The FSFE at 38C3: let’s talk together about Software Freedom

The 38th Chaos Communication Congress (38C3), taking place in Hamburg from December 27 to 30, 2024. And we couldn’t miss it! Once again, the FSFE will be at the congress with an assembly and different activities in the Bits & Bäume Habitat. Do not forget to stop by!

Under the motto “Illegal Instructions”, the 38th Chaos Communication Congress (38C3), the annual conference organised by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), is back at the end of December. As one of the largest and most prominent hacker and tech conferences in Europe, the Congress attracts over ten-thousand of attendees annually, from hackers, technologists, activists, artist, and curious newcomers from all over the world.

One more time, you will find some of the FSFE staffers and volunteers at the Bits & Baüme habitat in the Hamburg Congress Center. There, we will join other digital rights organisations with an assembly and organise several talks and events. Come by at our ‘Ada & Zangemann’ readings by our volunteers and watch this story as an animated movie, participate in our discussion about governance in the Fedivese, find five minutes to listening to our lightning talks, and learn more about sparking children’s interest in coding at our talk on the community stage, a FSFE women meeting..... and let’s do not forget our daily 19:00h date at our booth, where we will be signing together the Free Software song.

FSFE @38c3 Schedule

Day 1

• 14:00 h. FSFE Women Meetup B&B Workshop Area Bits & Bäume / about:freedom

Day 2

• 14:00h. Kino: Ada & Zangemann - Ein Märchen über Software, Skateboards und Himbeereis GF1 Saal 5 Bits & Bäume / about:freedom

• 19:15h . Let’s spark children’s interest in coding Stage YELL

Day 3

• 16:30h. Reading: Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream B&B Wohnzimmerlounge Bits & Bäume / about:freedom

• 19:30 h. Fediverse Governance - Fishbowl Discussion GF1 Saal 5 Bits & Bäume / about:freedom

Plus two lightning talks, "From Apple litigation to Legal Eduation: how the FSFE can help you” and “Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: the programming competition for young Europeans”. - Day and time to be confirmed.

Of course, we will also be there with a lot of posters, stickers and other info material as well as our merchandising, mainly t-shirts and socks but also some new hoodies in case you forgot to pre-order yours!

Stay updated on FSFE activities during 38C3 by following the FSFE on the Fediverse Together, are creating a room for Free Software enthusiasts, Chaos-people, and everybody who wants to connect and talk about Free Software <3.

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SFP#27: Policy and EU: Free Software hearing in the German Bundestag

Alexander Sander, the FSFE's Senior Policy Consultant, and Bonnie Mehring meet for their monthly update on the current policy topics. In this episode they talk about the Free Software hearing in the German Bundestag.

At the beginning of December, the FSFE participated in a German parliament hearing on Free Software, organised by the Digital Committee. The hearing focused on the use of Free Software for the public administration. In his speech for the position of the FSFE, Alexander Sander, highlighted the importance of the current trend of 'openwashing' and how this can affect the procurement process in the public administration.

Listen to this episode and find out what the overall take on the hearing is!

Show notes

• Bundestag hearing on Free Software
• Speech from Alexander Sander in the hearing on Free Software in the German Bundestag
• Hearing on Free Software: Statement from the FSFE (only available in DE)
• Sign the Open Letter for “Public Money? Public Code!”
• Support our work for Free Software

If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a donation.

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Meet Vinícius and Simon, young hackers from Youth Hacking 4 Freedom

The 3rd edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) has officially concluded, celebrating the impressive talents of young European developers. Two of the participants in the 2024 edition are sharing insights about their projects and experiences: Vinícius developed an automatic telescope while Simon worked on bringing Free Software on the SHC devices.

The Youth Hacking 4 Freedom contest is a competition organised by the Free Software Foundation Europe that encourages young Europeans to work on a personal technical project. After six months of programming, the competition successfully ended last October with an inspiring award ceremony weekend. This unique programming competition is more than just a contest: it's an opportunity for young talents to showcase their creativity, learn new skills, and contribute to their community.

Vinícius automated the process of star tracking showcasing, ability to upcycle devices with his Automatic Telescope, whereas Simon created a project with SHC devices because of the freedom of choosing his own project. In this interview, we will learn more about them and their projects with different approaches but similar spirit!

FSFE: Hi Vinícius! Hi Simon! First of all, congratulations to both of you for your participation in the third edition of YH4F! Could you please briefly introduce yourselves and tell us what you like to do before we delve into your projects?

Vinícius: My name is Vinícius Carrijo Tambascia and I’m 17 years old. I was born in Brazil and moved to Sweden at the age of 10. My hobbies are looking at the stars with the telescope, playing tennis and skateboard when the weather is good, and also to make projects with software and hardware.

Simon: My name is Simon. I am 15 years old living in Germany. My hobbies are swimming and programming.

FSFE: What was your first experience with programming and how did you start learning it? Was it with Free Software?

Simon: I started to learn programming during COVID, when I bought myself a Raspberry Pi 4 and began experimenting with Arch Linux ARM. For me, Free Software was there from the beginning. I tried to compile obscure programs that only met one requirement, but by fixing bugs and reading their code, I gained a lot of experience and knowledge about programming

Vinícius: My first experience with programming was with a Free Software website called Scratch. Scratch allows you to make games and animations using blocks as code. It’s relatively easy to use and it teaches the concept of programming.

FSFE: How and why did you decide to join YH4F? What do you like the most about the contest?

Vinícius: I first heard about this competition from my parents' friends. I got interested in this competition because I never did anything like this before and I also wanted to challenge my skills to see what I could learn and achieve.

Simon: I joined YH4F last year because it was the only competition in which you could do whatever you want, and it was also one of the few competitions where younger people could participate.

FSFE: Vinícius, how did you come up with your project idea? What motivated you to do your project?

Vinícius: A month before joining this competition, I got a small telescope from my grandparents. I started using it a lot but I did have issues trying to point at a star that wasn’t visible to the naked eye. I knew this problem would be solved with an automatic telescope but they are much more expensive. Therefore I thought I could make my own automatic telescope for this competition. Before coming to this final idea, I had thought of many other options such as games, automatic watering systems for plants, and remote control planes.

FSFE: Vinícius, is astronomy a long-standing passion of yours or did the project stem from your interest in coding?

Vinícius: I always had a certain level of interest in astronomy but it wasn’t a long standing passion. The telescope helped me to gain even more interest in astronomy.

FSFE: Simon, what inspired your project idea? What was the motivation behind choosing this particular project?

Simon: I received these devices from a relative, who switched to a different smart home system after the shutdown of the the one they were using. So I tried to get them up and running in offline mode but the encryption keys, used for pairing and communicating with the end devices, were not saved from the previous owner.

FSFE: Your project emphasises freedom for users. In which specific ways do you think Free Software can empower users when integrated into SHC devices?

Simon: The main goal of my project is to get end devices to use an open standard for communicating. Additionally, I want to release all software that I write for them so that if I lose interest or they break, other people can try to fix any issues/bugs still present in the software.

FSFE: What were the main problems or challenges that you both encountered during the programming phase?

Vinícius: I had problems throughout the whole process of making the project. I started by making the hardware and the mechanical part of the telescope. I spent a lot of time coming up with ideas on how to move the telescope and all of my original ideas didn’t work. Halfway through the competition I managed to move the telescope up and down by itself using a system that involved a rope and a motor. The next part was to make the telescope move horizontally by itself, however this part was much more challenging. I tried so many different ways but nothing worked until the end of May. By then I actually had a telescope with all the mechanics and hardware working but the problem was that I had less than a month for the actual coding period. Time management was a big problem here because I spent a lot of time on the building phase and little on the programming one. During the programming phase, I didn’t know how I was going to do it. I wanted to connect the Arduino [board] to astronomy software (like Google Maps but for stars) to get the live coordinates of the star you want to track, however I simply didn't know how to do that. I tried but got nowhere. Instead I came up with an idea to track the stars using a bunch of mathematical equations that model the trajectory of the stars.

Simon: Mainly, learning how Linux works under the hood, especially building my own "OS" using build-root, was a significant challenge. Another big problem was that missing documentation for the hardware, which meant that I had to figure out all connections to other peripherals on my own.

FSFE: Did you work on your project alone?

Simon: Yes, I worked on it alone.

Vinícius: I did work on my project alone but I had some help. My school helped me with the project by allowing me to use their 3D printer machine. I could have not done the project without a 3D printer. I also had some indirect help from my parents' friends as we discussed ideas for building the telescope.

FSFE: As far as we understood, Vinícius, you have developed software to follow the movement of the stars in the sky. How did you do that?

Vinícius: I tracked the path of the start by coming up with equations that could model the star based on its current position. The path of the star around the sky is mainly caused by the Earth's rotation around its axis and the sun. This is only true for the stars very far away unlike the planets in our solar system.

FSFE: This sounds like a lot of work. We are truly amazed by the effort you put into your project Vinícius.

Simon, your project includes both software and mechanical components. What were the main challenges in making sure the software and hardware work together?

Simon: The biggest challenge is figuring out how the hardware is connected with one another and then adjusting the software to fit the hardware.

An amazing and truely baffeling automated telescope

FSFE: How has participating in YH4F and working on these projects affected you personally? What have you learned about yourself through this experience?

Vinícius: Working on this project has helped me to develop my coding skills, but most importantly it has shown me that I can do more complicated projects than I originally thought. At the beginning of the project, I doubted myself that I could do something so advanced, but in the end, I realised that anything is possible with a lot of dedication and effort. Nothing goes according to plan, but we can still go around it and reach the goal.

Simon: I discovered that there are many people like me that love to tinker with electronics and software.

FSFE: Do you think you will continue working on your project and what would be some next steps you would like to take? Are you planning to improve the documentation so that more people can reuse your projects?

Simon: I will definitely continue to work on this project, but I will probably stop developing the Linux port because the hardware in the central devices is very slow and has no real use any more. However, the next step will be to design custom PCBs for the end devices and use ESP32s to create a replacement board that uses Zigbee, an open standard, instead of the closed standard they have used so far. Another reason for switching to Zigbee is that I recently switched to Zigbee for my home automation and don't want multiple different communication standards that may not work after 10 years. I will definitely document the process for developing the new PCBs and also share other information I still have for the central devices.

FSFE: And last but not least, is there any kind of advice that you would like to tell new Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants?

Vinícius: Time management is very important. If you're thinking of making a project that involves hardware, then make sure that the building period doesn’t take all of your time because the main focus of this competition is the software. I believe I could have made better software if I had spent less time on the building part and more on the programming part.

Simon: I think you should always just try to do your best. Even if you don't win, you will still make friends and have fun in the process.

FSFE: Thank you Vinícius and Simon. We wish you the best of luck with your future plans and a lot of success with your projects!

