These proposed regulations are meant to facilitate public reuse of works funded by Department of Education grants. Currently, as explained in the NPRM, grantees are allowed to make their federally-funded works proprietary. The Department of Education receives a special license to share the works with the public, but in practice it rarely does so. Worse, teachers and students absolutely cannot use them in freedom (except for those few that happen to be made free).

Since the course materials are works of practical use, they should carry the four freedoms of free software, just as programs and manuals should.

The proposal would require grantees to publish the works under an "open" license. In the case of software, they may be thinking of "open source", which is not quite as strong as free; in the case of courseware, many "open" courses are not free. The flaw in the proposed specific rules is that they don't require that the license permit redistribution of modified versions. Without that freedom, the works will be nonfree.

With a small change, this proposal will more clearly do what is needed. The small change is to add "redistribution of modified versions" to the list of uses these works must permit users to do.

If you are a US citizen or you are living in the US, then you can help make that change happen by submitting a comment advocating it.

If you are not a US citizen, then we hope you will use this as an opportunity to reach out to the department of education or the appropriate government rule makers in your own country and encourage them to adopt similar rules -- ones that require grant funded works of a functional nature be distributed under free licenses. If you do contact your own government with such a request, please, email licensing@fsf.org and let us know!

Unfortunately, submitting a comment digitally requires the user to run nonfree JavaScript (JS) code. We are taking a stand against that by submitting the FSF's comment another way. We are going to submit it by post so that it gets to the DOE by Friday, December 18th (the date comments are due).

To help you submit a comment without running the US government's nonfree JS, we offer to print and send your comment along with ours. To do that, we need to receive your comment by email sent to licensing@fsf.org with the subject "DOE comment" by 12:00PM EST on December 15th. We can print PDF files, ODF files and plain text. You need to follow the rules for submissions 100%, because we don't have staff to correct even minor errors. The eRulemaking Initiative has some guidance on how to write a good comment. But in the very least: your comment should clearly cite the above referenced NPRM, it should express your support for these proposed regulations, and it should cite the exact section (§3474.20 (a)) that you believe should be updated and why you think it should, including any relevant personal or professional experience or knowledge.

We may skip comments that are too long or that are inconsistent with the goal. Please say in your email message whether you give permission for us to publish your comment.

While we would like to deliver a large packet of comments to the Department of Education, you can also mail your own: address them to Sharon Leu, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., Room 6W252, Washington, DC 20202-5900.

In addition, if you are interested in becoming a cosigner to the comment the FSF is going to write and submit, then please email us at licensing@fsf.org with the subject "DOE comment cosigner." In your email please provide your full name, city and state, and be aware that we will be making that information public as part of publishing our comment.

Lastly, there should be no doubt in your mind that the FSF's work in free licensing, licensing education, and advocacy has played a meaningful part in the circumstances that have lead to the US Department of Education reforming its policy from promoting proprietary works to one that requires the development of only free works. We know that the GNU GPL and the FSF's work in free licensing education serves as a guiding light to policy makers everywhere. But, in order for us to continue positively influencing public policy, we need your help: please, become an associate member or make a donation today.

CC BY SA 2.0 Martin Belam.

Your support makes us who we are. Without the generosity and passion of the free software community, we would not have been able to spend the last three decades supporting free software development and fighting for the rights of computer users. As tiny computers proliferate, from home temperature regulation to automobiles to our own bodies, the Free Software Foundation's ability to shine a light on the ethical issues inherent in proprietary software is more important than ever. When you give, you help us keep computer users informed about where proprietary software is hiding, and how free software can aid the fight for a free society.

The Free Software Foundation is seen as a guiding light for the free software community. Here's just a sampling of our work:

