38ab455a853df90a04bc166064f53.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/09c38ab455a853df90a04bc166064f53.png"/>
<p>Also, while social distance kept us from celebrating together offline, we were still able to join each other online. One example for this are the <a href="https://developers.italia.it/">Developers Italia</a> who created a lovely group picture.</p>
  <img src="media/50bd0954.15dc44d996705ded8f3962c68e316c4f.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/15dc44d996705ded8f3962c68e316c4f.png"/>
<p>Besides hundreds of individuals, also projects joined the celebration and some even created special blog entries, like <a href="https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/02/14/free-software-its-about-much-more-than-zero-cost/">The Document Foundation</a> or <a href="https://bits.debian.org/2021/02/ilovefs-2021.html">Debian</a>. Because of the overwhelming amount, we are not able to highlight all of them but just pick a few.</p><h3>Comparing numbers</h3><p>Compared to last years high, we noticed a slight decrease in tweets and toots and went back to the level of the participation in 2019. While in 2020, 539 tweets were posted on Twitter and 330 in the Fediverse network, it were 473 tweets and 194 toots in 2019. This did not come unexpected as this year's event was on a Sunday.</p><p>But nevertheless the important takeaway is the meaning behind those numbers and statistics. It is the sense of the community feeling it generates. All those people, organisations and companies from different Free Software communities joining the "I Love Free Software Day", celebrating together and being able to share common values. Together, we show how important  using, studying, sharing and improving software for a better digital and analogue world is!</p>
  <img src="media/ccbe8b5c.5dbcee2f3f98ef9d2d1622951fbd93d8.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/small/5dbcee2f3f98ef9d2d1622951fbd93d8.png"/>
<p>In case you missed your opportunity to thank your favourite project, mark February 14 as "I Love Free Software Day" in your calendar for next year. But remember, you can always and without any special occasion express your gratitude and appreciation throughout the entire year. You do not need a special day, as there is simply no wrong time for that!</p><p>We would like to thank everyone involved in and contributing to this day, as well as the countless developers, translators, community managers, artists and anyone else involved in Free Software.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210318-01
title: From Uri to Bern: Free Software will revolutionise the world
uri: From-Uri-to-Bern-Free-Software-will-revolutionise-the-world
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210318-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>From Uri to Bern: Free Software will revolutionise the world</h1><p>More and more administrations are following the principle "Public Money? Public Code!" and are turning to Free Software. 
		In Switzerland, the Free Software "Caluma" has been used very successfully for several years to manage the administration of 
		construction applications.</p><p>The canton of Uri has just 36,500 inhabitants and is probably known to most through the Gotthard Pass. But in recent years, the 
		canton has also become increasingly well-known for its use of Free Software for administration. For years, the small canton has 
		increasingly relied on Free Software and has been able to convince other cantons to switch to Free Software through its successful use. 
		The Canton of Bern is one such canton.</p>
            <img src="media/a6562b2f.b15c3434994d312e4968814b92cc3233.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/b15c3434994d312e4968814b92cc3233.png"/> 
            Wappen Kanton Uri und Bern
        <p>Together with Paul Walker from the Canton of Uri, Bruno Mohr from the Canton of Bern and Christian Zosel from the vendor of the software, 
		we talked about the tool and the importance of Free Software for a modern administration.</p>
        
        <p>Video (only in german)</p><p>The <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/index.html">four freedoms</a>, to use the software for any purpose without any restrictions and to 
		freely share it, the transparency to inspect the code and the possibility to adapt the software to one's own needs at any time and also to share 
		these modifications is of enormous importance for administrations.</p>"The freedom to develop where it is necessary - for that you absolutely need open software." Paul Walker<p>We have seen recently in the <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200402-02.html">debate about the Corona Tracing Apps</a>
		that transparency creates trust. Citizens can thus be sure that their personal data, for example, is being handled correctly. In addition, 
		cooperation with other administrations can save costs and thus tax payers money in the medium to long term. The use of Free Software opens 
		up completely new possibilities of cooperation for administrations. The principle of "develop once, use many times" is a departure from the 
		constant purchase of licences for products that do not meet the needs of a modern administration but rather the business model of a vendor. 
		This is particularly attractive for smaller administrations. The freedoms of Free Software also allow a great deal of digital sovereignty 
		through independence from individual vendors.</p><p>This model is also worthwhile for companies: it is easier to find employees, so there are advantages on the labour market. And due 
		to the pressure to always remain innovative in order not to be overtaken by competitors, the products also keep their finger on the pulse 
		of time and the needs of users, which makes it possible to retain customers and find new ones.</p><p>It is therefore not surprising that the Canton of Uri was quickly able to convince other cantons to use Free Software. Bruno Mohr 
        from the canton of Bern, for example, was quickly inspired: "Paul Walker got us really excited and that's when we knew: That's exactly what 
        we want!" And Paul Walker's argument was as compelling as it was simple: "I'm convinced: Open Source will revolutionise the world and the 
        sooner the cantons realise that this is the best way, the better it will be for these cantons."</p><p>The example of the cantons of Uri and Bern shows that the principle of "Public Money? Public Code!" benefits everyone: citizens, the administration 
        but also economy. We therefore demand that software developed with public money be published under a Free Software licence. If it is public money, 
        it should be public code as well. You can support this call by <a href="https://publiccode.eu/">signing our campaign</a>, 
        <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/publiccode/brochure">distributing our brochure</a>  and convincing
        <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC">your local administration</a>to use Free Software.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210324-01
title: Statement on Richard Stallman rejoining the FSF board
uri: Statement-on-Richard-Stallman-rejoining-the-FSF-board
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210324-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Statement on Richard Stallman rejoining the FSF board</h1><p>
  We learnt through a public announcement that Richard Stallman is
  again part of the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation,
  one of our independent sister organisations. We disapprove of this
  step that came without any message of remorse or willingness to
  change.
</p><p>
  In 2019, Richard Stallman resigned as president and board member of
  the Free Software Foundation. On 21 March 2021 Stallman announced he
  is member of the board again. The FSFE only learnt about that fact
  through his public announcement.
</p><p>
  We believe this step and how it was communicated harms the future of
  the Free Software movement. The goal of the software freedom movement
  is to empower all people to control technology and thereby create a
  better society for everyone. Free Software is meant to serve everyone
  regardless of their age, ability or disability, gender identity, sex,
  ethnicity, nationality, religion or sexual orientation. This requires
  an inclusive and diverse environment that welcomes all contributors
  equally. The FSFE realises that we ourselves and the Free Software
  movement still have to work hard to be that place where everyone
  feels safe and respected to participate in it in order to fulfill the
  movement's mission.
</p><p>
  One crucial factor in making our community more inclusive is to
  recognise and reflect when other people are offended or harmed by our
  own actions and consider this feedback in future actions. The way
  Richard Stallman announced his return to the board unfortunately
  lacks any acknowledgement of this kind of thought process, and we are
  deeply disappointed that the FSF board did not address these concerns
  before electing him a board member again. Overall, we feel the
  current step sends the wrong signal to existing and future community
  members.
</p><p>
  That is why, as a legally and financially independent organisation,
  in which Richard Stallman has not had any decision-making powers, we
  call for his resignation from all FSF bodies. The FSF needs to
  seriously reflect on this decision as well as their decision-making
  process to prevent similar issues from happening again. Therefore, in
  the current situation we see ourselves unable to collaborate both
  with the FSF and any other organisation in which Richard Stallman has
  a leading position. Instead, we will continue to work with groups and
  individuals who foster diversity and equality in the Free Software
  movement in order to achieve our joint goal of empowering all users
  to control technology.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202103
title: Luca contre Lenovo +++ Reinhard et la FSFE +++ Rapport IloveFS
uri: Luca-contre-Lenovo-Reinhard-et-la-FSFE-Rapport-IloveFS
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202103.fr.html
content:
<h1>Luca contre Lenovo +++ Reinhard et la FSFE +++ Rapport IloveFS</h1><p>Dans notre lettre d'information du mois de mars, découvrez comment notre supporter Luca Bonissi qui a contraint  Lenovo à payer un remboursement de 20 000 Euros pour une pré-installation de Windows, notre supporter Reinhard Müller qui a     été volontaire pour la FSFE pendant deux décennies, notre rapport "I Love Free Software" et comme toujours nos nombreuses autres activités communautaires.</p><h2>Luca Bonissi contre Lenovo: 20 000 Euros remboursés pour une pré-installation de Windows</h2><p>Nous savons toutes et tous à quel point il est frustrant d'acheter un nouvel ordinateur et de réaliser qu'il est     fourni avec un système d'exploitation propriétaire pré-installé. Malgré ce désagrément initial, même les plus déterminé des     partisans du Logiciel Libre ne se plaignent pas, effacent le système et continuent avec une nouvelle installation du système    d'exploitation libre de leur choix. Mais pas Luca Bonissi, un développeur Italien et soutien de longue date de la FSFE. Après avoir acheté un nouveau Lenovo Ideapad, il a contacté Lenovo afin de réclamer le remboursement de licence et de procéder au renvoi du     Microsoft Windows pré-installé. Cependant, Lenovo a refusé de rembourser Luca pour la licence Windows - d'une valeur de 42 Euros - et il s'en est suivi une véritable quête juridique et        bureaucratique qui a nécessité de nombreux mois et plusieurs recours en justice. Finalement, en décembre 2020, la Cour de Monza a rejeté tous les arguments de Lenovo, confirmant que le remboursement du système pré-installé était dû.</p>
                <img src="media/babbd56e.dd3557bac3956a64521d172e32569377.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/dd3557bac3956a64521d172e32569377.jpg"/>
                Luca Bonissi avec son t-shirt #IloveFS.
        <p>Dans son verdict, la Cour de Monza a aussi souligné que le fabriquant lui-même a expressément reconnu son obligation de rembourser la licence Windows. Dans cette décision    historique, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210302-01.html">la cour a de plus imposé à Lenovo 20 000 Euros de dédommagements</a> pour abus des procédures d'appel. Lenovo a contraint son client à s'engager     dans un processus judiciaire inutile et disproportionné. La cour a aussi remarqué que ce cas est exemplaire de l'arrogance et des tergiversations d'une grande entreprise à l'encontre d'un modeste     client. Au final, la cour a jugé que la somme soit payée à Luca, comme compensation pour les dommages aggravés causés par les coûts de procédure judiciaire.</p><p>Profondément altruiste, <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">Luca Bonissi a fait don de 15 000 Euros</a> des dommages reçus à  la FSFE, souhaitant ainsi encourager les individus à tenir bon pour leurs droits. Nous sommes très reconnaissants envers Luca pour ce don et aussi pour la <a href="https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/">documentation</a> et les procédures qu'il a partagées dans la mise à jour de la <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/WindowsTaxRefund/Italy">page wiki pour l'Italie</a>.</p>"Le verdict de Monza a démontré qu'il est possible de renverser le comportement intolérable des géants de la technologie. Ce qui a été dérobé à la communauté du Logiciel Libre lui a désormais été rendu. J'encourage tout le monde à se battre pour ses droits légitimes !" précise Luca Bonissi et nous ne saurions être plus d'accord.<h2>20 années de FSFE: entretien avec Reinhard Müller</h2><p>Passons maintenant de Luca Bonissi en Italie à Reinhard Müller en Autriche : Reinhard est un de ces volontaires dont le dévouement au Logiciel Libre et à la FSFE est légendaire. Tout au long des deux dernières décennies, Reinhard a aidé à modeler la FSFE dans son auto-détermination et son organisation générale ainsi que dans nos opérations quotidiennes. En effet, Reinhard est ainsi passé par tous les postes, de volontaire local à membre d'une équipe nationale, de volontaire sur un stand à directeur financier et de supporter à l'Assemblée Générale. Nombreux sont celles et ceux qui sont surpris d'apprendre qu'il est volontaire et non employé salarié de la FSFE.</p>
                <img src="media/b698d707.8cd95551cc5b7031cbc7b69547fd55b7.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/8cd95551cc5b7031cbc7b69547fd55b7.jpg"/>
                Reinhard Müller socialisant lors de l'Assemblée Générale.
        <p>Faire la liste de toutes ses contributions dans cette lettre semble quasi-impossible, mais <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210305-01.html">nous nous sommes entretenus avec Reinhard</a> pour tenter de couvrir quelques unes des étapes essentielles de sa vie autour et au sein de la FSFE. Découvrez ce qui nourrit sa motivation, ses sources d'énergie, ses activités de la FSFE favorites et ses vœux pour les 20 ans de FSFE à venir.</p><h2>I love Free Software Day</h2><p>De Reinhard Müller à la journée I love Free Software, car c'est la campagne que lui et de nombreuses personnes de par le monde préfèrent. Cette année nous avons célébré ce qui est déjà la 11ème édition du "I Love Free Software Day" et nous venons tout juste de <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210317-01.html">publier notre rapport d'activité</a>. En chiffres, nous avons compté 411 tweets sur Twitter, 210 toots et de nombreux retweets et retoots dans le Fediverse utilisant le hashtag #ilovefs. De par le monde, les gens ont rejoint le "I Love Free Software Day" au travers des réseaux sociaux et on tweeté et tooté depuis au moins 328 lieux différents.</p>
                        <img src="media/cd0e2ab1.09c38ab455a853df90a04bc166064f53.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/09c38ab455a853df90a04bc166064f53.png"/>
                <p>Deux nouveautés cette année : avec le volontaire FSFE Florian Snow, nous avons créé des visuels pour  partager notre amour du Logiciel Libre et <a href="https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/people/">beaucoup     ont participé</a>. Nous avons aussi créé un <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-9.html">épisode spécial du Software Freedom Podcast</a> qui précise les origines et  les points phares des onze dernières années du "I Love Free Software Day".</p><p>Cette année la FSFE célèbre son 20ème anniversaire. Soutenez notre travail pour les 20 ans à venir</p><h2>Qu'avons-nous fait ? En interne et en dehors de la FSFE</h2><ul>
              <li>Comme vous avez pu l'apprendre dans nos lettres précédentes, la FSFE a participé une fois de plus au FOSDEM avec un évènement communautaire avant le FOSDEM, et cette année nous avons aussi coorganisé la Legal and Policy Devroom pour la première fois. <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210311-01.html">Toutes les interventions sont maintenant disponibles en ligne</a>, y compris celles dans la Devroom ainsi que le discours d’inauguration de Cory Doctorow pour notre   évènement communautaire.</li>
                
            Cory Doctorow at FSFE's Community Event
<img src="media/4ed763ee.0be979798dd328b6010cdb379168e649.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/0be979798dd328b6010cdb379168e649.png"/>
            Cory Doctorow à l'évènement communautaire FSFE
        
                <li>Johanna Pohl, Anja Höfner, Friederike Rohde et Erik Albers de la FSFE ont publié un article à Accès Libre sur les <a href="https://www.oekologisches-wirtschaften.de/index.php/oew/article/view/1788">"options       de conception pour des matériels et logiciels durables, efficaces et libres"</a> dans "Ökologisches Wirtschaften: Numérique et Durabilité".</li>
                <li>Notre <a href="https://publiccode.eu/sv/#about">vidéo PMPC Video est désormais disponible en Suédois</a> et dès lors disponible en neuf langues.</li>
                <li>La FSFE a été présente lors de l'édition annuelle des Chemnitzer Linuxtage où Bonnie Mehring a tenu un <a href="https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/en/programm/beitrag/227">discours sur "Argent Public ? Code Public !"</a> au cours duquel elle a expliqué comment le cadre de campagne pour être utilisé pour inciter à l'adoption de politiques facilitant l'adoption de Logiciel Libre au niveau local. Matthias Kirschner a donné un <a href="https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/en/programm/beitrag/124">discours sur "20 années de FSFE - La longue route vers la liberté logicielle"</a>.</li>
                <li>Erik Albers  était présent au Winterkongress de la Digitale Gesellschaft Schweiz, où il a donné un <a href="https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/en/programm/beitrag/227">discours sur la durabilité du Logiciel Libre</a>.</li>
                <li>Des suites de sa participation à un panel de discussion sur les opportunités, freins et les motivateurs pour le Logiciel Libre das l'administration publique, <a href="https://k7r.eu/panel-free-software-development-for-the-public-administration/">Matthias Kirschner a écrit</a> ses recommandations et réflexions pour un approvisionnement public et pour le Logiciel Libre sur son blog.</li>
                <li>La Rhénanie du Nord-Westphalie et le Bade-Wurtemberg, avec le Ministère Fédéral de l'Intérieur, ont planifié un dépôt de code Logiciel Libre commun pour les administrations publiques, constitué d'une partie centrale et de "satellites" compatibles et décentralisés. Cette approche est proches de nos attentes formulées dans l'initiative <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200910-01.html">"A Place for Public Code"</a>.</li>
                <li>Le 17 mars 2021, aux Pays-Bas, le Bestuursafdeling van de Raad van State a entendu notre collègue Hollandais Jos van den Oever's dans un dossier contre la Tweede Kamer. Il concerne l'application 'Debat Direct'. Avec cette application, les débats de la chambre basse du parlement peuvent être suivis. Jos a demandé à la Tweede Kamer de divulguer le code source de l'application 'Debat Direct'. Jusqu'à présent, le Président de la Chambre Arib refuse de publier le code. [<a href="https://broncode.org/nieuws/20210315.html">https://broncode.org/nieuws/20210315.html</a>]</li>
                </ul><h2>Participez à notre lettre d'information</h2><p>Si vous souhaitez partager vos opinions, photos ou actualités, merci de nous les envoyer. Comme toujours, notre adresse est newsletter@fsfe.org. Nous sommes impatients de vous lire !</p><p>Si de plus vous souhaitez nous soutenir ainsi que notre travail, rejoignez notre communauté et aidez-nous avec un don ou une contribution mensuelle..</p><p>Merci à notre communauté, tous les <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute">volontaires</a>, <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a>, et <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donatrices et donateurs</a> qui rendent notre travail possible. Et merci à <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators">nos traductrices et traducteurs</a>, qui vous permettent de lire cette lettre d'information dans votre langue maternelle.</p><p>Votre éditeur,
        Erik Albers</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl">Support us with your donation</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210330-01
title: FSFE launches the Router Freedom Activity Package
uri: FSFE-launches-the-Router-Freedom-Activity-Package
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE launches the Router Freedom Activity Package</h1><p>
In the context of reform of telecommunication laws, EU member states are currently implementing legislation with direct impact on Router Freedom. The FSFE has launched an activity package for organisations and individuals to raise awareness and empower them to advocate for users' device sovereignty in their countries. 
</p><p>
Router Freedom is the right that consumers of any Internet Service Provider (ISP) have to choose and use a private modem and router instead of equipment that the ISP provides. <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/">Since 2013</a>, the Free Software Foundation Europe has been successfully engaged with Router Freedom, promoting end-users' freedom to choose and use their own terminal equipment - first in Germany as a precedence, and now in many European countries. 
</p><p>
In the context of reform of telecommunications law, a <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200601-01.html">new set of rules</a> has been adopted by the European Union which will directly impact Router Freedom on the 27 EU member states. The FSFE has been following closely the developments and actively taken part on <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191120-01.html">consultation initiatives</a> on the European level and also in legislative processes countries which are ahead in adopting such rules, as Austria, Germany and Greece. 
</p><h2>Community Engagement</h2><p>
Although the new rules will provide more clarity in several aspects concerning end-users rights, the awareness for Router Freedom is low across Europe. Active participation of local communities in the legislative processes of laws impacting the ability end-users to choose their network devices is crucial for leveraging the protection of Router Freedom in national jurisdictions. 
</p><p>
Therefore, the FSFE has prepared an activity package for individuals and organisations who want to communicate with regulators and decision makers of  their countries and make a stand for Router Freedom. The package consists of an activity summary, a monitoring map, an end-user experience survey and a wiki page with relevant information for local engagement. 
</p><h3>Activity Summary</h3><p>
The <a href="media/bf4d5529.fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/routers/fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf">Protecting Router Freedom in Europe - Activity Summary (.pdf)</a> aims to provide everyone the necessary information to raise awareness of the urgency of protecting Router Freedom. It contains the positive arguments in favour of Router Freedom based on the FSFE's years of successful experience. The report also presents an overview of the current state of affairs in Europe and how people can participate and collaborate in their countries to improve their situation with Router Freedom.
</p>
      <a href="media/bf4d5529.fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/routers/fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf">
      
      </a>
      Get your Activity Summary right now!
<h3>Monitoring Map</h3><p>
The FSFE has been monitoring the rules regarding Router Freedom in Europe. The map below tracks how EU member states are implementing the identification of the Network Termination Point (NTP), a technical definition which determines the limits of ISP's and end-users networks. You can obtain information by clicking on each country icon. The tracker will be updated regularly.
</p>
      <a href="https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/router-freedom-tracker_581123#4/53.12/18.37">
      
