Berlin 28. April 2010. Georg Greve, founding president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, has received the Cross of Merit on ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande). Georg received this high award from the German President for his work on Free Software and Open Standards.
Read more »ACTA: threats to Free Software
Today with the first public release of ACTA, the effects the international agreement will have on Free Software appear to be dangerous for its development and its distribution. First, by extending infringements proceedings and criminal offences to a broad scope of “intellectual property” including software patents.
Read more »Open standards and interoperability -- two cheers for EU ICT ministers
The EU's member states have just thrown their weight behind the principles of Open Standards and interoperability. At a meeting of the ministers for telecommunication and information society in Granada, Spain, the ministers of the 27 EU member states yesterday issued the Granada Ministerial Declaration on the European Digital Agenda.
Read more »Category: Government Tags:
Document Freedom Day 2010 in Slovenia
In 2010 the international Document Freedom Day was celebrated for the first time in Slovenia. For that occasion the FSFE Fellowship group Slovenia decided to give a DFD "thank you" cake to the Supreme Court of Slovenia for their amazing and hard work in using (only) open standards and open documents in courts.
Read more »Category: Community Tags:
- Login to post comments
Document Freedom Day 2010 -- Liberate your documents
Today is Document Freedom Day 2010. For the third time, groups all over the world are celebrating open document formats and Open Standards. They are raising awareness for how a technical issue impacts our day-to-day lives.
Read more »Open Standards under threat in Europe - updated analysis available
The European Commission is currently trying to get a new draft of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) approved by Member States. The draft gives rise to concerns that the Commission is giving up its worldwide leadership in the use of Open Standards, hurting innovation, competition and user freedom in Europe.
Read more »Back on the block and worse than ever: EIFv2
The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) is back from the dark corners of the European Commission, and it’s worse than ever.
Read more »Document Freedom Day: rOgg on in April!
The Austrian and German team of FSFE announced the winner of the DFD prize for those countries. It is Deutschlandradio and Radio Orange for their use of Ogg-Vorbis. The articles gives some examples what YOU can do after the 31. March (DFD) in April to spread the knowledge about Ogg-Vorbis (and therefor Open Standards and Free Software).
Read more »- Login to post comments
FSFE to users: Seize your freedom of choice!
FSFE welcomes the arrival of greater competition in the web browser market. From today, Microsoft has to offer Windows users in Europe the possibility to choose among different browsers. This step puts into practice the company's settlement with the European Commission from December 2009. The Free Software Foundation Europe was an active participant in the Commission's investigation.
Read more »Category: Community Tags:
- Login to post comments
Fully Free GNU/Linux Presentation Next Week
"I will be giving a talk about the fully free GNU/Linux distribution movement in the Free Software Foundation Europe’s Berlin meeting on Thursday, February 11th, next week. The talk will start at 19:30 in the Newthinking Store, Tucholskystraße 48. Hopefully, we will have a chance to continue discussing the topic over a few beers right after the meeting, too..."
Read more »Category: Community Tags:
- Login to post comments
FSFE honoured with Theodor Heuss Medal - "trendsetting organisation"
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) receives this year's Theodor Heuss Medal for its extraordinary work for equitable participation in the information society. Since 2001 FSFE has been committed to the freedom to use, investigate, modify and redistribute software in all parts of society and politics.
Read more »Why Free Software matters for Society (draft)
A short explanation for beginners about the importance of Free Software even if they are not able hackers or programers. (Version 2 of, "Democracy and Hacking")
Read more »Category: Philosophy Tags:
- Login to post comments
Does the Windows ballot screen for choosing a browser represent meaningful progress in Europe?
Thanks to the European Commission's antitrust like activities, European citizens will soon be presented with a ballot choice between twelve browsers when first using a newly purchased computer preloaded with the Microsoft Windows operating system. But is this really progress?
Read more »Category: Opposition Tags:
- Login to post comments
FSFE Fellowship interview with Simon Josefsson
Simon Josefsson is a Fellow and GNU hacker with a special interest in security. His contributions to the Free Software world include such ubiquitous projects as GnuTLS and Libssh2, and he was recently presented with the Nordic Free Software Award. I sat down for a jabber session with Simon, asking him about his projects and other security matters.
Read more »Category: Community Tags:
- Login to post comments
The EU and Microsoft Settle Browser Issue; Interoperability with FOSS Still a Problem
The EU Commission and Microsoft have settled the browser choice issue, and the Commission will continue to monitor interoperability issues, with Microsoft posting a new and "improved" set of documents today about interoperability.
Read more »