Free Software Foundation Europa

Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) congratulates the European Commission on its firm stance in the antitrust investigation against Microsoft, which has led the company to offer a settlement. For any such settlement, getting the details right will be crucial for competition and innovation in the web browser market.

June has definitely been a thrilling month. Besides our ongoing activities with Fellowship meetings, participations to events such as the LinuxTag in Berlin, most of our energy and attention were directed at the General Assembly (GA) held in Miraflores de la Sierra.

During its General Assembly in Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain, the members of FSFE elected new coordinators for several of the organisation's activities, including strategy, legal and executive coordination.

El Equipo Español de la FSFE tiene el honor de invitar a las personas interesadas en el Software Libre a un encuentro para preparar la agenda del grupo para los próximos meses. El encuentro tendrá lugar al mismo tiempo que la Asamblea General, en la Residencia La Cristalera, cerca de Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid. Tras el encuentro habrá un Evento Social con la oportunidad de encontrar y conocer a varias personas del Equipo ejecutivo y de la Asamblea General de FSFE, que estarán en Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, en el encuentro anual que tiene por objeto tratar y decidir acerca de la estrategia de FSFE para el próximo año.

May has been an hot month for us. Not only because the first real sunbeams start showing up all-over Europe, but mainly because during the whole month we run our first-ever voting process to elect a Fellow representative to FSFE General Assembly (GA). Moreover, we published our call for applications as coordinator and staff positions in our legal department, and our Austrian team concluded its challenging and satisfying tour across the whole Austria, by participating to "Linuxwochen Eisenstadt".

It has been an interesting time since FSFE added a Fellowship representation to the General Assembly (GA). Torsten Grote, Jan-Hendrik Peters, Michel Roche, and Björn Schießle emerged from the candidacy period, as the first four Fellows running for the election.

FSFE is seeking applicants for coordinator and staff positions in our legal department, the Freedom Task Force. The FTF coordinator and staff work in cooperation with a mixed team of volunteers and employees to support FSFE's mission.

Do you know one thing that makes Free Software sustainable? You! Yes, it is your support that allows us to operate across the whole Europe and at different levels to promote and defend Free Software principles. Amongst other things, your donations made possible the planning and coordination of the Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop. They allowed the Austrian team to participate in many public events across the whole Austria and to continue having an intern in our Zurich office.

Do you know one thing that makes Free Software sustainable? You! Yes, it is your support that allows us to operate across the whole Europe and at different levels to promote and defend Free Software principles. Amongst other things, your donations made possible the planning and coordination of the Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop. They allowed the Austrian team to participate in many public events across the whole Austria and to continue having an intern in our Zurich office.

Patents on software provide obstacles to knowledge-based industries by making computers less secure, less reliable and by preventing competition on a basic level. Lack of competition and uncalculable legal risks raise the cost of ICT and cost jobs across the entire industry, for which the enablement through software is a major innovation driver, as highlighted in the UNCTAD Information Economy Report 2007-2008.

El Presidente de la Free Software Fundation Europe, Georg Greve, participó en representación de la organización en el grupo de trabajo titulado "Regulación Técnica de Internet: "Desde la Normalización a las Normas de Conductas y Sociales", que se ha celebrado en París el 31 de marzo. El tema principal del grupo de trabajo fue la importancia del proceso de normalización en el contexto de las "innovaciones abiertas". En relación con este acto, Georg ha escrito un artículo titulado "Consideraciones sobre Innovación y Política de Competencia".

In the past months, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) visibly improved the technological infrastructure of the Fellowship. We moved the Fellows' blogging platform to a new site, we created a Planet to aggregate the Fellows' blogs and we provided them with an improved and functional wiki.

Smári McCarthy is a thoughtful anarchist and practical chaos technician - with a deep interest in Free Software and democracy. Currently serving as project manager for the Icelandic Innovation Center, Smári works on digital fabrication and peer-to-peer education, while spending his spare time breaking the fundamental assumptions of how we organise society. I sat down for an interesting interview with Smári, in which he explained his projects and how they can contribute towards a more sustainable world.

If you were wondering when the newsletter would come back, stop wondering - it's back! We apologise for the delays in delivering the newsletter over the past few months and assure you that our monthly newsletter will now resume the task of updating you regularly about FSFE activities.

It will be the responsibility of the Executive Director to coordinate FSFE's day-to-day affairs through working with a mixed team of volunteers and employees. Further responsibilities include management of the organisational assets according to the priorities set by the General Assembly and coordination of the Executive Council.

1. La FSFE presenta una lista de abogados especialistas en Software Libre 2. La FSFE protesta por la «criminalización» en la directiva IPRED2 3. Publicamos la trascripción del discurso de Richard M. Stallman en Bruselas 4. La FSFE en la conferencia A2K2 de la Facultad de Derecho de Yale 5. Georg Greve y Jonas Öberg en Belgrado (Serbia) 6. Ivan Jelic se une a al equipo de la FSFE 7. Disponible la compra online de merchandising 8. Manténgase activo: ¡Únase al equipo de traductores!