# articles

title: Teaching Email Self-Defense: Campaigns intern leads a workshop at PorcFest
uri: Teaching-Email-Self-Defense-Campaigns-intern-leads-a-workshop-at-Porc
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/teaching-email-self-defense-campaigns-intern-leads-a-workshop-at-porcfest

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/teaching-email-self-defense-campaigns-intern-leads-a-workshop-at-porcfest

content:
<p><img alt="The Web of trust" src="media/fbdd6681.section4-web-of-trust.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/enc-dev0/img/en/screenshots/section4-web-of-trust.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" /> </p>
<p>My workshop on <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org">Email Self-Defense</a> took place at the 12th annual Porcupine Freedom Festival in Lancaster, New Hampshire. Around eight people attended, which was a few more than I expected. Christopher Waid and Bob Call of <a href="https://www.thinkpenguin.com/">ThinkPenguin</a> joined me in helping everyone who brought a laptop to set up GnuPG properly. Those who didn't bring a laptop participated by observing the process on the system most similar to their own and asking questions about particular steps, so as to enable them to achieve the same configuration when they returned home.</p>
<p>The workshop was part of the Alternatives Exposition, which brings together people with a broad range of interests with the intention of helping strengthen community and build alternative infrastructure. Free software supporter François-René Rideau also participated in the AltExpo, delivering an excellent talk titled <em>Who Controls Your Computer?</em> which swayed many attendees to investigate the benefits of free software. Thank you, François!</p>
<p>Although I attended PorcFest as an individual (as opposed to a representative of the FSF), I encouraged everyone I talked with to switch to free software. Without freedom, security and privacy are unrealistic goals.</p>
<p>I'm back at the Free Software Foundation now, and I'm processing my experiences. The workshop went well, and provided me with insights on how to better organize similar workshops in the future. Right now, I'm formalizing those insights into a Facilitating Email Self-Defense Workshops guide, to be published within the next two months. </p>
<p>In the meantime, I'd like to ask all of you: what unusual and extraordinary people do you know about who use GnuPG? I'm going to include a list of inspiring people who use GnuPG in my guide, and I'd love hear your suggestions! Send them to <a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> or, for encrypted messages, <a href="mailto:adaml@fsf.org">&#97;&#100;&#97;&#109;&#108;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> with the GnuPG key fingerprint <a href="http://pool.sks-keyservers.net/pks/lookup?op=get&amp;search=0x198C9A1E9309EF0C">9D7E D11A F670 9719 F854  A307 198C 9A1E 9309 EF0C</a>.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/introducing-adam-leibson-summer-campaigns-intern">I'm a campaigns intern</a> at the FSF -- learn more about our <a href="http://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships">internships</a>.</em></p>


title: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Joël Krähemann, maintainer of Advanced GTK+ Sequencer
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Joël-Krähemann-maintain
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-joel-krahemann-maintainer-of-advanced-gtk-sequencer

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-joel-krahemann-maintainer-of-advanced-gtk-sequencer

content:
<p>In this edition, we conducted an IRC-based interview with Joël
Krähemann, Maintainer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Ags">Advanced GTK+ Sequencer</a>. Joël is an IT
professional in Switzerland and works on music for fun. Advanced GTK+
Sequencer (AGS) is a an audio processing and composition tool.</p>
<h2>What inspired you to create AGS?</h2>
<p>I'm a long time GNU/Linux user and enthusiast. I had dislikes about
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Rosegarden">Rosegarden</a> but it was you're only choice in 2002 to do composition on
a free operating system. So, I decided to write new software. I chose
to write it in C, because it is my favorite programming language, and
further, GObject does a great job to do basic tasks for
implementing a library.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really set AGS apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>For users, the modular GUI and multi-channel editing. For example, you
may edit each audio channel on its own or as a group. Also, in
the latest version there is also a new pattern editor. For developers,
its atomic design, its multi-threaded capabilities, and that it is
object orientated are what make it stand apart.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the GNU GPLv3 as the license for AGS?</h2>
<p>It's evident software must be free in order the give you freedoms to
share, learn or improve. I read the GNU GPL and decided it fit my
needs.</p>
<h2>How can people help contribute to AGS?</h2>
<p>Contributing good code, good documentation, or reporting bugs is
probably the best way someone can help to contribute. But, there are
many other ways to contribute, like spreading the word.</p>
<p>Right now, users need to <a href="http://gsequencer.org/download.html#loaded">download source code or binary distro
packages</a> provided on the project's website. So getting distributions
to provide those packages in their repositories would also be a good
way to contribute.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for AGS?</h2>
<p>AGS 0.4.3 brings extended MIDI support and LV2 host implementation.
Down the road, LibAGS 1.0 will be released, and it will give users
users remote and scripting capabilities, as well desktop integration
for GNU/Linux. </p>
<p><em>Enjoy this interview? Check out our previous entry in this series, featuring <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-francois-marier-creator-of-libravatar/">François Marier, of Libravatar</a></em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-26-new-gnu-releases
title: GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: 26 new GNU releases!
uri: GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-26-new-GNU-releases
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-26-new-gnu-releases
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/datamash/">datamash-1.0.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/easejs/">easejs-0.2.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/electric/">electric-9.06</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/fisicalab/">fisicalab-0.3.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/">freeipmi-1.4.9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gcal/">gcal-4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/">gcc-4.8.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/global/">global-6.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-c-manual/">gnu-c-manual-0.2.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-pw-mgr/">gnu-pw-mgr-1.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gxmessage/">gxmessage-3.4.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/">help2man-1.47.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-31.7.0-gnu1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/">inetutils-1.9.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/">librejs-6.0.9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/">linux-libre-4.1-gnu</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mediagoblin/">mediagoblin-0.8.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mpfr/">mpfr-3.1.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/">octave-4.0.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20150622</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/">pspp-0.8.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">screen-4.3.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/sharutils/">sharutils-4.15.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/sipwitch/">sipwitch-1.9.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ucommon/">ucommon-6.3.4</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu</a>.</p>
<p>To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
<a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/">http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/</a>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html</a>. You can use the url
<a href="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/">https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/</a> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.</p>
<p>This month, we welcome Thien-Thi Nguyen as the new maintainer of GNU
Superopt.</p>
<p>A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint</a> if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html</a>.</p>
<p>If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to
offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html</a>.</p>
<p>As always, please feel free to write to us at <a href="mailto:maintainers@gnu.org">&#109;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.</p>


title: Fall internships with the Free Software Foundation: Apply by July 31st
uri: Fall-internships-with-the-Free-Software-Foundation-Apply-by-July-31st
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fall-internships-with-the-free-software-foundation-apply-by-july-31st

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fall-internships-with-the-free-software-foundation-apply-by-july-31st

content:
<p>Do you want to help people learn why free software matters, and
how to use it? Do you want to dig deep into software freedom
issues like copyleft, <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management">Digital Restrictions
Management</a>,
or surveillance and encryption?</p>
<p>The Free Software Foundation is looking for fall interns to work
in one of three areas: spend the semester contributing to our
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/">campaigns</a>,
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/">licensing</a>, or
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin">technical</a> team. </p>
<p>These positions are unpaid, but the FSF will provide any
appropriate documentation you might need to receive funding and
school credit from outside sources. We place an emphasis on
providing hands-on educational opportunities for interns in which
they work closely with staff mentors on semester-long projects
that match their skills and interest.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/teaching-email-self-defense-campaigns-intern-leads-a-workshop-at-porcfest">current campaigns intern</a> is focusing on computer user privacy
and encryption, expanding our <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/">Email Self-Defense
project</a>. Past licensing
interns have worked to improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software
Directory</a> and analyzed the
compatibility of other licenses with the GPL. And a past sysadmin
intern did extensive work to set up <a href="https://status.fsf.org/">our StatusNet
instance</a>.</p>
<p>Fall internships begin on or about August 31st and run through
December 4th. We prefer candidates who are able to work in our
Boston office, but may consider remote interns. The deadline to
apply for a fall internship at the Free Software Foundation is
<strong>July 31st</strong>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships">To apply</a>, send a
letter of interest and a resume with two references to
<a href="mailto:hiring@fsf.org">&#104;&#105;&#114;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>. Please send all application materials in
free software-friendly formats like .pdf, .odt, and
.txt. Use "Fall internship application" as the subject line of
your email. Please include links to your writing, design, or
coding work if it applies -- personal, professional, or class
work is acceptable. URLs are preferred, though email attachments
in free formats are acceptable, too. Learn <a href="https://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships">more about our
internships</a>, and
direct any questions to <a href="mailto:info@fsf.org">&#105;&#110;&#102;&#111;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/seagl-a-free-software-conference-thats-not-just-for-the-birds
title: SeaGL: A free software conference that's not just for the birds
uri: SeaGL-A-free-software-conference-that-s-not-just-for-the-birds
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/seagl-a-free-software-conference-thats-not-just-for-the-birds
content:
<p>The Seattle GNU/Linux Conference -- we like to call it <a href="http://seagl.org/">SeaGL</a> -- is the Emerald City’s best grassroots technical conference for free and libre software. The 3rd annual conference happens Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24 at Seattle Central College, and it’s already shaping up to be better than last year!</p>
<p>First, we’re thrilled to announce the keynote addresses will be delivered by the FSF’s own Richard M. Stallman, and Shauna Gordon-McKeon, the main organizer of OpenHatch’s <a href="http://campus.openhatch.org/">campus events</a>. This year we’re honoring the origins of free software while recognizing the importance of growing the movement through recruiting new activists, users, and enthusiasts.</p>
<p>We are also accepting nominations for the first annual <a href="http://seagl.org/news/2015/06/29/Builder-Award-Announced.html">Cascadia Community Builder</a> award recognizing a person who has significantly contributed to the free software movement in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, or Idaho. Please take a minute to nominate someone who is doing great community work in the area!</p>
<p>We’re also looking for speakers. Our <a href="https://osem.seagl.org/conference/seagl2015/proposal">Call for Participation</a> is open until July 26. SeaGL welcomes a diverse range of topics. It doesn’t matter if this is your first conference presentation or your fifteenth; If you’re excited about a topic related to GNU/Linux or free software, then we want to hear about it. We’ll be helping folks edit and flesh out their proposals in our IRC channel, #seagl, a few times over the next couple of weeks.</p>
<p>Finally, for groups or businesses interested in sponsoring the event, the <a href="media/e492078a.SeaGL_Exhibitor_Sponsor_Prospectus_2015.pdf" data-original-source="http://seagl.org/sponsors/SeaGL_Exhibitor_Sponsor_Prospectus_2015.pdf">Exhibitor &amp; Sponsor Prospectus</a> is now posted. We will have a small hall with tables available for sponsors and exhibitors, with free tables available for local nonprofit or educational organizations.<br />
</p>
<p>Here are the details:</p>
<p><a href="http://seagl.org">http://seagl.org</a></p>
<p>Friday, October 23 to Saturday, October 24, 2015</p>
<p>Seattle Central College</p>
<p>Cost: Free (as in beer). No registration necessary.</p>


title: Now at a new time, Friday Free Software Directory IRC meeting: July 24
uri: Now-at-a-new-time-Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meeting-July-24
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/now-at-a-new-time-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meeting-july-24

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/now-at-a-new-time-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meeting-july-24

content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends this Friday, July 24 — <strong>at a new time</strong> — from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a> by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>. There are also <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.<br />
</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential to be a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!<br />
</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to join on IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide you with all the information you need to get started helping the Directory today! </p>
<p>Still can't figure out what time the meeting starts? Open up a terminal and enter the following to get the start time in your time zone: </p>
<p><code>date --date='TZ="America/New_York" 12:00 this Fri'</code></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/youre-invited-30th-birthday-party
title: You're invited: 30th birthday party and mini-conference
uri: You-re-invited-30th-birthday-party-and-mini-conference
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/youre-invited-30th-birthday-party
content:
<img alt="FSF30 logo" src="media/668b8710.FSF30-lettermark-effects.svg" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/logos/fsf30-logo/FSF30-lettermark-effects.svg" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Join the Free Software Foundation and friends in Boston, MA, USA on
the evening of Saturday, October 3rd for our 30th Birthday Party. We'll share hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and an address by FSF founder and president
Richard Stallman, as well as plenty of social time for catching up
with old friends and making new ones.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&amp;id=26">RSVP
now!</a> If you
want to brag about it on <a href="https://www.fsf.org/share/">social media</a>,
use the hashtag #FSF30.</strong></p>
<p>If the free software movement is coming together for a party, we might
as well get some work done, too. We're planning a mini-conference for the day of October 3rd, before the party, where we'll share what we've learned
from the first thirty years of the free software movement and swap ideas
about the future. Stay tuned for more details about this, as well as a
possible dinner on Friday night.</p>
<p>Bookmark the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fsf30/celebration">event homepage</a>
for lodging suggestions and more information about the mini-conference and
other festivities that weekend, coming soon.</p>
<h1>Not coming to Boston?</h1>
<p>We've been flattered by supporters around the world asking to hold
their own local events for the FSF's birthday. Of course! We'd even
love to write about it, or come up with a creative way of connecting
it to the event in Boston. Contact us at <a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> if you're interested.</p>
<p>We also intend to stream the event and post videos online afterwards.</p>
<h1>Support our work for computer user freedom</h1>
<p>Our supporters have made our thirty wonderful years possible. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join_form">By
becoming an associate member</a> you'll
help us achieve even more in the next thirty. Members also get
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits">special benefits</a>, including
gratis admission to our LibrePlanet conference each spring.</p>
<p>If you'd rather not become a member, you can also help <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&amp;id=26">by making a
donation when you
RSVP</a>, or on
our <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate">donation page</a>.</p>
<h1>Volunteer or sponsor</h1>
<p>If you are interested in helping out at the mini-conference or the party, we
welcome you! In addition to setting up the venue and greeting guests,
we need people with skills in free software livestreaming. All
volunteers will receive a special reverse birthday gift from us to
you.</p>
<p>The FSF is also seeking general event, beer, or food sponsors. To
sponsor or recommend a sponsor, or to volunteer, reply to this email.</p>
<p>Also, we'd like to introduce Georgia Young, our newest FSF staffer, in
the role of program manager. Georgia is planning the thirtieth birthday
events, so expect to hear more from her soon.</p>
<p>See you in October!</p>
<p>Read the New Yorker Article, <em><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-gnu-manifesto-turns-thirty">The GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty</a></em> by Maria Bustillos.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-actually-reads-the-code
title: Who actually reads the code?
uri: Who-actually-reads-the-code
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-actually-reads-the-code
content:
<p><em>This guest post was submitted by Ole Tange, maintainer of GNU Parallel.</em></p>
<p>I am the maintainer of a piece of free software called GNU
Parallel. Free software guarantees you access to the source
code, but I have been wondering how many actually <em>read</em> the
source code.</p>
<p>To test this I put in a comment telling people to email me when
they read this. The comment was put in a section of the code
that no one would look to fix or improve the software -- so, the
source code equivalent to a dusty corner. To make sure the
comment would not show up if some one just grepped through the
source code I <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT13">rot13'ed the source code</a>.</p>
<p>Two-and-a-half months later I received an email from someone who not only
managed to find the comment, but also managed to guess the code
had to be rot13'ed.</p>
<p>The first cookie was released on January 24, 2011 and was won by AEvar
Arnfjord Bjarmason on April 10, 2011.</p>
<p>I inserted a new cookie on August 18, 2013, that was a bit harder as you
would have to use rot14. On July 19, 2015 Mark Maimone won that cookie.</p>
<p>This brings me to the conclusion that there <em>are</em> people who
are not affiliated with the project who will read the source
code -- though it may not happen very often.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-nineteen-new-gnu-releases-1
title: GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: Nineteen new GNU releases!
uri: GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-Nineteen-new-GNU-releases
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-nineteen-new-gnu-releases-1
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/">binutils-2.25.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/">coreutils-8.24</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/denemo/">denemo-1.2.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ed/">ed-1.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/">gcc-5.2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/">gettext-0.19.5.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnucash/">gnucash-2.6.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.4.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-31.8.0-gnu1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/">libidn-1.31</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/">libunistring-0.9.6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/">nano-2.4.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">screen-4.3.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/">texinfo-6.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/">tramp-2.2.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/commoncpp/">ucommon-6.3.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/unifont/">unifont-8.0.01</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu</a>.</p>
<p>To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
<a href="https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/</a>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html</a>. You can use the url
<a href="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/">https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/</a> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.</p>
<p>This month, we welcome Assaf Gordon as a new comaintainer of GNU
Coreutils.</p>
<p>A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint</a> if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html</a>.</p>
<p>If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html</a>.</p>
<p>As always, please feel free to write to us at <a href="mailto:maintainers@gnu.org">&#109;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.</p>


title: FSF30: Get in on the party and User Freedom Summit, in Boston and worldwide!
uri: FSF30-Get-in-on-the-party-and-User-Freedom-Summit-in-Boston-and-worl
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf30-get-in-on-the-party-and-user-freedom-summit-in-boston-and-worldwide

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf30-get-in-on-the-party-and-user-freedom-summit-in-boston-and-worldwide

content:
<p>We recently announced a 30th birthday party for the Free Software Foundation, to be held in Boston, Massachusetts on the evening of Saturday, October 3rd. What better way to celebrate three decades fighting for computer user freedom? If you're planning to join the celebration, with hors d'oeuvres, drinks, an address by FSF founder and president Richard Stallman, and lots of birthday fun, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&amp;id=26">RSVP now!</a> The party has a limited capacity, and many free software supporters have already let us know they'll be attending.</p>
<p><strong>If you're attending and want to brag about it on <a href="https://www.fsf.org/share/">social media</a>, use the hashtag #FSF30.</strong></p>
<p>But that's not all -- we're also holding a Free Software User Summit in the daytime, before the party. The theme of the summit is "Thirty Years, Four Freedoms," and it will feature sessions for longtime free software fans and those who are new to free software. Stay tuned for more details on the User Summit, including session information and registration.</p>
<p>Bookmark the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fsf30/celebration">event homepage</a> for lodging suggestions and more information about the summit and other festivities that weekend, coming soon.</p>
<h1>Join our worldwide party network!</h1>
<p>We know that not every free software fan will join us in person in Boston -- so we're hosting a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fsf30/party-network">party network</a> where you can promote your own party (we'll even offer some ideas for making your event lots of fun!) We'll have a livestream of the Boston party, and welcome photos and reports from your own parties, too!</p>
<h1>Support our work for computer user freedom</h1>
<p>Our supporters have made our thirty wonderful years possible -- and we're on the hunt for 800 new members who will help us build the next thirty years. We're more than halfway to our goal: will you put us over the top by <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join_form">becoming an associate member</a>? Members get <a href="https://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits">special benefits</a>, including gratis admission to our LibrePlanet conference each spring.</p>
<p>If you'd rather not become a member, you can also help <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&amp;id=26">by making a donation when you RSVP</a>, or on our <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate">regular donation page</a>.</p>
<h1>Volunteer or sponsor</h1>
<p>If you are interested in helping out at the summit or the party, we welcome you! In addition to setting up the venue and greeting guests, we need people with skills in free software livestreaming. All volunteers will receive a special reverse birthday gift from us to you.</p>
<p>The FSF is also seeking general event, beverage, or food sponsors. To sponsor or recommend a sponsor, or to volunteer, reply to this email.</p>
<p>See you in October!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/rel-jslicense
title: Make your site LibreJS-friendly and HTML5-valid with rel=jslicense attribute
uri: Make-your-site-LibreJS-friendly-and-HTML5-valid-with-rel-jslicense-att
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/rel-jslicense
content:
<p>In 2012 the FSF published human- and machine-readable recommendations
for labeling the license and source information for JavaScript (JS)
programs on the Web. In addition to recommending the use of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html#AppendixA">license
and source tags</a> for comment fields, we also encourage sites to
maintain a single page of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/javascript-labels.html">JavaScript License Web Labels</a>, which
contains a table with three columns with links to the (minified) JS
file used on a given page, the license of that JS program, and the
source code of that program. On each page that uses JavaScript, we
encourage people to include a link to the labels page, and within
the HTML link, to make use of a machine-readable attribute/value
combination of rel="jslicense". For example, the footer of fsf.org has
the following HTML:</p>
<p><code>&lt;a href="https://weblabels.fsf.org/www.fsf.org/CURRENT/" rel="jslicense"&gt;JavaScript Licenses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</code></p>
<p>The rel="jslicense" attribute allows tools, such as <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/">GNU LibreJS</a>,
to know where to find the labels page to determine if each JS file
being served is free software, and if it is, then to allow your
browser to download and run that program.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, when we first published our web labels recommendation,
one problem web developers encountered was the fact that
rel="jslicense" attribute was not considered "valid" HTML5, and so
tools such as W3C's <a href="https://validator.w3.org/">Markup Validation Service</a> would return an
error stating that the rel="jslicense" tag was invalid
attribute. However, earlier this month, we were able to get
rel="jslicense" to become a rel value that is considered valid HTML5.</p>
<p>To get rel="jslicense" recognized as a valid HTML5 link type, we
needed to get it listed on the <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/existing-rel-values">existing-rel-values</a> page of the
Microformats.org wiki.  Specifically, the W3C's <a href="http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/semantics.html#other-link-types">HTML5 specification</a>
states that link types defined as extensions in the Microformats.org
wiki page with the status "proposed" or "ratified" may be used with
the rel attribute on &lt;link&gt;, &lt;a&gt;, and &lt;area&gt;
tags. So, in 2014, we submitted our "jslicense" rel-value for review
on Microformats.org, and then after some conversations with
Microformats.org administrators and showing that various sites were
actually making use of "jslicense" rel-value, the good folks at
Microformats.org listed "jslicense" as a valid (i.e. "proposed") HTML5
link type extension.</p>
<p>Special thanks to Tantek Çelik of Microformats.org for taking the time
to give us feedback on our proposal and for ultimately adding it as a
proposed value.</p>


title: New version of the Emacs Manual plus GNU Press discounts
uri: New-version-of-the-Emacs-Manual-plus-GNU-Press-discounts
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/new-version-of-the-emacs-reference-manual-plus-gnu-press-discounts

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/new-version-of-the-emacs-reference-manual-plus-gnu-press-discounts

content:
<p>GNU Press announces the release of <em><a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/Emacs_Manual_245/">Emacs Manual Version 24.5</a></em>, which contains approximately 2.5 more years of Emacs documentation than version 24.2. Each manual comes with an <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/emacs-reference-card-v24/">Emacs Reference Card Version 24.5</a>, which can also be purchased separately. Also, there are a few copies of <em><a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/Emacs_Manual_24/">Emacs Manual Version 24.2</a></em>, which has now been reduced to $35. </p>
<p>There are a few logo knives left in the shop, and they will not be reordered. The logo knives come in two types: the larger <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/fsf-knife/">cybertool</a>, which is the perfect toolkit for system administrators on the go, and the <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/fsf-small-knife/">rally knives</a>, which are more compact.</p>
<p><a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/Intro_to_Emacs_Lisp_3rd_Ed/">An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp, 3rd Edition</a> is the perfect book to learn about programming and is now reduced in price to $25! Now, you may also pick up a copy of the <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/Signed_Intro_to_Emacs_Lisp_3rd_Ed/">book signed by Richard Stallman</a>. </p>
<p>As always, if you can't find something in the store but think we should offer it, please add your suggestion to our <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Ideas#Store">Ideas</a> page. And remember, associate members of the Free Software Foundation get a 20% discount on all purchases made through the GNU Press store, so if you are not a member already, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join_form">join today</a>! To keep up with announcements about new products available in the GNU Press store, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=88&amp;amp;reset=1">subscribe to the mailing list</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-28
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: August 28
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-August-28
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-28
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, August 28, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a> by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>. </p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.<br />
</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!<br />
</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.</p>


title: Who is improving the world through free software? Nominate them now
uri: Who-is-improving-the-world-through-free-software-Nominate-them-now
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-is-improving-the-world-through-free-software-nominate-them-now

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-is-improving-the-world-through-free-software-nominate-them-now

content:
<p>Nominations for the 18th annual Free Software Awards opened at LibrePlanet 2015, right after the most recent Free Software Awards were presented -- and we need you to nominate more projects by November 1st, 2015 at 23:59 UTC. 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 <a href="mailto:award-nominations@gnu.org">&#97;&#119;&#97;&#114;&#100;&#45;&#110;&#111;&#109;&#105;&#110;&#97;&#116;&#105;&#111;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>. </p>
<p>If you know a free software contributor or project that deserves celebration, don't hesitate to nominate them! This is your opportunity to publicly recognize people and projects that have inspired you. Your nominations will be reviewed by our awards committee and the winners will be announced at <a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw">LibrePlanet 2016</a>. </p>
<h3>Award for the Advancement of Free Software</h3>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Last year, Sébastien Jodogne was recognized with the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-award-winners">Award for the Advancement of Free Software</a> for his work on free software medical imaging with his project <a href="http://www.orthanc-server.com/">Orthanc</a></p>
<h3>Award for Projects of Social Benefit</h3>
<img alt="Sébastien Jodogne Receiving Free Software Award" src="media/12e0d409.jodogne.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/libreplanet/2015/jodogne.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>The 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. </p>
<p>We look to recognize projects or teams that encourage people to cooperate in freedom to accomplish tasks of great social benefit, and those that apply free software ideas and lessons outside the free software community. A long-term commitment to one's project (or the potential for a long-term commitment) is crucial to this end. </p>
<p>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 individuals working on those projects with our annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software). </p>
<p>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 <a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw">Free Software Definition</a>. Projects that promote or depend on the use of non-free software are not eligible for this award. Commercial projects are not excluded, but commercial success is not our scale for judging projects. </p>
<p>Last year, <a href="http://www.reglue.org/">Reglue</a> received the award, in recognition of its work giving GNU/Linux computers to underprivileged children and their families in Austin, TX. </p>
<h3>Eligibility</h3>
<p>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 (not projects), and only projects can be nominated for the Social Benefit Award (not individuals). For a list of previous winners, please visit <a href="https://www.fsf.org/awards">https://www.fsf.org/awards</a>. </p>
<p>Current <a href="https://fsf.org/about/staff-and-board">FSF staff and board members</a>, as well as award committee members, are not eligible. </p>
<p>The tentative award committee members are: Hong Feng, Marina Zhurakhinskaya, Yukihiro Matsumoto, Suresh Ramasubramanian, Fernanda Weiden, Matthew Garrett, Jonas Öberg, Wietse Venema, Vernor Vinge, Rob Savoy, Harald Welte, and Andrew Tridgell. </p>
<h3>Instructions</h3>
<p>After reviewing the eligibility rules above, please send your nominations to <a href="mailto:award-nominations@gnu.org">&#97;&#119;&#97;&#114;&#100;&#45;&#110;&#111;&#109;&#105;&#110;&#97;&#116;&#105;&#111;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>, on or before Sunday, November 1st, 2015 at 23:59 UTC. Please submit nominations in the following format: </p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>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.   <br />
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Please include, in the body of your message, an explanation (forty     lines or less) of the work done and why you think it is especially     important to the advancement of software freedom or how it     benefits society, respectively.   <br />
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>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.   <br />
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Attend the Free Software Awards at LibrePlanet 2016</h3>
<p>Want to be in the room when the winners are announced? Registration will open soon for the <a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw">LibrePlanet conference</a>, March 19-20 2016, in Cambridge, MA. You can meet the award winners and take part in a program devoted to the world of free software. Remember: <a href="https://fsf.org/join">Free Software Foundation members</a> attend LibrePlanet gratis! </p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-sixteen-new-gnu-releases-1
title: GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: Sixteen new GNU releases!
uri: 2015-09-11-GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-Sixteen-new-GNU-releases
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-sixteen-new-gnu-releases-1
content:
<p>16 new GNU releases in the last month (as of August 24, 2015):</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/ccaudio2/">ccaudio2-2.1.7</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/ccscript/">ccscript-5.0.6</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/easejs/">easejs-0.2.6</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gama/">gama-1.16</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/glibc/">glibc-2.22</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.7</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-pw-mgr/">gnu-pw-mgr-1.5</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.4.4</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/">guix-0.8.3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-31.8.0-gnu2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/">libidn-1.32</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/">ncurses-6.0</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20150822</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/sipwitch/">sipwitch-1.9.9</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/teseq/">teseq-1.1.1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/ucommon/">ucommon-6.5.4</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu</a>.</p>
<p>To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
<a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/">http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/</a>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html</a>.  You can use the url
<a href="http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/">http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/</a> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.</p>
<p>This month, we welcome Scotty Moran as the new maintainer of GNU
sysutils and Arthur Schwarz as the maintainer of the new GNU package
gSlip.</p>
<p>A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint</a> if you'd like to
help.  The general page on how to help GNU is at
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html">http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html</a>.</p>
<p>If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html">http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html</a>.</p>
<p>As always, please feel free to write to us at <a href="mailto:maintainers@gnu.org">&#109;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-a-friend-skip-windows-10-and-try-gnu-linux
title: Help a friend skip Windows 10 and try GNU/Linux
uri: Help-a-friend-skip-Windows-10-and-try-GNU-Linux
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-a-friend-skip-windows-10-and-try-gnu-linux
content:
<p><strong><a href="https://www.fsf.org/windows/pledge">Pledge to help a friend switch to GNU/Linux
today.</a></strong></p>
<p>We've also created a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/windows">new area on our site for people interested in
switching from Windows</a>. Check it out,
and share it with your friends to get them excited about joining you
in the free world.</p>
<p>The FSF maintains a list of <a href="http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html">endorsed GNU/Linux
distributions</a>, and
there are myriad resources online for getting started. If your friend
wants to try free software but can't be persuaded to leave Windows
quite yet, <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/for-windows.html">show them these free programs that work on Windows</a>. If they're thinking
about buying a new computer, show them the laptops we certify through
our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">Respects Your Freedom
program</a>. If
they're the type that builds their own computer, they can use
<a href="https://h-node.org/">h-node</a>, the community-maintained database of
computer components that work well with free software.</p>
<p>We can't hope to match Microsoft's huge advertising budget, but if
you're on social media (see <a href="https://www.fsf.org/share">our
recommendations</a> for user-respecting social
media systems) you can help raise awareness of Windows' abuses and
encourage people to switch, in your own words. Help us jam Microsoft's
ridiculous #UpgradeYourWorld hashtag by including it in your posts
encouraging people to steer clear of Windows.</p>


title: Pre-Order Your FSF 30 Commemorative Shirt and the third edition of Free Software, Free Society
uri: Pre-Order-Your-FSF-30-Commemorative-Shirt-and-the-third-edition-of-Fre
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/pre-order-your-fsf-30-commemorative-shirt-and-the-third-edition-of-free-software-free-society

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/pre-order-your-fsf-30-commemorative-shirt-and-the-third-edition-of-free-software-free-society

content:
<h3>FSF 30 Commemorative Shirt</h3>
<p>Commemorate the Free Software Foundation's 30th anniversary with this <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/fsf-30-shirt/">limited edition tee-shirt</a>. The high-quality cotton, charcoal shirt is double-sided with the FSF 30 Years Propelling User Freedom slogan. We have unisex and women's sizes. The shirts are manufactured by <a href="https://www.bellacanvas.com/">Bella Canvas</a>, a <a href="https://www.bellacanvas.com/wrap-certification">WRAP-certified company</a>, meaning they comply with ethical, health, and safety standards in manufacturing.</p>
<h3><strong>Free Software, Free Society, 3rd Edition</strong></h3>
<p>We are excited to announce the launch of the third edition of <em>Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman,</em>. Most of the essays of the second edition that were kept have been updated, and a third of them are new.  The publication of the book is timely, not only because it marks thirty years of fighting for software freedom, but also because, with the evolving list of threats to both our freedom and our privacy, free software is now more important than ever.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p><em>I hope this book can show you how you might lose your freedom,
  teach you how to protect it, and inspire you to value it.</em></p>