The 2025 edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom will start on 01.01.2025. You can already register now. Check out the YH4F website to find out all the details of this competition or feel free to reach out to the organisers via mail!

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Hearing at the Bundestag +++ Ada Premiere in German +++ REUSE and NGI updates4

As the last month of the year rolls in, thoughts of 2025 are already taking shape. But before we dive into the new year, December is packed with news! We are participating in a hearing at the German Parliament, we keep pushing for long-term funding for Free Software, new versions of REUSE Specification and REUSE tools were released, and more!

Table of contents

• Quote of the Month
• German Bundestag hearing on "Open Source"
• Policy and EU: the need of long-term funding
• REUSE makes software licensing as easy as one-two-three
• Ada & Zangemann German premiere and more!
• SFSCON ‘24
• Humboldt Prize for a Free Software Master’s Thesis
• Hacker train to FOSDEM
• 38c3: the place to be between Christmas and NYE
• Contribute to our Newsletter

Quote of the Month

“Bram was not just VIM's lead maintainer but a true champion of open source values, collaboration, and innovation of VIM. He showed so much passion and dedication over more than 30 years to build and improve the original VI, making it a highly configurable and popular editor in the UNIX, hacker, and node culture. But he wasn't only a developer and benevolent dictator for life, he built up a community that continues to grow, and support each other, and strive for excellence. We know that none of this would be possible without the great work that Bram created.”

Vim maintainer Christian Brabandt

German Bundestag hearing on “Open Source”

On Wednesday, 4 December at 14:15, Alexander Sander will participate in the hearing on "Open Source" at the German parliament in Berlin. Alex will present the position of the FSFE, answering the questions of the Members of the German Bundestag.

Follow the hearing live (in German)

Policy and EU: the need of long-term funding

Last September, the FSFE called on the community to participate in a consultation on the European Union’s Digital Europe Programme and demanded long-term sustainable funding for Free Software after recent budget cuts. Results show the success of the call: they show that the FSFE’s call to action, based on our answers, was heard. Nearly 800 answers were received, an unusually high number for such consultations.

This is also the topic of our latest Software Freedom podcast episode. On SFP 26, we focus on the 27 million euros cut from funding of the Next Generation Internet initiative (known as NGI). Alexander Sander and Bonnie Mehring shed some light on the history of this European project and share the newest developments in this case.

REUSE makes software licensing as easy as one-two-three

REUSE Specification 3.3 and REUSE tool 5.0.0 were released in November, making it even easier to license your code as Free Software. REUSE provides all the tools and documentation that developers need to apply standards-compliant and comprehensive licensing information to their projects, without needing to be legal experts.

Ada & Zangemann German premiere and more!

On 27 November, 800 guests, most of them children, enjoyed the German premiere of our animated film “Ada & Zangemann - A fairy tale about software, skateboards and raspberry ice cream”, screened in the biggest cinema in Germany. Check out some pictures from the premiere.

The movie is now available, together with the English version, in ada.fsfe.org/movie.

This month we have also released, thanks to our Italian volunteers, this story as an audio book in Italian. And we have continued with the readings, in Italy, rural Germany, and even in Sri Lanka!

More great news! And Ada made it into the Wikimedia Commons media of the day on 10 November! The story of Ada also was promoted in the Autumn edition (number 23) [DE] of the Evangelical parents' magazine "Zehn14".

SFSCON ‘24

At the beginning of November, the FSFE team travelled to Bolzano to take part in SFSCON. It was a really nice few days full of interesting talks and discussions. We also had the chance to go on a sunny hike with our volunteers the day after SFSCON!

During SFSCON, the FSFE and Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen (LUGBZ) posthumously honored Bram Moolenaar, creator of the widely used Vim text editor, with the European SFS Award.

Besides our booth there, with really nice and cool merchandise such as our new Ada cookie cutters or our temporary FSFE tattoos, our team was also involved giving talks and organizing workshops.

We prepared a playlist with our talks for you to learn first hand about topics such as openwashing, CRA and PLD liability rules, the EU NGI initiatives and the need of long-term funding, our experience with the Italian community, and introduction to the fediverse ... and more.

On Saturday, 23 November, the FSFE participated in Campus du Libre with a booth, engaging with attendees and sharing insights on Free Software. This event, held at Université Jean Moulin Lyon, is organized by members of the academic community and focuses on promoting Free Software.

Humboldt Prize for a Free Software Master’s Thesis

The Humboldt University of Berlin has granted the Humboldt Prize - Research for Innovation 2024" to Linda Novobilska for her master's thesis on "Free and Open Source Software Licensing Requirements and Copyright Infringement Involving Artificial Intelligence Technologies". The thesis was co-advised by Dr Lucas Lasota, FSFE’s Legal Programme Manager.

This master’s thesis represents a successful attempt to systematically analyse the licensing requirements of open source software in relation to AI technologies. The thesis has shed light on the latest developments in copyright law and provides deep insights into recent litigation in the USA.

The Humboldt Innovation Prize is a prestigious award for outstanding academic work by students and junior researchers. The winners are granted 1000 EUR and coaching sessions from the Humboldt Start-Up Innovation Management.

Hacker train to FOSDEM

Are you planning to participate in FOSDEM 2025? What about making the most of this experience and joining a HackerTrain? That is the suggestion of a group of Free Software enthusiasts!

The plan? To go together to Brussels on the night train from Prague to Brussels on 28 January. There will be an informal social gathering and a small unconference.

Interested? Check out all the details here.

38c3: the place to be between Christmas and NYE

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, the FSFE will be at the 38th Chaos Communication Congress (38c3)—Europe’s largest hacker and tech community gathering. Join us for engaging talks, a booth full of Free Software insights, and plenty of opportunities to connect as we close out the year with exciting discussions!

Follow all our events at events.fsfe.org.

Contribute to our Newsletter

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

Your editor, Ana

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FOSDEM 2025 Call for Participation: Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom

We are excited to announce that the Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom will be returning for FOSDEM 2025! Join this DevRoom at the biggest annual Free Software event in Europe. This is your opportunity to submit proposals for a talk or a panel about Free Software legal and policy topics.

The Call for Participation for the Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom at FOSDEM 2025 is now open! We are inviting you to submit your proposals for talks and panel discussions about Free Software-related legal or policy topics by Sunday 1 December 2024 at 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth). Whether you are deep into public sector use of Free Software, or navigating the legal complexities of licensing compliance, this DevRoom offers a unique space for meaningful discussions that can shape the future of Free Software.

Our community has substantial expertise in this area yet there are few opportunities to discuss these matters in a forum open to all. In the Legal and Policy Issues Devroom we come together for a fruitful exchange on relevant and pressing Free Software topics.For more details on the submission, visit the link of Call for Participation from the DevRoom’s organizers.

What to Expect

In past years, the Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom has tackled a wide array of critical issues that directly impact the Free Software ecosystem, including Openwashing and its repercussions on the community, trademark policy, national laws and their effects on the Free Software movement, the role of Free Software in public administrations, interoperability and more!

This year, the DevRoom community is in particular interested in exploring topics like LLM-generative-models, questions and discussions around current EU regulations (e.g. CRA, AI Act, PLD, DMA), how trademarks have been used as control mechanisms, funding schemes and market incentives for Free Software, license compliance experiences and strategies, export regulations and tactics, tax exempt status in different countries, and the evolution and decline in fiscal sponsorship.

See you there!

The Legal and Policy dev room will be held on Saturday, during the first day of the conference. FOSDEM is the place to exchange ideas, forge collaborations, and tackle the most pressing issues in Free Software and open policy. As always it will take place on the first weekend in February and as usual the FSFE will be present with a booth and talks.Stay tuned for more announcements about FSFE’s activities at FOSDEM.

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SFP#26: Policy and EU: the need of long-term funding and the NGI case

Join this new episode of our Software Freedom podcast in which Bonnie Mehring and Alexander Sander discussing current topics affecting Free Software in the European Union. In this episode we focus on the 27 million euros cut of funding of the Next Generation Internet initiative (known as NGI). Alex and Bonnie shed some light on the history of this European project and share the newest developments in this case.

As FSFE's Senior Policy Consultant, Alex focuses on the role of Free Software at the political arena. There, he advocates for the recognition of Free Software, raising awareness about the important role of Free Software for shaping of our digital tomorrow. When the news of the €27 million funding cut to the Next Generation Internet initiative was leaked, Alex and the FSFE immediately took action. In the wake of the loss in funding we called on our community to take action, demanding long-term funding for Free Software. With the help of our community we reached out to the European Commission - with success.

This is the perfect episode for anyone looking to understand EU policies and the funding cuts for NGI!

Show notes

• Next Generation Internet
• Spread your concern about Free Software funding in your local newspaper
• Bring Back Free Software Funding: Give Your Feedback to the European Commission
• The FSFE demands EU Commission sustainable long-term Free Software funding
• EU consultation confirms demand: long-term funding for Free Software is needed
• Stay up-to-date and join our Newsletter
• Sign the Open Letter for “Public Money? Public Code!”
• Support our work for Free Software

If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a donation.

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REUSE makes software licensing as easy as one-two-three

REUSE Specification 3.3 and REUSE tool 5.0.0 are released today, making it even easier to license your code as Free Software. REUSE provides all the tools and documentation that developers need to apply standards-compliant and comprehensive licensing information to their projects, without needing to be a legal expert.

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) started REUSE in 2017 to make licensing easy, comprehensive, unambiguous, and machine-readable. This toolkit consists of a specification that standardises licensing, a tool that helps achieve and verify compliance with the specification, and documentation that helps developers through the process.

Today, the REUSE Project announced the release of specification version 3.3 and tool version 5.0.0. These releases follow closely on the heels of the 3.2 release this past summer, which introduced the 'REUSE.toml', a configuration file which allows easy and precise licensing annotations of other files in a project.

In this new 3.3 update, the specification builds on version 3.2 by incorporating additional refinements, some of those small tweaks proposed by the community.

The new release of the tool comes with bug fixes, performance improvements, and the ability to lint individual files instead of the entire project.

How does REUSE work?

The core idea behind REUSE is really simple. First, choose and provide your licences. Second, add copyright and licensing information to each file. And finally, confirm REUSE compliance using the tool. REUSE makes adding copyright and licensing information as simple as possible, using industry-standard System Package Data Exchange (SPDX) tags that are easily parsed by many tools.

Each file needs just two tags, one for copyright and one for licensing.

By making licensing so comprehensive, the reuse of code becomes a lot simpler, hence the project’s name. If a third party finds some REUSE-compliant code that they like, they can easily find the copyright and licensing, and they can in practice just copy the file to their own project without losing any information. In the past, re-users of code would have often had to guess a file’s licensing from incomplete or ambiguous information. But with REUSE, this process becomes trivial, and the developer’s Free Software is much more easily propagated.

