[ffii] Document Freedom Day 2011

[Stephan Uhlmann]

press release - [Technology / Economy / Innovation]

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Tagesschau.de awarded for the use of Open Standards
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Berlin, 30. March 2011 - Today the ARD internet platform Tagesschau.de will 
receive an award for the use of Open Standards at the "Document Freedom Day". 
The prize is awarded by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and the 
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure e.V. (FFII) for offering the 
broadcasted shows also in the free video format "Ogg Theora".

In Berlin FSFE and FFII will hand over a certificate and a cake with the "rOgg 
On!" label on to Sven Bruns, technical manager at tagesschau.de. In Hamburg, 
Sabine Klein, vice editorial director of tagesschau.de will accept a DFD cake 
on behalf of the editorial team.

"In times of non-free video formats still dominating the internet, 
tagesschau.de is an example for other broadcasting corporations how to 
provide unrestricted access to their media.", says Matthias Kirschner, 
Germany-Coordinator of FSFE.

In contrast to proprietary video formats Ogg Theora is a free video format 
that every software producer is allowed to support without licensing 
requirements. Therefore software users are not dependent on a single software 
vender but can apply Ogg Theora on various devices.

Stephan Uhlmann, member of the FFII board: "It's convenient to support the 
currently dominating format instead of using Open Standards. But this 
domination brings along patents whose exclusive control disables alternative 
software solutions and later innovations. In contrast to this users of Open 
Standards have free choice of their software. But no matter whether Apple, 
Microsoft or GNU/Linux: the videos of tagesschau.de will always be playable."

Ogg Theora is supported by all media players in common GNU/Linux 
distributions. One can also play Ogg-files on Microsoft Windows or Apple's 
Mac OS X by using the VLC player. Furthermore, many modern webbrowsers 
directly support the format.

On tagesschau.de, all regular videos are available as Ogg Theora. At 
tagesschau24, videos are directly embedded via the new webstandard HTML5. In 
other parts of the website, it still needs to be manually set to "download 
the file" and then the format "Medium (Ogg)" has to be clicked.

"We hope that all other multimedia contents – especially the media library and 
live streams – will soon be available in a free format. Moreover we would be 
glad about Ogg Theora or WebM videos in higher quality levels", indicates 
Matthias Kirschner.

Press pictures of the award ceremony will be available March 30. at 2pm.
on <http://wiki.fsfe.org/DFD-2011-Berlin-Hamburg-Bilder>.



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Links
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Ogg Theora
http://theora.org/

tagesschau24
http://www.tagesschau.de/tagesschau24/

WebM
http://www.webmproject.org/

Bilder von der Preisverleihung
http://wiki.fsfe.org/DFD-2011-Berlin-Hamburg-Bilder

FFII's Offene Standard definition and working group
http://action.ffii.org/openstandards

Permanent link to this press release
http://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/Tagesschau.de%20awarded%20for%20the%20use%20of%20Open%20Standards


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Press contacts
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Matthias Kirschner <mk at fsfe.org>, Free Software Foundation Europe
Linienstraße 141, 10115 Berlin
Phone: +49-30-275 95 290
Mobile:  +49-1577-178 000 3
  
Stephan Uhlmann <uhlmann at ffii.org>, FFII Office Berlin
Malmöer Str. 6, 10439 Berlin
Phone: +49-170-4225008


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About Document Freedom Day
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The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global action day for free document 
formats and Open Standards. It takes place every year on last Wednesday in 
March since 2008. In recent years over 200 teams of volunteers in over 60 
countries have shared the benefits of Open document formats and Open 
Standards.

http://www.documentfreedom.org/


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About the Free Software Foundation Europe
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The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-governmental 
organisation active in many European countries and involved in many global 
activities. Access to software determines participation in a digital society.  
To secure equal participation in the information age, as well as freedom of 
competition, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is 
dedicated to the furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, 
study, modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues, 
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by 
supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE.

http://fsfe.org/


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About FFII
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The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European 
countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public 
benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 
members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to 
act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights 
(intellectual property) in data processing.

http://www.ffii.org/