Software Freedom in Europe 2024
In 2024, we continued to promote software freedom through our presence
at conferences and events across Europe, as well as through our various
activities and initiatives. Despite our ongoing financial challenges, we
have actively raised our voice in defence of Device Neutrality and are
advocating for a dedicated Free Software budget in Europe.
After more than 20 years of promoting software freedom, we have
reached a critical point, having faced significant financial challenges
in recent years. Our ability to continue our vital work was severely
compromised, as our work was threatened by a decline in supporters,
compounded by economic pressures such as rising inflation. For the
first time, we were forced to send out an urgent appeal via email - a
heartfelt and unprecedented request for help to our community, emphasising
that without immediate and substantial support, the FSFE's
long-standing mission to protect and promote software freedom across
Europe would be in jeopardy. Fortunately, the response from the
community was overwhelmingly positive. Many supporters stepped forward
and helped to stabilise our immediate situation.
Our work is far from complete, and continuous financial support is
crucial to sustaining our mission. Software freedom is a long-term
struggle that demands persistent effort, dedication, and resources. The
importance of this ongoing fight is underscored by recent events, such
as Apple's litigation with the European Commission to avoid complying
with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The FSFE is the only non-profit
that is intervening, with the aim to leverage the voice of the Free
Software community against the company’s unfair practices. This
endeavour can take decades and it is a complex, time-consuming, and
resource-intensive endeavour but we strongly believe that we need to be
there to defend Device Neutrality and the interests of the Free
Software community.
Unfortunately, the broader landscape for Free Software is facing
more challenges. Recently, the European Union decided to cut
its funding to the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative,
highlighting a critical issue: the lack of secure, long-term financial
support for Free Software. Software freedom requires not only nice
words but also proper public funding. Free Software is essential for
ensuring transparency, security, and innovation in the digital age, and
without steady support, these values are at risk. It's crucial that
policymakers recognize the importance of Free Software and advocate for
its continued growth and protection to ensure that technology remains a
tool for empowerment.
We have continued initiatives such as the Router Freedom wiki and our
"Public Money? Public Code!" initiative, where we have started to focus
more on watchdog activities, monitoring real progress towards Free
Software in public administrations and speaking out when we see steps in
the wrong direction. We continued to raise awareness of Free Software
and its importance for a democratic society through active participation
in conferences, celebrating the "I Love Free Software" day, and through
the work of our local groups across Europe.
In the recent months we have continued focusing also on the younger
generations. In this regard, the third edition of "Youth Hacking for
Freedom" (YH4F) is underway, with preparations for the fourth edition
already in progress. The Ada & Zangemann book is becoming a well-known
open educational resource, being translated into 10 languages, while
its readings continue to inspire and educate. Additionally, we are
working on producing a film about Ada’s story to further amplify its
impact and reach a broader audience.
As we navigate these challenges, it is clear that our mission to
promote software freedom and empower users to control technology
requires a sustained, long-term support commitment. The recent
outpouring of community support is a beacon of hope, but the road ahead
is long and fraught with obstacles. We must continue to advocate for
the public funding and political support necessary to safeguard the
Free Software community. By continuing to focus on education and public
outreach, especially to younger generations, we are laying the
groundwork for a future where software freedom could thrive. With your
continued support, we can continue our work and ensure that we get
closer to our vision of software freedom for the decades to come.
Our Software Freedom in Europe 2024 report covers the FSFE's activities
from October 2023 to August 2024. We hope it gives
you a better understanding of our daily work and that you enjoy reading
it!
Table of contents
- Device Neutrality: the Free Software community “shows its teeth”
- Next Generation Internet and the lack of long-term sustainable funding for Free Software
- Reaching Generation Alpha: Youth Hacking 4 Freedom and Ada & Zangemann
- Policy work: Advocating for Free Software
- Legal Support: giving advice to projects and individuals
- Our work on public awareness
- Join the movement
Device Neutrality: the Free Software community “shows its teeth”
Device Neutrality empowers users to take control of their devices,
allowing them to choose how and what software they run, free from
restrictions imposed by manufacturers or software vendors. This control
is essential to ensure that users are not locked into a particular
operating system or forced to use pre-installed applications. Device
Neutrality promotes innovation, competition and consumer rights by
preventing monopolistic practices and enabling a diverse software
landscape.
Free Software is key for Device Neutrality, and this issue has
become increasingly important as large technology companies tighten
their grip on the devices and operating systems they control, raising
concerns about privacy, digital rights and market dominance. In 2024,
the FSFE has faced monopolistic power over devices head on.
Notwithstanding the dangers of giant corporations over the entire
digital markets, the FSFE performed key contributions to safeguard
software freedom: we got involved in strategic litigation against
Apple, coordinated key
interventions with different civil-society
stakeholders, and have been closely working
with the Commission on the
implementation of the Digital Markets Act. In all these processes, we
leveraged the voice of the Free Software community, focusing on the
benefits of smaller Free Software projects for digital markets.
Strategic litigation against Apple’s monopolistic control over devices
The Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into effect in early
March, introduces significant
provisions that directly impact Free
Software. This law requires "gatekeepers" to permit the direct
installation of software from any source, commonly known as
(sideloading). Additionally, it mandates that gatekeepers must support
alternative app stores and repositories, giving users more choices in
how they access and manage software. The DMA also imposes
interoperability obligations, ensuring that third-party developers have
access to the same hardware and software functions as the
"gatekeepers." These measures collectively aim to enhance competition
and innovation in the digital marketplace.
Apple was designated as “gatekeeper” in September 2023, but started
litigation against the Commission in December, 2023. The company has
pushed an aggressive approach against the DMA, proposing new terms and
conditions that harm Free Software. In February 2024, the FSFE decided
to intervene, pairing up with the Commission to protect Free Software
against Apple’s strike against DMA. In August 2024, the Court of
Justice of the European Union authorized the FSFE to intervene
in the
case. This is a far-reaching case with deep consequences not only for
Software Freedom, but for fairness of digital markets, open internet
and digital democracy.
Cutting out the rot in Apple, the FSFE intervenes to safeguard Software
Freedom. CC-BY-SA 4.0 by Rahak for the FSFE
Implementing the DMA: leveraging the voice of the Free Software community
As the Apple’s example demonstrates, abusive gatekeepers’ behaviour
requires constant monitoring. Implementation of the DMA has been
technically and legally challenging, as “malicious compliance” from
gatekeepers has posed real risks to Software Freedom. The FSFE has been
working with a large spectrum of community actors. For instance, the
FSFE worked with F-Droid, The App Fair Project and other
interoperability experts to investigate Apple's DMA compliance and its
impact on Free Software. During the past months, we coordinated several
expert workshops with stakeholders, discussed with regulators in
FOSDEM, had
official meetings with the EU Commission's DMA team, and
submitted a comprehensive
position to the European Commission detailing
several problematic elements in Apple's compliance that will harm Free
Software. FSFE also submitted a joint position to the
Commission
highlighting the main problematic aspects of Apple's behaviour towards
Free Software. Furthermore, FSFE submitted its feedback to the United
Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority on the regime guidance,
emphasizing
the importance of Free Software for fair digital markets,
as envisioned in the newly enacted Digital Markets, Competition and
Consumers Act (DMCCA). In collaboration with F-Droid, the FSFE also
prepared
a study for Japan's competition authority, the HDMC, on how
Apple's compliance with the DMA poses a risk to Free Software and
Device Neutrality.
We are calling for volunteers and civil society organisations to
help the message against monopolization of digital markets resonate. We need robust support from policy makers for Free Software,
so alternatives to gatekeepers can flourish in fair and safe
environments.
In addition to this, at the beginning of August we have announced
that we are intervening in the case of Apple vs Commission to uphold
the DMA. It is litigation brought by Apple against the European
Commission in the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Following the FSFE’s application for intervention, the court recognized
the FSFE’s interests in the case as a stakeholder and allowed the
intervention. We will submit our arguments to the court by
mid-September.
Router Freedom: several victories notwithstanding the outbreak from telcos
Although we should be free to choose the technical devices we use in
our private lives, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) still unduly
limit how customers connect to the Internet, or
discriminate against owners of alternative devices. This undermines
Router Freedom.
In the last year, we have accomplished a lot! We participated and
monitored regulatory processes in Germany, Austria, Italy and Belgium.
Fiber operators have pushed against Router Freedom, bringing regulators
to court and asking for regulatory exceptions. The FSFE has coordinated
efforts with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including volunteers,
business representatives, digital right groups and consumer protection
organisations to repel these reactionary initiatives from telcos.
- Germany: Fiber operators requested the
national regulator BnetzAg to create an exception against Router
Freedom, asking to take end-users’ freedom over equipment by imposing
their own fiber terminals. The FSFE intervened in the process, claiming
that Router Freedom is key for open internet and net neutrality, so the
regulator should confirm its own 2016 decision to safeguard Router
Freedom for all network topologies.
- Belgium: As a decisive victory, the Belgian
regulator BIPT has introduced Router Freedom for all types of
network
in the country. The FSFE has participated as a key stakeholder in the
process, contributing to BIPT’s work, presenting the views of the
community and end-users. Later in 2024, the telecom operator Orange
has started litigation against the regulator, asking for a exception
for fiber, claiming the regulator was not diligent in the decision
making. The court ruled against the operator, confirming the diligent
work of BIPT in analysing all the benefits of Router Freedom for
end-users and digital markets, stating all the allegations undue. This
decision represented a decisive victory for Router
Freedom, as for the
first time, a court confirmed a regulatory procedure involving fiber
networks. The FSFE demanded that other regulators take this as a good
example.
Lucas Lasota, Legal Programme Manager, speaking at the DORS/CLUC 2024
conference on "When our routers are not free: the challenges for an
Open and Neutral Internet".