      </a>
      Check here the status of Router Freedom in your country
<h3>Router Freedom Survey</h3><p>
Regulators have been extremely conservative in reporting the problems and issues consumers are facing with ISPs' abusive commercial practices against their rights. We want to better understand end-users? experience in Europe with our <a href="https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/628449?lang=en">Router Freedom survey</a>. Every opinion counts - it will take only a few minutes.
</p><h3>Wiki Page</h3><p>
The <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/CompulsoryRouters/">Router Freedom wiki page</a> contains the necessary information for people to get active in communicating with national regulators, consumer organisations and political representatives. It is also an excellent point for first contact with Router Freedom.
</p><h2>The Future of Router Freedom in Europe</h2><p>
Long-term engagement is only enabled by your help. You can make a difference by joining us spreading the word, sharing your experience, contacting the authorities of your country and becoming a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">sustaining supporter of the FSFE</a>.
</p><p>"As most charity organisations, our resources are limited. While we achieved Router Freedom in Germany as a precedence, and currently actively engage in the legislative processes in Greece and Austria, we cannot do so in all 27 EU member states. That is why we need your help and your experience with national legislation and the local media landscape. Such an ambitious goal - establishing Router Freedom in all over Europe - requires collaboration of many people!", says Lucas Lasota, FSFE Project Manager.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210331-01
title: Dortmund relies on Free Software – This paves the way for Public Money? Public Code!
uri: Dortmund-relies-on-Free-Software-This-paves-the-way-for-Public-Mon
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210331-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Dortmund relies on Free Software – This paves the way for Public Money? Public Code!</h1><p>With a groundbreaking resolution, Dortmund has committed itself to the use of Free Software. With an overwhelming, cross-faction majority, 
		the city council has paved the way for "Public Money? Public Code!” In the future, software developed or commissioned by the administration will 
		be made available to the general public.</p><p>Back in February, the city council approved a motion previously submitted by the SPD, Bündnis90/Die Grünen, CDU, Die Linke+ and FDP/Bürgerliste.
		In the future, Free Software is to be used wherever possible and software developed or commissioned for development by the administration is to 
		be made available to the general public. Dortmund is thus following the principle of "Public Money? Public Code!" - code paid for by all should 
		be available to the people! The <a href="https://rathaus.dortmund.de/dosys/doRat.nsf/NiederschriftXP.xsp?action=openDocument&amp;documentId=28B18161663E54D5C12586A8002F14EA">minutes 
		of the meeting published today</a> show with what unity the council stands behind the principle: The motion passed unanimously. 
		(Although the FDP/Bürgerliste abstained from the vote due to a different amendment on a different point, but introduced the motion and is still in favor). The result was 
		made possible by the consistent efforts of the <a href="https://blog.do-foss.de/">DO-FOSS initiative</a>, which also supported the "Public 
		Money? Public Code" campaign of the FSFE.</p>
            <img src="media/f39db218.9438490f6bc7f41d93eb13b341385aa8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/9438490f6bc7f41d93eb13b341385aa8.jpg"/> 
            Dortmund
        Matthias Kirschner, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe states: "We are happy that the DO-FOSS initiative 
		was able to convince the city of Dortmund of the principle of "Public Money? Public Code". Free Software gives everyone the right to use, 
		study, share and improve software for any purpose. These freedoms also benefit administrations. Public administrations that 
		follow this principle can benefit from numerous advantages: Collaboration with other government agencies, independence from individual vendors, 
		potential tax savings, innovation and a more solid basis for IT security. The Council's decision means that there is now the political
		backing to gradually break down dependencies on proprietary vendors. We will accompany the implementation and at the same time call on 
		other administrations in Germany and Europe to follow Dortmund's example." <p>The "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative aims to establish Free Software as the standard for publicly funded software. 
		The "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative of the Free Software Foundation Europe is supported by over 200 organizations and 
		administrations. Learn more here: <a href="https://publiccode.eu/">publiccode.eu</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210406-01
title: FSFE Spring Sales: buy discounted Free Software merchandise now
uri: FSFE-Spring-Sales-buy-discounted-Free-Software-merchandise-now
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210406-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE Spring Sales: buy discounted Free Software merchandise now</h1><p>
      Finally! Spring is here, hot weather is coming, and it’s sale time in
      <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/order.html">the FSFE shop</a>! That's why we offer all
      our coloured T-shirts, magnets, pins, gym sacks and children shirts at a
      reduced price for a short period.
    </p>
      <img src="media/a306d627.6843bc5481f1f19bab1bcc439703f2f1.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/6843bc5481f1f19bab1bcc439703f2f1.png"/> 
      Some of our discounted merchandise
    <p>
      If you've always wanted a T-shirt with the slogan “There is no cloud,
      just other people's computers” you can find them in red or blue; if you
      like the T-shirt which shows your love for Free Software in many
      languages, or a new PMPC magnet for your fridge, this could be your last
      chance. <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/order.html">The offer</a> is only valid while
      stock lasts. Sale products that are sold out will no longer be reordered
      as we will refresh our inventory.
    </p><p>
      With every purchase you also support the work of the FSFE and you get a
      nice free gift. By the way: the “I am a fork” kids shirt is also a
      wonderful gift, we have already tested this out several times ourselves.
    </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: episode-10
title: SFP#10: How to support Free Software and a sustainable digital infrastructure
uri: SFP-10-How-to-support-Free-Software-and-a-sustainable-digital-infrast
url: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-10.fr.html
content:
<h1>SFP#10: How to support Free Software and a sustainable digital infrastructure</h1><p>
In our 10th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we talk with Elisa Lindinger from superrr lab. Together we discuss problems faced by Free Software projects and how to tackle them. In a broader frame we discover what would be needed for a more sustainable digital infrastructure and talk about the work Elisa does for this aim.
</p><p>
For this episode Matthias Kirschner and Bonnie Mehring talk with Elisa Lindinger about the survey <a href="https://recommendations.implicit-development.org/">Roadwork ahead</a>, which evaluates the needs of those working for software freedom and a digital infrastructure for the public. What concrete actions are needed to create sustainable Free Software communities and projects? How could developers spend more time on coding and not so much time on organising events and finances, in short how could community management be better organised? And how could those who do volunteer work for open infrastructure and Free Software receive the support they need? Those are just some of the questions discussed in the podcast. All of those problems are brought into a broader sense of this topic, when we talk about how our digital civil society can be more sustainable? We discuss the four claims Elisa and her team developed and advocate for:</p><ol>
<li>Digital civil society needs to be part of political discussions about digital policy,</li>
<li>New methods are needed of support and funding,</li>
<li><a href="https://publiccode.eu">"Public Money? Public Code!"</a> should be a guiding principle for public procurements and Open Data, Open Access and Open Source should be the base for public contracts,</li>
<li>a commitment for long-time support of  widely-used software, libraries and protocols is needed to ensure their maintenance.</li> 
</ol><p>Together, we discuss how a sustainable digital civil society can look like and what is still needed for this aim to be reached. This episode provides knowledge and insights for all of you who want to support Free Software and create a long-lasting digital society.</p><p>Read more:</p><ul>
 <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/">What is Free Software?</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://recommendations.implicit-development.org/">Report: Roadwork ahead</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://digitalezivilgesellschaft.org/en">Learning from the crisis: empower civil society organisations!</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://superrr.net/">SUPERRR Lab</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ngi/ngi.html">Next Generation Internet Zero Initiative (NGI0)</a></li>
</ul><p>If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate/">donation</a>.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210420-01
title: 20 Years FSFE: Interview with Fernanda Weiden
uri: 20-Years-FSFE-Interview-with-Fernanda-Weiden
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210420-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>20 Years FSFE: Interview with Fernanda Weiden</h1><p>
     In our third birthday publication we interview Fernanda Weiden - co-founder of the FSF Latin America and former Vice President of the FSFE - about the early starts of Free Software in Latin America, nowadays use of Free Software in Big Tech and about support of diversity in different communities.
    </p><p>Fernanda "nanda" Weiden has a long history of personal engagement for Free Software and the FSFE. Actually a way too long to fit into this introduction but we try at least to shed light on some of her contributions: Raised in Porto Alegre, Brasil, Fernanda organised FISL, the largest Free Software conference in Latin America. Later she became founding and council member of the Free Software Foundation Latin America, before moving to Europe, where she joined the FSFE as a volunteer. Just a little bit later she was <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090624-01.html">elected Vice President of the Free Software Foundation Europe</a> from 2009-2011.</p>
    <img src="media/65932972.0c75f112f3abca1bf6d836eb477ecdae.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/0c75f112f3abca1bf6d836eb477ecdae.png"/>
<p>In these early years of her engangement with the FSFE, Fernanda helped to shape the FSFE's profile and organisation. Her favourite campaign that she was heavily contributing to was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_Freedom_Day">Document Freedom Day</a>. A campaign to highlight the importance of Open Standards and a global day to celebrate them. Fernanda is also co-founder of the "Women in Free Software Project" in Brazil and former member of "Debian Women". Until today Fernanda is part of the FSFE's General Assembly and helps the organisation with her manifold professional skills if needed. </p><p>For 20 Years FSFE we interview Fernanda about her time with the FSF*s, about Free Software event activities, and its use in big business.</p><h3>Interview with Fernanda Weiden</h3><p>
        <strong>FSFE: You were raised in Brazil where you co-founded the Free Software Foundation Latin America. Can you tell us a little bit about your background,  how you initially got attracted by Free Software and how it came you co-founded the FSFLA?
		</strong>
    </p>
    <p><strong>Fernanda Weiden:</strong> I grew up in Porto Alegre, the southernmost capital in Brazil. It is a city of about a million people in a region under large influence of its European immigration. I never really planned to end up as a computer engineer. The first time I entered university, it was to become a mathematics teacher. After about a year of that, it was clear that wasn't going to work for me.</p>



	<p>I started become more and more interested in computers, and a lot of people I knew were already using and playing around with GNU/Linux. I got curious about that very quickly and learning to use GNU/Linux without a graphical interface helped me to understand how computers worked without the magic of a user interface. I loved it.</p>

	<p>After a while I started working with systems and when RedHat started their certification program called RedHat Certified Engineer, I was on the first group of people in Latin America who took the test. There were 10 of us, and 6 passed the test. I was one of them and obviously, the only woman.That brought a spotlight into my work, and also put a spotlight on the Free Software community for me. I rapidly became engaged.</p>
	
Free Software Foundation Latin America was an obvious step to help strengthen the community and also support decision makers in the public sector.

	<p>Those years in Latin America were politically very interesting, and a lot of the governments were investing in Free Software as a possible alternative to foster business and also independence from software suppliers  - usually from Europe or North America. Free Software Foundation Latin America was an obvious step to help strengthen the community and also support decision makers in the public sector to understand the issues around Free Software better. Unfortunately I do not think that FSFLA managed to fulfil its potential at the time, but it was a great experience nevertheless.</p>



	<p>I was already very well connected with people from all over Latin America and over the world really because of the work I did in the program committee of the International Free Software Forum in Porto Alegre, so I ended up being a natural choice I guess. Being a woman also helped. Unlike many other women involved in the community, I was an engineer and understood not only the political side of the issues, but the technical side too.</p>


    <img src="media/36beab31.50054910df931cb566b2b1ca5ccfb2cc.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/50054910df931cb566b2b1ca5ccfb2cc.jpg"/>
     Fernanda G. Weiden at Latinoware 2008, Fórum do Gnome. Foz do Iguaçu, Brasil. (Picture CC-BY 2.0  Germán Póo-Caamaño)

    <p>
        <strong>Back then in Brazil, you spent a lot of time volunteering to help organising  FISL, the largest Free Software conference in Latin America. Can you tell us how the perception of Free Software was at that time in Brazil, why volunteering matters and why it is important to have such Free Software related events?
        </strong>
    </p>


    <p>Free Software in Brazil was at its highest point, I would say. The government was interested and willing to make moves and cooperate with the community to learn from us. The government supported us also financially by funding our events and helping us to build a solid base for the community. Events are super important because they help spread awareness and build momentum for important steps to be taken politically. I also think events are opportunities to give the microphone to those who have something important to say. At that time, it was important that we all let the world know that there was a different path for digital transformation and to start an industry in technology that isn't dependent on technologies from big companies. Free Software is empowering for a third world nation because it can take countries and industries out of the backseat into the driver seat for their own future.
	</p>


    <p>
        <strong>Later in your life you moved from Brazil to Europe where you joined the Free Software Foundation Europe as a volunteer and later became for two years our Vice President. How was your experience as a vice president and what keeps you active within the FSFE after over 15 years now?
		</strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        I moved to Europe at the end of 2005, after receiving a job offer to join Google in Zurich. It was the most transformational experience in my life. Seeing and living different cultures, working in big tech for almost 13 years. All that changed me and helped me develop in ways I've never thought possible before.</p>
        
        I am forever grateful to what Free Software made possible in my life, and continuing to give back to the community is very important to me.

		<p>FSFE for me was a way to stay engaged with my roots. I had friends who were also engaged, and I wanted to continue to give back to the community that gave me so much. Not only in technical and political knowledge, but everything else that comes with that. I am forever grateful to what Free Software made possible in my life, and continuing to give back to the community is very important to me. Even if at times seem hard because life has changed so much, time is more scarce and priorities have shifted from a personal point of view. </p>




    <p>
        <strong>Document Freedom Day was a campaign by the FSFE to raise awareness about the importance of Open Standards. You were heavily involved in the creation of the campaign, helped setting up the website and the general concepts. What did you like about DFD and what was your favourite DFD activity?
		</strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        Open Standards for documents are vital. If you record your information in a standard that isn't open for anyone to implement, to me, it is the same as not owning the information you recorded, because you're prisoner of that vendor forever. If they go out of business, so do your records. I love the campaign because I think it is a way to raise the importance of digital freedom to those who might not be aware or even interested in Free Software. It is a way to plant a question into people's minds.
	</p>

	<p>
		My favorite activity was definitely the pictures. We would ask people to send us pictures from all over the world of their events/celebrations for DFD, and it was great to see the community getting together all over the world to discuss the importance of Open Standards.
    </p>


    <img src="media/d012df5c.9fb9173c46409cbe2aeda14abdeda73c.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/9fb9173c46409cbe2aeda14abdeda73c.jpg"/>
    A Picture of the FSFE team handing over the DFD Award in 2010 to Radio Deutschlandfunk with the theme "rOGG on"

    <p>
        <strong>
			You spent several years in large international tech company. How is the role and importance of Free Software and Open Standards perceived in big business and did it change over the years?
		</strong>
    </p>

    <p>        
		When I became a Free Software activist, one had to argue about the platform	to be used to build software. Today, Free Software isn't a question anymore. It is the norm in many places. Big companies play an important role because they hire and pay engineers to continue to produce state of art software that is then available through Free Software licenses. Of course not all engineer hours go into that, but it is definitely something that both big tech companies I worked for appreciated and contributed to in different ways.
    </p>


The most important thing, in my view, is to make it a priority to build an inclusive environment. [...] It is a virtuous cycle: once you start making positive moves, more diverse talent will keep coming because they will feel safe.
    <p>
        <strong>
			You are co-founder of the "Women in Free Software Project" in Brazil, member "Debian Women", and accomplished to have the highest percentage of women in your tech department in a large international company. From your practical experience, what do you consider the most important points for Free Software organisations to create an inclusive environment for women and other traditionally underrepresented groups in Free Software?
    </strong>
    </p>


    <p>
        The most important thing, in my view, is to make it a priority to build an inclusive environment. It cannot be a second thought. If you don't think first and foremost how I can make sure this environment is friendly to everyone, you're missing the opportunity to be inclusive. A lot of companies and organizations make the mistake to believe that one or other activity will make them more friendly to minorities. It isn't about one or other activity. It is about how you behave every moment of your day and how much effort you make to ensure you're listening to the quiet, being open to different opinions, and being restless to ensure your pipeline is healthy with diverse talent when you're going to hire. It is a virtuous cycle: once you start making positive moves, more diverse talent will keep coming because they will feel safe.
    </p>


    <p>
        <strong>
			What is your personal highlight with the FSFE or an important thing that you learnt from your work at the FSFE?
		</strong>
    </p>


    <p>
        From the early times working at FSFE I always appreciated the pragmatic and balanced way to engage with the community. FSFE has always had a commitment to have a dialogue no matter how different positions were held by the other side of the conversation. I think this is very important in business settings too: you have to listen to everyone if you want to be effective. FSFE also does it in a way that is friendly, accepting but does not compromise the core values we stand for.
    </p>


    <img src="media/59e447ca.7412186c7cfe925e51eebd79e49dd44a.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/7412186c7cfe925e51eebd79e49dd44a.jpg"/>
    Document Freedom Day celebration in Singapore 2018. (Picture CC-BY 4.0 Fedora Community Blog)

    <p>
        <strong>
			And what is a story that still makes you laugh or smile when you remember it?
		</strong>
    </p>


    <p>
        Unfortunately I wasn't present for the day, but I still laughed a lot about it, and I was there when the song was released, and that was a lot of fun. Definitely the Schnitzel Monster. I will <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210305-01.html">let the monster tell his own story though</a>.
    </p>


    <p>
         <strong>FSFE: As a last question, what do you wish the FSFE for the next 20 years?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>
		I wish that the FSFE continues to be an organization that evolves as the challenges of our times evolve. If in the past proprietary software was a big issue, now we have privacy issues in the cloud. We also have software
		running in our washing machines and ovens. I also wish FSFE continues to be	the friendly environment it has always been to me. We don't see each other in person very often, but when we do, excluding the extra grey hair and
		wrinkles, it feels like we have always been close. It is a large and spread family.
    </p>


    <p>
         <strong>FSFE: Thank you very much!</strong>
    </p>
<h3>About "20 Years FSFE"</h3><p>
    In 2021 the Free Software Foundation Europe turns 20. This means two decades of <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/about.html">empowering users to control technology</a>. 
</p>
    <img src="media/0409b849.53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png"/>
<p>
    Turning 20 is a time when we like to take a breath and to look back on the road we have come, to reflect the milestones we have passed, the successes we have achieved, the stories we have written and the moments that brought us together and that we will always joyfully remember. In 2021 we want to give momentum to the FSFE and even more to our pan-European community, the community that has formed and always will form the shoulders that our movement relies on. 
</p><p>
    <strong>20 Years FSFE is meant to be a celebration of everyone who has accompanied us in the past or still does. Thank you for contributing your piece of the puzzle that shapes the FSFE and setting the foundation for the next decades' work of the movement for software freedom. </strong>
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210427-01
title: Bundestag Election 2021: Demands for a Digitally Sovereign Society
uri: Bundestag-Election-2021-Demands-for-a-Digitally-Sovereign-Society
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210427-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Bundestag Election 2021: Demands for a Digitally Sovereign Society</h1><p>Digital civil society organisations make four demands for a digitally sovereign society to politicians for the 2021 federal election. Among them is the 
		Free Software Foundation Europe, which works to ensure that software developed with public money shall be published under a Free Software licence.</p><p>On 1 April 2020, civil society organisations working for an independent digital infrastructure and free access to knowledge called on politicians:
		<a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release-de/2020q2/000323.html">Learn from the crisis - strengthen digital civil society!</a> (German)
		In an open letter, the undersigned organisations also made concrete recommendations for action. However, far too little has happened since then. 
		The past year has made it clear that politics and public administration are overwhelmed with their own digital transformation and are setting priorities 
		in digital policy that do not meet the needs of society. We are far from a digitally sovereign society.</p>
            <img src="media/243da327.0c44c5022b8c5cef50b89793b6b7c90f.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/0c44c5022b8c5cef50b89793b6b7c90f.jpg"/> 
            Public Money? Public Code!
        <p>That is why a broad spectrum of organisations, including the Free Software Foundation Europe, has once again come together at
		<a href="https://digitalezivilgesellschaft.org/">digitalezivilgesellschaft.org</a> to support politics with their expertise. With four demands, 
		the network shows how digitisation can succeed for a digitally sovereign society - and calls on the parties in light of the federal elections 
		to make digitisation for the common good a central topic.</p><h3>Four demands to the federal government</h3><ol><li>Digital Sovereignty: politicians must anchor the digital sovereignty of society as the highest maxim in digital policy. Instead of a 
		digital ministry, we need a mission for the coming legislative period that elevates digital sovereignty to a guiding principle and is drafted 
		and evaluated together with representatives from civil society, science and business.</li>  	
		
		<li>Participation and Transparency: civil society must finally be given the same opportunities as business and science to contribute its expertise. 
		This is achieved through a civil society quota in political advisory bodies, communication and transparency on procedures of political 
		decision-making processes, legally defined deadlines for consultations as well as machine-readable documentation.</li>
		
		<li>Public Money, Public Good: publicly funded solutions must be accessible to all under a free licence so that no knowledge is lost or problems are solved twice. 
		This concerns software: We want legal foundations that require software developed with public money for public administrations to be published under a 
		Free Software Licence (also know as Open Source). If public money is involved, the code should also be 
		public! <a href="https://publiccode.eu/">(Public Money? Public Code!)</a>. But also public administration data (Open Data) as well as free 
		knowledge and open educational materials (Open Educational Resources).</li>
		
		<li>Sustainable Digitisation: digitisation can only succeed if the development of digital infrastructure is economically and socially viable. 
		To this end, diversity in digitisation and the development and maintenance of secure, decentralised digital infrastructure for society must be promoted in the long term.</li></ol><h2>Launch event on 5 May 2021</h2><p>At the launch event, Julia Reda (former member of the EU Parliament), Henning Tillmann (software developer and co-chair of D64) and Julia Kloiber 
		(co-founder Superrr Lab) will discuss these four demands on 5 May 2021 from 18:00 to 19:30. The panel will be moderated by Katja Jäger (betterplace lab). 
		Afterwards, all participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas on solutions, measures and calls for action in four thematic rooms. FSFE's Alexander 
		Sander will moderate the room on "Public Money? Public Code!". Further information and registration for the launch event will be available 
		soon on <a href="https://digitalezivilgesellschaft.org/">digitalezivilgesellschaft.org</a>.</p><p>Signatory organisations of digitalezivilgesellschaft.org: Free Software Foundation Europe, Superrr Lab, gut.org, betterplace lab, Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland e.V. (SEND), Open Knowledge Foundation 
		Deutschland e.V., Liquid Democracy e.V., iRights.Lab, Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung e.V. (FIfF), Chaos Computer Club, 
		Bundesverband Smart City e.V., mediale pfade, Stiftung Erneuerbare Freiheit, Center for the Cultivation of Technology, neuland21 e.V., 
		Arbeitskreis Digitalisierung der BUNDjugend, Verstehbahnhof, Bundesnetzwerk Bürgerschaftliches Engagement, Wikimedia Deutschland e. V., 
		Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, D64, epicenter.works e.V., Digitale Gesellschaft e.V., Ashoka Deutschland e. V., Progressives Zentrum e. V.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202104
title: Router Freedom Activity Package +++ Fernanda Weiden +++ Spring Sales
uri: Router-Freedom-Activity-Package-Fernanda-Weiden-Spring-Sales
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202104.fr.html
content:
<h1>Router Freedom Activity Package +++ Fernanda Weiden +++ Spring Sales</h1><p>In our April Newsletter read about our Router Freedom Activity Package, our interview with former Vice President Fernanda Weiden, our new Software Freedom Podcast with Elisa Lindinger, our Spring Sales and as usual our other diverse community activities.</p><h2>FSFE launches the Router Freedom Activity Package</h2><p>Router Freedom is the right that consumers of any Internet Service Provider (ISP) have to choose and use a private modem and router instead of equipment that the ISP provides. In the context of reform of telecommunications law, since June 2020 <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200601-01.html">a new set of rules guides the implementation of Router Freedom in Europe</a>. </p>
      <a href="https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/router-freedom-tracker_581123#4/53.12/18.37">
      
