El Software y el conocimiento debe ser Libre
Posts tagged Software Libre
FSF – AVM violating license of the Linux kernel
Jul 1st
A legal case is being heard before the District Court of Berlin which may have enormous consequences for the way that software is developed and distributed. The adversaries in the case are the manufacturer and distributor of DSL routers AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM), and Cybits AG (Cybits) which produces children’s web-filtering software.
The case was brought to court by AVM with the aim of preventing Cybits from changing any parts of the firmware used in AVM’s routers, including the Linux kernel. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and http://gpl-violations.org consider AVM’s action as a broad attack against the principles of free software, and thus against the thousands of individuals and companies developing, improving and distributing free software.
Berlin, 20th June – Tomorrow on June 21st a legal case will be heard before the District Court of Berlin which may have enormous consequences for the way that software is developed and distributed. The adversaries in the case are the manufacturer and distributor of DSL routers AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM), and Cybits AG (Cybits) which produces children’s web-filtering software. Both companies use the Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GNU GPL); a Free Software license permitting everyone to use, study, share, and improve works which use it.
The case was brought to court by AVM with the aim of preventing Cybits from changing any parts of the firmware used in AVM’s routers, including the Linux kernel. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and gpl-violations.org consider AVM’s action as a broad attack against the principles of Free Software, and thus against the thousands of individuals and companies developing, improving and distributing Free Software.
“I decided to contribute my work to the Linux kernel under the GNU GPL, and let others benefit from it. I’m happy if companies make a lot of money with software written by me and thousands of others. But in return, when they distribute our software I want them to give others the same rights they received from me”, said Harald Welte, founder of gpl-violations.org and copyright holder of several parts of the Linux kernel.
This is however exactly what AVM tried to avoid when in 2010 they filed two actions against Cybits. AVM claimed that when their customers install Cybits’ filtering software on AVM routers it changes the routers’ firmware and consequently infringes on AVM’s copyright. In the opinion of AVM, even changing the Linux kernel components of the firmware is not allowed. The Court of Appeals of Berlin rejected this argument in its decision on the request for a preliminary injunction in September 2010, after Mr. Welte intervened in the case. Now, the District Court of Berlin will have to decide on the issue again, this time in the main proceedings.
“This case has far reaching consequences for the future of Free Software and the GNU GPL. The GNU GPL is a legal license set by the original authors of the software. These terms are not optional” said Till Jaeger from JBB Rechtsanwälte who represents Mr. Welte in this case.
If AVM succeeds in forbidding others from exercising the freedoms explicitly granted by the GNU General Public License terms, it will directly contravene the legal rights of the original authors of the programs, who decided that software freedom and cooperation is more important to them than directly receiving license fees. Moreover, there are also significant economic and business implications. First, it will give device manufacturers the chance to veto software from third parties on their products, resulting in worse products for the user and them being locked-in to purchasing future products from a particular vendor. Second, it will give companies like AVM an unfair advantage over their competitors who are in compliance with the Free Software licenses which they use. Third, it will threaten the cooperative software development model, which has been successfully used by many companies worldwide for three decades.
“AVM is attacking the very foundations of Free Software: They want to take away freedom from others. We have to act when a company sues others for executing their right to modify Free Software. AVM’s behaviour must not be tolerated. If they are successful in court it will be disastrous for the global market for embedded devices, which includes mobile phones, network hardware, and other Linux based products” says Matthias Kirschner, FSFE’s German Coordinator.
“Ironically, by preventing others from enacting the rights granted by the GNU GPL, AVM itself is in violation of the license terms. Therefore they have no right to distribute the software” says Till Jaeger.
FSFE and gpl-violations.org are committed to encouraging the use of Free Software by companies and developers by making licensing and compliance as easy as possible. Generally it is considerably easier to comply with Free Software licenses than with EULAs and other license agreements for non-Free software. Often it is only necessary to add a copy of the GNU GPL license text to documentation, and add an offer to provide the software source code (see FSFE’s compliance tips).
FSF – Statement on OpenOffice.org’s move to Apache
Jul 1st
Oracle, IBM, and the Apache Software Foundation jointly announced earlier this month that OpenOffice.org would become an official Apache project. Users and contributors should be aware that it will become easier for proprietary software developers to distribute OpenOffice.org as nonfree software since all Apache projects are distributed under the terms of the Apache License.
While we do recommend the Apache License in specific situations, we do not believe it is the best choice for software like OpenOffice.org. This situation calls for copyleft, because the gains free software stands to make from a non-copyleft license don’t justify giving a handout to proprietary software developers.
When OpenOffice.org moves to a non-copyleft license, there’s a ready replacement for people who want a productivity suite that does more to protect their freedom: LibreOffice.
Oracle, IBM, and the Apache Software Foundation jointly announced last week that OpenOffice.org would become an official Apache project. OpenOffice.org is an important piece of free software, and many of its supporters suggest that this change will give them more control over the project’s future direction. However, users and contributors should be aware that, as part of this transition, it will become easier for proprietary software developers to distribute OpenOffice.org as nonfree software.
All Apache projects are distributed under the terms of the Apache License. This is a non-copyleft free software license; anybody who receives the software can distribute it to others under nonfree terms. Such a licensing strategy represents a significant policy change for OpenOffice.org. Previously, the software was distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). The LGPL is a weak copyleft license, so programs that merely link to the software can be released under nonfree terms, but the software covered by the LGPL must always be released, along with its source code, under the LGPL’s terms. Free software developers are clearly comfortable with a partial copyleft when it’s appropriate; in numerous surveys of free software projects, the LGPL is commonly listed as the second-most popular license (after the GNU General Public License), or else follows close behind.
While we do recommend the Apache License in specific situations, we do not believe it is the best choice for software like OpenOffice.org. This situation calls for copyleft, because the gains free software stands to make from a non-copyleft license don’t justify giving a handout to proprietary software developers.
Fortunately, there’s a ready alternative for people who want to work with a productivity suite that does more to protect their freedom: LibreOffice. Anybody who’s comfortable with OpenOffice.org will find a familiar interface and feature set in LibreOffice, because it was originally based on the same source code. Since September 2010, numerous contributors have been working to improve the software, and the project’s legal steward, The Document Foundation, is committed to keeping it licensed under the LGPL.
LibreOffice’s commitment to user freedom does not end at the license of its source code. Like OpenOffice.org, the software’s built-in extension manager makes it easy to add new features, but unlike OpenOffice.org, its extension database only lists add-ons that are under a free license. OpenOffice.org points to a database that includes proprietary extensions, and doesn’t always provide clear licensing information. This approach to extensions risks turning free software into a platform for the development and promotion of proprietary extras.
Anybody who plans to use or contribute to one of these productivity suites should understand how these policies affect them, and consider which better complement their own goals. While both pass the most important test of being free software, we recommend LibreOffice because its policies do significantly more to promote the cause of free software.
FSF – Richard Stallman’s speaking schedule
Jul 1st
2011-07-01 The Danger of Software Users Don’t Control Vienna, Austria
2011-07-12 Philosophie et histoire du logiciel libre Strasbourg, France
2011-07-13 Réflexions quant à l’utilisation et la modification du droit d’auteur en faveur de la Liberté Strasbourg, France
Other FSF and free software events
2011-08-25 — 2011-08-28 GNU Hackers Meeting Paris, France
2011-07-13 John Sullivan at the Greater Hartford GNU/Linux User Group Hartford, CT
La Fundación pone en marcha LibreOffice Documento 3.3
Jan 26th
La primera versión estable de la suite ofimática libre está disponible para su descarga
Internet, 25 de enero de 2011 – La
Fundación pone en marcha el documento LibreOffice 3.3, la primera
versión estable de la suite ofimática libre desarrollado por la
comunidad. En menos de cuatro meses, el número de
desarrolladores de hacking LibreOffice ha pasado de menos de veinte a
finales de septiembre de 2010, a más de cien en la actualidad. Esto nos ha permitido la liberación antes del plazo fijado por el agresivo proyecto. No
sólo enviar un número de características nuevas y originales,
LibreOffice 3.3 es también un logro significativo para un número de
razones:
- La comunidad de desarrolladores ha sido capaz de
construir su propio proceso e independiente, y poner en marcha en muy
poco tiempo (con respecto al tamaño de la base de código y ambiciones
del proyecto);
-
Gracias a la gran cantidad de nuevos contribuyentes de haber sido
atraídos hacia el proyecto, el código fuente está rápidamente pasando
por una limpieza a fondo para proporcionar una mejor base para el
desarrollo futuro de LibreOffice;
- El programa de instalación de Windows, que va a impactar la base de
usuarios más grande y diversa, se ha integrado en una sola estructura
que contiene todas las versiones lingüísticas, lo que reduce el tamaño
de los sitios de descarga de 75 a 11 GB, por lo que es más fácil para
nosotros para implementar nuevas versiones más rápidamente y reducir la
huella de carbono de toda la infraestructura.