- Austria: Despite the outcry of a broad spectrum
of stakeholders demonstrating to the Austrian regulator RTR the
necessity of regulating Router Freedom, the authority dismissed the
case with no further consideration. The FSFE has been very active in
the country, coordinating efforts with civil-society, industry
representatives and policy makers, but nonetheless the regulator
decided to follow the telecom operators’ interests in not attending to
civil-society demands.
Making Router Freedom easier for users: the tech wiki
In addition to our policy and legal efforts to conduct a European-wide
initiative to defend the rights and interests of end-users regarding
Router Freedom, the FSFE has launched an initiative exclusively
dedicated to end-users: a practical guide for interested technical people
desiring to change their router provided by the ISP, helping them on
the path (sometimes not so trivial) of installing their own private
router at home. We introduce the new Router Freedom tech
wiki, prepared
by our Netherlands team of volunteers!🎉
The Router Freedom tech wiki helps you with basic information on how to start using your own router
This wiki helps you to replace the ISP’s router/modem with your own.
Most modems of the internet service provider allow you to set them in
'bridge' mode, so you can use your own router for the internal
networking. Although this allows you to separate your internal
networking from the ISP, you would end up with two devices where you
could just have one.
Device Neutrality website
This year we launched a new landing page about Device Neutrality
to ensure that everyone, regardless of
their technical background, can grasp the basics of this crucial
concept. The landing page is designed to explain the essentials in a simple and easy way. By making it simple, we aim to raise awareness
and foster a broader understanding, helping users recognize the
importance of supporting and advocating for Device Neutrality in their
own digital lives.
Also, following the page design, we created a poster with the basics
which you can order from us to promote Device Neutrality in your
office, university, or at events.
Device Neutrality Poster
Next Generation Internet and the lack of long-term sustainable funding for Free Software
Although it had proven its success, a couple of months ago we found out that the European
Commission is cutting its
funding in the current draft for the Horizon
Europe 2025 Work Programme. This decision highlights the larger problem
of the lack of motivated and
sustainable public funding for Free
Software projects.
For years, we have been advocating for the need for public funding
for Free Software, as software freedom guarantees that software remains
a tool for empowerment, fostering independent development and
innovation. Through our 'Public
Money? Public Code!' initiative, which
continues to gain support from organizations signing the Open Letter,
we are raising awareness at conferences, events, and in explaining it
to politicians.
'Public Money? Public Code!' demands that software
developed for the public sector must be made publicly available under a
Free Software licence. Free Software in public bodies guarantees
freedom of choice, access, and competition. This allows our public
administrations to regain full control of their digital infrastructure
and therefore become and remain independent from a handful of
companies.
Looking to the future, particularly in light of potential funding
cuts for Free Software projects under the Next Generation Internet
(NGI) initiative, it’s clear that sustainable funding for Free
Software
must be addressed at the European level. Establishing a long-term
funding scheme is crucial. In the coming years, our policy efforts will
focus on raising this issue across Europe, ensuring that fragmented,
limited, and uncoordinated funding for Free Software becomes a thing of
the past.
The recent cut of €27 million from the NGI initiative has exposed
the vulnerability of financial support for software freedom,
highlighting a critical problem: Europe needs sustainable, secure, and
dedicated funding to maintain control over its technology through Free
Software. Much of Europe's digital infrastructure depends on these
projects to ensure technological independence and resilience. Reducing
or cutting this funding endangers Europe’s autonomy in the digital
realm. In response to the European Commission’s ambiguous stance on
future funding, the FSFE has participated in the latest public
consultation, advocating for the long-term financial backing Free
Software solutions need to drive Europe’s digital transformation.
Since November 2018, the FSFE has been a partner organisation of
Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0), which is a coalition of
non-profit organizations from all over Europe coordinated by the NLnet
Foundation. 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. As a part of the
NGI0 consortium, the FSFE is providing support to Free Software projects
with their legal and licensing issues, as well as introducing them to
the REUSE specification, a tool
that can simplify the license process.
Currently, the FSFE is working on four NGI0 programs: NGI Entrust,
NGI Core, NGI Review, and NGI Commons Fund.
REUSE, make licensing easy
REUSE helps make a project's licensing
and copyright status more transparent, ensure that third-party code is
properly attributed, and make the project's code easily reusable. This
tool is currently used worldwide and its specification has been adopted
by several corporate and institutional projects.
REUSE is constantly evolving and improving. Last June the alpha
version v3.1.0a1 of the REUSE tool was released containing the new
REUSE.toml functionality, and after the publication of the REUSE Specification v3.2, soon v.3.3 will be
released. Currently, the tool is in its version v4.0.3.
"Free Software is an important basis for DLR’s software development
efforts. There is likely no software project which does not rely on at
least one Free Software library or uses a Free Software tool to aid in
the process of software development" -Tobias Schlauch, research software
engineer at the DLR,
talking
about the use of REUSE specification in some of their projectsMore and more organisations, companies, and individuals are using
REUSE and benefiting from the growing ecosystem of its specification,
its helper tool, its API and all the documentation. As using REUSE does
not require registration, there are not precise numbers about its users
but we know that it is being adopted by:
- All 2000+ compliant projects of the REUSE API
-
Many projects of the EU-funded Next Generation Internet project we help
to become REUSE compliant from the start.
