# articles

feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interested-in-a-powerful-free-software-friendly-workstation
title: Interested in a powerful, free software friendly workstation?
uri: Interested-in-a-powerful-free-software-friendly-workstation
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interested-in-a-powerful-free-software-friendly-workstation
content:
<p>Raptor Engineering, is <a href="https://raptorengineeringinc.com/TALOS/prerelease.php">gauging public interest</a> in a new high-end
workstation designed to run only free software. The Talos™ Secure
Workstation uses the IBM POWER 8 processor and architecture, which is
<a href="https://raptorengineeringinc.com/TALOS/power_advantages.php">comparable</a> in terms  of overall power and performance to that of
modern Intel/AMD x86 based systems. However, whereas all modern x86
systems are encumbered by proprietary firmware and software, such as Intel's
<a href="https://fsf.org/blogs/community/active-management-technology">Management Engine and Active Management Technology</a> (AMT), the
POWER 8 architecture is able to run an entirely free software boot
system, Libreboot. Raptor Engineering is a significant contributor to
Libreboot projects and they wish to make and sell <a href="https://libreboot.org">Libreboot</a> and
GNU/Linux-based workstation that are "designed for security-conscious,
high performance users." </p>
<p>In order for Raptor Engineering to be able to sell these workstations,
they will need to manufacture a large enough quantity to make it a cost
effective proposition for them. Therefore, if you might be interested
in purchasing a Talos™ Secure Workstation mainboard, then let them
know by <a href="https://raptorengineeringinc.com/TALOS/prerelease.php">signing-up today</a> to be informed when they are available 
for pre-order. If Raptor Engineering does end up producing these workstations,  the FSF will be evaluating them for <a href="https://www.fsf.org/ryf">Respects Your Freedom certification</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-you-need-to-know-for-libreplanet-2016-wherever-you-are
title: What you need to know for LibrePlanet 2016, wherever you are
uri: What-you-need-to-know-for-LibrePlanet-2016-wherever-you-are
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-you-need-to-know-for-libreplanet-2016-wherever-you-are
content:
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/live">Bookmark the remote participation center now</a>, and go
    there on Saturday, March 19th and Sunday, March 20th to watch
    the livestream.</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>This year's <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program">program</a> is bursting with something for everyone
in the free software movement, from inquisitive newcomers to
hardcore developers.</p>
<p>Keynotes talks will include NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in
conversation with the ACLU's Daniel Kahn Gillmor; Open Source
Initiative board president Allison Randal; Free Software
Foundation founder Richard Stallman; and Software Freedom
Conservancy executive director Karen Sandler.</p>
<p>Another way to participate remotely is to join the conversation
around the conference on the libreplanet-discuss mailing
list. <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss">Subscribe now and dive in</a>.</p>
<p>Advance registration is now closed, but walk-up registrations
will be accepted at the conference. Students and FSF <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">members</a>
enjoy gratis admission. Additionally, members enjoy a variety of
other <a href="https://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits">benefits</a> and support free software year-round.</p>
<p>Finally, we'd like to express our excitement about working with
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's <a href="https://sipb.mit.edu">Student Information
Processing Board</a>, our organizing partner for LibrePlanet
2016.</p>
<p>See you soon, in Cambridge or on the Web!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/recapping-day-zero-of-libreplanet-2016
title: Recapping day zero of LibrePlanet 2016
uri: Recapping-day-zero-of-LibrePlanet-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/recapping-day-zero-of-libreplanet-2016
content:
<img alt="Snowden Keynote" src="media/2d80f095.snowden-video.png" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/376/snowden-video.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>...before Daniel could finish the room broke out into clapping and
standing ovation. Edward responded with clear emotion by thanking the
community for creating free software. Sitting down in front...</p>
<p>...feeling the energy, emotion and celebration was vibrant in the
room. It was a great kick off to the day. Naturally things ran over
time and those watching the stream had sound related issues, so Ruben
our newest tech team member, made a valiant effort to edit the
<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/libreplanet-2016-the-last-lighthouse/">video to share it amongst all of you</a>.</p>
<img alt="keynote audience" src="media/d77aa0e9.20160319_002.medium.jpg" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/378/20160319_002.medium.jpg" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>With the late start to the keynote the following sessions were pushed
a bit, but amid the typical conference chaos, things came together
quite in stride.</p>
<p>Finally, I had a chance to step into the session on "Inessential
weirdnesses in free software" where Sumana Harihareswara made some
very interesting points that left an impression about concerns for the
social inclusion and accepting new folks into the community and the
importance of communities that are not represented well or all. She
gave advice on ways to create a more inclusive community and appealed
to my own challenges we face.</p>
<p>Afterwards stepping into another session "Experiences around FLOSS
tools and social movements in Mexico" which was presented in
Spanish. We had a member, Emily, of the
<a href="http://interpreterscollective.org/">Boston Interpreters Collective</a> provide interpretation for the
community. The material was very deep and interesting, developing the
context for the decisions, path and reasons human rights organization
in Mexico chose a way toward free software. A part that touched me was
the discussion on adapting the adoption process to those in the
organization, in that people are not pushed, but engaged in a longer
progressive process in working towards free software everywhere. It
was a challenging session to interpret and we deeply thank Emily, for
her work to interpret.</p>
<p>Following the intriguing session on social movements and free software
the next one that brought a lot of attention came from the LittleSis
session, which packed the room. <a href="https://littlesis.org">LittleSis</a> is a platform for power
mapping research. Many folks in the room appeared to be from
perspectives of wanting to map out the power structures of various
movements. The room was full of genuine support and analysis. The
interest grew as the session progressed. LittleSis brings together a
great mapping tool aptly called the 'oligrapher' to display the power
in a map form of the oligarchs. The example put forward with a bit of
sarcastic fun was displaying the so-called 'well ĺiked' Bill Gates. As
the room laughed off the comment, the data presented was deeply
interesting in displaying the interlocking connections through
associations of Bill Gates brought out amazing ways for the data to be
used. Another great example that was shared came through the merger of
Comcast and NBC. While LittleSis research presented some amazing
findings, it was a rather comical satire at times, and really
encourage people to watch it, when we put it up.</p>
<p>The day concluded for me with the Free Software Awards where Library
Freedom Project and Werner Koch were celebrated for their
contributions to the communities.</p>
<p>
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="media/32907bee.88x31.png" data-original-source="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/StillImage" rel="dct:type">Snowden photo</span> by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Kori Feener</span>, licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>
</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-day-two-in-a-nutshell
title: LibrePlanet day two in a nutshell
uri: LibrePlanet-day-two-in-a-nutshell
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-day-two-in-a-nutshell
content:
<img alt="Allison Randal 'story'" src="media/f76706d5.Allison_02.medium.png" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/385/Allison_02.medium.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Sunday began with an initial keynote by Allison Randal, executive
director of the Open Source Initiative, where a great emphasis was put
on the need to lead after we win in free software. Allison left many
people excited and inspired in the movement.</p>
<p>A student named Emmanuel led an eye-opening discussion on ways to
bring stories into how we connect to the free software community. In
their talk they focused attention on the need for thinking about the
community we want and asked attendees to share their stories of
discovering free software, focusing on the social realm of our
movement instead of a specific software project.</p>
<p>There were over a dozen lightning talks covering a wide variety of
topics. From individuals introducing their personal projects to people
explaining their companies' free software services, the talks were an
eclectic mix. Towards the end of the second hour we freed the space up
for longer talks with more in depth question and answer periods.</p>
<img alt="Karen Sandler" src="media/25580492.Sandler_01.medium.png" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/404/Sandler_01.medium.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Having followed the FreedomBox project from its initial steps made
about five years ago, it was satisfying to see its well-developed
presentation. The project is creating a simple means to run services,
like ownCloud, Tor, chat, and even voice over IP from your home
without the need for exceptional technical know-how.</p>
<p>LibrePlanet 2016 ended with a talk by Karen Sandler, executive
director of the Software Freedom Conservancy. She called for
developers to use employee agreements and other contracts to harness
bargaining power to retain copyright or assign it to the FSF, allowing
their works to be defended as free software.</p>


title: FSF to begin accepting scanned signatures for copyright assignments from India
uri: FSF-to-begin-accepting-scanned-signatures-for-copyright-assignments-fr
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-scanned-signatures-for-copyright-assignments-from-india

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

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.  Our legal counsel at the <a href="http://softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a> recently
gave us the all clear to begin accepting scanned assignments for contributors residing in India. We would also like to particularly thank Mishi Choudhary of SFLC and SFLC India for providing local counsel on this issue.</p>
<p>Indian hackers will now be able to fax or scan their signed copyright assignment to the FSF, saving the trouble of having to go through the postal mail. We have accepted scanned documents from <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-gpg-signed-assignments-from-the-u-s">U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-scanned-assignments-from-germany">German</a> contributors for some time now. We also announced in 2015 that <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-gpg-signatures-for-copyright-assignments-from-italy">Italian</a> contributors could assign using digital signatures.</p>
<p>The list of countries where we can currently accept digitally signed
documents (scanned, Gnu Privacy Guard 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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-1st-not-a-joke
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: April 1st (not a joke)
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-April-1st-(not-a-joke)
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-1st-not-a-joke
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, April 1st, no this is not a joke,
from 12pm to 3pm EDT (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="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: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Matt Lee of GNU Social
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Matt-Lee-of-GNU-Social
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-matt-lee-of-gnu-social

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-matt-lee-of-gnu-social

content:
<img src="media/4ce59ad4.gnu-social-logo.png" data-original-source="http://www.gnu.org/graphics/gnu-social-logo.png" alt="GNU Social Logo" />

<h2>Tell us a bit about yourself</h2>
<p>I'm Matt Lee, I live in Austin, Texas where I'm the Technical Lead at
Creative Commons. Away from Creative Commons and free software, I'm
making a movie -- Orang-U: An Ape Goes To College -- edited with free
software and released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
license.</p>
<h2>What inspired the creation of GNU Social?</h2>
<p>GNU social was created as a companion to my earlier project, GNU FM,
which we created to build the social music platform, Libre.fm. After
only a few short months, Libre.fm had over 20,000 users and I realized
I didn't want to be another social media silo like MySpace or
Facebook, so I came up with this vague idea called GNU social. A few
prototypes were built, and eventually we started making GNU social as
a series of plugins for Evan Prodromou's StatusNet project, with some
help from Ian Denhardt, Craig Andrews and Steven DuBois. Later,
StatusNet, GNU social and Free&amp;Social (a fork of StatusNet) would
merge into a single project called GNU social. If that sounds
confusing and convoluted, it is.</p>
<h2>How are people using it?</h2>
<p>People are using GNU social in three distinct ways:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Running a private community that shares messages within the site
  itself, but not outside the site. Businesses are using it this way
  too, running internal communications tools.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Running as a way to distribute messages to a wider circle, including
  sites like Twitter and Facebook.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Running as part of a global federated social network that is
  primarily focused on internal free software community discussion,
  but has wider discussions too.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Most people are using it in a variety of ways. I believe the FSF uses
it to do many of those jobs.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets GNU social apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>I'm always keen to emphasize that I see GNU social as a social media
framework, rather than a network itself. That's why I write social in
lowercase -- we're not a product, we're a tool, like
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/">GNU Bash</a> or
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/">Grep</a>. The networks that form are
a result of the communities' usages of the tool, and people are free
to run their own federated networks and not talk to the existing users
of the free software community network.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the AGPLv3 as the license for your code?</h2>
<p>We chose the GNU Affero GPL because it was the license we were using
for GNU FM, and it was the license StatusNet was using, and I'd used
it before in a previous social networking project called MyExperiment
that I'd worked on at the University of Manchester back in 2007. In
fact, <a href="http://www.myexperiment.org/groups/1.html">you can see</a> that
the very first group on the site is a GNU group.</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to GNU Social?</h2>
<p>One great way to contribute to GNU social is to install it and run it.
You can get some cheap hosting from a variety of places and run your
own GNU social server. You just need PHP and MySQL, which is a very
minimal requirement for running a Web site. It's important to me that
free software projects are easy to set up and install, even by curious
new users. WordPress is an example of a project that gets this right,
and sadly virtually every other free software Web application gets
this wrong. GNU social gets this mostly right, but certainly helping
to improve the installer would be a great way to get involved in
helping with code. Documentation is also lacking in a lot of areas.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for GNU Social?</h2>
<p>The next big thing for GNU social would be a release. I'd like to see
a release, there's
<a href="https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/first-distributed-tool-new-sharing-economy/2016/03/23">some work being done from the first GNU social camp in Europe</a>
and I have some interesting art related ideas for GNU social in the
near future. My own attention, for the rest of the year, is focused on
editing and releasing a monkey movie.</p>
<p>If you're interested in GNU social, please visit
<a href="https://gnu.io/social">https://gnu.io/social</a> -- install it, send bugs to us to fix, talk to
people in the community once you have your GNU social site installed,
or if you have any questions for me, <a href="mailto:mattl@gnu.org">email</a> is
always welcome.</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-michael-zahniser-of-endless-sky">Michael Zahniser of Endless Sky</a></em>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-march
title: March 2016: photos from Bhopal and Utrecht and through to Quebec City and Montreal
uri: March-2016-photos-from-Bhopal-and-Utrecht-and-through-to-Quebec-City
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-march
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>RMS was in India, the Netherlands, and Canada this past month.  He
started his trip in February in <strong>Pilani,</strong> in
<strong>Delhi,</strong> and in <strong>Roorkee,</strong> where he
spoke, at APOGEE 2016, the annual Birla Institute of Technology &#38;
Science&#x2013;Pilani technical festival, at Tryst, the Indian
Institute of Technology Delhi's annual science and technology
festival, and at Cognizance,<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup>
IIT&#x2013;Delhi's annual technical festival.  He then moved on&#8230;

<p>&#8230;to <strong>Bhopal,</strong> where, on the invitation of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Maulana Azad
National Institute of Technology Student Branch, he gave his speech
&ldquo;Free Software and Your Freedom,&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn2" id="ref2">2</a></sup> on March 5<sup>th</sup>, to students of all
levels from the MANIT:</p>

<!-- Image(s) start below -->
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<img src="media/9add459e.20160305-bhopal-10-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-10-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/14a6721a.20160305-bhopal-05-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-05-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/4f651bd9.20160305-bhopal-06-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-06-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/234ebd46.20160305-bhopal-12-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-12-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/5ef526cc.20160305-bhopal-11-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-11-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a9c2ec80.20160305-bhopal-13-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-13-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/5d454946.20160305-bhopal-14-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-14-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f83a9842.20160305-bhopal-15-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-15-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/c36ee9f0.20160305-bhopal-09-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160305-bhopal/20160305-bhopal-09-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>.  Photos courtesy of Achal Arya, Priyesh Patel, and Vinay Teja Reddy.</em>

<p>&#8230;to <strong>Utrecht,</strong> where he gave his speech
&ldquo;Computing, Freedom, and Privacy,&rdquo;</a><sup><a href="#fn3" id="ref3">3</a></sup> at the IT Talent College, in Utrecht,
Netherlands, on March 9<sup>th</sup>, to over 200 people:</p>

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<img src="media/74164897.20160309-utrecht-01-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-01-floris-heuer-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/2e5f8624.20160309-utrecht-09-just-hemmelar-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-09-just-hemmelar-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3da3ba18.20160309-utrecht-10-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-10-floris-heuer-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/13765946.20160309-utrecht-02-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-02-floris-heuer-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/401b7c06.20160309-utrecht-03-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-03-floris-heuer-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/9971fff0.20160309-utrecht-04-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-04-floris-heuer-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/92be3575.20160309-utrecht-11-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-11-floris-heuer-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/84fc8245.20160309-utrecht-05-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-05-floris-heuer-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0af3c6d1.20160309-utrecht-06-just-hemmelar-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-06-just-hemmelar-thumb.png" alt="" width="180" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e08f4dce.20160309-utrecht-12-floris-heuer-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160309-utrecht/20160309-utrecht-12-floris-heuer-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 under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photos courtesy of Floris Heuer and Just Hemmelar.)</em>

<p>&#8230;to <strong>Quebec City,</strong> Canada, where, at the
Université Laval, on the invitation of the university's Institut
Technologies de l'information et Sociétés, he gave his speech <a href="media/50f50098.Richard-Stallman-Logiciel-libre-et-libertC3A9-numC3A9rique.ogg" data-original-source="http://ex-situ.info/files/2016/03/Richard-Stallman-Logiciel-libre-et-libert%C3%A9-num%C3%A9rique.ogg">&laquo;Logiciel
libre et société libre&raquo;</a> on March 16<sup>th</sup> to an
audience of over 300 people.</p>

<img src="media/e0bf4c15.20160316-quebeccity-01-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160316-quebeccity/20160316-quebeccity-01-thumb.png" alt="" width="540" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/54b5888f.20160316-quebeccity-02-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160316-quebeccity/20160316-quebeccity-02-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/86b8f35e.20160316-quebeccity-03-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160316-quebeccity/20160316-quebeccity-03-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>.  Photos courtesy of the ITIS.)</em>

<p>&#8230;and then, on to <strong>Montreal,</strong> where, as a guest
of the Adte, an organization whose mandate is "to promote the use of
free software in higher education," he gave his speech "Free Software
and Your Freedom,"<sup><a href="#fn4" id="ref4">4</a></sup> at the <a href="http://adte.ca/colloque-libre.html">Colloque libre de
l'Adte,</a> to an audience of about 200 people, before posing for a
picture with Adte vice-president Rafael Scapin, holding&#8230a copy of
the third edition of RMS's <em>Free Software, Free Society.</em>

<img src="media/e34051d4.20160317-montreal-01-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160317-montreal/20160317-montreal-01-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 under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.  Photo courtesy of the Adte.)</em>

<p>Finally, once he was home again in <strong>Cambridge,</strong> on
March 19<sup>th</sup>, during <a
href="http://libreplanet.org/2016>LibrePlanet</a>, the FSF's annual
conference, RMS awarded this year's <a
href="http://www.fsf.org/news/library-freedom-project-and-werner-koch-are-2015-free-software-awards-winners">Free
Software Awards</a> to Library Freedom Project, which reveice the
Project of Social Benefit Award, and Werner Koch, who received the
Award for the Advancement of Free Software.  Later, on March 29th, he
gave his speech "Computing in Freedom, Developing in Freedom," at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on March 29<sup>th</sup>.</p>

<!-- 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=427&reset=1">Pilani</a>,
<a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=53&reset=1">Delhi</a>,
<a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=414&reset=1">Bhopal</a>,
<a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=441&reset=1">Roorkee</a>,
<a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=438&reset=1">Utrecht</a>,
<a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=429&reset=1">Quebec
City</a>, <a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=316&reset=1">Montreal</a>,
or <a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=228&reset=1">Cambrige</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. Read the <a href="http://geekgazette.org/news/post/index.php?UrlSlug=richard-stallman">interview</a> he gave the Geek Gazette while he was in town.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn2">2. A recording of RMS's March 5<sup>th</sup>, 2016, Bhopal speech might be available at some future time in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2016">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref2" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn3">3. A recording of RMS's March 9<sup>th</sup>, 2016, Utrecht speech will soon be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2016">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref3" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn4">4. A recording of RMS's March 17<sup>th</sup>, 2016, Montreal speech will soon be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2016">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref4" title="Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
</div>
</di


