Most European legal frame related to new technologies is cooked up at Brussels. Its future members will decide on the patentability of software, on data privacy issues, TPRM, and so on. On 14th and 15th April a conference and Linux User Group event chaired by Daniel Cohn-Bendit (member of European parlament) takes place. Join an install party within European Parliament (and bring your favorite MEP with you). Attend a panel with eg. Alan Cox, Georg Greve, Jon Lech Johansen (of decss fame). Participate in a guided tour through Brussels (Demonstration for a Free Information Infrastructure ("Anti-Swpat")). Meet LUGs and development teams from all over the place, and the software patent experts of FFII.

As so many KDE contributors, companies and users are from Europe, this event is a good opportunity to present the progress of the project. Our European decision makers know very little about KDE as a mature desktop solution. KDE's great internationalization efforts for instance are a practical solution to the requirements of the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages. Educate your EU representatives and officers about the importance of KDE for the Freedom of the European Information Infrastructure. Jens Mühlhaus (Munich City Council) will speak about the Munich Linux/KDE migration project.

Parliament entrance is free however to access the building you have to register online before 7 April:
Greens Announcement and online registration form

Free Information Infrastructure, 14 April 2004

• Brussels Demo on 14 April 11.30 and online demo.
• Short interdisciplinary swpat conference (International Institute of Infonomics/FFII) 14.00 - 18.00 European Parliament, room AG2
• On 14 April evening, there will be a diner meeting at restaurant La Tentation, in the center of Brussels.
• Event page of FFII, registration, hotels

Euro G/LUG party, Brussels European Parliament room ASP 1G2, 15 April 2004

Contact: [email protected]

The Greens in European parliament invite representatives of GNU/Linux Users Groups of the 25 Member States of the European Union to come to Brussels to

• enhance the networking among the free software community in Europe(in particular with the New Member states)
• prepare the second reading on the software patents directive
• show inside EP what free software is, how it works and what ideas lie behind
• participate to the FFII conference and demo against software patents on 14 April

Programme and registration on http://www.greens-efa.org
Laurence Vandewalle: [email protected]

PROGRAMME

9.00-11.00 25 G/LUGs for a Free Europe

Gathering European GNU/Linux Users Groups and associations for the promotion of free software : BxLUG - Belgium, RWO - Plug - Poland, Vrijschrift - The Netherlands, LiLux - Luxemburg, FFS Software - Austria, APRIL - HNS-info.net - France, GUUG - Germany, SSLUG - Sweden&Denmark, LUGOS - Slovenia, Debian - Latvia, AKL - Lithuania, LugRoma - Italy, Grece, Cyprus, Finland, Estonia, ...

11.00-12.30 Linux Install Party for MEPs with Monica Frassoni Dany Cohn-Bendit, Hiltrud Breyer, Bart Staes, ... organized by BxLug

15.00 PANEL I: FAIR USE/COPIE PRIVÉE

Gwen Hinze (Electronic Fronteer Foundation)

Laurence Lebersorg (Test-Achat Belgium)

Jon Lech Johansen (DVD-Jon)

16.00 PANEL II: FREE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

Cristiano Paggetti (Italy): eGovernment

Andrea Glorioso (Italy): Free Content

Herman Bruynickx (Belgium): Free software in education

Jens Muhlhaus (Germany): Public administration: Linux für Munchen

17.00 PANEL III : FREE AS IN FREEDOM

Georg Greve, FSF Europe (Germany) Agenda 1910

17.30 Alan Cox www.linux.org.uk co-signatory of the letter sent by Linus Torvalds to the President of EP against software patents (UK)

Links:

• European Greens/European Freedom Alliance registration
• Laurence's Blog