- DLR, the KDE community, and Software Heritage made REUSE the standard for their licensing policy.
- Corporate licensing policies of Siemens, SAP, Huawei, Liferay, and many more.
- Large parts of the Linux Kernel with ~70% by now.
Liferay is one of the projects that have implemented REUSE. We talked with them
Reaching Generation Alpha: Youth Hacking 4 Freedom and Ada & Zangemann
Educating and supporting the young generation in the learning and use
of Free Software is crucial to the mission of the FSFE. Through our
activities in this field we are fostering innovation, collaboration,
and digital literacy in the future. We are supporting a generation that
can control their technology and empower themselves. The children's
illustrated book Ada & Zangemann
introduces the concepts of Free Software to young
readers, making these complex ideas accessible and sparking curiosity.
Our Youth Hacking 4 Freedom contest is aimed at teenagers, who want to create, share and improve software.
With
these two activities, the FSFE encourages the next generations to
become active contributors to the digital world, shaping technology,
rather than mere consumers.
Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: teenagers coding great ideas
Young people, from all over Europe, compete in Youth Hacking 4
Freedom to win cash prizes by creating programs of their choice
licensed as Free Software. The six winners are invited to the Award
ceremony weekend.
Second edition: In October 2023 we had the Awards
Ceremony weekend in Brussels with the winners and members of the jury
from that edition. 2023
winners were:
- Ultimate Hacker Award: Davide Rorato for
ArduPlot
- Elite Hacker Award: Marlon Wolff for ClassQuiz
- Awesome Award: Simon Sommer for OpenRadio
- Best Maker
Award: Oriol Villegas Martin for DogBag4City
- Best Freedom
Project Award: Marius Angermann for Artix Engine
- Best Power
User Tool Award: Matthias Kaak for hashfindutils
During this year we also learnt a bit more about some of the
projects and their developers thanks to our YH4F interviews to
participants.
Third edition: In October 2024, we will announce the names of the
2024 YH4F winners, marking the end of a journey that began at the end
of 2023 when they registered to take part in this edition. From January
to the end of June, the participants worked on their projects. During
this time, they had the opportunity to meet online once a month and get
advice from experts while networking with their peers. A broad group of
technology experts, the YH4F Jury, then evaluated the projects
submitted at the end of June.
Also during this year we presented this contest in different conferences
such as FOSDEM, Chemnitz Linux
Days and esLibre.
For the new edition, starting in January 2025, YH4F got a new sponsor on board.
Ada & Zangemann: Italian, French and Spanish version
The illustrated book "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software,
Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream" by Matthias Kirschner, the President of the FSFE, tells the story of
the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada
begins to experiment with hardware and software, and in the process
realises how crucial it is for her and others to control
technology.
In recent months, we got a lot of amazing and interesting
news about Ada, from book readings to new translations to the project
of making a film of this story.
The first reading of the
story of Ada in Italian took place during
Software Freedom Day and to make it even more special, everyone enjoyed
home-made ice cream thanks to one of our volunteers!
The story of "Ada & Zangemann" was also published in French and,
thanks to the French Ministry of Education, you can download the ebook
free of charge or read the mobile
friendly online version. The book was translated into
French by more than a hundred students, aged 13 to 19, from four
different schools in France, over the course of the 2022-2023 school
year, sharing the work and coordinating it using online tools.
The book was covered in a radio interview
by "Radio France", in
several articles, including Le
Monde, ZDnet,
or blogs, as
well as TV
coverage at Sqool TV with Alexis Kauffmann, from the French Ministry of
Education and the person who started with the idea of the French
translation.
Last December the, at that time, French Minister of Education,
Gabriel Attal, presented the book "Ada & Zangemann" to the French
German parliamentarians meeting (APFA) in the old Bonn parliament.
Afterwards he gifted the book to Anke Rehlinger, Minister President of
the Saarland (Germany).
And even more! The book was awarded the 2024 Youth Book
Prize of the
InCyber Forum Europe. This is the first time this prize has been
awarded to a children's book. And 300 copies of Ada & Zangemann were
distributed to teachers at the Journée du Libre Éducatif 2024. The book
was presented at this fair, that this year was held in Paris, by two of
the students who translated it.
David Revoy painted this great version of Ada
Thanks to the Volkswagen Group in Spain, the story of Ada &
Zangemann is now being printed in Spanish! The company has distributed
500 copies to its employees and, from September, its STEM team will be
embarking on a 'STEM tour', visiting schools in several Spanish cities
around the country to share the story encouraging children, and
especially girls, to get into STEM.
To reach even more children, we are currently working to have an
"Ada & Zangemann" movie produced by a professional 2D animation studio.
We plan to release the movie in four languages by the end of this year
as an Open Educational Resource under a Creative Commons Licence, the
same one that Wikipedia has. Everyone will be able to download and
share it, use it in schools, and integrate it with other educational
material, making a difference to the quality of IT education that is so
vital for young people in our digital society.