A community standard

REUSE is steadily being adopted by more and more projects. In 2020, KDE became one of the biggest Free Software communities to adopt REUSE as their licensing policy, after the Linux kernel in 2017. Other big adopters since then are Weblate, the Rust programming language, Nextcloud, curl, the Khronos Group, the German Aerospace Center, and many others. Software Heritage has begun recommending REUSE as a way to prepare projects for archival.

“An approach such as REUSE makes it much easier to follow an established good practice… I do not have to think where to put a specific information such as the license files as REUSE gives me clear advice. In addition, REUSE helps me to check whether I accidentally missed something. Such tools are really, really important because they bring a standard into practice.” Tobias Schlauch, German Aerospace Center

Under the current system of copyright, software is non-free by default. As such, licensing is the backbone that enables software to be free. REUSE helps the Free Software community do this as clearly and as simply as possible.

Adopting REUSE is fortunately easier than ever. The tutorial walks developers through the three steps, and the FAQ answers all questions about copyright, about licensing, and about REUSE. If you need more motivations for adopting REUSE, this FAQ entry goes into more depth.

The REUSE project thrives thanks to the community and all those who support and adopt it! Contributions from our FSFE supporters enable us to continue developing REUSE and drive forward our other important initiatives. By becoming an FSFE supporter, you join a network of individuals who ensure our long-term impact. You can also help by asking your company to join the REUSE sponsors.

Your support makes our work possible!

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EU consultation confirms demand: long-term funding for Free Software is needed

The FSFE called on the community to participate in a consultation on the European Union’s Digital Europe Programme and demanded long-term sustainable funding for Free Software after recent budget cuts. Results show its success.

In response to the European Commission's €27 million budget cut for Free Software projects this summer, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has been demanding sustainable, long-term funding for Software Freedom. Last September, the FSFE participated in the European Commission’s public consultation on the Digital Europe Programme’s interim evaluation. FSFE stressed that reliable long-term funding for Free Software is essential to drive Europe’s digitization efforts towards sovereignty and control over technology.

The results of the interim evaluation were presented today, and they show that the FSFE’s call to action, based on our answers, was heard. Nearly 800 answers were received, —an unusually high number for such consultations. In the open-ended responses, participants highlighted Free Software as a vital component of Europe’s digital future. Additionally, many respondents highlighted Free Software’s role in enhancing cross-border collaboration and argued that stable, dedicated funding for Software Freedom would maximize the impact and value of Europe’s digital agenda. This feedback not only emphasizes the importance of Free Software and its sustainable funding for European digital policy, but also demonstrates the value of public input and the need to provide citizens with meaningful tools to share their opinions.

“The strong response from the public underscores what the FSFE has been pointing out for years: Free Software is an essential tool for a sovereign, transparent, collaborative, and innovative digital Europe. Therefore Software Freedom must be supported with long-term funding", says Alexander Sander, FSFE Senior Policy Consultant.

The FSFE would like to thank everyone who contributed to the consultation. Let’s keep working together for a sustainable funding model for Free Software in Europe! More details on this important issue will be covered in our next episode of the Software Freedom Podcast and on fsfe.org. Stay tuned!

Support our work for Software Freedom! Your donation enables us to advocate for sustainable long-term funding for Free Software in Europe.

Become an FSFE supporter now!

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Vim developer Bram Moolenaar posthumously receives the European SFS Award

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen (LUGBZ) posthumously honored Bram Moolenaar, creator of the widely used Vim text editor, with the European SFS Award at SFSCON 2024. This award celebrates Moolenaar’s invaluable contributions to the Free Software community.

Pictures of Bram Moolenaar: working on Vim, at SFSCON 2009, a phone and an antenna he helped to set up in Uganda, and the piggy bank he had at his work space to ask for donations. You can find the pictures here.

“This year’s European SFS Award goes to Bram Moolenaar whose mantra was ‘Detect inefficiencies, find a quicker way, make it a habit’, someone for whom efficiency of computers users was crucial. His work transformed how many interact with computers, maximizing programmers productivity by minimizing unnecessary keystrokes. His tool has become invaluable for Free Software contributors, developers, and creators.” said Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE as he presented the 2024 European SFS Award during SFSCON 24.

Bram Moolenaar is best known for developing VIM, a powerful, screen-based text editor. Released in 1991, Vim was originally a port of the Stevie editor for Amiga and has since become an indispensable tool for developers worldwide, available across multiple platforms. Vim remains one of the most popular and versatile development environments, supporting countless programmers and fostering a dedicated user community. Moolenaar released Vim as “charityware,” encouraging users to support children in the south of Uganda through charitable donations.

“Educating others to empower them was also important for Bram outside of the technology field”, explained Raphael Barbieri, a member of LUGBZ, during the ceremony. “He helped children in Uganda, many of whom had lost their parents to HIV, gain access to education at the Kibaale Community Centre. He founded an NGO to collection donations for this work, even on his work desk there was a piggy bank so that visitors can easily donate.”

Beyond Vim, Moolenaar was a prolific contributor to the Free Software movement, having worked on numerous technical projects, created a programming language, and developed a tool to streamline software installation and management. He also held official roles within software organisations, amplifying his impact on the Free Software landscape.

This award commemorates Moolenaar’s unwavering dedication to help others to better understand computers and software. It gave him great pleasure to participate in conferences, explain the Free Software culture at his work place, and help others to develop and use his software. He wanted others to also experience this joy. "If you are happy, I am happy!" was one of his sayings. Moolenaar passed away on 3 August, 2023, due to a rapidly deteriorating illness. His legacy in the developer community and in social work is expected to continue.

In a message from Moolenaar's family, they expressed their pride and gratitude: "We are very proud that Bram received this award. As a dedicated supporter of Free Software, we believe he would have been honored to accept it. We thank the Free Software Foundation Europe and LUGBZ for recognizing Bram's lifelong work and encourage anyone wishing to honor him to support children in Uganda through ICCF Holland."

Message from Christian Brabandt ,VIM maintainer, recognizing the European SFS Award.

The European SFS Award

The SFS Award was first presented in 2004 to Hugo Leiter at the SFSCON South Tyrol Free Software Conference in recognition of his work implementing LibreOffice across all municipalities in South Tyrol. In 2023, the award expanded to a European level, with the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) partnering with LUGBZ, the award’s initiator, to honor those who have made exceptional contributions to the promotion and dissemination of Free Software across Europe.

The European SFS Award celebrates developers whose work has significantly advanced the accessibility and impact of Free Software in Europe. In 2023, the award was presented to Frank Karlitschek, founder of Nextcloud, for his contributions to Free Software.

2024 Laudatio

Matthias: It is an honor to present the European SFS Award 2024. The FSFE and LUGBZ worked together again this year to find a winner from all nominations. This year’s European SFS Award goes to someone whose work transformed how many interact with computers, creating a tool for Free Software contributors, developers, and creators. A tool that new users might be a little afraid of because it can be tricky to exit.

Raphael: (Yes, you may know the software we’re talking about.) A piece of code that makes every keystroke feel like a power move, where “Esc” is the most important key on your keyboard. Since its launch in 1991, this software has spread across more than 15 operating systems and is installed on millions of computers around the world.

Matthias: For our winner, efficiency of computer users was crucial. His mantra was: “Detect inefficiencies, find a quicker way, make it a habit!” and he helped many people to how to actually accomplish this. He went on to help those he met on mailing lists, at conferences like SFSCON in 2009, or at his workplace. He even talked to public administrations, so they actually use and thereby benefit from Free Software. He wanted to ensure that all software which is procured by public administrations is published under a Free Software license for the good of society.

Raphael: Educating others to empower them was also important for him outside of the technology field. He helped children in Uganda -- who often lost their parents due to HIV -- to get education at the Kibaale Community Centre. He enabled school education for many of them so they can take care about themselves and their families in the long run. He founded an NGO to collection donations for this work, even on his work desk there was a piggy bank so that visitors can easily donate.

Matthias: There was a huge online rivalry between the users of his software and those on the other side: those who used another "operating system" and who called his software the "editor of the beast". This rivalry became an enduring part of hacker culture and the Free Software community. A huge fan of Monty Pythons, this year's winner did not shy away from engaging in such banter.

Raphael: His dedication was enormous. His family will not forget the moments, in which he disappeared on Christmas day, because he "needed to fix some bugs". It gave him great pleasure to develop and use his software, and he wanted to help others to also experience this joy. "If you are happy, I am happy!" was one of his sayings. He took every opportunity to work on his projects, even while in the hospital.

Matthias:With his death on 3 August 2023 the Free Software community lost a person who enabled thousands of people to contribute efficiently to software freedom. We regret that he was not able to live longer with his beloved turtles, finishing his plans for a vacuum robot that could clean stairways, fixing bugs, implementing new features for the users of his software, and being here with us.

Raphael: For his remarkable contributions to software freedom the European SFS Award 2024 goes posthumously to Bram Moolenaar, the creator of Vi IMproved -- or VIM.

Matthias: So, please join us in a big round of applause for Bram Moolenaar.

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YH4F 2024 winners +++ Apple litigation page +++ SFSCON ‘24

It's November and our team heads to Bolzano for SFSCON, still thrilled by the inspiring 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom award ceremony! Last weeks we’ve also launched a new page to keep you updated on the latest developments in our involvement with the Apple vs. EC litigation. Find out the latest updates on Router Freedom, REUSE and more!

Table of contents

• Quote of the Month
• Winners of the 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom announced
• Apple vs. European Commission: the FSFE launches a page with comprehensive information
• Where the FSFE Shapes the Future: SFSCON 2024!
• Exceptions against Router Freedom undermine users’ rights in Italy
• REUSE: Specification 3.3 and version 5.0.0 of the tool coming soon
• Ada & Zangemann: inventions from children!
• Back to the stages
• Contribute to our Newsletter

Quote of the Month

“The final word on which apps you use on your device should be yours. Which is why the EU ordered Apple to open up iOS devices to rival app stores, something Apple categorically refuses to do. Apple’s “plan” for complying with the DMA is, shall we say, sorely lacking (this is part of a grand tradition of American tech giants wiping their butts with EU laws that protect Europeans from predatory activity, like the years Facebook spent ignoring European privacy laws, manufacturing stupid legal theories to defend the indefensible)”

Cory Doctorow, on an article about the FSFE intervention in the Apple vs. EC litigation

Winners of the 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom announced

The 2024 edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) competition, organised by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), successfully concluded with an inspiring award ceremony weekend in Brussels. Young developers from all over Europe were recognised for their Free Software projects and presented their work to an audience that included their families, jury members, and new-found friends.

The six winning projects, developed by young people aged between 14 and 18 and presented at the 2024 award ceremony, are: a federated social network, an app to help dementia patients, software for finding events and connecting with people in your area, a unique rhythm game, and an app for sharing sheets of music and lyrics.

YH4F is a unique programming contest designed to give Europeans aged 14 to 18 the opportunity to showcase their programming skills and creativity by developing Free Software projects.