• We light a fire under free software development by sponsoring the GNU project, providing infrastructure support to hundreds of free software projects, and maintaining a list of high-priority projects that are especially important to the adoption and use of free software. We also enable fundraising and promotion for some of these projects, including Replicant (a fully free version of Android) and GNU MediaGoblin (free, decentralized network services). We spark production of hardware that supports free software, too, through our Respects Your Freedom certification program.
• We enforce the GNU General Public License, offer canonical licensing educational materials, answer thousands of licensing questions for free software developers each year, and help steward the community guide to copyleft at copyleft.org. This work is necessary to make sure that companies who incorporate copyleft-licensed software in their products understand how it works, uphold their end of the bargain to respect user freedom, and become good participants in the community.
• We organize global action around urgent issues related to software freedom. At the government level, we (under protest) participate in the exemptions process for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and put a spotlight on the Trans-Pacific Partnership's threats to free software worldwide. In the private sector, we battle against Restricted Boot in computers distributed with Windows, and through our Defective by Design campaign, we work toward the elimination of all DRM, including organizing a coalition to keep it out of HTML5.
• Our resources light the way for free software activists. The Free Software Directory is a curated database of 15,000 (and counting) free software packages, the User Lib video introduces new audiences to the basics of free software, and our annual Giving Guide helps people consider free software principles when buying gifts for their loved ones.
• We gather the free software community for idea sharing and project planning at our annual LibrePlanet conference, and at other events around the world.

We've made big gains over the last 30 years -- but there's so much more to do. We know we can share free software around the world, from the halls of government to the classroom to your home, by shining a light on the dark side of proprietary software and helping important free software projects thrive. But we need your support.

Over 80 percent of our funding comes from individuals. Will you help us shine brighter by becoming a new member or making a donation by January 31st? Your generosity in the next two months will help us plan for the next few years. You can become an FSF member for just $10/month ($5/month for students). When you join, you'll get many benefits, including a USB membership card loaded with the free GNU/Linux distribution Trisquel, a digital member button, member.fsf.org email aliases and Jabber instant messaging, gratis admission to the annual LibrePlanet conference, a 20% discount on all purchases in the FSF shop, a printed copy of the biannual FSF Bulletin, and the newest benefit: 5% off free software-friendly hardware from ThinkPenguin.

Most importantly, your support enables more people to work tirelessly protecting your freedom. We need to raise $450,000 to maintain our current capacity, and if we raise more, we can do more. Help our light shine brighter by sharing this appeal. You can light another person's candle with yours, convincing others to use free software, give to the FSF, or even become a member. We are deeply grateful for your support.

Happy hacking!

Bulletin is in the mail and online!

As many of you are aware, twice a year we mail a new edition of the FSF Bulletin to our members and supporters via the good old United States Postal Service. The Bulletin comes together in just a few weeks, and this time we had to make an extra quick turnaround after celebrating FSF30.

The latest Bulletin includes some great reflections on the first thirty years of the FSF, from where we have come to where we are going; what keeps us going day-to-day and what excites us (spoiler alert: it's you!). We touch base on actions to take in response to the Trans Pacific Partnership and surveillance. We discuss ways to connect the free software movement to other movements without being overly technical. And as always, there are stories from the road and a look at new materials in the GNU Press shop!

Go ahead and read it online, download the pdf or if you are so inclined, compile the TeX source!

The Free Software Foundation is striving to provide more and simpler ways for hackers to contribute to the GNU Project. For projects that are assigned to the FSF (such as GNU Emacs or GCC), dealing with the paperwork for assigning contributions can sometimes be a bottleneck in the process. We are always working on ways to make assignment itself simpler. We have accepted GPG-signed documents from U.S. contributors for some time now. Our legal counsel at the Software Freedom Law Center recently gave us the all clear to begin accepting GPG and electronic signatures from contributors in Italy. We would also like to thank Carlo Piana for providing local counsel on this issue as well.

As with contributors in the U.S., Italian hackers will be able to sign copyright assignments using GNU Privacy Guard, a complete and free implementation of PGP. One of its main features is the ability to generate a unique digital signature tied to both a specific individual and a particular document. Many hackers already use GPG to verify and secure code, emails and documents, so it's the most natural tool for us to be using.

In addition, we've been given the all clear to start accepting smart card digital signatures from Italian contributors. We are still looking into the infrastructure for doing so, to ensure that it does not require any proprietary software. If you've used smart card signatures in a fully free environment and would be willing to offer some insight we would love to hear from you at assign@gnu.org. We are hopeful that we'll have the system up and running soon, and that contributors in other countries will be able to make use of electronic signatures in the future.

The list of countries where we can currently accept digitally signed documents (scanned, GPG-signed, or electronic signature) will be kept as part of the GNU Maintainer's manual.

Wondering why the FSF goes through all this trouble with copyright assignment at all? Prof. Eben Moglen explains why.