"They are young + they need the code", the FSFE's format to bring Free Software into the schools (online)
The FSFE's pilot project “They are young + they need the code” is
inspired by the book "Ada & Zangemann". This educational format,
designed by the FSFE, helps the children to understand the importance
of controlling their own technology, through reading the book and
manual activities. Currently the project is being tested in Italy, and
we are waiting to hear back from our volunteers, who are bringing the
format to the schools and libraries.
Free Software Knowledge IT Project, partnership with Edulife
At the end of last year, during SFSCON 2023, the FSFE and the
Edulife Foundation kicked off a collaboration project to raise
awareness about the benefits of Free Software to the next generation of
innovators.
The project consists in a two-year agreement to deliver educational
content to students from the ITS Academy LAST about Free Software legal
aspects, policy and public awareness. Last January, and as part of this
academic program, the FSFE delivered educational content about
Free Software, with a focus on Free Software legal issues, policy
aspects and public awareness in the form of lectures. In addition, again
this year the students will attend SFSCON.
Policy work: Advocating for Free Software
Political decisions and policies within the European Union
significantly impact Free Software, its ecosystems, and its
communities. For 20 years the FSFE has engaged with policymakers to ensure that the Free Software community's
voice is heard. Advocating at the European level for software freedom
is essential to make decision-makers all over Europe understand the
importance of Free Software in our society.
This past year has seen the adoption of important pieces of
legislation which the FSFE has been active on, such as the
Interoperable Europe Act, the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Product
Liability Directive and the upcoming adoption of the Cyber Resilience
Act.
Looking at the future, especially in light of the recent
developments around the possible cuts of funding directed to Free
Software projects with the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative,
Free Software funding should be addressed at the European level with
the institution of a long-term sustainable funding scheme. In the next
year(s), our policy efforts will be also focused to raise this issue at
the European level, and we will make sure that uncoordinated, scattered
and small funding for Free Software will not be the norm any more.
Liability in the AI, PLD and CRA
During the past year, the EU has been debating the introduction of
liability rules for software, including Free Software, in different
legislation, namely the AI Act, Product Liability Directive and the
Cyber Resilience Act. The way they were first proposed, all proposals
would have harmed the Free Software ecosystem and thus the society and
the economy.
The main debate around this proposal focused on liability. With
different wording, the three proposals initially excluded liability of
Free Software only outside the course of a commercial activity. This
would have failed to address a large part of software that is deployed
and at the same time smaller and non-profit projects would have been
harmed as they would have to bear major costs and face legal risks even
if there was any kind of commercial activity, like in the case of
voluntary contributions to code.
At an early stage, the FSFE argued in a hearing in the EU
Parliament, for the inclusion of clear and precise exemptions for Free
Software development in the legislation and for liability to be
transferred to those who significantly financially benefit from it on
the market.
The co-legislators have largely complied with our demands and
following intensive debates, have significantly improved the
Commission’s proposal, by introducing an exemption for Free Software
and including it in the articles of the regulations.
Even if with different wordings, this position has been voted in
the PLD and the AI Act, but still needs to be finally voted in the
CRA.
Interoperable Europe Act
The EU's Interoperable Europe Act aims to improve cross-border
digital public services. The
FSFE has called on policymakers to recognize the importance of Free Software in
achieving this goal. Following the "Public Money? Public Code!"
initiative, we have been emphasizing the need for public
administrations to have control over the software they use while
ensuring efficient use of public funds.
Despite efforts to include the Free Software community in the
decision-making process through the soon to be implemented
Interoperable Europe Board foreseen by the regulation, the Free
Software community will only be involved in the Interoperable Europe
Community. However, this involvement allows our Community to offer
expertise, highlighting the need to closely monitor the regulation's
implementation to identify opportunities for effective contributions
from civil society.
While acknowledging some shortcomings and ambiguities in the wording
of the Act, we welcome certain victories. For instance, the European
Commission is now required to provide an annual report on Free Software
interoperability solutions and support actions that promote these
solutions. These measures will help assess the Act's success in
prioritizing Free Software and allow us to continue our oversight
role.
Cyber Solidarity Act
The Cyber Solidarity Act aims at strengthening collaboration among
EU member states around Cyber Security, in order to strengthen
solidarity and capacities in the Union to detect, prepare for and
respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents.
In a hearing at the Committee of the Regions, we highlighted
that in order to establish trustworthy and resilient systems, public
bodies must ensure they have full control over the software and the
computer systems at the core of their state digital infrastructure, and
this is only possible by prioritizing the use of Free Software.
Furthermore we advocated for the inclusion of civil society in the
implementation of the act, and we welcomed that legislators agreed on
including different stakeholders in the legislation.
However, in the recent framework of EU regulations aimed at
enhancing digital infrastructure security, in the Cyber Solidarity Act,
legislators failed to recognise the importance of Software Freedom when
it comes to developing ad-hoc tools.
Political decisions and directions have big impact on Free
Software, its ecosystems and its communities.It is impossible to
achieve Device Neutrality, and a free and open internet without the
commitment of the public sector to maintain a vigorous and sustainable
ecosystem through policies and funding.That is why it is important that
we keep educating decision-makers in the importance of software freedom.
Liability, Cybersecurity and Free Software
The FSFE, along with NLnet Labs and the Open
Source Security Foundation, submitted feedback on the Network
and
Information Security (NIS) implementation act, emphasizing the need to
protect the European Free Software ecosystem. The NIS2 implementation
act, which focuses on cybersecurity regulations, also impacts the Free
Software ecosystem in Europe. It's essential that these measures
enhance cybersecurity without hindering Free Software development, as
Free Software is a vital component in this field.
In their joint feedback to the European Commission’s draft NIS2
Implementing Act on "Cybersecurity risk management & reporting
obligations for digital infrastructure, providers, and ICT service
managers," the FSFE and its partners expressed concerns about the focus
on business-to-business (B2B) relationships. They pointed out that many
complex software products, central to the digital infrastructure
sector, are developed by independent individuals, non-profit
organizations, or academic institutions. In these cases, beyond the
freedoms provided by Free Software licenses, there is no formal
relationship between the developer and the entities covered by
NIS2.
Public Money?, Public Code! demands at the European Union
The FSFE has also taken part in crucial consultations at the
European level. For the FSFE it is important to give input in this kind of
process as it makes the Free Software community’s voice heard, and we
can make sure the community's demands reach policymakers
in crucial phases of the legislative process.
- Software Freedom Funding
In the wake of the recent €27 million cut in the NGI funding, the FSFE has responded to the growing concern by asking the community to take
part in a public consultation of the European Commission, which asked for feedback on their Digital Europe funding programme.
The community stressed theurgent need for sustainable,
long-term financial support for Free Software to ensure Europe's technological independence. Europe
needs sustainable, secure, and dedicated funding to ensure its control over technology through Free Software.
Much of Europe's digital infrastructure relies on Free Software projects to ensure independence and resilience.
Reducing or cutting funding threatens Europe's technological autonomy. With the participation of our community in the
public consultation, we hope that Free Software solutions will receive the long-term funding they need.
We will keep you up to date on this issue, as the consultation will be at the end of the process at the
time of publication of this report..
- European digital infrastructure needs a Free Software first
approach
In its response to the European Commission's
consultation on the white paper "How to Master Europe’s Digital
Infrastructure Needs?", the FSFE highlighted the vital role Free
Software plays in creating robust digital infrastructure across Europe.
We argued that embracing software freedom can address challenges at
various levels—global, regional, and local—by fostering collaboration,
openness, and the ability to quickly resolve issues. The FSFE suggested
redirecting IT investments towards Free Software instead of relying on
closed-source, proprietary options. This shift would enhance Europe's
IT landscape, create jobs, and save costs over time by reducing the
need for redundant solutions.
Consultancy for public administrations
The FSFE not only demands Free Software friendly policies but also helps
administrations across Europe to take concrete steps towards "Public
Money? Public Code!". Since December 2023, the German Centre for Digital
Sovereignty of Public Administration (ZenDiS) has contracted the
services of the FSFE to advise them on Free Software and related issues.
The scope of our consultancy includes strategies around ZenDiS’ products
openDesk (the former Sovereign Workplace, a workplace solution for the
public sector) and OpenCoDE (the code-sharing platform for public
administrations in Germany), international cooperation and community
engagement, criteria for Free Software procurement, stakeholder
analysis, and providing input on topics such as Free Software supply
chains, Free Software maintenance and fraudulent market behaviour.
Monitoring and watchdog activities as part of "Public Money? Public Code!"
Since the FSFE launched the "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative,
we have welcomed every step towards more Free Software in public
administrations. But in the last few years it has become clear that
this is not enough. That is why FSFE decided to act more like a
watchdog: While on the one hand we continue to call for Free Software
friendly policies and point out best practices, on the other hand we
closely monitor the implementation of Free Software policies and raise
our voice when we see things going in the wrong direction.
A recent example of this stronger watchdog role is the situation
around the German IT service provider Dataport and its openwashing
software dPhoenix for public administrations, which FSFE continued to
observe and comment on last year. As a result of our communication,
Dataport stopped promoting dPhoenix as “Open Source” and admitted that
it is proprietary. A more detailed explanation of the FSFE’s watchdog
activities can be found in our Software Freedom Podcast Episode
#22 on
“Public Money? Public Code!”.
Openwashing is a topic the FSFE has been working on intensively over
the past year. In the context of "Public Money? Public Code!",
openwashing is not just a case of fraudulent labelling, but also leads
to taxpayers being misled about how their tax money is being used. As
we repeatedly receive reports of openwashing among bidders for public
sector free software tenders, we have conducted a public community
survey on the topic. We have gathered information, opinions and
examples about openwashing to better understand the strategies and
methods behind it, and to be able to come up with suggestions on how to
tackle it. First results were presented at FrOSCon, together with ideas
for better Free Software procurement, aiming to avoid pitfalls like
openwashing, but also other kinds of problematic market behaviour.