      </a>
      Check here the status of Router Freedom in your country
<p>Although the new rules will provide more clarity in several respects concerning end-users' rights, the awareness of Router Freedom is low across Europe. Active participation of local communities in the legislative processes of laws impacting the ability of end-users to choose their network devices is crucial for leveraging the protection of Router Freedom in national jurisdictions. </p><p>Therefore, we have <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html">prepared an activity package for individuals and organisations</a> who want to communicate with regulators and decision makers of  their countries and take a stand for Router Freedom. The package consists of an <a href="media/bf4d5529.fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/routers/fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf">activity summary</a>, a <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html#id-monitoring-map">monitoring map</a> and a <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/CompulsoryRouters/">wiki page</a> with relevant information for local engagement. </p><p>We would love to know more about your experience with Router Freedom, so we can act accordingly. Please participate in our <a href="https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/628449?lang=en">end-user survey</a>. It will take only a few minutes!</p><h2>20 Years FSFE: Interview with Fernanda Weiden</h2><p>In our third birthday publication <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210420-01.html">we interview Fernanda "nanda" Weiden</a> who was raised n Porto Alegre, Brasil, where she organised FISL, the largest Free Software conference in Latin America. Later she became a founding member and council member of the Free Software Foundation Latin America, before moving to Europe, where she joined the FSFE as a volunteer. Just a little bit later she was elected Vice President of the Free Software Foundation Europe from 2009-2011.</p>
        <img src="media/65932972.0c75f112f3abca1bf6d836eb477ecdae.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/0c75f112f3abca1bf6d836eb477ecdae.png"/>
    <p>In these early years of her engangement with the FSFE, Fernanda helped to shape the FSFE's profile and organisation. Her favourite campaign that she was heavily contributing to was the Document Freedom Day, a campaign to highlight the importance of Open Standards and a global day to celebrate them. Fernanda is also co-founder of the "Women in Free Software Project" in Brazil and former member of "Debian Women". Until today Fernanda is part of the FSFE's General Assembly and helps the organisation with her manifold professional skills if needed.</p><p>This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. Support our work for the next 20 years to come</p><h2>SFP#10: How to support Free Software and a sustainable digital infrastructure</h2><p>In our <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-10.html">10th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast</a> we talk with Elisa Lindinger from Superrr Lab. Together we discuss problems faced by Free Software projects and how to tackle them. In a broader frame we discover what would be needed for a more sustainable digital infrastructure and talk about the work Elisa does for this aim. </p>
        <img src="media/62293f2c.30f4854b37058edc2b1d7899d97ae977.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/30f4854b37058edc2b1d7899d97ae977.png"/>
    <h2>What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE</h2><ul>
        <li>With a groundbreaking resolution, Dortmund has committed itself to the use of Free Software. With an overwhelming, cross-faction majority, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210331-01.html">the city council has paved the way for "Public Money? Public Code!"</a> In the future, software developed or commissioned by the administration will be made available to the general public.</li>
        <li>Max Mehl, FSFE programme manager, gave a talk on <a href="http://www.europe-direct-dortmund.de/event/digitale-souveraenitaet-in-europa-freie-und-open-source-software-als-schluessel/">"Digital Sovereignty in Europe - Free Software as the Key"</a> in which he provided an overview of the most important contexts and discussed pragmatic possibilities based on existing examples to put public digital infrastructure on a modern footing.</li>
        <li>Ralf Hersel, Coordinator of the FSFE local Zurich group, gave a presentation on "Learning like the Pros" <a href="https://openeducationday.ch/programm-2021/">during the Open Education Day conference</a>. Learning like the Pros informs about Digital Sovereignty, explains professional approaches and offers concrete suggestions.</li>
        <li>For the International Transgender Day of Visibility, Carmen Bianca Bakker writes about <a href="https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2021-03-31-whats-in-a-name/">"What's in a name?"</a></li>
        <li>Lucas Lasota, FSFE Deputy Legal Coordinator, will conduct the course <a href="https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/8ade75042d024d90b89c/">"Legal Aspects of Digital Sovereignty"</a> at the Humboldt University of Berlin. The course is dedicated to several elements that compose the terms that are being discussed in public debates, but from the legal perspective.</li>
    </ul><h2>"Show your support" (aka "Get active")</h2><p>Although Spring seems a little bit late this year in Northern Europe, we have started <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210406-01.html">the FSFE Spring Sales</a> in which we offer all our coloured T-shirts, magnets, pins, gym sacks and children's shirts at a reduced price for a short period. Be quick, because the offer is only valid while stock lasts. Moreover, sale products that are sold out will no longer be reordered as we will refresh our inventory.</p><h2>Contribute to our newsletter</h2><p>If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
  them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking
  forward to hearing from you!</p><p>If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and
  support us with a
  donation or a monthly contribution.</p><p>Thanks to our community and all the <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute">volunteers</a>,
  <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a>, and <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donors</a> who make our work possible. And thanks to
  <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators">our translators</a>, who enable you to read
  this newsletter in your native languages.</p><p>Your editor,
    Erik Albers</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl">Support us with your donation</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210504-01
title: NGI0: How the FSFE Helps Free Software Developers Engineer a Better Internet
uri: NGI0-How-the-FSFE-Helps-Free-Software-Developers-Engineer-a-Better-In
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210504-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>NGI0: How the FSFE Helps Free Software Developers Engineer a Better Internet</h1><p>
With the FSFE in its 3rd and final year of its involvement in the European Commission's NGI0 Initiative, the feedback of our work in this area has been positive. Today, we give you updates of what the team has been working on with this initiative, and share the feedback from various developers on how we've managed to help them.</p><p>
What will the Internet of the future look like? The European Commission's (EC) <a href="https://www.ngi.eu/about">Next Generation Internet Initiative (NGI)</a> envisions an Internet that is accessible, diverse, and respects the fundamental value of privacy. Here at the FSFE, we believe that Free Software is key to accomplish this vision, so that all people, regardless of their background, are able to use the Internet as an effective tool to achieve their full potential. </p>    
    <p>
“NGI0 not only made it possible to pursue our goals by supplying funding. I was approached a number of times by professionals whom I learned to respect for their knowledge and concrete support, ranging from security to usability, internationalisation, licensing and copyrighting and putting what we do in a perspective of inclusiveness and diversity. Their help will go a long way to improve our products and I am sure to seek out other partners to the NGI0 project before we’re done.”</p>
<p>Joop Ringelberg, <a href="https://perspect.it/">Perspectives-core Project</a></p>
<p>
To that end, since November 2018 the FSFE has been since November 2018 a partner organisation of <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ngi/">Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0)</a>, which is a coalition of thirteen non-profit organizations from all over Europe coordinated by the <a href="https://nlnet.nl/">NLnet Foundation</a>. Coming under the overall NGI umbrella, the purpose of NGI0 is to provide financial grants and technical support to researchers and developers who are working on Free Software solutions that contribute to the establishment of the Next Generation Internet. </p><h2>FSFE Provides Assistance to Free Software Developers Through NGI0</h2>
			<img src="media/29bfc05a.0beb7b64a605d2c6b3132ff31baeac96.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/0beb7b64a605d2c6b3132ff31baeac96.png"/>
			Free Software is key for the future of the Next Generation Internet.
	<p>
As part of the technical assistance rendered to NGI0 participating software projects, the FSFE focuses on providing guidance on best practices for communicating the components, licenses, and copyrights associated with software packages. We are happy to share an update on the impact and progress that the FSFE and the project as a whole have had.</p>    
    <p>
“Our Free Software developer needs were understood and met with minimal frictions… With audits, this NGI0 support went further than just allowing us to spend more time working on the project, they taught us how to improve it. The FSFE REUSE team even contributed actual code with a regular merge-request, in a perfect illustration of ‘them’ teaming up with us!”</p>
<p>Simon Descarpentires, <a href="https://www.meta-press.es/">Meta-Press.es Project</a></p>
<p>
In order to be effective at internet scale, all 242 NGI0 software projects will be Free Software by end of their involvement in the project. We have made many strides in our efforts to assist these participating software projects with their legal and licensing needs, as well as at convincing them to adopt our REUSE standards as best practices for displaying licensing and copyright information.</p><p>
To achieve this goal, we have developed a <a href="media/c51212c7.FSFE20-20220-20Compliance20Workflow.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/NGI0/V2/FSFE%20-%202%20-%20Compliance%20Workflow.pdf">workflow</a> to help projects go through a licensing compliance cycle composed of several phases to identify, process, and resolve any legal query the project could present.</p>    
    <p>
"We are always listening to developers to learn how we can best assist them. While the project certainly had some growing pains in the beginning, feedback from the developers has been incredibly valuable for us to refine our workflow over the course of our involvement in the NGI0 initiative, to make the experience for all participants as fruitful and collaborative as possible.”</p>
<p>Gabriel Ku Wei Bin, FSFE Legal Coordinator</p>
<h2>REUSE: Copyright and Licensing Made Easier for Everyone</h2><p>
A significant part of our work in the NGI0 initiative has been to assist participating software projects with adopting our <a href="https://reuse.software/">REUSE standards</a>. Code that implements these standards is able to be easily machine read, allowing copyright and licensing information contained therein to be verified automatically without manual intervention. This allows the code to be quickly and safely adopted by individuals, public bodies, and private enterprises of any size.</p>    
    <p>
"The REUSE framework simplifies the declaration and management of different licenses in your own project, and thus clearly enables everybody to reuse Free Software. The addition of REUSE header and software license information to our Neuropil project went smoothly and painlessly. The main work was carried out with a simple merge request over a diverse set of source code files, external libraries and documentation. A big thank you from the team for the FSFE’s contribution!”</p>
<p>Stephan Schwichtenberg, <a href="https://www.neuropil.io/de/">Neuropil Project</a></p>
<p>
Over 2020 and into the first quarter of 2021, we have worked with over 100 NGI0 participating software projects to guide them to implement the REUSE standards on their workflow. This has included working directly with their repositories to better improve how the licensing and copyright information contained in their repositories are displayed, so that any adopters of their work in the future can more easily comply with these license and copyright obligations.</p>
  
<h2>Developing Educational Materials</h2><p>
Together with another NGI0 partner organisation, the <a href="https://www.ifross.org/">Institute for Legal Issues regarding Free and Open Source Software, or ifrOSS</a>, we have included in our website a set of educational FAQs about Free Software legal and licensing issues. These <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/legal/faq.html">FAQs</a> tackle topics useful to any Free Software developer, such as the <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/legal/faq.html#copyright">basics of copyright</a>, <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/legal/faq.html#license">licensing issues with Free Software</a>, and issues with <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/legal/faq.html#compatibility">license compatibility</a>. In addition to these quick FAQs, we have also prepared more <a href="https://download.fsfe.org/NGI0/V2/">comprehensive educational PDF documents</a> that explain these topics more in depth.</p><h2>Providing Guidance on Legal and Licensing Issues</h2><p>
Many participating software projects may also have many legal questions pertaining to the various licenses relevant to their work. While the FSFE assists them with the more basic questions, they can also receive guidance and advice on more complex legal issues from ifrOSS. In the last two years, we have provided guidance with inquiries on a variety of topics, including inquiries related to license implementation and compatibility issues, dependency management, managing external contributions, licensing scanning tools, trademark issues, potential licensing violations and hardware licenses.</p>    
    <p>
"Regarding REUSE, we have learnt a lot. We realise that the idea behind REUSE is simple, clear, and powerful… Nowadays, Free Software projects become more and more complicated, and many components/files of a single project have different license/copyright information. REUSE helps a lot on tracking the status of this information in our project.”</p>
<p>Xianjun Jiao, <a href="https://github.com/JiaoXianjun/openwifi">OpenWifi Project</a></p>
<h2>REUSE and the FSFE's Continuing Commitment to Helping Free Software Developers</h2><p>
Our work with the NGI0 initiative has been a great success for REUSE, as we've managed to help so many developers working on software that will solve a diverse range of problems have a better understanding of Free Software licenses, compliance issues, and how best to prevent these from occurring if they adopt our REUSE standards. Spreading such knowledge and awareness among developers helps to create a more robust and healthy Free Software ecosystem. Indeed, working with REUSE through the NGI0 initiative has been a learning experience for the FSFE ourselves.</p>    
    <p>
"Being involved in NGI0 has been a nurturing experience. On one hand, it has been very interesting to work closely with and learn from projects that are reshaping the future of the internet. On the other, being part of the FSFE team has provided me with the necessary technical and legal skills to feel comfortable to contribute directly to projects' repositories through merge-requests; a task that was completely new for me in the beginning. All the positive feedback from these projects only encourages me to keep up the good work.”</p>
<p>Lina Ceballos, FSFE Legal Trainee</p>
<p>
One of the areas where the FSFE is committed to providing guidance for developers is in the legal and licensing sphere. On this front, the FSFE has since 2009 coordinated a <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/">network of legal professionals</a> in the field of Free Software, and provided them with a forum for cutting edge legal discussions. It is through the help of this network of experts that we have been able to develop initiatives such as REUSE, which makes it easier for developers to fulfill their Free Software legal and licensing obligations without necessarily having to become experts themselves.</p><p>
While the NGI0 initiative is expected to come to a close by the end of 2021, the FSFE nevertheless will continue providing guidance to developers. In the upcoming months, we will offer a low-barrier opportunity for Free Software projects to apply for help by our REUSE professionals. As with NGI0, the FSFE will assist developers with making their projects REUSE compliant while clarifying potentially complex copyright and licensing situations. Stay tuned for more!</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210505-01
title: Router Freedom: Greece one step forward - Germany one backward
uri: Router-Freedom-Greece-one-step-forward-Germany-one-backward
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210505-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Router Freedom: Greece one step forward - Germany one backward</h1><p>
EU member states are updating their legislation and implementing rules on Router Freedom. Greece and Germany have taken the first steps. But while Greece has focused on interests of end-users, Germany has moved in the opposite direction. The next months are crucial for Router Freedom in Europe and local participation is paramount. 
</p><p>
Telecommunications law in the EU is passing through <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200601-01.html">complex legislative reforms</a>, involving, among others, supra-national institutions like BEREC, member states' parliaments and national regulatory agencies (NRAs). Since December 2020, EU member states have started legislative processes to implement the European Electronic Communications Code, or EECC <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2018.321.01.0036.01.ENG">(Directive (EU) 2018/1972)</a>, a key component of the reform, which sets new standards for Router Freedom. 
</p><p>
Greece and Germany were the first EU countries to incorporate the EECC into national legislation. Now, the national regulatory bodies of both countries will have to decide on rules that will impact the status of Router Freedom in their jurisdictions. The FSFE has been following closely the new developments and took part in consultative processes. In addition, we have prepared an <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html">activity package</a> to help local communities engaging with their national regulatory bodies. 
</p>
      <a href="media/bf4d5529.fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/routers/fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf">
      
      </a>
      Learn more about Router Freedom in Europe with our activity summary.
<h2>Greece: moving in the right direction towards Router Freedom</h2><p>
In the second half of 2020, Greece incorporated the EECC into national legislation, under which the Greek regulatory body was to specify whether end-users have the right to choose and use their own routers. In March 2021, the Greek NRA <a href="https://www.eett.gr/">(EETT)</a> launched a public consultation and <a href="https://www.eett.gr/opencms/opencms/admin/downloads/Consultations/telecoms/PCNTP.docx">presented a preliminary conclusion</a> (Greek) in favour of Router Freedom. According to the regulator, Router Freedom would be fully compatible with Greek legislation, and would not create market restrictions or interoperability issues. EETT has also confirmed that Router Freedom would best ensure end-users' privacy and data protection.  
</p><p>
In April 2021, the FSFE <a href="media/e7dacd17.FSFE2004.21_final_greek.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/routers/FSFE%2004.21_final_greek.pdf">took part in the public consultation</a> (Greek) supporting EETT's preliminary conclusion and stressed the arguments in favour of Router Freedom. FSFE's arguments were backed up by the following six organisations in the field of digital rights, consumer protection and business representation, which also submitted corresponding positions on the consultation:
</p><ul>
	<li> <a href="https://vtke.eu/">Alliance of Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Manufacturers (VTKE)</a></li>
	<li> <a href="https://ekpizo.gr">Consumer Protection Union (EKPIZO)</a></li>
	<li> <a href="http://www.kepka.org">Consumer Protection Centre (KEPKA)</a></li>
	<li> <a href="https://www.homodigitalis.gr/">Homos Digitalis</a></li>
	<li> <a href="https://gfoss.eu/">Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS)</a></li>
	<li> <a href="https://www.sarantaporo.gr/">Sarantoporo.gr - Community Wireless Network</a></li>
</ul>
      <img src="media/576c415c.bf26bd4311e29cbfab2a1f9dcee36cae.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/bf26bd4311e29cbfab2a1f9dcee36cae.png"/> 
      We strongly support EETT's preliminary conclusion in favour of Router Freedom.
<h3>Germany: falling short on leveraging end-users' rights</h3><p>
In December 2020, the German Federal Government submitted a proposal for incorporating the EECC into internal legislation, the Telecommunications Modernization Act (TKG-E). Questionably, the massive document, with more than 400 pages, was made available for public consultation of merely four days. The extremely short period prevented stakeholders to properly analysing the rules in detail and providing a more structured feedback. Nevertheless, the FSFE <a href="media/e7e51a8f.Stellungnahme20FSFE20TKG-Novelle-1.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/routers/Stellungnahme%20FSFE%20TKG-Novelle-1.pdf">submitted a position</a> (German) criticizing the draft text due to its lack of perspective of end-users' rights.
</p><p>
The proposed law failed to reflect the progress Router Freedom has achieved in the country since 2016. We claimed that Router Freedom had to be retained as the standard due not only to its consistency with the internal legislation but also to the very positive overall experience within the market, supporting end-users' digital sovereignty. In April 2021, the <a href="https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2021/kw16-de-telekommunikationsmodernisierungsgesetz-834820">TKG was approved</a> (German) allowing the German NRA to restrict Router Freedom under determined conditions.
</p><p>
Now, in order to comply with the TKG, the German NRA <a href="media/e7e51a8f.Stellungnahme20FSFE20TKG-Novelle-1.pdf" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/routers/Stellungnahme%20FSFE%20TKG-Novelle-1.pdf">(BNetzA)</a> will have to decide on end-users' ability to use their own equipment. The decision-making process must pass through public consultation. We will closely follow the process with BNetzA to safeguard the positive experience Router Freedom has achieved in the last five years. We strongly believe that the regulator has all the necessary elements available to consolidate Router Freedom in Germany.
</p><h3>How you can help</h3><p>
The next months will be crucial for Router Freedom in Europe. Other countries are starting legislative initiatives which will require an intense collaboration among people, organisations and communities. You can be part of these processes too. With our <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html"> activity package</a>, you can learn more about the various advantages of Router Freedom and the whole situation in Europe. In addition, we have set up an <a href="https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/628449?lang=en">end-user survey</a> to learn more about the issues end-users are facing with their ISPs in regard to Router Freedom. Your opinion will help us to map the problems existing in Europe and will facilitate our communication with regulatory authorities.
</p>
      <a href="https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/628449?lang=en">
      