Apple vs. European Commission: the FSFE launches a page with comprehensive information

The FSFE is intervening for Free Software in a key court case involving Apple and the European Commission. Apple is trying to avoid obligations derived from the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The FSFE seeks to hold Apple accountable under the DMA in a developer-friendly way.

The decision to intervene in this case was not made lightly. But how could we stand by while the Free Software movement faces this affront? Yes, we decided to take action. We have just launched a dedicated website with comprehensive information about the case: https://fsfe.org/activities/apple-litigation/.

We assert Apple should compete based on trustworthiness. Developers and users alike should benefit from alternative services and products, not just those offered, and controlled by Apple. Our plea is for fair competition, IT security, and consumer protection.

More people need to be aware of this court case. We are asking you to help spread the word! After reaching out, please share your experiences with us.

Donate now

Where the FSFE Shapes the Future: SFSCON 2024!

We are excited to be back for the South Tyrol Free Software Conference (SFSCON) on 8 and 9 November! SFSCON is the place to be if you’re passionate about Free Software. Whether you’re a seasoned developer, a curious newcomer, or a decision-maker, join us to learn, share, and get inspired by Free Software in Bolzano.

As well as a booth full of promotional material and merchandising, we will also be running talks and workshops, including a session on our DMA legal case and the urgent need for sustainable, long-term financial support. We will also find out who will receive the 2024 European SFS Award! Hope to see you at the NOI park for some great discussions!

Exceptions against Router Freedom undermine users’ rights in Italy

In 2018 Italy implemented Router Freedom. However regulatory decisions in 2019 and 2023 introduced exceptions for fiber networks. The FSFE has now urged Italy’s telecom regulator, AGCOM, to remove these restrictions and fully restore users' rights to choose their own equipment to connect to fiber networks.

REUSE: Specification 3.3 and version 5.0.0 of the tool coming soon

REUSE makes it easier to license code as Free Software by providing the tools and documentation that developers need. Developers can apply standards-compliant and comprehensive licensing information to their projects without needing to be legal experts.

In a few days, we will release new versions of this project started in 2017 to make licensing easy, comprehensive, unambiguous, and machine-readable. REUSE consists of a specification that standardises licensing, a tool that helps achieve and verify compliance with the specification, and documentation that helps developers through the process. The new specification and tool will contain many small improvements to make the process of licensing your code easier than ever.

Ada & Zangemann: inventions from children!

"Now, you can enjoy the Ada & Zangemann movie in English and start dreaming up all the amazing inventions you’d love to create! After watching the movie, some students from a local school did just that, and they shared their creations with us!

The cold season has arrived, and our brand-new FSFE zipped hoodies are here to keep you cozy! Don’t miss the final days to pre-order—place your order by Monday, 11 November, at 23:59 CET to collect your hoodie at 38C3 or FOSDEM. You can also order in a group to get delivery to your address with free shipping. Available in sizes XS to 4XL, in blue or black, choose your hoodie and preferred pick-up option.

Back to the stages

On October 26 2024, Dario Presutti, FSFE Project Manager, took part in the Linux Day Milan 2024. The event took place at the Bicocca University of Milan and was organised by two Free Software student associations and the Italian Linux Society. This day was a great opportunity with an enthusiastic crowd, including young newcomers. There were a Public Money? Public Code! talk and a live reading of Ada and Zangemann. With I Love Free Software posters and Ada’s story as conversation starters, we connected with attendees passionate about Free Software in education, sparking discussions about collaboration and awareness for FSFE's initiatives.

Our local group in Poland recently had a fantastic time at Jesień Linuksowa (Linux Autumn), where they had a FSFE information booth! This annual event, organized by the Polish Linux Users Group (PLUG), is a major gathering for GNU/Linux and Free Software enthusiasts and one of the largest events of its kind in Poland. We’re thrilled to have connected with so many passionate members of the community!

38c3… here we come!We’re thrilled to announce our participation in the upcoming 38C3 in Hamburg, happening from December 27 to 30! Our team has just bought their tickets!Just as in past years, FSFE will be part of the Bit&Bäume / about:freedom assembly. Join us at our booth for exclusive merch, information materials, and engaging activities! We’re excited to participate with lightning talks and workshops, and, of course, our daily Free Software song gathering. If you’re part of the FSFE Community and planning to attend, please reach out!

And don’t forget: you have until November 11 to pre-order our new zip hoodies, available for pickup at the Congress.

Before we see you in Hamburg, we have several event going on! Check out all of them in fsfe.org/events!

Contribute to our Newsletter

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

Your editor, Ana

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Where the FSFE Shapes the Future: SFSCON 2024!

We are excited to be back for the South Tyrol Free Software Conference (SFSCON) on 8 and 9 November with talks, workshops and a booth! SFSCON is the place to be if you’re passionate about Free Software and want to dive into discussions on key topics, including the need for sustainable, long-term funding for Free Software projects. Come to Bolzano to learn, connect, and be inspired!.

As one of Europe’s most established annual events on Free Software in Italy, SFSCON promotes the use of Free Software in digital infrastructure as a tool to achieve innovation and competitiveness. Taking place in November, the conference features a dynamic line-up of leading experts, workshops, and discussions to highlight current trends, challenges, and opportunities within the Free Software community.

SFSCON is also the place where the European SFS Award 2024 is presented. This recognition, from the FSFE and the Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan, honours outstanding Free Software developers who have significantly advanced the spread and advocacy of Free Software across Europe. Last year the award went to Nextcloud founder Frank Karlitschek. Upon learning the name of this year’s recognition, our colleague Lucas Lasota will take the stage to deliver a keynote speech.

As in previous editions, the FSFE will also contribute with talks and workshops, including a session on our DMA litigation case and the pressing need for sustainable, long-term financial support. You can also stop by our booth to chat with us, pick up some promotional materials, browse our merchandise, or simply say hello! Explore the entire SFSCON 2024 Programme to discover all activities planned for this year’s edition. Join us at the NOI Techpark in Bolzano!

Diversity at SFSCON: Empowering Women in Tech and Sparking Kids’Coding Curiosity

Women in tech: Let’s spark more Adas in our tech world! 9 November, 09:40h. - Seminar 2 In this workshop we will dive into the possibilities of encouraging women, especially girls, to thinker and to code. We will explore ways to promote diversity and gender equity in the Free Software community and beyond. We encourage you to join us to share your experiences, ideas and perspectives, and collaborate in creating a more inclusive and Free registration is required for this event!

Let’s spark children’s interest in coding: Our experiences and how you can contribute 8 November, 17:40h. - Seminar 2 How do we ensure that the next generation is motivated and capable of shaping technology for society’s benefits? The FSFE’s President Matthias Kirschner will present how we can spark children’s and teenagers’ interest to tinker, experiment and program. Furthermore you will see how fulfilling those activities can be for yourself.

Ada & Zangemann: German reading and Italian children workshopThe small ones also have a place at SFSCON! On the morning of the first day, school kids will enjoy the reading, in German, of the illustrated book 'Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream'. This book inspire children's interest in tinkering and encourage shaping technology.The next day, on 9 November, there will be a workshop in Italian for kids aged 7 to 10 t to tinker and code.

NGI: A successful EU initiative that shows the need for sustainable, long-term financial support for Free Software

Lessons from the EU’s Next Generation Internet Initiatives: What We've Learnt From Looking At 500 Free Software Projects 8 November, 14:00h. - Seminar 1 Lina Ceballos, our Policy Project Manager will speak about some simple trends in Free Software legal and licensing that we’ve observed over the years in independent Free Software projects and their developers, and how these affect aspects of the Free Software ecosystem.

NGI: No more EU funding for Free Software?! 8 November, 14:40h. - Seminar 2 Later that same day, in the Seminar 2, Alexander Sander, FSFE’s Senior Policy Consultant will show the urgent need for sustainable, long-term financial support for Free Software to ensure Europe’s technological independence. The decision to cut funding resulted in a loss of €27 million for software freedom. Since 2018, the European Commission has supported the Free Software ecosystem through NGI, that provided funding and technical assistance to Free Software projects. The ease with which this funding was excluded underlines this need.

Policy and Software Freedom

CRA & PLD Liability rules and Software Freedom 8 November, 11:40h.- Seminar 1 With the Cyber Resilience Act and Product Liability Directive liability rules for software have been introduced with a broad exception for Free Software. In this talk Alexander Sander will discuss what this new regulation means for software freedom in future and what happens at this stage and how to be involved in implementation.

We went to court against Apple – a case for Software Freedom: Breaking lock-ins over devices with Free Software 8 November, 12:40h. - Seminar 1 Lucas Lasota, FSFE’s Legal Programme Manager will explain why FSFE’s litigation against Apple represents a key case for Software Freedom. The talk will present how Device Neutrality – a solution to enable end-users to bypass gatekeepers in order to run Free Software independently of the control exercised by hardware manufacturers is at stake.

Tackling Openwashers, Freeloaders and Cuckoos: How to safeguard the Free Software market against unfair competition 8 November, 16:00h. - Seminar 1 Companies that produce and sell Free Software face a problem: some competitors use problematic means to compete, making their products cheaper and winning bids. This kind of market behaviour is increasingly becoming a threat for Free Software producers. In this talk Johannes Näder, Senior Project Manager, will take a closer look at such problematic practices and show why they harm Free Software manufacturers and the Free Software ecosystem., before discussing ways to limit their success.

Diving into the Fediverse

Knitting Our Internet workshop 9 November, 10:40h. - Seminar 2 Starting with the “Knitting Our Internet” workshop, we will dive in into the history of the Internet, and how it is a suitable place for collective re-imagination of participatory, decentralized networks. The workshop questions the very essence of today’s social media, exposing the critical limits posed by centralization, monopoly, and surveillance.

about:Fediverse 11 November, 11:40h. - Seminar 2 In this talk, Tobias Diekershoff, FSFE’s System Administrator will give a short introduction to the Fediverse of 2024 and how it started to evolve in 2008. A network where users can share and interact with each other regardless of the platform they use. What is possible in the Fediverse of 2024 today? What will be possible in the future? And how can you get started today?

Use SFSCON sharepic generator to get your personal image! Generate your unique picture here: https://sharepic.fsfe.org/#sfscon

Community Building

Let’s share our love for Free Software: I love Free Software Day 2025 8 November,16:40h. - Seminar 2 We often underestimate the power of a simple Thank You. Join Ana Galán, Senior Project Manager, in this talk where she presents how Free Software contributors do important work for our society. The “I Love Free Software Day” on 14 February is the perfect opportunity for you to express your special gratitude. Since 2010, we have celebrated this wonderful annual event with an ever-growing and diverse community.