Caolan McNamara de Red Hat, uno de los líderes de la
comunidad de desarrolladores, comenta: “Estamos muy contentos: esta es
nuestra primera versión estable, y por lo tanto estamos ansiosos por
obtener comentarios de los usuarios, que se integrará lo antes posible
en el código, con las mejoras primer ser lanzado en febrero. A partir de
marzo, que se muda a un calendario de lanzamiento en tiempo real,
previsible, transparente y público, de acuerdo con los objetivos de
Ingeniería del Comité Directivo y peticiones de los usuarios “. La hoja de ruta de desarrollo LibreOffice está disponible en http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleasePlan
LibreOffice 3.3 trae varias características nuevas y únicas. El más popular entre los 10 miembros de la comunidad, sin ningún orden
en particular: la capacidad de importar y trabajar con archivos SVG, una
manera fácil de páginas de título y el formato de su numeración en
Writer, una más-Navigator útil herramienta para el escritor; mejora de
la ergonomía en Calc para la hoja y la gestión de la célula, y Microsoft
Works y Lotus Word Pro filtros de importación de documentos. Además, muchos grandes extensiones son paquetes,
proporcionando la importación de noticias, un presentador de
diapositivas de la consola, un constructor de informe mucho mejor, y
mucho más. Una completa y detallada lista de más de todas las nuevas características
ofrecidas por LibreOffice 3.3 se puede ver en la siguiente página web: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/new-features-and-fixes/
LibreOffice 3.3 también proporciona todas las nuevas
características de OpenOffice.org 3.3, tales como el manejo de nuevas
propiedades personalizadas, incrustación de fuentes estándar de PDF en
documentos PDF; nueva fuente de Liberación estrecho; protección de
documentos aumentó en Writer y Calc; dígitos decimales para automóviles
“General” formato en Calc, 1 millón de filas en una hoja de cálculo;
nuevas opciones para la importación CSV en Calc, insertar objetos de
dibujo en los gráficos, las etiquetas del eje jerárquico para los
gráficos, mejor manejo de diseño de diapositivas en Impress, una nueva
interfaz fácil de usar, de impresión, más opciones para cambiar de
casos, y etiquetas de color de hoja en Calc. Varias de
estas nuevas características fueron aportadas por los miembros del
equipo de LibreOffice antes de la formación de la Fundación de
documento.
hackers LibreOffice se reunirán en el FOSDEM en
Bruselas el 5 de febrero y 6, y presentará su trabajo en un taller de un
día, el 6 de febrero, con discursos y sesiones de hacking coordinado
por varios miembros del proyecto.
El hogar de la Fundación documento está en http://www.documentfoundation.org
La casa de LibreOffice está en http://www.libreoffice.org en la página de descarga se ha rediseñado por la comunidad a ser más fácil de usar.
*** Sobre el Documento de Base
La Fundación documento
tiene la misión de facilitar la evolución de la Comunidad de OOo en una
organización nueva, abierta, independiente y basada en el mérito dentro
de los próximos meses. Una fundación independiente
es un mejor reflejo de los valores de nuestros colaboradores, usuarios y
partidarios, y permitirá a una comunidad más eficaz, eficiente y
transparente. TDF se
protegen las inversiones anteriores, construyendo sobre los logros de la
primera década, fomentará una amplia participación de la comunidad, y
la actividad se coordinará a través de la comunidad.
*** Media Contacts para TDF
Effenberger Florian (Alemania)
Móvil: +49 151 14424108 – E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org
Hallot Olivier (Brasil)
Móvil: +55 21 88228812 – E-mail: @ olivier.hallot documentfoundation.org
Charles H. Schulz (Francia)
Móvil: +33 6 98655424 – E-mail: @ charles.schulz documentfoundation.org
Italo Vignoli (Italia)
Móvil: +39 348 5653829 – E-mail: italo.vignoli documentfoundation.org @
Móvil: +49 151 14424108 – E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org
Hallot Olivier (Brasil)
Móvil: +55 21 88228812 – E-mail: @ olivier.hallot documentfoundation.org
Charles H. Schulz (Francia)
Móvil: +33 6 98655424 – E-mail: @ charles.schulz documentfoundation.org
Italo Vignoli (Italia)
Móvil: +39 348 5653829 – E-mail: italo.vignoli documentfoundation.org @