      </a>
      We are looking forward to learn more about your experience with Router Freedom. Take part in our survey; it will take only a few minutes!
<p>
In addition, by becoming a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">FSFE donor</a>, you help make possible our long-term engagement and professional commitment in defending people's rights to control technology.
</p><h3>The Router Freedom initiative</h3><p>
<a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/routers.html">Router Freedom</a> is the right that consumers of any Internet Service Provider (ISP) have to choose and use a private modem and router instead of equipment that the ISP provides. Since 2013, the Free Software Foundation Europe has been successfully engaged with Router Freedom, promoting end-users' freedom to choose and use their own terminal equipment - first in Germany as a precedent, and now in many European countries. Join us and learn more about the several ways to <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html">get involved</a>.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210506-01
title: Telecom reform in Austria: consumers must benefit from Router Freedom
uri: Telecom-reform-in-Austria-consumers-must-benefit-from-Router-Freedom
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210506-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Telecom reform in Austria: consumers must benefit from Router Freedom</h1><p>
Austria is reforming its telecommunications law to incorporate the new European directives on electronic communications. The Austrian government has now an unique opportunity to leverage router freedom at the legislative level to protect consumers and the market. 
</p><p>
It should go without saying that anyone should be able to freely choose and use a router and modem of their choice for Internet connection, like one does with smartphones and other devices. <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/routers.html">Router Freedom</a> refers to the right that consumers of any Internet Service Provider (ISP) have to choose and use a private modem and router instead of equipment supplied by the ISP. This right is consolidated in the EU by the <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2015.310.01.0001.01.ENG">Net Neutrality Regulation</a>. However, as part of a major reform of the telecommunications sector in Europe (the EECC directive), new rules are being introduced that may have a negative impact on Router Freedom, because they affect the status of routers being considered as terminal equipment.  
</p><p>
<a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200601-01.html">Like other European countries</a> Austria is in a process of implementing the reform of the telecom sector. The Austrian government has proposed the <a href="https://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXVII/ME/ME_00082/index.shtml">draft</a> (German) of the new Telecommunications Act (TKG) with provisions affecting the ability consumers have to use their own device to connect to the Internet. Austria has with this reform an unique opportunity to leverage consumers' rights by guaranteeing Router Freedom on the legislative level, fostering an open market. 
</p><h2>Router Freedom and consumer rights: a perfect match</h2><p>
Routers and modems are gatekeepers of most online activity. Consumers need to be able to pick a device that allows them to use security and data protection features which fulfil their requirements. Most ISPs only provide  a few router models. This raises risks to their consumers' freedom and security. For instance, if major problems or security holes appear, an enormous number of users would be affected at once. The lack of Router Freedom compromises consumers' privacy and the security of most sensitive personal data.  
</p><p>
On the other hand, Router Freedom decreases the probability that the router market will be dominated by only one or a few products or manufacturers. Therefore, only with Router Freedom consumers' digital sovereignty is properly assured and the market remains open for all manufacturers.
</p>
      <img src="media/b3841434.f0bb57b6899e3429728de5051c7b0f44.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/f0bb57b6899e3429728de5051c7b0f44.png"/> 
       Some of the main advantages of Router Freedom.
<h3>Router Freedom is in danger</h3><p>
The FSFE and the Austrian organisation <a href="https://epicenter.works/">epicenter.works</a> urge the Austrian government to include Router Freedom in the telecom law as a standard, consumers' IT-security, privacy and data protection cannot be traded off in favour of ISPs' commercial practices. Router Freedom should be consolidated in the reform text.
</p><p>
As <a href="https://epicenter.works/document/3122">reported by epicenter.works</a> in February 2021 (German), under the draft of the new Austrian TKG, the decision on Router Freedom will be entirely delegated to the <a href="https://www.rtr.at">national regulatory agency (RTR)</a> instead of consolidating this right in the law text. In extreme cases, this could lead to <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200601-01.html">rules</a> that could completely block consumers' rights to use their own equipment.
</p><p>
Countries like Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have passed laws enforcing Router Freedom in the last few years. More recently, in the context of the EU telecom reform, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210505-01.html">Greece</a> has preliminary decided on Router Freedom with the regulator proposing it as a standard choice.
</p><h3>How people can help protecting Router Freedom</h3><p>
The engagement from consumers is fundamental for protecting Router Freedom in Austria and the EU. The FSFE has prepared an <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html">Activity Package</a> for individuals and organisations who want to communicate with regulators and decision makers of their countries and take a stand for Router Freedom. Besides, we want to know more about consumer experience with Router Freedom in Austria, so we can bring the issues to the attention of decision makers. Please participate in the <a href="https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/628449">Router Freedom survey</a>. It will take only a few minutes!
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210521-01
title: Dutch Digital Autonomy must be based on Free Software and Open Standards
uri: Dutch-Digital-Autonomy-must-be-based-on-Free-Software-and-Open-Standar
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210521-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Dutch Digital Autonomy must be based on Free Software and Open Standards</h1><p>
"The Netherlands is losing grip on internet security, and is therefore in danger of losing control over democracy, the rule of law and the economic innovation system." This warning comes from the Cyber Security Council, a national and independent advisory body of the Dutch government and business community with members from the government, industry and academia.
</p><p>
This warning comes from the <a href="https://www.cybersecuritycouncil.nl/">Cyber Security Council</a>, a national and independent advisory body of the Dutch government and business community with members from the government, industry and academia. In their recent advice, they do an urgent call on the Dutch Cabinet to take quick action to prevent that Dutch society and economy becomes too dependent on proprietary technology they can not control.
</p>
		<img src="media/0648e8b5.90b70e0b29dce4ce76b25e0718347a7b.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/90b70e0b29dce4ce76b25e0718347a7b.jpg"/>
		
			<a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en">CC0
					1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication</a> by <a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/cyber-security-information-4084714/">TheDigitalArtist</a>
		
	<p>
While Cyber threats are increasing, the Netherlands is becoming increasingly dependent on a digital infrastructure that is dominated by just a small number of monopolistic companies. This could have major consequences for the national and economic security of the Netherlands. That is why digital autonomy should be high on the political agenda, according to the Council. Time is running out. If the Netherlands does not intervene, it risks losing its grip on internet security and losing its own technological knowledge, the council states. According to the advisory body, "time is short" thus "action must and can be taken now to ensure strategic autonomy”.
</p><p>
	<em>So much for the Cyber Security Council.</em>
</p><p>
Their timing is right on the spot now a new Dutch cabinet is in the making and plans for the upcoming four years are about to be negotiated between coalition partners. But does their advice actually get to the heart of the problem? When reading the <a href="https://www.cybersecuritycouncil.nl/documents/reports/2021/02/17/report-strategic-autonomy-and-cybersecurity-in-the-netherlands">Strategic Autonomy and Cybersecurity in the Netherlands</a> report, it is remarkable that proven best practices like Open Standards and Free Software do not play a central role in their solution and advice. If mentioned at all, it is in a side context.
</p><p>
Any open society is based on transparency. Therefore the digital freedom and rights of every citizen must be transparently protected. Digital autonomy is an indispensable condition for this. Autonomy, in turn, must be based on a solid legal framework that enforces Open Standards and Free Software, so that it can support
citizens with public services over a public infrastructure in a transparent, secure and private way. It is crucial that national and European politicians are aware of their continuing obligation to implement all legislation that supports this practice.
</p>
		<a href="https://publiccode.eu">
			
		</a>
<p>
Educational, health, and democratic institutions are core to our society. They are public assets and should not be part of any “economic market”, since we simply can not afford them to go bankrupt. So, public institutions will always be supported with Public Money, and any software involved inherently should be transparent by being Public Code. This principle is enshrined in the <a href="https://publiccode.eu/">Public Money? Public Code!</a> campaign of the FSFE, which states that software created with taxpayers’ money must be released as Free Software.
</p><p>
Proprietary companies that act in the “economic market” <em>can</em> go bankrupt. So, it is questionable if a Public Government should ever invest Public Money into proprietary market parties unconditionally. If investments are deemed necessary they should at least be done under the explicit condition that return on investment is for Public Benefit only. Again, as digital assets are concerned, Public Code is one of those conditions.
</p><p>
This public point of view is acutely absent in the institutional domain in which the Cyber Security Council acts and advises on. This is a domain that consist of a great number of interdependent organizations, national and super national, large and small, more and less powerful, that seem to keep each other in deadlock. Opening up to a public perspective would be a good first step for the Council to adapt their initial advice for the benefit of the commons.
</p>
The FSFE calls on the Dutch government to stand firm and get a grip on their digital security and autonomy by adhering to Open Standards and Free Software, in line with their earlier commitment ​​​​​to use <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200424-01.en.html"> Free Software by Default</a> 		.
<p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210525-01
title: FSFE is migrating its IRC presence to Libera Chat
uri: FSFE-is-migrating-its-IRC-presence-to-Libera-Chat
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210525-01.fr.html
content:
<p>
      In response to the recent mass resignation of volunteer staff from
      Freenode, an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network for Free Software
      communities, the FSFE is migrating its IRC presence to Libera Chat,
      a new IRC network with a similar focus founded by former Freenode staff.
    </p><p>
      The FSFE has been present on Freenode for more than fifteen years, and
      throughout our tenure we have experienced only dedication, care, and
      professionalism from the network's volunteer staff. When they feel
      forced to resign and launch
      <a href="https://libera.chat">a new network</a>, we follow to continue
      experiencing the same level of care and dedication.
    </p><p>
      All existing users of the #fsfe channel on Freenode are invited to
      join us in
      <a href="ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/index.fr.html#fsfe">#fsfe on Libera Chat</a>.
      Chatting will be disabled in #fsfe on Freenode and its presence will
      be maintained solely to point users to #fsfe on Libera Chat. Users with
      FSFE cloaks on Freenode should
      <a href="mailto:contact@fsfe.org">e-mail us</a> from their FSFE e-mail
      address with their Libera Chat account name to have an FSFE cloak
      assigned on Libera Chat.
    </p><p>
      We would like to thank Freenode for serving our needs well for more
      than fifteen years and we hope our tenure with Libera Chat will outlast
      those fifteen years.
    </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210526-01
title: Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project
uri: 2021-05-26-Call-to-apply-for-FSFE-support-for-your-local-project
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210526-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project</h1><p>It is no secret that the FSFE's activities are only possible with 
the priceless help of our contributors and supporters around Europe. In 
return we support local engagement financially, with our expertise, 
information material and networks. To help formalize this process, we 
run our next call for FSFE community projects.</p><p>From international campaigns to local information booths, our 
successful spreading of software freedom is based on many shoulders 
from active members within our community. This is why ever since the 
FSFE e.V. has been keen on supporting initiatives and activities from 
local FSFE groups to single supporters. If you currently look for 
financial funding for your FSFE activity, we are happy to support you. 
</p>
			<img src="media/d4d1fb64.1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg"/>
		<p>To participate in the call you simply fill in your contact data and 
your project facts (who is doing what, when and how much it potentially 
will cost) and you will soon receive feedback, approval or a call back 
on your proposal. </p>
  <a href="https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html">Participate</a>
<p><strong>Deadline for this call will be 25 July 2021.</strong></p><p>Please spread the word within your local groups or other FSFE 
channels you participate, to ensure everyone knows about it. </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210529-01
title: 20 Years FSFE: Time traveller Cory Doctorow sends his wishes from utopian 2041!
uri: 20-Years-FSFE-Time-traveller-Cory-Doctorow-sends-his-wishes-from-ut
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210529-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>20 Years FSFE: Time traveller Cory Doctorow sends his 
	wishes from utopian 2041!</h1><p>
		Prolific Sci-fi author Cory Doctorow envisions the world in 2041 and 
		informs us that we were able to solve major world problems thanks to 
		collective work and sharing of knowledge.  Doctorow is thanking the 
		FSFE for our 20 years ahead contribution of fostering freedom and 
		disestablishing monopolies.</p><p>
		Cory Doctorow is a British-Canadian writer, author of several Sci-fi 
		novels, who has been blogging for twenty years now. He was co-editor of 
		the blog boingboing.net and now runs his own blog at <a href="https://pluralistic.net">Pluralistic</a>. Doctorow is one of the 
		trailblazers in the demands of digital rights and software freedom. He 
		speaks in favour of a less restrictive copyright law; his books are 
		published under Creative Commons licenses. His Sci-fi books often deal 
		with the ownership of technological means in the future. </p><p>
		For over a decade, he has been vocal in supporting the work of the 
		FSFE. This year,  he is celebrating the 20 year anniversary of FSFE in 
		his own fascinating way. He greets us and congratulates us on our 40 
		year anniversary, talking to us from 2041. In the video you will find 
		below you can see how Doctorow fits the FSFE into his vision of 2041. </p>
			 
			 
			 
			 
		 <h2>How does Cory Doctorow envision the future?</h2><p>
			In Doctorow's 2041, the world has faced many large scale natural 
			disasters, but paradoxically humanity thrives. The solution was to face 
			these challenges collectively and leave the spirit of competition 
			behind. Doctorow sees the value of cooperation in Free Software, 
			contrasting it to corporation monopolies. In this context, he thanks 
			FSFE for its priceless contribution to a better world during the years 
			2021-2041.</p><p>You can read the full transcript of the video below. Cory Doctorow was 
			also our guest in the very <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-1.html">first 
			episode of our Software Freedom Podcast</a> which mainly focuses on 
			Digital Restriction Management. </p><h2>...since you're here: Brand new FSFE20 sticker</h2><p>In 2021 the Free Software Foundation Europe turns 20. 
			This means two decades of 
			<a href="https://fsfe.org/about/about.html">empowering users to control 
			technology</a>. We want to give momentum to the FSFE and 
			even more to our pan-European community, the community that 
			has formed and always will form the shoulders that our 
			movement relies on. To help you celebrating 20 Years of 
			FSFE with us, we have produced a brand new logo sticker. <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.html#fsfe-since-2001-sticker">Get 
			it, shout it, share it!</a></p>
					<img src="media/e034e131.SINCE_2001_stamp_STICKER_medium.png" data-original-source="https://download.fsfe.org/advocacy/promomaterial/fsfe-since-2001/SINCE_2001_stamp_STICKER_medium.png"/>
					Show others for how long we are already working for software 
					freedom with the new tag 'FSFE since 2001'.
			<h2>Script of Cory Doctorow's  birthday wishes for the FSFE</h2>    
			<p>
			Hello FSFE, congratulations from the year 2041 on your forty years of 
			fighting for the digital rights of Europeans and of all people in all 
			places! It has been a couple of crazy decades since I spoke to you last 
			year on 2021.</p>


			<p>In those two decades we have seen massive decentralization of the 
			internet thanks and part to deep reforms to our anti-trust and monopoly 
			law, mandates for interoperability and open APIs. And of course the 
			changes in our economic system that arose from the great crises we have 
			endured over the past two decades; floods, fires, famine, refugee 
			crises, all of the pandemics that we lived through.</p>


			<p>It was only by realizing that we have to cooperate rather than 
			compete, that we had to expose our technical infrastructure to outside 
			scrutiny and to outside improvement if we were going to survive crisis 
			after crisis that we were able to finally orient ourselves and our 
			economy and our political project and our technological project towards 
			weathering the storm that we had all seen coming but that no one seemed 
			able to confront.</p>


			<p>After all, that turned out to be the difference between crisis and a 
			happy ending, between dystopia and utopia. It was not whether the heat 
			that we had sunk into the ocean would melt the poles at will, nor 
			whether the coastal cities were drown - they have. Nor whether the 
			wildfires would rage - they did. But whether when they arose, when 
			these crises came to us we confronted them head on or continued to deny 
			them, continued to pretend that we could lock up technical knowledge 
			behind proprietary walls, that we could lock up control of 
			technological systems in the hands of four or five digital robber 
			barons* who insisted that no government had jurisdiction over them and 
			that they were accountable to no one except their shareholders.</p>


			<p>Once we realized that, once we embraced the ethic of collective work 
			for a better future for our species, then we were able to turn the tie 
			- not by averting the crises that were already set in motion, but by 
			addressing them when they arose.</p>


			<p>Thank you FSFE for the work that you did on that, and thank you to all 
			the organizations allied with us around the world, who joined to make 
			that reality happen.</p> 

			<p>Cory Doctorow</p> 
			
	<p>*'Robber baron' is a historical term originating in the US which 
	criticizes practices of powerful businessmen that had destructive 
	consequences for the society.</p><h3>About "20 Years FSFE"</h3><p> In 2021 the Free Software 
		Foundation Europe turns 20. This means two decades of <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/about.html">empowering users to control technology</a> 
		. </p> <img src="media/0409b849.53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png"/> <p> Turning 20 is a time when we like to take a breath and to look back 
		on the road we have come, to reflect the milestones we have passed, 
		the successes we have achieved, the stories we have written and the 
		moments that brought us together and that we will always joyfully 
		remember. In 2021 we want to give momentum to the FSFE and even 
		more to our pan-European community, the community that has formed 
		and always will form the shoulders that our movement relies on. 
		</p><p> <strong> 20 Years FSFE is meant to be a celebration of 
		everyone who has accompanied us in the past or still does. Thank 
		you for contributing your piece of the puzzle that shapes the FSFE 
		and setting the foundation for the next decades' work of the 
		movement for software freedom. </strong> </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202105
title: Cory Doctorow +++ Artificial Intelligence +++ New Staffer Fani Partsafyllidou
uri: Cory-Doctorow-Artificial-Intelligence-New-Staffer-Fani-Partsaf
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202105.fr.html
content:
<h1>Cory Doctorow +++ Artificial Intelligence +++ New Staffer Fani Partsafyllidou</h1><p>In our May Newsletter read about our time traveller Cory Doctorow who sends his wishes for 20 Years FSFE from utopian 2041, Router Freedom developments in Greece, Germany, and Austria as well as AI application benefits under Free Software licenses and as usual our other diverse community activities.</p><h2>20 Years FSFE: Time traveller Cory Doctorow sends his wishes from utopian 2041!</h2><p>Prolific Sci-fi author Cory Doctorow envisions the world in 2041 and informs us that humankind was  able to solve major world problems thanks to collective work and mutual sharing of knowledge. Doctorow has been a vocal supporter of the FSFE  for many years now. In his video he is celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the FSFE in his own fascinating way: Doctorow is travelling in time to greet us and congratulate us on our 40 year anniversary, talking to us from 2041.</p>
       
			 
			 
			 
			 
