FSFLA News
Issue #8
March 2006

GPLv3

January this year was the kickoff for the process of updating the GNU GPL, the most popular Free Software license. The process leading to GPLv3 started with a conference in Boston, MA, USA, on January 16th. The next GPLv3 conference will take place in Latin America.

The Second International Conference on GPLv3 will be hosted in Porto Alegre, Brazil, within the framework of the 7th International Free Software Forum (FISL 7.0), which will take place between April 19th and 22nd this year.

Richard M. Stallman has confirmed his attendance, as have Free Software activists from all over the world.

FSFLA will help keep the community informed about progress on GPLv3 through our web site http://www.fsfla.org/

FSFLA will actively participate in the GPLv3 event, and will present a conference within the Forum.

Work Teams

Two of FSFLA's work teams are up and running.

The translation team is working hard in localizing the main documents from the GPLv3 process into Spanish and Portuguese, as well as other documents of interest for the Latin American Free Software community. People who want to monitor the translation progress or wish to get involved can do so at the following page:
http://www.fsfla.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/traductores

The legal affairs work team's mailing list also is open for subscription at:
http://www.fsfla.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/legales

Both are part of FSFLA's set of work teams, which are open for anyone who wishes to collaborate and contribute their work and ideas.

Web Site

By and by, we are feeding information of interest for the Latin Amercican Free Software community into our web site, especially about FSFLA's activities.

The site has now a section dedicated to local laws which may have some kind of impact or influence over Free Software development or use. If your country is not yet in the list for which we have already compiled laws, and you can help us complete it, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@fsfla.org.

More information at http://www.fsfla.org/

Events

In February, members of FSFLA were active in different places in Latin America.

Federico Heinz, FSFLA's current president, offered a series of conferences in Mexico DF and El Salvador. In both countries, he took part in activities together with the Heinrich Böll Foundation's office for México, Central America and the Caribbean. During his trip, Federico worked with several NGOs in affairs related with Free Software and access to knowledge.

Beatriz Busaniche visited Cuba, where she participated in 15th National Book Fair of La Habana, introducing the book "A patented world? The privatization of life and knowledge" together with Silke Helfrich from the Heinrich Böll Foundation. She also took part in a series of events in the Juan Marinello Cultural Center, at the Universidad de La Habana together with the Habana's Free Software User Group, and the Cuban Industrial Property Office, where she gave a technical workshop on
software patents.

The 2nd Latin American Free Software Installfest (FLISOL) will take place on March 25th on many cities all over Latin America. FLISOL is an event that promotes the use of Free Software and the integration of user communities in all Latin American countries. If you already are a Free Software user, you can participate and collaborate in the event. Please get in contact with the user groups that are hosting FLISOL in your city. Your help is needed and appreciated! For more information, the list of cities participating in FLISOL, as well as instructions on how you can help, are available at http://installfest.info/