The FSFE Italy Project from Understanding to Testing: How I applied design-thinking to re-design the Italian Free Software Community 8 November, 14:20h.- Seminar 2 The role of Deputy Coordinator Italy within the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) was born in 2022 out of the need of re-establishing the presence of the Foundation on the territory. The project followed a human centric approach, moving along the five core stages of design-thinking. The goal of Marta Andreoli,from the FSFE, is to describe the FSFE Italy project and the design-thinking approach adopted.

Best examples of Open Communities 8 November, 17:20h.- Crane Hall In this BOF (Birds of a Feather) meeting, we will discuss strategies for fostering community growth and enhancing member involvement. We will explore optimal settings and practices that support sustainable community development. Participants are encouraged to share their experiences and insights, providing an opportunity to learn from one another and collaborate on best practices.

Italian Community Meeting: voices of Free Software: connect, learn, inspire! 9 November, 10:20h.- Seminar 3 You are invited to join the volunteers, supporters, and friends of the Italian FSFE Community! Join us to learn from one another, find inspiration, and tackle future challenges together in the realm of Free Software. As a volunteer, you have a platform to share your story, discuss the most pressing topics surrounding Free Software, and connect with fellow enthusiasts. We encourage you to collaborate with the community on common initiatives and work together to forge new paths forward.

That’s Not All Folks!

During these two days, feel free to visit our booth to grab some free stickers, learn more about our campaigns and initiatives, or just stop by to say hello! Our team will be there greeting you and explaining, in different EU languages, more about our initiatives!In addition, our partnership with the ITS Academy Last and the Edulife Foundation will continue, so we will meet a second year of ITS students during SFSCON: we will welcome them in an official meeting and give them some recommendations for talks to attend so they can make the most out of it.

See all of you at SFSCON!

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Winners of the 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom Announced

The six winning projects, developed by young people aged between 14 and 18 and presented at the 2024 award ceremony are: a federated social network, an app to help dementia patients, software for finding events and connecting with people in your area, a unique rhythm game, and a WebApp for sharing sheets of music and lyrics.

The winners of 2024 YH4F posing with their awards during the Award Ceremony in Brussels, photo taken by Nico Rikken, @CC-BY

The third edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) competition, organised by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), has successfully concluded with an inspiring award ceremony weekend in Brussels. Young developers from all over Europe were recognised for their Free Software projects and presented their work to an audience that included their families, jury members, and new-found friends. YH4F is a unique programming contest designed to give Europeans aged 14 to 18 the opportunity to showcase their programming skills and creativity by developing Free Software projects. After six months of intensive programming, the jury selected the top six projects. These winners were invited to Brussels for the award ceremony, where they had the chance to present their projects and participate alongside their peers, jury members and their relatives in a weekend filled with engaging activities.

2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom winners

One again this year's competition attracted remarkable entries, each highlighting the technical talent, creativity, and dedication of its young developer. The six winning projects reflect a diversity of innovative ideas that successfully transform into impressive software solutions by the end of the programming phase.

“We are incredibly proud of this year’s winners and their outstanding contributions to Free Software. The diversity among them, whether in age, country of origin, or gender, truly stands out. We're particularly excited to see that not only young men are stepping into the world of programming", said Alexander Sander, FSFE senior policy consultant and YH4F project manager. "Each year, we are increasingly impressed by their passion, creativity, and dedication. These young developers are proving that Free Software empowers them to shape the world they want to live in. It’s inspiring to see their projects tackling real challenges within their communities and beyond."

The six winners were awarded cash prizes ranging from €4,096 to €1,024. Here are the winning projects of the 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition:

• Ultimate Hacker Award: Gaspard with ‘Versia’, a federated social network based on the Versia protocol. (€4,096)
• Elite Hacker Award: Sofía with ‘Identity’, an app that helps people in palliative care or suffering from dementia to save their most meaningful memories. (€2,048)
• Awesome Award: ‘Eventfully’, a team project by Konrad, Luis, Benedikt, Dorothea, Leonie and Jona: a software to find and explore events in your area, connect with others, and learn more about culture, technology and other topics from one website.(€1,024)
• Creative Hacker Award: Manuel with ‘YLLM4F (Youth Large Language Models 4 Freedom)’, a platform, that combining three advanced language tools, ensures that chatbots interact in a youth-friendly way. (€1,024)
• Epic Game Award: Corentin, Edmond and Tipragot with ‘Beats into shapes’, a rhythm game where you forge items with the sound of music.(€1,024)
• Community Support Award: Tobias with ‘PraiseLink’, a WebApp for sharing sheets and lyrics of music. It can be used for singing choirs or live performance groups.(€1,024)

Find more about the projects

YH4F winners participating in the workshop that took place during the Awards Ceremony weekend, photo taken by Nico Rikken, @CC-BY

Empowering Europe’s next generation of developers

The Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition continues to grow, attracting more and more young people who share a passion for programming. They all share the interest in Free Software and the desire to take control of their technology. In an era where digital tools shape every aspect of our lives, it is vital that future generations have the knowledge and ability to create, modify, use, and share software they rely on. By empowering young developers to create and contribute to Free Software, YH4F helps foster a culture of openness, transparency, and software freedom.

This initiative is made possible through the generous financial support of our donor, Reinhard Wiesemann, and the sponsorship of OpenSSF

If you want to join YH4F 2025 edition you can already sign up by registering here. The coding period is from 01.01.2025 to 30.06.2025. Details for the next edition will be shared soon on fsfe.org and yh4f.org.

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Exceptions against Router Freedom undermine users’ rights in Italy

In 2018 Italy implemented Router Freedom. However regulatory decisions in 2019 and 2023 introduced exceptions for fiber networks. The Free Software Foundation Europe has now urged Italy’s telecom regulator, AGCOM, to remove these restrictions and fully restore users' rights to choose their own equipment to connect to fiber networks.

In 2018, Italy was one of the first countries in Europe to implement specific rules supporting Router Freedom. However, since then, the national regulator AGCOM has introduced a series of exceptions undermining Router Freedom rights, negatively impacting the rights of consumers to use their own equipment to connect to fiber networks. The FSFE has prepared a study on why Router Freedom should be respected in Italy, urging AGCOM to reconsider its decision based on European standardized requirements for Router Freedom.

Regulatory exceptions and certification procedures against Router Freedom

In 2019, Italian telecom operators pushed for an exception against Router Freedom in fiber networks, which AGCOM confirmed. This exception significantly limited the ability of consumers to use their own modems to connect directly to the fiber network. AGCOM’s decision allowed internet service providers (ISPs) to impose the use of optical network terminals (ONTs), with the exception of personal routers on bridge mode. In 2020, BEREC set standardized requirements for national regulators to evaluate Router Freedom. However, the Italian regulator has not re-assessed its decision. In contrast, the Netherlands and Belgium committed to Router Freedom for all type of networks, following the evaluation criteria proposed by BEREC.

In 2022, Router Freedom faced another setback in Italy during an antitrust case ruled upon by the Italian competition authority, AGCM. The largest telecom operator in the country, TIM, was requested to allow terminal equipment from other ISPs in its fiber network. While this commitment would have the potential to establish Router Freedom in the country, TIM proposed a certification procedure for any device seeking to be connected to the operator’s network. However, the costs involved in the certification procedures were prohibitive (around 100.000 euros), and TIM required that the device should be certified again after every software update. Nevertheless, in 2023, the Italian telecom authority homologated this antitrust agreement, reducing the certification costs. These certification schemes are contrary to net neutrality and open internet, because they create barriers for end-users to use the equipment of their choice. As example, the Dutch regulator ACM decided in 2021 against any kind of obligatory certification procedures or device black-list against router manufacturers, requesting ISPs in the country to make the network interoperable with any router that complies with EU device regulations.

Router Freedom matters – also for Italy

The FSFE has prepared a study explaining why it is necessary for AGCOM to re-evaluate its position in respect to freedom of terminal equipment. We argue that the Italian regulator should apply the BEREC Guidelines on the NTP to decide on this matter. The Belgian and Dutch regulation authorities have followed the BEREC procedure and have not found any technological necessity to limit Router Freedom in their respective countries. The study concludes that allowing end-users to choose and use their own terminal equipment supports their best interests regarding privacy, data protection and security. Freedom of terminal equipment is also key for fair competition, market innovation, technical interoperability and digital sustainability.

Further material

• The FSFE’s request to AGCOM regarding Router Freedom in fiber networks [EN] [IT]

Router Freedom needs your support!

Router Freedom is the right that customers of any Internet Service Provider (ISP) are able to choose and use a private modem and router instead of equipment provided by the operator. Since 2013, the Free Software Foundation Europe has been successfully engaged with Router Freedom, promoting end-users’ freedom in many European countries. Join us and learn more about the several ways to get involved. Please consider becoming a FSFE donor; you help make possible our long-term engagement and professional commitment in defending people’s rights to control technology.

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Ada movie premiere +++ EC consultation +++ Apple litigation

The story of Ada & Zangemann is now available as an animated movie! We’d also like to thank everyone who contributed feedback to the EC consultation, urging European policymakers to establish long-term sustainable funding for Free Software Additionally, we’ve submitted our arguments in the ongoing Apple litigation. And great news, our hoodies are back!

Table of contents

• Quote of the Month
• Ada & Zangemann movie: celebrating Ada Lovelace Day with our community
• The FSFE demanded the EU Commission sustainable long-term Free Software funding
• Apple vs Commission: The FSFE submits its arguments
• Software Freedom in Europe 2024
• Get active: European SFS Award Nomination
• Get your FSFE hoddie: pre-order your hoodie and pick it up at 38C3 or FOSDEM
• Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: 2024 Award Ceremony!
• Back to the stages!Events, talks, and more
• Contribute to our Newsletter

Quote of the Month

“ I already loved the book, I loved the wonderful story and the even more wonderful little people in the story. I was just so inspired by it myself, not to mention my kids really, really loved the book and and now it has become a film!"

Franziska Heine during the English world premiere of the animated movie 'Ada & Zangemann'.

Ada & Zangemann movie: celebrating Ada Lovelace Day with our community

The FSFE celebrated Ada Lovelace Day on October 8 with a special event for its supporters: the global English premiere of the animated movie 'Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream'. Vint Cerf, often referred to as one of the "fathers of the Internet", and Franziska Heine, Executive Director of Wikimedia Germany, gave special speeches during the event.

The movie is now published on the FSFE's website and made available to the public under the Creative Commons By Share-Alike Licence, as an Open Education Resource. During the next months the FSFE will release other language version of the movie on ada.fsfe.org/movie.

Share the movie and all the Ada & Zangemann resources with your community!

The FSFE demanded the EU Commission sustainable long-term Free Software funding

Recently, the European Commission announced a €27 million cut in the funding allocated to the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, which has supported Free Software projects with funding and technical assistance since 2018. Despite its proven success, the European Commission decided to cut this funding in the current draft of the Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme, highlighting the larger issue of the lack of long-term, sustainable public funding for Free Software projects. Since July, we have been active on this issue, we tried to get in touch with the European Commission, reached out to our community and spread the news around Europe.

