Author Archives: Georg Greve

About Georg Greve

Georg Greve is a technologist and entrepreneur. Background as a software developer and physicist. Head of product development and Chairman at Vereign AG. Founding president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). Previously president and CEO at Kolab Systems AG, a Swiss Open Source ISV. In 2009 Georg was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon by the Federal Republic of Germany for his contributions to Open Source and Open Standards.

Can Blizzards be struck by lightning?

Usually I never find time to play games anymore; most of my conscious time is spent working for Free Software and related issues. The rest of my time generally goes to reading, riding my motorcycle or doing Aikido. Also I … Continue reading

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Braindead patent?

During the struggle against software patents, many people used the example of plotlines and concrete stories to demonstrate the difference between patents (= plotlines) and copyright (=the actual story). Like the "imagine Beethoven had gotten a monopoly on ‘musical pieces … Continue reading

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IPRED2: have a nice time – in jail!

Apparently a Dutch court sentenced a man to six months in prison for violation of laws for handling counterfeit goods. His crime? He wore a fake Rolex: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1587840.html?menu=news.quirkies.strangecrime Please note that he did not produce or sell a fake rolex. … Continue reading

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Problems with e-waste? Send it to Africa!

The Basel Action Network (BAN) published an interesting report, titled "The Digital Dump: Exporting Re-Use and Abuse to Africa" in which they analyse the effects of many "ship your old computer to Africa" activities. Studying Nigeria as a role model … Continue reading

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Women in Free Software

It seems to me that the issue is discussed more often these days. My first contact with it was when talking to the organisers of the "Women in Free Software" workshop during the 4th Free Software Forum in Porto Alegre … Continue reading

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I should grow a beard

After Karsten told me he was a Low-Ranking geek, I could not resist to try this myself. So I gave it a quick shot… and found out that I am only a High-Level Computer Geek: I should probably grow a … Continue reading

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Boycot O2

Computers + Kafka = Instant Insanity Here is another story that is too absurd to be fiction, thus it must be real: How to (not) escape the claws of an immoral mobile phone provider. As this story has stretched out … Continue reading

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Will Microsoft support the development agenda at WIPO?

Jonathan Murray, Microsoft’s CTO for the EMEA region felt compelled to comment on our recent announcement of the GPLv3 revision process for 2006. Naturally, I was interested to see what he had to say. Unfortunately he only seemed to go … Continue reading

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Reasons to not fly KLM and SkyTeam

…as I found myself sitting all the way in the back (second last row) all the way in the middle between a vertically challenged U.S. citizen and a bloke from the UK. Okay. To be fair: Both were friendly and … Continue reading

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Short stop in Hamburg

As you may have read in Karsten’s blog, the WIPO meetings in Geneva were indeed very exciting. It seems there is a realistic chance that WIPO will change fundamentally if the Friends of Development group keeps up the pressure and … Continue reading

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