 Free Software Foundation Europe has been empowering people to use technology in a self-determined way and in freedom since 2001. At first this was of interest to only a few people. Today it's a widespread concern because digitisation reaches further and further into people's lives, into companies, organisations and public administrations. It increasingly affects our personal environment and society as a whole. The power of software is also increasing. Intimate data can be leaked. Software can determine what we're allowed or not allowed to do. It can cause us to lose our freedom or even our lives. That's why we advocate limiting the power of proprietary software and instead distributing power and access widely through free software, also known as open-source software. Many people know free software as useful programs and apps, but the idea behind it is much larger and it stood the test of time. It's enabled systems that are the backbone of our digital world. The difference between free and proprietary software is that free software always grants us four rights. Any person may freely use, study, share and improve the software. If software is developed under a free licence, then anyone can use it without restrictions anytime and anywhere. Since the source code can be read by anyone, this allows for more transparency and can lead to more security. People can work together across borders on problems that affect humanity. They can share the software, discuss it and improve it collectively. This idea has been around for many decades and the movement has continued to grow and evolve. But some people and companies use the knowledge and tools for action and goals that are viewed critically by us as individuals, by the FSFE and by other organisations. That's why there's an ongoing debate about whether it would make sense to restrict the four rights so we can better honour our own values and convictions or protect business models. We believe that software freedom and the levelling out of inequalities in software is essential for democracy, but it's not always the right tool for all problems we see in the world. We want free software to empower all people in the world to design technology together in a self-determined environment and to enhance democratic participation in the digital era. We don't want to undermine this by imposing new restrictions. The number of people using free software is growing and they're becoming more and more diverse and in order to make the process of shaping technology more inclusive, we need to increase our respect for each other. At the same time, we as a movement shouldn't lose focus on our core values, use, study, share, improve, for everyone. By the way, this video was also created with free software.