<p><em>- from the preface, by Richard Stallman</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>The book is available for pre-ordering, both in <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society-3-paperback">paperback</a>
and in <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society-3-hardcover">hardcover</a>, and proceeds from its sale will go to fund our efforts to protect and promote computer users' freedom.</p>
<hr />
<p>Join the Free Software Foundation and friends in Boston, MA to celebrate the culmination of our 30th year fighting for computer user freedom, powered by supporters like you. There will be plenty of social time for catching up with old friends and making new ones, and an address by FSF founder Richard Stallman as the centerpiece of the party.<a href="https://fsf.org/fsf30/celebration">https://fsf.org/fsf30/celebration</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Items will arrive the first week of October. To claim an item at the event, please use the discount code FSFBDAY . If you are ordering to have the item shipped, please do not use this code as it will not be shipped. Order the shirt by September 18th, 7am EDT/11am UTC to guarantee availability in your size.</strong></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/wordpress-brings-the-freedom-to-the-front
title: WordPress brings the freedom to the front
uri: WordPress-brings-the-freedom-to-the-front
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/wordpress-brings-the-freedom-to-the-front
content:
<img alt="Wordpress Upgrade View" src="media/2c1fed3c.wordpressupgrade.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/wordpressupgrade.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p><a href="https://managewp.com/14-surprising-statistics-about-wordpress-usage">About 75 million Web sites depend on
WordPress</a>. If
you are one of its many users who recently upgraded to <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.3">Version
4.3</a>, you may have noticed
something new. Recently, a coop worker-member, Pea, informed me that
this version includes a new tab with a reference to the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">GNU General
Public License</a>. With
some quizzical interest, I ran the upgrade on a WordPress instance I
maintain.</p>
<p>I eagerly waited for the upgrade to finish. When it loaded, what I saw
was typical for a WordPress upgrade, a description of the version's
new features. Then I saw a tab <em>prominently</em> named "Freedom." I
clicked on it, and boom: right there were the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html">four freedoms of free
software</a>,
starting with Freedom 0. Take a look for yourself. </p>
<p><img alt="We have freedom!" src="media/506c7c47.wordpressfreedom.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/wordpressfreedom.png" /></p>

<p>When the developers of software like WordPress make an effort to
promote free software, explicitly informing their community about the
importance of the freedom underlying their software, they educate
countless users. The more people who are aware of the GPL and
the four freedoms, the more opportunities we all have to build support
for and advance our work fighting for user freedom.</p>
<p>Thank you WordPress! And thank you to Pea from <a href="http://glocal.coop/">Glocal.coop</a> for bringing
this to our attention.</p>


title: Tor relay reinstated in the Kilton Library: a win for free software-based anonymity
uri: Tor-relay-reinstated-in-the-Kilton-Library-a-win-for-free-software-ba
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tor-relay-reinstated-in-the-kilton-library-a-win-for-free-software-based-anonymity

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tor-relay-reinstated-in-the-kilton-library-a-win-for-free-software-based-anonymity

content:
<!-- Begin letter box--><div style="float: right; width: 274px;">
<div style="margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; width: 250px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
    <img alt="Letter in support of Kilton Library's Tor node" src="//static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/tor-library-letter-thumbnail.png
" /></a>
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><a href="media/f87f99fa.Kilton-Letter.pdf" data-original-source="https://libraryfreedomproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Kilton-Letter.pdf">Read the letter in support of Kilton Library's Tor node.</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<!-- End letter box-->

<p>However, things took a turn for the worse this month when the US government's Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement intimidated the library into shutting down the relay (also known as a node). In response, the FSF, the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and others signed a <a href="media/f87f99fa.Kilton-Letter.pdf" data-original-source="https://libraryfreedomproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Kilton-Letter.pdf">public letter</a> supporting the library and its Tor initiative. Even more importantly, local patrons of Kilton Library crammed a public hearing yesterday to express their conviction that the relay should be reactivated. The campaign worked and, as of this morning, the relay is running again!</p>
<p><a href="https://www.torproject.org">Tor</a> relies on thousands of relay servers worldwide, which route traffic in tricky ways to dodge surveillance and circumvent censorship. The more relays, the stronger and faster the network, and more are always needed. That's why Alison Macrina of the <a href="https://www.libraryfreedomproject.org">Library Freedom Project</a> and Nima Fatemi, a Tor developer, are working to launch nodes in American libraries. Kilton was the pilot for this project.</p>
<p>This isn't the first time that law enforcement has worked to shut down a Tor relay -- in fact, it's common for those who run relays to be harassed by police. The stated justification is usually that anonymity software can be used by criminals, but by that argument, roads should also be illegal because some people drive drunk.</p>
<p>The FSF has long supported the Tor project in its effort provide free software-based anonymity. We run a Tor middle relay on one of our servers, and have been partners with Tor and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in holding the <a href="https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/">Tor Challenge</a>, an initiative to encourage people to run Tor nodes. In 2010 we <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/2010-free-software-awards-announced">awarded Tor the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit</a>.</p>
<p>Our support for Tor is connected to our work to <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/surveillance">fight bulk surveillance</a> and its pernicious effects on computer users' rights. This is a historic moment in that battle, and a major success. Expect to see more Tor relays in libraries soon! If you think your local library would be interested in running a relay, check out the <a href="https://libraryfreedomproject.org/torexits/">Library Freedom Project's resources</a> to get started.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/its-software-freedom-day
title: It's Software Freedom Day!
uri: It-s-Software-Freedom-Day
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/its-software-freedom-day
content:
<p>Software Freedom Day means hundreds of fun, educational events,
planned by activists all over the globe using resources provided by
the <a href="http://www.digitalfreedomfoundation.org/">Digital Freedom
Foundation</a>. <a href="http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/map/index.php?year=2015">Here's a
map</a> where
you can find an event near you.</p>
<p class="c"><img src="media/49f39e06.sfd-participate.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/logos/sfd-participate.png" align="right" alt="Software Freedom Day" /></p>

<p>Have you encountered a bug in one of your favorite free software
projects, or is there a feature you think might make a project even
better? Let the developers know today by submitting a bug report or
feature request. If you've never done this before, it's easy. Just
review the existing open items first to see if someone else has
already taken action. Many GNU projects, from the
<a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=librejs">LibreJS</a> Web browser
add-on to the <a href="http://www.gimp.org/bugs/">GIMP</a> image editor, make it
easy for users to submit a bug report for review by developers.</p>
<p>As in past years, the Free Software Foundation encourages the free
software community to spend this holiday introducing a friend to free
software. Our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video">User
Liberation</a>
video will help explain what free software is and why it's
important. Our <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org">Email Self-Defense</a>
site is a straightforward guide to email encryption using free
software, and the <a href="http://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a>
is a great place to browse for free software for specific tasks. You
can place these <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/badges/">shareable
badges</a> on your social media
account, Web site, or blog to spread the word about free software
online.</p>
<p>If you do submit a bug for Software Freedom Day, tell us about it! Use
your GNU Social, Pump.io, or Twitter account (but read our <a href="https://fsf.org/twitter">critique
of Twitter</a> first) to tell us about it by
tagging us @fsf. We'd love to reshare your effort with the free
software community.</p>
<p>Of course, you can help support, celebrate, and educate others about
free software year-round. The FSF celebrates its 30th anniversary in
two weeks, on Saturday, October 3rd. You can find a birthday event in
your region (or plan one of your own) in our <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/FSF30_Party_Network">party
network</a>, or RSVP to
our <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&amp;id=26">birthday
party</a> and
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=27">User Freedom Summit</a>
if you can be in Boston on October 3rd. And you can wear your free
software pride with our <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/fsf-30-shirt/">commemorative FSF30
t-shirt</a>, available for
preorder now.</p>
<p>Free software is worth celebrating every day, but we hope you find a
way to make Software Freedom Day 2015 extra special. Submit a bug
report, teach a friend, or spend some time hacking on your own free
software.</p>
<p>As always, happy hacking.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/universal-permissive-license-added-to-license-list
title: Universal Permissive License added to license list
uri: Universal-Permissive-License-added-to-license-list
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/universal-permissive-license-added-to-license-list
content:
<p>We recently updated our list of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">various licenses and comments about them</a> to include the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#UPL">Universal Permissive License</a> (UPL). The UPL is a lax, non-copyleft license that is compatible with the GNU GPL. The UPL contains provisions dealing explicitly with the grant of patent licenses, whereas many other simple lax licenses only have an implicit grant. While making the grant perfectly clear is a reasonable goal, we still <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.html">recommend</a> using <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#apache2">Apache 2.0</a> for simple programs that don't require copyleft. For more extensive programs, a copyleft license like the GNU GPL should be used to ensure that all users can enjoy software freedom.</p>
<ul>
<li>To keep up to date on newly added licenses, as well as current topics and activities in free software, please sign up for our monthly newsletter <a href="http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/subscribe">The Free Software Supporter</a></li>
<li>Help support the Compliance Lab's work in reviewing licenses and more by <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/donate.fsf.org">donating to the Free Software Foundation</a></li>
<li>Join us in celebrating the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fsf30">30th anniversary of the FSF</a></li>
</ul>


title: EPA opposed DMCA exemptions that could have revealed Volkswagen Fraud
uri: EPA-opposed-DMCA-exemptions-that-could-have-revealed-Volkswagen-Fraud
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/epa-opposed-dmca-exemptions-that-could-have-revealed-volkswagen-fraud

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/epa-opposed-dmca-exemptions-that-could-have-revealed-volkswagen-fraud

content:
<p>We have written previously about the <a href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org/meet-the-drm-drones">organizations and individuals</a> who opposed exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) anti-circumvention provisions. These drones oppose the rights of users to backup, modify, and study the software and devices that we own. The DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions create legal penalties for simply accessing your software under your own terms, and raises those penalties even higher should you dare to share the tools needed to do so. It creates real penalties for anyone who wants to avoid Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) controls. The granting of exemptions to these totalitarian rules is a broken and half-hearted attempt to limit the damage these rules bring, granting for 3 years a reprieve for certain specified devices and software.</p>

<p>The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) side-stepped this process and <a href="media/288493d1.EPA_Letter_to_USCO_re_1201.pdf" data-original-source="http://copyright.gov/1201/2015/USCO-letters/EPA_Letter_to_USCO_re_1201.pdf">sent a letter</a> separately directly to the Copyright Office. In the letter they argued that users should not be able to access and modify the software on their own vehicles. In their estimation, this would enable users to violate emissions controls. So it would be better for them if the hammer of the DMCA remained hanging over the head of every user or researcher who wanted to access the software on their vehicle.</p>

<p>Of course, just a few months after telling the Copyright Office that users couldn't be trusted with access to their devices, the EPA revealed a major scandal involving Volkswagen. It turns out that Volkswagen had for many years cheated the emissions test performed by the EPA. Volkswagen had surreptitiously included some code in their diesel vehicles that would detect the EPA's tests and have the car change its performance in order to meet EPA mandates. Once the test was over, the code would revert the vehicle to its normal, high-polluting functioning. This scam apparently went on for years before it was detected by researchers. </p>

<p>Of course the irony is that if users and researchers had the right to access the software on their cars, they might have discovered this fraud years ago. As Eben Moglen, founder of the <a href="https://www.softwarefreedom.org/">Software Freedom Law Center</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/nyregion/volkswagens-diesel-fraud-makes-critic-of-secret-code-a-prophet.html">noted</a> "If Volkswagen knew that every customer who buys a vehicle would have a right to read the source code of all the software in the vehicle, they would never even consider the cheat, because the certainty of getting caught would terrify them.” Volkswagen is already a contributor on the kernel Linux, and as Bradley M. Kuhn, President and Distinguished Technologist of the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software Freedom Conservancy</a> pointed out it is likely that Volkswagen vehicles already contain some free software. But some is not all, and clearly they kept much of their software secret in order to hide their scam. If all the software on the vehicles was free software they never could have perpetrated this scheme.</p>

<p>Researchers also could have discovered the fraud had they not been hindered by the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, as Kit Walsh of the Electronic Frontier Foundation <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/09/researchers-could-have-uncovered-volkswagens-emissions-cheat-if-not-hindered-dmca">argued</a>. The EPA of course failed to understand all this when drafting their letter promoting the use of DRM.</p>

<p>But there is a more galling fact at play here. What the EPA argued in their letter was that the exemption should not be granted under the DMCA as a means for enforcing efficiency standards. That clearly isn't the stated purpose of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, and highlights one of the fundamental problems with DRM. That a government agency would try to commandeer the DRM of private actors, not to enforce copyright but as a means to enforce something wholly unrelated, demonstrates a central truth: DRM is not about copyright; it's about control. It's about dominating users. It's about spying on them. It's about installing <a href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org/sony">rootkits</a> onto their computers. It has nothing to do with rights, and everything to do with restriction.</p>

<p>We can't let governments and corporation use DRM to take over our lives. This is what you can do today to fight back:</p>

<p>If you microblog, please share the following message (or your own) with the hashtag #DRMshame. We strongly suggest that if you use <a href="https://www.fsf.org/twitter">Twitter</a> to publicly call the EPA  and Volkswagen out, you do it in a way that avoids using proprietary software:</p>

<ul>
<li>@EPA You should be ashamed of yourself for trying to use Digital Restrictions Management #DRMshame <a href="https://u.fsf.org/fraud">https://u.fsf.org/fraud</a></li>
<li>@VW  All software on your vehicles needs to be free software without DRM to restore our trust #DRMshame <a href="https://u.fsf.org/fraud">https://u.fsf.org/fraud</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Here's what else you can do.:</p>

<ul>
<li>Join the <a href="https://defectivebydesign.org/join">Defective By Design</a> mailing list to keep up to date on the on-going fight against DRM.</li>
<li>Sign up for the FSF's monthly newsletter the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/fss">Free Software Supporter</a> to keep up to date on all the latest news in free software.</li>
<li>To help fund our work, consider <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/donate.fsf.org">donating to the FSF</a>.</li>
</ul>

</div>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/universal-permissive-license-added-to-license-list
title: Universal Permissive License added to license list
uri: 2015-09-26-Universal-Permissive-License-added-to-license-list
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/universal-permissive-license-added-to-license-list
content:
<p>We recently updated our list of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">various licenses and comments about them</a> to include the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#UPL">Universal Permissive License</a> (UPL). The UPL is a lax, non-copyleft license that is compatible with the GNU GPL. The UPL contains provisions dealing explicitly with the grant of patent licenses, whereas many other simple lax licenses only have an implicit grant. While making the grant perfectly clear is a reasonable goal, we still <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.html">recommend</a> using <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#apache2">Apache 2.0</a> for simple programs that don't require copyleft. For more extensive programs, a copyleft license like the GNU GPL should be used to ensure that all users can enjoy software freedom.</p>
<ul>
<li>To keep up to date on newly added licenses, as well as current topics and activities in free software, please sign up for our monthly newsletter <a href="http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/subscribe">The Free Software Supporter</a></li>
<li>Help support the Compliance Lab's work in reviewing licenses and more by <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/donate.fsf.org">donating to the Free Software Foundation</a></li>
<li>Join us in celebrating the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fsf30">30th anniversary of the FSF</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/interview-with-noah-swartz-of-privacy-badger
title: Interview with Noah Swartz of Privacy Badger
uri: Interview-with-Noah-Swartz-of-Privacy-Badger
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/interview-with-noah-swartz-of-privacy-badger
content:
<p>We conducted an email-based interview with Noah Swartz of Privacy Badger. <a href="https://www.eff.org/privacybadger">Privacy Badger</a> is a browser add-on that detects and blocks third party
tracking. If Privacy Badger notices a third party site that it thinks is
attempting to track your browsing around the web it blocks it and
prevents it from writing or reading cookies and other identifying
information about your browser. Additionally Privacy Badger works with
<a href="https://www.eff.org/">EFF</a>'s newly drafted <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/08/clear-rules-road-do-not-track-policy-0">Do Not Track policy</a> which aims to make user opt-out of online tracking a reality.</p>
<p>Noah Swartz is a Staff Technologist at EFF and works on Privacy Badger.</p>
<h2>What inspired the creation of Privacy Badger?</h2>
<p>Online tracking has become a pervasive and invisible reality of Web
browsing. Users get a sense that it's happening when they're shown
targeted ads, but that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
how the data collected about them is being used.</p>
<h2>Why is a browser plug-in like Privacy Badger so necessary?</h2>
<p>Advertisers and other online trackers have proposed to regulate
themselves by allowing users to 'opt-out' of target ads. Unfortunately
this 'opt-out' does nothing to stop the collection of user data. We felt
that there had to be a stronger way for users to protect their browsing
data, and a lever by which to push trackers into a place of respect for
user privacy.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets Privacy Badger apart from other privacy protecting software?</h2>
<p>Privacy Badger doesn't use an explicit blacklist to decide what and what
not to block. Instead it builds up its own list of what to block based
on what looks like it's tracking you as you browse. This means that not
only can advertisers not try to cajole EFF into making their domains
exempt from being blocked by privacy badger, it also means that Privacy
Badger will catch trackers that haven't been identified by other ad
blocker's blacklists. Additionally Privacy Badger works in tandem with
EFFs new Do Not Track policy, which we hope to see online tracers adopt
as a way to respect user opt out.</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to Privacy Badger?</h2>
<p>Technical users are encouraged to contribute code. The repositories for
the Firefox and Chrome versions are on github
(<a href="https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadgerfirefox">https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadgerfirefox</a> &amp;
<a href="https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadgerchrome">https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadgerchrome</a>) and have many open bugs
and feature requests that we'd love help with. Non-technical users are
encouraged to use Privacy Badger and let us know about any issues they
have. This includes things like visual nitpicks, broken sites, or
platform specific bugs. Also we're working to translate Privacy Badger
into many different languages, we'd welcome anyone able to help with that.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for Privacy Badger?</h2>
<p>We're looking into how to spot more types of tracking. Currently Privacy
Badger checks for text cookies, HTML5 local storage cookies, and canvas
finger printing. But there are many other ways in which your browser can
be identified, we'd like to prevent those as well. Additionally there
are other browsers we don't support, as well as no mobile browsers
supported. Since the way people interact with the Web is becoming more
through mobile platforms we think it's an important next step.</p>
<p><strong>For more tools and resources on protecting your privacy, please check out our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/surveillance">campaign against surveillance</a></strong></p>
<p><em>Enjoy this interview? Check out our Licensing and Compliance Lab's interview series. In our last interview, we featured <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-joel-krahemann-maintainer-of-advanced-gtk-sequencer">Joël Krähemann, maintainer of Advanced GTK+ Sequencer</a></em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-do-you-have-to-say-share-it-at-libreplanet-2016
title: What do you have to say? Share it at LibrePlanet 2016
uri: What-do-you-have-to-say-Share-it-at-LibrePlanet-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-do-you-have-to-say-share-it-at-libreplanet-2016
content:
<p><strong>You've got until Monday, November 16th, 2015 at 10:00 in the morning
EST (15:00 UTC) to
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=325&amp;reset=1">submit your proposals</a>. We
can't wait to see what you come up with!</strong></p>
<p>Every year, LibrePlanet brings together developers, policy experts,
activists, hackers and end users. It's a place to learn new skills,
share accomplishments and face challenges to computer user freedom
together as a community. If you're new to the community, check out
<a href="https://www.libreplanet.org/2015">last year's conference site</a> and
<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/">session videos</a> for a taste of what's
to come.</p>
<h2>What kind of sessions are we looking for?</h2>
<p>LibrePlanet is defined by its combination of technical talks with
non-technical sessions on free software activism, culture and current
events. We are especially interested to see proposals from people who
use free software or apply its values for social benefit, from
academic research to community organizing, education to medicine and
the arts.</p>
<p>We're committed to increasing the participation of speakers belonging
to groups traditionally underrepresented at free software conferences,
including women and people of color. If you're comfortable sharing
demographic information, there is an area for it on the proposal form,
but your proposal will not be judged negatively if you leave those
fields blank.</p>
<p>It's important to us to provide sessions that are friendly to
newcomers, as well as those that help experienced hackers push their
technical skills. Whatever your experience level or the experience
level of your audience, we want to include your session! (As a
corollary of this, we welcome sessions for kids or teens.)</p>
<p>What makes LibrePlanet so special is the amazing contributions
from our speakers, exhibitors, and volunteers. We can't wait to hear
your ideas. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=325&amp;reset=1">Submit a proposal now</a>!</p>
<h2>Nominations are still open for the Free Software Awards</h2>
<p>If you know a free software contributor or project that deserves
celebration, don't hesitate to nominate them! This is your opportunity
to publicly recognize people and projects that have inspired you. Your
nominations will be reviewed by our awards committee and the winners
will be announced at LibrePlanet 2016.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.fsf.org/awards">Learn more about the free software awards</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-is-improving-the-world-through-free-software-nominate-them-now">submit a nomination.</a></strong></p>
<p>That's all for now. See you in March!</p>
<p><em>If you'd like to sponsor LibrePlanet, please email us at <a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>.</em></p>


title: Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 declared one-way compatible with GNU GPL version 3
uri: Creative-Commons-BY-SA-4-0-declared-one-way-compatible-with-GNU-GPL-ve
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/creative-commons-by-sa-4-0-declared-one-way-compatible-with-gnu-gpl-version-3

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/creative-commons-by-sa-4-0-declared-one-way-compatible-with-gnu-gpl-version-3

content:
<p>On Thursday, October 8, Creative Commons (CC) <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/46186">announced</a> the
addition of the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3) to the
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses">list of licenses compatible</a> with the Creative Commons Attribution
ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. Compatibility means that a
person can now take a work they received under the terms of CC BY-SA
4.0 and then distribute adaptations of that work under the terms of
GPLv3. However, this compatibility is one-way only, meaning you can
not release adaptations GPLv3-covered works under the terms of CC
BY-SA 4.0.</p>
<p>The FSF provided extensive feedback throughout the drafting process of
the 4.0 suite of CC licenses, and began discussing the possibility of
one-way compatibility of CC BY-SA 4.0 and GPLv3 in 2011. As a steward
of public licenses, CC has displayed tremendous leadership throughout
the entire drafting process of the 4.0 license suite, and this
leadership has continued through the license compatibility process. In
January 2015, CC officially opened a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/44832">public consultation</a> on CC
BY-SA 4.0 and GPLv3 compatibility.  They facilitated this discussion
via a <a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-licenses/2015-January/007635.html">public mailing list</a>, and supported it by creating strong
educational resources such as their <a href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ShareAlike_compatibility:_GPLv3">analysis of GPLv3</a> and their
analysis of <a href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ShareAlike_compatibility_analysis:_GP">BY-SA compatibility</a>. One of the most important ways
in which the community contributed to the compatibility discussion was
by identifying <a href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/GPL_compatibility_use_cases">various use cases</a> in which a person may wish to
combine a CC BY-SA licensed work with a piece of software or similar
work. One increasingly common use case is with free hardware design
projects, in which contributors to the project choose to put the
entire repository (for example, an aggregate of art, design documents,
and software) under the terms of the GNU GPL. Similar use cases are
documented with games and the artwork distributed alongside the games.</p>
<p>While we do not anticipate that many people will choose GPLv3 for
their adapted versions of CC BY-SA licensed works of art, we do expect
compatibility will be especially useful for individuals working in
niche areas where a creative work that is licensed under CC BY-SA
needs to be adapted and melded into source code form and combined with
some GPLv3-covered software. As Mike Linksvayer <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/46186">stated</a> in CC's
announcement, this important interoperability between two of the
world's most popular copyleft licenses "not only removes a barrier,
but helps inspire new and creative combinations of software and
culture, design, education, and science, and the adoption of software
best practices such as source control (e.g., through 'git') in these
fields."</p>
<p>When combining works licensed under CC BY-SA with ones under GPLv3,
individuals should use caution and make sure that they can actually
comply with the source requirements of GPLv3, specifically that they
are able to show that they can provide the source code, which is
defined as the preferred form of the work for making
modifications. Further, when licensing a CC BY-SA work under the terms
of GPLv3, the FSF urges individuals to take advantage of Section 14 of
the GNU GPLv3, which allows a licensor to specify a proxy to determine
whether future versions of the GPL can be used, i.e., "GNU GPL version
3 or (at your option) any later version."  Creative Commons has kindly
<a href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ShareAlike_compatibility:_GPLv3#Option_to_comply_with_later_versions">provided instructions</a> stating that "individuals can specify
Creative Commons as their proxy (via
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses">http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses</a>) so that if and when
Creative Commons determines that a future version of the GPL is a
compatible license, the adapted and combined work could be used under
that later version of GPL."</p>
<p>Lastly, the FSF is grateful to all of the individuals who helped
contribute to the compatibility discussion and process, including the
many emails and questions we received from members of our community,
but most especially to those individuals directly involved over the
past five years, including: Sarah Hinchliff Pearson, Diane Peters,
Lawrence Lessig, Mike Linksvayer, Kat Walsh, and Christopher Allan
Webber from Creative Commons; Joshua Gay, Donald Robertson, III, Brett
Smith, Richard Stallman, and John Sullivan of the Free Software
Foundation, along with Eben Moglen of the Software Freedom Law Center
and Aaron Williamson (who is now an attorney at Tor Ekeland).</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Sign up for the FSF's monthly newsletter the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/fss">Free Software
  Supporter</a> to keep up to date on all the latest news in free
  software.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>To help fund our work, consider <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donating to the FSF</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>


title: The party is over... but the fight for freedom is ready for another thirty years
uri: The-party-is-over-but-the-fight-for-freedom-is-ready-for-another-th
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/the-party-is-over-but-the-fight-for-freedom-is-ready-for-another-thirty-years

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/the-party-is-over-but-the-fight-for-freedom-is-ready-for-another-thirty-years

content:
<p>On October 4, 1985, Richard Stallman founded the non-profit Free
Software Foundation to support the free software movement, especially
the <a href="https://gnu.org/">GNU Project</a> (begun in 1983), the <a href="https://gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#GPL">GNU General
Public License</a> (created
in 1989), and the <a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">four
freedoms</a> that define free
software:</p>
<ul>
<li>the freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).</li>
<li>the freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1).</li>
<li>the freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).</li>
<li>the freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3).</li>
</ul>
<p>At thirty years old, the FSF was the first non-profit organization
dedicated to free software, and is one of the oldest digital rights
organizations in the world. This anniversary is a good reason to
celebrate, and free software enthusiasts joined the festivities from
all over, attending the party in Boston, watching the livestream of
toasts by Allison Randal, Eben Moglen, Vernor Vinge, Karen Sandler,
Bradley Kuhn, and Cory Doctorow, followed by an inspiring speech by
Richard Stallman, and hosting their own celebrations by plugging in to
our <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/FSF30_Party_Network">party
network</a>. We even
surprised partygoers with a performance of "The Free Software Song"
and the Bulgarian song from which it takes its melody, "Sadi moma bela
loza," sung by members of the Boston-area Bulgarian groups <a href="http://www.divizheni.net/">Divi
Zheni</a> and Zornitsa.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="media/f73d0c8c._MG_0226-320.JPG" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/fsf30/_MG_0226-320.JPG" style="width: 160px; height: 107px;" />&nbsp; 
<img alt="" src="media/523094ff._MG_0213-320px.JPG" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/fsf30/_MG_0213-320px.JPG" style="width: 161px; height: 107px;" />&nbsp; 
<img alt="" src="media/a239a967._MG_0198-320px.JPG" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/fsf30/_MG_0198-320px.JPG" style="width: 160px; height: 107px;" /></p>
<p>The FSF also hosted a User Freedom Summit in Cambridge, with more than
80 attendees, who took part in a <a href="http://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a>
hackfest, an introduction to the decentralized Web, a discussion of
the free software BIOS/UEFI replacement
<a href="http://libreboot.org/">Libreboot</a>, an intro to <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/">GnuPG email
encryption</a>, and Eben Moglen's
look at the next fifteen years of the free software movement.</p>
<p>Our friends and supporters celebrated elsewhere, too. <a href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/happy-birthday-to-the-free-software-foundation/">The Free
Software Foundation
Europe</a>
had a party in Berlin, with this beautiful cake, inspired by our 30th
anniversary logo:</p>
<img alt="" src="media/44d95f7f.fsf30-birthday-cake.jpg" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/fsf30/fsf30-birthday-cake.jpg" style="width: 320px; height: 240px;" />

<p>CC-BY-SA Matthias Kirschner </p>
<p>Alagoas:</p>
<img alt="" src="media/3317f413.20Alagoas20-20FSF2030th20Birthday20party.JPG" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/fsf30/%20Alagoas%20-%20FSF%2030th%20Birthday%20party.JPG" style="width: 320px; height: 177px;" />

<p>CC-BY-SA  Daniel Pimentel</p>
<p>and a ton in <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/FSF30_Party_Network">other locations</a>.</p>
<p>If you organized an event to celebrate the FSF's thirtieth
anniversary, tell us about it! Send your photos or blog posts to
<a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> -- we'd like to share them!</p>
<p>So, what does the FSF have planned for the next thirty years?
Plenty. We're going to continue to fight for user freedom, alerting
the public to the dangers of nonfree software in tiny computers
everywhere, enforcing the GPL, and encouraging more people to use free
software every day. We just upgraded our CiviCRM instance, which makes
staying in touch with you even easier, and we've got more technology
upgrades planned, to make our work more efficient. We have added new
staff positions in the past two years, and we'd like a few more -- a
bigger team will help us expand our reach, share urgent information
with you faster, and deepen our relationships in the free software
community.</p>
<p>But to do that, we need you. We have over 3,400 members, and more than
two-thirds of our funding comes from individuals -- members and
one-time or occasional donors of sums large and small. We rely on the
free software community's generosity, and there are <a href="https://u.fsf.org/donate">many ways to
give</a>. The third edition of Richard
Stallman's essay collection, <em>Free Software, Free Society</em>, is now
available in
<a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society-3-hardcover/">hardcover</a>
and
<a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society-3-paperback/">paperback</a>. And
we still have <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/fsf-30-shirt/">commemorative FSF30
t-shirts</a>, as well!
<a href="https://u.fsf.org/join">Members</a> enjoy a 20% discount on all
purchases in the GNU Press shop.</p>
<p>Thanks for celebrating with us. In the coming weeks, keep an eye out
for recordings from the User Freedom Summity and party, more on
LibrePlanet 2016 (you can <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=325&amp;reset=1|">submit a session
proposal</a>
through November 16), a community survey that will help us shape the
next thirty years of the FSF, and guidelines for repositories that
host free software projects, authored by Richard Stallman.</p>


title: GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: Sixteen new GNU releases!
uri: 2015-10-13-GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-Sixteen-new-GNU-releases
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-sixteen-new-gnu-releases-october-2015

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-sixteen-new-gnu-releases-october-2015

content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/autogen/">autogen-5.18.6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/">cpio-2.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/">ddrescue-1.20</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/">gdb-7.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/">gettext-0.19.6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/global/">global-6.5.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.4.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/">help2man-1.47.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libgcrypt/">libgcrypt-1.6.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/">libmicrohttpd-0.9.43</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libtasn1/">libtasn1-4.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/">linux-libre-4.2-gnu</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20150922</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/sipwitch/">sipwitch-1.9.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/commoncpp/">ucommon-6.6.0</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu</a>.</p>
<p>To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
<a href="https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/</a>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html</a>.  You can use the url
<a href="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/">https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/</a> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.</p>
<p>This month, we welcome Brigham Keys as the new maintainer of GNU
Gleem.</p>
<p>A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint</a> if you'd like to
help.  The general page on how to help GNU is at
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html">http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html</a>.</p>
<p>If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html">http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html</a>.</p>
<p>As always, please feel free to write to us at <a href="mailto:maintainers@gnu.org">&#109;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ada-lovelace-day-2015
title: Ada Lovelace Day: Marina Zhurakhinskaya and Outreachy
uri: Ada-Lovelace-Day-Marina-Zhurakhinskaya-and-Outreachy
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ada-lovelace-day-2015
content:
<p>Lady Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was a 19th-century English mathematician who many consider the first programmer, because she published the most complete and in-depth description of the Analytical Engine, an early computer conceived of -- but never built -- by Charles Babbage. This year, to honor Ada Lovelace's legacy, we want to tell you more about Marina Zhurakhinskaya and Outreachy.</p>
<p><a href="media/b2611c28.gnome1.jpg" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/libreplanet/2014/day1/gnome1.jpg"><img alt="" height="366" src="media/b2611c28.gnome1.jpg" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/libreplanet/2014/day1/gnome1.jpg" width="548" /></a><br />
<em> Marina Zhurakhinskaya and Karen Sandler, co-organizers of OPW (now Outreachy), with Richard Stallman, accepting the 2014 Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit for OPW.</em></p>
<p>Marina is an engineer -- she has worked at Red Hat for nearly a
decade, and her work currently focuses on community diversity and
inclusion. She also works with
<a href="http://outreachy.org/">Outreachy</a>, an internship program that aims to bring
underrepresented groups into the free software community, which
received the Free Software Foundation's Award for Free Software
Projects of Social Benefit in 2014, under its previous name, the
Outreach Program for Women.</p>
<p>Outreachy offers mentored, remote internships in free
software. Participating projects include GNOME, Wikimedia, and
Mozilla. Since 2010, the program has had nearly 250 participants, many
of whom have moved on to jobs in tech, conference presentations, and
giving back to the program by becoming mentors. We conducted an
email interview with Marina to tell us a bit more.</p>
<h2>Talk about your new role as senior outreach specialist of community diversity and inclusion at Red Hat. How did your own experience in the tech industry influence your career track at Red Hat? And how did you become involved with Outreachy (formerly the Outreach Program for Women)?</h2>
<p>Working as a senior software engineer at Red Hat on the GNOME Project,
I was very impressed by the talent of the project contributors, by how
rewarding it is to work on free software, and by the feeling of
connectedness one gets when collaborating with people all over the
world. Yet, at GUADEC 2009, of approximately 170 attendees, I believe
I was one of only eight women. Of the software developers working on
the entire GNOME project at the time, I was one of only three.</p>
<p>Shortly after that GUADEC, the GNOME Foundation board of directors
asked if I would be willing to lead an outreach effort for GNOME aimed
at bringing women into the community and mentoring participants. I
also got an invitation to participate in the Free Software
Foundation's <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/recommendations-from-the-womens-caucus">Women's Caucus</a> and later attended the Women in Free
Software track at LibrePlanet 2010. These events allowed me to learn
about the efforts that already had taken place in free software to
increase participation by women and allowed me to make connections
with other people passionate about this topic. I created the Outreach
Program for Women with the help and support of Stormy Peters – then
GNOME Foundation executive director. Later, the next GNOME Foundation
executive director, Karen Sandler, helped expand the program beyond
GNOME to include many free software communities.</p>
<p>As the Outreach Program for Women grew, I switched to a role of
community engagement lead at Red Hat, combining GNOME community
management and coordination of the program. At the same time, I was
gaining more experience in diversity by following the resources
created by the Ada Initiative and others who wrote about diversity
issues, attending AdaCamps, and later joining the board of advisors
and board of directors for the Ada Initiative. In 2015, as
coordinators of Outreach Program for Women, Karen Sandler and I have
led the work to rename it to Outreachy, move it to <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software Freedom
Conservancy</a> as its new organizational home, and, with the help of four
new coordinators, expand it to be open to people of color
underrepresented in tech in the U.S., while continuing to be open to
cis and trans women, trans men, and genderqueer people worldwide.</p>
<p>The vast potential to empower more people from diverse backgrounds
through participation in free software and to make our community
stronger with more contributors motivated me to seek a full-time
position focused on free software community diversity and
inclusion. My senior outreach specialist role at Red Hat involves
co-organizing Outreachy and providing support for Red Hatters who are
looking to make their communities and teams more diverse and
inclusive. At the core of this role is a recognition that while we
need participation from all engineers as mentors and allies for
diversity efforts, we should not primarily rely on minority engineers
to take on the work of organizing these efforts or developing
expertise on the issue, as this is an excessive burden. A major
component of the role is organizing structured and meaningful
opportunities to be mentors for all engineers, that draw on people's
specialized skills, help them grow professionally, and only require a
manageable time commitment from them.</p>
<h2>How has winning a Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit in 2014 impacted Outreachy?</h2>
<p>Winning a Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit was a
very proud moment for Outreachy. It showed that the free software
community valued and supported the effort to bring in more people from
diverse backgrounds. It shone a light on the program and increased its
recognition. Since then, such important communities as the
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and X.Org have joined Outreachy.</p>
<p>I am also thankful to the Free Software Foundation for being a
long-time sponsor of Outreachy.</p>
<h2>Outreachy's scope has continued to expand: what's the latest?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/diversity-in-tech/">diversity data</a> for the U.S. released by many tech companies
shows that many of them only have 1-3% Black and 2-4% Hispanic
employees in technical roles. The population of the U.S. is 13% Black
and 17% Hispanic. We don't have any data like this for free software
participation, but we can tell there is a lack of racial and ethnic
diversity at conferences we attend.</p>
<p>For the upcoming December round, the program has expanded to be open
to residents and nationals of the U.S. of any gender who are
Black/African American, Hispanic/Latina, American Indian, Alaska
Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. It continues to be open
to cis and trans women, trans men, and genderqueer people worldwide.</p>
<p>Cindy Pallares, Tony Sebro, and Bryan Smith joined Karen Sandler,
Sarah Sharp, and me as Outreachy coordinators. With their experience
as African American and Latina free software professionals and with
the disparity shown by the diversity data, we knew that the targeted
expansion to people of color underrepresented in U.S. tech was an
appropriate next step for Outreachy. We know there are many other
groups of people and parts of the world underrepresented in free
software. While we expect it to take several rounds for us to manage
the growth that will come with this expansion, we welcome input on
what populations we should consider reaching out to next.</p>
<p>People in free software work really hard to make their projects
successful and recognizing them for their work shows the appreciation
we have for it. <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-is-improving-the-world-through-free-software-nominate-them-now">Nominating</a> a person or a project for a Free
Software Award can help bring more attention to their mission and
share with the world an inspiring free software success
story. Finally, the recipients will enjoy attending LibrePlanet – a
fantastic conference – and receiving their award from Richard Stallman
as hundreds of free software enthusiasts cheer.</p>
<h2>What are your hopes for the free software community in the next thirty years?</h2>
<p>I hope that more developers and other technology contributors seek out
opportunities to work on free software as their job. I would like to
see more business, entrepreneurial, non-profit, academic, and
government organizational infrastructure for free software
development. In particular, all software developed or purchased with
public funds should be free software. I would like to see free
software in mainstream critical devices, such as medical and
automotive, and in modern consumer products, such as mobile
phones. Free software solutions need to offer a compelling user
experience, so that people opt for them without having to compromise
convenience. These compelling solutions will also help spread the
message of software freedom. I hope that moving to free software as a
default from the developer and consumer perspective, will incentivize
existing companies to open the code of their core services and to
allow verification and decentralization of them. Finally, I hope that
free software contributors and enthusiasts will come from a variety of
diverse backgrounds, and we will either no longer need Outreachy or
will dramatically change who it's targeted toward.</p>
<p>To get us there, it's vital that free software supporters donate to
organizations like the <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate/">Free Software Foundation</a>, <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">Software
Freedom Conservancy</a>, the <a href="https://www.gnome.org/friends/">GNOME Foundation</a>, and others that
are advocating for free software and providing organizational
structure to free software projects we all know and love.</p>
<p>The application deadline for the upcoming round of Outreachy
internships is November 2, and the internship dates will be from
December 7 to March 7. Now is a great time to <a href="https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy/2015/DecemberMarch#Participating_Organizations">learn about the
participating communities</a>, work on the required contribution with
the help of a mentor, and <a href="https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy#Application_Process">apply</a>. You can <a href="https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy/2015/DecemberMarch/SpreadTheWord">encourage others to
apply</a> by using the prepared e-mail message, social network
updates, and the flyer. You can <a href="https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy/Admin/InfoForOrgs#Action">get your company to sponsor</a>
Outreachy or <a href="https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/#donate">make an individual donation</a> to help it grow and
fund more internships.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Marina Zhurakhinskaya for this in-depth
conversation. Please help us recognize standouts in the free software
community: 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 <a href="mailto:award-nominations@gnu.org">&#97;&#119;&#97;&#114;&#100;&#45;&#110;&#111;&#109;&#105;&#110;&#97;&#116;&#105;&#111;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> by <strong>November 1st,
2015</strong>. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=325&amp;reset=1">Apply here</a> to present a session at the next LibrePlanet,
which will take place March 19-20, 2016, in the Boston area --
submissions are due November 16, 2015, at 15:00 UTC. To read more about more women in free software, check out our previous
Ada Lovelace Day posts from <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/for-ada-lovelace-day-highlighting-fsf-sysadmin-lisa-maginnis">2014</a>, <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/recognizing-an-inspiring-woman-for-ada-lovelace-day-audrey-tang">2013</a>, <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-ada-lovelace-day">2012</a>, and
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ada-lovelace-day-karen-sandler">2011</a>.</em></p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Georgia Young
Program Manager</p>
<p><em>You can view this post on the Web at <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ada-lovelace-day-2015">https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ada-lovelace-day-2015</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/civicrm-a-key-part-of-the-free-software-movement
title: CiviCRM: a key part of the free software movement
uri: CiviCRM-a-key-part-of-the-free-software-movement
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/civicrm-a-key-part-of-the-free-software-movement
content:
<p>I had a great time at the Summit and I wanted to share some of my
thoughts and experiences with the free software community.</p>
<h3>We really, really appreciate the existence of a high-quality free CRM</h3>
<p></p> <div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;"> <img alt="IMAGE DESCRIPTION" src="media/3d994d5d.dave-and-zak.jpg" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/civicrm-user-summit-2015/dave-and-zak.jpg" width="250" /> <p style="margin: 10px 0px;">Me with Dave Greenberg of CiviCRM's core team.</p></div><p></p>
<p>Before CiviCRM existed, the FSF had a listing in our
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/">High Priority Projects list</a>
calling for someone to develop a free CRM. In 2010, we started using
CiviCRM, checked the CRM entry off the list and issued a
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/nonprofit-fundraising-civicrm">call for other nonprofits to join us in using CiviCRM</a>. Last
year, we had the opportunity to work with the free software
development firm Zyxware to create
<a href="https://civicrm.org/extensions/civiwci">the CiviWCI extension</a>, which
makes beautiful progress bars and widgets for fundraising campaigns.</p>
<p>CiviCRM is a key part of the free software movement, but it requires
continued financial and technical contributions to stay that way and
keep improving. The FSF is a proud organizational member of the
CiviCRM project, and we hope that other organizations that use it join
us.</p>
<h3>Nonprofits using CiviCRM are in a great position to educate about free software</h3>
<p>The conference wasn't just attended by tech folks who hack on CiviCRM
or administer it -- actually, the largest group was people from
nonprofits in non-technology fields: the focus on service dogs for the
disabled, clean energy, church organizing, and more. These diverse
organizations are happily using CiviCRM instead of a proprietary CRM,
but most hadn't yet been introduced to the ethical and political ideas
behind free software and computer user freedom.</p>
<p>I got to provide that introduction in my presentation during the
conference's final plenary session. I did my best to share free
software's rich history and seminal philosophical ideas, and I asked
the attendees to teach their constituents about free software,
leveraging their connection to CiviCRM. Since their community is
already interacting with an organization they appreciate through
CiviCRM, they're more likely to see why free software is
important. Here are some messages I shared at the Summit, which could
be useful for some nonprofits to explain why they use free software:</p>
<ul>
<li>Our organization is part of a community -- we give back by
  submitting bug reports and code, which helps other nonprofits.</li>
<li>Our organization is thoughtful and ethical about how we operate, and
  this extends to the technology we use.</li>
<li>Our organization is part of a political movement for technological
  empowerment, transparency, and freedom.</li>
<li>Our organization avoids spending money on proprietary software
  licenses so that we can focus on our mission.</li>
<li>Our organization keeps your data safe in a system we can service
  ourselves instead of leaving it in a black box computer controlled
  by someone else (if you host your own CiviCRM instance).</li>
</ul>
<p><img alt="Happy faces at the FSF community meetup after the
conference. Most of these people make their living developing or
administering CiviCRM." src="media/f5477d88.meetup.jpg" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/civicrm-user-summit-2015/meetup.jpg" /></p>
<p>If you work for a nonprofit or other mission-based organization that
uses free software and you're interested in introducing your followers
to our movement, I'd be more than happy to help you find the way that
works best for your community -- send me an email at
<a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>. If you have suggestions about improving the
messages above or for new ones, I would love to hear those as well.</p>
<h3>Yes, you can make a living with free software</h3>
<p>One of the most satisfying aspects of the conference was getting to
spend time surrounded by people who make their livings developing and
administering free software. As an FSFer, I know plenty of people like
this, but I'm rarely in an environment where it's the norm. People
often try to insist that developers can't support themselves
developing free software, but it's not true -- there are people who do
it and I know them and they're awesome.</p>
<p>CiviCRM is a free software success story, and it's become an integral
to our work at the FSF. We're thankful to everyone who also works on
it, submitting bug reports, programming, testing, and translating. We
look forward to being part of its community for many years to come,
and using it to win more victories for free software.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/recap-of-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-october-16
title: Recap of Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: October 16
uri: Recap-of-Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-October-16
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/recap-of-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-october-16
content:
<p>In today's Friday Free Software Directory IRC Meeting we discussed the challenges of listing FPGA software and <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:FPGA">created a page</a> to document some of these challenges. We discussed that when adding JavaScript programs, we should consider filing bug/feature requests to the projects asking them to use our <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html#AppendixA">recommended conventions</a> for labelling license info in JS files. </p>
<p>In addition to approving updates to several entries, we also published and approved two new entries: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/CubicSDR">CubicSDR</a>, a Software-Defined Radio application which allows you to navigate the radio spectrum</li>
<li><a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Shaoli">Shaoli</a>, an AGPLv3'd software program built on Django that can be used to manage finances and as a basis for crowdfunding site development. </li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/videos-and-photos-from-the-fsf30-celebrations-now-available
title: Videos and photos from the FSF30 celebrations now available
uri: Videos-and-photos-from-the-FSF30-celebrations-now-available
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/videos-and-photos-from-the-fsf30-celebrations-now-available
content:
<p>First, watch <a href="http://media.libreplanet.org/u/fsf/m/eben-moglen-at-user-freedom-summit/">this video of FSF general counsel and Software
Freedom Law Center President and Executive Director Eben Moglen's
talk, "FSF from 30 to
45,"</a>
given at the User Freedom Summit held at Lesley University in
Cambridge, MA. Moglen looks ahead to the crucial issues facing
the free software movement in its next fifteen years.</p>
<p>At the 30th anniversary party held in Boston, we had two recorded
greetings from friends of the FSF who were unable to attend in
person. <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/cory-doctorow1/">One
was</a>
by FSF member, <a href="https://boingboing.net/">BoingBoing</a> co-editor,
and <a href="https://eff.org">EFF</a> fellow Cory Doctorow. The other greeting was from
<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/vernor-vinge/">computer scientist and science fiction writer Vernor
Vinge</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/free-software-song-a4de/">Check out the video</a> of the performance of the Free Software Song and
the Bulgarian folk song that inspired it, Sadi Moma Bela Loza, by
members of the Boston Bulgarian singing groups Divi Zheni and
Zornitsa. We will have more videos of other guest toasts and RMS's address soon.</p>
<p>Across the world, the Free Software Foundation Europe held
<a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/FSF30Birthday">a party with a beautiful cake and balloons with the FSF30 logo</a>. Read
FSFE Vice President Matthias Kirschner's
<a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/happy-birthday-to-the-free-software-foundation/">post about the 30th anniversary</a>.</p>
<div style="margin: 10px auto; display: block; width: 600px;">
<img alt="FSFE 30 Years Party" src="media/c1839a32.IMG_5166.png" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/146/IMG_5166.png" style="width: 250px; margin: 0px 10px;" />
<img alt="FSFE 30 Years Party" src="media/498f06d8.IMG_5140.png" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/147/IMG_5140.png" style="width: 250px; margin: 0px 10px;" />
</div>

<p>Ohio GNU/LinuxFest broadcast a stream of the Boston party
proceedings for attendees. They also made an awesome cake: </p>
<img alt="Ohio FSF30 Party Network" src="media/ae0dd0db.IMG_20151003_192721.jpg" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/145/IMG_20151003_192721.jpg" style="display: block; width: 400px; margin: 10px auto 10px auto;" />

<p>More than two-thirds of the FSF's funding comes from individuals
like you. We rely on the free software community's generosity,
and there are <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">many ways to give</a>. If
you haven't already, will you consider giving $30 to celebrate
thirty years of the FSF? You can also support the FSF by buying a
copy of the third edition of Richard Stallman's essay collection,
<em>Free Software, Free Society</em>, which is now available in
<a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society-3-hardcover/">hardcover</a>
and
<a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society-3-paperback/">paperback</a>,
or a <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/fsf-30-shirt/">commemorative FSF30
t-shirt</a>.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for celebrating thirty years of the Free Software
Foundation.</p>


title: Register now for LibrePlanet 2016: "Fork the System" March 19-20, 2016 in Boston, MA
uri: Register-now-for-LibrePlanet-2016-Fork-the-System-March-19-20-2016
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/register-now-for-libreplanet-2016-fork-the-system-march-19-20-2016-in-boston-ma

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/register-now-for-libreplanet-2016-fork-the-system-march-19-20-2016-in-boston-ma

content:
<div style="float: right; width: 10em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;
background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius:
3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px; text-align: center;">
<strong>LibrePlanet 2016</strong><br />March 19-20<br />Greater
Boston<br /><br />Gratis for students and FSF associate members<br /><br /> <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1" style="font-size: 16px; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none;
font-weight: bold; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px;
-moz-border-radius: 3px; background-color: #2c3e50; border-top: 12px
solid #2c3e50; border-bottom: 12px solid #2c3e50; border-right: 18px
solid #2c3e50; border-left: 18px solid #2c3e50; display:
inline-block;" target="_blank">Register now</a> </div>

<p>We are pleased to announce that
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1">registration</a>
for <a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet</a> is now
open. Students and FSF members attend LibrePlanet gratis. Not a
member?  <a href="https://fsf.org/join">Join today</a> to register gratis, or
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1">register</a> at
our non-member rate.</p>
<p>The conference will be held March 19-20, 2016, in the Boston area --
this year's theme is "Fork the System." Talks at this year's
conference will touch on how free software creates the opportunity of
a new path for its users, allows developers to fight the restrictions
of a system dominated by proprietary software by creating free
replacements, and is the foundation of a philosophy of freedom,
sharing, and change.</p>
<h1>Want to speak at LibrePlanet?</h1>
<p>You have just a few weeks left to
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=325&amp;reset=1|">submit a session proposal</a>
-- the deadline is November 16th, 2016 at 15:00 UTC (10:00 EST).</p>
<p>Do you have questions about what makes a strong proposal? We're
hosting an information session to answer any questions you have about
submitting a proposal for LibrePlanet on Tuesday, November 3rd from
19:00 - 22:00 UTC (14:00 - 17:00 EST). Join us in the
<a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/libreplanet">#libreplanet</a> IRC channel on
freenode. Don't use IRC? Email your questions to <a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>.</p>
<h1>Need help traveling to LibrePlanet?</h1>
<p>We have a limited amount of funding to bring conference participants
to LibrePlanet from all around the
world. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=334&amp;reset=1">You can apply for a scholarship starting now</a>
-- the application deadline is Monday, December 1st, 2016 at 15:00 UTC
(10:00 EST in the morning). Scholarship recipients will be notified in
mid-December.</p>
<p>If you don't need a scholarship, you can help us welcome all types of
people to LibrePlanet 2016 by
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=33">making a contribution</a>
to the conference's scholarship fund now, or when you register for
LibrePlanet. A donation of $50 covers one night in a shared
Boston-area hotel room, but any amount helps.</p>
<p>LibrePlanet is an inspiring, creative gathering where you'll meet
activists, students, developers, and leaders -- and you may get
involved in a new project, gain new energy for free software activism,
and make new friends. You definitely want to be in the Boston area on
March 19-20, 2016 for
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet 2016</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-october-30th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: October 30th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-October-30th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-october-30th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, October 30th from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a> by adding new
entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the
<a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to
make it onto IRC on Friday, our
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a>
will provide you with all the information you need to get started on
helping the Directory today! There are also
<a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a>
that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after
each meeting.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/send-comments-to-doe-12-15
title: By 12/15: Send us comments to rally the Dept. of Ed. toward free licensing
uri: By-12-15-Send-us-comments-to-rally-the-Dept-of-Ed-toward-free-licen
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/send-comments-to-doe-12-15
content:
<p>These <a href="media/15bbaa9b.OET-Open-License-NPRM-FINAL-Web-Posting.pdf" data-original-source="http://tech.ed.gov/files/2014/06/OET-Open-License-NPRM-FINAL-Web-Posting.pdf">proposed regulations</a> 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).</p>
<p>Since the course materials are works of practical use, they should
carry the four freedoms of free software,
<a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">just as programs and manuals should</a>.</p>
<p>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 <em>not</em> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
<a href="mailto:licensing@fsf.org">&#108;&#105;&#99;&#101;&#110;&#115;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> and let us know!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, submitting a comment <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">digitally</a> requires the user
to run <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html">nonfree JavaScript (JS) code</a>. 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).</p>
<p>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
<a href="mailto:licensing@fsf.org">&#108;&#105;&#99;&#101;&#110;&#115;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> 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 <a href="media/9155b0e9.Tips_For_Submitting_Effective_Comments.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.regulations.gov/docs/Tips_For_Submitting_Effective_Comments.pdf">how to write a good comment</a>. 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
<a href="mailto:licensing@fsf.org">&#108;&#105;&#99;&#101;&#110;&#115;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> 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.</p>
<p>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,
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal">become an associate member or make a donation today</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/got-a-light-help-the-fsfs-guiding-light-shine-brighter
title: Got a light? Help the FSF's guiding light shine brighter
uri: Got-a-light-Help-the-FSF-s-guiding-light-shine-brighter
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/got-a-light-help-the-fsfs-guiding-light-shine-brighter
content:
<div style="text-align: center; float:right" padding="10px">

<a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">
<img src="media/c1f79e14.lighthouse_appeal.jpg" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/fsforg/img/lighthouse_appeal.jpg" style="margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 15px; width: 320px; alt=" lighthouse="Lighthouse" at="at" night="night" />
</a>
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY SA 2.0</a> <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/51035804249@N01">Martin Belam</a>.</p>
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">
<br />
<iframe src="//static.fsf.org/nosvn/banners/2015fundraiser/2015.html" width="320px" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</div>
</a>

<p>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.</p>

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

<ul>
<li>We light a fire under free software
development by sponsoring the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/">GNU project</a>,
providing infrastructure support to hundreds of free software
projects, and maintaining a list of <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/">high-priority projects</a> that are
especially important to the adoption and use of free software. We also
enable <a href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fund">fundraising and promotion</a> for some of these projects, including <a href="http://www.replicant.us/">Replicant</a> (a fully free version of Android) and <a href="http://mediagoblin.org/">GNU
MediaGoblin</a> (free, decentralized
network services). We spark production of hardware that supports free
software, too, through our <a href="https://fsf.org/ryf">Respects Your Freedom</a> certification
program.</li>
<li>We <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-conservancy-publish-principles-for-community-oriented-gpl-enforcement">enforce</a> the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">GNU General Public
  License</a>, offer canonical licensing
  <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing">educational materials</a>, answer thousands of licensing questions
  for free software developers each year, and help steward the
  community guide to copyleft at <a href="http://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a>. 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.</li>
<li>We organize global action around urgent issues related to
  software freedom. At the government level, we (under protest)
  participate in the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/library-of-congress-issues-limited-exemptions-to-dmca-anti-circumvention-provisions-but-leaves-users-without-full-control-over-their-own-computing">exemptions process for the Digital
  Millennium Copyright Act</a> and put a spotlight on the
  <a href="http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/trading-freedom">Trans-Pacific Partnership's threats to free software worldwide.</a>
In the private sector, we battle against <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot">Restricted Boot</a> in
  computers distributed with Windows, and through our <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org">Defective by
  Design campaign</a>, we work toward the elimination of all DRM, including <a href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5">organizing a coalition to keep it out of HTML5</a>.</li>
<li>Our <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/">resources</a> light the way for free software activists. The <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page">Free Software Directory</a> is a curated database of
15,000 (and counting) free software packages, the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video">User Lib
video</a> introduces new audiences to the basics of free software, and our annual <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide">Giving Guide</a> helps people consider free software principles when buying gifts for their loved ones.</li>
<li>We gather the free software community for idea sharing and project planning at our annual
  <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/">LibrePlanet conference</a>, and at other events around the world.</li>
</ul>
<p>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.</p>

<p>Over 80 percent of our funding comes from individuals. Will you
help us shine brighter by <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=join">becoming a new
member</a>
or <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">making a
donation</a>
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
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits">many benefits</a>, including a USB membership
card loaded with the free GNU/Linux distribution <a href="https://trisquel.info/">Trisquel</a>, 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: <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-members-now-get-5-off-thinkpenguin-free-software-friendly-devices">5% off free software-friendly
hardware from ThinkPenguin</a>.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>Happy hacking!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/its-fall-still-and-the-bulletin-is-out
title: It's Fall, still, and the Bulletin is out!
uri: It-s-Fall-still-and-the-Bulletin-is-out
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/its-fall-still-and-the-bulletin-is-out
content:
<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Picture of the Bulletin with boxes of envelopes in the background" src="media/f420b33d.bulletin.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/fsforg/bulletin/2015fall-images/bulletin.png" width="250" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">Bulletin is in the mail and online!</p></div>

<p>As many of you are aware, twice a year we mail a new edition of the
FSF Bulletin to our <a href="https://fsf.org/join">members and supporters</a> 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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2015/fall/">Go ahead and read it online</a>, download the <a href="media/b89431b3.FSF_Bulletin_Fall_2015.pdf" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/bulletin/FSF_Bulletin_Fall_2015.pdf">pdf</a> or if you
are so inclined, compile the <a href="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/bulletin/FSF_Bulletin_Fall_2015.tex">TeX source</a>!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-20151017-kent
title: Recap from October 2015 at Kent State University
uri: Recap-from-October-2015-at-Kent-State-University
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-20151017-kent
content:
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<div style="border-style:solid; border-width:2px;text-align:center; margin: 4px 50px 4px 50px; padding-top:4px;">

<p>RMS gave his speech "A Free Digital Society"<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup> at Kent State University, in Kent, OH, on
October 17th, 2015, to an audience of over 300 people.</p>

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<img src="media/bd3e9cf5.20151017-kent-01.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-01.jpg" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/85c41526.20151017-kent-02.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-02.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/5f826ecc.20151017-kent-02-prime.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-02-prime.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/b0f3f29c.20151017-kent-03.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-03.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/a8d5e493.20151017-kent-04.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-04.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/3ab294f9.20151017-kent-05.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-05.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/1a2b19d8.20151017-kent-06.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-06.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/c8a97409.20151017-kent-07.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-07.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/cc2456c3.20151017-kent-08.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-08.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/048558df.20151017-kent-09.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-09.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/2bdbe67e.20151017-kent-10.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-10.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/cd181427.20151017-kent-11.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-11.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/f8eae198.20151017-kent-12.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-12.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/0bf5f447.20151017-kent-13.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-13.jpg" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/33035b70.20151017-kent-14.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-14.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/f3575a01.20151017-kent-15.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-15.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/10a3bfd0.20151017-kent-16.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-16.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/43d237dc.20151017-kent-19.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-19.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/5608758b.20151017-kent-17.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-17.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/96f15d0c.20151017-kent-18.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-18.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/30182918.20151017-kent-22.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-22.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/9577ae8c.20151017-kent-20.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-20.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/bc7173da.20151017-kent-21.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-21.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/48e12c6b.20151017-kent-23.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-23.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/b6c61388.20151017-kent-24.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-24.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/c5696411.20151017-kent-25.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151017-kent-25.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/fcc81751.poster-20151017-kent.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/poster-20151017-kent.jpg" alt="" width="560" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 

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<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos and poster under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photos courtesy of Tracey Hughes, Lael Hughes-Watkins, and Lisa Stuart; poster graphics by Cherub Hughes of Repstar Graphics.</em>

<!-- End of image+caption block -->

<p>Please fill out our contact form, so that we can inform you about
future events in and around <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=386&amp;reset=1">Kent,
OH</a>, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=343&amp;reset=1">Corning
and Ithaca, NY</a>, and <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=401&amp;reset=1">Seattle,
WA</a>.  Please see <a href="http://www.fsf.org/events">www.fsf.org/events</a> for a full
list of all of RMS's confirmed engagements, and contact <a href="mailto:rms-assist@gnu.org">rms-assist@gnu.org</a> if you'd like
him to come speak.</p>

<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Thank you to the Northeast Ohio Professional ACM Chapter, and to everyone else, who helped make this visit a success!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<sup id="fn1">1. The speech recording will be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2015">our audio-video
archive</a> soon.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the
text.">↩</a></sup>


title: FSF to begin accepting GPG signatures for copyright assignments from Italy
uri: FSF-to-begin-accepting-GPG-signatures-for-copyright-assignments-from-I
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-gpg-signatures-for-copyright-assignments-from-italy

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-gpg-signatures-for-copyright-assignments-from-italy

content:
<p>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
<a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-gpg-signed-assignments-from-the-u-s">GPG-signed documents from U.S.  contributors</a>
for some time now.  Our legal counsel at the
<a href="http://softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a> recently
gave us the all clear to begin accepting GPG and
<a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:31999L0093">electronic signatures</a>
from contributors in Italy. We would also like to thank Carlo Piana
for providing local counsel on this issue as well.</p>
<p>As with contributors in the U.S., Italian hackers will be able to sign
copyright assignments using
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/GPG">GNU Privacy Guard</a>, 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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="mailto:assign@gnu.org">&#97;&#115;&#115;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>. 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.</p>
<p>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
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Copyright-Papers">GNU Maintainer's manual</a>.</p>
<p>Wondering why the FSF goes through all this trouble with copyright
assignment at all?
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html">Prof. Eben Moglen explains why</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/unwrap-our-2015-ethical-tech-giving-guide
title: Unwrap our 2015 Ethical Tech Giving Guide
uri: Unwrap-our-2015-Ethical-Tech-Giving-Guide
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/unwrap-our-2015-ethical-tech-giving-guide
content:
<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="An activist sharing the Giving Guide at a Giveaway." src="media/09d8ad00.IMG_9243.JPG" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/givingguideaction2013/IMG_9243.JPG" width="250" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">An activist sharing the Giving Guide at a Giveaway.</p></div>

<p>The good news is that there are ethical companies making better
devices that your loved ones can enjoy with freedom and
privacy. Today, we're launching the 2015 giving guide, your key to
smarter and more ethical tech gifts.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide">Explore the giving guide now online and in print.</a>
  To sweeten the deal, many of the recommended gifts are specially
  discounted for the holiday season.</strong></p>
<p>The giving guide has become a tradition, released every year
since 2010. But this year's is different. <strong>For the first time, we're
proud to feature a smartphone and two laptops that run free software
out of the box.</strong> These products didn't exist when we wrote last
year's guide -- they are the result of hard work by a growing
community of hacker entrepreneurs who deserve our wholehearted
support.</p>
<p>We need you to get the guide into the hands of people making holiday
shopping choices. Here's what you can do:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Lead a Giving Guide Giveaway at a local shopping area to show that
  conscientious giving applies to computers and software.</strong> We've
  prepared a
  <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer">primer</a>
  to answer common questions and help make your Giveaway a success.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.fsf.org/share?u=https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/&amp;t=Check out the Free Software Foundation Ethical Tech Giving Guide">Share the guide on social media with the hashtag #givefreely</a> and  comment about it on gift or tech-related online articles.</li>
<li>Email it to your family and friends – heck, you might even get a gift out of it!</li>
</ul>
<p>Millions of people will open tech gifts this holiday season, and most of them will be walled gardens encumbered with nonfree software and DRM. But things are changing. With each year, our message spreads further and more people start thinking critically about technology and voting with their wallets. Join us in fueling the movement for ethical tech -- use and spread this guide.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/lets-encrypt-the-fsf-beta-tests-a-new-certificate-authority
title: Let's Encrypt: The FSF beta tests a new Certificate Authority
uri: Let-s-Encrypt-The-FSF-beta-tests-a-new-Certificate-Authority
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/lets-encrypt-the-fsf-beta-tests-a-new-certificate-authority
content:
<p>Recently the FSF's application to Let's Encrypt's Limited Beta
program was accepted. For those of you who have not been
following, the project Let's Encrypt is a non-profit Certificate
Authority (CA) run by the Internet Security Research
Group (ISRG). The IRSG, founded in 2013, is comprised of board members from
various places, including but not limited to: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and  Mozilla.
The main drive behind Let's Encrypt is to make the
process of getting X.509 certificates for Transport Layer
Security (TLS) encryption a trivial process, as well as
cost-free. In addition, Let's Encrypt aims to make all this
available using only Free as in Freedom software for both their
server and client infrastructure. By doing this, the Let's Encrypt
project hopes to make HTTPS (encrypted web traffic) the default
state of the entire Internet. For further reading on the goals
and mission statement of the Let's Encrypt CA, check out
<a href="https://letsencrypt.org/about">https://letsencrypt.org/about</a>.</p>
<p>As part of the the Limited Beta program we have been granted
the ability to generate certificates. This is done using the Let's Encrypt client software, which uses their API to
generate and sign certificates for several of our most used
domains. Using the <a href="https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt">Let's Encrypt client
software</a> makes
deploying certificates almost effortless. The current procedure
is fairly straight forward: Clone the git repository, run the
client, allow it to grab packages it requires, and then step
though a fairly pretty curses interface that takes your email
address and the domain of the certificate you are trying to
generate and have signed. This process, however, does require
minimal downtime as the Let's Encrypt access requires the ports
the web server uses to complete the API transaction. In practice
this only took a minute or so of downtime to complete.</p>
<p>As part of our participation in the Limited Beta program, an
example of the Let's Encrypt CA service can already be found on
our network. Currently, we have migrated
<a href="https://libreplanet.org">https://libreplanet.org</a> to Let's Encrypt. The fingerprints for
our new certificate, signed by Let's Encrypt, are as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>SHA1: D0:48:06:70:21:7B:70:09:D0:5C:17:22:B1:C8:E9:40:EA:BA:AF:29</li>
<li>SHA-256: 6B:0A:B6:4A:1A:7D:30:5C:1D:3C:A7:12:95:06:DC:F1:AA:48:7B:33:C2:81:C8:46:4E:97:1D:91:18:74:3A:98</li>
</ul>
<p>Overall we are very excited to participate in the Let's Encrypt
project. If generating X.509 certificates can be so effortless,
in my opinion the end goal of a World Wide Web that defaults to
HTTPS instead of HTTP is achievable. The public beta for Let's
Encrypt is scheduled to go live December 3rd, 2015. I encourage
any reader who runs a web server to give the Let's Encrypt CA a
serious look.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-20th-1
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: November 20th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-November-20th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-20th-1
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, November 20th, from 12pm to 3pm EST
(16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software
Directory.</p>
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a>
by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in
the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to
make it onto IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide
you with all the information you need to get started on helping the
Directory today! There are also <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that
everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each
meeting.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/applying-free-sw-criteria
title: New article by RMS, "Applying the Free Software Criteria"
uri: New-article-by-RMS-Applying-the-Free-Software-Criteria
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/applying-free-sw-criteria
content:
<p>In <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/applying-free-sw-criteria.html">"Applying
the Free Software Criteria,"</a> his latest article, Richard Stallman
shows us how to "apply the free software criteria to judge whether
a software package, an operating system, a computer, or a web page is
fit to recommend."  He unpacks the issues for us, case by case, to
help us navigate some very murky waters, so as to equip us to
make---and recommend---only those computing choices that will respect
and protect user freedom.</p>


title: Time to act on TPP is now: Rallies against TPP in Washington D.C. November 14-18
uri: Time-to-act-on-TPP-is-now-Rallies-against-TPP-in-Washington-D-C-Nove
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/time-to-act-on-tpp-is-now-rallies-against-tpp-in-washington-d-c-november-14-18

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/time-to-act-on-tpp-is-now-rallies-against-tpp-in-washington-d-c-november-14-18

content:
<p>The FSF has been warning users of the dangers of the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) for many years now. The TPP is an agreement
negotiated in secret nominally for the promotion of trade, yet entire
chapters of it are dedicated to implementing restrictions and
regulations on computing and the Internet. In April of 2015, a leaked
draft of the agreement revealed a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/latest-tpp-leak-shows-systemic-threat-to-software-freedom">whole host of problems</a>. From
extensions to the term of copyright, confusing provisions on software
patents, and spreading the worst aspects of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act's (DMCA) Digital Restrictions Managment (DRM) provisions
beyond the United States, the TPP negotiations were and are an attack
on user freedom. In the U.S. at that time, the battle was to stop
Trade Promotion Authority, which would fast-track passage of TPP in
the U.S. once an accord was reached. We unfortunately lost that
battle, and last month the TPP negotiations ended. On November 5th,
the
<a href="http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Treaties-and-International-Law/01-Treaties-for-which-NZ-is-Depositary/0-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Text.php">secret text of TPP was finally officially released to the public</a>. Because
of Trade Promotion Authority, the time we have left to stop TPP in the
U.S. is extremely limited. For U.S. residents, there are only 90 days
left before this trade agreement locks users in for possibly
decades. For users in other TPP member countries, the time frame is
not much better. The war wages on and the time to act is now.</p>
<p>One big reveal from the final publication was the addition of the
<a href="media/1ad84f73.14.20Electronic20Commerce20Chapter.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade-agreement/transpacific/TPP-text/14.%20Electronic%20Commerce%20Chapter.pdf">Electronic Commerce chapter</a>, which was not previously leaked. The
chapter contains provisions similar to those found in the Trade in
Services Agreement (TISA) that <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-many-headed-monster-of-international-trade-agreements">we wrote about previously</a>. TPP
requires that "No Party shall require the transfer of, or access to,
source code of software owned by a person of another Party, as a
condition for the import, distribution, sale or use of such software,
or of products containing such software, in its territory." While
government procurement is exempted from this rule under TPP ("This
Chapter shall not apply to ... government procurement"), it would
still mean that member countries could not pass a law requiring that
imported consumer devices come with source code. The regulation would
not affect freely licensed software, such as software under the GPL,
that already comes with its own conditions ensuring users receive
source code. Such licenses are grants of permission from the copyright
holders on the work, who are not a "Party" to TPP. But even if the
rule is limited, it is clearly an attack on the sharing of software
and government policies to encourage it. This is yet another reason
why we must stop TPP.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, as the similar language found in TISA shows, even if we
are successful in stopping TPP, other international trade agreements
lie in wait that would extend these problems all around the world as
well as produce many of their own. Dozens of countries around the
world are ensnaring each other in agreements that threaten user's
fundamental liberty. If you live in a country that is not a member of
TPP, now is not the time for complacency. The short track to TPP
approval may be overshadowing the agreements that are threatening you
personally further down the line, but now is the perfect time to shine
a light on them as well.</p>
<p>TPP, and the ongoing fight against all international "trade"
agreements that threaten freedom, is one of the most urgent issues
facing users today.  The work we have done over the years against DRM
and software patents will be set back if we do not stop these
agreements from coming to pass. But we are not alone in this
fight. Organizations all around the world are rallying to the cause to
stop TPP and agreements like it. The first step for now are a series
of rallies taking place in Washington D.C. from November 14th to the
18th. The
<a href="https://www.eff.org/event/global-week-actions-against-tpp-ttip-tisa">Electronic Frontier Foundation will be hosting two days of action</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>On Monday, November 16th at 4:30pm EST they will host a march and
  rally to stop TPP at Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St NW, Washington,
  D.C. 20062.</li>
<li>On Tuesday, November 17th at 5pm EST they will host a hackathon to
  develop tools and materials to fight TPP and all international trade
  agreements centrally located at First Trinity Lutheran Church, 4th
  and E Sts., NW, Washington D.C. 20001 and around the world via irc.</li>
</ul>
<p>We hope that you can join our friends at EFF on November 16th in the
Washington D.C., and on November 17th in Washington D.C. and around
the world. This multi-day rally is just the start of the steps we need
to take to stop TPP. Here's what you need to do:</p>
<ul>
<li>If you are located near Washington D.C. or can travel, join the
  rally to stop TPP on November 16th.</li>
<li>Join in on the hackathon wherever you are in the world.</li>
<li>If you are part of a hackerspace, create a local event to
  participate in the hackathon and post the details on
  <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Main_Page">Libreplanet</a>.</li>
<li>Tell your friends about the upcoming rallies and get them to participate.</li>
<li>Get your friends to sign up for the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/">Free Software Supporter</a>.
  to keep up to date on the latest actions.</li>
<li>Support our work against TPP by making a
  <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donation to the FSF</a>.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/recap-of-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-6
title: Recap of Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: November 6
uri: Recap-of-Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-November-6
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/recap-of-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-6
content:
<p>In today's Friday Free Software Directory IRC Meeting we started things off by getting some tips from Yaron Koren of <a href="http://wikiworks.com/">WikiWorks</a> related to improving our Approved Revisions process, which should be completed over the next week. We then added and/or approved several new entries, including: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Letsencrypt">Let's Encrypt‎‎</a>, a tool to automatically receive and install X.509 certificates to enable TLS on servers.</li>
<li><a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/KeePassX">KeePassX</a>, a port of Keepass Password Safe, which is a cross platform encrypted database for your passwords, usernames, URLs, comments, and attachments. </li>
<li><a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Tcalc">Tcalc</a>, a terminal-based calculator. </li>
<li><a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Telegram">Telegram</a>, a multi-platform instant messaging client. </li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-6th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: November 6th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-November-6th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-6th
content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a>
by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in
the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>.<br />
</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to
make it onto IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide
you with all the information you need to get started on helping the
Directory today! There are also <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that
everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each
meeting.</p>


title: GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: 20 new GNU releases! as of October 27, 2015
uri: GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-20-new-GNU-releases-as-of-October
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-20-new-gnu-releases-as-of-october-27-2015

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-20-new-gnu-releases-as-of-october-27-2015

content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ccscript/">ccscript-5.0.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/complexity/">complexity-1.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/easejs/">easejs-0.2.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/">freeipmi-1.4.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/">glpk-4.56</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuchess/">gnuchess-6.2.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-pw-mgr/">gnu-pw-mgr-1.6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuspeech/">gnuspeech-0.9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuspeech/">gnuspeechsa-0.1.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gslip/">gslip-1.0.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/">icecat-38.3.0-gnu1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/kawa/">kawa-2.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/less/">less-481</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/">libmicrohttpd-0.9.44</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/">librejs-6.0.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20151022</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/sipwitch/">sipwitch-1.9.14</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ucommon/">ucommon-6.6.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/units/">units-2.12</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu</a>.</p>
<p>To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
<a href="https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/</a>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html</a>.  You can use the url
<a href="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/">https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/</a> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.</p>
<p>This month, we welcome Carl Hansen as a new co-maintainer for GNU SRC
and Nazim Djafar as the new maintainer for GNU jwhois.</p>
<p>A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint</a> if you'd like to
help.  The general page on how to help GNU is at
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html</a>.</p>
<p>If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html</a>.</p>
<p>As always, please feel free to write to us, <a href="mailto:maintainers@gnu.org">&#109;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>,
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.</p>


title: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Michael Lissner and Brian Carver of RECAP The Law
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Michael-Lissner-and-Brian
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-michael-lissner-and-brian-carver-of-recap-the-law

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-michael-lissner-and-brian-carver-of-recap-the-law

content:
<p><a href="https://www.recapthelaw.org/">RECAP</a> is a suite of browser extensions
that improves the experience of using <a href="https://www.pacer.gov/">PACER</a>,
the electronic public access system for the U.S. Federal Courts. When
you pay for documents on PACER, RECAP helps you give back by
contributing those documents to a public archive hosted by the
Internet Archive. RECAP also saves you money when you use PACER by
showing you when documents are available at no cost from the
Archive. If you use PACER you should install RECAP to save money and
contribute to our public archive.</p>
<p>Michael Lissner is a developer and Brian Carver is an attorney and
both are members of <a href="http://freelawproject.org/">Free Law Project</a>'s
Board of Directors.</p>
<h2>Can you tell us a bit of the history behind RECAP?</h2>
<p>In 2008, Carl Malamud began putting PACER documents on
<a href="http://resource.org">resource.org</a> and encouraging others to help
"recycle" those documents. In the Spring of 2009, Aaron Swartz heeded
Carl Malamud's call to take advantage of PACER's no-cost trial at 17
libraries across the country and Swartz downloaded nearly 20 million
pages before the courts cut him off. At the same Timothy B. Lee had
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/04/case-against-pacer/">written</a>
about the deficiencies of the PACER system, and Stephen Schultze had
been working for some time at Harvard's
<a href="https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/">Berkman Center for Internet &amp; Society</a>.</p>
<p><a href="media/66b1eb44.Schultze_Judiciary_Budgeting.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.openpacer.org/hogan/Schultze_Judiciary_Budgeting.pdf">Working paper</a>
about PACER. At Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy
("CITP"), Harlan Yu, Stephen Schultze, and Timothy B. Lee, under the
supervision of Prof. Ed Felten, were thinking and
<a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1138083">writing</a> about public access to the
documents and data government creates.</p>
<p>So, there was a perfect confluence of people concerned about this
issue at the same time and several of them, at CITP, managed to work
together to create RECAP as one way to crowd-source a partial solution
to the public access problems that government seemed unwilling to
address.
</p> <table align="right" style="background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center; margin:10px; border: none !important; padding: 0px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="250" style="border: none !important;"><img src="media/16c53ed2.recycle-pacer.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/licensing/recycle-pacer.png" alt="Cartoon image that says click me to deposit your pacer documents" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style=" text-align: center; line-height: 1em; padding: 4px; margin: 0px; border: none;">From Carl Malamud's <a href="http://pacer.resource.org">pacer.resource.org</a>,
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081219162801/http://pacer.resource.org/">retrieved on 16 December 2008</a>.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table><p></p>
<p>In May of 2014, CITP announced that it was partnering with
<a href="http://freelawproject.org">Free Law Project</a> for the continued
maintenance and development of RECAP. As RECAP approached its fifth
birthday, all the original developers had moved on from Princeton to
exciting careers elsewhere. In the meantime, Free Law Project had
sprung up as a non-profit dedicated to providing access to court
documents and to building free software legal research tools, such as
their <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.txt">AGPLv3</a>-licensed
<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com">CourtListener platform</a>. Free Law
Project was the obvious long-term home for RECAP and now Princeton's
CITP and Free Law Project continue to work together to ensure that
RECAP is supported until the courts make all these public domain
documents available at no cost.</p>
<h2>How are people using RECAP?</h2>
<p>Thousands of people use RECAP every day. Unfortunately, the PACER
system has stayed almost exactly the same since 2009 and now the
courts charge PACER users even more per page than they did in 2009. So
the need for RECAP as a means of permanently removing these public
domain documents from behind a paywall remains stronger than ever. We
hear from users that simply enjoy knowing that they are contributing
to a public archive and from users for whom the charges PACER imposes
are a real burden.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets RECAP apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>As far as we know, RECAP is an extremely unique hack to solve an
extremely unique problem. Most sites don't charge 10 cents per page
for electronic documents. The PACER system is a bizarre throwback to
the days of copy machines. And even where a large collection of
documents might exist behind a paywall, such as academic journal
articles, those documents are generally still under copyright and
unlike the public domain court records that RECAP seeks to
collect. So, building RECAP-like software in other contexts might be
frustrated by copyright law. But one thing that is particularly
ingenious about RECAP is that it so clearly illustrates the individual
benefit that can be derived from the creation of a commons. RECAP
users save themselves money. While most users tell us they are excited
to give back to the project and that they like that the documents
PACER forces them to buy are uploaded to our archive, we don't have to
rely on altruistic motives to gain users. Even users that might
download RECAP motivated only by their own self-interest in saving
money end up contributing documents to our archive, making the overall
usefulness of RECAP increase every single day, one document at a time.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the GNU GPLv3+ as RECAP's license?</h2>
<p>We asked the original developers why they chose GPLv3 and no one could
recall for sure. We suspect it was for the usual reasons: GPLv3 is
well known and understood among developers and its use signals that
one's project is committed to free software.</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to RECAP?</h2>
<p>There are several ways that both technical and non-technical users can
contribute to RECAP. First, you don't have to be an attorney with a
regular PACER habit to install RECAP and start contributing
documents. PACER does not charge users for the first $15 worth of
downloads they make each quarter. So, Free Law Project has created
<a href="http://freelawproject.org/2015/01/21/help-agitate-to-open-up-pacer/">instructions</a>
for anyone to donate their $15 worth of no-charge PACER usage and, if
you like, will even send you a reminder email as the end of the
quarter approaches. Free Law Project would like for the
<a href="http://freelawproject.org/2015/03/20/what-is-the-pacer-problem/">PACER Problem</a>
to go away and so have also written about the ways people can write to
Congress and the courts to urge them to end the current PACER fee
structure.</p>
<p>Free Law Project has also just begun a major development effort to
overhaul the RECAP extensions and the RECAP Server in an effort that
will integrate all the RECAP documents into CourtListener's existing
2.9 million court documents, making the RECAP archive full-text
searchable for the first time. Developers with experience working on
browser extensions, APIs, Python, Django, or solr that would like to
learn how they might contribute should express interest at
<a href="mailto:info@recapthelaw.org">&#105;&#110;&#102;&#111;&#64;&#114;&#101;&#99;&#97;&#112;&#116;&#104;&#101;&#108;&#97;&#119;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> or start working on issues posted in our
repository.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for RECAP?</h2>
<p>The major development effort now under way is focused on several
improvements. First, we aim to make user uploads faster and more
predictable so that users can see the impact of their contribution
reflected as quickly as possible. Second, we want to make all these
documents full-text searchable by combining them with CourtListener
documents to create the largest no-cost searchable collection of court
documents on the Internet. Third, we want to create a robust API to
enable more sophisticated parties to programmatically interact with
the RECAP collection so that they can create additional useful
third-party services.</p>
<h2>Any final thoughts?</h2>
<p>Everything Free Law Project develops is free software. We've built our
CourtListener platform by piecing together existing free software
tools and RECAP also makes use of several major free software
projects. We don't want there to be any barriers to someone else being
able to contribute to our efforts and so actively avoid any dependency
that is not free software. Ultimately the work of the Free Software
Foundation has inspired and made possible what we are trying to do,
and so we and all those that might benefit from our efforts ultimately
owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Free Software
Foundation. Thank you.</p>
<p><em>Enjoy this interview? Check out our previous entry in this series,
 featuring
 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-joel-krahemann-maintainer-of-advanced-gtk-sequencer">Joël Krähemann, maintainer of Advanced GTK+ Sequencer</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/be-a-guide-for-tech-giving
title: Be a guide for tech giving
uri: Be-a-guide-for-tech-giving
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/be-a-guide-for-tech-giving
content:
<p><img alt="Flyer Handoff" src="media/aff686f4.flyer-handoff.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/flyer-handoff.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />
The FSF's
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide">Giving Guide</a> is designed to make it easy for you to choose tech
gifts that respect recipients' rights and avoid those that don't. But
to have the greatest possible impact, we also need <em>you</em> to spread the
word about ethical tech this season.</p>
<p>This guide is an easy-to-use resource that can make a difference in
what people buy. We just need to get it in front of them, and we're
doing that with events called Giveaways.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer">Can you spread the word by organizing a Giving Guide Giveaway in
  your community? Get started now with our primer.</a></strong></p>
<p>Giveaways are public meet-ups where we gather to hand out our
attractive <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer#printable">Giving Guide flyer</a> to holiday shoppers trying to
decide which electronics to pick up. By having face-to-face
interactions with people in your area, you'll be getting your message
across way more effectively than we can by talking about it
online. And you'll be building our activist community as well, as you
meet and make friends with like-minded people in your area. The flyer
is <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer#printable">available in multiple languages</a> thanks to the work of many
volunteers, and we hope to have more soon!</p>
<p>The FSF is organizing our own Giveaway in Somerville, Massachusetts,
on Wednesday, December 16th. If you're in our area, we'd love to have
you join us! <a href="https://www.fsf.org/events/flyering-20151216-somerville-ethical-tech-giving-guide">See the details and RSVP.</a></p>
<p>We've created a primer to get you started organizing a Giveaway. Get a
few friends together for a small Giveaway, or make a splash with a big
one -- it's about spreading the message this season in whatever way is
best for you. If you aren't able to get people together for the
Giveaway, you can have an impact just by printing out some flyers and
leaving them at your office or a community
space. <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer"><strong>Check out the primer now, and organize your Giveaway!</strong></a></p>
<p>One more thing: a key FSF directive is to educate people about
computer user freedom, so that they can be empowered to fight for
it. With the Giving Guide, our <a href="https://www.libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet conference</a> and our
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships">internship programs</a>, we go offline and use face-to-face
interaction to light a fire of knowledge and ethical conviction in
those we touch. The impact is multiplied when each member of our
community lights the flames of others. But as powerful as we are
together, we cannot keep our flame burning without financial
support. If you can, please donate or become a member today, and carry
us towards our goal of $450,000 by January 31st.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=2015-givingguide-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">Donate</a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=2015-givingguide-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=join">Join as a member</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal">Read more about our work</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/gnu-press-fundraiser-discount-2015
title: GNU Press fundraiser discount: members enjoy 30% off, nonmembers get 10%!
uri: GNU-Press-fundraiser-discount-members-enjoy-30-off-nonmembers-get-1
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/gnu-press-fundraiser-discount-2015
content:
<img alt="Free Software, Free Society" src="media/fe428c96.free-software-free-society-3-hardcover-signed-148_t200.jpg" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/store/img/free-software-free-society-3-hardcover-signed-148_t200.jpg" style="float: right; width: 100px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Help the Free Software Foundation by doing your holiday shopping at
<a href="https://shop.fsf.org">GNU Press</a>.  If you are not a member, <a href="https://fsf.org/join">join today</a>! Any
purchase made during this time will count toward our
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal/">fundraising goal of $450,000</a>.</p>
<p>Hardcover copies of <em>Free Software Free Society, 3rd edition</em>, which
was released on October 3rd, can now be purchased with
<a href="https://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society-3-hardcover-signed/">Richard Stallman's signature</a>. We have also restocked many of the
shirts and hoodies in the <a href="https://shop.fsf.org">shop</a>, so if you couldn't find a size
you were looking for this fall, be sure to check again.</p>
<p>As always, if you can't find something in the store but think we
should offer it, please add your suggestion to our <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki?title=GNU_Press_Shop_Items_Ideas#Store">Ideas</a> page.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-announces-support-for-gnu-guix
title: FSF announces fundraising support for GNU Guix, a new approach to GNU/Linux
uri: FSF-announces-fundraising-support-for-GNU-Guix-a-new-approach-to-GNU
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-announces-support-for-gnu-guix
content:
<img alt="Guix Logo" src="media/bbaf4154.GuixSD-V.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/fsforg/img/GuixSD-V.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p><em>This post was written by GNU Guix maintainer Ludovic Courtès and FSF executive director John Sullivan.</em></p>
<p>The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced that we would begin
accepting donations as part of our support for <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/">GNU Guix</a>, a
dependable and customizable package manager, along with GuixSD, GNU's
advanced <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html">free GNU/Linux distribution</a>. Donations will primarily go
to increasing the project's build farm capacity so it can manage the
growing number of packages and users.</p>
<p>You can help GNU Guix by
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=50">making a contribution at the FSF-hosted page for the campaign</a>. 10%
of your contribution to Guix will also go to help the FSF meet
<a href="https://fsf.org/appeal">its current fundraising goal</a>! Donations are accepted in US
dollars, Euro (email <a href="mailto:donate@fsf.org">&#100;&#111;&#110;&#97;&#116;&#101;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> for transfer info), Bitcoin, and
Litecoin.</p>
<p>There is no shortage of GNU/Linux distributions and package managers,
but GNU Guix and GuixSD distinguish themselves in several important
ways. As a package manager, Guix offers <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Features.html">uncommon features</a> such as
transactional upgrades and rollbacks -- users can run package
upgrades, possibly unattended, confident that they can roll back to
the previous state should the upgrade trigger bugs.</p>
<p>GuixSD, the Guix System Distribution, takes that to the level of the
complete operating system: instead of modifying configuration files
and other parts of the system state in a possibly irreversible
fashion, GuixSD sysadmins provide a <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Using-the-Configuration-System.html"><em>declaration</em></a> of what they
want the system to be like, and then <em>instantiate</em> it. The declaration
specifies details ranging from locale and timezone settings, mounted
file systems, and system services and their configuration. It can be
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Invoking-guix-system.html">instantiated</a> on the "bare metal" or in virtual machines or
containers, which simplifies testing.</p>
<p>Last but not least, Guix and GuixSD provide a unified set of
programming interfaces, making the whole system highly customizable.
The package recipes and build tools themselves are essentially
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Package-Modules.html">a set of libraries</a> of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/">GNU Guile</a>, the host language. Core
parts of the system, from initialization code to system service
management, are similarly available as libraries.</p>
<p>Guix builds on low-level techniques pioneered by the <a href="https://nixos.org/nix/">Nix</a> package
manager. These techniques notably maximize package reproducibility:
Builds are performed in isolated environments, so independent builds
are likely to produce bit-for-bit reproducible binaries. This
property, in turn, is what allows users to check whether they really
get the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#section1">Corresponding Source</a> of binaries they run. Guix
<a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=8407">provides tools for users to take advantage of reproducible builds</a>,
and is part of a <a href="https://reproducible-builds.org/">broader community of free software projects</a>
committed to addressing the remaining roadblocks to reproducible
builds.</p>
<p>The GNU Guix project was started <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-system-discuss/2012-11/msg00000.html">three years ago</a>. Today, Guix
provides almost <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/packages/">3,000 packages</a> available on 4 hardware
platforms. GuixSD itself is in beta stage, currently targeted
primarily at experienced users. Its small developer community has been
growing continuously, with more than 50 people who contributed
packages or code in 2015, and a number of people helping with the key
tasks of localization, Web design, and artwork.</p>
<p>In addition to funding, GNU Guix needs more developers. Interested
hackers are invited to join the <code>#guix</code> IRC channel on
<code>irc.freenode.net</code> or the project's
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/about/#contact">other communication channels</a>. The Web site's
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/contribute/">contribution page</a> lists the technical and non-technical ways in
which you can help.</p>
<p><em>Support for GNU Guix is part of the FSF's
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fund">Working Together for Free Software</a> initiative, a broad campaign
to connect software freedom advocates with projects that need their
help. Other projects that have benefited from this program include the
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=19">Replicant</a> free mobile operating system, and the federated Web
media-publishing platform <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=36">GNU MediaGoblin</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-december-18th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: December 18th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-December-18th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-december-18th
content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a>
by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in
the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to
make it onto IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide
you with all the information you need to get started on helping the
Directory today! There are also <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that
everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each
meeting.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-put-the-planet-in-libreplanet
title: Help put the Planet in LibrePlanet by sponsoring an attendee
uri: Help-put-the-Planet-in-LibrePlanet-by-sponsoring-an-attendee
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-put-the-planet-in-libreplanet
content:
<img alt="LibrePlanet 2015" src="media/d948d633.john_welcome.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/libreplanet/2015/john_welcome.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>If you haven't yet, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1&amp;pk_campaign=scholarship-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">register now to attend LibrePlanet</a>, and
consider helping build our travel scholarship fund, to help a fellow
free software enthusiast attend.</p>
<p>Each year, free software fans from across the world gather for the
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet conference</a>. At this year's LibrePlanet, our theme, "Fork
the System", will explore how free software creates the opportunity of
a new path for its users, allows developers to fight the restrictions
of a system dominated by a proprietary software by creating free
software replacements, and is the foundation of freedom, sharing, and
change.</p>
<p>Fitting the theme, each year we offer a few scholarships to
LibrePlanet participants for whom the cost of travel is a major
barrier to attendance. We strive for inclusiveness in the free
software community, and we know the scholarship fund is one way of
creating opportunity in the free software community.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=33&amp;pk_campaign=scholarship-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=register">The FSF is seen as a guiding light for the free software
community. Can you increase access to LibrePlanet 2016, helping more
community members shine, by giving to our scholarship fund?</a></strong></p>
<p>The impact of scholarships is huge: the free software community
benefits when new people are able to attend LibrePlanet. Those who are
awarded travel scholarships bring their own ideas to the conference
and commit to sharing what they learn at LibrePlanet with their local
community.</p>
<p>A donation of $100 will fund one night in a shared hotel room. A
donation of $400 will fund one domestic flight. A donation of $1,200
will fund an international flight.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Free Software Foundation spent $4,500 to bring four
people to LibrePlanet. This year, we have thirty-three applicants from
fifteen countries who would like to attend LibrePlanet but need
financial assistance. The number of applicants we'll be able to offer
scholarships depends, in part, on the donation you make between now
and December 31st.</p>
<p>Will you help us? You can make a <strong><a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=33&amp;pk_campaign=scholarship-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=register">donation</a></strong> or donate when you
<strong><a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1&amp;pk_campaign=scholarship-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">register</a></strong> for the conference yourself. Every donation you make
also helps us meet our goal of raising <a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal">$450,000 by January 31st</a>.
We've already raised 30% of our goal! Thanks for your support.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/executive-director/support-the-software-freedom-conservancy
title: Join with me to support the Software Freedom Conservancy
uri: Join-with-me-to-support-the-Software-Freedom-Conservancy
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/executive-director/support-the-software-freedom-conservancy
content:
<img alt="John Sullivan with Conservancy" src="media/00fb41fc.conservancy-and-fsf-ed.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/fsforg/img/conservancy-and-fsf-ed.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Last year, I <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">joined the Software Freedom Conservancy</a> as one of
their first Supporters, doing my small part to bolster their then-new
grassroots fundraising program. Today, after reading up on the
<a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/">fantastic results they've achieved over the last year</a>, I'm
renewing my support. I hope you will join me this giving season in
supporting both the FSF and Conservancy.</p>
<p>Bradley Kuhn, Conservancy's President, hired me to work at the Free
Software Foundation in March of 2003, when he was the FSF's executive
director. Bradley had just, at the end of 2002, led the effort to
design and launch our <a href="https://member.fsf.org">associate membership program</a>. He did this
to get the FSF, which was faltering, back on stable financial footing.
Thirteen years later, you can see the success of his efforts. The FSF
has not only remained solid -- we've even grown. By <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">donating to
Conservancy now</a>, you can help them reach the same level of
stability.</p>
<p>Every day, I am thankful for the work Bradley did in 2002 and the
result that the FSF is almost 85% funded by individuals. While we
receive and welcome support from corporations as well, the fact that
we do so from a position of grassroots strength and independence helps
us stick resolutely to our principles and the clear-eyed pursuit of
our charitable mission to make all software respect the freedom of the
people using it.</p>
<p>The best way in our current legal regime to make this dream a reality
is to distribute software under the terms of a copyleft license like
the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GNU GPL guarantees that
software initially distributed under its terms will always be free for
anyone to run, share, modify, and re-share. Software bearing its
shield can never be incorporated into proprietary, restricted products
like those distributed by Microsoft, Apple, Google, and -- sadly --
many others.</p>
<p>This protection, though, is not automatic. The terms of the GPL need
to be actively enforced whenever companies attempt to take works
written and distributed by developers committed to respecting users,
and instead use those works as the basis for restriction and control.
Such companies are doing something unethical. They are taking software
deliberately committed to the commons for everyone to build on in
their own endeavors, whether commercial or noncommercial, and instead
using that work to try and get a cheater's advantage over their
business competitors.</p>
<p>The GPL is more than capable of stopping this cheating. But someone
has to detect it, and someone has to take action to stop it. We
describe this work as "GPL enforcement" or "GPL compliance." The
software copyright holders or their designated representative are the
ones who have the legal standing to tell the cheaters that they have
to stop cheating, and to take them to court if they refuse. The FSF,
standing up for the developers of GNU software, and as a proxy for
users everywhere, does this work daily. So does Conservancy, on behalf
of its member projects and other developers they have specific
agreements with. These projects include a few you might have heard of,
like Git, Samba, Mercurial, and the GPL Compliance Project for Linux
Developers.</p>
<p>Even though we have decades of evidence that following the terms of
the GPL can lead to enormous business success, some bad actors still
cheat and take shortcuts. They build their products using the ladder
handed to them by free software developers, and then try to kick it
away so no one else can do the same.</p>
<p>Organizations like the FSF and Conservancy, working with like-minded
free software developers, take on the often David vs. Goliath work of
investigating and stopping such cheating. Because this work involves
using the power of problematic legal systems, we both follow a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/enforcement-principles">set of
principles</a> designed to make sure we do it for only the right
reasons and never for mere financial gain. </p>
<p>Fortunately, the problem of deliberate cheating is less common than
companies who distribute both GPL and non-GPL software unintentionally
screwing up. Even though GPL-licensed software is now the backbone of
our international economy, distributing it is still new to many
companies. Conservancy and the FSF help such companies find and
correct their mistakes and start to do things the right way. We do ask
to be reimbursed for our time on such work, but at very modest rates
that by themselves never seem sufficient to expand it -- largely
because both organizations also devote much of our time to helping
free software developers use licenses properly, at no charge.</p>
<p>While, as the FSF's executive director, I am primarily concerned about
growing our own work in this area, it is also abundantly clear that we
need more than one organization doing it. If we don't, all the amazing
work done over the last two-and-a-half decades developing and sharing
software under the GPL will end up having been in service of making
cheaper and easier ways to restrict and control people, instead of
building the digital foundation for a truly free society. As
Conservancy's executive director and unflappable advocate of user
freedom Karen Sandler said in her 2015 <a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet</a> keynote,
someone needs to <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/karen-sandler-stand-up-for-gnu-gpl/">"stand up for the GPL."</a></p>
<p>The GPL works. It has been tested in courts. It has established and
maintained strong norms outside of court. But like the Millennium
Falcon's deflector shields, if you don't keep it charged and angled at
the threats, you'll be vulnerable.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, some companies see the very success of free software as
evidence that we should stop doing GPL enforcement and stop worrying
about whether they are actually passing along the freedoms the GPL
gave them. This is short-term thinking on their part, undermining the
very principles and dynamics that made their businesses possible.</p>
<p>They are testing the waters to see how much you, as an individual,
care about having your freedom respected. There are many ways each of
us can stand up for our own freedom, but in practice, as each of us
have day jobs, families, and complex lives, the best option we have is
to join our resources with others', and support groups whose day job
<em>is</em> to work on our behalf.</p>
<p>To that end, Bradley Kuhn and Karen Sandler are two of the hardest
working people I know. For them, it's much more than a day job.
Together with their General Counsel Tony Sebro, their License
Compliance Engineer Denver Gingerich, and their <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/about/board/">all-star board of
directors</a>, they get an astounding amount of work done, for
astoundingly modest compensation. They do it for all the right
reasons, and are incorruptible. As someone who has worked closely with
13 years' of FSF staffers and board members, and hundreds of free
software developers and activists, my expectations in this area are
very high. These are exactly the kind of people you want working on
your behalf.</p>
<p>What they get done -- behind the scenes doing <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/services/">critical administrative
work</a> so developers can focus on development; out on the
<a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/dec/11/yir-karen-lca/">international</a> speaking circuit <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/dec/12/yir-bkuhn-lca/">inspiring people</a> and
<a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/dec/16/yir-fosdem-2015/">focusing attention</a> on key issues facing our movement; and on the
phone successfully navigating delicate, difficult negotiations -- is a
constant inspiration to me and should make you, as a Supporter, feel
very good about how your donations are used.</p>
<p>This is a key moment to stand up for yourselves, to give back for work
that's already been done, and to ensure the continued growth of free
software as a means to ensure our freedom, and the freedom of future
generations. Fortunately, since we have the strength of numbers to
draw on, you can do your part for both organizations for less than the
monthly cost of a couple Netflix subscriptions or a single dinner out.
And if you do it now for Conservancy, your <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/dec/18/six-day-match/">donation will be
matched.</a></p>
<p>The alternative -- of being surrounded by computers of all shapes and
sizes controlled by others for the purpose of influencing, monitoring,
and restricting every aspect of our lives, will be far more costly.</p>


title: Free software activists come together to improve proposed U.S. Department of Education regulations
uri: Free-software-activists-come-together-to-improve-proposed-U-S-Departm
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/free-software-activists-come-together-to-improve-proposed-u-s-doe-regulations

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/free-software-activists-come-together-to-improve-proposed-u-s-doe-regulations

content:
<p>The U.S. Department of Education posted a Notice of Proposed Rule
Making earlier this fall, <em>Open Licensing Requirement for Direct Grant
Programs</em>, requesting comments from the public. While the Department's
use of the watered-down term <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html">'open' is unfortunate</a>, the goals
expressed in that notice are something that free software activists
can be pleased with. The Department was looking to provide greater
access to and distribution of works created using the grant funding it
awards. In order to bring this about, it proposed new regulations
requiring that all grant-funded works be released under a license that
permits the public and educators to use them freely.</p>
<p>There was just one small hitch; the new regulations didn't explicitly
require that the license permit redistribution of <em>modified</em> versions.
Without this condition, users could create modified versions, but
might not be able to then share those modified versions with others
who could benefit. The ability to share modified versions is important
not just to <a href="https://www.gnu.org/education/">add value</a> to the materials; it is also necessary to
respect the rights of computer users. If this condition were missing,
then grant-funded works could potentially be released under a license
that failed to guarantee all of the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html">four freedoms</a> required for a
work to be considered free software.</p>
<p>So we <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/send-comments-to-doe-12-15">asked free software activists</a> to help us let the Department know
about the issue, requesting that you send us comments of your own or
to co-sign the comment we were submitting for the FSF. People from all
over the U.S. (and even some from around the world) responded by
sending in thoughtful comments and requests to join our statement. We
have now mailed those comments to the Department, and are hopeful that
they will aid in making sure the new regulations accomplish the goals
set out for them.</p>
<p>We also <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/2015-ed-letter">sent a letter</a> with our submission explaining why we had
to print and physically mail these comments. The only way to submit
comments electronically is to use the government's Regulations.gov
portal, which is encumbered by <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/freejs">proprietary JavaScript</a>. Users
shouldn't have to choose between permitting non-free software on their
computers and being able to communicate with their
government. Governments should <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/government-free-software.en.html">promote the use of free software</a>,
not impede it. While the Department doesn't control the portal (many
agencies use it), we wanted to put the issue on their radar --
especially since requiring proprietary JavaScript is inconsistent with
the very principles their proposed regulations seek to advance.</p>
<p>We are hopeful that the Department will respond to our comments, and
make the small correction that is necessary to prevent the proposal
from being a near-miss. We will keep you updated on progress. Thank
you to everyone who shared their comments with us, and to everyone who
helped bring this proposal to fruition!</p>
<p>Didn't get a chance to join in on the effort? Here's what you can
still do to help:</p>
<ul>
<li>Read and share our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/2015-ed-comment">comment</a> as well as our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/2015-ed-letter">letter</a> to the
    Department of Education.</li>
<li>Support our work on education by <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donating to the FSF.</a></li>
</ul>


title: Shining a spotlight on free software: the FSF's Licensing & Compliance Lab's interview series
uri: Shining-a-spotlight-on-free-software-the-FSF-s-Licensing-Compliance
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/shining-a-spotlight-on-free-software-the-fsfs-licensing-compliance-labs-interview-series

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/shining-a-spotlight-on-free-software-the-fsfs-licensing-compliance-labs-interview-series

content:
<p>In August of 2012, the Licensing &amp; Compliance Lab kicked off a series of interviews with developers of free software. These interviews were a chance to highlight cool free software projects, especially those using copyleft licenses, and learn more about why they are dedicated to free software. What started as a single interview has grown into a regular feature of the Licensing &amp; Compliance Lab blog. With 2015 in the rear-view mirror, we take a moment to look back on the series and highlight these great projects once again.</p>
<p>All of the packages featured here are licensed under either the GNU GPL or AGPL. Each interview looks into the history of the package to understand why it was created and why a copyleft license was chosen.</p>
<h2>Michael Lissner and Brian Carver of RECAP The Law 2015-10-30</h2>
<img src="media/16c53ed2.recycle-pacer.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/licensing/recycle-pacer.png" alt="PACER Logo" width="200" style="float:right" />

<p><a href="https://www.recapthelaw.org/">RECAP</a> is a suite of browser extensions that improves the experience of using PACER, the electronic public access system for the U.S. Federal Courts. When you pay for documents on PACER, RECAP helps you give back by contributing those documents to a public archive hosted by the Internet Archive. RECAP also saves you money when you use PACER by showing you when documents are available at no cost from the Archive. If you use PACER you should install RECAP to save money and contribute to the public archive. Michael Lissner is a developer and Brian Carver is an attorney; both are members of Free Law Project's Board of Directors. </p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-michael-lissner-and-brian-carver-of-recap-the-law">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Joël Krähemann, maintainer of Advanced GTK+ Sequencer 2015-7-8</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an IRC-based interview with Joël Krähemann, Maintainer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Ags">Advanced GTK+ Sequencer</a>. Joël is an IT professional in Switzerland and works on music for fun. Advanced GTK+ Sequencer (AGS) is a an audio processing and composition tool.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-joel-krahemann-maintainer-of-advanced-gtk-sequencer">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>François Marier of Libravatar 2015-6-1</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with François Marier, a free software developer from New Zealand. He is the lead developer of <a href="https://www.libravatar.org/">Libravatar</a>. In addition to his passion for decentralization, he contributes to the Debian GNU/Linux project and volunteers on the FSF licensing team. Libravatar is a free network service providing profile photos for a number of Web sites, including bugs.debian.org and git.kernel.org. Its flexible architecture allows end users to host their own images and allows Web sites to use Gravatar as a fallback when necessary. It is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, or end users can opt for any later version (GNU AGPLv3+).</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-francois-marier-creator-of-libravatar/">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Matt Lee from The List powered by Creative Commons 2015-4-16</h2>
<p>We conducted an email-based interview with Matt Lee, a lead developer of <a href="https://github.com/creativecommons/list">The List</a>, which is licensed under the AGPLv3, or at your option, any later version. Matt is the technical lead at Creative Commons. Matt has been working in free software for over a decade and is a notable contributor to the GNU Project, a former campaigns manager at the Free Software Foundation, and co-founder of Libre.fm and GNU social. Currently Matt is producing a film, Orang-U: An Ape Goes to College, which he is editing using entirely free software and will release under a CC BY-SA license.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-matt-lee-from-the-list-powered-by-creative-commons">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Rainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation 2015-2-11</h2>
<p>We conducted an email-based interview with Rainey Reitman, Activism Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, about their new <a href="https://github.com/EFForg/actioncenter-mobile">EFF Alerts</a> mobile app.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-rainey-reitman-of-the-electronic-frontier-foundation">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Aaron Wolf of Snowdrift.coop 2014-12-29</h2>
<p>Aaron Wolf is the co-founder of <a href="https://snowdrift.coop/">Snowdrift.coop</a>, a web platform coordinating patronage specifically for freely-licensed works. Aaron Wolf is a music teacher by trade who got involved in the free software movement in 2012 building on his earlier interest in free culture and cooperative economics.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-aaron-wolf-of-snowdrift.coop">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Jessica Tallon of PyPump 2014-10-30</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Jessica Tallon, the lead developer <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/PyPump">PyPump</a>, a simple but powerful and pythonic way of interfacing with the pump.io API, which is licensed under the terms of the GPLv3 or, at your option, any later version.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-jessica-tallon-of-pypump">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Alan Reiner of Bitcoin Armory 2014-9-26</h2>
<img src="media/ee12da17.bitcoin-armory.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/logos/bitcoin-armory.png" alt="Bitcoin Armory Logo" width="200" style="float:right" />

<p>Alan Reiner is a core developer of <a href="https://bitcoinarmory.com/">Bitcoin Armory</a>, a bitcoin wallet focused on security. Bitcoin Armory is licensed under the terms of AGPLv3, or (at your option) any later version.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-bitcoin-armory">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Stephen H. Dawson of GNU remotecontrol 2014-9-5</h2>
<img src="media/8e9334b1.GNU_remotecontrol.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/logos/GNU_remotecontrol.png" alt="GNU remotecontrol Logo" width="500" />

<p>We conducted an email-based interview with Stephen H. Dawson and the rest of the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/remotecontrol/">GNU remotecontrol project</a>, a web application for managing building automation devices. Stephen is the maintainer of the GNU remotecontrol software project and is an Information Technology Management professional with over twenty-five years of industry experience in various areas of application development, database management, and networking.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-gnu-remotecontrol">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>David Lohle of Tox 2015-7-21</h2>
<img src="media/1097f4a3.tox-logo.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/licensing/tox-logo.png" alt="Tox Logo" width="200" style="float:right" />

<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with David Lohle from the Tox project, an all-in-one communication platform and protocol that ensures users full privacy and secure message delivery. The <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Tox">Tox core library</a> is licensed under the terms of GPLv3, or (at your option) any later version. The library implements the Tox protocol and provides an API for clients, such as Venom and Toxic.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-tox">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Ciaran Gultnieks of F-Droid 2014-5-8</h2>
<img src="media/b2db5acb.fdroid-logo.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/licensing/fdroid-logo.png" alt="F-Droid Logo" width="200" style="float:right" />

<p>Ciaran Gultnieks is the founder of F-Droid project and the lead developer of <a href="https://f-droid.org/manual/fdroid.html">fdroidserver</a>, which is licensed under the AGPLv3 (or any later version). </p>
<p>The main function of the fdroidserver is to provide the back-end tools for managing a repository of applications — building them from source (very important) in a secure environment, indexing them, signing them, and providing the mechanisms for delivering this data to the end user.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-ciaran-gultnieks-of-f-droid">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Roman Telezhinsky of Valentina 2014-3-19</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Roman Telezhinsky, the lead developer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Valentina">Valentina</a>, a free software pattern-making program, which is licensed under the GPLv3 (or any later version).</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-roman-telezhinsky-of-valentina">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Joerg Henrichs of SuperTuxKart  2014-1-30</h2>
<p>We conducted an email-based interview with Joerg Henrichs, the lead developer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/SuperTuxKart">SuperTuxKart</a>, a free software 3D kart racing game, which is licensed under the GPLv3 (or any later version).</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-joerg-henrichs-of-supertuxkart">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Frank Karlitschek of ownCloud 2013-12-20</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Frank Karlitschek, the lead developer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/ownCloud">ownCloud</a>, a server software project that provides universal access to your files via the Web, your computer, or your mobile devices — wherever you are. It also provides a platform to easily view and sync your contacts, calendars, and bookmarks across all your devices and enables basic editing right on the Web. It is licensed under the AGPLv3, or at your option, any later version. (A note on framing: While we believe that "cloud computing" is a vacuous term that should be avoided, we still greatly appreciate the ownCloud project and its aims, even if we might have chosen a different name for the software.)</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-frank-karlitschek-of-owncloud">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Andrew Ziem of BleachBit 2013-10-29</h2>
<p>Andrew Ziem is the lead developer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Bleachbit">BleachBit</a> -- free software designed to help you free disk space and guard your privacy.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-andrew-ziem-of-bleachbit">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Caleb James DeLisle of cjdns  2014-9-25</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Caleb James DeLisle, the lead developer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Cjdns">cjdns</a>, an encrypted IPv6 networking protocol and server software that uses public key cryptography for address allocation and a distributed hash table for routing.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-caleb-james-delisle-of-cjdns">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Bernd Kreuss of TorChat 2013-8-26</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Bernd Kreuss, the developer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/TorChat">TorChat</a>, a peer-to-peer instant messenger with a completely decentralized design.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-bernd-kreuss-of-torchat">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Shiv Shankar Dayal of Kunjika 2013-7-19</h2>
<p>In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Shiv Shankar Dayal, the developer of <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Kunjika">Kunjika</a>, an extensible web-based Q&amp;A system.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-shiv-shankar-dayal-of-kunjika">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Adam Hyde of Booktype 2013-3-21</h2>
<p>We interviewed Adam Hyde via email. Adam is a knowledge production consultant. He is the founder of <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/booktype/">Booktype</a> -- a book production platform released under AGPLv3, as well as Book Sprints, and FLOSS Manuals. Adam lives between Whangarei Heads, New Zealand, Berlin, and the road.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-adam-hyde-of-booktype">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Matthieu Aubry of Piwik 2013-1-22</h2>
<img src="media/eb7866a1.piwik.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/blogs/piwik.png" alt="Piwik Logo" width="200" style="float:right" />

<p>In this installment, we interviewed (via email) Matthieu Aubry, the maintainer of <a href="http://piwik.org/">Piwik</a>, a freely licensed web analytics package. The FSF encourages people to use Piwik as a replacement for Google Analytics, since Google Analytics requires nonfree JavaScript to run in visitors' browsers, and to be careful with Piwik's privacy settings to make sure that visitor IP addresses and other identifiable bits of information are not recorded.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-matthieu-aubry-of-piwik">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Kovid Goyal of Calibre 2012-12-13</h2>
<img src="media/ded5053f.calibre.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/blogs/calibre.png" alt="Calibre Logo" width="200" style="float:right" />

<p>Calibre is a free ebook library management application developed by users of ebooks for users of ebooks. Calibre is a vibrant community with half-a-dozen developers and many, many testers and bug reporters. It is used in over 200 countries and has been translated into a dozen different languages by volunteers. Calibre has become a comprehensive tool for the management of digital texts, allowing you to do whatever you could possibly imagine with your ebook library. In this installment, we interviewed Kovid Goyal, the creator and lead developer of <a href="http://calibre-ebook.com/">calibre</a>, via email.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-kovid-goyal-of-calibre">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Jeremy Allison on why Samba switched to GPLv3 2012-10-30</h2>
<p>Jeremy Allison is a long-time free software advocate and a lead developer of <a href="http://www.samba.org/">Samba</a>. He has given a talk on why Samba chose the GPLv3 on several occasions, and we wanted to highlight that talk again as part of our series.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/jeremy-allison-on-why-samba-switched-to-gplv3">here</a>.</em></p>
<h2>John W. Eaton of GNU Octave 2012-8-31</h2>
<img src="media/8d8da63b.logo.png" data-original-source="http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/images/logo.png" alt="GNU Octave Logo" width="200" style="float:right" />

<p>GNU Octave is a high-level interpreted language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It provides capabilities for the numerical solution of linear and nonlinear problems, and for performing other numerical experiments. It also provides extensive graphics capabilities for data visualization and manipulation. Octave is normally used through its interactive command line interface, but it can also be used to write non-interactive programs. The Octave language is quite similar to Matlab so that most programs are easily portable.</p>
<p>One of the goals of the Octave project is to liberate the code written for the proprietary program, Matlab, and allow it to run in Octave with as little modification as possible. We interviewed John W. Eaton of the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/">GNU Octave project</a>.</p>
<p><em>Read the full interview <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-john-w.-eaton-of-gnu-octave">here</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/a-look-at-the-fsf-tech-teams-tireless-work-for-user-freedom
title: A look at the FSF tech team's tireless work for user freedom
uri: A-look-at-the-FSF-tech-team-s-tireless-work-for-user-freedom
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/a-look-at-the-fsf-tech-teams-tireless-work-for-user-freedom
content:
<p>Throughout the year, the Free Software Foundation keeps you
informed about our licensing and campaigns work. But one crucial
part of our staff fly under the radar much of the time: <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin">the tech
team</a>. Our sysadmins and Web
developer keep the FSF humming and provide resources and services
that <a href="https://www.gnu.org">the GNU Project</a> needs to write
awesome code:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>They enable the FSF to embody the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">free software
  philosophy</a> by
  maintaining an infrastructure that runs exclusively on free
  software and includes about a dozen main servers, half of which
  are virtual machine (VM) hosts running 101 VMs, as well as many
  Web sites, including
  <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Main_Page">LibrePlanet</a>, the
  community-driven wiki for free software activism, and the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page">Free
  Software
  Directory</a>. The FSF
  is living proof that all functions of a nonprofit
  organization can be performed using only free software, and we
  are proud to set this positive example for others.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>They provide infrastructure for GNU developers, including web
  space (<a href="https://gnu.org/">gnu.org</a> has about 15 million unique
  visitors each year), <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/">software
  hosting</a>, <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/">mailing
  lists</a> that send about 500,000 emails
  per day, and ftp.gnu.org, which averages 225 TB of bandwidth
  each year. They provide extra support and bug trackers for some
  GNU projects, including <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">GNU
  Emacs</a> and
  <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/coreutils.html">Coreutils</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>They provide mirroring and buildservers for several free
  GNU/Linux distros, including
  <a href="https://trisquel.info/">Trisquel</a>,
  <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/">Guix</a>, and
  <a href="http://www.parabola.nu/https/">Parabola</a>, plus hosting for
  <a href="http://www.replicant.us/">Replicant</a>, the fully free Android
  distribution.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>At the annual <a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet free software
  conference</a>,
  the tech team works with volunteers to
  <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2015/Streaming">stream</a>
  and record sessions using free software so that the community
  can participate even if they can't make it to Cambridge.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>They maintain the FSF's <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>
  relay node.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>They contribute code upstream to free software projects used in
  the FSF's work, and report bugs they encounter in order to help
  improve that software, including
  <a href="https://civicrm.org/">CiviCRM</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In the past two years, the team has devoted much energy to
migrating and upgrading the FSF's <a href="https://my.fsf.org/">membership
system</a> to CiviCRM. This change has brought
a host of new benefits and challenges: the FSF can now accept
funds for GNU projects, including <a href="http://www.mediagoblin.org/">GNU
Mediagoblin</a>, <a href="http://gnuradio.org">GNU
Radio</a>, <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/">GNU
Mailman</a>, and most
recently, <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/">GNU Guix</a>. It has
also allowed the FSF to be much more efficient in our
communications with the public.</p>
<p>Recently, the tech team has added new staff, including Trisquel
GNU/Linux developer Ruben Rodriguez Perez as senior sysadmin and Kosa, a web developer.</p>
<p>In the coming year, the tech team has a big wish list they'd like
to achieve, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>growing and updating the FSF and the GNU Project's existing
  infrastructure in order to accommodate new GNU projects;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improving the FSF's development infrastructure to allow us to
  bring in more volunteers and community members working on FSF
  sysadmin and web development projects;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>launching a new and improved fsf.org;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improving email and other services for GNU developers and FSF
members.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Our tech team keeps the FSF and the GNU Project running -- and in
order to fulfill their goals for 2016, they need your support. In
particular, each time the team replaces hardware, they must seek
out computers that use <a href="http://libreboot.org/">libreboot</a> or
coreboot, and that avoid non-free video BIOS or other blobs. But
the extra effort put into this work ensures that we can offer GNU
projects and the free software community more resources powered
exclusively by free software and freedom-respecting hardware.</p>
<p><strong>Can you support free software community infrastructure by
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate/?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=sysadmin">making a donation to the Free Software
Foundation</a>?</strong>
Donating today is a fine way to give back in support of all the
great free software you used this year. You can also make a
long-term commitment to supporting the FSF, the GNU Project, and
the free software community by becoming an <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=sysadmin">associate
member</a>
of the FSF for as little as $10/month (student memberships are
further discounted). Membership offers many <a href="https://fsf.org/associate/benefits">great
benefits</a>, too.</p>
<p>Do you want to learn more about volunteering with the FSF's tech
team? Contact <a href="mailto:sysadmin@gnu.org">&#115;&#121;&#115;&#97;&#100;&#109;&#105;&#110;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> to learn more.</p>


title: November/December 2015 - Gent and Mexico
uri: November-December-2015-Gent-and-Mexico
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/201511-gent-201512-chapingo-mexicocity-cuautitlan-huajuapandeleon-ciudadmadero

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/201511-gent-201512-chapingo-mexicocity-cuautitlan-huajuapandeleon-ciudadmadero

content:
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<div style="border-style:solid; border-width:2px;text-align:center; margin: 4px 50px 4px 50px; padding-top:4px;">

<p>RMS gave his speech "Copyright vs Community" at the Quetelet
auditorium, Sint Pietersplein, in Gent, Belgium, on November 17th, to
a diverse student audience.</p>

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<img src="media/f2d3bb17.20151117-gent-03-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151117-gent/20151117-gent-03-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/2d3baff7.20151117-gent-04-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151117-gent/20151117-gent-04-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Kevin Vanbockryck.)</em>

<p>Later the same month, he was in Mexico, to give his speech
"Software libre en la ética y en la práctica" in Zacatecas, on
November 28th, then his speech "Una sociedad digital libre" at this
year's edition of the <a href="http://fil.com.mx">Feria International
del Libro</a>, in Guadalajara, on November 30th, followed by:</p>

<p>&#8230;his speech "El software libre y tu libertad" at the
Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, on December 1st, after which he took a
swing an the Apple- and Internet Explorer&ndash;shaped piñata at the
afterparty, and received a book from Dr. Zavala, the recently
appointed director of the university's computer center, who is working
on migrating the schools's computers from Windows to GNU/Linux.</p>

<!-- Image(s) start below -->
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<img src="media/3ecde8e2.20151201-chapingo-04-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151201-chapingo/20151201-chapingo-04-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/c2668906.20151201-chapingo-05-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151201-chapingo/20151201-chapingo-05-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/b830cb72.20151201-chapingo-07-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151201-chapingo/20151201-chapingo-07-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of the Centro de Computo Universitario UACh.)</em>

<p>&#8230;at the ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México),
December 2nd, and his speech "&#191;Tenemos que soportar más
vigilancia que en la Unión Sovietica?" at the UNAM (Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México), on December 3rd,</p>

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<img src="media/37da575d.20151203-mexicocity-02.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151203-mexicocity/20151203-mexicocity-02.jpg" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/cec76850.20151203-mexicocity-03.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151203-mexicocity/20151203-mexicocity-03.jpg" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/a2aed7e6.20151203-mexicocity-04.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151203-mexicocity/20151203-mexicocity-04.jpg" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/2f074119.20151203-mexicocity-09.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151203-mexicocity/20151203-mexicocity-09.jpg" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Florino Hernández Gómez.)</em>

<p>&#8230;his speech "El movimiento del software libre" at the UNAM
(Cuautitlán), on December 4th, right after local activists gave a
presentation about <a href="http://parewi.kiutz.com/">Proyecto
Parewi</a>, a project with a mission to refurbish old
computers&mdash;with free systems, naturally!&mdash;and donate them to
rural or poor communities.</p>

<!-- Image(s) start below -->
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<img src="media/2641e842.20151204-cuautitlan-23-thumb.JPG" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151204-cuautitlan/20151204-cuautitlan-23-thumb.JPG" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/13b379eb.20151204-cuautitlan-24-thumb.JPG" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151204-cuautitlan/20151204-cuautitlan-24-thumb.JPG" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of the Rafael Arellano Ruiz.)</em> 

<p>&#8230;his speech "El software libre y tu libertad" (with a mention
of GPLv3) at the Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca (whose
technopark currently boast two buildings dedicated to free software
development), in Huajuapán de León, on December 8th.</p>

<!-- Image(s) start below -->
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<img src="media/4398a101.20151208-huajuapandeleon-02-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151208-huajuapandeleon/20151208-huajuapandeleon-02-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/7aa2e43c.20151208-huajuapandeleon-04-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151208-huajuapandeleon/20151208-huajuapandeleon-04-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/c5e4f70a.20151208-huajuapandeleon-05-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151208-huajuapandeleon/20151208-huajuapandeleon-05-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/7cede507.20151208-huajuapandeleon-06-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151208-huajuapandeleon/20151208-huajuapandeleon-06-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/6d82ab58.20151208-huajuapandeleon-07-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151208-huajuapandeleon/20151208-huajuapandeleon-07-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/fe9626e0.20151208-huajuapandeleon-12-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151208-huajuapandeleon/20151208-huajuapandeleon-12-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/a5c89ffc.20151208-huajuapandeleon-11-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151208-huajuapandeleon/20151208-huajuapandeleon-11-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of the Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca.)</em>

<p>&#8230;in Ciudad Mante, on December 10th, and his speech "Una
sociedad digital libre" at the Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Madero,
in Ciudad Madero, on December 11th:</p>

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<img src="media/d3b80628.20151211-ciudadmadero-01.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151211-ciudadmadero/20151211-ciudadmadero-01.jpg" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/9dd9cb5e.20151211-ciudadmadero-02.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151211-ciudadmadero/20151211-ciudadmadero-02.jpg" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/576d446b.20151211-ciudadmadero-03.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20151211-ciudadmadero/20151211-ciudadmadero-03.jpg" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of José Cleto Hernández Muñoz.)</em>

<!-- End of image+caption block -->

<p>Please fill out our contact form, so that we can inform you about
future events in and around <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=408&amp;reset=1">Gent</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=198&amp;reset=1">Zacatecas</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=418&amp;reset=1">Guadalajara</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=215&amp;reset=1">Mexico
City</a>, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=419&amp;reset=1">the
state of Oaxaca</a>, and <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=200&amp;reset=1">the
state of Tamaulipas</a>.  Please see <a href="http://www.fsf.org/events">www.fsf.org/events</a> for a full
list of all of RMS's confirmed engagements, and contact <a href="mailto:rms-assist@gnu.org">rms-assist@gnu.org</a> if you'd like
him to come speak.</p>

<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Thank you to everyone who helped make this tour a success!</strong></p>
</p></div>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-gnu-year-last-chance-to-give-in-2015
title: Happy GNU Year! Last chance to give in 2015
uri: Happy-GNU-Year-Last-chance-to-give-in-2015
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-gnu-year-last-chance-to-give-in-2015
content:
<pre>
    *      .-.                      .
          (   )      .     *               *
    _      '-'    ,               ,    ,
   (_)  _ /   \.--.\         .    \\__//    .
    _ >(_)    "    ;"           _ / o o\ _
   (_)       (    / )          / '------' \
              ;._/."    . O () "._o_o_o_o."
         *    \.'    .           .           *
 .       
         HAVE A COSMIC HAPPY GNU YEAR 2016!
*(ASCII art by Chris Webber)*
</pre>

<p>Thanks to the free software community's giving, we have already raised
more than $250,000 toward our goal of <a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=end-2015">$450,000 by January 31st,
2016</a>. As we look to the new year, we at the Free Software
Foundation are feeling optimistic about our plans for 2016.</p>
<p>But we need you to help our light shine brighter: our winter
fundraiser is our biggest fundraising period each year. It sets the
tone for the work we are able to do in the coming year and the growth
we'd like to achieve. <strong>If everyone reading this message were to
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">donate at least $5 to the FSF right now</a>, we would meet our goal
today.</strong></p>
<p>The FSF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so gifts to the FSF are
tax-deductible in the US, and this is your last chance to give
in 2015.</p>
<p>Happy GNU Year -- and Happy Hacking!</p>
<p>Chrissie, Donald, Georgia, Jasimin, Jeanne, John, Josh, Kosa, Lisa,
Ruben, Stephen, and Zak</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-december-2015
title: GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: 22 new GNU releases in the last month as of December 24, 2015
uri: GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-22-new-GNU-releases-in-the-last-mo
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-december-2015
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/autogen/">autogen-5.18.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ccaudio2/">ccaudio2-2.2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ccscript/">ccscript-5.1.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/">freeipmi-1.5.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/">gcc-5.3.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/">gdb-7.10.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/global/">global-6.5.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnucash/">gnucash-2.6.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnudos/">gnudos-1.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-gnome/">guile-clutter-1.12.2.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-gnome/">guile-gnome-2.16.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-38.4.0-gnu1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/">libmicrohttpd-0.9.48</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mcsim/">mcsim-5.6.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mdk/">mdk-1.2.9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/">nano-2.5.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20151222</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/sipwitch/">sipwitch-1.9.15</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ucommon/">ucommon-7.0.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/">wget-1.17.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/">xorriso-1.4.2</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu</a>.</p>
<p>To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
<a href="https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/</a>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html</a>.  You can use the url
<a href="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/">https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/</a> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.</p>
<p>This month, we welcome Darshit Shah and Tim Ruehsen as new
comaintainers of GNU wget and Evgeny Grin as a new comaintainer of
libmicrohttpd.</p>
<p>A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint</a> if you'd like to
help.  The general page on how to help GNU is at
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html</a>.</p>
<p>If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html</a>.</p>
<p>As always, please feel free to write to us at <a href="mailto:maintainers@gnu.org">&#109;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/hardware-we-certified-in-2015-to-respect-your-freedom
title: Hardware we certified in 2015 to Respect Your Freedom
uri: Hardware-we-certified-in-2015-to-Respect-Your-Freedom
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/hardware-we-certified-in-2015-to-respect-your-freedom
content:
<img alt="Guiding Light on RYF" src="media/add528f4.ryf-spotlight-600x150.jpg" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/ryf/ryf-spotlight-600x150.jpg" width:="width:" />

<p>To prove naysayers wrong and to motivate production of real options
for users, we created the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/ryf">Respects Your Freedom</a> (RYF) hardware
certification program. This certification is a guiding light companies
can follow in order to demonstrate their commitment to respect your
freedom, your privacy, and your right to control your devices.</p>
<p>When a company believes they have achieved our
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/criteria">RYF certification criteria</a>, they send us samples of the product
for testing. If it passes muster, we enter into a contract with them
that documents their commitment and allows them use of the
certification mark for that product. We heavily promote all certified
products and maintain a listing at <a href="https://www.fsf.org/ryf">www.fsf.org/ryf</a>.</p>
<img alt="RYF Certification" src="media/e2969ad6.RYF-200px.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/ryf/RYF-200px.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>A person shouldn't need to fully understand all of the matters of
liberty and privacy wrapped up in today's technology — they shouldn't
need to have the expertise and knowledge needed to evaluate licenses,
or to make sense of the many legal and technological restrictions that
can encumber their hardware, threaten their privacy, or deny them
control over their device and data. Instead, if a person trusts the
FSF and trusts our commitments to doing this work well, they can seek
out products bearing the RYF mark and know that this research has been
done for them.</p>
<p>In our short-term vision, every product category should have certified
options readily available both in stores and online. By informing the
public, inspiring sellers, and building demand for such devices, we'll
get to our long-term vision, which is to have <em>all</em> devices sold
respect your freedom.</p>
<p>The RYF certification program is one of the most important parts of
the FSF's work — and one of the most promising and successful parts.
Since announcing our first RYF-certified product in October 2012 (the
LulzBot AO-100 3D printer), we have certified a total of eighteen
different hardware devices sold by five different companies. In 2015
alone we awarded RYF certification to six new devices:</p>
<ul>
<li>3 laptops: Libreboot X200 and T400 from Minifree, and the Taurinus
  X200 from Libiquity.</li>
<li>2 3D-printers: The LulzBot TAZ 5 and the LulzBot Mini by Aleph
  Objects.</li>
<li>1 wireless router: The Free Software Wireless-N Mini Router
  (TPE-R1100) sold by ThinkPenguin.</li>
</ul>
<p>The effects of the certification program go well beyond just the
number of products certified. In several instances, certification has
been an important factor in the creation of new small businesses: Some
of those companies have achieved RYF certification on their products,
while others are still working toward this goal. Other companies have
told us that RYF certification is an integral part of their marketing
strategy and part of the core philosophy and mission of the company.</p>
<p>Most certified hardware sellers have not only met our certification
criteria, but have gone above and beyond, such as by committing a
portion of their sales toward funding the development of free software
programs or by releasing the complete hardware design documents for
their devices under free licenses.</p>
<p>In 2016 and beyond, we hope to not only sustain our RYF certification
program, but to grow it. You can be part of this growth. It will
benefit you directly, by giving you real hardware options that respect
your freedom.</p>
<p><strong>Can you support the FSF's Respects Your Freedom certification work
by <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate/?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=sysadmin" title="update keyword">making a donation to the Free Software Foundation</a>?</strong> You can
make a long-term commitment to help the FSF sustain and grow the
program for years to come by becoming an <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=sysadmin" title="update keyword">associate member</a> for as
little as $10/month (student memberships are further discounted).
Membership offers many <a href="https://fsf.org/associate/benefits">great benefits</a>, too.</p>
<p>Other ways you can help are to: </p>
<ul>
<li>Shine a light on <a href="https://www.fsf.org/ryf">RYF certified products</a> by sharing them with
  your friends and on social media #ryf;</li>
<li>steer hardware sellers toward our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/criteria">certification criteria</a>;</li>
<li>and subscribe to the FSF's <a href="https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/"><em>Free Software Supporter</em></a> newsletter
  to receive announcements about future Respects Your Freedom
  products.</li>
</ul>


title: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Guillaume Roguez, Ring Project Director
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Guillaume-Roguez-Ring-Pro
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-guillaume-roguez-ring-project-director

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-guillaume-roguez-ring-project-director

content:
<img alt="Ring Logo" src="media/3b82879c.ring-logo.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/licensing/ring-logo.png" style="float: right; width: 350px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Ring is multi-media communication platform with secured multi-media
channels, that doesn't require centralized servers to work. It is
developed by Savoir-faire Linux, a Canadian company located in
Montréal, Québec. It is a potential free-software replacement for
Skype, and possibly more.</p>
<h2>What inspired the creation of Ring?</h2>
<p>The way everyone perceives the world changed when Edward Snowden,
Wikileaks and others started to massively warn the public about global
surveillance made by our states, network control companies and so
on. The need of software solutions that give back the control to user
has never been as urgent as before. As citizens of democracies and
professionals of free software, we are worried about how frequently
this concentration of our private data is controlled by monolithic
internet giants. This is a real problem for the real global economy
and makes a serious roadblock to innovation. These are our main
reasons to make something different.</p>
<p>In conjunction with these concerns, Savoir-faire Linux developed
another project just before: SFLPhone. It was only usable in a
centralized concept (SIP or IAX servers was necessary), and
communication wasn't secured by encryption/authentication. This first
experience was a good starting point to propose something more
evolved. Even though Ring is currently in alpha version, it allows
decentralization and secure communication, whatever the media
exchanged.</p>
<p>All these matters are our guiding rules and we invite developers who
want to join this project to contribute.</p>
<h2>How are people using it?</h2>
<p>Within Savoir-faire Linux, we use it as our main phone, some even only
use Ring to make calls. We also use it as a video conferencing tool
for our daily communications with our different branches over the
world.</p>
<p>In our team, one of us has even built an Arduino based circuit to
connect Ring to the lights of his house: he can turn them on/off from
distance.</p>
<p>Our great beta-testers (that can be even our mum, dad, friends, ...)
use Ring to make calls and they mostly use the instant message feature
that they like a lot. It's fantastic to hear when someone outside of
our daily job environment gives Ring a try and judges it awesome, even
in the current stage alpha stage. The instant messaging is
particularly used by such users.</p>
<p>As we're also active in local meetups (here at Montreal), where some
free-software enthusiasts are present, to demonstrate our
technology. First impressions make us confident in our decisions.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets Ring apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>Ring is a particular piece of software for at least three reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The interoperability over communication protocols and the goal to
  make it available for anyone, not just a group of crypto-savvy
  enthusiasts. We target the universality concept into Ring: as an
  example, we don't support XMPP yet, but there is nothing in the
  design that could block it's implementation. Developers are welcome!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The fact we intend to support decentralization (DHT) and industrial
  standards like SIP in the same application.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Our layered design permits the use of its low-level core to make
  something completely different from our current clients. Ring allows
  prospects with the Internet of Things.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Why was the GPLv3 chosen as Ring's license?</h2>
<p>Ring comes from SFLPhone, already under GPLv3 license. It was always
obvious to use it for Savoir-faire Linux, especially when we are
looking at the goals of the Ring software. So it has always be evident
to use GLPv3 if we think about the goals of the software itself:</p>
<ul>
<li>To be "hackable": re-use for your needs, provides seeds of our near
  future.</li>
<li>To let people see what we do at SFL: we provide skills; software is
  just a tool or an artefact of that.</li>
</ul>
<p>Only GPL can give the necessary guarantees to achieve that.</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to Ring?</h2>
<p>The most important is to use our available front-ends for your daily
usage. Replace non-free solutions and grow the mesh: it's so important
due to the distributed nature of Ring. We need to grow to <em>securise</em>
(secure) the DHT mesh.</p>
<p>Immediately after this, comes the translation of Ring: better
accessibility is a key of the wide usage success. Then we're free
software, so the code is ready for «happy-hacking» . We're waiting for
security analysis, enhancements, patchsets, ... pick up the code and
let us know what you think about it. For sure we try to do that
everyday, but we're a relatively small team to realize all these
tasks.</p>
<p>Community, we're waiting for you help!</p>
<p>For that we propose various public tools:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>General information: <a href="https://ring.cx">https://ring.cx</a> : find binary packages,
documentation links, news, ...</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Discussion:</p>
</li>
<li>Mailing List : <a href="https://lists.savoirfairelinux.net/mailman/listinfo/ring">https://lists.savoirfairelinux.net/mailman/listinfo/ring</a></li>
<li>
<p>IRC : #ring on freenode.org</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Development:</p>
</li>
<li>Issue tracking : <a href="https://tuleap.ring.cx/projects/ring/">https://tuleap.ring.cx/projects/ring/</a></li>
<li>
<p>Patchset review and repository firewall : <a href="https://gerrit-ring.savoirfairelinux.com">https://gerrit-ring.savoirfairelinux.com</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Online translation: <a href="https://www.transifex.com/savoirfairelinux/ring/">https://www.transifex.com/savoirfairelinux/ring/</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>What's the next big thing for Ring?</h2>
<p>As Ring is in alpha development stage, we always have ideas to improve
or enhance it, so the list is long. In the immediate future we want to
deliver an Android version of our front-end. After that we have
discussion channels (chat) in a generic way (during a call, a
conference, "out-of-call", ...). Then fast and secure file sharing
(that comes after a way to propose a warranted generic data stream
channel). Right after, we are working on a way to provide a
"distributed services" framework: DNS, routing or whatever anyone is
able to dream about the final usage, we want to provide a solid
solution to make it real. We plan to enter in beta stage in the early
of part 2016 sprint.</p>
<p><em>Enjoy this interview? Check out our previous entry in this series,
 featuring <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/&lt;https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-michael-lissner-and-brian-carver-of-recap-the-law&gt;">Michael Lissner and Brian Carver of RECAP The Law</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/from-tpp-to-saving-wifi-the-fsf-fights-for-you
title: From TPP to saving WiFi, the FSF fights for you
uri: From-TPP-to-saving-WiFi-the-FSF-fights-for-you
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/from-tpp-to-saving-wifi-the-fsf-fights-for-you
content:
<p>Free software is built by a community of hackers and activists who
care about freedom. But forces outside that community affect the work
done within in it, for good or ill. While we at the FSF regularly deal
with <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">GNU General Public License</a> (GPL) violators (who we always
hope are just community members waiting for a proper introduction) ,
there is another force that can have a substantial effect on user
freedom: governmental policy.</p>
<p>Laws, regulations, and government actions can have a lasting impact on
users. The GNU GPL is based in copyright but uses its power in a
"copyleft" way to actually protect users from the negative impacts of
copyright, patents, and proprietary license agreements. While we can
sometimes turn a law on its head to make it work for users like this,
other times we are forced to push back in order to guarantee their
rights. In order to achieve our global mission of promoting computer
user freedom and defending the rights of software users everywhere, we
must often take action to petition and protest governing bodies and
their regulations. For the Licensing and Compliance Lab this is
particularly relevant to our work, as these rules can affect how the
licenses published by the FSF protect users. 2015 was a year filled
with such actions, and 2016 will see much of the same. While our work
this past year often involved issues with the U.S. government, the
scope of our work is global. As our worldwide actions on the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other international agreements
demonstrate, bad laws in the U.S. have a tendency to spread around the
globe. We work to educate the U.S public about problematic laws and
regulations here, and we also work with supporters and partner
organizations in countries around the world to achieve the same goals
in their countries.</p>
<p>We want to take a moment to look back on the work we've done on the
licensing team pushing for policies that protect users, and fighting
to stop laws and regulations that would harm them.</p>
<h1>TPP and the threat of international "trade" agreements</h1>
<p>As we explain on our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/trading-freedom">international trade issue page</a> "The FSF has
been warning users of the dangers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) for many years now. The TPP is an agreement negotiated in secret
nominally for the promotion of trade, yet entire chapters of it are
dedicated to implementing restrictions and regulations on computing
and the Internet."</p>
<p>But the TPP is not the only threat looming. In October, FSF's Donald
Robertson gave a talk at <a href="http://seagl.org/schedule/2015.html">SeaGL</a> outlining the threats from the
alphabet soup of international "trade" agreements. A widening web of
negotiations is criss-crossing the globe seeking to implement many of
the same terrible restrictions found in TPP.</p>
<p>During the past year we warned of the dangers of these
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/latest-tpp-leak-shows-systemic-threat-to-software-freedom">international agreements</a> and pushed activists to try and
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/obama-and-congress-go-off-the-rails-trying-to-fast-track-tpp">stop the fast-tracking of TPP in the U.S.</a>.</p>
<p>But we are of course not alone in our opposition to TPP. We worked
together with dozens of other groups during the year. In November, we
supported a rally and hackathon put on by our friends at the
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/time-to-act-on-tpp-is-now-rallies-against-tpp-in-washington-d-c-november-14-18">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>. They currently have another
action helping people to contact Congress in the U.S. telling them to
<a href="https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-to-vote-no-on-the-tpp">stop TPP</a>. This year, we will have much more to do in order to stop
TPP and many TPP clones in the future.</p>
<h1>The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) anti-circumvention provisions</h1>
<p>One of the biggest actions we took in 2015 involved fighting back
against the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. We explained the
issue back in <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/DMCA-exemption-commenting-process-broken">April of 2015</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every three years, supporters of user rights are forced to go through
a Kafkaesque process fighting for exemptions from the
anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA... In short, under the
DMCA's rules, everything not permitted is forbidden. Unless we expend
time and resources to protect and expand exemptions, users could be
threatened with legal consequences for circumventing the digital
restrictions management (DRM) on their own devices and software and
could face criminal penalties for sharing tools that allow others to
do the same. Exemptions don't fix the harm brought about by the
DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, but they're the only crumbs
Congress deigned to throw us when they tossed out our rights as
users.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the year's round of exemption proposals, we called for the repeal
of these provisions and <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/end-DMCA-anti-circumvention-provisions">supported every proposed exemption</a>. We
called out the <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/meet-the-drm-drones">companies, organizations</a> and
<a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/epa-drm-drone">government agencies</a> that tried to lock users down by opposing
these exemptions. When the Copyright Office failed to grant all
proposed exemptions, we explained how the process was broken and
called again for the <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/DMCA-exemptions-process-anti-circumvention">repeal of the onerous law</a>.</p>
<p>On this front, we had some success, as Congress and the Copyright
Office are <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/they-are-starting-to-listen">starting to listen</a>. 2015 ended with the Copyright
Office asking for public comments about the DMCA's anti-circumvention
provisions and the exemptions process, noting many of the criticisms
we levied throughout the year. In 2016, the fight continues, we'll
need your help to end the nightmare of these restrictions and their
broken exemption process, rather than simply patch over the problems
it creates.</p>
<h1>Saving Wi-fi</h1>
<p>Unfortunately, the DMCA isn't the only government policy seeking to
lock down devices and restrict the ability of users to control their
own computing. In 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) announced the proposal of new rules requiring manufacturers of
wireless devices to implement locks on all wireless devices. The FCC
is charged with divvying up wireless spectrum in the U.S., and works
to enforce regulations ensuring that devices do not exceed their
mandated spectrum. But in trying to achieve that goal, they proposed
rules that would in practice encourage device manufacturers to cripple
their wireless-enabled hardware so that users could no longer install
free software on those devices.</p>
<p>So the FSF and our allies fought back, starting a campaign to
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Save_WiFi/">Save Wi-Fi</a>. The coalition came together and filed over 3,000
public comments in opposition to the rules. FSF licensing &amp; compliance
manager Joshua Gay and executive director John Sullivan even
<a href="http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=60001325735">met with the FCC</a> to make free software concerns heard. The work
to protect Wi-Fi continues in 2016.</p>
<h1>Education needs freedom</h1>
<p>Not every issue we confront in this arena is a threat to user freedom.
Government policy can also work to help support free software, as we
are seeing with the U.S. Department of Education's recent push to
upgrade the rules around grant-funded educational works. In October of
2015, the Department of Education called for comments on its proposed
regulations, which were intended to create greater access and sharing
by requiring grant-funded works to be under a free license. There was
just one hitch — the regulations as proposed didn't quite get the job
done, because they didn't explicitly require the freedom for
downstream users to redistribute modified copies of the works. So we
rallied users and free software activists to <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/send-comments-to-doe-12-15">provide feedback</a> to
the Department of Education on the new rules. While no decision has
yet been announced, we're excited about this new policy and our
ability to help shape it to ensure that user freedom is enjoyed by
all.</p>
<h1>Working together for free software</h1>
<p>Fighting to protect free software and user freedom is not something
that we can do alone. In our actions we always seek to collaborate
with activists and organizations working towards a common cause. We
also want to help other groups petitioning their governments to do so
in ways that respect the rights of users. Even where we are not
involved in a particular action we help organizations offer petitions
or tools to users that can be utilized on a fully free system. One
particular issue in this space is offering petitions or methods of
writing to government representatives that do not require the use of
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/freejs">proprietary JavaScript</a>. We explain the issue to other
organizations and, whenever possible, offer assistance in crafting
on-line petitions that are compatible with free software ideals. Along
similar lines, when it comes to submitting public comments to the
U.S. government, many agencies also require the use of proprietary
JavaScript in order to submit comments on-line. While we push for the
government to change this situation, we also offer to submit comments
on behalf of the community via the post. We did this with our action
on the Department of Education proposal, and we will be doing the same
for our upcoming push on the DMCA.</p>
<h1>A look ahead</h1>
<p>While 2015 was a big year in working to improve government policy,
much still needs to be done in the year ahead. The fight to stop TPP
still goes on, and other "trade" agreements loom on the horizon. For
the DMCA, our voice was heard in 2015, but now we need to actually
bring about the necessary changes. The FCC-instigated lockdown of
wireless devices still hangs over our head. We will continue to fight
for the rights of users on these issues, and any new ones that spring
up.</p>
<p>But as our work in 2015 shows, we can't do it alone. We need the help
of other organizations and activists to keep up the fight. And we need
you as well. Our actions would mean nothing without your voice joining
in to amplify and spread the message.</p>
<p>In addition to supporting our actions and making your voice heard, you
can help fund the work we do to amplify your concerns. Can you support
this important making a <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donation</a> to the Free Software
Foundation? You can make a long-term commitment to help the FSF
sustain and grow the program for years to come by
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">becoming an associate member</a> for as little as $10/month (student
memberships are further discounted). Membership offers many
<a href="https://fsf.org/associate/benefits">great benefits</a>, too. Other ways you can help:</p>
<ul>
<li>Support the EFF's action to <a href="https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-to-vote-no-on-the-tpp">stop TPP</a>.</li>
<li>Make sure to <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/join">join</a> the Defective by Design mailing list to help
  end the DMCA anti-circumvention madness.</li>
<li>Share this article with your friends and colleagues to help them
  understand the threats to user freedom posed by government policy.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/reaching-people-through-giving-guide-giveaways
title: Reaching people through Giving Guide Giveaways
uri: Reaching-people-through-Giving-Guide-Giveaways
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/reaching-people-through-giving-guide-giveaways
content:
<img alt="FSF system administrator Ruben Rodriguez chats with a passerby at the FSF's Giving Guide Giveaway in Somerville, MA" src="media/9773e7e0.2015-giveaway.jpg" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/2015-giveaway.jpg" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>The Guide (available <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide">online</a> or in as a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer#printable">printable flyer</a>) aims to introduce new people to shopping for electronics that respect their users and are accountable to them, rather than to the people who make them. It's a powerful message, but sharing it with the public requires good resources and most of all, people who are excited to teach others.</p>
<p>In that spirit, community members have organized Giveaways throughout the USA this winter, where they hand out the flyer version of the Guide to passersby. Ben Cook, a close friend of the FSF (and former <a href="https://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships">intern</a>), joined us at our Giveaway and sent in this message:</p>
<blockquote><p>Many of the hottest tech gifts this year will require proprietary software and expensive subscription services, and will endanger the recipient's privacy. With this in mind, we wanted to share suggestions for ethical gifts that fully embrace the principles of sharing and community that truly define this season.</p>

<p>We took to the streets of Somerville, MA to hand out copies of this year's Ethical Tech Giving Guide. Busy commuters and shoppers were intrigued by our festive display, and enjoyed over one hundred copies the Guide. For many, this was their first introduction to the issue of software freedom, but others gave us a hearty "Go Free Software!" as they passed. Our helpful holiday elves (we dressed up in elf hats) were able to readily explain the benefits of media without <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management">Digital Restrictions Management</a> and of mobile devices running free software.</p></blockquote>

<p>Running a Giving Guide Giveaway is a fun way to act on your values this season. Even if the holidays you celebrate have passed, consider organizing one in your community. You will influence the way people spend holiday gift cards, and you'll also help them get started with more ethical electronics before the Giving Guide's discounts end on January 31st. The FSF has an <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer">in-depth primer</a> for those new to organizing events, and we can promote them to interested people in your area using our email lists and social media presence.</p>
<p><em>Do you have suggestions for next winter's Giving Guide? Please share them on the <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Giving_Guide_Suggestions">LibrePlanet wiki</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-is-your-free-software-story
title: What is your free software story?
uri: What-is-your-free-software-story
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-is-your-free-software-story
content:
<p>When we share those
experiences with others, we strengthen the connections between the
free software movement and other movements each of us are in. We learn
about the path one took to become involved in free software. At the
Free Software Foundation's 30th anniversary, we asked folks in the
community to share their stories.</p>

<video controls="controls" poster="http://static.fsf.org/fsforg/fsf-story-poster.png">
  <source src="http://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/165/FSF_640x360.ogv" type="video/ogg" />
  Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

<hr /></hr>
<p><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="media/a275f283.88x31.png" data-original-source="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></a> <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-is-your-free-software-story"><em>What is your free software story?</em></a> by the <a href="http://www.fsf.org">Free Software
Foundation</a> is licensed under the <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.</p>

<p>Download the video: <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/162/FSF_1920x1080.ogv">1080p</a>
| <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/165/FSF_640x360.ogv">360p</a> |
<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/166/FSF_320x180.ogv">180p</a>
<br />
Embed on your site or blog: 
<br />
        <tt>
&lt;video controls poster="https://static.fsf.org/fsforg/fsf-story-poster.png"&gt;<br />
  &lt;source src="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/165/FSF_640x360.ogv" type="video/ogg"&gt;<br />
  Your browser does not support the video tag.
&lt;/video&gt;        
        </tt>


</p> 
<hr /></hr>

<p>Story. It is an important part of life. Too often we get bogged down
with resolving everyday tasks and issues in our work, which causes us
to gloss over what motivated or inspired us to get where we are or
choose where we are going.</p>

<p>Many of us already know the story that led to the start of the free
software movement, but what are exciting stories today? When meeting
new activists who are already in a movement, such as the free software
movement, the question of how they got there is always something I put
forward. One's story gives a view into how and what sparked a flame in
them to become active in a movement and free software in
particular. The free software movement has changed many lives and
changes the world every day. The more stories we know about each other
and the connections between us, the stronger the fabric of the
movement.</p>

<p>Think about your own story. In which ways has free software changed
your life, and how do you feel free software changes the world? We
invite you to record your story in a video or audio clip, or write a
post, and <a href="https://fsf.org/sharing">share</a> it on social media with the hashtag
 #freesoftwarestory. The FSF will reshare many of them if you use the
social media platforms where we have accounts: <a href="https://status.fsf.org/fsf">GNU social</a>,
<a href="https://www.microca.st/fsf">pump.io</a>, and <a href="https://www.twitter.com/fsf">Twitter</a> (<a href="https://www.fsf.org/twitter">see our policy on Twitter</a>). Above
all, share your story with those around you who may not be involved in
or aware of free software.</p>

<p>We commissioned this video — and of course it was made with free
software tools. Please share the video widely for others to see the
path people have taken to be involved in free software. Share your
free software story!</p>

<p><strong>We are at the end of our fundraiser. We have
$80,000 to raise in less than two weeks in order to continue our
current work. With your support we can work to make more videos
like this, so please consider <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=2015-fundraiser&amp;pk_kwd=story-wda">donating</a> or <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=2015-fundraiser&amp;pk_kwd=story-wja">joining</a> to create
more guiding lights of the free software movement.</strong></p>

<h3>Video/audio tools you can use to record</h3>

<p>Here are some free software tools to record your story:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Audio/editor">https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Audio/editor</a></li>
<li><a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Cheese">https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Cheese</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/new-tools-for-teaching-and-learning-email-self-defense
title: New tools for teaching and learning Email Self-Defense
uri: New-tools-for-teaching-and-learning-Email-Self-Defense
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/new-tools-for-teaching-and-learning-email-self-defense
content:
<p><em>This post is by Zak Rogoff and Email Self-Defense intern Adam Leibson
 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships">(More about internships.)</a></em></p>
<p><img alt="An Email Self-Defense workshop" src="media/e4a227f9.esd-workshop-v4-launch.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/esd-workshop-v4-launch.png" /></p>
<p>For starters, we've added a page to help you
<a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/workshops.html">teach your friends and community</a> what you've learned. We've also
made a number of improvements in <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org">the guide itself</a>, including
clarifying many technical points and updating it to reflect changes in
the software. We've expanded the troubleshooting sections by adding
links to external resources, so that you can get alternative
explanations of the steps, if you find that helpful. There are also
new, advanced sections so that skilled users, as well as beginners,
can learn something new.</p>
<p>Central to the new version is an overhaul of Edward, the GnuPG reply
bot, that helps people practice as they learn. Longtime friend of the
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Andrew Engelbrecht wrote the new
version, building on work by community member Josh Drake (zamnidex)
and Lisa Maginnis, FSF's senior systems administrator. If you'd like
to explore Edward's source code, you can <a href="http://agpl.fsf.org/emailselfdefense.fsf.org/edward/CURRENT/edward.tar.gz">download it</a> from Email
Self-Defense.</p>
<p><strong>Many people who easily could defend their email don't do so, because
  they don't know how to get started. If we want to challenge the
  global bulk surveillance system, we must share the tools and
  techniques necessary to resist.</strong> We can use this opportunity to
  teach them about the benefits of free software, for our security,
  privacy, and freedom. We encourage you to share and teach the guide
  with your friends and neighbors, and lead workshops using the new
  <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/workshops.html">Teach Your Friends page</a>.</p>
<p>There are eleven translations of Email Self-Defense, but as of now
only the English one is updated to version four. To be successful, it
must be a global effort, but reaching everyone is a huge job. We need
international help making and updating translations, starting with
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/GPG_guide/Translation_Guide">these instructions</a>.</p>
<p><hr /> <em>We're nearing the end of our winter fundraiser and, as of last
count, we have $72,000 dollars left to go. We want to deepen our work
on encryption this year &mdash; it's an important pillar of computer
user freedom, and it's currently under attack politically. To reach
our goal and fund this and other projects, we need your
support. Please, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=2015-fundraiser&amp;pk_kwd=esd-ed">join the FSF as a member</a> or
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=2015-fundraiser&amp;pk_kwd=esd-ej">make a one-time donation</a> now.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/vision-survey-closes-this-week-add-your-voice
title: Vision Survey closes this week. Add your voice!
uri: Vision-Survey-closes-this-week-Add-your-voice
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/vision-survey-closes-this-week-add-your-voice
content:
<p><strong><a href="https://www.fsf.org/survey?pk_campaign=survey-launch&amp;pk_kwd=survey">The survey takes only five to fifteen minutes to complete.
Fill it out now!</a></strong></p>
<p>It's important that this survey reach a large and diverse range of
people who care about free software. Please share it by whatever means
will reach your friends best — <a href="https://www.fsf.org/share?u=https://www.fsf.org/survey&amp;t=The%20Free%20Software%20Foundation%20needs%20your%20feedback.%20Their%20vision%20survey%20is%20up%20until%20the%20end%20of%20January.">social media</a>, email, IRC, or word
of mouth.</p>
<p>One more thing: Last week we released a video of community members
telling their free software stories. <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-is-your-free-software-story">Watch it on fsf.org</a> and if
you like telling stories, consider sharing your own on social media
(hashtag #freesoftwarestory).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/key-charities-that-advance-software-freedom
title: Key charities that advance software freedom are worthy of your urgent support
uri: Key-charities-that-advance-software-freedom-are-worthy-of-your-urgent
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/key-charities-that-advance-software-freedom
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.fsf.org/join/">Become an FSF Associate Member</a></li>
<li><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">Become a Conservancy
      Supporter</a></li>  </ul>

<p>I've had the pleasure and the privilege, for the last 20 years, to
  be either a volunteer or employee of the two most important
  organizations for the advancement of software freedom and users'
  rights to copy, share, modify and redistribute software. In 1996, I
  began volunteering for the FSF and worked
  as its Executive Director from 2001&ndash;2005. I continued as a
  volunteer for the FSF since then, and now serve as a volunteer on
  FSF's Board of Directors. I was also one of the first volunteers for
  Software Freedom Conservancy when we founded it in 2006, and I was
  the primary person doing the work of the organization as a volunteer
  from 2006&ndash;2010. I've enjoyed having a day job as a Conservancy
  employee since 2011.</p>

<p>These two organizations have been the center of my life's work.  Between
  them, I typically spend 50&ndash;80 hours every single week doing a mix of
  paid and volunteer work.  Both my hobby and my career
  are advancing software freedom.</p>

<p>I choose to give my time and work to these organizations because they
  provide the infrastructure that make my work possible.  The free software
  community has shown that the work of many individuals, who care deeply
  about a cause but cooperate together toward a common goal, has an impact
  greater than any individuals can ever have
  working separately.  The same is often true for cooperating organizations:
  charities, like Conservancy and the FSF, that work together with each other
  amplify their impact beyond the expected.</p>

<p>Both Conservancy and the FSF pursue specific and differing
  approaches and methods to the advancement of software freedom. The
  FSF is an advocacy organization that raises awareness about key
  issues that impact the future of users' freedoms and rights, and
  finds volunteers and pays staff to advocate about these issues.
  Conservancy is a fiscal sponsor, which means one of our key
  activities is operational work, meeting the logistical and
  organizational needs of volunteers so they can focus on the
  production of great free software and free documentation. Meanwhile,
  both Conservancy and FSF dedicate themselves to sponsoring software
  projects: the FSF through the <a href="https://gnu.org">GNU
  Project</a>, and Conservancy through <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">its member
  projects</a>. And, most importantly, both charities stand up for the
  rights of users by enforcing and defending copyleft licenses such as
  the GNU General Public License (GPL).</p>

<p>Conservancy and the FSF show in concrete terms that two charities can work
  together to increase their impact.  Last year, our organizations
  collaborated on many projects, such as
  the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/oct/14/FCC-comment/">proposed
  FCC rule changes for wireless devices</a>, jointly handled
  a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/jul/15/ubuntu-ip-policy/">GPL
  enforcement action against Canonical, Ltd.</a>, 
  published <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-conservancy-publish-principles-for-community-oriented-gpl-enforcement">the
  principles of community-oriented GPL enforcement</a>, and continued our
  collaboration on <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a>.  We're
  already discussing lots of ways that the two organizations can work
  together in 2016!</p>

<p>I'm proud to give so much of my time and energy to both these excellent
  organizations.  But, I also give my money as well: I was the first person
  in history to become an <a href="https://member.fsf.org/">Associate Member
  of the FSF</a> (back in November 2002), and have gladly paid my monthly
  dues since then.  Today, I also signed up as an
  <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/#annual">annual Supporter of
  Conservancy</a>, because I want to ensure that Conservancy meets its
  current pledge match &mdash; the next 215 Supporters who sign up before
  January 31st will double their donation via the match.</p>

<p>For just US$20 each month, you make sure the excellent work of both
  these organizations can continue. This is quite a deal: if you are
  an employed, University-educated professional living in the
  industrialized world, US$20 is probably the same amount you'd easily
  spend on a meals at restaurants or other luxuries. Isn't it even a
  better luxury to know that these two organizations can have a years'
  worth of effort of standing up for your software freedom in 2016?
  You can make the real difference by making your charitable
  contribution to these two organizations today:

</p><ul>
<li><a href="https://www.fsf.org/join/">Become an FSF Associate Member</a></li>
<li><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">Become a Conservancy
      Supporter</a></li>  </ul>

<p>Please <strong>don't wait</strong>: both fundraising deadlines are
just five days away!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-january-29th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: January 29th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-January-29th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-january-29th
content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a>
by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in
the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to
make it onto IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide
you with all the information you need to get started on helping the
Directory today! There are also <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that
everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each
meeting.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/edward-snowden-will-kick-off-libreplanet-2016-will-you-be-there
title: Edward Snowden will kick off LibrePlanet 2016: Will you be there?
uri: Edward-Snowden-will-kick-off-LibrePlanet-2016-Will-you-be-there
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/edward-snowden-will-kick-off-libreplanet-2016-will-you-be-there
content:
<p>Be sure to join us the morning of Saturday, March 19th for
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/index.html">"The last lighthouse: Free software in dark times"</a> in which
Snowden (who will appear via a free software video call) and
Daniel Kahn Gillmor will discuss free software, surveillance, power,
and control of the future.</p>
<div style="float: right; width: 230px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Daiel Kahn Gillmor" src="media/43472830.dkg.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/libreplanet/2016/dkg.png" width="230" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="media/f6491463.80x15.png" data-original-source="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/80x15.png" /></a><br />Daniel Kahn Gillmor<br />This work by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Daniel Kahn Gillmor</span> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.</p></div>

<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Edward Snowden" src="media/a5f827db.Edward_Snowden-2.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/libreplanet/2016/Edward_Snowden-2.png" width="250" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="media/c6614496.80x15.png" data-original-source="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/80x15.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/StillImage" property="dct:title" rel="dct:type">Edward Snowden<br />Screenshot of Citizen Four by Praxis Films.</span> by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Laura Poitras</span> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0</a></p></div>

<p>Edward Snowden is a former intelligence officer who served the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), NSA, and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
for nearly a decade as a subject matter expert on technology and
cybersecurity. In 2013, he revealed the NSA was unconstitutionally
seizing the private records of billions of individuals who had not
been suspected of any wrongdoing, resulting in the largest debate
about reforms to US surveillance policy since 1978. Today, he works on
methods of enforcing human rights through the application and
development of new technologies. He joined the board of Freedom of the
Press Foundation in February 2014.</p>
<p>Daniel Kahn Gillmor is a technologist with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy
and Technology Project, and a free software developer.  He's a Free
Software Foundation Associate member, a member of Debian, a contributor to a
wide range of free software projects, and a participant in protocol
development standards organizations like the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF), with an eye toward
preserving and improving civil liberties and civil rights through our
shared infrastructure.</p>
<p>LibrePlanet will once again be held at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's (MIT) Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March
19th and 20th, 2016. The continued partnership of the Free Software
Foundation and MIT's Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) means
another unmissable gathering of free software enthusiasts. The rest of
the <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program">LibrePlanet program</a>, including other fantastic keynotes,
workshops, and sessions, will be announced soon.</p>
<p>You don't want to miss this. <strong><a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1">Register for LibrePlanet today</a> to
ensure admission -- conference capacity is limited and we may have to
close registration.</strong> As always, admission to the conference is gratis
for FSF members and students. Not a member?  <a href="http://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=es-ej">Join today</a> for
gratis admission to LibrePlanet -- plus, you'll help us meet our
<a href="http://www.fsf.org/appeal/">winter fundraising goal of $450,000 by January 31st</a>.</p>
<p>Does your organization or company want to exhibit at LibrePlanet 2016?
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=326&amp;reset=1">Apply to be an exhibitor by January 31st</a> to reach hundreds of
hackers, activists, and free software enthusiasts at the Stata Center.</p>


title: We're so close! Will you help the FSF shine in 2016?
uri: We-re-so-close-Will-you-help-the-FSF-shine-in-2016
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fundraiser-ends-sunday-help-the-fsf-light-the-way-for-another-year

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fundraiser-ends-sunday-help-the-fsf-light-the-way-for-another-year

content:
<p>We've received nearly 6,000
donations and have signed up more than 400 new members during this
fundraiser. Your <a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate/?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=fin-wd">donation</a> or <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join/?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=fin-wj">membership</a> will help us make
2016 a shining year for software freedom.</p>
<p>To those of you who have given, for the first time or many times,
thank you. The Free Software Foundation relies heavily on individual
donors in order to continue fighting for computer user rights. We
couldn't do this without you.</p>
<p>As the fundraiser comes to a close, we are turning our attention to
our goals for the coming year. We want to:</p>
<ul>
<li>analyze and respond to the results of our Vision Survey (open until
  Monday, February 1 at 05:00 UTC)</li>
<li>make this year's LibrePlanet better than ever, kicking off with a
  remote conversation with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden</li>
<li>launch a new, updated site to put the best face possible on free
  software</li>
<li>invest in more staff so we can expand the Respects Your Freedom
  certification program, bring the free software philosophy to more
  people, aid more free software development in high priority areas,
  and deftly enforce the GNU General Public License</li>
<li>keep up the momentum we've built in the fight against the Trans
  Pacific Partnership, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's
  anti-circumvention rules, and the FCC-instigated lockdown of
  wireless devices</li>
<li>continue to campaign for the abolition of software patents</li>
<li>resist plans for an official Digital Restrictions Management
  extension to HTML5</li>
<li>create and improve upon free software advocacy materials, including
  videos</li>
<li>grow and update the FSF and GNU Project infrastructure, allowing us
  to accommodate more GNU projects</li>
<li>improve the FSF's development infrastructure, email, code hosting,
  and other services for GNU developers and FSF members, and
  incorporate more community members in FSF sysadmin and Web
  development projects</li>
</ul>
<p>We need financial resources to get things done for you, but we also
need your advice and guidance. <strong>Tell us how you feel about the free
software movement and the work we do by
<a href="https://fsf.org/survey">responding to our survey by Sunday</a>.</strong> Your compliments and
criticisms will help us plan another thirty years of work.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal/">We are so close to raising $450,000</a> by Sunday, January 31st,
ensuring that we can make great things happen in 2016. Will you help
us meet -- or even exceed -- that goal?</strong> Make a
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate/?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=fin-wd">one-time donation</a> now, or make a long-term commitment to
supporting the FSF by <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join/?pk_campaign=2015-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=fin-wj">becoming an associate member</a> for as little
as $10/month (student memberships are further discounted). Membership
offers <a href="https://fsf.org/associate/benefits">many great benefits</a>, including gratis admission to
LibrePlanet.</p>
<p><em>Read more about the recent accomplishments and upcoming goals of our
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal/">campaigns</a>, <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/hardware-we-certified-in-2015-to-respect-your-freedom">licensing</a>, and <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/a-look-at-the-fsf-tech-teams-tireless-work-for-user-freedom">tech</a> teams.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-20160125-stockholm
title: January 2016 - Stockholm University
uri: January-2016-Stockholm-University
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-20160125-stockholm
content:
<!-- Start of image + caption block -->
<div style="border-style:solid; border-width:2px;text-align:center; margin: 4px 50px 4px 50px; padding-top:4px;">

<p>On January 25th, 2016, RMS was back at Stockholm University's Aula Magna, where he had already spoken back in 2011,<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup> to give his speech &ldquo;A Free Digital Society,&rdquo; to an audience of over 800 people.</p>

<!-- Image(s) start below -->
<!-- Adjust the width="150" part to change how wide the image appears on the page  -->

<img src="media/8421ee35.20160125-stockholm-01.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-01.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/8579e348.20160125-stockholm-02.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-02.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3e265370.20160125-stockholm-03.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-03.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/d539ad89.20160125-stockholm-04.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-04.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/94a98af3.20160125-stockholm-06.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-06.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1154264f.20160125-stockholm-07.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-07.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8d894ea4.20160125-stockholm-08.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-08.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/cabce3ab.20160125-stockholm-09.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-09.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e2140583.20160125-stockholm-10.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-10.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/abf96bac.20160125-stockholm-11.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-11.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/97933e95.20160125-stockholm-12.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-12.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/9a324ac1.20160125-stockholm-13.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-13.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1ccaa9c2.20160125-stockholm-14.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-14.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3fc17bfd.20160125-stockholm-16.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-16.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8589e20c.20160125-stockholm-17.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-17.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f45cfda5.20160125-stockholm-19.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-19.jpg" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/975d7958.20160125-stockholm-18.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-18.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b668017f.20160125-stockholm-20.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-20.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/89e3ec2e.20160125-stockholm-21.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-21.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/888b42a9.20160125-stockholm-22.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-22.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/cb3e5ba6.20160125-stockholm-23.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-23.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/d7781069.20160125-stockholm-24.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-24.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/bad4c81e.20160125-stockholm-25.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-25.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b21a232a.20160125-stockholm-26.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-26.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e46122b3.20160125-stockholm-27.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-27.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/9c8ae5a7.20160125-stockholm-28.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-28.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e4842330.20160125-stockholm-29.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-29.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ff31e61b.20160125-stockholm-30.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-30.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/2d9a66f2.20160125-stockholm-31.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-31.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e4afa239.20160125-stockholm-32.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-32.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/91fc944e.20160125-stockholm-33.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-33.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/cf2dafef.20160125-stockholm-34.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-34.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/22a826bb.20160125-stockholm-35.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-35.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e8fb9eff.20160125-stockholm-36.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-36.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ae81c560.20160125-stockholm-37.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-37.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/7eb7d9a9.20160125-stockholm-38.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-38.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8a050497.20160125-stockholm-39.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-39.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b8e4508a.20160125-stockholm-40.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-40.jpg" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/bb67c725.20160125-stockholm-41.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-41.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f1ed8fdb.20160125-stockholm-42.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-42.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/bcb600a9.20160125-stockholm-45.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-45.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a619e9b2.20160125-stockholm-43.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-43.jpg" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/63149c4d.20160125-stockholm-44.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-44.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/572e3a94.20160125-stockholm-46.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-46.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ba0a0a14.20160125-stockholm-47.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-47.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/16b6899e.20160125-stockholm-05.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-05.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b8ac3de8.20160125-stockholm-15.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-15.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/36d4b3eb.20160125-stockholm-49.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-49.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/255e60ba.20160125-stockholm-50.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-50.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/d7fdcfb9.20160125-stockholm-51.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-51.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1f6e8a5b.20160125-stockholm-52.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-52.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/54d742c0.20160125-stockholm-54.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-54.jpg" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ab4ef3d7.20160125-stockholm-53.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-53.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ea2e4358.20160125-stockholm-55.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-55.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b1061d82.20160125-stockholm-56.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-56.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/eb75195f.20160125-stockholm-57.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-57.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8fd02897.20160125-stockholm-58.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-58.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3aadfd7c.20160125-stockholm-59.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-59.jpg" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160125-stockholm/20160125-stockholm-60.jgp" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos and poster under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photos courtesy of Kjell Ericson.)</em>

<!-- End of image+caption block -->

<p>Please fill out our contact form, so that we can inform you about
future events in and around <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=423&amp;reset=1">Stockholm</a>
and <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=424&amp;reset=1">Östersund</a>,
both of which RMS visited on this trip to Sweden</a>.  Please see <a href="http://www.fsf.org/events">www.fsf.org/events</a> for a full
list of all of RMS's confirmed engagements, and contact <a href="mailto:rms-assist@gnu.org">rms-assist@gnu.org</a> if you'd like
him to come speak.</p>

<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Thank you to Daniel Stenberg for having made this visit possible!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<sup id="fn1">1. Kjell took some great <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/20111108-stockholm">photos of that speech</a>, as well.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/support-the-fsf-for-30-more-years
title: Support the FSF for 30 more years
uri: Support-the-FSF-for-30-more-years
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/support-the-fsf-for-30-more-years
content:
<p><em>This post was written by FSF board member and co-founder of CivicActions Henry Poole.</em></p>
<p>But, as we imagine into the future, it is clear that operating systems are becoming embedded in everything. Our homes, our automobiles, and even our bodies. While a stand for free software was impersonal thirty years ago, in another thirty years it will be very personal. Operating systems will likely be embedded in our bodies, and the rights to use, study, modify, and share that software to stay alive and connect with others should be a fundamental human right. The last thirty years wasn't easy -- maintaining a state of integrity is often difficult and lonely. The next thirty years are likely to be just as difficult (or more). </p>
<p><strong>Don't retire so young -- make a personal commitment today to <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join/">become a lifetime FSF supporter</a>.</strong> Stand with us for another thirty years. In the years ahead, people around the world will celebrate that stand.</p>
<p>And if you are fortunate enough to have a job at a company that uses free software, ask your company to increase patronage of free software by supporting the FSF.  The FSF has a <a href="https://fsf.org/patrons">patron program</a> for businesses that support and use free software. Of the 18,000 new US businesses that start every day, it would be great to see a new patron each day support the FSF.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-february-5th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: February 5th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-February-5th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-february-5th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, February 5th, from 12pm to 3pm EST
(17:00 to 20:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software
Directory.</p>
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a>
by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in
the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to
make it onto IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide
you with all the information you need to get started on helping the
Directory today! There are also <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that
everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each
meeting.</p>


title: Confused by license compatibility? A new article by Richard Stallman may help
uri: Confused-by-license-compatibility-A-new-article-by-Richard-Stallman-m
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/confused-by-license-compatibility-a-new-article-by-richard-stallman-may-help

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/confused-by-license-compatibility-a-new-article-by-richard-stallman-may-help

content:
<p>Richard Stallman has published a <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-compatibility.html">a new guide on gnu.org</a> titled
<em>License compatibility and relicensing</em>. Gnu.org is home to a whole
host of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/">resources on free software licensing</a>, including
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">frequently asked questions about GNU licenses</a> and our
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">list of free software licenses</a>. Our license list contains
information on which licenses are compatible with the
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">GNU General Public License</a> as well as a brief description of what
it means to be compatible. This latest article by Stallman provides a
more in–depth explanation of what compatibility means and the
different ways in which it is achieved.</p>
<p>As Stallman states, "In general we say that several licenses are
<em>compatible</em> if there is a way to merge code under those various
licenses while complying with all of them." Even where two licenses
are crafted in a such a way that they cannot naturally be combined,
however, explicit relicensing provisions can enable code combinations
that otherwise wouldn't be permitted. The guide covers all of this and
more in depth and clarity.</p>
<p>Resources like this guide are made possible by donations from our
community and help from our volunteers. Here is what you can do to
help make sure everyone has quality tools for understanding and using
free licenses:</p>
<ul>
<li>Volunteer on the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/team">licensing team</a> or as a
  <a href="https://www.gnu.org/server/standards/webmaster-quiz.html">GNU Webmaster</a>. There are many <a href="https://www.fsf.org/volunteer">other ways to volunteer</a> as
  well.</li>
<li>Help fund our work by making <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donation</a> to the FSF or join as an
  <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">FSF member</a>.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/encryption-probably-better-than-a-box-of-chocolates
title: Encryption: probably better than a box of chocolates
uri: Encryption-probably-better-than-a-box-of-chocolates
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/encryption-probably-better-than-a-box-of-chocolates
content:
<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 20px 50px 25px; padding: 4px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="A valentine's day crypto robot" src="media/1897a96c.cryptovalentine.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/cryptovalentine.png" width="250" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em>I'd go on a date with that robot.<br />Would you?</em></p></div>

<p>Valentine's day is this Sunday. You may be looking forward to it or you may be dreading it; most of us have been through both. But there's something important that you can do regardless of your relationship status:</p>
<p><strong>Ask someone you like -- romantically or otherwise -- to be your cryptovalentine. If they say yes (yikes, nervous!) use the free program GnuPG to set up private and encrypted communication with them.</strong></p>
<p>If one or both of you is new to GnuPG, we recommend our beginner-friendly <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org">Email Self-Defense guide</a>. Setting up encrypted communication is a quick activity you can do together whether you are across the room or across the world. And what better way to show love than by helping someone defend their security, privacy, and freedom? This year, we have a new section with <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/workshops.html">tips for <em>teaching</em> Email Self-Defense</a>, which you may find useful when proposing an encryption date.</p>
<p><strong>Once you're done setting up secure communication, share your love with the world by posting about it, or microblogging with the hashtag #ilovefs.</strong> Just make sure not to use <a href="https://www.fsf.org/twitter">proprietary software</a> to post.</p>
<img alt="Microblog about your cryptovalentine." src="media/2e63a534.ilovefs-microblog.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/ilovefs-microblog.png" style="margin: 10px auto 10px auto;" />

<p>This is a fun activity, but it can also make a difference. The right to encrypt is endangered around the world, with governments threatening our security and freedom by demanding legal or technological crippling of encryption. Resist with the power of love -- encrypt with your valentine, and tell the world!</p>
<p>And as we've discussed at length, free software is necessary for privacy online. Because nonfree software's code can't be audited publicly, we can never trust it to be free of back doors inserted by accident or by design. We're thankful to all the hardworking free software developers who give us a fighting chance at digital privacy. It goes without saying, but we do love FS.</p>
<p>For more free software Valentine's day fun, like postcards and an #ilovefs photo gallery, visit the <a href="https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs">Free Software Foundation Europe Web site</a>.</p>
<p>&lt;3<br />
</p>


title: You did it! The fundraiser was a success -- are you ready for what's next?
uri: You-did-it-The-fundraiser-was-a-success-are-you-ready-for-what-s-n
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/you-did-it-the-fundraiser-was-a-success-are-you-ready-for-whats-next

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/you-did-it-the-fundraiser-was-a-success-are-you-ready-for-whats-next

content:
<p>Once again, the free software community helped put the FSF in a strong
position to tackle our list of free software initiatives in 2016, by
giving $5 or $10,000, becoming a member for the first time, donating a
little bit extra this year, and simply helping spread the word. We've
said it before, but we'll say it again: we really can't do this work
without your passion and generosity.</p>
<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="two people lighting a candle from another" src="media/54723987.candle-lighting.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/candle-lighting.png" width="250" /></div>

<p>Here's what you helped us achieve:</p>
<ul>
<li>4,124 membership contributions (annual and monthly)</li>
<li>2,163 one-time donations -- an increase of 629 over last year's fundraiser</li>
<li>An average one-time donation of $97.39</li>
</ul>
<p>And finally, you smashed our goal of 400 new members:</p>
<ul>
<li>495 new members</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to feeling humbled by your generosity, we get some
heartening takeaways from those numbers. More people than ever are
supporting the FSF's work defending user freedom - in addition to
welcoming more new members than in any previous fundraiser, more
people gave, and gave more generously, than in the past. Modest giving
made an impact, too: those who gave $30 or less contributed nearly
$7,000 more than last year, proving that every little bit really does
add up. We always appreciate any new membership, but this year, we
witnessed an especially moving commitment from hundreds of people who
have made the choice to pledge ongoing financial support to the FSF,
bringing our total membership to nearly 4,000. Imagine that: four
thousand candles lighting the way.</p>
<p>Your support is our mandate. We will continue our work to serve as a
guiding light for the free software movement, and to make new lights
to burn brighter. In the coming weeks, look for a report on our
findings from the FSF Vision survey, an update to the High Priority
Free Software Projects list, and rousing conversation and community
building at LibrePlanet, as well as more announcements from the
Respects Your Freedom certification program, further action resisting
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Digital Restrictions Management
anti-circumvention provisions, and upgrades to the FSF and GNU Project
infrastructure.</p>
<p>Once again, thank you for your contributions to the free software
movement, and your support of the FSF. Remember that <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">FSF
membership</a> offers many
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits">benefits</a>, including gratis
admission to our annual <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/">LibrePlanet
conference</a>. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1">Register
today</a> to
join us at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Stata Center on
March 19-20, 2016, where we will present LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the
System, in partnership with MIT's <a href="https://sipb.mit.edu/">Student Information Processing
Board</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/get-ready-to-fork-the-system-at-libreplanet
title: Get ready to Fork the System at LibrePlanet
uri: Get-ready-to-Fork-the-System-at-LibrePlanet
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/get-ready-to-fork-the-system-at-libreplanet
content:
<img alt="IMAGE DESCRIPTION" src="media/ecaf2599.lp2016program-cover.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/libreplanet/2016/lp2016program-cover.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Hundreds of people from around the world will meet at
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016">LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the System</a>, March 19-20, 2016 at MIT in
Cambridge, MA. This year's <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/">conference program</a> will examine how free software
creates the opportunity of a new path for its users, allows developers
to fight the restrictions of a system dominated by proprietary
software by creating free replacements, and is the foundation of a
philosophy of freedom, sharing, and change. Sessions like "Yes, the
FCC might ban your operating system" and "GNU/Linux and Chill: Free
software on a college campus" will offer insights about how to resist
the dominance of proprietary software, which is often built in to
university policies and government regulations.</p>
<p>Activists from EFF, April, FSF Latin America, and the Dudley Street
Neighborhood Initiative will talk about the possibility of changes to
copyright law in the US, how to De-Google-ify the Internet, how our
world resembles dystopian sci-fi, and how to bolster asset-based
community development work.</p>
<p>There are opportunities to learn to use free software, too: there will
be an introduction to using Python in the 3D creation program Blender;
a workshop devoted to LittleSis, a wiki-style database that tracks
connections between the world's most powerful people and
organizations; and an overview of the secure, distributed voice,
video, and chat communication platform Ring.</p>
<p>There will be four keynotes devoted to free software in relation to
surveillance, philosophy, and more. We previously announced our
opening session, a livestreamed conversation between NSA whistleblower
Edward Snowden and ACLU Technologist Daniel Kahn Gillmor, "The last
lighthouse: Free software in dark times," and we are pleased to
announce our three other keynote speakers: Allison Randal, president
of the Open Source Initiative, Karen Sandler, executive director of
the Software Freedom Conservancy, and Richard Stallman, president of
the Free Software Foundation.</p>
<p><a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/">The full draft program is now online</a>. Check it out, then
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1">register</a> – we anticipate very high attendance this year, and
advance registration is the best way to guarantee admission to
LibrePlanet. Remember, FSF <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=lp16&amp;pk_kwd=program-ej">members</a> and students attend gratis.</p>
<p>Each year at LibrePlanet, we gather software developers, activists,
policy experts, and computer users to share accomplishments, learn
skills, and address challenges to software freedom. Newcomers are
always welcome, and LibrePlanet 2016 will feature programming for a
broad range of experience levels, including
students. <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016">LibrePlanet 2016</a> is produced in partnership by the
<a href="https://www.fsf.org">Free Software Foundation</a> with the
<a href="https://sipb.mit.edu">Student Information Processing Board (SIPB)</a> at MIT.</p>
<h2>Pre-order a LibrePlanet 2016 t-shirt by February 26</h2>
<p>You can also <a href="https://shop.fsf.org/product/lp16/">pre-order a LibrePlanet 2016 commemorative t-shirt</a>
in the GNU Press shop. <em>Order your shirt by Thursday, February 25th to
guarantee availability in your size.</em></p>
<h2>Volunteers make LibrePlanet great</h2>
<p>LibrePlanet started out as a Free Software Foundation membership
meeting, but now it is much more. The conference would
never have become the highly anticipated event it is today without the
commitment of dozens of volunteers who aid with the planning and
execution of LibrePlanet each year, in a variety of roles. We are
still looking for volunteers for this year's event. If you are
interested in helping out,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=435&amp;reset=1">complete the volunteer interest form</a>. We show our appreciation
for our volunteers by offering gratis conference admission and a
LibrePlanet t-shirt.</p>
<p>Don't miss out on your chance to Fork the
System. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1">Register for LibrePlanet 2016 today</a>!</p>


title: One month until LibrePlanet! Pre-order t-shirts through February 28th
uri: One-month-until-LibrePlanet-Pre-order-t-shirts-through-February-28th
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/one-month-until-libreplanet-pre-order-t-shirts-through-february-28th

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/one-month-until-libreplanet-pre-order-t-shirts-through-february-28th

content:
<table align="right" style="background-color: white; text-align: center; margin:10px; border: none !important;  padding: 0px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: none !important; width: 250px"><img src="media/496f59b8.productimage-picture-lp16-149_t280.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/store/img/productimage-picture-lp16-149_t280.png" width="250" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; line-height: 1em; padding: 4px; margin: 0px; border: none; width: 250px"><a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/lp16/">Pre-order women's and
men's/unisex styles</a>. Available until February 28th.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>Along with our partners at
<a href="https://sipb.mit.edu/">MIT's Student Information Processing Board (SIPB)</a>, we are gearing
up for the biggest LibrePlanet ever. Hundreds of people have already
registered to attend, and we don't want you to miss out on your chance
to be there.</p>
<p><strong>We expect higher than usual attendance this year, and advance
  registration is the best way to guarantee
  admission. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&amp;reset=1">Join the free software community at LibrePlanet 2016.</a></strong>
  We will welcome last minute attendance to the best of our ability,
  but registration by Wednesday, March 9 is encouraged. If we hit
  capacity before that deadline, we will close advance registration --
  so don't delay. Remember, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">FSF members</a> get gratis admission,
  along with the satisfaction of supporting free software year-round.</p>
<p>Also, through <strong>Sunday, February 28th,</strong> you can
<a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/lp16/">pre-order a LibrePlanet 2016 t-shirt</a> to pick up at the
conference.</p>
<p>Read on if you'd like more information about volunteering, the
program, the LibrePlanet email discussion list, or participating
remotely.</p>
<h3>Volunteering (get gratis admission!)</h3>
<p>Volunteers are crucial to making LibrePlanet a smoothly run, enjoyable
free software event. For a two hour or longer volunteer shift, you'll
get gratis admission, a LibrePlanet t-shirt, and lunch provided. We
have a wide variety of tasks for many skill sets, including outreach,
A/V and livestreaming management, visitor services, speaker support,
and even remote tasks. Get started by telling us your skills and
interests through the quick
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=435&amp;reset=1">volunteer application</a>.</p>
<h3>Program</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.libreplanet.org/2016/program">The program is up</a>. Which sessions most interest you? This year,
LibrePlanet offers interesting talks like "Artificial scarcity: Beyond
the digital," "Taking back our freedom: Free software for
sousveillance," and "Inessential Weirdnesses in Free Software," along
with keynotes from Allison Randal, Richard Stallman, Karen Sandler,
and Edward Snowden in conversation with Daniel Kahn Gillmor. Make sure
you check out the social events, including the annual Friday open
house at the Free Software Foundation office --
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference/program/social.html">details here, with more to come</a>.</p>
<h3>LibrePlanet starts on the list</h3>
<p>Looking to coordinate travel with other LibrePlanet attendees?
Brainstorm ideas for lightning talks? Organize a get-together after
the conference? Join the <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss">libreplanet-discuss</a> email list and the
 #libreplanet IRC channel on Freenode to connect with other LibrePlanet
attendees. The list and channel are active year-round as part of the
<a href="https://libreplanet.org">libreplanet.org</a> community.</p>
<h3>Participating remotely</h3>
<p>Not everyone can join us in Cambridge (including our keynote speaker,
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden), but you can still participate in
LibrePlanet! We will livestream all keynotes and most other sessions
-- the link will be available <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016">on the conference homepage</a>
soon. Maybe you want to host your own LibrePlanet satellite event --
we're calling them <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=43&amp;reset=1">LibreLuna, and you can register yours now</a> and
we'll help promote your gathering, and our tech team may ask you to
help test the livestream before the conference.</p>


title: The U.S. Copyright Office requiring proprietary software in DMCA anti-circumvention study
uri: The-U-S-Copyright-Office-requiring-proprietary-software-in-DMCA-anti
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-u-s-copyright-office-requiring-proprietary-software-in-dmca-anti-circumvention-study

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-u-s-copyright-office-requiring-proprietary-software-in-dmca-anti-circumvention-study

content:
<p>Last week, working with our Defective By Design team,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=439&amp;reset=1">we asked people</a> to co-sign a comment that we, the Free Software
Foundation (FSF), will be submitting to the U.S. Copyright Office for
their study of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA (17
U.S.C. 1201). Our comment sends a simple and clear message: the DMCA's
anti-circumvention provisions, including the triennial exemption
granting process, are broken beyond repair and the only way to fix
this law is to repeal it altogether. <strong>The Copyright Office has
extended the comment period, and so our
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=439&amp;reset=1">comment is now open for public co-signing</a> until noon EST (5pm
UTC) on March 2nd.</strong> The DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions threaten
computer-users with legal consequences for bypassing digital
restrictions management (DRM) and individuals can face criminal
penalties for sharing software designed to bypass particular DRM
technologies.  <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=439&amp;reset=1">Will you co-sign our comment</a> and join us in taking
a stand against this attack on freedom and declare that you too want
to see an end to the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions?</p>
<p>When we published our comment and put out our call for co-signers, we
were still waiting to hear back from the Copyright Office for
instructions on where we could send a printed copy of our comment or
an alternate way to submit a digital copy. Specifically, we asked for
a medium or method of submitting a comment that did not require
running proprietary JavaScript. We have now gotten a reply from them,
and it is very disappointing news. They have denied our request to
submit our comment on paper or digitally without the use of
proprietary software, stating: "we cannot allow submission of comments
outside the regulations.gov system on the basis of your objection to
the use of proprietary software."</p>
<p>Like any other program, JavaScript is software you download and run on
your computer, and so you
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/freejs">deserve to have control over that program</a>, which means that it
should be provided to you under a free software license. The
JavaScript served by Regulations.gov is non-trivial and very complex
proprietary software. In fact, after downloading the first few
JavaScript files from Regulations.gov, we found that these files alone
totaled over 740,000 characters in length. These are minified
JavaScript files, which unlike source files, do not contain long
variable names or comments, etc. To put this in perspective, the
feature rich, popular, and mature jQuery JavaScript library, when
minified, is only 97,403 characters in length. It's not clear what the
JavaScript on Regulations.gov does or why it is necessary or
useful. All we know is that it is required to download and run on your
computer if you want to submit a comment through the
site. <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/take-action-for-free-javascript">We have previously</a> tried to persuade Regulations.gov to
eliminate the proprietary JavaScript from their site, and have urged
them that if they will not release it as free software, to at least
make it so you do not have to run it in order to submit a comment.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether Regulations.gov chooses to fix this problem, it
is troubling that the U.S. Copyright Office won't even acknowledge
that a citizen's refusal to run proprietary software is a reasonable
choice. The public should be able to communicate with government
agencies without being forced to use proprietary software which is
owned and controlled by some corporation. It's like saying that
individuals have to be wearing Nike brand sneakers in order to have a
meeting with their congressperson -- with the additional complication
that the software also directly violates individuals' freedoms.</p>
<p>As such, our plan is to deliver our comment (with signatures) by hand
to the U.S. Copyright Office next Thursday, March 4th, and alongside
this, we will also deliver a letter that explains why they should not
require proprietary JavaScript to submit comments.</p>
<p>Here is what you can do to help:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>If you are in the U.S. or are a U.S. citizen living in another
  country, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=439&amp;reset=1">co-sign our comment</a> and encourage others to do the
  same.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Email our campaigns manager, Zak Rogoff, at <a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> by
  Tuesday, March 1st, to let us know if you would like to join us in
  Washington D.C. to deliver the letter on March 4th.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://donate.fsf.org">Make a donation</a> to support our work defending computer user
  freedom and our campaign to oppose DRM.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If you are neither living in the U.S. nor a U.S. citizen living
  abroad, <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Free_Javascript_Action_Team">please join our Free JavaScript Action Team</a> and take
  action against the government agencies in your own country that
  require the use of non-free JavaScript.</p>
</li>
</ul>


title: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Michael Zahniser of Endless Sky
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Michael-Zahniser-of-Endles
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-michael-zahniser-of-endless-sky