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/apple-sues-free-software-foundation-for-trademark-infringement
title: Apple sues Free Software Foundation for trademark infringement
uri: Apple-sues-Free-Software-Foundation-for-trademark-infringement
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/apple-sues-free-software-foundation-for-trademark-infringement
content:
<p>GNU Emacs, whose name stands for "editing macros," is an iconic free text editor first released by Richard Stallman in 1985. The eMac, short for "education Mac," was sold by Apple from 2002 to 2006 and ran Apple’s proprietary operating systems, OS 9 and OS X.</p>
<p>“We honestly don’t understand why Apple is doing this now” said FSF office manager Jonathan Tuttle. “They haven’t even made an eMac since 2006. It feels retaliatory.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the FSF has been a thorn in Apple’s side for decades, decrying its obsessive use of software patents to attack competing firms, its affinity for Digital Restrictions Management, and the restrictive licensing terms in its App Store, which bar free software protected by the GPL. Apple has been involved in trademark and patent cases almost constantly for the life of the company, most famously <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer">against the Apple Corps</a> record label and more recently <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.">against Samsung</a>.</p>
<p>The FSF plans to fight the suit in court. Experts have already pointed out a critical weakness in the trademark claim: Emacs was published more than a decade before the eMac existed. Apple is yet to put forward a counterargument.</p>
<p>Recently unsealed documents reveal a long secret history of trademark dealings between Apple and the FSF. In 2009, Apple offered FSF founder Richard Stallman US $1 million for the use of his preferred moniker for Apple products, “iThings,” in its upcoming advertising campaign. Stallman refused the offer.</p>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Media Contact</h3>
<p><!-- HE DOESN'T EXIST LOL -->
Jonathan Tuttle<br />
Office Manager<br />
Free Software Foundation <br />
April Fools<br />
+1 (617) 542 5942<br />
<a href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">&#99;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#97;&#105;&#103;&#110;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a><br />
</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-15-new-gnu-releases-march-24-2016
title: GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: 15 new GNU releases in the last month (as of March 24, 2016)
uri: GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-15-new-GNU-releases-in-the-last-mo
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-15-new-gnu-releases-march-24-2016
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf-archive/">autoconf-archive-2016.03.20</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/complexity/">complexity-1.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/">ddrescue-1.21</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/denemo/">denemo-2.0.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/global/">global-6.5.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/">glpk-4.59</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gneuralnetwork/">gneuralnetwork-0.5.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.4.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/">grep-2.24</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/">linux-libre-4.5-gnu</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mcsim/">mcsim-5.6.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mpfr/">mpfr-3.1.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/">nano-2.5.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/">octave-4.0.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160322</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 Jean Michel Sellier as the maintainer of the
new GNU package
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gneuralnetwork">Gneural Network</a> in
addition to his many other packages; Jürgen Pfitzenmaier as the new
maintainer of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/polyxmass">polyxmass</a>; Ben
Hilburn as the new maintainer of
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio">GNU Radio</a>; and Daniel James
as the new maintainer of the book
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/teximpatient">TeX for the Impatient</a>.</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/rms/when-free-software-depends-on-non-free
title: New article by RMS, "When free software depends on non-free"
uri: New-article-by-RMS-When-free-software-depends-on-non-free
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/when-free-software-depends-on-non-free
content:
<p>Richard Stallman's latest article, <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/when-free-depends-on-nonfree"><em>When Free Software Depends On
Non-Free</em></a> discusses different kinds of free software "traps" —
when a free program's use depends unavoidably on a nonfree program —
including the subtle but nefarious problem in which upgrading a free
program requires using a nonfree programs. Stallman's various examples
of different kinds of traps will help you be able to recognize them,
and as he concludes in the article, "all it takes to avoid the trap is
to recognize it."</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/urge-the-european-commission-to-adopt-free-software-values
uri: By-April-10th-Urge-the-European-Commission-to-adopt-free-software-val
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/urge-the-european-commission-to-adopt-free-software-values
title:
By April 10th: Urge the European Commission to adopt free software values when funding Internet improvements

content:
<p>Our friends at FSF Europe are highlighting an important opportunity to
help direct 750 million Euro toward fixing the Internet using free
software values and expertise:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The European Commission is about to allocate 750 million Euro over
the next years on the "future internet", but the really important
subjects (like: everything we learned from Edward Snowden) are not
on their radar - yet.</p>
<p>However, if we bundle our efforts that is something that is
definitely within reach. At the moment we are told there are only a
couple of dozens of submissions from mostly the usual suspects, so
your response would (at least on paper) count for influencing a few
million Euro of this budget. It really makes a difference if you
submit something, even if it is really short.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://k7r.eu/urgent-help-until-10-april-to-influence-how-750-millions-will-be-spent/">Read Matthias Kirschner's post for more details</a> and for
instructions on submitting your ideas.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-8th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: April 8th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-April-8th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-8th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, April 8th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-15th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: April 15th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-April-15th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-15th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, April 15th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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: U.S. Federal Source Code Policy: FSF supports, and urges improvements - comment by April 18!
uri: U-S-Federal-Source-Code-Policy-FSF-supports-and-urges-improvements
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/u-s-federal-source-code-policy-fsf-supports-and-urges-improvements-comment-by-april-18

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/u-s-federal-source-code-policy-fsf-supports-and-urges-improvements-comment-by-april-18