When it comes to monitoring the implementation of Free Software
policies, our tool TEDective can be of great help to analyse, understand
and visualise the money flows in public tenders.
TEDective
During the past months, we have continued working on developing TEDective. This is a free software
solution that makes European public procurement data explorable for
non-experts.
This year we got the help of some students that improved the took and added some results.
We will continue working on this initiative, as well as spreading the
news about it in different events and conferences, and we are looking
for contributors who would like to get involved or fund the project. Get
in touch via tedective@fsfe.org if you are interested!
Legal Support: giving advice to projects and individuals
At the FSFE we help answer licensing
questions, provide technical support to make licensing easier (among
others, with REUSE), provide legal education materials on Free
Software, and organise an annual conference for the FSFE's legal network, the Free Software
Legal and Licensing Workshop (LLW). We are also part of several
EU-funded projects, helping with legal concepts and issues.
ZOOOM project
This year, the FSFE completed
its work on the European Commission funded ZOOOM Initiative. The aim of
this
project was to raise awareness of the importance of managing rights and
obligations related to Free Software, Open Data, and Open Hardware,
especially when doing so in relation to innovation in digital
industries.
As part of our work with ZOOOM, the FSFE produced research
and educational materials on Free Software legal issues, which
contributed to a larger toolkit on Open Software, Data, and Hardware.
In addition to the usual discussions regarding Free Software licensing,
this material also includes analyses on developing trends in digital
innovation, which primarily focused on Free Software's role in
developments in large language models, and artificial intelligence.
This work, along with the work produced by our ZOOOM consortium
partners on Open Data and Open Hardware, is to be included in
education, business creation, and innovation programs across the EU
that aim to build expertise in European small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs).
Another part of our work with the ZOOOM initiative was to promote
and to disseminate the research that we've conducted on these topics.
You may have over the past 12 months seen FSFE staffers at various
conferences across Europe, connecting with local communities and
raising awareness on the importance of understanding our rights and
obligations when working with Free Software, as well as with Open Data
and Open Hardware. Although the project has officially come to a close,
the ZOOOM toolkit and training materials are a
useful tool to promote a healthier ecosystem where Free Software legal
and licensing obligations are understood and followed across various
digital industries, and where the ideals of Free Software are
upheld.
Legal Network and LLW 2024
The FSFE continued to support the Free Software legal community with
our continued coordination of the Legal Network this year. The Legal
Network is a global community of legal professionals from diverse
fields, all working on legal and licensing issues related to Free
Software. The Legal Licensing Workshop (LLW) provides a neutral and
safe space for participants to engage in discussions, even on
controversial topics, fostering mutual learning and collaboration.
This year, our facilitation of the
Legal Network has led to the discussion and proliferation of legal
understanding in the international legal community of a number of
trending topics, including the relevance of Free Software licenses to
the development of large language models, developments in litigation
efforts to enforce copyleft in various jurisdictions, as well as the
ever constant detailed dissection of the effects of various
licenses.
As part of our support for the legal community, we also organized
our annual Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop (LLW) in April
for the legal professionals on our Legal Network to meet in person to
present their work, and to discuss legal issues and best practices
surrounding Free Software legal and licensing issues. As in 2023, this
year’s event was once again held in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the Chalmers
Conference Center, over 3 days.
While the LLW conference is always a
great opportunity for Legal Network members to share their projects and
research findings, or to engage in thought provoking discussions on
both the practical and philosophical aspects of Free Software legal
practice, this year’s conference was also a great opportunity for
participants to catch up with one another in person, and to meet new
Legal Network members. It is the aim of the FSFE that building such
professional relationships helps to build shared consensus in the
practice of law related to Free Software across jurisdictions, and to
reduce friction in the famously prickly legal sphere. We are happy to
say that with the extremely smooth running of the 2024 edition of the
LLW, we have been successful in this aim this year.
We look forward to organizing the 2025 edition of the LLW in Essen,
Germany, at the Unperfekthaus.
Our work on public awareness
We are deeply committed to raising public awareness of Free
Software, and our website plays a central role in this effort. It
serves as a comprehensive resource, providing information about the
basics of Free Software, our ongoing activities, and our vibrant
community. In recent months, we have focused on improving the
attractiveness and usability of the site. In particular, we've
redesigned the front page and introduced a new categorisation system
for our publications to make them more accessible to readers. We've
also revised the structure of our activities page. Our press site has
also been redesigned to help journalists find the information they need
more easily and quickly.
Since September 2023, we have published 55 news items in English,
our official outreach language, but some of these publications have
also been translated into other European languages, mainly thanks to our
awesome team of translators. Besides, we
publish monthly email updates in which our experts inform our
subscribers about current news, events, activities, and how you can
contribute.
FSFE Press Page
From a technical standpoint, we have overhauled the translation
status page. It now displays the files that need translation for each
language, prioritized by the importance of the files—essentially based
on how many clicks it takes to reach the page from the front page. The
status page also links directly to the source files in Git and the
Webpreview tool, which shows the current translated version. This
should make it easier to resume translation work. Additionally, for
some time now, translated pages with a newer English version have shown
a warning indicating that the translation is outdated. Also, currently
if a translation is too outdated, instead the EN original will be
displayed again.