Recently, the FSFE participated in a public consultation organized by the European Commission to provide feedback on the EU's Digital Europe funding programme, emphasizing that cutting funding for Free Software risks steering Europe away from policies that ensure people’s control over their own technology. At the same time, we asked the community to do the same and to take part in the consultation.

Our call was heard: the consultation received 789 responses, 70% of which came from individual citizens. Together, we made it clear that long-term, dedicated funding for Free Software is essential to ensuring Europe’s control over its technological future. We thank everyone who took part in amplifying the Free Software community’s voice. Once public, we will analyse the results and will follow up with the Commission and other EU bodies with those results; to make sure your voice remains heard.

This consultation was not a stand-alone event—it is a key step in our ongoing effort to ensure that Free Software receives long-term, sustainable funding. We remain committed to influencing policy decisions and advocating for Free Software, and we will keep you informed as we continue this important work. The EU’s digital strategy can only reach its full potential if it systematically focuses on Free Software. We will continue our efforts to make sure software freedom is consistently supported across Europe with the needed sustainable long-term fund.

Apple vs Commission: The FSFE submits its arguments

In August this year, the FSFE was admitted in the litigation brought by Apple against the European Commission in relation to the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple is trying to avoid obligations related to its App Store and the interoperability of its operating system and devices.

On 12th September the FSFE submitted its arguments, arguing how interoperability is key for our digital societies. Apple must abide DMA obligations not only for fairer competition on digital markets but also for open internet, software freedom and better device and software security. More information will be publish soon on our website.

Software Freedom in Europe 2024

In September we published our annual report, Software Freedom in Europe. This report highlights our achievements, showcasing our success stories, milestones and activities over the past twelve months.

Get active: European SFS Award Nomination

Nominate the Free Software Contributor of 2024! The European SFS Award celebrates and recognises individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the global Software Freedom culture.

Last year, the first time this award was presented jointly by the Linux User Group Bolzano and the Free Software Foundation Europe, it went to the founder of Nextcloud, Frank Karlitschek.

Get your FSFE hoddie: pre-order your hoodie and pick it up at 38C3 or FOSDEM

For years, you've been asking, and we’ve been listening. Now, the wait is finally over: the FSFE hoodies are back! This winter you can show your love for Free Software with our new hoodies! These cozy, stylish hoodies have been designed with your feedback in mind, They’re here, they’re back, and they’re better than ever! Order yours today!

Pre order your hoodie and pick it up at your favourite conference, 38C3 at the end of December in Hamburg or FOSDEM at beginning of February!

Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: 2024 Award Ceremony!

The third edition of YH4F, the coding competition for teenagers across Europe, will culminate with the Award Ceremony weekend at the end of October, where the official winners will be revealed. The six 2024 winners, along with their families and members of the jury, will gather in Brussels for a celebratory weekend. The teenagers have the chance to connect with each other, to enjoy time together and to learn more about the winning projects.

Back to the stages!Events, talks, and more

Last September, our team and volunteers actively celebrated Software Freedom Day across Europe and participated in various events, from Ada & Zangemann readings to the Fediverse Day in Berlin.

The FSFE 2024 General Assembly was held near Madrid during the last weekend of September.

If you have some spare time, we recommend you to check out Alexander Sander's conversation with Tuta Mail about supporting Free Software projects. Also, if you are a German speaker, listen to this podcast episode where Alexander Sander talks about Microsoft vendor lock-in in Germany and why it is a problem.

Remember that at events.fsfe.org you can find all the information about our events and you can follow our latests news in our social media channels!!

Contribute to our Newsletter

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

Your editor, Ana

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Premiere of the "Ada & Zangemann" movie on Ada Lovelace Day

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is celebrating Ada Lovelace Day on October 8 with a special event for its supporters: the global English premiere of the animated film 'Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream'. Originally a highly successful illustrated book, now available in 10 languages and counting, the story has been adapted into a film and is licensed as an open educational resource.

Following the success of the illustrated book ‘Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream’, the FSFE is now releasing the story as an animated movie. The book is currently available in 10 languages and has reached the hands of over 20,000 children worldwide and it was been spread through readings, discussions, and workshops.

The movie, available under a Creative Commons license, is about the famous and immensely rich inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software and, due to Zangemann’s actions, realises how crucial technology is for her and others. It is a fascinating story for children from the age of 6 that will motivate them to tinker with hardware and software, and encourage them to actively shape their own technology.

‘Ada & Zangemann’, the movie premiere

The premiere of the English movie will take place on Ada Lovelace Day through a global online event. FSFE supporters, the donors who made this movie possible, and members of various Free Software associations will be present. Vint Cerf, often referred to as one of the "fathers of the Internet", and Franziska Heine, Executive Director of Wikimedia Germany, will give special speeches during the event.

• What: Ada & Zangemann English Premiere
• When: 8 October, from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM CEST
• Who: FSFE Supporters + Contributors to the movie + their families
• Where: FSFE Supporters receive the invite link. We would be delighted to have you join us as Press. Simply let us know, and we'll gladly send you the link. Additionally, we’re pleased to send you a copy of the story in ebook format.

At the end of the event, the film will be published on the FSFE's website and made available to the public under the Creative Commons By Share-Alike Licence, as an Open Education Resource. During the next months the FSFE will release other language version of the movie on https://ada.fsfe.org/movie.

Ada Lovelace Day: second Tuesday in October

Ada Lovelace Day is held every year on the second Tuesday in October. Named after the mathematician and computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace, it aims to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), to raise the profile of women in STEM, to encourage more girls to pursue STEM careers and to support women already working in STEM.

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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

1. Device Neutrality: the Free Software community “shows its teeth”
2. Next Generation Internet and the lack of long-term sustainable funding for Free Software
3. Reaching Generation Alpha: Youth Hacking 4 Freedom and Ada & Zangemann
4. Policy work: Advocating for Free Software
5. Legal Support: giving advice to projects and individuals
6. Our work on public awareness
7. 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 projects

More 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.

Some of the improvements:

• eForms the EC standard, has been introduced and implemented.
• Improvement of the currency conversion.
• New deduplication model, based on clustering algorithm for organizations.
• Improved API endpoints & graph queries.
• New search filters for end-users.

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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Die FSFE fordert von der EU-Kommission eine nachhaltige Finanzierung Freier Software

Nach der aktuellen Kürzung der NGI-Finanzierung um 27 Millionen Euro reagiert die Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) auf die wachsende Besorgnis und nimmt an einer öffentlichen Konsultation der Europäischen Kommission teil. Die FSFE betont die dringende Notwendigkeit einer nachhaltigen und langfristigen finanziellen Unterstützung für Freie Software, um die technologische Unabhängigkeit Europas zu gewährleisten.

Die jüngste Kürzung der Mittel für die Initiative "Next Generation Internet" um 27 Mio. € hat die Fragilität der finanziellen Unterstützung für die Softwarefreiheit insgesamt aufgezeigt und ein kritisches Problem deutlich gemacht: Europa braucht eine nachhaltige, sichere und zweckgebundene Finanzierung, um seine Kontrolle über die Technologie durch Freie Software zu gewährleisten. Ein Großteil der digitalen Infrastruktur Europas ist auf diese Projekte angewiesen, um technologisch unabhängig und widerstandsfähig zu werden. Die Kürzung oder Streichung von Mitteln gefährdet die technologische Autonomie Europas.

Als Reaktion auf die unklare Haltung der Europäischen Kommission zur zukünftigen Finanzierung hat die FSFE an der öffentlichen Konsultation teilgenommen und sich dafür eingesetzt, dass Freie Software-Lösungen die notwendige langfristige Finanzierung erhalten. Dies ist der einzige Weg, um die Digitalisierung Europas erfolgreich voranzutreiben.

"Die digitale Strategie der EU kann nur dann ihr volles Potential erreichen, wenn sie sich systematisch auf Freie Software konzentriert", betont Alexander Sander, leitender Politikberater der FSFE. "Wir fordern, dass die öffentlichen Gelder effizient eingesetzt werden. Software-Freiheit muss konsequent mit nachhaltigen und langfristigen Mitteln unterstützt werden. Denn wenn es öffentliches Geld ist, muss es auch öffentlicher Code sein!".

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Bring Back Free Software Funding: Give Your Feedback to the European Commission

The European Commission has cut important funds for Free Software. The non-transparent decision shows the need for sustainable long-term funding to allow the EU to control its own technology. Raise your voice and take part in an ongoing consultation to ask for sustainable long-term funds for software freedom. We explain why and how.

Why should we care?

A few weeks ago the European Commission made the decision to stop funding the Next Generation Internet initiative (NGI) in its then current draft for the Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme. This decision results in a loss of €27 million for software freedom. Since 2018, the European Commission has supported the Free Software ecosystem through NGI, that provided funding and technical assistance to Free Software projects. This decision unfortunately exposes a larger issue: that software freedom in the EU needs more stable, long-term financial support. The ease with which this funding was excluded from the Work Programme underlines this need.

Now you can ask for these funds and criticise the Commission's decision, by taking part in the ongoing consultation on the Digital Europe Programme. As the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative proved, public funding enables projects to innovate and promote a more open, independent, and accessible internet. Cutting funding for Free Software threatens to undermine this progress and push Europe away from policies that ensure people’s control over their own technology. That is why we demand that the €27 million for 2025 be brought back as well as demanding secured, sustainable long-term funding for Free Software.

By participating in this consultation, which closes on 20 September (midnight Brussels time) you can help to advocate for a digital future that puts users in control of technology. Your input makes a difference.

How to Take Action

1. Participating is simple and it doesn’t take too long . Just visit the consultation page and create an account. You only need a valid e-mail address. This step is quick and easy.
2. Complete the survey: After signing up, you’ll be redirected to the survey. The process is relatively quick (~20 minutes) depending on which questions you consider most important and the level of detail. If you're unsure how to answer certain questions, you can skip those that aren't mandatory or draw inspiration from our answers. The key is to ensure that some of the arguments outlined below are included in the blank spaces.

And that’s all :)

Ideas and key points to consider while submitting the consultation:

• Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives, and it is important that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. It gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt, and share software. In order to establish trustworthy systems, users must ensure they have full control over the software and the computer systems they are using. However, among the biggest challenges we still face today are vendor lock in and a lack of interoperability. This issue is particularly prevalent in public bodies, which often heavily rely on proprietary, closed source software.
• We strongly advise prioritising the use and distribution of Free Software as well as providing financial support to relevant projects and the Free Software ecosystem. This support should be a sustainable long term fund for Software Freedom, focusing on independence, resilience, control, security, and sovereignty. A dedicated fund for Free Software would not only help governments to have better and more secure software, tailored to their needs, but also support the European IT market and the overall digital Europe.
• The Digital Europe Programme can only unfold its full potential if it is systematically focusing on the support of Free Software solutions. Otherwise, it risks continuing creating new dependencies and future lock-ins. By going in the direction of Free Software first, the EU can assure that taxpayers' money is spent in the most efficient way, while fostering the collaborative ecosystem needed to achieve true interoperability in Europe. An open and interoperable digital public sector is critical for addressing the social, economic, and political challenges faced by democratic governments.

