News

The last 12 months in the light of software freedom

on: 2019-11-28

Written by Matthias Kirschner

In the last 12 months, we have achieved a lot with the help of our volunteers, through their donations and hard work. Thanks to their support, we were able to successfully continue our PMPC campaign, simplify licensing practices through our REUSE initiative, and stand up for router freedom in Europe. We will be back in 2020 with even more vigour towards our work. Please help us with a donation so that we can continue our successful commitment to Free Software.

Some of our achievements in the past 12 months

Our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign: We will keep encouraging the public sector to use and procure more Free Software. With a strong alliance of the administration of Barcelona, the Parliament of Asturias, over 170 organisations, and more than 26,000 individuals, we demand that publicly financed software development should be made publicly available under Free Software licenses. We have released an expert brochure for decision makers, and are working on translations.

Router Freedom: Some years ago, the FSFE successfully fought for router freedom in Germany. Now, the same debate reaches the European level, with Internet Service Providers (ISP) wanting to restrict users' direct access to their modems and routers even after selling them to end customers. The FSFE aims to counteract this restriction of freedom and to protect users' control of technology by monitoring the status of router freedom in several member states and spreading an "activity package" for people and organisations willing to advocate for router freedom.

Our REUSE initiative: If you want to grant users the freedom to use, study, share, and improve your software, you need to make sure that your software is properly licensed. In August, we released an updated set of best practices together with more supplementary materials and tools. Now, a project can become REUSE compliant in only three simple steps.

You can find more details and other success stories in our report "Software Freedom in Europe 2019".

If you are not yet a supporter please become one; we need you to support our future work.

Our plans for 2020

The new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to solidify her European digital agenda and we expect an updated "Open Source Strategy" by the European Commission. The FSFE will keep a close eye on these proposals to guarantee a safe environment for Free Software in Europe.

We will continue to advocate for router freedom in Europe to help people stay in control of their technology.

To help decision-makers better understand the impact Free Software has on security and digital sustainability, we are preparing analyses of these topics and their connection with Free Software.

We recently introduced our new Software Freedom Podcast in which we will continue to deliver interesting insights into Free Software, once a month.

The FSFE is a charitable organisation and without your support, we would not be able to constantly raise awareness about Free Software -- in the public and private sectors, and among the general public.

A big thank you to all of you who support us currently and who have supported us in the past.

Many people around the world support our work; among them Greg Kroah-Hartman (Linux Kernel developer) who says:

"The 'Public Money? Public Code!' campaign, as well the 'REUSE Initiative' made me notice that the FSFE is an organization which supports the same ideals that I do. I want to help them do more great things, and so now I am a proud FSFE supporter."

If you are currently not a supporter, please become one now!