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-michael-zahniser-of-endless-sky

content:
<p><a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Endless_sky">Endless Sky</a> is a 2D exploration, trading, and combat game set in space. </p>
<h2>What inspired the creation of Endless Sky?</h2>
<p>Partly, I just got tired of waiting for someone else to create a modern
remake of one of my favorite games from my childhood, Escape Velocity.</p>
<p>But also, for years I've wanted to "give back" to the free software
community in some way, and I've heard games described as one of the last
areas where free software can seldom compete with the proprietary,
commercial options. I've been playing The <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Wesnoth">Battle For Wesnoth</a> (another
GPL-licensed game) for the past 15 years or so, and have seen how the
Wesnoth community has created an enormous amount of content that has kept
it fresh and interesting for that whole time. My hope is for Endless Sky to
grow into something similar.</p>
<h2>How are people using it?</h2>
<p>It's a game; they're using it to waste colossal amounts of their free time.</p>
<p>I've also seen a video where a teacher was trying to use Endless Sky
to teach basic economic ideas. In the game you have a mortgage to pay
off, and you need to make choices of how to earn money - buying
commodities at low prices and selling them high, etc. Make bad
choices, or take on more debt than you can afford, and you can end up
bankrupt.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets Endless Sky apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>I put a lot of thought into making it as easy as possible to add
content to the game. A lot of other games rely on things like Lua
scripting or UV-mapped 3D models, which creates a high barrier to
entry for content creators. I wanted it to be possible for
non-programmers to add their own content, using nothing but a text
editor and a graphics program.</p>
<p>In Endless Sky all the data files, including saved games, are
human-readable text. The data's structure is represented by the
indentation, like in Python code, because I've found that
non-programmers really struggle with keeping their brackets balanced,
even in simple markup languages like YAML. (Of course, it turns out
that non-programmers have trouble keeping their indentation correct,
too.)</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the GPLv3 as the license for your code?</h2>
<p>I saw it as a choice between either working alone to create a
mediocre, proprietary game, or attracting a community to create a much
higher quality game that will eventually include stories and other
content contributed by many different people. I chose the GPL for the
code, and Creative Commons share-alike licenses for the artwork, so
that anyone building on my work will continue making it freely
available to the world.</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to Endless Sky?</h2>
<p>My biggest need right now is to find someone to implement more main
story lines for the game - I don't have enough time to do that while
also dealing with all the bug fixes and feature requests. I'm also
hoping that people will expand the game universe by adding new alien
species to discover, each of whom would have their own unique stories
and technology.</p>
<p>Other more technical needs include updates to the universe editor (a
Qt program), and eventually setting up some sort of server for
plugins.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for Endless Sky?</h2>
<p>Ever since the Steam release I've had a flood of new bug reports and
small feature requests to work through. I'm hoping that I'm now at a
point where most of the bugs have been addressed and I can switch to
experimenting with bigger, more interesting changes - a dynamic
economy, missile tracking that takes your ship's size and temperature
into account, better controls for commanding a large fleet, etc.</p>
<p><em>Enjoy this interview? Check out our previous entry in this series,
 featuring <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-guillaume-roguez-ring-project-director">Guillaume Roguez, Ring Project Director</a>.</em></p>


title: February 2016 - Switzerland and Spain
uri: February-2016-Switzerland-and-Spain
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-20160201-fribourg-20160205-bern-20160208-zurich-20160210-sierre-20160219-santacolomadegramenet-20160220-barcelona

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-20160201-fribourg-20160205-bern-20160208-zurich-20160210-sierre-20160219-santacolomadegramenet-20160220-barcelona

content:
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<p>RMS was in Switzerland and in Spain in February.  He started his trip&#8230;

<p>&#8230;in <strong>Fribourg,</strong> where he gave his speech
&ldquo;Free Software and Your Freedom,&rdquo; on February
1<sup>st</sup>, at <a href="https://fri-software-days.ch/index.php?lang=en">Fri Software
Days</a>, an FOSS event organized by the Fribourg College of
Engineering and Architecture (HEIA-FR), the IT Valley cluster, and the
University of Fribourg (UNIFR), to an audience of about 200
people,<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup></p> </p>

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<img src="media/0fdd876e.20160201-fribourg-020-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-020-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/c78164b0.20160201-fribourg-019-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-019-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8734ce99.20160201-fribourg-045-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-045-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0db71b12.20160201-fribourg-017-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-017-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/c8365bf2.20160201-fribourg-041-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-041-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b850010b.20160201-fribourg-042-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-042-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/71ef18ce.20160201-fribourg-046-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-046-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e5048bd4.20160201-fribourg-044-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-044-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1d1c5cae.20160201-fribourg-047-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-047-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/d6640aa3.20160201-fribourg-048-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-048-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8cdcfe76.20160201-fribourg-051-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-051-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/21e679f5.20160201-fribourg-052-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-052-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/04b47605.20160201-fribourg-053-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-053-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/14aedd5a.20160201-fribourg-054-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-054-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/58d2a6b0.20160201-fribourg-055-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-055-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3991c2d6.20160201-fribourg-056-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-056-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a8521cac.20160201-fribourg-057-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-057-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8e84eb3a.20160201-fribourg-093-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-093-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a7eb4a36.20160201-fribourg-094-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-094-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0b8cfbfc.20160201-fribourg-096-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-096-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a04a588f.20160201-fribourg-098-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-098-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
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<img src="media/8a324060.20160201-fribourg-058-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-058-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b6bd02e6.20160201-fribourg-060-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-060-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
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<img src="media/dc1d9737.20160201-fribourg-088-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-088-thumb.png" alt="" width="270" style="margin-top:4px;" />
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<img src="media/ad2a161f.20160201-fribourg-105-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-105-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/2cff9954.20160201-fribourg-106-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-106-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
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<img src="media/5d8e5d4c.20160201-fribourg-111-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-111-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8921b2ed.20160201-fribourg-112-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-112-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a8f689b7.20160201-fribourg-113-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-113-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/aaa11bae.20160201-fribourg-114-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-114-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/66fd0457.20160201-fribourg-115-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-115-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/31f46f99.20160201-fribourg-116-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-116-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/4f0c1176.20160201-fribourg-120-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-120-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3c9f2f0b.20160201-fribourg-121-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-121-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a62a2eef.20160201-fribourg-122-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-122-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/16eacfeb.20160201-fribourg-137-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-137-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f6969f02.20160201-fribourg-123-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-123-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/05d9ddbe.20160201-fribourg-124-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-124-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b38f5065.20160201-fribourg-127-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-127-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ede2392d.20160201-fribourg-132-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-132-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/43ce4d7b.20160201-fribourg-125-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-125-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/4d297bda.20160201-fribourg-126-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-126-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/548c5d3f.20160201-fribourg-128-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-128-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3f51ceb6.20160201-fribourg-129-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-129-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/67c55e06.20160201-fribourg-131-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-131-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f668a30e.20160201-fribourg-133-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-133-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/329dd068.20160201-fribourg-134-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-134-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/48abfa3c.20160201-fribourg-135-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-135-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/685dcbe0.20160201-fribourg-136-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-136-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/d4183e96.20160201-fribourg-139-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-139-thumb.png" alt="" width="270" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/551fbcfb.20160201-fribourg-141-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160201-fribourg/20160201-fribourg-141-thumb.png" alt="" width="270" style="margin-top:4px;" />

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos and poster under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photos courtesy of HEIA-FR.)</em>

<p>He then returned to <strong>Bern,</strong> almost five years to the
day after he had last spoken there,<sup><a href="#fn2" id="ref1">2</a></sup> to give his speech &ldquo;A Free Digital
Society,&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn3" id="ref1">3</a></sup> on February
5<sup>th</sup>, at Bern University's business informatics institute's
research center for digital sustainability (Forschungsstelle Digitale
Nachhaltigkeit des Instituts für Wirtschaftsinformatik der Universität
Bern), to about 350 people.  Then, he travelled on&#8230;</p>

<p>&#8230;to <strong>Zurich,</strong> where he gave his speech <a href="media/39553efc.160210-PanTalks-Richard_Stallman-FM.webm" data-original-source="http://www.panter.ch/files/pantalk_rms/160210-PanTalks-Richard_Stallman-FM.webm">&ldquo;Free
Software and Your Freedom,&rdquo;</a> at the Zurich Colab's coworking
café, Auer&amp;Co., on February 8<sup>th</sup>:<sup><a href="#fn4" id="ref1">4</a></sup></p>

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<img src="media/35f86909.20160208-zurich-01-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-01-thumb.png" alt="" width="98" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/007f76e6.20160208-zurich-02-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-02-thumb.png" alt="" width="168" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3466da9b.20160208-zurich-06-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-06-thumb.png" alt="" width="168" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/bd24b368.20160208-zurich-08-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-08-thumb.png" alt="" width="98" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/210891d5.20160208-zurich-09-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-09-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e7bf4661.20160208-zurich-10-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-10-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/748fe9ac.20160208-zurich-12-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-12-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/7865d4de.20160208-zurich-14-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-14-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/410ce079.20160208-zurich-15-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-15-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/dfa31f83.20160208-zurich-16-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-16-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/73d46d97.20160208-zurich-17-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-17-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0acd3c1f.20160208-zurich-19-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-19-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e5d4f02b.20160208-zurich-20-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-20-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e7a163c4.20160208-zurich-21-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-21-thumb.png" alt="" width="90" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0d14ebd1.20160208-zurich-23-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-23-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/df3132c0.20160208-zurich-27-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-27-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/6346b366.20160208-zurich-28-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-28-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ec78a32b.20160208-zurich-25-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-25-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/eac905ce.20160208-zurich-29-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-29-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/317e01c9.20160208-zurich-45-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-45-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a5691fef.20160208-zurich-32-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-32-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/138aaa04.20160208-zurich-35-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-35-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/64e4dc56.20160208-zurich-38-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-38-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1ceb87ce.20160208-zurich-44-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-44-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/66c3f453.20160208-zurich-46-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-46-thumb.png" alt="" width="270" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f98ced3b.20160208-zurich-47-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160208-zurich/20160208-zurich-47-thumb.png" alt="" width="270" style="margin-top:4px;" />

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos and poster under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photos courtesy of Peter Schiratzki.)</em>

<p>&#8230;and then, finally, on to <strong>Sierre,</strong> where he
gave his speech <a href="media/edaa95bb.stallman-sierre-2016-02-10.ogg" data-original-source="http://www.perry.ch/stallman-sierre-2016-02-10.ogg">&ldquo;Une
société digitale libre,&rdquo;</a> at the TechnoArk,<sup><a href="#fn5" id="ref1">5</a></sup> to a packed room, on February
10<sup>th</sup>.</p>

<p>At all of his appearances, RMS warned attendees against the threat
posed by ever increasing mass surveillance, and urged them to practice
civil disobedience to protest the most recent local example of
it&mdash;the Swiss Federal Railways' tracking of its frequent
travellers via the SwissPass:</p>

<div align="justify">
<div style="margin-left:30px">
<div style="margin-right:30px">
<blockquote><em>SwissPass is an injustice: You should all campaign to
demand that they all go back to the older kind of Swiss pass, where
they didn't track who goes where.  Systems of massive surveillance
endanger democracy.  For more information, see <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html">gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html</a>.
That presents and gives the reasons for the absolute limit on the
amount of the level of surveillance that can coexist with democracy.
Too much surveillance; democracy is dead.  And we unfortunately now
suffer from too much surveillance, and democracy is going to be dead
if we don't knock it back down.</em></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Then, later in the month, he travelled to Spain&#8230;</p>

<p>&#8230;to <strong>Santa Coloma de Gramenet</strong>, outside
Barcelona, to speak at the Institut Puig Castellar, to about 200
people, on February 19<sup>th</sup>:</p>

</p>

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<img src="media/c768a754.20160219-santacolomadegramenet-01-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160219-santacolomadegramenet/20160219-santacolomadegramenet-01-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/e3698270.20160219-santacolomadegramenet-07-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160219-santacolomadegramenet/20160219-santacolomadegramenet-07-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8e214bfa.20160219-santacolomadegramenet-09-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160219-santacolomadegramenet/20160219-santacolomadegramenet-09-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f45fcd0f.20160219-santacolomadegramenet-10-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160219-santacolomadegramenet/20160219-santacolomadegramenet-10-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/7e3492ad.20160219-santacolomadegramenet-15-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160219-santacolomadegramenet/20160219-santacolomadegramenet-15-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0cff2d2a.20160219-santacolomadegramenet-17-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160219-santacolomadegramenet/20160219-santacolomadegramenet-17-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /><img src="media/cc806886.20160219-santacolomadegramenet-14-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160219-santacolomadegramenet/20160219-santacolomadegramenet-14-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos and poster under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photos courtesy of Victor Carceler.)</em>

<p>&#8230;and, finally, to <strong>Barcelona,</strong> where he gave his speech
&ldquo;Software libre en la ética y en la práctica,&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn6" id="ref1">6</a></sup> to an audience of 325 people, on
February 20<sup>th</sup>:</p>

</p>

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<img src="media/6ce33e8f.20160220-barcelona-01-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-01-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/262a9ca0.20160220-barcelona-02-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-02-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e965525c.20160220-barcelona-03-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-03-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/33b7a705.20160220-barcelona-04-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-04-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/90672e6f.20160220-barcelona-05-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-05-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3a9bbe9e.20160220-barcelona-07-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-07-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/149f8348.20160220-barcelona-06-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-06-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/7a5c7da2.20160220-barcelona-08-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-08-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/771cc392.20160220-barcelona-09-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-09-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/4e3b00d9.20160220-barcelona-10-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-10-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/7610b69a.20160220-barcelona-11-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-11-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1d933f3e.20160220-barcelona-12-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-12-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/68913595.20160220-barcelona-15-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-15-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/97c0b01e.20160220-barcelona-16-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-16-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/41210305.20160220-barcelona-17-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-17-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/78aeca2d.20160220-barcelona-18-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-18-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/88f05954.20160220-barcelona-19-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160220-barcelona/20160220-barcelona-19-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />

<!-- Photo credits start below -->
<p style="padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px; margin-top:1px; text-align:center;">

<em>(Photos and poster under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photos courtesy of Marc Ordinas Llopis.)</em>

<!-- End of image+caption block -->

<p>Please fill out our contact form, so that we can inform you about
future events in and around <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=413&amp;reset=1">Fribourg</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=425&amp;reset=1">Zurich</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=417&amp;reset=1">Bern</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=426&amp;reset=1">Sierre</a>,
or <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=84&amp;reset=1">Barcelona.</a>
Please see <a href="http://www.fsf.org/events">www.fsf.org/events</a>
for a full list of all of RMS's confirmed engagements, and contact <a href="mailto:rms-assist@gnu.org">rms-assist@gnu.org</a> if you'd like
him to come speak.</p>

<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Thank you to all the organizers for having made this trip possible!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<div align="left">
<div style="margin-left:4px;">
<sup id="fn1">1. After his Fribourg speech, RMS gave an <a href="http://www.rts.ch/info/sciences-tech/7463886--l-iphone-d-apple-est-un-ordinateur-prison-selon-le-pere-du-logiciel-libre.html">interview</a>
to RTS.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the
text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn2">2. See <a href="http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.ch/2010/02/richard-stallman-en/">here</a> for 
photographs and the speech recording from RMS's 2010 visit to Bern.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the
text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn3">3. RMS's February 2016 Bern-speech recording will soon be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2015">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn4">4. Read both RMS's (German-language) <a href="http://www.nzz.ch/digital/richard-stallman-im-gespraech-privatsphaere-ist-eine-voraussetzung-fuer-demokratie-ld.5129">NZZ interview</a> and <a href="http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/news/standard/Richard-Stallman-in-Zuerich/story/10089403">watch</a> his (English-language) <a href="http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/news/standard/Richard-Stallman-in-Zuerich/story/10089403">Tages-Anzeiger interview</a>.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn5">5. See <a href="http://blog.theark.ch/fr/detail/a-sierre-richard-stallman-lance-un-plaidoyer-pour-une-societe-digitale-totalement-libre-8382">here</a> for the (French-language) reporting on RMS's speech in Sierre.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn6">6. RMS's February 2016 Barcelona-speech recording will soon be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2015">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 6 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
</div>
</div>


title: A short update on GNU General Public License (GPL) compatibility questions
uri: A-short-update-on-GNU-General-Public-License-(GPL)-compatibility-quest
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/executive-director/a-short-update-on-gnu-general-public-license-gpl-compatibility-questions-1

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/executive-director/a-short-update-on-gnu-general-public-license-gpl-compatibility-questions-1

content:
<p>Although the FSF does not hold copyright on either Linux or ZFS, we
are receiving many questions about what it all means for
interpretation of the GNU GPL in general.</p>
<p>While developers who hold copyright on a given program are always the
ones who decide whether to apply their work's license in any
particular situation, the FSF provides general materials that make
clear the intent behind the GNU family of licenses, and the legal
basis for that intent. We know that many people rely on materials like
the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq">GPL FAQ</a> and our <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list">list of licenses</a>.</p>
<p>These resources are most useful when they have been thoroughly
reviewed before publication so as not to later require significant
correction or alteration for foreseeable reasons. This process takes
time now, but saves time later by avoiding confusion. We will be
publishing an analysis, and possibly making improvements to our other
related resources, as soon as they are ready.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/twenty-new-gnu-releases-february-2016
title: Twenty new GNU releases in the last month (as of February 24, 2016)
uri: Twenty-new-GNU-releases-in-the-last-month-(as-of-February-24-2016)
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/twenty-new-gnu-releases-february-2016
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/">binutils-2.26</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bzr/">bzr-2.7.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/denemo/">denemo-2.0.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ed/">ed-1.13</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/">gdb-7.11</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/glibc/">glibc-2.23</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/">glpk-4.58</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuhealth/">gnuhealth-3.0.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.11</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.4.9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/">grep-2.23</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-38.6.0-gnu1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libgcrypt/">libgcrypt-1.6.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mcsim/">mcsim-5.6.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/moe/">moe-1.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/">nano-2.5.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/nettle/">nettle-3.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160222</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/">texinfo-6.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/vera/">vera-1.23</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu</a>.</p>
<p>To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
<a href="https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/</a>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html</a>.  You can use the url
<a href="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/">https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/</a> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.</p>
<p>This month, we welcome David Pirotte as the maintainer of the new
package Foliot and Chris Webber (maintainer of GNU Mediagoblin) as the
maintainer of the new package 8sync.</p>
<p>A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint</a> if you'd like to
help.  The general page on how to help GNU is at
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html</a>.</p>
<p>If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html">https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html</a>.</p>
<p>As always, please feel free to write to us at <a href="mailto:maintainers@gnu.org">&#109;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.</p>


title: Join the struggle to keep digital restrictions out of Web standards
uri: Join-the-struggle-to-keep-digital-restrictions-out-of-Web-standards
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/join-the-struggle-to-keep-digital-restrictions-out-of-web-standards

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/join-the-struggle-to-keep-digital-restrictions-out-of-web-standards

content:
<p>We're reaching a flashpoint in our struggle to stop <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management">DRM</a> moguls from getting the pernicious technology incorporated into official Web standards. Soon this proposal will either be accepted or rejected by the W3C standards body -- we need to make sure it's rejected, to protect the freedom and integrity of the Web.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/show-them-the-world-is-watching-stop-drm-in-html">Read more and take action with Defective by Design.</a></strong></p>

<div style="display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-top: 20px; width: 250px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Two activists at the Cambridge W3C office." src="media/5807f117.no-drm-in-html-w3c-cambridge-3.jpg" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/dbd/no-drm-in-html/no-drm-in-html-w3c-cambridge-3.jpg" width="250" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">Join these activists and take your own photo at a W3C office near you.</p></div>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-march-11th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: March 11th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-March-11th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-march-11th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, March 11th, from 12pm to 3pm EST
(17:00 to 20:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.</p>
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org">Free Software Directory</a>
by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in
the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf channel on freenode</a>.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people visit
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org">directory.fsf.org</a> 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.</p>
<p>While the Free Software Directory 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!</p>
<p>If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate">participation guide</a> will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">weekly FSD Meetings pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/a-preliminary-analysis-of-high-priority-projects-feedback
title: A preliminary analysis of High Priority Projects feedback
uri: A-preliminary-analysis-of-High-Priority-Projects-feedback
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/a-preliminary-analysis-of-high-priority-projects-feedback
content:
<p><em>This post was written by the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-commences-review-of-high-priority-free-software-projects-list-your-input-is-needed">FSF's volunteer High Priority Projects
 Committee.</a></em></p>
<p>The High Priority Projects review committee received about 150
feedback emails† in response to its <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-commences-review-of-high-priority-free-software-projects-list-your-input-is-needed">call for suggestions</a> for
projects of strategic importance to the goal of freedom for all
computer users.</p>
<p>Following is a preliminary analysis of the High Priority Projects
list, based on the existing list, feedback received, the panel session
held at LibrePlanet 2015, and discussions among the committee.</p>
<p>The call for suggestions summarized what we're aiming for:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Undoubtedly there are thousands of free software projects that are
high priority, each having potential to displace nonfree programs
for many users, substantially increasing the freedom of those users.
But the potential value of a list of High Priority Free Software
Projects maintained by the Free Software Foundation is its ability
to bring attention to a relatively small number of projects of great
strategic importance to the goal of freedom for all computer users.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What makes a project of great strategic importance to the goal of
freedom for all computer users? In this analysis, we'll consider that
it takes one or more of the following characteristics:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Systematic.</em> Something that has the potential to improve lots of free
  software programs, development, communities, advocacy -- making use
  of free software and participation in development and advocacy more
  compelling for many more people.</li>
<li><em>Universal.</em> Something that nearly every computer user needs, but for
  which there is no competitive free software in the category.</li>
<li><em>Cascading.</em> Something that will enable a large number of users to replace
  not only comparable proprietary software, but also break a logjam that
  makes it hard for users to adopt unrelated free software.</li>
<li><em>Frontier.</em> Enables users to be free at ever lower layers of software
  and down to hardware. Few users may be able to do this soon, but such
  frontier development ensures that the bar for eventual freedom for all
  users is not set too low.</li>
</ul>
<p>Additionally, we will strive to recommend projects that are
<em>actionable</em>. Such projects document ways for members of the free
software community to get involved and make the project succeed, with
any kind of concrete contributions, from money donation, to code
patches, advocacy, etc.</p>
<p>Given this framework, here are some notes on projects that were on the
list at the time of the call for suggestions, and on potential
additions.</p>
<h2>Currently listed projects</h2>
<p><strong>Reverse engineering projects.</strong> We haven't analyzed these in detail
yet, but more broadly free drivers and free firmware (the goals of
nearly all of the listed projects) have all four of our
characteristics. Reverse engineering is one way to obtain free drivers
and firmware, but the ideal is for manufacturers to publish full
specifications and ship free drivers and free firmware, and this is
what users should demand. We may want to reframe this page around free
drivers, firmware, and hardware designs, noting priority reverse
engineering tasks, but also encouraging users to make requests to
vendors. The page also lists Replicant, a free version of Android.
Phone operating systems were one of the most popular suggestions and
merit their own entry (see potential additions below).</p>
<p><strong>Gnash.</strong> Removing Gnash from the list was another very frequently
made suggestion. Flash used to be a nearly universal need, but is no
longer, so we intend to remove it from the list. Additionally it is
worth noting that several people suggested that people still
interested in free Flash should check out <a href="http://mozilla.github.io/shumway/">Shumway</a>, a player
implemented in JavaScript, in addition to Gnash. Video was one of the
use cases that made Flash nearly universal. HTML5 video has helped
make Flash less relevant, but there is still work to be done, to
ensure that free formats such as VP8/VP9, and in the future,
<a href="https://xiph.org/daala/">Daala</a>, are used with HTML5 video.</p>
<p><strong>Coreboot.</strong> A free BIOS has at least the universal and frontier
characteristics. Several people suggested adding "and Libreboot," the
project to ship a version of Coreboot with no blobs, pushing further
in the frontier direction. We intend to take this suggestion. We are
also discussing whether to move this listing to the reframed page
about free drivers, firmware, and hardware designs mentioned above.</p>
<p><strong>Free software replacement for Skype.</strong> This is a nearly universal need,
with potential for a cascade effect. Two changes were suggested. First,
there are now several proprietary real-time voice and video communications
applications that need to be replaced too, so the name of this priority should
be changed to "free software real-time voice and video chat". The other
suggestion was to point to WebRTC applications using only free software,
as WebRTC is set to upset this category, but it is difficult to tell
which applications are free. We'll take the title suggestion. The second
suggestion might be best addressed with a dedicated category in the Free
Software Directory.</p>
<p><strong>Free software video editing software.</strong> Several people wrote to
suggest that we narrow the list of programs suggested, as this is a
field that is difficult to navigate and free software could use a
"champion" to really make an impact. Clearly that champion is Blender,
an amazing application which started in 3D animation, but now is used
for video editing, 2D animation, and much more. We strongly encourage
anyone interested to check out <a href="https://blender.org">Blender</a>, or one of the other programs
if a simple video editor is one's main need. However, we intend to
remove this listing. It just doesn't solidly meet any of our desired
criteria.</p>
<p><strong>Free Google Earth Replacement.</strong> We intend to remove this listing;
it doesn't meet any of our desired criteria.</p>
<p><strong>Help GNU/Linux distributions be committed to freedom.</strong> This solidly
meets the frontier criteria.</p>
<p><strong>GNU Octave</strong>. With acknowledgment that we received some feedback in
support of this listing, we intend to remove it as it doesn't meet any
of our desired criteria. (The FSF will continue providing <a href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fund">fundraising
support for GNU Octave.</a>)</p>
<p><strong>Replacement for OpenDWG libraries.</strong> We intend to remove this
listing; it doesn't meet any of our desired criteria.</p>
<p><strong>Reversible Debugging in GDB.</strong> <a href="http://rr-project.org/">rr</a> meets some of the major needs
of reversible debugging in GDB, so we intend to remove this listing.</p>
<p><strong>Free software drivers for network routers.</strong> The text of this
listing concerns mesh networking, which may be too narrow to satisfy
our criteria. In general free drivers for network routers probably
meet the universal and frontier criteria, but it may make sense to
fold this listing into a listing/page concerning free drivers and
firmware for a large category of hardware (see reverse engineering
above).</p>
<p><strong>Free software replacement for Oracle Forms.</strong> We intend to remove
this listing; it doesn't meet any of our desired criteria.</p>
<p><strong>Automatic transcription.</strong> We intend to remove this listing; it
doesn't meet any of our desired criteria.</p>
<p><strong>Free Software replacement for Bittorrent Sync.</strong> We intend to remove
this listing; it doesn't meet any of our desired criteria.</p>
<h2>Potential additions</h2>
<p><strong>Free software implementation of advanced PDF features.</strong> A fairly
popular suggestion was to <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-pdf-project-leaves-high-priority-projects-list-mission-complete">re-add</a> free software PDF tools to the
list, as many businesses use PDF features such as embedded JavaScript,
embedded videos, forms, and annotations not fully supported by free
PDF readers. This is an important project and conceivably could meet
our cascade criterion. We're still debating whether to make the
addition or not, as PDF is in long term decline -- not nearly as steep
as Flash, but still becoming ever less central. It is worth noting
some suggestions to check out PDF.js, a PDF reader implemented in
JavaScript.</p>
<p><strong>Free software phone operating system.</strong> This is a nearly universal
need, with some cascade and frontier characteristics as well, and the
single most popular feedback suggestion. Clearly this topic should be
represented as a high priority, the question is how to focus it.
Replicant could be moved from the reverse engineering page. "Help
phone operating systems be committed to freedom" could be noted.</p>
<p><strong>Free software personal assistant.</strong> Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and
others are becoming more pervasive on smart phones. The convenience
they offer makes people's lives easier. At the same time, the breadth
of access to users' data they take in order to provide all this is
enormous, and both the client and server software accessing such data
are proprietary. We believe a free software personal assistant is
crucial to preserve users' control over their technology and data
while still giving them the benefits such software clearly has for
many. <a href="http://sirius.clarity-lab.org/">Sirius</a> could be the right project to focus on.</p>
<p><strong>Decentralization of the Web, service federations, and personal clouds.</strong>
Several projects in these macro categories were suggested, collectively
contributing to the 3rd most popular feedback suggestion. Depending on the
project, up to all four of our criteria could be met. This is a large and
fragmented space, so we're thinking about how the list could usefully focus
attention.</p>
<p><strong>Outreachy.</strong> This and other initiatives to help "people from groups
underrepresented in free software get involved" solidly meets our
systematic and cascading criteria, so we intend to add it.</p>
<p><strong>Improving accessibility, internationalization, and security.</strong> These
very different topics are linked in their potential for systematic
impact, and their ethical import -- does a user really control their
own computing if they cannot use appropriate interfaces, their first
language, or if their computer is spying on them or can be pwned at
any moment? We'd like to add these to the list, together or
separately, but probably need a link for each that provides guidance
on how to get involved effectively.</p>
<p><strong>Free software adoption by government.</strong> There have been some
successful efforts in this regard, particularly in Europe. The cascade
effect is potentially very large, given that government is overall the
largest employer, and everyone interacts with government in various
ways -- a popular suggestion was for free tax software. Demanding that
government not be held hostage to proprietary software is also an
activity that every citizen can and should do. We're inclined to add
this to the list, particularly if there is a single link that can
guide people all over the world toward resources for acting.</p>
<p>Let's continue the conversation: you can reach the committee at
<a href="mailto:hpp-feedback@gnu.org">&#104;&#112;&#112;&#45;&#102;&#101;&#101;&#100;&#98;&#97;&#99;&#107;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>.</p>
<hr />

<p>†We'd like to especially thank the following people who let us know
they had published their suggestions to the committee: <a href="http://a3nm.net/blog/gnu_hpp.html">Antoine
Amarilli</a>, <a href="http://ingegnue.wordpress.com/2014/12/13/high-priority-projects-for-the-new-year-2015/">Kathryn Bukovi</a>, <a href="http://understandingfonts.com/blog/2015/03/hpp/">Dave Crossland</a>, <a href="http://ossguy.com/?p=1446">Denver
Gingerich</a>, Federico Leva (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/gnu/comments/2r0jt3/email_for_gnu_high_priority_projects_list/">1</a>, <a href="http://laxstrom.name/blag/2015/02/01/gnu-i18n-for-high-priority-projects-list/">2</a>), <a href="https://kwill.github.io/fsf/hpp.html">David Seaward</a>,
and <a href="http://dustycloud.org/blog/high-priority-free-software-candidate-list/">Christopher Allan Webber</a>.</p>


