Participate in supporting the FSD by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

This week we're chasing Ghosts, at a brand new time! Some projects on the directory are currently unmaintained or dormant. While up to date software is always needed, these older projects still present value and the possibility of resurrection. We want to make sure that the resources on the directory are up to date and help people to find both current and older packages. We'll be hunting down these projects this week at a new later time. Lots of our regulars couldn't make it out for our first hour, so we're shifting the schedule back one hour.

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has argued for years via its End Software Patents campaign that software patents are a threat to computer users everywhere and need to be abolished. In 2010, the FSF even funded a documentary, "Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system," laying out the history of this destructive force. More recently, FSF, the Open Source Initiative, and the Software Freedom Law Center filed an amicus curae in the United State's Supreme Court case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l (Alice). There, we explained the dangers of software patents and argued that "not only do software idea patents fail established tests for patentability; they also violate the First Amendment." It appears that someone on the Federal Circuit (the court that hears appeals on cases involving patents in the U.S.) took note.

That someone is Judge Haldane Robert Mayer, who in a stunning concurrence in Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec (links to a PDF) outlined the case against software patents. The argument will be familiar to those who have read the FSF's Amicus in Alice: software patents fail basic tests for patentability and violate the First Amendment. And while the fact that it is only a concurrence (and not the main opinion of the court) means that it is not settled law, it is a huge step forward in protecting computer users from the dangers of software patents.

Mayer lays out the First Amendment argument against patentability of certain subjects, noting that limits on the subject matter of patents are meant to protect free expression. Under U.S. law, 35 U.S.C § 101 (section 101) lays out the scope of patentable subject matter. In analysing this section, courts have carved out certain subjects as being outside the scope of patentability so as to protect freedom of expression. In particular, abstract ideas and mental process have been found too threatening to the free exchange of ideas to permit them to be locked up in patents. After outlining the basics, Mayer goes on to state that "Most of the First Amendment concerns associated with patent protection could be avoided if this court were willing to acknowledge that Alice sounded the death knell for software patents."

This is a really significant statement, offering clear guidance in the right direction as to how the Supreme Court case should be viewed.

Mayer notes that the Supreme Court in Alice "... explained that the 'mere recitation of a generic computer cannot transform a patent-ineligible abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.' ... Accordingly, '[t]he fact that a computer necessarily exist[s] in the physical, rather than purely conceptual, realm is beside the point'..."

Mayer explains that "Software lies in the antechamber of patentable invention. Because generically-implemented software is an 'idea' insufficiently linked to any defining physical structure other than a standard computer, it is a precursor to technology rather than technology itself."

Mayer continues the line of thought to its practical conclusion: "Given that an 'idea' is not patentable ... and a generic computer is 'beside the point' in the eligibility analysis ... all software implemented on a standard computer should be deemed categorically outside the bounds of section 101."

Mayer even points out that the existence of free software itself is a strong argument against the granting of software patents. That the free software community has flourished for decades without the use of patents "suggests that innovation can flourish in software absent patent" restrictions.

This opinion is exactly the sort of thing we've been fighting for all these years. If only the rest of the court in Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec had joined in with Mayer in recognizing that software should never be subject to patents. While it is a great victory to see this analysis produced by a judge here in the U.S., there's obviously more that needs to be done before the 'death knell' truly sounds for software patents all around the world. Here's what you can do to help bring about that victory even faster:

• Keep up to date on the fight against software patents by joining the campaign to End Software Patents
• Support our work in fighting software patents by making a donation or joining as an FSF Associate member

Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the Free Software Directory. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, October 14th, 2016 meeting.

This week we were the "Skeleton GNU", with a theme of looking to add substance to entries with only a few details. Unfortunately we were a bit of skeleton crew, with only a few participants. We discussed a bit how to improve turnout and decided to experiment next week with starting the meeting an hour later. Most participants in the past have been joining in the second hour or later of the meeting, so hopefully scheduling the meeting a little later will help overlap better with people's schedules.

The meeting started out working through GNU Project packages to make sure they were robustly detailed on the directory. In the end that turned out to be not a great starting point, as the GNU entries tended to be well documented already, which is a good problem to have.

In working to flesh out entries, we often found that packages with limited information were often quite old and dormant. For some of these the home for the project had disappeared, and new resources were difficult to track down. Iankelling proposed using some new method of tagging these dormant but still potentially useful packages. Even a package that isn't under active development can be useful in some particular cases, and even where a package hasn't been developed in some time, someone can obviously choose to pick it back up and make it live once again. The meeting ended with the decision that handling these 'Ghost' packages would be the theme of next week's meeting.

If you would like to help chase down ghost entries or just help update the directory in general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1pm to 4pm EDT (17:00 to 20:00 UTC).

Participate in supporting the FSD by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

This week we're the 'Skeleton GNU' looking to beef up bares bones entries with more information. While even the most skeletal entry can be useful, the best ones have robust description, links to documentation and other resources. We'll be looking for entries with minimal information, adding as much as we can and making sure they're up to date.

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.