LINUXCOVERCOMMUNITY USERSTORY SchlagwortSchlagwortBrave GNU sollte Worldsollte hier hier stehen stehen Schlagwort sollte hier stehen COVER STORY The Monthly GNU Column BRAVE GNU WORLD This column looks into projects and current affairs in the world of free software from the perspective of the GNU Project and the FSF. In this issue, we take a look behind the drapes at the FSFE Annual General Meeting. BY GEORG C.F. GREVE elcome to a special issue of oper community would not be a single this discussion is also going on at Brave GNU World focusing on penny better off. There would still be no another level, that is, in the United Wthe Free Software Foundation way of ensuring the publication of inter- Nations, and more specifically, the Europe (FSFE). The fourth Annual face data to achieve interoperability. World Summit of the Information Soci- General Meeting of the FSFE took place The free software community is well ety (WSIS) and the World Organization in Vienna at the beginning of May 2005. aware of the complexity of this issue, but for Intellectual Property (WIPO) – along This meeting was quite special in many ways. Not only was this the first full meeting of the European core team of the organization; it also marked the end of the European Executive’s term of office. The European spin-off has now been around for four years – high time to look back at the highlights, polish the crystal ball, and peer into the future. Battle against Software Patents The focus of the FSFE’s work continues to be the battle against the patentability of algorithms. There have been various activities at various levels. The patent battle also influences the case of Micro- soft versus the European Commission. Figure 1: Some delegates who gathered for the FSFE Annual General Meeting. Rear: Jonas If the community were to win its fight Öberg (Sweden), Bernhard Reiter (Germany), Georg Jakob (Austria), Reinhard Müller (Aus- against software patents, and if the EU tria), Henrik Sandklef (Sweden). Middle: Georg Greve (Germany), Peter Gerwinski (Germany), lost the case against Microsoft at the Alessandro Rubini (Italy). Front: Karin Kosina (Austria), Stefano Maffulli (Italy), and Werner European Court, the open source devel- Koch (Germany). 94 ISSUE 57 AUGUST 2005 WWW.LINUX - MAGAZINE.COM Schlagwort Bravesollte GNUhier stehen World COVER STORY with minor skirmishes at Unctad, UNDP, Greve in particular spent a lot of time at through universities, the Electronic Unesco, and the World Bank. This pro- conferences in Latin America to promote Frontier Foundation, the Free Software cess permits virtually no discussion – cooperation and encourage exchanges. Foundation Europe, and the Society for the influence of the free software com- Federico Heinz from Argentinia spent Electronic Information in Libraries. But munity at European and national levels some time in Europe last year and was lobbies for musicians and authors, and is extremely low, as evidenced by the on duty at the FSFE booth at the Linux- even representatives of the Chilean gov- European Copyright Directive (EUCD) Tag in Karlsruhe. ernment, also took part in the event. and the second batch of copyright law The AGM approved the activities The impetus for this unusual gather- reforms in Germany. of the committee and re-elected the ing was given by a suggestion put for- This prompted the FSFE to apply for committee for another two-year period; ward by Brazil and Argentinia to estab- accreditation as an official WIPO [8] Werner Koch will continue to be Head of lish a development agenda for the WIPO. observer, and to follow the discussions Office, Jonas Öberg will be the Vice Pres- There are two major topics at the current at the world summit closely [9]. ident, and Georg Greve will be the Presi- meeting: drafting an international agree- dent of the FSFE Executive Committee. ment, which the participants will be A Successful Year presenting via the WIPO for ratification As in previous years, the Thursday and Growing Basis by as many countries as possible, and a Friday before the weekend of the AGM The plans, including prioritizing next global campaign designed to point to were taken up with people making their year’s activities, seem to be quite clear- unsatisfactory states of affairs in this way to the event, with the first discus- cut, considering issues such as software field. sions starting on Friday. While waiting patents, the Microsoft case, the second At present, most of the details are on for the formal part of the AGM to start, phase of the WSIS, and the process initi- the Consumer Project on Technology people spent their time analyzing and ated with WIPO. The focus on free soft- (CPTech) website, as its director, James evaluating the events of the past year. ware in education is also important. Packard-Love, is one of the major back- The national coordinators and other There are big plans for the Fellowship ers of the project; and CPTech, which members made good use of this time. [10], in particular, a second meeting in was founded by consumer advocate For example, Stefano Maffulli gave a or about October is being considered – Ralph Nader, will be taking care of coor- detailed report on the FSFE’s activities including the complete FSFE team this dination [12]. ■ in Italy. Last year, an important “Free time; there is an incomplete list at [11]. Software, Free Society Award” went to Volunteers and Fellows will be invited to INFO the Italian data protection expert, Prof. the meeting, which may even include a [1] Send ideas, comments, and questions Stefano Rodata, who was one of the first workshop. to Brave GNU World: to get involved with protection of digital When and how this will be imple- column@brave-gnu-world. org privacy in Italy. mented depends on the available [2] GNU project homepage: Henrik Sandklef talked about an orga- resources in every sense of the word, but http:// www. gnu. org/ nization for free culture and software, there are at least preliminary plans to [3] Georg’s Brave GNU World homepage: which was established recently as a hold an event in Italy in October 2005. http:// brave-gnu-world. org cooperation between the FSFE and The Italian team, which is coordinated [4] “We run GNU” Initiative: Creative Commons in Sweden. Georg by Stefano Maffulli, will be taking care http:// www. gnu. org/ brave-gnu-world/ Jakob reported on Austrian activities, of organizing things in the next few rungnu/ rungnu. en. html focusing on the cooperation between the months, so you can expect more details [5] Executive Summary 2001-2003: Linux Weeks and the work on defusing in the near future. http:// fsfeurope. org/ documents/ reports/ es-2003. html the European Commission’s extremely The organization will also be looking [6] Executive Summary 2003-2005: controversial Intellectual Property Rights to intensify and improve the coordina- http:// fsfeurope. org/ documents/ Enforcement Directive (IPRED). tion of its press work in Europe. A meet- reports/ es-2005. html Although this directive may seem ing of all FSFE members and volunteers [7] Work against software patents: extreme in the way it criminalizes the involved in press work will probably http:// fsfeurope. org/ projects/ swpat/ users of p2p file sharing platforms, the take place some time this year. Other [8] WIPO reform: original version went even farther. plans concern various EU projects, http:// fsfeurope. org/ projects/ wipo/ The extended committee reported on including the plan to finally launch the [9] UNO World Summit on the Informa- its activities and gave account of the GNU Business Network and to set up a tion Society: decisions taken in the last two years. Freedom Task Force. http:// fsfeurope. org/ projects/ wsis/ The major item was international coordi- [10] FSFE Fellowship: http:// www. fsfe. org nation, including coordination with affil- Access to Knowledge [11] The FSFE Team: http:// fsfeurope. org/ iated organizations in the United States Directly following the FSFE AGM, I took about/ team. en. html and the recently founded Software Free- a trip to London to visit a small confer- [12] Access to Knowledge: dom Law Center (SFLC). ence entitled Access to Knowledge (a2k). http:// www. cptech. org/ a2k/ The Free Software Foundation Latin A glance behind the scenes revealed a [13] For a “World Organization for Intel- America, which was announced just forum of very different participants, lectual Wealth”: http:// fsfeurope. org/ documents/ wiwo. en. html recently, played an important role. Georg from consumer protection organizations, WWW.LINUX - MAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 57 AUGUST 2005 95.