Quotes

We became acquainted with April when preparing the "iPod law" (DADVSI). We have then found precious allies, both in their expertise and through their involvement in defense of citizens digital rights. This objective alliance continues today, in our common struggle for a greater freedom of choice related to the software equipment of consumers.

April has been promoting Free Software in France for over 10 years with steadfastness, renewing its sensitization initiatives! With Candidats.fr, elected representatives applied for the 2007 Villes Internet Free label, thus demonstrating their interest in such software. Free Software is less and less seen as a gratis tool. April helped raise elected representatives' awareness regarding the political stakes of computer freedom.

Public authorities' interest in Free Software is essential. This is an issue of competitiveness for the EU in the information technologies sector, as well as the condition of our technological independence. Free Software is a vehicle for innovation in a promising economy; it is also the essence of an open, abundant information society.

I was eager to become an active member of April and take part in its action next to the public institutions and private stakeholders, already subject to the ever present lobying of software editors and PC makers.

All of April's actions are aimed towards actively promoting and defending Free solutions. During the debates on the DADVSI bill, on software patents or on so many other topics, April has helped to inform, to raise public awareness and to convince that beyond purely technical questions, Free Software encompasses economic, social and cultural stakes, choices and major directions that we need to define all together. Its professionalism and its expertise have become most valuable assets and have made it both the inevitable player and the privileged interlocutor it is today.

2006 has seen the voting of the "iPod law" on copyright in the information society (DADVSI), after several anti-democratic assaults from the government onto the Parliament. This law leaves only crumbs for culture and organizes repression against Internet users and Free Software users. It blows to smithereens the idea of interoperability and open formats, and hands the new vectors of culture and knowledge to multinational computing and audiovisual corporations.

During the parliamentary debates on software patents and the DADVSI bill, I have defended Free Software and I shall continue doing so. It is a very important issue, whether seen from an industrial, a national or a societal point of view. Free Software is an open, innovative and cooperative way of developing. It is an essential key towards independence and towards industrial and political balance for humankind.

April is the main instigator of the kick-off and promotion of Free Software in France. By putting forward the ethical and political questions regarding Free Software, April helps to increase the public's awareness that computing freedom is a societal issue. The association plays also an important role when it comes to acting as a watchdog to defend the computer users' fundamental rights.

In an area in which technical, economic and societal innovation rule and require constant adaptation from us, the transversal vision and the thorough work provided by April are vital for the political, economic and social players who wish to understand the revolution caused by the digitalization of the world. April's strength also stands in its professional interaction with those facing it: its activist orientations are presented as such and rely on verifiable facts, which is unfortunately not the case for all players in this sector.

Since 1998, the "Cité des sciences et de l'industrie" and April build a long-term partnership that is illustrated by the animation of periodic events: