Mise à jour de la base de données, veuillez patienter...

Ubuntu has decided to stick with GRUB 2 after all; 48 organizations and over 37,000 people have signed the statement opposing Restricted Boot, but Microsoft's new tablet is hitting stores.

Think twice before purchasing Microsoft's new ARM-based tablet, especially if you are hoping to replace the new Windows RT operating system, with a free software operating system such as GNU/Linux or Android. These new devices ship with Restricted Boot, which prevents you from installing free software on the device.

If this new approach by Microsoft of handcuffing users to its operating system bothers you, then join us in signing the statement, stand up for your freedom to install free software.

So far 48 organizations and over 37,000 people have signed the statement. What's more, the free software community has pulled together over the past six months to begin ensuring that the GNU/Linux operating system will be able to run on computers that ship with Secure Boot. In June we published a white paper, of our recommendations for free operating system distributions considering Secure Boot. We will be making some important updates to this white paper in the near future. One update of note that we are very pleased with is the decision by Ubuntu to use GNU GRUB version 2 as its bootloader.

While there is still much work to be done to ensure that users will be able to purchase computers running free software versions of UEFI along with a free software operating system, we are happy to see the free software community has decided to begin taking a more unified effort against Microsoft's Restricted Boot and in favor of Secure Boot.

Learn more

• Support our effort to defeat Restricted Boot by becoming a member of- or making a donation to the FSF.
• Read about the difference between Secure Boot and Restricted Boot
• Sign our statement to show your support!
• Read our white paper, Free Software Foundation recommendations for free operating system distributions considering Secure Boot (PDF).
• See the winning entry of our webcomic contest.
• You can also stay up-to-date on this issue by subscribing to the monthly Free Software Supporter.

The nomination window for the 15th annual Free Software Awards is open. Now is your chance to show some love for your favorite free software hero or an inspiring project that uses free software or free software principles to benefit humanity.

Don't delay, nominations are due on November 15th. To nominate an individual for the Award for the Advancement of Free Software or a project for the Award for Projects of Social Benefit, send your nomination along with a description of the project or individual to award-nominations@gnu.org.

The free software movement is powered by dedicated individuals and has fostered many incredible projects that are making a difference in the world with the help of free software tools and principles. You can read more about the awards and past winners in our official announcement.

What are you waiting for; take a few minutes to give props to people and projects that inspire you. Your nominations will be reviewed by our awards committee and the winners will be announced at LibrePlanet 2013.

Award for the Advancement of Free Software

The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software is presented annually by FSF president Richard Stallman to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software.

Award for Projects of Social Benefit

Nominations are also open for the 2012 Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

This award is presented to the project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free software movement, in a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society in other aspects of life.

We look to recognize projects or teams that encourage collaboration to accomplish social tasks. A long-term commitment to one's project (or the potential for a long-term commitment) is crucial to this end.

This award stresses the use of free software in the service of humanity. We have deliberately chosen this broad criterion so that many different areas of activity can be considered. However, one area that is not included is that of free software itself. Projects with a primary goal of promoting or advancing free software are not eligible for this award (we honor those projects with our annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software).

We will consider any project or team that uses free software or its philosophy to address a goal important to society. To qualify, a project must use free software, produce free documentation, or use the idea of free software as defined in the Free Software Definition. Work done commercially is eligible, but we will give this award to the project or team that best utilizes resources for society's greater benefit.

Nomination Requirements

In the case of both awards, previous winners are not eligible for nomination, but renomination of other previous nominees is encouraged. Only individuals are eligible for nomination for the Advancement of Free Software Award, and only projects can be nominated for the Social Benefit Award.

Award recipients will be chosen by a committee of previous winners and FSF president Richard Stallman.

Please send your nominations to award-nominations@gnu.org, on or before Thursday, November 15th, 2012. Please submit nominations in the following format:

In the email message subject line, either put the name of the person you are nominating for the Award for Advancement of Free Software, or put the name of the project for the Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

Please include, in the body of your message, an explanation (40 lines or less) of the work done and why you think it is especially important to the advancement of free software or how it benefits society, respectively.

Please state, in the body of your message, where to find the materials (e.g., software, manuals, or writing) which your nomination is based on.

Information about the previous awards can be found at http://www.fsf.org/awards. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the LibrePlanet conference tentatively scheduled for March 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Copyright Office picked Sony over you; fails to expand DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions to devices other than cell phones, or to the sharing of anti-circumvention software

The FSF has fought for years against the threat of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). Users should have the right to modify, share and learn from the software on their devices, and technical measures put in place in the name of DRM offer a substantial roadblock. It's even worse when those measures have the force of criminal law behind them, threatening people who simply want to change the software on their computers with jail time. The FSF wants to create a world in which there is no DRM. Until then, at the very least, users shouldn't have to worry about legal consequences for disabling these malfeatures on their own devices.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of course circumvents the rights of users by making it illegal to modify your devices in ways that would give you actual access to them, or to share tools to help others do this. Congress did create one small carve-out from this belligerence; that once every three years the Library of Congress (via the Copyright Office), would consider making exceptions to this broad rule. In 2010, the Office recommended exempting the freeing of cellphones. They did not, however, make clear that this exemption extended to people who distributed tools for freeing these devices. In 2012, we had hoped to expand the exempted class of uses, and encouraged the Copyright Office to extend exemptions to tablets, gaming consoles, and computers running restricted boot. We were on the side of organizations like the EFF, and the Mozilla Foundation as well as hundreds of other individuals calling for the protection of those who simply want to be able to use their own devices in freedom.

But we were not the only ones to send recommendations to the Copyright Office. Large corporations like Sony, and corporate-backed groups like "Joint Creators and Copyright Holders" also sent comments opposing these reasonable exemptions. And the Copyright Office fell for their FUD. The Copyright Office has announced that while freeing your phone in order to install your own software is still permitted, unlocking the phone in order to switch carriers will be phased out. And even that minimal remaining protection has not been extended to tablets. Offering the duplicitous explanation that they weren't sure what a tablet was, the office completely abdicated its responsibility to protect users' rights to run their own software on their devices, as well as their rights to works locked down on those tablets. They similarly rejected exemptions for users wanting to install their own operating system on game consoles, and even worse, failed to extend protection to users who want to install their own operating system on computers with restricted boot.

This means no longer being able to switch your own cell phone carrier without permission. This means no modifying tablet operating systems without legal threat. It means that trying to install a different operating system on your game console could result in the FBI breaking down your door. It means that you cannot even be sure of your right to remove proprietary software from devices encumbered with restricted boot.

The Copyright Office picked Sony over you. They had an opportunity to protect users, but instead chose to protect corporate interests. This is a terrible outcome for users everywhere, and just proves that we need wholesale elimination of the anti-circumvention laws.

We need to band together. Here is what you can do to help:

• Join our Defective By Design campaign to end DRM.
• Join our Boycott Sony campaign to let Sony know that this sort of behavior is not acceptable.
• Sign our statement to Stop Restricted Boot.
• Donate to the Free Software Foundation to support our efforts to fight bad laws like the DMCA.

Yesterday morning, the Free Software Foundation crashed the Windows 8 launch event in New York City. A cheerful GNU and her team handed out DVDs loaded with Trisquel, FSF stickers, and information about our new pledge, which asks Windows users to upgrade not to Windows 8, but to GNU/Linux.

Check out these great photos of the fun, and don't forget to sign our pledge!

Special thanks to our volunteers, Linnea the GNU and Tristan the photographer, for helping make this action a huge success!