I love FS celebrations +++ FOSDEM 2024 +++ SFP episode
Our March newsletter is here! Last month took us to FOSDEM, while ‘I
Love Free Software Day’ was celebrated all over Europe. We also launched
a new SFP episode on the state of Free Software and a discussion on
banking and Software Freedom. Check out some interesting reading and
event recommendations!
FOSDEM was a blast!
At the beginning of February, FSFE volunteers and staffers went back to
Brussels to take part in FOSDEM
2024 with a booth and talks. While for some of us this has become an
awesome yearly experience, it was the first time for others. We asked
one of our interns to share his thoughts about his first time there, but
we also collected the recordings of the talks and devrooms we were
involved with.
Find out more!
Thanks to all who made I Love Free Software Day 2024 a great success!
Together with hundreds of people and several organisations, we have
celebrated another “I Love Free Software
Day” on 14 February! On this day, we reached out to Free Software
contributors to say “Thank you!” To all who joined us this time: Thank you
for participating in this 14th edition of the “I Love Free Software Day”
❤️❤️❤️!
Read the report!
SFP: The status of Free Software with Karen Sandler and Alexander Sander
Have there been any changes for Free Software in Europe or the USA in
the last year? How is Free Software viewed by legislators? What can we
do to Support Software Freedom? Karen Sandler and Alexander Sander are
active in the Free Software movement and share their views on the
current status of Free Software in our society.
Listen to it now!
Software Freedom in banking
Are you forced to use proprietary applications when dealing with your
bank? What is the relationship between banking applications and Free
Software? Our staff member Florian Snow has been
researching this topic and found that banks are pushing the development
and use of proprietary applications for two-factor
authentification. In doing so, they are restricting users' freedom to
choose a one-time password generator of their choice.
Read more and take part in the
discussion on the mailing list and on the
fediverse!
About Device Neutrality, the DMA, and software licensing
In recent years, the FSFE team has been working for Device Neutrality,
promoting ways to re-empower users to control their devices by running
Free Software on them. With the upcoming entrance into force of the latest
EU legislation on this area – the Digital Markets Act – policy makers
are interested in the strategies adopted by large tech corporations
(gatekeepers) to comply with the DMA. The FSFE was contacted by the
Headquarters for Digital Market Competition of Japan (HDMC) regarding
Apple’s strategy to comply with the DMA and its impact on Free Software.
Our staff prepared a study in collaboration with F-Droid. You can read
the
report here (PDF).
In regard to the DMA, we also recommend reading a paper
that our Legal Programme Manager, Lucas Lasota, has published linking the DMA,
Free Software, and freedom of terminal equipment. This study puts
into perspective the role Free Software has in facilitating the process of
achieving fairness and contestability of digital markets. As a case
study, this article presents the recent regulatory developments
involving routers and modems in the EU, and the interaction telecom
operators’ monopolistic practices have with Free Software.
Last but not least, the FSFE has also provided an in-depth analysis of
the compliance workflow adopted for the Next Generation Internet (NGI)
initiative. The study analyzes the compliance issues
software projects may face during their implementation of Free Software
licenses. This article concludes with the lessons learned from the
experience gathered in the three years of implementation of the
compliance workflow established for the NGI initiative, and especially
notes how REUSE plays a
game-changing role in this context.
Please share these publications to strengthen our efforts towards Software Freedom!
Join our next events!
For first time, we are participating in the Circonomia Festival in Fano (PU),
Italy. There, we will be hosting, from 8 to 10 March, a workshop on decentralized and
sustainable networks and Free Software, and a reading of the book “Ada & Zangemann” in Italian. You
are welcome to join us any of the three days! Find out more in the event page.
A weekend later, on 16 and 17 March, you can meet as in the Chemnitzer Linux Days! One
more year we are attending this long-standing event for education about
Linux and Free Software. We will be present with an information booth,
and on Saturday, the FSFE’s Policy Project Manager, Johannes Näder, will
present Youth Hacking 4 Freedom, the Free
Software competition for young people aged 14-18, currently in its
third edition.
And if you are in Utrecht that Saturday, on 16 March, stop by at our
info booth at the national Dutch Linux Users Group (NLLGG) meeting!
Remember that you can find all the information about our events at events.fsfe.org.
Take action: spread the word about FediGov!
FediGov is an initiative by the FSFE
Swiss local group, together with GNU/Linux.ch, which aims to raise
awareness among public institutions to use federated Free Software
solutions to communicate with the public.
This campaign
encourages individuals to ask their governments to adopt federated
and decentralized communications by explaining to their local
authorities the importance of sovereign communications in the public
sector.
You can help by spreading the word at the local level, but also by
contributing to the website with translations or improvements! Take action!
Quote of the month
I think the best thing about YH4F is that it promotes Free Software
alternatives to people who haven’t had the chance to realize the
benefits of such projects. I use Free Software pretty frequently,
especially when it comes to operating systems.
Alexia, Youth Hacking 4 Freedom 2022 participant
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 editors,
Ana and Tommi
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