	  
	<p>His time travel allows him to see the critical importance of the FSFE in the transition to a digital society. In the author’s words ‘In those two decades we have seen massive decentralization of the internet thanks and part to deep reforms to our anti-trust and monopoly law, mandates for interoperability and open APIs’. This is why Doctorow is thanking the FSFE for our next 20 years of fostering freedom and decentralisation. </p><h2>Rapid developments in Router Freedom in Greece, Germany, and Austria</h2><p>Rapid developments in Router Freedom are  being made in the EU countries as an EU reform of telecommunications law is being transposed into national jurisdictions. The implementation process has been complex and has led to different solutions which may negatively affect Router Freedom. 
    The FSFE has been closely monitoring national legislation on telecommunications and actively taken part in public consultations together with local organisations to support legislative changes in favour of Router Freedom. For example, in Greece, the FSFE and six other organisations supported the preliminary decision of the Greek regulator for incorporating Router Freedom in the national legislation. </p>
			<img src="media/576c415c.bf26bd4311e29cbfab2a1f9dcee36cae.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/bf26bd4311e29cbfab2a1f9dcee36cae.png"/>
			The EU is in process of reform of telecom law and it will affect Router Freedom.
	  <p>The next months will be crucial for Router Freedom in EU countries. There are challenges ahead. Differently from Greece, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210505-01.html">Germany</a> has moved in a direction to reevaluate the consolidated framework, which can lead to more restrictions to end-users rights. In <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210506-01.html">Austria</a>, the fate of Router Freedom will be decided by the national regulatory agency RTR after the full implementation of the telecom reform.</p><h2>Achieving accuracy and fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications using Free Software</h2><p>Vincent Lequertier <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/artificial-intelligence.html">published an article</a> stating the reasons why AI applications released under a Free Software license can prevent known pitfalls in AI, making its use both efficient and fair. Three elements of AI should be provided openly: the source code used to train the AI, the datasets, and the trained AI models. Being able to understand how AI works will enable us to correct unfair discrimination generated by AI and give the opportunity for everyone to improve its transparency. Furthermore, releasing AI as Free Software can  help fostering innovation in this field.</p><p>Vincent also suggested in a <a href="https://vl8r.eu/posts/2021/05/16/artificial-intelligence-safety-embracing-checklists/">blog post</a> on <a href="https://planet.fsfe.org">FSFE's Planet</a> that the successful imposition of checklists in crucial sectors can be used as an example of good practice in AI development. </p>
			<img src="media/950badf3.54754bcae9f31f10659ff4c9037e4447.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/54754bcae9f31f10659ff4c9037e4447.jpg"/>
		<p>This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. Support our work for the next 20 years to come</p><h2>Internal: Our new staffer Fani Partsafyllidou</h2><p>We welcome our new staffer Fani Partsafyllidou! Fani holds a Master's Degree in Modern History and Political Science and after working with the European Association of History and Citizenship Educators she joined the FSFE communication team on the first of May. You will read more and more by her in the upcoming months, and -- except this very paragraph -- you are already reading the first newsletter brought to you by Fani. </p>
			<img src="media/4fad7eaf.f20c7cc25f723a1b4535ef9c3186d0ad.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/f20c7cc25f723a1b4535ef9c3186d0ad.jpg"/>
		<h2>Upcoming events</h2><p>Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE, and Bonnie Mehring, FSFE Coordinator of Translations, will talk at OpenSUSE Con about Public Money Public Code and the progress of the FSFE after 20 years of collective action. OpenSUSE Con will happen on 18 &amp; 19 of June, the detailed schedule is still to be set. </p><h2>What we have done</h2><ul>
	  <li>In the Next Generation Internet Zero initiative, the FSFE has cooperated with other organisations in Europe to facilitate the use of Free Software licences by developers, by providing educational material as well as guidance. We recently published a report on how the FSFE <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210504-01.html">Helps Free Software Developers Engineer a Better Internet</a> </li>
	  <li>On May 22 the FSFE participated in MERGE-it, a conference organised for Italian communities that work with Open Source and Free Software. Patrick Ohnewein, Financial Officer of the FSFE and the Deputy Coordinator in Italy, gave a talk about Free Software in the Public Administration, and Francesca Indorato, FSFE employee, moderated the session and the discussion.</li>
	  <li>Matthias Kirschner gave an <a href="https://www.co-vienna.com/de/leute/der-digitale-freiheitskampfer/">interview (DE)</a> in Co-Vienna where he analysed the concept of Ethical Software and its relation to freedom of speech.  </li>
	  <li>On May 6 Alexander Sander, the FSFE's policy consultant, contributed to a session about how to <a href="https://www.ioew.de/veranstaltung/european-approaches-towards-a-sustainable-digitalization">advocate on the EU level for Digital Sustainability</a>  </li>
	  <li>On May 5 Alexander Sander hosted a session on "Public Money? Public Code!" during an event of  <a href="https://digitalezivilgesellschaft.org/en-">over 50 European civil society organisations</a> who formulated several recommendations to political decision makers in the light of the upcoming federal election in Germany.</li>
	  <li>Alexander also hosted a webinar on May 26 to highlight the <a href="https://public-money.confetti.events/">benefits of using Free Software in public administration</a> and to explain the process of implementation.</li>
	  <li>Alexander Sander took part in a <a href="https://www.egovkommunal.de/#Agenda">panel discussion on centralization to standardization</a> with representatives of the German Government and local government associations. Alexander brought the perspective on Open Standards and Free Software to the panel </li>
	  <li>Our Dutch country team organised an online get-together on May 19.</li>
	</ul><h2>Get active</h2><p>Our new call for local projects is open until <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210526-01.html">the 25th of July!</a> If you are a supporter of the FSFE and you have a project you have wanted to do for a long time, apply for funding by the FSFE and make it happen. If you are a supporter but you have no project in hand, look for a local group in your vicinity or create one. And if you are not a supporter yet - time to <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">join the FSFE now</a>.</p>
			<img src="media/d4d1fb64.1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/1dcdf901936a5b357597c7fa91a20ca8.jpg"/>
	  <h2>Contribute to our newsletter</h2><p>If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
  them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking
  forward to hearing from you!</p><p>If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and
  support us with a
  donation or a monthly contribution.</p><p>Thanks to our community and all the <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute">volunteers</a>,
  <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a>, and <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus">donors</a> who make our work possible. And thanks to
  <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators">our translators</a>, who enable you to read
  this newsletter in your native languages.</p><p>Your editor,
    Fani Partsafyllidou</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl">Support us with your donation</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210609-01
title: REUSE Booster helps Free Software projects with licensing and copyright
uri: REUSE-Booster-helps-Free-Software-projects-with-licensing-and-copyrigh
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210609-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>REUSE Booster helps Free Software projects with licensing and copyright</h1><p>
  REUSE is a set of best practices to make Free Software licensing much
  easier. It helps developers with simple guidelines to declare
  their copyright and conditions for code re-use and provides help documents
  and low-threshold tools to get the job done. With REUSE Booster, we
  start to give direct support for Free Software projects.
</p><p>
  Since its beginning, the aim of <a href="https://reuse.software">REUSE</a>, an initiative led by the
  Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), has been to make licensing
  and copyright drastically easier for developers, especially those
  without legal experience and assistance. It is fair to say that this
  goal has already been achieved.
</p><p>
  REUSE offers standardised ways to mark all files in a project with
  their respective license and copyright. For developers, creating Free
  Software and communicating their conditions for code re-use are easier
  than ever before. REUSE offers a tutorial and FAQ, as well as the REUSE
  helper tool and the API to automate once manual processes. We are
  continuously working on improving all of these. But we won't stop
  here.
</p><h2>Introducing REUSE Booster</h2><p>
  With REUSE Booster, we go one step further. We invite Free Software
  projects to <a href="https://reuse.software/booster">register for
  getting help</a> by the FSFE's legal experts. As the name suggests,
  this will boost the process of adopting the best practices as well as
  general understanding of licensing and copyright.
</p>
  <img src="media/dead22c4.0027eafb7bb2fdb1ec479675c1070ae2.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/0027eafb7bb2fdb1ec479675c1070ae2.png"/>
<p>
  Accepted projects will be onboarded in a kick-off workshop in which
  the process and typical questions are clarified. Afterwards, each
  project will receive an individual evaluation that reveals
  potential challenges on their path to full REUSE compliance. If
  unforeseen problems arise, there will be direct contact persons that
  can provide guidance. Last but not least we will share practical
  suggestions on how to maintain a stable licensing status.
</p><p>
  The FSFE already provides similar support for all projects in the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ngi/">Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0)
  project</a>. As consortium partners, we help developers to resolve
  licensing and copyright uncertainties and avoid legal pitfalls.
  Furthermore, many of them adopt the REUSE best practices to
  streamline their compliance. We now build on this practical
  experience and enable other projects to benefit from it. This is made
  possible by <a href="https://reuse.software/supporters/">REUSE
  sponsors</a> like Siemens and individual support by FSFE
  volunteers and <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">supporters</a>.
</p><p>
  If your Free Software project wants to get support to become REUSE
  compliant, <a href="https://reuse.software/booster">register</a>
  before 8 July 2021. Please also spread the word and inform other
  developers about this opportunity.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210611-01
title: Netherlands: Participation app remains closed to the public
uri: Netherlands-Participation-app-remains-closed-to-the-public
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210611-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Netherlands: Participation app remains closed to the public</h1><p>The Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kammer) debates in public, as it should. But as not everyone has the opportunity 
		to go to Den Hague and sit in the gallery, the Tweede Kamer released an app to follow the debates via livestream. Unfortunately, 
		this app not is released under a Free Software licence. Our Dutch volunteer Jos van den Oever wanted to participate but was not able 
		to run the app on his device and got active.</p><p>In principle, it is a good idea to create and use technical solutions to increase the transparency of parliaments. However, the implementation in the 
		Netherlands with the Debat Direct app is the opposite, as the app is not accessible to everyone. With the Debat Direct app, citizens can follow parliamentary 
		debates easily from everywhere – but not with every device. The app is only available in the Apple, Google, and Microsoft app stores and is not available 
		under a Free Software licence. A similar functionality is offered in an online webapp, Our Dutch volunteer Jos van den Oever wanted to participate and 
		use the app on his Firefox OS phone - a Free Software operating system for mobile phones - unfortunately without success. Therefore Jos tried to get the app's 
		source code in January 2018 in order to make it also accessible on other devices. It turned out to be a long fight.</p>
            <img src="media/c4038c23.d9a1339d919cc9aa979241a4738e7c9d.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/d9a1339d919cc9aa979241a4738e7c9d.png"/> 
            Public Money? Public Code!
        <h2>Request under PSI</h2><p>The request for the source code invoked the Dutch implementation of the European Public Sector Information (PSI) directive (Wet hergebruik overheidsinformatie). 
		The PSI directive allows public information to be requested in the original, reusable form in which it is present at the public institution.  It is worth noting 
		that the Parliament is exempt from Freedom of Information requests to make non-public information public, and so the PSI directive is only applicable if 
		information is already public. However, for almost two decades now a large majority of Dutch MPs have been asking their government to use and publish 
		software under a Free Software licence in order to give everybody the right to use, study, share, and improve the code. But so far Parliament has not 
		led by example. Jos' request was not complied with; the code remained closed to the public. Jos did not give up and brought the case to court.</p><h2>Reverse Engineering</h2><p>Unfortunately the court did not agree with Jos and decided that source code is not the reusable form of software. However, most of the source code was made public 
		on the website of the app as source maps. Jos wrote a script to save the js files from the source maps and managed to largely recreate the app from these files and 
		reverse engineered build files. But even though Jos, and anyone else, may retrieve the source code, it remains without a proper licence; it can be studied, 
		but not shared or improved.</p><h2>Court Case</h2><p>Jos appealed with the newly discovered source maps, which resulted in a hearing on 17 March 2021. Jos was the plaintiff at the hearing at the highest 
		general administrative court in the Netherlands, the Administrative Jurisdiction Division at the Council of State (CoS). In the hearing, the Parliament 
		argued that the source maps do not contain the source code, even though Jos submitted the source code that he extracted to the hearing. On 31 March 2021, 
		the CoS ruled that Parliament does not have to publish the source code since, in their judgement, the source code is not public. So even though it is 
		factually public, via source maps, it is not legally public according to the CoS judgment. In other words: it is not public because Parliament says it is not public.</p><p>As weird as that may sound, from a legal perspective the PSI directive does not apply to the Parliament and thus the app does not need to be made public. 
		The bright side of the decision is that this does not say anything negative about the possibility of obtaining source code for software that is available publicly.</p><p>The FSFE therefore calls upon the Dutch Parliament to impose rules on itself, to act transparently, and to publish the source code of such applications 
		under a Free Software licence in the future.</p><p>Here you can read more about the activity (Dutch): <a href="https://broncode.org/">https://broncode.org</a></p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210625-01
title: 20 Years FSFE: Interview with Torsten Grote
uri: 20-Years-FSFE-Interview-with-Torsten-Grote
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210625-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>20 Years FSFE: Interview with Torsten Grote</h1><p>
		In our fourth birthday publication we are interviewing Torsten 
		Grote, who explored Free Software alternatives on smartphones 
		for the FSFE as early as 2012. We reminisce about the emergence 
		of our Free Your Android campaign and discuss with Torsten 
		which options are available for liberating our phones today. 
    </p><p/>
	<img src="media/0d3c1587.2428e0d5718d202093340c681d818ecc.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/2428e0d5718d202093340c681d818ecc.jpg"/>Torsten Grote, creator of the Free Your Android 
	campaign in the FSFE, conveys the message of 'Free Your Android' in 
	FISL15, the 15th Forum International Software Libre. 2014, Brazil.
<p>
        Torsten Grote is a Free Software developer and long time 
        volunteer in the FSFE. He started his journey of engagement in 
        the local group in Berlin, later joined the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Germany">FSFE country team 
        Germany</a> and finally became <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/team.html">a GA 
        member</a> in 2009. In the FSFE, Torsten is best known for 
        being the creator of our <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/android/">Free 
        Your Android</a>-campaign, the campaign about regaining control 
        of your Android device and your data. </p><p>For many years 
        now, Torsten has lived in Brazil and has worked for different Free 
        Software projects from Tor to Briar to CalyxOS. He is an expert 
        in the field of phone liberation and creator of <a href="https://f-droid.org/packages/de.grobox.blitzmail/">"Blitzmail"</a> 
        and <a href="https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.grobox.liberario/">"Transportr"</a>, 
        both available in <a href="https://f-droid.org">F-Droid</a>.
    </p><p>
        For 20 Years FSFE, we interview Torsten Grote about his time 
        with the FSFE, freedom on mobile devices, and upcoming 
        challenges in the field. 
    </p><h3>Interview with Torsten Grote</h3><p>
        <strong> FSFE: Do you remember your first contact with the FSFE? What 
        caught your initial attention and how did you get introduced 
        and active? </strong>
    </p>
    <p>
        <strong>Torsten Grote:</strong> 
            When I was studying computer science in university, I got increasingly 
            interested in the political and ethical aspects of software. Thus, I 
            discovered the FSFE that seemed to have regular meetings in Berlin 
			where I was living. I subscribed to their <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/berlin">Berlin 
			mailing list</a> in 2007 and soon received an email about a 
			a meeting with a presentation about the first Free Software 
			mobile phone, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko">Openmoko</a>. 
			Having heard about the Openmoko before, this got me really 
			excited and motivated me sufficiently to show up at this 
			meeting in person.
        
    </p>



    <p>
        Arriving at my first FSFE meeting, I was warmly welcomed by 
        Matthias Kirschner who was coordinating the Berlin group back 
        then and is now the president of FSFE. There were lots of 
        friendly and likeminded people. I enjoyed the meeting a lot, so 
        that I become a regular participant for many years to come.
    </p>

    <p>
        Through the meetings, but also special activities of the Berlin 
        group, I got more and more involved, joined the German team, and 
        got eventually <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/2009/06/01/i-won-the-ga-election/">elected 
        into FSFE's general assembly</a> in 2009.
    </p>
    

        'Smartphones were just starting to become a thing. The first 
        iPhone came out around the same time as the OpenMoko and the 
        first Android phone a year later.' 
    
    <img src="media/d012df5c.9fb9173c46409cbe2aeda14abdeda73c.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/9fb9173c46409cbe2aeda14abdeda73c.jpg"/>  Torsten Grote and the rest of the FSFE team handing 
    over the Document Freedom Day Award in 2010 to Radio 
    Deutschlandfunk with the theme "rOGG on". The Document Freedom Day 
    was an FSFE campaign, designed and implemented to a great extent by 
    Fernanda Weiden. Fernanda also gave an <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210420-01.html">interview</a> to celebrate and 
    reflect on the FSFE's 20 year progress.

    <p>
        <strong>You came up with the 'Free your Android' idea in 2012. What 
        was the status of phone liberation back then? What was the 
        initial spark to create this campaign? </strong> </p>


    <p>
        While the Openmoko was a great phone, its development 
        fragmented and eventually stopped. Few phones were actually 
        produced, but I managed to get one.
    </p>

    <p>
        Smartphones were just starting to become a thing. The first 
        iPhone came out around the same time as the OpenMoko and the 
        first Android phone a year later. Most people had proprietary 
        feature phones and I had hoped that having the Openmoko 
        starting at the same time would give freedom a chance.
    </p>

    <p>
        After this, we saw many other mobile operating systems with 
        more or less Free Software, such as WebOS, Tizen, Maemo/MeeGo, 
        Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS, and many more. However, so far none 
        managed to compete with today's duopoly.
    </p>


    <p>
        <strong>Later, the FSFE moved forward with your idea and pioneered 
        the idea of using Android as a base for a phone using only Free 
        Software. What were the initial efforts, and what were the issues users had 
        to overcome to achieve freedom on mobile devices? </strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        To me it became apparent in 2012 that it would be very hard to 
        compete with Android. It had already a big market share and 
        most importantly, it was mostly Free Software. Since the 
        beginning, people took the source code and made their own 
        modified versions of Android, some becoming popular such as 
        Replicant or LineageOS.
    </p>

  <p>
      It might have been a risky bet to focus on Android, but it seemed the best 
      chance to bring more Free Software to people and it was important to ensure 
      that it stays free and to work to liberate its non-free bits.
  </p>
        
        'To me it became apparent in 2012 that it would be 
        very hard to compete with Android. It had already a big market 
        share and most importantly, it was mostly Free 
        Software.'


    <p>
        The biggest challenge still exists today. It is the lower layers of the 
        device, the hardware drivers and the firmware that are still mostly not Free 
        Software.
    </p>

    <p>
        Another challenge in the early days was installing a different version of 
        Android. Even for technical people this was quite difficult and could render 
        the device unusable. Today, some phones even allow their operating system to 
        be changed with your webbrowser by visiting a website.
    </p>


    <p>
        <strong>
            DRM, locked devices, proprietary parts in initial flagship
            cyanogenmod... How did the situation for users who like to put freedom
            first on their mobile devices evolve since the initial start of the
            campaign? After all, did the situation improve or worsen?
        </strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        I'd say the situation improved significantly. There's now more devices to
        choose from, easier installation and many more apps now available 
as 
        Free Software.
    </p>

    <p>
        However, there is also more use-cases like banking, ride-sharing or instant-
        messages that are sometimes only available via a proprietary app and 
        due to their connection to a specific company they are hard to replace 
        with a general purpose Free Software solution.
    </p>


	<img src="media/3a001a67.bf8fe585b03c1eb743d0d85665e3671f2x.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/thumb/bf8fe585b03c1eb743d0d85665e3671f@2x.jpeg"/> 'While the Openmoko was a great phone, its 
	development fragmented and eventually stopped. Few phones were 
	actually produced, but I managed to get one.' Torsten Grote holding 
	an Openmoko phone in 2008.

    <p>
        <strong>
            The world of Custom-ROMs is hard to oversee and there are 
            many different developments from more or less known 
            entities being shared in different channels. What is your 
            recommendation for a newbie or where can an interested user 
            best start to learn more about Android alternatives?
        </strong>
    </p>

    <p>        
        If you already have a phone that you want to install an 
        alternative Android version on, then LineageOS is a good start 
        since they support many devices. However, they do so by 
        including the same proprietary drivers and firmware that is 
        already on the device anyway.
    </p>

    <p>
        If you don't have a device yet, but plan to buy one, I suggest 
        to choose an Android version first and then buy a device that 
        is supported by it. Only Replicant is using 100% Free Software 
        here and thus supports only old devices.
    </p>

    <p>
        Unfortunately, I am not aware of a single website that presents 
        and recommends various Android ROMs. Since the situation 
        changes frequently, this is hard to maintain. For example, 
        besides those mentioned already, there's now also CalyxOS 
        gaining popularity.
    </p>



        'If you already have a phone that you want to install an 
        alternative Android version on, then LineageOS is a good start 
        since they support many devices.'
    
    <p>
        <strong>
            You are also creator of two Free Software mobile apps that 
            are offered on f-droid. What role does f-droid play for 
            freedom on Android devices in current setups and what 
            developments do you expect / wish for or see coming 
            regarding distribution of free software on mobile devices?
    </strong>
    </p>


    <p>
        F-Droid is <strong>the</strong> destribution channel for Free 
        Software apps. Without it, you would need to find, install and 
        update apps manually. So it is a rather central piece in a free 
        mobile device.
    </p>
    
    <p>
        F-Droid is almost as old as Android itself. It has seen many 
        awesome contributors over the years that all helped to make it 
        what it is. But F-Droid has also aged and required substantial 
        work to get modernized. This kind of work is hard to do for 
        volunteer contributors that work without compensation in their 
        free time.
    </p>
    <p>
        There are now many forks and clones of the F-Droid app that 
        would benefit from having F-Droid libraries, so they could 
        share and maintain most the code together instead of each doing 
        their own thing.
    </p>
    <p>
        Then there is this whole area of building and updating all apps 
        directly from their source code ideally reproducibile. Here, we 
        sometimes see large delays as this responsibility historically 
        lies with a single person.
    </p>
    <p>
        My wish for the future would be that F-Droid finds the 
        governance and funding to tackle these big issues to remain a 
        viable alternative to Google Play.
    </p>


    <p>
        <strong>
            What is your personal highlight with the FSFE or an 
            important thing that you learnt from your work at the FSFE?
        </strong>
    </p>


    <p>
        My highlight with FSFE were always the in-person meetings, 
        especially those of the general assembly that would meet in a 
        different European country each time. We were discussing Free 
        Software strategy by day and partying together by night. It was 
        impressive to see how we always managed to establish a 
        consensus between all members on organizational questions.
    </p>


	<img src="media/93daf0f2.4040b50c3e4b65eed8ec813872a16fcf2x.jpeg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/thumb/4040b50c3e4b65eed8ec813872a16fcf@2x.jpeg"/> Since many years now Torsten lives in Brazil and 
	works for different Free Software projects from Tor to Briar to 
	CalyxOS.

    <p>
        <strong>
            And what is a story that still makes you laugh or smile 
            when you remember it?
        </strong>
    </p>


    <p>
        When FSFE started its Free Your Android campaign, I had a big 
        smile over my two ears to see the huge media echo it caused 
        like few FSFE campaigns before. I was glad to see that it had 
        hit a nerve and even the subway news monitors in Berlin had 
        picked it up.
    </p>

    <p>
        Years later, some F-Droid contributors confessed that they only 
        got involved and spend many years improving F-Droid and adding 
        more apps, because they had been motivated to join this work by 
        the Free Your Android campaign. It is great to see what impact 
        a few motivated people can have if they dedicate themselves to 
        a cause.
    </p>


    <p>
         <strong>FSFE: As a last question, what do you wish the FSFE 
         for the next 20 years?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>
        I wish that FSFE will continue to be a strong and respected NGO 
        with an even bigger staff that will be able to educate the 
        public as well as more and more European politicians about the 
        importance of Free Software, so that we can participate in all 
        aspects of society without having to use proprietary software. 
        Furthermore, I wish that this will lead to all public software 
        spending going exclusively towards Free Software.
    </p>


    <p>
         <strong>FSFE: Thank you very much!</strong>
    </p>
<h3>About "20 Years FSFE"</h3><p>
        In 2021 the Free Software Foundation Europe turns 20. This means 
        two decades of <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/about.html">empowering users to 
        control technology</a>. 
    </p>
            <img src="media/0409b849.53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/53aeebdafa0a0c83324dcafc1e4bef1c.png"/>
        <p>
        Turning 20 is a time when we like to take a breath and to look back 
        on the road we have come, to reflect the milestones we have passed, 
		the successes we have achieved, the stories we have written and 
		the moments that brought us together and that we will always 
		joyfully  remember. In 2021 we want to give momentum to the 
		FSFE and even more to our pan-European community, the community 
		that has formed  and always will form the shoulders that our 
		movement relies on. 
    </p><p>
        <strong>20 Years FSFE is meant to be a celebration of everyone who 
        has accompanied us in the past or still does. Thank you for 
		contributing your piece of the puzzle that shapes the FSFE and 
		setting the foundation for the next decades' work of the 
		movement  for software freedom. </strong>
    </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202106
title: Rising demands for Dutch digital autonomy +++ REUSE Booster +++ Torsten Grote
uri: Rising-demands-for-Dutch-digital-autonomy-REUSE-Booster-Torste
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202106.fr.html
content:
<h1>Rising demands for Dutch digital autonomy +++ REUSE Booster +++ Torsten Grote</h1><p>
		Dutch digital public services rely increasingly on monopolistic 
		companies; the FSFE Dutch team actively demands digital rights. In 
		June, we launched REUSE Booster to share legal advice with Free 
		Software projects on copyright. We interviewed Torsten Grote, a 
		member of the FSFE, who stressed the need to Free our Androids 
		early on.
	</p><h2>Dutch Digital Autonomy is undermined; demands for Free Software are rising </h2><p>
		The Netherlands is becoming dependent on a digital 
		infrastructure that is dominated by a small number of monopolistic 
		companies. Although the Dutch Cyber Security Council recognises the 
		consequent risk, their report neglects focusing on Open Standards 
		and Free Software, the proven best practices to face this problem. 
		The FSFE calls on the Dutch government to stand firm and <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210521-01.html">get a grip on their digital 
		security and autonomy by adhering to Open Standards and Free 
		Software</a>, in line with their earlier commitment to use Free 
		Software by default.
	</p><p>
		Our team emphatically defends digital rights in the Netherlands. In 
		2018, Jos van den Oever noticed that the 'Debat Direct' app 
		could not be downloaded to his Firefox OS phone. In other words, the 
		official application for parliamentary debates was not available under 
		a Free Software license. Jos' request to get the app's source 
		code was denied, and he brought the case to court. The Council of State 
		ruled on 31 March 2021 that the Parliament does not have to publish the 
		source code. As a result, the <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210611-01.html">participation app remains 
		closed</a> to those who wish to use only Free Software apps.
	</p><p>
		Jos van den Oever, the person behind this initiative, is a 
		FSFE volunteer and part of our country team Netherlands.  Its 
		members kept in touch even during the pandemic, when they had to 
		replace booths for online meetings. Nico Rikken, one of the two 
		coordinators, shares his experiences about this transition in a 
		blogpost, and <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/nico.rikken/2021/06/23/how-the-netherlands-group-grew-in-covid-times/">calls 
		anyone interested to join the FSFE community based in the 
		Netherlands.</a>.
	</p>
		<img src="media/e2147e80.e45c727fb2a6c6ebf06a3ad31b594d18.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/e45c727fb2a6c6ebf06a3ad31b594d18.jpg"/>FSFE spot in a non-profit hacker-camp. The Netherlands, 2017.
	<h2>REUSE Booster supports Free Software projects with licensing</h2><p>
		REUSE has facilitated the licensing of Free Software projects. 
		Developers are given standardised ways to mark all files in a 
		project with their chosen license and copyright notice. A 
		tutorial, a set of FAQs, a helper tool, and an API have been 
		made available to lower the threshold and save time.
	</p><p>
		With REUSE Booster, the FSFE takes this initiative a step 
		further. <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210609-01.html">Free 
		Software projects can seek tailored support</a> with licensing 
		and copyright by legal experts now. Each project will be 
		evaluated individually and the recommendations will apply to 
		its particular situation. <a href="https://reuse.software/booster/">Register</a> until 8 
		July to get your Free Software project on board.
	</p>
		<img src="media/dead22c4.0027eafb7bb2fdb1ec479675c1070ae2.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/0027eafb7bb2fdb1ec479675c1070ae2.png"/>
	<h2>20 Years FSFE: Envisioning free operating systems in smartphones with Torsten Grote</h2><p>
		In our fourth birthday publication we reminisce about the 
		emergence of the first smartphones. We are <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210625-01.html">interviewing</a> 
		Torsten Grote, who explored Free Software alternatives for 
		smartphones as early as 2012. A programmer as well as a Free 
		Software activist, Torsten shares his memories of the 
		developments of alternative operating systems and applications 
		for smartphones. Finally, we would not miss this chance to ask 
		him what options there are today for liberating our phones. 
	</p>
		<img src="media/0d3c1587.2428e0d5718d202093340c681d818ecc.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/2428e0d5718d202093340c681d818ecc.jpg"/>
	<p>This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">Support our work for the next 20 years to come</a></p><h2>Internal: The FSFE is migrating its IRC presence to Libera Chat.</h2><p>
		<a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210525-01.html">Learn how to join us</a>. 
		We are moving from Freenode to Libera Chat, following the migration of 
		its network of volunteer staff.  We share our thoughts that led the 
		FSFE to migrate its IRC presence.
	</p><h2>What we have done</h2><ul>
		<li>
			On June 28th, Erik Albers, Sustainability Programme Manager 
			of the FSFE, spoke at the Round Table <a href="https://www.greens-efa.eu/en/article/event/how-do-we-shape-and-grow-a-green-tech-sector">"How 
			do we shape and grow a green tech sector?"</a> 
			organised by the Greens/EFA. In his presentation, Erik 
			Albers explained the role software design plays on the 
			environmental impact of digital technologies. The Round 
			Table is part of a wider effort of the Greens/EFA to 
			compose a digital green manifesto.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 23rd, Lucas Lasota, FSFE Deputy Legal 
			Coordinator and Research Associate at Humboldt 
			University of Berlin, moderated a <a href="https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/02071075f39248f6a2f6/">round 
			table</a> on cybersecurity, human rights, and digital 
			sovereignty together with Katerina Yordanova and 
			Elisabetta Biasin from the KU Leuven Centre for IT 
			&amp; IP Law.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 23rd, Irmhild Rogalla gave a talk in the FSFE 
			Women group meeting about the accessibility of video 
			conferencing tools, supporting a conferencing platform for 
			all. The <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women">FSFE 
			Women group</a> meets on a monthly basis, and keeps it 
			casual while providing an open space to discuss recent 
			developments in the area of Free Software. Often meetings 
			focus on one specific topic.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 19th, Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's President, 
			<a href="https://peertube.tv/videos/watch/1fd019fd-2fcf-4777-8b3a-59ac647ab542">presented</a> 
			"20 Years FSFE: The long way for software 
			freedom" at the openSUSE Conference to inform 
			people on our work as an independent organisation.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 18th, Bonnie Mehring, FSFE's junior project 
			manager, <a href="https://peertube.social/videos/watch/c3ae2ad6-f2e0-4168-a28b-f7b2c73e154f">presented</a> 
			"Public Money? Public Code!: A campaign framework 
			to promote software freedom" at the openSUSE 
			Conference. In the talk, she explained how the campaign 
			framework can be used to push for the adoption of 
			Free-Software-friendly policies in your area; be it 
			your public administration, your library, your 
			university, your city, your region, or your 
			country.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 16th, the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/action/show/LocalGroups/BNL">Netherlands-based 
			FSFE</a> team held its regular monthly meeting. The 
			meeting is open to everybody, and can switch to English 
			if not everybody understands Dutch.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 10th, Erik Albers participated in the <a href="https://www.ressourcenwende.net/veranstaltung/zukunftswerkstatt-smart-living-nachhaltig-gerecht-selbstbestimmt/">"Zukunftswerkstatt 
			Smart Living"</a>, where experts analyse 
			sustainable design options for the ongoing digitization 
			of our everyday life.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 5th, Lina Ceballos and Alexander Sander gave a 
			'Public Money? Public Code!' <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC">workshop</a> 
			for our Italian community members.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 4th,  Lucas Lasota participated at the <a href="https://peertube.social/videos/watch/e73c6cf0-2ef0-4b1e-8b2c-441ecd055a2a">Impropedia 
			show</a> to talk about Free Software, Router Freedom, 
			and Digital Rights. The event was hosted by KuZe 
			Potsdam.
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 1st, Alexander Sander participated in the 
			GnuLinuxNews-Podcast GLN011.  He <a href="https://gnulinux.ch/gln011-podcast">talked</a> 
			about Free Software during the Corona crisis (DE).
		</li>
		<li>
			On June 1st, FSFE's Alexander Sander <a href="https://peertube.social/videos/watch/585c88dd-4f2b-450c-9ffc-66005f11e030">presented</a> 
			the Public Money? Public Code! campaign in 
			Netzpolitischer Abend, organised by Digitale 
			Gesellschaft, and stressed that there are now no 
			political excuses not to implement the concept.
		</li>
		<li>
			On May 27th, the FSFE Berlin local group met for their 
			regular meeting which focuses on Education. Miriam from 
			"Die Lernwerkstatt" introduced this 
			organisation and gave a talk on the design of digital 
			learning with tips on related platforms and techniques. 
			A group discussion followed. In the Berlin Fellowship 
			group, everyone is invited to discuss "Free 
			Software and Education", share experiences, and 
			work on liberating knowledge and education in Berlin 
			and beyond.
		</li>
		<li>
			On May 26th, Alexander Sander gave a <a href="https://public-money.confetti.events/">talk</a> 
			explaining why and how pubic administrations should use 
			Free Software. He highlighted the benefits of this 
			practice for public administrations, the economy and 
			the society. The current procurement models and an 
			outlook for the coming years were discussed.
		</li>
	</ul><h2>Get active</h2><p>
		Pack your T-shirt and educate those around you on the 
		definition of Free Software during your summer holidays. If we 
		have the right to use, study, share, and improve it, then it is 
		Free Software. Our T-shirts are made of 100% organic cotton, 
		and our <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/index.html">collection</a> includes a 
		variety of colours and slogans.
	</p>
		<img src="media/0c5dafba.d3ce34050d68a144c456db25dcd765be.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/d3ce34050d68a144c456db25dcd765be.jpg"/>
	<h2>Contribute to our newsletter</h2><p>
		If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please 
		send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. 
		We're looking forward to hearing from you! If you also want to 
		support us and our work, join our community and support us with a 
		donation or a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">monthly 
		contribution</a>. Thanks to our community and all the volunteers, 
		supporters, and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our 
		translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your native 
		languages.
	</p><p>
		Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou
	</p><p>
		The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of physical 
		distancing is the cancellation of Free Software conferences, including 
		our own events. To keep the software freedom movement solid and alive, 
		please consider  <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">donating a part 
		of your conference budget to Free Software organisations, including the 
		FSFE</a>.
	</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210629-01
title: How Finland implemented Router Freedom: the regulator's perspective
uri: How-Finland-implemented-Router-Freedom-the-regulator-s-perspective
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210629-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>How Finland implemented Router Freedom: the regulator's perspective</h1><p>Finland became renowned in the beginning of the last decade for its internet accessibility policies. Now, in the context of the telecom reform in the EU, Finland has assured Router Freedom in the country. The FSFE acknowledges this as a major win for end-users' rights. We interviewed Klaus Nieminen, a representative of the Finnish network regulator Traficom, to learn more about this decision.</p><p>In the last decade, Finland became renowned for its digital transformation policies, which gave the country the status of having one of the most digitally-oriented populations. In particular, Finland has been praised for its efforts in implementing rules on a legislative level to ensure internet broadband connection for its entire population. The country's internet policies focused on affordability of connection have resulted in <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/routers.html">Router Freedom</a>. In 2014, Finland <a href="media/2684fe98.en20140917.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2014/en20140917.pdf">established</a> Router Freedom in the country. The law stated that internet service providers (ISPs) should not prevent an end-user from connecting to a public communications network any radio or telecommunications terminal equipment that meets the legal requirements.</p><p>In 2020, following the <a href="https://www.traficom.fi/en/communications/communications-networks/open-internet-or-net-neutrality">implementation of net neutrality</a> in the country, Traficom, the Finnish national regulatory authority, <a href="media/53a8b055.Check-list-regarding-the-EU-Net-Neutrality.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.traficom.fi/sites/default/files/media/file/Check-list-regarding-the-EU-Net-Neutrality.pdf">confirmed Router Freedom</a>. We consider this decision as a major achievement in protecting end-users' rights.</p><p>With other EU countries, however, there are still several issues to overcome. As the <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200601-01.html">FSFE has been reporting</a>, the reform of EU telecommunications law with the European Electronic Communications Code (the EECC) has the potential to negatively affect Router Freedom. The transposition of the EECC into national jurisdictions <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210505-01.html">has been complex</a>, imposing challenges for a harmonised approach. In this context, the FSFE asked Traficom how Router Freedom would be regulated after the reform in Finland. Traficom confirmed its commitment to Router Freedom, stating that it will not change the current framework for the ongoing telecom reform. This complies with the demands FSFE has been making to regulators across Europe.</p><p>To learn more about this decision and the future of Router Freedom in Finland we interviewed Klaus Nieminen, Traficom's Chief Specialist. We shed light on how regulators should approach Router Freedom from the perspective of end-users' rights, so other countries that are in the process of reforming their telecom law can learn and profit from the Finnish experience and commit themselves to protecting Router Freedom in their jurisdictions.</p>
    <img src="media/ddfd7e57.14ccf43e17da8f376e00f53d968b6b25.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/14ccf43e17da8f376e00f53d968b6b25.png"/>
     Klaus Nieminen, Traficom's Chief Specialist.
<p>
       <strong>FSFE: In 2014, Finland introduced Router Freedom as a principle. Will you stick to this principle also in the current reform process? Why does Finland consider Router Freedom important for end-users' rights?</strong>
    </p>
    <p><strong>Klaus Nieminen:</strong> Router Freedom is a right for end-users. It is also important to enable and foster competition in the telecommunications terminal equipment markets. The Open Internet Regulation (2015/2120 (EU)) states that end-users shall have the right to use terminal equipment of their choice as defined in Commission Directive 2008/63/EC. Providers of internet access services should not impose restrictions on the use of terminal equipment connecting to the network in addition to those imposed by manufacturers or distributors of terminal equipment in accordance with Union law. The rules are stable and we did not see any need to change our position.</p>

Router Freedom is a right for end-users. It is also important to enable and foster competition in the telecommunications terminal equipment markets.
    <p><strong>The EU is reforming its telecommunications law with the EECC. Dispositions on the location of the "Network Termination Point" could negatively affect Router Freedom. What is Traficom's approach in regards to Router Freedom and the telecom reform? What is your take on the EU position and are you in touch with other countries on that?</strong>
    </p>


    <p>As far as we understand, the use of terminal devices can only be restricted in accordance with the Open Internet Regulation, e.g. when it is necessary for information security or technical compatibility reasons. The end-user's right to choose the terminal device does not apply to those devices which it is, according to an objective assessment, technically necessary to consider part of the telecommunications operator's network. The definition of the fixed network termination point (NTP) location has an impact on whether a piece of equipment at the customer premises is a part of the public network or a part of the terminal equipment and therefore we consider this assessment to be of utmost importance.</p>


    <p> <strong>Has Traficom detected any "technological necessity" that could potentially limit Router Freedom?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>We have studied this question regarding cable modems, and after an objective assessment, Traficom decided that no technological necessity exists to justify limiting end-users' rights to choose their own equipment. In Finland the right to choose terminal equipment has existed for years so it has been more or less traditional that end-users can choose their modem. Therefore I might say that the topic has not been very controversial in our country. We have for example never seen a case where an ISP have argued a CPE router to be part of their network.</p>
        
    <p>Many years ago we had some pre-standard WiMAX networks where the modems needed to be configured for a particular network in a factory and this has been the only case where we have detected a clear technological necessity as only the operator was able to buy a device working in its network.</p>

After an objective assessment, Traficom decided that no technological necessity exists to justify limiting end-users' rights to choose their own equipment. In Finland the right to choose a terminal equipment has existed for years so it has been more or less traditional that end-users can choose their modem.
    <p><strong>In your opinion, what could be done to achieve a harmonised approach by identifying "technological necessity" together with other EU members to protect Router Freedom in Europe?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>The topic has been discussed by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).  BEREC has issued guidelines to provide guidance to national regulatory authorities (NRAs) on common approaches to the identification of the NTP in different network topologies. It has contributed to the harmonisation of defining the location of NTPs in the EU. BEREC also provides a forum for NRAs to exchange views, which has also contributed towards a harmonised approach. Anyway, it is up to the NRAs to assess the technological necessity and take the decision.</p>
	

    <p><strong>Do ISPs respect Router Freedom in Finland? Do you receive complaints from end-users?</strong>
    </p>

	<p> ISPs in Finland have been respecting the rules. End-users can choose their terminal equipment including modems and routers.</p>

	<p>Traficom has received only a few complaints from end-users during the past two years. After the investigation, it turned out that the rules have been respected. The cases were related to the modem specific security and interoperability issues as some modems aren't fully compatible with the network service provided and the requirements described by ISPs.</p>

	<p>On the other hand, we had to remind our ISPs only once, a few years ago, by imposing a decision against their practices. In the decision Traficom concluded that an operator had violated national legislation and the Open Internet Regulation by prohibiting the user from using a cable modem that meets the requirements laid down by law without legal grounds for the prohibition. Moreover, Traficom considered that the operator could not prohibit in advance the connection to its network of equipment other than those devices it has pre-approved. The operator changed its practices to comply with the decision, and after that no further enforcement actions were needed.</p>


    <p><strong>Looking into the future, what is your approach to protect Router Freedom regarding new technologies like 5G and FTTH (fibre to the home)?</strong>
    </p>

    <p>Operators normally provide a modem for their 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) subscriptions, but as far as we know, it is not mandatory to use those devices. Therefore end-users can use their own modems and routers. Operators provide an ONT for their FTTH subscriptions, but we have not further studied the possibility to replace the ONT with a different device as there have been no complaints or questions regarding this. For mobile 5G subscriptions, end-users can buy their own modems, tablets and handsets.</p>

Operators normally provide a modem for their 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) subscriptions, but as far as we know, it is not mandatory to use those devices. Therefore end-users can use their own modems and routers.
    <p>
         <strong>FSFE: Thank you very much!</strong>
    </p>
<h3>The Router Freedom initiative</h3><p><a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/routers.html">Router Freedom</a> is the right that consumers of any Internet Service Provider (ISP) have to choose and use a private modem and router instead of equipment that the ISP provides. Since 2013, the Free Software Foundation Europe has been successfully engaged with Router Freedom, promoting end-users' freedom to choose and use their own terminal equipment - first in Germany as a precedent, and now in many European countries. Join us and learn more about the several ways to <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html">get involved</a>. 
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: episode-11
title: SFP#11: REUSE Booster and our update on REUSE with Max Mehl
uri: SFP-11-REUSE-Booster-and-our-update-on-REUSE-with-Max-Mehl
url: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-11.fr.html
content:
<h1>SFP#11: REUSE Booster and our update on REUSE with Max Mehl</h1><p>
Max Mehl and Bonnie Mehring talk about the REUSE initiative and the newly launched REUSE Booster programme. This 11th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast is the perfect match for you if you are interested in Free Software licensing and curious about how REUSE and its tools make that easier for developers and users.
</p><p>For this episode we have invited Max Mehl. This is the first time since the launch of the Software Freedom Podcast that a FSFE staff member joins the podcast. Max Mehl, FSFE's program manager, has been with the FSFE since 2011 and has worked on the numerous campaigns. Including the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/">"I Love Free Software Day"</a>, <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/android/">"Free Your Android"</a>, <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/">"Router Freedom"</a>, and the <a href="https://publiccode.eu">"Public Money? Public Code!"</a> campaign just to name a few. Nowadays, Max Mehl is also the responsible for the <a href="https://reuse.software/">REUSE initiative</a> and one of the REUSE tool's maintainers.</p><p>REUSE is a standard for modern licensing of Free Software projects. It is widely adopted and has been implemented by larger Free Software communities like KDE. In this episode Bonnie Mehring and Max Mehl talk about REUSE itself and its tools, the development of the REUSE community and the newly launched <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210609-01.html">REUSE Booster</a> programme, which is the perfect opportunity for an easy entrance to adopting the REUSE standard for your software project. With this episode Bonnie Mehring and Max Mehl provide a nice and easy entrance to the very complex world of software licensing. </p><p>Read more:</p><ul>
  <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210609-01.html">REUSE Booster helps Free Software projects with licensing and copyright</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://reuse.software/">REUSE campaign</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/about/people/mehl/mehl.en.html">Max Mehl</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-4.en.html">SFP#4 about REUSE with Carmen Bianca Bakker</a></li>
</ul><p>If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate/">donation</a>.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210721-01
title: FSFE: 20 years of empowering people to control technology
uri: FSFE-20-years-of-empowering-people-to-control-technology
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210721-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>FSFE: 20 years of empowering people to control technology</h1><p>
    Marking twenty years of the FSFE, we highlight the importance of 
    software freedom in Europe and important 
    accomplishments since 2001. We shed light on our community with a 
    birthday page where you can find community interviews and videos. 
    People are invited to celebrate with us and share their own 
    stories.
  </p><p>
	Long before the first smartphone was introduced, it was evident to
	the FSFE's founders that it is the people who should be in 
	control of technology and not vice versa. In 2001, Free Software 
	experts around Europe therefore <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2001q2/000003.html">created</a> 
	the Free Software Foundation Europe. 20 years later, we successfully 
	concentrate our daily work on <a href="https://fsfe.org/about/ourwork.html">three main 
	pillars</a> to help software freedom thrive in Europe: public 
	awareness, policy advocacy, and legal support.
  </p>
    <img src="media/073fc97f.757e1cb6599c1e9f76b202fa52033a73.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/757e1cb6599c1e9f76b202fa52033a73.jpg"/>
<h2>Some highlights of the last 20 years</h2><p>
	In 2021, the FSFE looks back on a successful history with 
	major successes in the public, legal, and policy fields. For example 
	in 2005, when our intense <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2004q2/000057.html">campaigning</a> 
	and collaboration with other organisations persuaded the European 
	Parliament to <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q3/000109.html">vote</a> 
	against Software Patents. Or two years later, when the European 
	Court of Justice aligned with the FSFE, <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.html">requiring 
	Microsoft to publish interoperability information</a>. During that 
	time, we saw that it was needed to help Free Software developers by 
	clarifying the legal aspects of their work, such as the enforcement 
	in case of license violations. This led to the FSFE starting to 
	work with Free Software legal advocates and practitioners for legal 
	initiatives in 2006.
  </p><p>
    Meanwhile, the FSFE maintains <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/ln.html">the world's 
	largest professional network on legal issues related to Free 
	Software</a>. The FSFE's legal experts on this network help 
	with concrete licensing consultancy. To this end in 2017 we also 
	created the highly successful <a href="https://reuse.software/">REUSE</a> initiative to provide a 
	set of recommendations that make licensing Free Software projects 
	easier for developers. REUSE has been adopted by well known 
	projects such as the German Corona Warn App and the KDE.
  </p><p>
	Since its founding, the FSFE has been committed to running public 
	campaigns and helping people to understand the benefits of Free 
	Software. As early as 2012, we helped users to overcome software 
	restrictions in their phones with the launch of our <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/android/">'Free Your 
	Android' campaign</a>. Two years earlier we introduced <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/index.html">"I Love Free Software Day"</a> which is celebrated around the 
	globe every year on 14 February. In 2017, we launched the 
	extraordinarily successful <a href="https://publiccode.eu/">'Public Money? Public Code!' 
	campaign</a>, convincing several public administrations to change 
	their IT strategy. The accompanying  <a href="https://publiccode.eu/openletter/">open letter</a> has been signed 
	by over 200 civil society organisations, 31.000 individuals, and 
	several public administrations like the city of Barcelona and the 
	Swedish JobTech Development center.
   </p><h2>FSFE20 campaign: handing over the mic to our community</h2><p>
    Of course, all these accomplishments can only give a glimpse of the 
    impact of the FSFE and our activities in the last 20 years. They do not tell how all these successes are the result of our 
    large community that we can rely on. To at least shed light on some 
    of them we created the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.html">FSFE20 campaign</a>
    this year, where we hand over the mic to our community.
  </p><p>
    We have contacted people who paved the way of the FSFE since its beginning, 
    such as long term contributors and past staffers. In a series of 
    interviews we discuss the progress of the FSFE as well as 
    technological topics. Every person who is involved in the FSFE has 
    unique memories, expertise, and hopes for the future. They are all part 
    of the story of 20 Years FSFE.
  </p>
    <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.html"/>
  <p>
	So far we interviewed <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210204-01.html">Georg 
	Greve</a>, founder president of the FSFE; <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210305-01.html">Reinhard 
	Müller</a>, long-term volunteer and former Financial Officer of the 
	FSFE; <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210420-01.html">Fernanda 
	Weiden</a>, former Vice President of FSFE and founding member of 
	FSF Latin America; and <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210625-01.html">Torsten 
	Grote</a>, Free Software developer and long time volunteer in the 
	FSFE.
  </p><p>
	And this is just the beginning. We will conduct several more 
	interviews to shed light on 20 Years FSFE. In addition,  this autumn we want to publish another dedicated birthday page whose content is entirely made from our community contributions.
  You will find more on this and the interviews on our <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.html">birthday 
	page</a>! Besides these interviews, you will also find a birthday 
	video from science-fiction author Cory Doctorow and one by our 
	current president Matthias Kirschner alongside information on 
	how people can join the celebrations.
  </p>
    <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.html">FSFE20 Birthday Page</a>           
    <h3>A 
message to you from our President Matthias Kirschner</h3><p>
        Although technology is ever-changing, our values have been 
        consistent throughout the last twenty years. The core of our work 
        is, in a nutshell: educating people on the nature of Free Software, 
        highlighting its political implications, and simplifying its legal 
        preconditions. Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE since 
        2015, explains this in his own words in a short video.
    </p>
        
        
        
             
    <h2>Celebrate with us!</h2><p>
 This autumn we want to publish another dedicated birthday page whose content is entirely made from your contributions. <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.html#join-the-celebrations">This is the time for you to join in!</a>

Would you like to share your thoughts about your time with the FSFE? 
You can answer our interview questions. We are looking forward to 
hearing from you! </p><p> Other ways you can join our celebration are to send 
us FSFE pictures from the past, or to create a birthday video and share 
your wishes for the future. Find out how to <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.html">share your throwback</a> in 
our birthday page.
    