Another technical improvement that we have done these past months
was in the event
registration. An event can now be linked to a local or topic group
and will automatically be added to the group's calendar, which is
accessible from the group overview page and can be integrated into
calendar apps via CalDAV, just like other calendars in Nextcloud. For
proper integration, events now include start and end times. The
existing ICS file also correctly uses these dates, allowing subscribers
to see the event times in their feeds. Additionally, events can be
automatically sent to the group’s mailing list, though this feature
hasn't been used by any group yet. The process for adding events to our
events page has also been partially automated—a pull request is
automatically generated for new events, collecting all language
versions, and the event filename is adjusted accordingly. This version
improves clarity, reduces redundancy, and streamlines the explanation.
Let me know if you'd like any adjustments!
We also have made some progress in the migration from wiki.fsfe.org to docs.fsfe.org, but
still we need to continue working on it during the next months. Last
but not least, over the past year we switched from the old ticket system to the new one.
We have also continued with our Software
Freedom Podcast. This year we published 4 episodes, which might be a bit less than previous years but the person in charge was on maternity leave for several months in 2024.
This year, in the podcast we talked about PMPC, the current status of Free Software
in our society in US and Europe, we had a special episode at Christmas
about "What is Free Software" and we learned about MirageOS.
We also have a number of social media channels, the main ones being
Mastodon and Peertube, where we post more frequently, using the ones
that are not part of the Fediverse to promote topics and issues related
with the main audience of those networks.
Map showing the different events that we have around Europe
I Love Free Software Day
"I Love Free Software Day" 2024 focused on the younger generations
and how to introduce them to the Free Software community. Therefore,
several of our local groups celebrated this day with a meeting focused
on younger people.
The FSFE planned a special gift for several organisations and
long-term volunteers to prepare them for I Love Free Software Day. We
gave them an acrylic glass heart and an LED strip, and a
microcontroller and some jumper cables. The challenge? To tinker with
these things and upload a picture of the heart on 14 February. It
turned out to be quite a challenge, but a lot of fun!
For the 2024
celebrations, over a hundred people came together in 13
local meetings - either online or in person - organised by FSFE
chapters or other Free Software groups in seven different
countries.
Merchandising and Info Material
This year we worked on adding new stickers to our -already- great
collection.
At the end of last year, we focused on expanding our already
impressive sticker collection. With our team's creativity, we developed
new slogans and
illustrations, resulting in fresh stickers in a
variety of colours and formats.
In the months that followed, we attended various conferences and
events, where we gathered valuable feedback on these new stickers.
We also took the opportunity to refresh our merchandise. By the end
of 2023, we introduced two new T-shirts: a new colour for our classic
“There’s No Cloud” design and a striking new graphic for the "Hacking
for Freedom" slogan. Both T-shirts have been well-received, alongside
another exciting addition to our web shop and event displays—the
vibrant red “I Love Free Software” socks.
At the start of summer, we ran a successful sale offering free
shipping for two weeks, resulting in over 100 orders, including several
large ones.
As an e.V. association, the General Assembly of the
FSFE met for its annual meeting last October at Linux Hotel in Essen.
Our community
While our local groups have continued with their activity in their
local and regional levels, this year we have continued with the online
coordinators’ meetings. Besides organizing booths and being at events
-even in Asia- our volunteers have also been involved in several
activities such as PMPC, Ada & Zangemann….
This year we also activated a new local group, that is going to focus on Poland
In Italy, we had a fundraising innitiative, in which we gifted all
supporters and ex-supporters a copy of the book and informed them about
the activities happening in Italy.
FSFE Netherlands connected with the local free software community by hosting info stands, an ILoveFSDay event and an introductory presentation at WikiconNL. They continued the discussions online and in chat, moving forward on topics like banking apps and education. The Dutch Ada Zangemann book translation is progressing and could benefit from sponsors for the print run.
EU election: FSFE Netherlands Coordinator joins Amsterdam's Digital City Debate
This year we also spent a nice day with members of the Italian
community in Bolzano, going on a hike with them the day after SFSCON.
And in the summer we were back at the LinuxHotel for our now
traditional summer meeting! During a long weekend we spent time with
volunteers, learning about current work topics and getting feedback. We
even had time to get to know each other a bit better with some
networking games and in the evenings.
Join the movement
Become a supporter: Your support and contribution for the promotion of Free
Software are important for securing our continuous work, ensuring our
independence, strengthening our democratic society, promoting and
implementing concrete steps towards software freedom, and making it
easier to use and develop Free Software.
Advocating for freedom costs money and we depend on people like you to
support us. Thanks to all our supporters and special kudos
to our donors. We
guarantee that all support is used to foster software
freedom in Europe a little more each day, step by step, bit by bit for the next decades.
With your help we can keep on defending software freedom. Thank you for your trust, your support, and
your ideas to continue bringing Free Software to our society!
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