content:
<p><a href="https://sourcecode.cio.gov/">The text of the proposed policy</a> and <a href="https://github.com/whitehouse/source-code-policy/issues/">all comments</a> are available, and we have also published <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/fsf-comment-on-proposed-u-s-federal-source-code-policy">our comment here on fsf.org</a>. </p>
<p><strong>The public comment period for this proposal is open through 11:59pm EDT on Monday, April 18, 2016.</strong> Instructions for how to comment are available at <a href="https://sourcecode.cio.gov/">https://sourcecode.cio.gov/</a>.</p>
<p>The proposal could be a big step in the right direction for the U.S.,
and in our comment, we suggest several improvements.</p>
<ul>
<li>We urge the federal government to recognize and include the term
    "free software" and the
    <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">Free Software Definition</a>,
    indicating that this policy is designed to protect the autonomy of
    government and the rights of its people.</li>
<li>The proposal is to release 20% of custom code each year: we
    recommend releasing all code as free.</li>
<li>Additionally, free documentation should be included in the policy.</li>
<li>The federal government needs to address its contradictory habit of
    requiring or recommending the use of proprietary software,
    including non-free JavaScript. * The government should should not
    require use of GitHub in order to contribute to government
    projects under this initiative -- our
    <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria">code repository criteria</a>
    explain important concerns in this area.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>You can submit your own comments regarding this proposal, supporting the FSF's suggestions and adding your own ideas for improvement, through 11:59pm EDT on Monday, April 18, 2016.</strong> Email your comment to <a href="mailto:sourcecode@omb.eop.gov">&#115;&#111;&#117;&#114;&#99;&#101;&#99;&#111;&#100;&#101;&#64;&#111;&#109;&#98;&#46;&#101;&#111;&#112;&#46;&#103;&#111;&#118;</a> or see <a href="https://sourcecode.cio.gov/">https://sourcecode.cio.gov/</a> for other ways to comment.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-22nd
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: April 22nd
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-April-22nd
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-22nd
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, April 22nd, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-29th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: April 29th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-April-29th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-april-29th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, April 29th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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: No one should have to use proprietary software to communicate with their government
uri: No-one-should-have-to-use-proprietary-software-to-communicate-with-the
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/no-one-should-have-to-use-proprietary-software-to-communicate-with-government

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/no-one-should-have-to-use-proprietary-software-to-communicate-with-government

content:
<p>Proprietary <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html">JavaScript</a> is a threat to all users on the Web. When
minified, the code can hide all sorts of nasty items, like spyware and
other security risks. Savvy users can protect themselves by blocking
scripts in their browser, or by installing the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/">LibreJS</a> browser
extension and avoiding sites that require proprietary JavaScript in
order to function. But some sites are harder to avoid than
others. This is particularly the case when the site is required for
citizens to communicate or interact with their own government. If no
free alternative means are provided, then users can be blocked from
participating in the democratic process.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://fsf.org/campaigns/freejs">FSF long ago called on Regulations.gov to free its JavaScript</a>,
but as of yet we have not succeeded in getting the message
through. Increasingly, protecting and promoting free software requires
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/from-tpp-to-saving-wifi-the-fsf-fights-for-you">interacting with government agencies</a>, so this impediment directly
impacts the FSF's core mission. Most recently, the Copyright Office
<a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/it_isnt_just_dmca_broken_beyond_repair">refused our comment</a> calling for an end to the DMCA's
anti-circumvention provisions because we would not submit it via their
proprietary interface. Kevin R. Amer, Senior Counsel for Policy and
International Affairs told us they would not accept our DMCA comment
unless we used Regulations.gov. Jacqueline C. Charlesworth, General
Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights confirmed once we had
submitted that the submission was unacceptable. Over twelve hundred
co-signers signed-on to amplify our voice, but the proprietary
JavaScript on Regulations.gov made sure that the Copyright Office's
ears were shut.</p>
<p>On March 1st, 2016, the Copyright Office announced a call for comments
on an update to their technology infrastructure. We submitted a
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/2016-tech-comment-copyright-office">comment</a> urging them to institute a policy that requires all
software they develop and distribute to be free software. Further, we
also urged them to not require people to run proprietary software in
order to communicate or submit comments to them. Unfortunately, once
again, the Copyright Office requires the use of proprietary JavaScript
in order to submit the comment and they are only accepting comments
online unless a person lacks computer or Internet access. However, we
mailed a copy via the post and we are posting it publicly in the hopes
that they will read it and understand that their infrastructure is so
broken that we cannot even tell them that it is broken. At this time,
we have received no response from the Copyright Office, and once again
our comment has not been published.</p>
<p>The most absurd part of all this is that other government agencies,
while still using Regulations.gov, are perfectly capable of offering
alternatives to submission. At the end of 2015 we were able to submit
comments to the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/free-software-activists-come-together-to-improve-proposed-u-s-doe-regulations">Department of Education</a> via the post. Our
comments regarding the White House's Federal Source Code Policy could
be submitted <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/u-s-federal-source-code-policy-fsf-supports-and-urges-improvements-comment-by-april-18">via email</a>. While we urge those agencies to provide a
simple Web form for submitting comments that does not rely on
proprietary JavaScript, the fact that they do offer other ways to
submit at least means that free software users are not completely shut
out. The Copyright Office is the only agency we have dealt with that
refuses to offer any method of submission that doesn't require
proprietary software.</p>
<p>The threat of proprietary JavaScript won't go away on its own. We need
your help to rid the Web of proprietary JavaScript, and to ensure that
citizens in every country can communicate freely with their own
government. Here's what you can do to help:</p>
<ul>
<li>Help the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/freejs">Free JavaScript Campaign</a> by joining the
  <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Free_Javascript_Action_Team">Free JavaScript Action Team</a>. You can help in particular on the
  issue of government mandated proprietary JavaScript by finding and
  listing government run Web sites in your country that require
  proprietary JavaScript and planning actions to make those sites
  free.</li>
<li>
<p>If you microblog, please share the following message or your own. We
  strongly suggest that if you use <a href="https://www.fsf.org/twitter">Twitter</a>, you do it in a way
  that avoids using proprietary software:</p>
<p><strong>No one should be forced to use proprietary software to
  communicate with their government. @CopyrightOffice (shortened
  url to blogpost)</strong></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Consider supporting our work on proprietary JavaScript and other
  kinds of government proprietary software requirements by making a
  <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donation</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>


title: Special Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup and LIVE STREAM: May 6th
uri: Special-Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-and-LIVE-STREAM-May
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/special-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-and-live-stream-may-6th

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/special-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-and-live-stream-may-6th

content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, May 6th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00
to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory. This week's
meet-up will include a live video stream, featuring the FSF's licensing &amp; 
compliance manager, Joshua Gay (see "screen capture" from our test 
run of the video stream, below).</p>
<pre style="font: 6px monospace !important;display: inline-block;">
::~`              `:::***1111111&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&11111111111  *:::::~~~~~~:
:~~`                `::**11111&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&11&&111111111111***::~```    ` ``
:~~`                 ~::*****111111111111111111111111111*1***111**~`            
::~~`                 ~:::********111111111111*1111**1*****:::~~~               
**:::~~              ~~~::::*****1**1*111*111*11********:*::~~~                 
11**::~`~           `~~:::******111111111111:`  ~`  :***::::~~``                
111****::~~```~~~~::***111&&&&UUUUUUUU;&&&&`            1**::~~``            ``~:
11**::~`              `~::**1111&&&&&&&&~                &11****::::::******11*1
*::~                      `~:**11111&11                   ~~           ``~::***1
UUUUUU  ~~                   `~~:*1111~        `          ~*                :*:*
NNNNNG  &GGGGGGGGGU1;              `~*1&     `:~~~**:::~  `*&                  `~
NNNNNG  &GNGNGGGGGG;*               `1&* :&UUUUU;*1UGGUU&&: ~&             11&&&&&
NNNNNN  UNNNNGNGGG&                :1& ~1UGNNN1  GNGNNGU1~ &            1&&&UUUU;
NNNNNN  GNNNNNNNNGG        ~       `&&     ~~``  ````      &            UUGGGGUU
NNNNNG  NNNNNNNNNNG        ` `&&`:` 1     `::    `~*`~``~` :            GGGGGUUU
NNNNN&  NNNNNNNNNNG          :      1  :*1UU:GNUGGU&&&&&1*`             &UGGUU;&`
GNNNN`  NNNNNNNNNNN          `      * `&UGG;&**:UU&U;&UGG;&&*              1UNUU&*:
GGNNN  `NNNNNNNNNNN                 * `1&**:NUUUUUGG&1:11*              GNG&1N1:
UGNNN  &NNNNNNNNNNN;      GNNNNNNNNNN~  &&1~::**:**1***&&1*              ~1NNNUNN
UGNNN  GNNNNNNNNNNN     NU NN           U&*`::~~~~~`:&&&&               &NN1;&GN;&
UGNNN  NNNNNNNNNNNN     &NNN;            &UU1;`*:::~~*&UUU;&*:1&`          ~U* &NN1;
UUNNN  NNNNNNNNNNNN      NNNGNNUUUGGU*&NUGGGNGGGGNNGGGGU;:GNGUGNNN       `N: NNNG
GNNNN  NNNNNNNNNNNG      NUU:`~:::U111NUN1GNNNNNNNNNNGU1: NNGGG&         NUNNNGG
UG~~1` GNNNNNNNNNNU      11&&&&1&UU1;&UGUN;&*UGNNNNNNGGU&&1NNNGNGGG        UUNGNNG
&NNN;& ~N&NNNNNNNNN;:    1*G1UUUU&GNG;&GNGGGGN1;&GNNNGGGGGNNNNNNNNNU1G;&:::~~~`~~~~*N
U&NN;~ :NNNNNNNNNNN    1&UGGGUNNGNNU;&NN;&NN;*UNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGU&&U1;*1`::~:1N
*~`   ~:`*NNNNNNNN  `1U&GGGNGNUNNGUUGNUGGGUUNNGNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGNNGUGGGGG;&*11111~
1&&11~:::~*`N*:*NN `&&&NGGNNGNNNNNUNGGGGU;&NNNNNGNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGNNGGGGNNGUU1;*111N
&1U&UU1;  :NNNNNNNG`&&UUUGNNNNGNNNGGNGGUUUGUGGGNGNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN;&GG1;&:
&UU;&1GUNNNNNNNGNNN111UUNGNNNNGNNNGNNNGNGUUNGNGNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGNU11
UUGGNNNNNNNNGGGG&&&&UUNNGNNNNGNNNNNNNNGGGGNNGNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGU;&
UUUUGNNNNGUUGGGG&1&&UGGGNGNNGGNNNNNNGUNNGNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG;
</pre>

<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>


uri: GNU-Spotlight-with-Brandon-Invergo-Twenty-new-GNU-releases-in-the-las
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-twenty-new-gnu-releases-in-the-last-month-as-of-april-25-2016

title:
GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: Twenty new GNU releases in the last month (as of April 25, 2016):

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-with-brandon-invergo-twenty-new-gnu-releases-in-the-last-month-as-of-april-25-2016

content:
<p>20 new GNU releases in the last month (as of April 25, 2016):</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/8sync/">8sync-0.1.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/dejagnu/">dejagnu-1.6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/denemo/">denemo-2.0.6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/global/">global-6.5.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/">glpk-4.60</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gneural-network/">gneural-network-0.9.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.0.30</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.4.11</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/">grep-2.25</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/">gzip-1.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-38.7.1-gnu1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ignuit/">ignuit-2.24.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libgcrypt/">libgcrypt-1.7.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/">libmicrohttpd-0.9.49</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libtasn1/">libtasn1-4.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mediagoblin/">mediagoblin-0.9.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/">octave-4.0.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160422</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/">pspp-0.10.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/pyconfigure/">pyconfigure-0.2.3</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 Russell Hyer as a new co-maintainer of
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/pdf">GNU PDF</a>.</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: Ethics in, ethics out -- promote user-respecting software development platforms
uri: Ethics-in-ethics-out-promote-user-respecting-software-development
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ethics-in-ethics-out-promote-user-respecting-software-development-platforms

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ethics-in-ethics-out-promote-user-respecting-software-development-platforms

content:
<p><em>This post was written by FSF campaigns manager Zak Rogoff and
community member Andrew Ferguson.</em></p>
<p>In April, the Free Software Foundation and the <a href="https://www.gnu.org">GNU Project</a>
announced <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria-evaluation.html">evaluations of several major repository-hosting
services</a>. These services are the bedrock infrastructure that our
community uses to collaborate and communicate while building software,
and therefore a big part of what we put into the construction process
that creates free software. Using the GNU Ethical Criteria for Code
Repositories, the evaluations judge code-hosting services for their
commitment to user privacy and freedom. Now we are asking you to help
support sites that meet the criteria and improve those that do not.</p>
<p><strong>Currently, <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/">Savannah</a> and <a href="https://gitlab.com">GitLab</a> meet or surpass the
baseline standards of the criteria.</strong> You can explore the completed
evaluations on the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria-evaluation.html">evaluation page</a>. The <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria.en.html">criteria page</a> offers
more information on the evaluation process, as well as the criteria
themselves.</p>
<p>Ethical code hosting is important not just for developers, but for
users of free software, too. Repositories usually provide Web sites
with downloadable executable programs compiled from the code they
host, and are thus a popular way for users to get up-to-date copies of
free software. The sites also host issue trackers that let users
submit bug reports and provide feedback to developers.</p>
<p>Because they are central to free software in so many ways, the
practices of code hosting services have ripples into the world of free
software, and software in general. The repository evaluations promote
and honor good ethical practices by repositories, and make it easy for
users to find services that respect them.</p>
<p><strong>There are four things you can do to help, depending on how you
  participate in the free software community:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Share the criteria and evaluations with the administrators of
  hosting services, and discuss them in communities of developers that
  use such sites.</li>
<li>Propose a service to be evaluated, and/or contribute to the
  evaluation process. Start by joining the
  <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/repo-criteria-discuss">Repo Criteria Discuss email list</a>.</li>
<li>If you are a developer, use code hosting services that score at
  least an <strong>acceptable</strong> rating per the criteria.</li>
<li>If you help administer a repository-hosting service, contact the
  experts at <a href="mailto:repo-criteria-discuss@gnu.org">&#114;&#101;&#112;&#111;&#45;&#99;&#114;&#105;&#116;&#101;&#114;&#105;&#97;&#45;&#100;&#105;&#115;&#99;&#117;&#115;&#115;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a> for help improving your
  score. We are friendly and eager to help!</li>
</ul>
<p>"More volunteers with coding ability are needed to aid the development
of existing repository services to help them meet these criteria,"
said Andrew Ferguson, a community member who played a leadership role
in the evaluation project. "All community members are encouraged to
write the administrators of code-hosting services, to build awareness
and a motivation to improve their ethical evaluations. GitHub has
responded to some requests from the free software community and has
recently updated its <a href="http://choosealicense.com/">license chooser</a> to include the GPLv3
license. However more community advocacy is required, as GitHub still
fails to meet the criteria."</p>
<p>Indeed, political pressure and technical assistance from the free
software developer community are the best tools we have for improving
the ethical practices of code hosting sites. We expect many successes
in this journey in the years to come, as projects like the ethical
criteria for code hosting repositories build awareness of the
infrastructure of free software development.</p>