We’ve already participated. Now it’s your turn. Participating in the consultation with your own wording can be very valuable as it allows the European Commission to hear a diverse range of voices and perspectives, which strengthens our common argument for sustainable funding for Free Software while demonstrating that this demand comes from an engaged community. While you can use our answers as a reference, your own words will significantly bolster the case for why Free Software is essential for Europe’s digital future.

Let’s make sure the European Commission hears us loud and clear. Together, we can bring back the funds for Free Software and safeguard the future of an open, transparent, and democratic internet. If you successfully submit a response to the consultation, please let us know via email: contact@fsfe.org.

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Apple litigation +++ EU funding for Free Software +++ YH4F +++ ZOOOM project

September is here, along with our newsletter. We have continued advocating for a Free Software budget in Europe, following the European Commission's decision to stop NGI funding, and we are intervening in Apple's lawsuit against the European Commission. YH4F got a new sponsor and its 2024 edition is in the final stage, and the ZOOOM project ended.

Table of contents

• Quote of the Month
• Apple vs EU Commission: the FSFE intervenes to safeguard Free Software
• European Commission needs to come up with dedicated budget for Free Software solutions
• Spread your concern about Free Software funding in your local newspaper
• YH4F countdown: Time for jury evaluation and new sponsor on board
• ZOOOM project: Toolkit and training materials
• Get involved: Why do you support Free Software? Send us your quote
• Conferences: check out the recordings from our talks
• Contribute to our Newsletter

Quote of the Month

“The lack of public funding for these important technologies has a negative impact not only on free software, but on the entire future of the internet."

FSFE statement about EC plans to cut funding on Free Software projects in Heise.de

Apple vs EU Commission: the FSFE intervenes to safeguard Free Software

The Free Software Foundation Europe is intervening in litigation brought by Apple against the European Commission before the Court of Justice of the European Union. Apple is seeking to avoid DMA obligations related to its App Store and the interoperability of its operating system. The FSFE aims to protect Free Software against monopolistic corporate control.

European Commission needs to come up with dedicated budget for Free Software solutions

After the recent news that funding for the Next Generation Internet initiative would be cut for the next phase of Horizon Europe, the European Commission has expressed vague support for Free Software. Unfortunately it is failing to provide concrete examples on how to do so. This has highlighted the fragility of funding for Software Freedom and the need for change in the long-term.

Spread your concern about Free Software funding

Are you also worried and concerned about the European Commission decision to cut the funding for Free Software projects?

Besides contacting European representatives, you can also write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to make their readers aware of the importance of funding Free Software solutions with long term sustainable funding.

Donate now

YH4F countdown: Time for jury evaluation and new sponsor on board

The FSFE’s hacking competition for young Europeans successfully concluded its six-month programming period on 30 June, with the submission of the participants’ projects. Now, it's the jury's turn to evaluate the work of the participants. We are also happy to announce a new sponsor for the contest, OpenSSF.

Read more

Do you also want to contribute to this contest? We are looking for more sponsors! For more information get in contact with us via email.

ZOOOM project: Toolkit and training materials

The FSFE finished its work with the European Commission funded ZOOOM Initiative. The FSFE produced research and educational materials on Free Software legal issues, which contributed to a larger toolkit on Open Software, Data, and Hardware.

Although the project has officially ended, the ZOOOM toolkit and training materials can contribute to promote a healthier ecosystem where Free Software legal and licensing obligations are understood and followed in various digital industries.

Get involved: Why do you support Free Software? Send us your quote

We are updating our testimonials from our diverse community about why they support the FSFE and our mission. We would also love to hear from you! Send us, by the end of September, a short quote and a picture. Find all the testimonies here.

Conferences: check out the recordings from our talks

Did you miss #FrOSCon? Check out Johannes Näder's talk explaining approaches for better Free Software procurement. [DE]

Our volunteer Berharnd Reiter gave his own personal views in a talk encouraging voluntary payments for Free Software. [DE]

Last May Lucas Lasota and Niharika Singhal participated in DORS/CLUC in Zagreb. Their talks were live-streamed and we have uploaded them in our Peertube instance:

• When our routers are not free: the challenges for an Open and Neutral Internet
• Making AI Really Open: The Current Landscape of Free Software and AI Licensing

Contribute to our Newsletter

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

Your editor, Ana

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Spread your concern about Free Software funding in your local newspaper

Are you also worried and concerned about the European Commission decision to cut the funding for Free Software projects? Besides contacting European representatives you can also write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to make their readers aware of the importance of funding Free Software solutions with a long term sustainable funding.

As stated in our recent news, the European Commission has decided to cut the funding for Free Software in the Next Generation Internet Initiative (NGI) 2025 Horizon draft work programme. Since then, we have raised our voice about this issue. But we need your help to continue put pressure on the European Commission. Your pressure already helped! Let’s continue the efforts!

Budget cut in contrast to digital strategy

Since 2018, the European Commission has been supporting the Free Software ecosystem through the NGI initiative as part of Horizon Europe, the framework research program of the EU. This funding provided support and technical assistance to Free Software projects, that have turned out to be useful and a way to provide alternatives to proprietary applications. Funding is an important component in nurturing new Free Software technologies, and often makes the difference for whether a Free Software project is able to survive, succeed, or fall into abandonware. This is a particular problem because large parts of our infrastructure are based on these projects, as they guarantee the necessary independence and resilience. Cancelling funding means curtailing our own autonomy.

This decision to cut the funds has been taken from the European Commission in a non transparent and unclear way. This budget cut for Free Software Freedom by the European Commission is in explicit contrast to their digital strategy. A true open and digital independent Europe is possible only with a long term sustainable funding scheme for software freedom.

Your pressure helped – let’s continue

In a committed and community-driven reaction, the FSFE community reached out to the EU institutions and the Head of Unit of Next Generation Internet (DG CNECT) answered. However, the EC’s answer we received is vague and with no clear information on how Software Freedom will be supported by the European Union in the future. That is why we still ned your help!

It is important to keep the pressure high and your support is crucial in doing that. In order to make even more people aware of this situation, you can send a letter to your local newspaper explaining them what has happened until now and why the European Commission needs to come up with sustainable long-term funding for Software Freedom.

Here you can find a template to modify and to send to your preferred newspaper.

Dear [name],

I would like to draw attention to the recent news that the European Commission is stopping its funding for Free Software (also known as Open Source).

Although we do not notice, our daily devices are running using Free Software, guarantees the freedoms to use, study, share and improve the software by everyone. Thanks to these freedoms, it ensures that citizens, businesses and governments are not dependent on proprietary software solutions, which often come with significant costs and limitations. Free Software is at the core of our digital infrastructure and it strengthen local economies and foster innovation.

Despite its proven success, the European Commission has decided to stop supporting Free Software by cutting its funding for the Next Generation Internet initiative (NGI) for the next period of Horizon Europe. This goes against its own strategy to achieve a digital future that is open, fair and sustainable. So, being Free Software essential to reach this goal, why are our politicians only supporting it through nice wording and not with a proper budget? Hundreds of Free Software projects will struggle if the funding is not resumed and the internet of the future will look less open and accessible to everyone.

The European Commission should come up with a dedicated funding programme for Software Freedom, so that the Next Generation Internet the the European digital infrastructure is independent, sustainable and accessible to everyone.

Your name

If you should receive an answer or if you know that your letter has been published, please share it with us via email contact@fsfe.org.

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YH4F Countdown: Time for Jury evaluation and new sponsor on board

The FSFE’s hacking competition for young Europeans successfully concluded its six-month programming period on 30 June, with the submission of the participants’ projects. Now, it's the jury's turn to evaluate the work of the participants. We are also happy to announce a new sponsor for the contest, OpenSSF.

The third programming period of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom has ended. During the past six months, teenagers from all over Europe worked on their Free Software projects, and eventually submitted their work for evaluation to the jury. To give you a teaser, 2024 submissions include Free Software research and scientific projects, projects that tackle social problems, and some fun games. As with previous editions, it is stunning to see the great ideas the teenagers come up with. And the best thing is to see how they manage to stick to a project idea for six months.

Now it is the jury’s turn to evaluate all the amazing projects and decide on the six winners, who will join us in October for the award ceremony in Brussels.

Why your company or organisation should sponsor YH4F

Youth Hacking 4 Freedom is possible thanks to it's financial contributors. Just recently OpenSSF joined as sponsor. With their support, the FSFE can keep organising this programming competition for young Europeans and help to spread knowledge about Free Software, helping the participants to develop programming and project management skills while having fun and meeting new people from all over Europe.

As an organisation or company, you can sponsor Youth Hacking 4 Freedom or even better, become a donor. By supporting Youth Hacking 4 Freedom, you contribute to strengthening young people's skills, enhancing their understanding about Free Software, and helping them to develop crucial competencies like time management.

Watch Reinhard Wisesmann, founder of the Linuxhotel and the Vielrespekt Stiftung, an inspiring donor, who explains why YH4F is so rewarding for him. Winning a similar contest in his youth helped him to found his first company.

Forty years ago, Reinhard Wiesemann won a hacking competition for young people. He used the money from his cash prize to advance his professional development. Youth Hacking 4 Freedom has been financially supported with donations by Reinhard Wiesemann, Linuxhotel, and Vielrespektzentrum.

Youth Hacking 4 Freedom is more than just your average programming competition. Young people get in contact with other like-minded teenagers from all over Europe while also learning more about licensing, Free Software, and programming. There are different sponsorship levels available with various benefits for your company or organisation. For more information get in contact with us via email – we are happy to hear from you!

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Apple gegen EU-Kommission: Die FSFE interveniert zum Schutz von Freier Software

Die Free Software Foundation Europe beteiligt sich an einem Rechtsstreit zwischen Apple und der Europäischen Kommission vor dem Europäischen Gerichtshof. Apple versucht, DMA-Verpflichtungen in Bezug auf seinen App Store und die Interoperabilität seines Betriebssystems zu umgehen. Ziel der FSFE ist es, Freie Software vor monopolistischer Unternehmenskontrolle zu schützen.

