We recently published a number of updates to our licensing materials. While we generally post individual announcements for these types of important changes, there were so many in such a short span that we needed to combine them all in one place. We recently added two licenses to our list of Various Licenses and Comments about Them, updated our article on License Compatibility and Relicensing, and added a new entry to the Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses. What follows is a brief rundown on those changes, and how you can learn more about free software licensing.

Commons Clause

We added the Commons Clause to our list of nonfree licenses. Not a stand-alone license in and of itself, it is meant to be added to an existing free license to prevent using the work commercially, rendering the work nonfree. It's particularly nasty given that the name, and the fact that it is attached to pre-existing free licenses, may make it seem as if the work is still free software.

If a previously existing project that was under a free license adds the Commons Clause, users should work to fork that program and continue using it under the free license. If it isn't worth forking, users should simply avoid the package. We are glad to see that in the case of Redis modules using the Commons Clause, people are stepping up to maintain free versions.

The Fraunhofer FDK AAC license

We recently added the Fraunhofer FDK AAC license to our list of licenses. This is a free license, incompatible with any version of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), but also contains a potential trap. While Fraunhofer provides a copyright license here, they explicitly decline to grant any patent license. In fact, they direct users to contact them to obtain a patent license. Users should act with caution in determining whether they feel comfortable using works under this license.

License Compatibility

In September, we added a new section to our article on License Compatibility and Relicensing, addressing combinations of code. This new section helps you to simplify the picture when dealing with a project that combines code under multiple compatible licenses. If complying with one license necessarily means compliance with the other, then you can reduce the question of complying with both in the following manner:

"[Y]ou start with a list of all the pertinent licenses. Then you can delete from the list any license which is subsumed by another in the list.

We say that license A subsumes license B when compliance with license A implies compliance with license B."

The updated section then goes on to list various examples of this in action. The list may be expanded in the future to cover more cases.

Translated Code

Finally, there is a new addition to our Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses, with an entry explaining what the GNU GPL says about translating code into another programming language. In short, since copyright law treats a translation as a modified version of a work, translating a program into another programming language has the same consequences as creating a modified version.

How to learn more

These updates touch upon quite a few different resources that we make available, but that's only the start of the materials we provide that can help you to understand free software licensing. For an overview of the resources available, visit us at https://www.fsf.org/licensing, or if you have questions, you can ask the Compliance Lab directly by emailing licensing@fsf.org. The Compliance Lab is our resource on free software licensing, providing materials and expertise to free software users and developers everywhere. Here's what you can do to help keep this vital program going strong:

• Help more users keep informed by asking them to sign up for the FSF licensing mailing list.
• Support our work financially by becoming and FSF Associate Member, or by making a donation .

The LibrePlanet 2019 conference call for sessions (CfS) deadline is nearly upon us! On Friday, November 9th, 2018, 10:00 EST (14:00 UTC), in four short days, we will close the CfS and begin the difficult task of deciding which talks to accept into the LibrePlanet 2019 program. We're excited to hear from new speakers and those new to free software, as well as those of you who have been around for years.

We want you to submit to the CfS.

LibrePlanet is an annual conference hosted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for free software enthusiasts and anyone who cares about the intersection of technology and social justice. LibrePlanet brings together software developers, law and policy experts, activists, students, and computer users to learn skills, celebrate free software accomplishments, and face challenges to software freedom.

LibrePlanet 2019's theme is “Trailblazing Free Software.” In 1983, the free software movement was born with the announcement of the GNU Project. FSF founder Richard Stallman saw the dangers of proprietary code from the beginning: when code was kept secret from users, they would be controlled by the technology they used, instead of vice-versa. In contrast, free software emphasized a community-oriented philosophy of sharing code freely, enabling people to understand how the programs they use work, to build off of each other's code, to pay it forward by sharing their own code, and to create useful software that treats users fairly.

We're looking for sessions on a wide range of topics: art, community, education, legal, policy, and technical talks are just a few of the categories represented at previous LibrePlanet conferences. It's important to us to provide sessions that are friendly to newcomers and experienced hackers alike, and we welcome presentations for kids or teens.

Feel free to find some inspiration by browsing through the sessions programs of previous years: 2018 and 2017. You can also watch talks from past years on our MediaGoblin instance. Some sessions from previous years include:

• A newcomer’s perspective on & patches for the free software movement
• Copyleft, diversity, and critical infrastructure
• Hardware reverse engineering insights from the MAME
• libreCMC: The libre embedded GNU/Linux distro
• Nurturing non-coders
• State of the Onion
• Technology for direct actions

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us at campaigns@fsf.org.

As you already know if you read my introductory blog post, over the summer, I interned with the Free Software Foundation tech team. A free software enthusiast, I joined the FSF in order to grow my appreciation, to work on interesting free software projects for which I normally would not have the opportunity, and to meet other free software supporters. My dreams were exceeded!