title: ABYSS - the genesis of a fully free streaming software package used at LibrePlanet
uri: ABYSS-the-genesis-of-a-fully-free-streaming-software-package-used-at
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/abyss-the-genesis-of-a-fully-free-streaming-software-package-used-at-libreplanet

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/abyss-the-genesis-of-a-fully-free-streaming-software-package-used-at-libreplanet

content:
<p><em>"Make it better every year."</em></p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships">FSF intern</a> during the winter and spring of 2016, I had the
opportunity to be around FSF's tech team during
<a href="https://www.libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet preparation</a>, and we spent a lot of time making the
streaming and recording work as well as possible so that people who
were not in each talk could still watch it
(<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/tag/libreplanet-2016-video/">all the recordings are already up on media.libreplanet.org</a>).</p>
<p>Each room at the LibrePlanet conference has a streaming set-up staffed
by a volunteer. There are many skilled volunteers, but we need to
minimize the risk of failed recordings due to over-complex or
error-prone software systems. So, in order to improve streaming we
decided to quickly develop a GPLv3 program to provide a seamless
interface for an audio and/or video streaming console.</p>
<p>As a newcomer to the free software community, I have been looking for
ways to contribute by coding. The huge amount of projects in progress
have overwhelmed me a bit. So, when it was proposed to create a piece
of software to be used directly by the community at the conference, I
was full of joy about beginning a project.</p>
<h3>How it works</h3>
<p>It all began with creating a new prototype, named ABYSS Broadcast Your
Stream Successfully (ABYSS), for LibrePlanet 2016. The first goal of
ABYSS was to move past command-line based streaming, by automating
what we could. The second goal was to provide audio/video feedback for
the volunteer at the station to monitor the streaming. I chose to
write ABYSS in Python 3.4, using the Gstreamer 1.0 and GTK3+ modules.</p>
<p>Gstreamer pipelines are the core element of ABYSS. They allows ABYSS
to behave slightly differently according to user actions or loss of
the feed. With the GTK3+ graphical user interface, it is easy to
switch from test mode -- for testing the audio and video chain without
broadcasting -- to stream mode, which broadcasts the feeds. In the
event of main camera source failure, ABYSS changes the pipeline to
fetch the video source from a backup USB webcam and then starts
broadcasting again. In addition, each stream is actually recorded
locally in three forms to allow easy post-processing: audio-only,
raw-video, and audio-video.</p>
<p>This early version (which I consider v0.1) was definitely a proving
ground for ABYSS. It was used in each room during LibrePlanet (except
for the Snowden opening keynote) and it performed well despite the
relative lack of testing and some network problems at the venue.</p>
<h3>The next version</h3>
<p>ABYSS version 1.0 will integrate plenty of new functionality like:</p>
<ul>
<li>better input/output devices management</li>
<li>a complete strategy in case of main feed loss</li>
<li>more resilient GStreamer pipelines</li>
<li>a control-room mode</li>
<li>a monitoring mode</li>
</ul>
<p>The last two bullets are the most visible ones for users. Control-room
mode will allow a user to effectively control several streams from a
single computer. This will be an extension of the functionality of
ABYSS 0.1. The monitoring mode, unlike control-room mode, will be a
completely new functionality. It will allow users to simply watch what
is being streamed on the computer next to the camera, so that user can
check the framing/focus of the camera, for example, instead of
worrying if feeds are even being broadcast. This mode is designed to
cooperate with control-room mode. The stream will be launched/stopped
only from the control-room computer and monitoring mode users will be
free to focus on improving the quality of the stream by focusing only
on the video and/or audio as inputs and leaving the remaining
operations to the control-room mode user.</p>
<p>For a smaller set-up, the control-room mode will work as a
standalone. Nevertheless, the real advantage of using computers for
monitoring and one computer as a control-room is that you can
centralize heavy duty feeds processing on one powerful control-room
computer. The more powerful your workstation is, the better the stream
quality will be.</p>
<h3>Hack on ABYSS</h3>
<p>If this post whets your appetite you can download ABYSS at
<a href="https://vcs.fsf.org/?p=libre-streamer.git;a=summary">https://vcs.fsf.org/?p=libre-streamer.git;a=summary</a>. Disclaimer:
this is version 0.1, tested only on x86 computers running
Trisquel 7. This is not a package, and you will probably have to
download some other software to get it running.</p>
<p>To see the whole system of which ABYSS is a part, check out the
documentation for the <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2015/Streaming">2015</a> and <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2016/Streaming">2016</a> LibrePlanet streaming
systems on the LibrePlanet wiki.</p>
<h3>Thanks!</h3>
<p>I would like to end here with a special thanks to some people at the
FSF: Lisa Marie Maginnis, senior sysadmin, for proposing this project
to me and letting me do things my way. Ruben Rodriguez, senior sysadmin,
for providing a working pipeline for LibrePlanet 2016 and giving ideas
and advice on the upcoming ABYSS 1.0. And John Sullivan, executive
director, for giving me the opportunity to do an internship at FSF
headquarters. Nothing would have been done without them.</p>
<p>See you in one year at the next LibrePlanet, when ABYSS 1.0 will
emerge from the depths.</p>
<p>Happy hacking</p>


title: Friday the 13th <insert scary sounds> Free Software Directory IRC meetup: May 13th
uri: Friday-the-13th-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-May-13th
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-the-13th-insert-scary-sounds-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-may-13th