" Bei Apple ist der Wurm drin: Die FSFE interveniert, um die Softwarefreiheit zu schützen. CC-BY-SA 4.0 von Rahak für die FSFE

Der Europäische Gerichtshof (CJEU) hat der FSFE offiziell erlaubt, dem Rechtsstreit zwischen Apple und der Europäischen Kommission beizutreten. Apple möchte mit dem Verfahren verhindern, dass das Unternehmen als "Gatekeeper" unter dem Digital Markets Act (DMA) bezeichnet wird. Das Unternehmen hat eine aggressive Politik gegen Software-Freiheit und Interoperabilität verfolgt und versucht, die Durchsetzung des DMA zu verhindern. Der DMA ist ein Gesetz, das die Fairness und die Anfechtbarkeit auf den digitalen Märkten erhöhen soll, indem es das wirtschaftliche Verhalten sehr großer Technologiekonzerne reguliert.

"Die FSFE vertritt in diesem Fall die Perspektive der Zivilgesellschaft, was das Gerichtsverfahren bereichert. Dies ermöglicht es dem Gericht, fundierte Entscheidungen zu treffen", sagt Dr. Martin Husovec, der Anwalt, der die FSFE vor Gericht vertritt.

Die Intervention der FSFE zielt darauf ab, die Anwendung des DMA auf Apple aufrechtzuerhalten und die Stimme der Freie-Software-Gemeinschaft gegen die unfairen Praktiken des Unternehmens zu erheben. Freie Software-Projekte sind unverhältnismäßig stark von den monopolistischen Praktiken des Unternehmens betroffen. Apples Gebührenpolitik, die strikte Anbieterbindung, das Verbot von Side-Loading und die Beschränkung alternativer App-Stores stellen unüberwindbare Hindernisse für die Softwarefreiheit dar.

“Sich gegen einen Konzerngiganten wie Apple zu stellen, der über Milliarden von Euro verfügt, um die Softwarefreiheit zu behindern, spiegelt das Engagement der FSFE wider, offene und wettbewerbsfähige digitale Umgebungen zu bewahren. Die Intervention der FSFE ist von grundlegender Bedeutung für die Geräteneutralität, da sie sicherstellt, dass Nutzer und Entwickler nicht an proprietäre Systeme gebunden sind und Software frei wählen und frei nutzen können. Die Annahme des Antrags der FSFE durch das Gericht unterstreicht die Bedeutung von Freier Software und Interoperabilität nicht nur für digitale Märkte, sondern auch für die Freiheit der Nutzer, ein offenes Internet und die digitale Demokratie", so Lucas Lasota, Leiter des Rechtsprogramms der FSFE.

Im Zuge der Aufnahme der FSFE in das Verfahren stellte das Gericht fest, dass "der Fall wahrscheinlich eine erhebliche Auswirkung auf [...] das Angebot von Freier Software, den freien Informationsaustausch und die Chancengleichheit beim Zugang zu Software haben wird". Außerdem erkannte das Gericht an, dass für den Fall, dass die Einstufung als "Gatekeeper" durch die Kommission für nichtig erklärt würde, [...] "ein solches Ergebnis Auswirkungen auf die Möglichkeit für Entwickler von Anwendungsprogrammen oder Freier Software hätte, ihre Anwendungen kostenlos mit Apples Betriebssystem iOS zu verbinden, was wiederum die Fähigkeit der FSFE beeinträchtigen würde, solche Software weiterzuentwickeln und an eine möglichst breite Öffentlichkeit zu verbreiten".

Im nächsten Schritt des Verfahrens wird die FSFE nun bis Mitte September ihre Stellungnahme einreichen. Weitere Updates werden auf fsfe.org veröffentlicht.

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Apple vs EU Commission: the FSFE intervenes to safeguard Free Software

The Free Software Foundation Europe is intervening in a litigation brought by Apple against the European Commission before the Court of Justice of the European Union. The case relates to Digital Markets Act, with Apple seeking to avoid obligations related to its App Store and the interoperability of its operating systems. The FSFE aims to hold Apple accountable under the DMA to protect Free Software against monopolistic corporate control.

More detailed information will follow beginning next week

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European Commission needs to come up with dedicated budget for Free Software solutions

After the recent news that funding for the Next Generation Internet initiative would be cut for the next phase of Horizon Europe, the European Commission has expressed vague support for Free Software. Unfortunately it is failing to provide concrete examples on how to do so. This has highlighted the fragility of funding for Software Freedom and the need for change in the long-term.

A couple of weeks ago, we shared the news that the European Commission has made the decision to stop funding the Next Generation Internet initiative (NGI) in its then current draft for the Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme. Since 2018, the European Commission has supported the Free Software ecosystem s through NGI, that provided funding and technical assistance to Free Software projects. The FSFE has always been a part of this initiative as a consortium member in the NGI Zero (NGI0) sub-group, where we provide legal and licensing support to hundreds of Free Software projects funded by the initiative.

Update from the European Commission: nice words but not long-term plan

The FSFE community has reached to the EU institutions and the Head of Unit of Next Generation Internet (DG CNECT), answered. In this letter, it is stated that the European Commission intends to support Free Software solutions, but it is not clear how and if there will be a budget for it:

“The Commission will continue to support Open-Source solutions and the community supported in the NGI programme, in various initiatives notably to harness its potential to contribute to the transition of digital networks to a Connected and collaborative computing and the evolution towards Web 4.0. Both topics are present in the draft 2025 work programme to be approved by relevant Committee of Member States and Associated Countries.”

While this is not a confirmation of renewed funding support for the NGI initiative, it does indicate a vague level of intent to continue supporting Software Freedom and Free Software development in the EU. Nevertheless, without any concrete programmes where this funding can go, and how it will be disbursed to grass-roots organizations that support Software Freedom, the future of financial support for Free Software in the EU remains sadly uncertain.

Sustainable funding needed

This development unfortunately exposes a larger issue: that software freedom in the EU needs more secure, long-term financial support. That this funding could so easily be left out of the Work Programme discussions demonstrates how precarious its position has been all along. Software Freedom needs to be consistently supported with public funds, and such support should not be easily displaced by decision-making that favours popular trends in technological development.

Pressure helps – continue your efforts

This statement from the European Commission is a sign that our persistence as well as from our community and various organizations about the lack of proposed funding for NGI’s future has effect. Following the news of the proposed cut in funding last month, there was an outcry by us and from other Free Software organizations about how this would negatively impact Free Software development in the EU.

Nevertheless, more work is definitely needed to continue to push for funding support for NGI and Free Software. This is why the FSFE is already in touch with various EU officials and decision-makers to make sure this funding is secured for the future, and we call for you to do the same to keep the pressure on the EC high on this topic.

Reach the European Commission to ask for a sustainable funding

The reply from the European Commission shows that individual actions are helpful: since our last news item on this subject, as we’ve already seen how contacting officials has been helpful to shift opinions. As the allocation of funds for Horizon EU 2025 is still going on, there is still a chance to get funds available for NGI:

• Continue to contact Ursula von der Leyen (President EU Commission), and/or DG Connect, to ask them to make the funds available.
• Help us make member states aware of and understand this issue. Contact your National Contact Point (NCP) and persuade them to also advocate for the NGI funds to be made available.

Did you receive a response?If so, we kindly ask you to also share these responses with us at contact@fsfe.org.

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EU cuts funding for FS +++ Router Freedom +++ SFP

The EC is planning to cut its funding to NGI projects, while in Belgium a court has supported end-users’ Router Freedom rights. We also submitted feedback on the NIS2 implementation; learnt about Linqa, a Free Software platform developed with public money; and gathered with volunteers at the Summer Meeting. Listen to our new SFP episode.

Table of contents

• Quote of the Month
• EC cuts funding support for Free Software projects
• Take action! Ask EU representatives to fund Free Software
• NIS2: Protecting the Free Software ecosystem in implementation
• Belgian court’s decision impacts the future of Router Freedom
• Linqa: a Free Software bilingual collaboration platform developed with public money
• SFP#25: MirageOS and OCaml with Hannes Mehnert and Matthias Kirschner
• Join us at FrOSCon
• Contribute to our Newsletter

Quote of the Month

“We therefore call for these funds to be made available again immediately and for funding to be secured in the medium to long term. This is the only way to successfully drive the digitalisation of Europe forward."

FSFE statement about EC plans to cut NGI funding

EC cuts funding support for Free Software projects

The Next Generation Internet initiative has supported Free Software projects with funding and technical assistance since 2018. Despite its proven success, the European Commission made the decision to cut this 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.

We therefore call for these funds to be made available again immediately and for funding to be secured in the medium to long term. This is the only way to successfully drive the digitalisation of Europe forward.

Take action! Ask EU representatives to fund Free Software

We need sustainable, secure, and dedicated funding for NGI and Free Software solutions that help Europe to control its technology!

Help us to make our EU representatives aware of it! The budget decision is not yet official - so there is still a chance to allocate funds for NGI. It is therefore very important to contact Ursula von der Leyen (President of the EU Commission) and DG Connect to ask them to make the funds available. You can also contact your National Contact Point (NCP) and persuade them to also advocate for the NGI funds to be made available.

Another way is by supporting us with a donation so we can continue advocating for software freedom.

Donate now

NIS2: Protecting the Free Software ecosystem in implementation

Together with NLnet Labs and the Open Source Security Foundation, the FSFE submitted feedback on the NIS2 Implementation Act, pointing to the need to protect the European Free Software ecosystem.

Belgian court’s decision impacts the future of Router Freedom

A Belgian court has upheld the decision of the country’s regulator to introduce Router Freedom for fiber networks. The objections, raised by a local internet service provider, were deemed unfounded. This landmark decision represents a significant victory for consumer rights, and we urge other national regulators to follow this example.

More about this

During the 2024 FSFE Summer Meeting, attendees had the chance to discuss together about the current status of EU policy in regards with Free Software. Volunteers had also the chance to solve their doubts as well as provide ideas about how to take part in it.

Linqa: a Free Software bilingual collaboration platform developed with public money

Linqa is a bilingual collaboration platform whose code is Free Software and was developed using public money. It helps the daily work of the Franco-German Forum for the Future, a public institution that fosters collaboration among actors in France and Germany. We dive into the roots of Linqa with the people behind it.

SFP#25: MirageOS and OCaml with Hannes Mehnert and Matthias Kirschner

For our 25th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we are happy to welcome Hannes Mehnert, one of the MirageOS core developers. Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE, and Hannes talk about MirageOS. This episode gives an overview of everything from the basics to the future of MirageOS.

FSFE Summer Meeting 2024! As in 2023, staff and volunteers gathered at the LinuxHotel for a weekend full of surprises, talks, and workshops, and of course a lot of fun. For the second year in a row, the FSFE organised this meeting to inform our volunteers first-hand about our activities and initiatives as well as to gather their feedback and ideas.

Join us at FrOSCon

Once again, this August we will be attending FrOSCon in Sankt Augustin. During 17 and 18 August our team and volunteers will be present with a booth and several talks.

Also, the local FSFE group in Bonn is hosting a community get-together the evening before! So even if you cannot make it to FrOSCon, join them on 16 August!

Contribute to our Newsletter

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

Your editor, Ana

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