For my first project of the internship, I researched single-board computers in order to update the FSF's page detailing the freedom status of various single-board computers -- the page needed updating to reflect how software freedom continues to advance. You can read about my updates here.

For my second project, I was tasked with researching out-of-band remote server management. Like many organizations, the FSF hosts a number of servers, both on premises controlled by the FSF as well as external data centers. However, as anyone who has futzed with servers knows, computers are fickle. Even the most robust setup is prone to breaking once in a while... and sometimes those breakages can hang the server or prevent it from booting. Cue comic of a sysadmin asking, "Did you try turning it off and on again?"

The in-vogue free software solution is OpenBMC, a free software implementation of the IPMI remote administration stack. Unfortunately, due to the diversity of server boards we use, OpenBMC risked becoming a maintenance burden in and of itself.

Eventually, after a handful of whiteboard sessions with the tech team, I thought back on my work with ARM single-board computers. I realized a solution: rather than using a specialized BMC chip attached to the server motherboard, we could use an external single-board computer running GNU/Linux, remotely accessible over the Internet, connected to the various peripherals of interest. We settled on using a BeagleBone Black, which can run without proprietary blobs, connected to each server's serial port and power pins via USB-controlled relays. Finally, I wrapped up this system into a high-level utility, libremanage, and we were on our way.

My third and final project was still more ambitious. As you may know from my work with Panfrost, the free software driver for modern Mali GPUs, I enjoy liberating critical proprietary software by decoding its internal protocols and reimplementing them in freedom. So, we looked around for latent proprietary software involved with FSF operations. Although we eat our own dog food, there was one proprietary system that could not be ignored: PayPal, which recently began requiring nonfree JavaScript. Pah. Enter Pagamigo. (In Calculus, this is formally known as a p-series.)

Pagamigo liberates the proprietary software required to donate to organizations like the FSF or the Debian Project via PayPal. Soon, the FSF Web pages that take online payments will include instructions for using Pagamigo.

Unfortunately, everything good must come to an end. My summer classes finished; I have now returned home and am busy with fall semester classes. Still, although my internship with the FSF has ended, the lessons I have learned about free software will stay with me.

Is there someone who you think has advanced the progress of computing freedom, someone you think of as a free software hero? How about a great project that uses free software principles to benefit society? Now is your chance to nominate them for a Free Software Foundation (FSF) Award. The deadline to submit your nominations of individuals or projects for the FSF Awards is Sunday, November 4th, 2018 at 23:59 UTC.

Each year the FSF gives out two awards at the LibrePlanet conference; the Award for the Advancement of Free Software and the Award for Projects of Social Benefit. The winners of the 2018 awards will be announced at LibrePlanet 2019, happening on March 23rd and 24th, 2019, in the Greater Boston Area.

The FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software is presented annually 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. Last year's award was accepted by Karen Sandler, the executive director of the Software Freedom Conservancy, as well as a perennial LibrePlanet speaker. Previous winners include Alexandre Oliva, Matthew Garrett, Alan Cox, Larry Lessig, Guido van Rossum, Miguel de Icaza and Larry Wall. Submit your nomination for this individual award at https://my.fsf.org/advancement-of-free-software-award-nomination.

The FSF Award for Projects of Social Benefit 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. Last year, Public Lab, a community and non-profit organization with the goal of democratizing science to address environmental issues by utilizing free software tools and techniques, received the award. Previous winners include SecureDrop, GNU Health, Tor, the Internet Archive, Creative Commons, and Wikipedia. Submit your nomination for this project/team award at https://my.fsf.org/projects-of-social-benefit-award-nomination.

The free software movement is powered by dedicated individuals and has fostered many incredible projects that are making a difference in both local and global communities. What are you waiting for? Take a few minutes to give props to people and projects that have changed the world.

After a period of unavailability, the GNU Press Shop is proud to once again offer Free As In Freedom (2.0), the innovative biography of Free Software Foundation founder and president Richard M. Stallman.

In 2002, Sam Williams wrote Free as in Freedom, a biography of Richard M. Stallman. In its epilogue, Williams expressed hope that choosing to distribute his book under the GNU Free Documentation License would enable and encourage others to share corrections and their own perspectives through modifications to his work.

Free as in Freedom (2.0) is Stallman's revision of the original biography. While preserving Williams's viewpoint, it includes factual corrections and extensive new commentary by Stallman, as well as new prefaces by both authors written for the occasion. It is a rare kind of biography, where the reader has the benefit of both the biographer's original words and the subject's response.

You can find Free As In Freedom (2.0) -- available with or without RMS's autograph -- here: https://shop.fsf.org/books/free-freedom-20-richard-stallman