While the editors of this digest were very busy with FOSDEM last week, which for the first time featured a legal track; an interesting debate was raised on the legitimacy and effectivity of GPL enforcement practices against violators of the license. On patent litigation, there were discussions on the opinion of the International Trade Commission on Barnes & Nobles patent defense against Microsoft's Android litigations.

ACTA, a multi-national treaty to enforce copyright and patents, is threatening Free Software and freedom in the information society. It endangers people's access to essential medicines. The treaty creates a culture of surveillance and suspicion, and the way in which it was negotiated is a mockery of proper democratic process.

"Let's be honest: In the Free Software community, we exchange a lot of criticism. We write bug reports, tell others how they can improve the software, ask them for new features, and generally are not shy about criticising others. Sometimes we forget to say "thank you, for all your work". As in the last years, we want to change this, at least for one day. So on Tuesday the 14th of February we will celebrate the "I love Free Software" - Day , says Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's #ilovefs campaign manager.

Free Software Foundation Europe has been awarded a grant from Mozilla. As announced during this weekend's FOSDEM conference in Brussels, FSFE will receive EUR 25,000 to support its work for freedom in the information society.

Read about copyright originality in the EU, publication of Library License, European Commissions proposal to reform the old data protection rules, iPad litigations and more.

As every year for Valentine's Day, the FSFE is planning an online campaign to celebrate this day as an "I love Free Software" - Day. Our online campaign aims at rising awareness to Free Software and the passionate, hard-working people behind it. You can participate in our campaign from all over the world. Show them that you appreciate their work – it could make all the difference!

This year on Valentine's Day, the FSFE organises an "I love Free Software" event at the Unperfekthaus in Essen. We would like to invite all supporters of Free Software to celebrate this day together with us. During the day, there will be workshops and talks concerning various topics about Free Software. In the evening there will be a live concert with four bands that are willing to play in support of Free Software. For more information have a look at our event-page.

The "Chemnitz Linux Days" is a conference that deals with Linux and Open Source Software . It is open for everyone, novizes and experts alike. The FSFE will be present with a booth where you can inform yourself about our work and to get to know the people behind FSFE. In addition, Matthias Kirschner - Fellowship Coordinator and the Coordinator of the German team - will give a speech about "Non-free software advertisement presented by your government" on Saturday, 17.03. at 16:30 in Raum V1.