To cherish this anniversary we also produced something commemorative. Show off your long lasting dedication to Free Software by having an 'FSFE since 2001' <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.html#fsfe-since-2001-sticker">sticker</a> on your laptop.
</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202107
title: 20 Years FSFE +++ Finland achieving Router Freedom +++ microFSFE
uri: 20-Years-FSFE-Finland-achieving-Router-Freedom-microFSFE
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202107.fr.html
content:
<h1>20 Years FSFE +++ Finland achieving Router Freedom +++ microFSFE</h1><p>
  In July Newsletter, we invite our community to join the 
    celebrations of 20 Years FSFE, we applaud Finland for securing 
    Router Freedom, and we look into Free Software activities for 
    children. We are getting ready for German elections and invite you 
    to help us support Free Software demands for public administration 
    during the election campaign.
  </p><h2>FSFE: 20 years of empowering people to control technology</h2><p>
    Long before the first smartphone was introduced, it was evident to 
    the FSFE's founders that it is the people who should be in 
    control of technology and not vice versa. In 2001, Free Software 
    experts around Europe created the Free Software Foundation Europe. </p><p>
    20 years is a long time in computing history and although 
    technology is ever-changing, our values have been consistent. The 
    core of our work is, in a nutshell: educating people on the nature 
    of Free Software, highlighting its political implications, and 
    simplifying its legal preconditions. Matthias Kirschner, President 
    of the FSFE since 2015, <a href="https://fsfe.org/2021/news-20210721-01.html#a-birthday-message-from-our-president-matthias-kirschner">explains</a> 
    this in his own words in a short video.
  </p>
    <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210721-01.html#a-birthday-message-from-our-president-matthias-kirschner">
    
    </a>
  <p>
    Our work throughout the years would not have been possible without 
    the help of our European community. Whether you have translated our 
    news, used your voice to share our message, helped us financially, 
    or participated in one of our public events: you have helped our 
    cause to take a step further.</p><p> 
    Would you like to share your thoughts 
    about your time with the FSFE? We are looking forward to hearing 
    from you. Also we would love to see pictures from your activities 
    in the past and share them with the community. Or, if you are 
    feeling creative, you can send us a birthday video, just like the 
    science-fiction author Cory Doctorow did. Do not miss to watch it 
    and to find out more on how to share your throwback on our <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.html">birthday page</a>.
  </p><h2>Router Freedom achieved in Finland, as the most fair and efficient practice</h2><p>
    Finland recognises Router Freedom as a digital right, setting an 
    example for the EU. Net neutrality is ensured by EU Regulation. 
    However, net neutrality also means that users have the right to use 
    terminal equipment of their choice, such as a phone or modem. For 
    Finland, this is clear. Traficom, the national agency dealing with 
    transportation, communications, and networks, has a noteworthy 
    stance on the issue, <a href="https://www.traficom.fi/en/communications/communications-networks/open-internet-or-net-neutrality">protecting</a> 
    the rights of end-users.
  </p>
    <img src="media/ddfd7e57.14ccf43e17da8f376e00f53d968b6b25.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/14ccf43e17da8f376e00f53d968b6b25.png"/>
  <p>
    We <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210629-01.html">interviewed</a> Klaus 
    Nieminen, Chief Specialist of Traficom. In his view, Router Freedom 
    benefits end-users, fosters competition in the telecommunications 
    terminal equipment markets, and complies with the Open Internet 
    Regulation 2015/2120 of the EU. He shares that there is no 
    technological necessity to justify limiting end-users' rights 
    to choose their own equipment. Traficom arrived to this conclusion 
    after an objective assessment. Finally, he explains that in Finland 
    Router Freedom also applies to new technologies such as 5G.
  </p><h2>Listen to our Podcast</h2><p>
    This is the first time since the launch of the Software Freedom 
    Podcast that a FSFE staff member gives an interview in our podcast 
    series. Max Mehl, FSFE Programme Manager, has been with the FSFE 
    since 2011 and has worked on numerous campaigns. With this <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-11.html">episode</a> Bonnie Mehring 
    and Max Mehl provide a nice and easy entrance to the very complex 
    world of software licensing.
  </p><p>This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">Support our 
    work for the next 20 years to come</a>
    </p><h2>microFSFE</h2><p>
    Early programmers deserve a spotlight too. From kids to teenagers, 
    the FSFE welcomes early beginners in its community.
  </p><h3>Teaching Free Software to children</h3><p>
    In Kreuzlingen, a city in northern Switzerland, five children had 
    the chance to participate in a 4-day course on Free Software 
    development. The course was free of charge, and it was offered 
    thanks to the creativity and pedagogical skills of FSFE supporter, 
    Peter Bittner. The kids had no prior experience using Linux, so the 
    course started with booting GNU/LINUX from a USB stick, and quickly 
    advanced to working in the terminal using Bash commands and coding 
    Python.
  </p>
    <img src="media/56faa4ed.332b6523f33dd3a5e45b3500aa9f45a3.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/332b6523f33dd3a5e45b3500aa9f45a3.jpg"/>
  <p>
    'We need our kids to know what school doesn't teach 
    them' <a href="https://ferienpass.gitlab.io/blog/">says</a> 
    Peter in his blog about this course. 'Pupils are being taught 
    "products" of the technology giants ("Safari", 
    "Word", "Excel", "PowerPoint") 
    instead of information technology concepts (web browser, text 
    processor, spreadsheet, presentations)'.
  </p><h3>microfashion</h3><p>
    According to scientists, early "nerdiness" can lead to a 
    10% increase in happiness later in life ; ) So do not miss to start early and get one of our fork T-shirts. They are <a href="https://fsfe.org/order/">available for ages 5 to 12</a>, as well as in a <a href="media/18767a27.baby-bib-pink-large.png" data-original-source="https://fsfe.org/order/2017/baby-bib-pink-large.png">bib</a> 
    for babies!
  </p>
    <img src="media/362f498e.kidstshirt-fork-red-front-large.jpg" data-original-source="https://fsfe.org/order/2017/kidstshirt-fork-red-front-large.jpg"/>
  <h3>Teenagers</h3><p>
    By the way, this autumn, the FSFE will launch a new activity for 
    teenagers. Our goal is to share the values of Free Software with 
    young developers. So if you are a young person experimenting with 
    software development, or if you know one, stay tuned.
  </p><h2>Upcoming event</h2><ul>
  <li> 
    On Wednesday August 4th, we are organising an online workshop 
    (DE) to prepare the promotion of our 'Public Money? Public 
    Code!' campaign during the last weeks until the German 
    elections. We need your support to spread our message. If you are 
    interested to be involved in this process, please <a href="https://registration.fsfe.org/btw21-Workshop">register</a> 
    and join our workshop for in-person discussions.
  </li>
  </ul><h2>What we have done:</h2><ul>
  <li>
    On June 23rd, Max Mehl, Programme Manager at the FSFE, presented 
    REUSE in the “Leveraging Open Source Responsibly” <a href="https://www.ow2con.org/view/2021/Abstract_Community_Day#23061545">session</a> 
    at OW2con’21. In his presentation, Max Mehl explained how REUSE 
    makes it easier for developers to declare the licensing and 
    copyright situation for their code.  The presentation is available 
    in <a href="https://peertube.social/videos/watch/a3cb5598-7d97-479e-851c-9dee96bc278f">Peertube</a>. 
    This session is part of a long-term effort by OW2 to promote best 
    practices and good citizenship in open source governance.
  </li>
  <li>
    On July 6th and 7th, Bonnie Mehring and Alexander Sander presented 
    our German federal election campaign to the local groups of 
    Nordhessen and Frankfurt. If you are interested to participate in 
    such a workshop check our upcoming event.
  </li>
  <li>
    On July 22nd,  Bonnie Mehring presented our 'Public Money? 
    Public Code!' campaign in the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women">FSFE women</a> monthly 
    meeting. Also, they discussed what the plans are with respect to 
    the upcoming election campaign of the federal parliament in Germany 
    2021. The FSFE women group is open for all women who are interested 
    in Free Software and technology, and takes place online.
  </li>
  <li>
    On July 24th, translators met online to get to know each other and 
    learn valuable tools for their work, such as the webpreview tool, 
    the translation wiki, and Git. The meeting was hosted by Luca 
    Bonissi, who has created the webpreview tool, and Bonnie Mehring, 
    coordinator of <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Translators">the FSFE translator 
    group</a> team.
  </li>
  <li>
    Alexander Sander, our Policy Consultant, contributed to a report on 
    the use of Free Software in local administrations which was 
    released by the German association for municipal government. The 
    association 'Kommunale Gemeinschaftsstelle für 
    Verwaltungsmanagement (KGSt)', published the <a href="https://www.kgst.de/doc/20210706A0006">report</a> [DE] titled 
    'Open Source in Kommunen – Ein Baustein für mehr Digitale 
    Souveränität.' 
  </li>
  </ul><h2>Legal and Licensing Workshops 2021</h2><p>
    On July 14th, the Online Legal and Licensing Workshop 2021 was 
    completed. The FSFE's Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop 
    (LLW) has been held annually for the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/llw.html">FSFE's Legal Network</a> since 
    2008, and serves as a conference for <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/ln.html">legal experts</a> in the field of 
    Free Software to debate over issues and share best practices 
    surrounding Free Software licenses. Instead of a one-time 
    conference, this year, from March to July, LLW offered online 
    presentations, discussion panels, and workshops continuously.
  </p><p>
    We are very happy to have put up an online edition of the LLW, and 
    we are also looking forward to organize next year's edition of 
    the LLW hopefully in person, to continue building a robust Free 
    Software legal community.
  </p><h2>Get active for the Federal election in Germany</h2>
    <img src="media/c4038c23.d9a1339d919cc9aa979241a4738e7c9d.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/d9a1339d919cc9aa979241a4738e7c9d.png"/>
    
  <p>
    On 26 September, a new Bundestag will be elected in Germany. We are 
    engaged around the election and want to ensure with our activities 
    that "Public Money? Public Code!" play an important role 
    for the next government. Therefore we want to make sure that our 
    "Public Money? Public Code!" demands will be included in 
    the coalition agreement of Germany's next government. To 
    achieve this we need your help and support. We created an <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Bundestagswahl_DE">activity 
    package</a> [DE] for you and will also present it during a workshop 
    on 4 August 2021. If you like to participate,  <a href="https://registration.fsfe.org/btw21-Workshop">register 
    now</a>.
  </p><h2>Contribute to our newsletter</h2><p>
    If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please 
    send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. 
    We're looking forward to hearing from you! If you also want to 
    support us and our work, join our community and support us with a 
    donation or a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">monthly 
    contribution</a>. Thanks to our community and all the volunteers, 
    supporters, and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to 
    our translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your 
    native languages.
  </p><p>Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou</p><p>
    The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of 
    physical distancing is the cancellation of Free Software 
    conferences, including our own events. To keep the software freedom 
    movement solid and alive, please consider  <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">donating a 
    part of your conference budget to Free Software organisations, 
    including the FSFE</a>.
  </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210805-01
title: Dutch authority enforces Router Freedom
uri: Dutch-authority-enforces-Router-Freedom
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210805-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Dutch authority enforces Router Freedom</h1><p>
    The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has published new rules
    that will move Router Freedom forward in the Netherlands. Within 6 months
    Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have to comply and offer the option for
    consumers and companies to connect a modem or router of their own choice.
    The FSFE acknowledges this decision as a major win for consumer rights.
  </p><p>
    <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/">Router Freedom</a> is the
    right that consumers of any ISP have to choose and use a private modem and
    router instead of equipment that the ISP provides. In its <a href="media/fd47e537.beleidsregel-handhaving-besluit-eindapparaten.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.acm.nl/sites/default/files/documents/beleidsregel-handhaving-besluit-eindapparaten.pdf">publication
    (.pdf)</a> the Dutch Authority cites the <a href="https://berec.europa.eu/eng/document_register/subject_matter/berec/regulatory_best_practices/guidelines/9277-berec-guidelines-on-the-implementation-of-the-open-internet-regulation">BEREC
    Guidelines on the Implementation of the Open Internet Regulation</a> as the
    reason for stating the <a href="https://www.acm.nl/en/publications/consumers-and-businesses-are-allowed-choose-their-own-modems">new
    rules</a>. These guidelines came about with the persistent effort of the
    FSFE to draw attention to the importance of and right to Router Freedom. As
    another motivation the ACM explicitly mentions the "significant" group of
    users wanting to take control of their personal data and network devices.
  </p><p>
    The new regulation clarifies which part of the infrastructure falls under
    the governance of the ISP and for which part the user is free to choose
    their own solution. Router Freedom also implies a user is still free to
    choose a modem or router offered by the ISP. It is an important step forward
    that this practice will be the norm from 27 February 2022 and will be
    enforced by the Dutch regulator. Although the legal aspects have been
    defined now in the Netherlands, in practice Router Freedom was <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/CompulsoryRouters">already tolerated
    in the country</a>. Most ISPs indicated that they allow consumers to connect
    their own preferred devices. One even gives consumers a discount if they use
    their own router or modem.
  </p><h2>The details</h2><p>
    An important step forward is the explicit choice by the ACM for the Network
    Termination Point (NTP). The BEREC Guidelines suggest three possible
    locations, in short A) at the end of the cable B) after the modem C) after
    the router or mediabox. The ACM has opted for the NTP to be at the end of
    the cable, offering the maximum of flexibility to the user. This "passive"
    termination point avoids users having to accept the operation of a device
    outside of their control, and allows for Router Freedom.
  </p>
    <img src="media/d697e36d.6d6922a13499024cacf5c0872f0a65df.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/6d6922a13499024cacf5c0872f0a65df.png"/>
    Schematic overview of the Network Termination Point (NTP)
  <p>
    The new rules contain statements on what service should be provided. ISPs
    are allowed to publish a list of devices, but cannot limit the support to
    only that list of devices. ISPs should provide the administrative measures
    within one working day. ISPs maintain the ability to disconnect a user in
    case damage is done to the network. For troubleshooting a policy is
    described by which first the ISP has to check it is not their network that
    is faulty, after which the user can be requested to use a known working
    device provided by the ISP to verify it is not the different modem or router
    that is at fault. In case the custom modem or router is at fault, the ISP is
    allowed to request a financial compensation for providing the known working
    device for testing purposes.
  </p><h2>Space for improvement</h2><p>
    ACM's decision is a major win for all end-users in the Netherlands. The
    decision provides more clarity on the legal aspects involving the NTP.
    However, ISPs' commercial practices involving routers and modems still pose
    barriers against end-users' Router Freedom:
  </p><ul>
    <li>Most ISPs currently offer little to no support for users wanting to
    install their own router;</li>
    <li>Most ISPs demand you still lease a modem as part of the service and keep
    it stored;</li>
    <li>Most ISPs don't offer the same level of service like IPv6 when choosing
    your own router;</li>
    <li>
      Some ISPs offer IPTV (streaming television) solutions that rely on
      different channels than the internet service and so these mediaboxes will
      not work in combination with a custom modem. This point is underscored by
      the ACM as something that they will be reevaluating in the future.
    </li>
  </ul><p>
    The new rules don't contain statements that will change the situation on
    these points, so the FSFE will continue to call for a more robust Router
    Freedom and monitor the situation in the Netherlands.
  </p><h2>The Router Freedom initiative</h2><p>
    Since 2013, the Free Software Foundation Europe has engaged with Router
    Freedom, promoting end-users' freedom to choose and use their own terminal
    equipment - first in Germany as a precedent, and now in many European
    countries. Join us and learn more about the several ways to get <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.html">involved</a>.
  </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210830-01
title: Public bodies fail: Volunteers have to sacrifice free time to make CovPass app available to all
uri: Public-bodies-fail-Volunteers-have-to-sacrifice-free-time-to-make-Cov
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210830-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Public bodies fail: Volunteers have to sacrifice free time to make CovPass app available to all</h1><p>After the successful liberation of the German Corona tracing app from Google services last year, volunteers once more have to step in 
  to take over the government's task in order to make the CovPass app available to everyone.</p><p>With the CovPass app, the EU digital COVID certificate for Corona vaccination can be used on smartphones. Until today, it was only 
  available on Apple, Huawai and Google app stores due to proprietary dependencies. The support team of the CovPass app also argued that 
  the app cannot be published in other app stores due to security reasons and to prevent misuse. This argumentation is not only misleading 
  and wrong, as we have already seen with other Corona apps, but prevents the use of many Corona apps for people who value privacy and 
  software freedom on their devices. A group of volunteers worked heavily in the past weeks to make this app available to everyone and 
  released it today on <a href="https://f-droid.org/packages/de.rki.covpass.app/">F-Droid, a Free Software app store.</a></p><p>To do so, the volunteers also removed proprietary Google libraries which are not necessary for the app to function. This additional work 
  could have been prevented if the CovPass developers (who are paid with public funds) would not include such unnecessary proprietary libraries 
  from the beginning. Furthermore, the company developing CovPass was unsupportive towards external developers, which increased the difficulty 
  for the volunteers to contribute improvements. Because of this, improvements which would have required little effort by the original developers 
  turned out to be a difficult task for volunteers. A positive example is the COVID Certificate, the official app for storing and presenting 
  Swiss COVID certificates. It was developed by the Federal Office of Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication (FOITT) on behalf 
  of the Federal Office of Public Health, and the developers made sure to include the app in the Free Software app store F-Droid themselves.</p>Felix C. Stegerman, software developer and part of the volunteers group that worked on the CovPass app: "I want to 
  make sure that everyone can use publicly financed apps so we can tackle the pandemic. It is sad that the processes of 
  some of those publicly financed apps scare off external contributions instead of working together on improvements. More 
  administrations should follow the example of the developers of the Swiss COVID Certificate app."Matthias Kirschner, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe expresses: "One more time volunteers 
  are taking over governments' and administrations' tasks to make Corona apps available to everyone. The FSFE thanks 
  @jugendhacker, @mythsunwind, @rugk, @tzugen, Felix C. Stegerman and Marcus Hoffmann for their crucial work in tackling 
  the pandemic. But it should not be on volunteers to do this job: we urge the government to quickly adapt its practices 
  and make sure everyone can use such apps without any restrictions from the start. Furthermore, if ensured that solutions 
  are published as Free Software, they can be adjusted and reused by other institutions around the world." 
    <img src="media/8ebea03f.912df5f4c7fcf6e695e339776e65eb1d.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/912df5f4c7fcf6e695e339776e65eb1d.png"/>
    Free Your Android
  <p>Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, the FSFE has demanded that all apps released to tackle the crisis must be Free Software. Only Free 
  Software offers enough transparency to validate complete data protection and compliant use; allowing trust to be established. Also, global problems 
  need global solutions, and it is only Free Software that enables global code development in a legally safe and cooperative environment. Any 
  proprietary solution will inevitably lead to countless isolated solutions and thereby waste energy and time. Besides global cooperation, Free 
  Software licences allow sharing of code in any jurisdiction and for every device.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: nl-202109
title: Demand for transparent CovPass apps in EU +++ Dutch gain Router Freedom
uri: Demand-for-transparent-CovPass-apps-in-EU-Dutch-gain-Router-Freedo
url: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202109.fr.html
content:
<h1>Demand for transparent CovPass apps in EU +++ Dutch gain Router Freedom</h1><p>
	  In our August-September Newsletter, we celebrate the 
	  right of using a custom router in the Netherlands. We explain why 
	  every app that tackles the spread of Covid-19 has to be Free 
	  Software. We share the news of our vibrant community, following 
	  up what happened in the summertime and what lies ahead of us. 
  </p><h2>CovPass apps should be available to all; thus, they should be Free Software</h2><p>
	  Apps that are necessary for everyone should be available to 
	  everyone, without having to install additional and proprietary 
	  software stores. This was not the case with the German CovPass 
	  app, which provides the EU digital COVID certificate for Corona 
	  vaccination on smartphones. It was only available on Apple, 
	  Huawai and Google app stores due to proprietary dependencies. 
	  Such a practice neglects those who consciously avoid proprietary 
	  software and choose to use Free Software. For them, the app was 
	  unavailable.
  </p>
    <img src="media/4fcb8733.5addbc152e4501f8867424798cc918ad.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/5addbc152e4501f8867424798cc918ad.jpg"/>
  <p>
	  Experts saved the day, and therefore we would like to thank <a href="https://gitlab.com/jugendhacker">@jugendhacker</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.com/mythsunwind">@mythsunwind</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.com/rugk">@rugk</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.com/tzugen">@tzugen</a>, Felix C. Stegerman, 
	  and Marcus Hoffmann. Together, they worked selflessly for weeks 
	  and developed the CovPass app for F-droid.  The experts also 
	  removed proprietary Google libraries which were not necessary for 
	  the app to function.
  </p><p>	  
	  This additional work would not have been necessary if the CovPass 
	  developers - who are paid with public funds - had not included 
	  these unnecessary proprietary libraries from the beginning. 
	  Furthermore, the company developing CovPass was unsupportive 
	  towards external developers, which increased the difficulty for 
	  the volunteers to contribute improvements. Because of this, 
	  improvements which would have required little effort by the 
	  original developers turned out to be a difficult task for 
	  third-party experts. It is a typical problem that can be avoided 
	  by releasing as Free Software any software whose development is 
	  publicly funded.
  </p><p>
	  The same process happened last year with the German Covid-tracing app: 
	  experts voluntarily <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201208-01.html">took over</a> 
	  governments' and administrations' tasks to make this 
	  app available to everyone. In the case of Covid-related apps, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210830-01.html">public bodies have 
	  failed</a> in Germany. "We urge the government to quickly 
	  adapt its practices and make sure everyone can use such apps 
	  without any restrictions from the start" says Matthias 
	  Kirschner, President of the FSFE. The silver lining in contrast 
	  is the example of Switzerland, where the official Covid 
	  certificate app was added to F-droid by the Federal Office of 
	  Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication (FOITT).
  </p><h2>Advocating pays off: Dutch Internet users gain Router Freedom</h2><p>
	  Router Freedom is now a reality in the Netherlands. All Internet 
	  Service Providers (ISPs) must <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210805-01.html">allow end-users</a> to 
	  choose and use their own routers and modems within 6 months. 
	  Also, it was secured that consumers who set up an alternative 
	  router should still enjoy technical support by the ISPs. The 
	  Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets' (ACM) decision 
	  represents a victory for consumers in the Netherlands and a win 
	  for net neutrality in Europe.
  </p>
    <img src="media/4e2a573b.b04f1fbb9f8803fa63fe2e839104c4ad.jpg" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/b04f1fbb9f8803fa63fe2e839104c4ad.jpg"/>
  <p>
	  The new rules passed after a persistent effort of the FSFE to 
	  draw attention to the importance of Router Freedom. The FSFE 
	  contacted BEREC raising the Router Freedom demand for the first 
	  time three years ago, in 2018, resulting in establishing Router 
	  Freedom as a standard for European countries. In 2019, 
	  the FSFE contacted the Dutch national agency too, to enquire 
	  about the situation in the country. Since then, the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/BNL">FSFE's Country 
	  Team Netherlands</a> pushed the issue through by organising 
	  seminars, talking to stakeholders, going to events, raising the 
	  issue on social media, and helping with the elaboration of 
	  technical and legal documents.
  </p><p>
	  Now, it is the time to celebrate. ACM's decision is a major win for all end-users in the Netherlands!
  </p><p>
	  Do you want to learn more about the status 
	  of Router Freedom in your country? Check our <a href="https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/router-freedom-tracker_581123#4/53.12/18.37">monitoring 
	  map!</a> You can contribute with our work by taking part in our 
	  <a href="https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/628449?lang=en">end-user 
	  survey</a> to help monitoring Router Freedom in your country. 
  </p><h2>Upcoming events:</h2><p>
	  On Wednesday 15 September at 20:00 CEST, the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/BNL">Dutch FSFE team</a> 
	  will have its monthly meeting. The Dutch team always welcomes new 
	  members. If you would like to take part in the meeting, please 
	  contact the FSFE Coordinator of the Netherlands, Nico Rikken. 
  </p><p>
	  In September's monthly meeting, the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women">FSFE Women group</a> 
	  will discuss gender aspects of learning programming. Research 
	  papers will be briefly presented and discussed. We welcome new 
	  members who identify as females. The date is still to be arranged, 
	  so if you are interested in Free Software join our <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-women">mailing 
	  list</a> and get to know us.
  </p><h2>What we have done:</h2><ul>
  <li>
	  <p>
		  On July 30th, Max Mehl, Programme Manager of the FSFE, <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20210730/germany-knew-its-disaster-warning-system-wasnt-good-enough-why-wasnt-it-improved-2/">gave 
		  an interview</a> in thelocal.de about the disaster warning 
		  system of Germany. The topic came to the spotlight after the 
		  floods in Germany, but the weaknesses of the warning system 
		  were a known issue already. Max argues in favour of 
		  warnings sent through cell broadcast  instead of apps, 
		  because they can reach everyone with a phone and target 
		  specific locations. There is also a publicly accessible <a href="https://www.newsday24.com/norway/germany-knew-its-disaster-warning-system-wasnt-good-enough-why-wasnt-it-improved/">reprint</a> 
		  available.
	   </p>
  </li>
  <li>
	  <p>
		  On August 17th, the <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women">FSFE Women group</a> 
		  met and Loria presented how maps are created in a 2D 
		  workadventu.re world.
      </p>
  </li>
  <li>
	  <p>
		  On August 18th, the FSFE Dutch team met to <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/Netherlands/2021-08-18">discuss</a> 
		  the end of SMS authentication for DigiD, the efforts to 
		  introduce Free Software in schools, and other technological 
		  developments.
	  </p>
  </li>
   <li>
	   <p>
		   On August 22nd at FrOSCon<a href="https://programm.froscon.de/2021/events/2652.html"> </a>, 
                   Alexander Sander, FSFE's Policy 
		   Consultant, presented the latest developments in the 
		   digitization of administrations and ventured an outlook for 
		   the time after the federal elections in Germany.
	  </p>
   </li>
</ul>
    <img src="media/2a63ed77.97a8b98392a834be97ada441bad53b9b.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/97a8b98392a834be97ada441bad53b9b.png"/>
    FSFE information stall on Veganmania, Vienna 2021
  <ul>
    <li>
	  During the last weekend of August, the FSFE Austria participated 
	  in the annual Veganmania summer festival. Next to live music, 
	  street food, and DIY workshops, the Viennese FSFE volunteers team 
	  organised a <a href="https://www.veganmania.at/2021/insel.htm">booth</a> to 
	  explain the basics of Free Software to visitors. The Veganmania 
	  festival is visited by thousands of visitors with diverse 
	  backgrounds. The supporters noticed an increase in how many 
	  people were technically conscious compared to the previous 
	  years. Also, newcomers in the field of Free Software were 
	  interested to read our guides with technical tips to increase 
	  their computer security. Instructions on basic utilities such as 
	  email encryption and password managers gained a lot of attention. 
	  If you are interested to learn more, you can read the <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2021/08/31/fsfe-information-stall-on-veganmania-2021/">report</a> 
	  from the FSFE supporters group in Vienna.
	</li>
 </ul><h2>Get active for the Federal election in Germany</h2><p>
	  On 26 September, a new Bundestag will be elected in Germany. We 
	  are engaged around the election and want to ensure with our 
	  activities that "Public Money? Public Code!" plays an 
	  important role for the next government. Therefore we want to make 
	  sure that our "Public Money? Public Code!" demands will 
	  be included in the coalition agreement of Germany's next 
	  government. To achieve this we need your help and support. You 
	  can learn how you can help us in the dedicated <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Bundestagswahl_DE">activity 
	  package</a> [DE].
  </p><h2>Contribute to our newsletter</h2><p>
    If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please 
    send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. 
    We're looking forward to hearing from you! If you also want to 
    support us and our work, join our community and support us with a 
    donation or a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">monthly 
    contribution</a>. Thanks to our community and all the volunteers, 
    supporters, and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to 
    our translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your 
    native languages.
  </p><p>Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou</p><p>
    The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of 
    physical distancing is the cancellation of Free Software 
    conferences, including our own events. To keep the software freedom 
    movement solid and alive, please consider  <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter">donating a 
    part of your conference budget to Free Software organisations, 
    including the FSFE</a>.
  </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210920-01
title: Interviews for the German federal election 2021
uri: Interviews-for-the-German-federal-election-2021
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210920-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Interviews for the German federal election 2021</h1><p> The 2021 federal election in Germany (26.09.2021) is just around the corner. Digital
sovereignty, through the use of Free Software, is at the
centre of our exchange with the political parties, which we have also
conducted via our organisations' election questions to the parties. We are pleased
that, in a further step, we were able to talk personally with candidates
from all parties with a chance of participating in the next government and ask
them in more depth what they and their party would like to do to advance
digitisation in Germany with Free software. </p><p>There are many encouraging signals that the importance of Free Software
is recognised and addressed by all the parties surveyed. In the end, it
will be important for this to find its way into political work and for
sovereign solutions to be used, especially in the public sector. We
thank all politicians for their support and look forward to continuing
the dialogue after the election when it comes to negotiating the
coalition agreement and starting the substantive work in parliament and
government. We will publish an interview conducted by Alexander Sander
from FSFE and Karl Krüger from OSB Alliance every day from today onwards. 
Interviews are in German.
</p>
  
    
    
  
  
    Nadine Schön, MdB, CDU
Deputy Chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, responsible for the areas of
Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and Digital Agenda
  
<p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: episode-12
title: SFP#12: Enforcement of the GNU GPL with Till Jaeger
uri: SFP-12-Enforcement-of-the-GNU-GPL-with-Till-Jaeger
url: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-12.fr.html
content:
<h1>SFP#12: Enforcement of the GNU GPL with Till Jaeger</h1><p>With our 12th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we dig into the history and the beginning of enforcing Free Software licences, especially the GNU General Public Licence (GNU GPL). Together with Till Jaeger, who has been working alongside Harald Welte for enforcing the GNU GPL in the first court cases in Germany, we talk about the long way we have come since those early days.</p><p>

Our guest, Till Jaeger, discusses with our host, Matthias Kirschner, how the decision to go to court and stand up for the rights of copyleft licences came about. Till and Matthias tell an exciting story about those first steps on this new legal ground. They also highlight the short term and long term impacts of the first court decision in favour of Free Software. For example, how more and more information about licensing and especially using a Free Software licence became available and publicly known. But also how workshops, like the FSFE's yearly <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/llw.html">Legal and Licensing Workshop</a> were created for those interested in using and being compliant to Free Software licences.</p><p>Discover together with us the changes that have come from those first steps to the acceptance of Free Software in companies. Till has been involved with Free Software licensing for a long time and provides a deep and well rounded insight into the history of enforcing the GNU GPL. To give this episode a perfect ending, Matthias and Till also talk about some of the most common misunderstandings of Free Software licensing. This is the perfect episode for everyone to get an insight into one of the most important events in the history of enforcing Free Software licences.

</p><p>Read more:</p><ul>

<li><a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/">What is Free Software?</a></li>

<li><a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/llw.html">The Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop</a></li>

<li><a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/ln.html">FSFE's Legal Network</a></li>

<li><a href="https://gpl-violations.org/">The gpl-violations.org project</a></li>

<li><a href="https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-3.html">SFP#3 about Free Software mobile phone communication with Harald Welte</a></li>

</ul><p>If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate/">donation</a>.</p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20210928-01
title: Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: Coding Competition for teenagers about to start
uri: Youth-Hacking-4-Freedom-Coding-Competition-for-teenagers-about-to-sta
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210928-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: Coding Competition for teenagers about to start</h1><p> 
    The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charity that 
    empowers users to control technology. To inspire the younger 
    generation to software freedom, the FSFE is organising the coding 
    competition ‘Youth Hacking 4 Freedom' (YH4F), where teenagers from 
    all around Europe have the chance to compete in a fair and fun way.  
    The winners receive a cash prize and a trip to Brussels with other 
    young hackers.
  </p><ul>
    <li>Participants must be 14-18 years old and should register at <a href="http://yh4f.org/">yh4f.org</a></li>
    <li>The opening event will be hosted on 10 October 2021.</li>
    <li>Registration will be open until <strong>31 October 2021</strong>.</li>
    <li>Six winners will be awarded cash prizes (2 x 4.096€, 2 x 2.048€, 2 x 1.024€) and a trip to Brussels.</li>
    <li>The competition will take place online. The Award Ceremony will be in Brussels.</li>
  </ul>
    <a href="activities/yh4f/index.fr.html"/>
  <p>
    Graphic by <a href="https://mullana.de/">Lisa Schmidt</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC-BY-SA 4.0</a></p><p>
    The YH4F competition includes an online opening day to welcome 
    everyone on board, in a kick-off event on Sunday 10 October, 5pm 
    CEST. The FSFE will present the competition and answer 
    questions. Please find more information on how to join at 
    <a href="http://yh4f.org/">yh4f.org</a>. 
  </p><h3>Coding</h3><p>
    On Monday 1 November 2021, a five-month coding phase starts and 
    the participants focus on coding until March 2022. Participants may 
    bring all their imagination to the competition; they may code 
    any type of software they want, as long as it is Free Software. The 
    software project can be a stand-alone program written from scratch, 
    or you can modify or combine existing programs. Everything is 
    welcome! The participants will have the chance to briefly follow 
    each other’s work and exchange ideas.
  </p><h3>Evaluation</h3><p>
    After the participants submit their programs, an evaluation phase 
    is carried out by Free Software experts. Our <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/jury.html">jury 
    members</a> excel in software development; among them are Neil 
    McGovern, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, and Claudia 
    Müller-Birn, Professor for Human-Centered Computing at the Freie 
    Universität Berlin.
  </p><h3>Awards</h3><p>
    The winners will be invited to receive their awards during a trip 
    to Brussels in June 2022. The 2-day trip includes the Award 
    Ceremony and social activities where the winners will have the 
    chance to get to know each other better.
  </p>
    <a href="activities/yh4f/index.fr.html"/>
  <p>
    Graphic by <a href="https://mullana.de/">Lisa Schmidt</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC-BY-SA 4.0</a></p><p>
	We are dedicated to offering an inclusive environment in the YH4F, 
	and we would like to encourage people of all genders to join! We 
	will make sure that everyone will enjoy the process and will leave 
	this competition with added knowledge and a smile. The YH4F is made 
	possible thanks to the kind support of Reinhard Wiesemann, 
	Linuxhotel, and Vielrespektzentrum.
  </p><p>
    At the website <a href="http://yh4f.org/">yh4f.org</a> you 
    can find all related information, such as the process, the 
    eligibility criteria, and <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/faq.html">FAQs</a>. You 
    can also use the illustrations in our dedicated <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/media.html">media package</a> when sharing the news of the 
    competition.
  </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20211008-01
title: Learn about Free Software in the Legal Context with FSFE's Legal Education Day
uri: Learn-about-Free-Software-in-the-Legal-Context-with-FSFE-s-Legal-Educa
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20211008-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Learn about Free Software in the Legal Context with FSFE's Legal Education Day</h1><p> 
    The FSFE is organizing a Legal Education Day on Saturday, 6 November 2021. 
    This online event is open for all to attend. It will include talks and Q&amp;A 
    sessions on the basics of copyright law, licenses, and other legal topics. 
    The event will help Free Software developers to understand these legal topics 
    so that their software projects can reach their full potential. 
  </p>
    <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/legal/led.html"/>
  <p>
    We all love the <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/freesoftware.html#freedoms">four freedoms</a> that Free Software grants to users and developers, and how they benefit the 
    individual user as well as digital society as a whole. In order to ensure 
    these freedoms, users of Free Software rely on legal instruments and the 
    legal system to be able to enforce them when other try to take them away 
    from us.   
  </p><p>
    Understanding and complying with the legal frameworks and licensing 
    obligations can sometimes feel daunting. Nonetheless, some basic knowledge 
    can keep you and your software project safer from legal aspects, while it 
    helps to build a healthy Free Software environment based on openness and 
    community.
  </p><p>
   We are happy to be organizing the <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/legal/led.html">FSFE online Legal Education Day</a> on <strong>Saturday, 6 November 2021, at 12:00 CET</strong>. The event will be held <strong>online</strong> on the <a href="https://conf.fsfe.org/b/gab-kdi-9dp-m7c2">FSFE’s infrastructure</a> and is open for all to attend free of charge. With this event, we aim to spread basic legal education on the legal context of Free Software, so that licensing your project and meeting legal obligations in your software project will be less of a daunting task!.
  </p><p>
    Stay tuned for more updates on the <a href="https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/legal/led.html">LED homepage.</a> In the meantime, you can optionally choose to <a href="https://registration.fsfe.org/LED2021">register</a> your attendance with us, so that we can get a good idea of how many people will be attending the event.
  </p><p>
  We hope to see you there soon!
  </p><p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


feed_id: news-20211011-01
title: Translators team: Reaching more people in their native language
uri: Translators-team-Reaching-more-people-in-their-native-language
url: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20211011-01.fr.html
content:
<h1>Translators team: Reaching more people in their native language</h1><p>The FSFE's translators team has been working tirelessly throughout the
second year of Covid-19 to enable people all across Europe to read and learn
about Free Software in their native language. Since the beginning of 2021 we
have had over 230 new translations into 9 different languages, not counting the
English originals.</p>
  <img src="media/9bc64b62.34ce84a86a47cfdbf64e6f7845efbc6e.png" data-original-source="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/34ce84a86a47cfdbf64e6f7845efbc6e.png"/>
<p>Since the founding of the organisation in 2001 the FSFE's translators team
has been an important part of the FSFE. The translations made by the
translators team have enabled people all across Europe to learn and read about
software freedom and the FSFE's mission to empower users to control technology.
Translations from English to another language enable people who are not fluent
in English to read, learn, and participate in Free Software. Without the help
of our translators team, this would not have been possible.</p><p>For the last 20 years the FSFE's translators team has been working on
translating the FSFE's statements, news items, activities, campaigns, and
background information. The first translation for our website, which is today
no longer available on the website, was made in 2001 by translating the <a href="https://git.fsfe.org/FSFE/fsfe-website/commit/e761cc866c4a245d0ec3dc1323257aedaaf70ae5">
"Volunteers welcome" text to French</a>. Later the "Volunteers welcome" text
became <a href="https://fsfe.org/contribute/">our contribute page</a>. In 2004, with the move from
gnu.org to our own infrastructure, the then translation coordinator, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210305-01.html">Reinhard Müller</a>, launched the first
general information page about the translators team and the translation
process. Since then a lot has happened.</p>Reinhard Müller: "Translating web pages and press releases for
  FSFE is not only an important contribution to increase the outreach of our
  message, it has also proven to be an excellent first step for getting
  involved in FSFE's work."<h2>FSFE's translators team today</h2><p>Today we have over 280 members on the translators mailing list, helping us
in their spare time to translate for software freedom. We have 40 languages
represented on our web page, with almost 7,000 translations. Among them are 
large projects, like the nearly finalised translation of the <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/publiccode/brochure">"Public Money? Public Code!"
brochure</a> to Spanish and the on-going translation of it to Italian.</p>Alejandro Criado-Pérez, translations to Spanish: "It's especially
  important to propagate the FSFE message in as many languages as possible,
  because Free Software's freedoms and their implications are often unknown or
  misunderstood, causing the general public to undervalue their vital
  importance to our democracy, privacy, and sustainability." <p>Not only have we increased our numbers in every direction (members,
languages and translations), we have also improved our translation process.  We
have an actively maintained <a href="https://webpreview.fsfe.org"> webpreview
tool</a> which allows translators as well as proofreaders to view the HTML
source code as an actual web page. And of course we have also kept working on
our style guide, wordlist, and the translators wiki. All of this is done with
the help of the translators team itself.</p><p>If you are interested in joining the FSFE's translators team you are very
welcome to subscribe to our <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/translators">mailing list </a>
and have a look at our <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Translators">wiki page</a>.</p>André Ockers, Deputy Coordinator Translations, Translations to
  Dutch: "I translate for Free Software because I support the Free Software
  movement and want to help spread our message of empowering people to control
  their technology to Dutch-speaking people. Dutch is also the policy language
  in the Netherlands and a policy language in Belgium, so translations might be
  helpful in enabling policy advocacy on that level."Luca Bonissi, Deputy Translators Coordinator, Translations to
  Italian: "I love translating items about Free Software mainly because I love
  Free Software and I want that all Italian people could easily know the
  benefits of Free Software in their own language. As a side effect, since the
  translation process usually involves more than one person, I'm also learning
  more about English and Italian too! :-P "T.E. Kalayci, Translations to Turkish: "I like doing translation for
  FSF(E) because I want to spread the wise words of Free Software (which is
  very important to humanity and society in my opinion) to Turkish-speaking 
  people. I am hoping that more people will understand the words,
  embrace the ideas in it and take part in the community to provide benefit to
  all the people."Pablo González, Translations to Spanish: "I like translating into
  Spanish because Free Software is for everyone, including people that don't
  understand English. One of the barriers here for the adoption of Free
  Software is the language."<p><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">Support FSFE</a></p>


