More migrations to Free software are seen in Germany and setbacks are spotted elsewhere in Europe

After years of activism by local free software advocates, San Francisco, in particular, and California have both adopted policies requiring all government software purchases to include an evaluation of free software!

Last month saw the launch of http://www.data.gov.uk web site not only built on Open Source Technology but designed to give UK-data back to the UK-people. In the same month both UK political parties restated their total commitment to Open Source software. What is going on? What has happened to the forces of darkness?

"The OpenNet Initiative is proud to release its 2009 Year in Review, a look into instances of filtering, surveillance, and information warfare around the world in 2009 [...] The OpenNet Initiative estimates that at the end of 2009, 32% of all Internet users were accessing a filtered version of the Internet."

The Obama Administration has forced Sourceforge to deny service to its anti-terrorism sanction list. In practical terms this means people in Cuba, North Korea, the Sudan, Syria and Iran get “403 forbidden” messages when they try to access sourceforge.org addresses. (Here’s how the Armenian Private School in Toronto, Canada displays 403 errors.)

Polish government wants to enforce Internet filtering to eliminate online gambling and child pornography. Everything for the benefit of our children, as this is the argument which is hard to stay against.

"The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multilateral trade agreement being negotiated, mostly between OECD countries, in total secrecy. 7th round of negociations from Jan 26th to Jan 29th 2009, in Mexico, is a perfect occasion for exposing ACTA and raise awareness bout how dangerous it is for our fundamental freedoms..."

Failure to understand the true role of patents, especially at the government level; pharmaceutical industry veteran admits the patent lie; IPCom officially loses patent crusade