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-the-13th-insert-scary-sounds-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-may-13th

content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, May 13th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-may-20th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: May 20th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-May-20th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-may-20th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, May 20th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Kees Verruijt of CANboat
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Kees-Verruijt-of-CANboat
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-kees-verruijt-of-canboat

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-kees-verruijt-of-canboat

content:
<p>Kees Verruijt is a sailing software engineer from Harlingen, NL. He
maintains <a href="https://github.com/canboat/canboat">CANboat</a>, which he describes as "[a] small but effective
set of command-line utilities to work with CAN networks on BOATs".</p>
<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/b8164c11.canboat.jpg" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/canboat.jpg" width="250" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em>By Femnett/Maretron, LLP (Maretron, LLP) <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons</em></p></div>

<p>To help you understand a bit more about the technology on top of which
CANboat works, we have provided a brief explanation below. The
following text has been adapted from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus">CAN bus</a> article on
English Wikipedia (which was originally licensed under the terms of
the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License</a>):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A Controller Area Network (CAN bus) is a vehicle bus standard
designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with
each other without a host computer or server. It is a message-based
protocol that was designed originally for multiplex electrical
wiring within automobiles. Modern automobiles may have as many as 70
electronic control units (ECU) for various subsystems. Others are
used for transmission, airbags, antilock braking/ABS, cruise
control, electric power steering, audio systems, power windows,
doors, mirror adjustment, battery and recharging systems for
hybrid/electric cars, etc. Some of these form independent
subsystems, but communications among others are essential. A
subsystem may need to control actuators or receive feedback from
sensors. The CAN standard was devised to fill this need. The use of
CAN was adopted by the marine industry, because they also needed a
plug-and-play communications standards used for connecting marine
sensors and display units within ships and boats.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Could you provide a little info to landlubbers about the kinds of electronics and computers used in the marine world?</h2>
<p>Marine electronics has a long history, it was way back in the 1960s
when electronics were starting to make an appearance on recreational
and commercial boats. Depth sensors, marine radios, wind sensors and
geo-location devices were appearing on the market. In the beginning
every manufacturer started creating their own networks, usually based
on some variation of serial data, typically running at 4800 or 9600
baud. Electronic sensors enabled boaters to have displays with data
such as compass heading, wind and boat speed. Two other major
developments were the first auto-pilots (a device that keeps the boat
on a particular heading) and position locators -- first based on land
based radio signals and later on satellite radio signals. As you can
imagine knowing where you are is much harder for a sailor than a
landlubber as there are so few reliable points of reference out on the
ocean! One of the first applications for a protocol used by devices
made by different manufacturers was to pass heading data from the
sensor network or from the satellite navigator to the auto-pilot.</p>
<p>The need for industry data standards lead to a group of US electronics
dealers forming the National Maritime Electronics Association (NMEA),
which interacted with the various manufacturers to standard protocol
and data formats for devices. Membership for these manufacturers meant
access to the large single US market, so soon manufacturers from
Europe and Australia/New Zealand joined as well. In the 1980s this
resulted in the NMEA 0180 and later 0183 standard. This standard is
used every day by billions of users as (almost) all modern satellite
navigation building blocks will transmit data using this protocol.</p>
<p>As the number of devices on board started to rise and new sensors and
displays were added the manufacturers saw that a new standard would be
needed. Like most such standard committees they chose a name that
would reflect the hoped-for release year, so NMEA 2000 came to be. It
took a few years more before the first NMEA 2000 devices to come to
market, but today they're everywhere. NMEA 2000, or N2K, is based on
CANbus. Development for CANbus was started by Bosch for use in
the car industry, but it was soon adopted by many other industries as
well. The marine version communicates at 250,000 baud, and allows you
to hook up many devices to a single "backbone" meandering through your
ship. Electrically its really neat -- no master device, no wasted
bandwidth with high priority messages automatically taking
precedence. The datagrams are easier to generate and parse in small
microcontrollers as the format is in binary, with fixed bit length
fields. In other words, when done correctly they map one-on-one to a C
structure with the fields in a native C unsigned or signed integer
value. This also has the effect of the data being harder to understand
if you don't have access to the standard.</p>
<h2>Where does CANboat fit into all this?</h2>
<p>Use of the NMEA 2000 standard is encumbered by onerous copyright
restrictions.  The original documents are under copyright, and no
member NMEA is allowed to publish them, not even in a different
format. This resulted in manufacturers documenting just the list of
sentences that their devices support. The NMEA nowadays does provide a
list of all messages and what fields they contain, but not the
precision or meaning of these fields. </p>
<p>CANboat gets around this by being written using only public sources,
without access to the standard itself. The technical detail of which
fields take up how many bits and what the used precision is was
reverse engineered from live networks.</p>
<p>Nowadays CANboat is the only comprehensive NMEA 2000 database
available in a free format. It also contains programs that can be used
to read N2K data from the bus, convert it into text, XML or JSON and
pass it on to other software.</p>
<h2>What inspired you to create CANboat?</h2>
<p>As I was building a new boat in 2008-2010 I wanted to have a single
device that would show all the data available on board via a simple
Web interface. I could join the NMEA and buy the NMEA 2000 standard
(spending $3,000 USD or so) but then I couldn't actually release my
program as free software. So I figured that the only way out was to
reverse engineer the protocol from scratch. It took me about a week to
write some code to interact with a CAN interface and only a few
evenings before I had the first datagram done.</p>
<p>Soon I was able to have my dream of a tablet-friendly, HTML5(ish)
page, in 2010. It took many evenings though over the last 6 years to
add more and more N2K datagrams. Luckily, after making the sources GPL
and putting them on Github I soon got a few collaborators from around
the globe.  All regular non-company specific NMEA 2000 messages are
now decoded, most of them completely. CANboat is unique in that it
also decodes. It is able to direct quite a number of company specific
messages, but work on this is particularly slow as it requires a
software developer with both access to a device producing them, a
(perceived) need to use them and the will to put in hard hours doing
the reverse engineering. This involves looking at hex dumps and
fiddling until it makes sense.</p>
<h2>How are people using it?</h2>
<p>This has changed over time. In the early days everyone in the Marine
Electronics community loved the idea but didn't necessarily use it --
partly because you need to have N2K on board. Andrew Mason of the
University of Auckland, N.Z., was one of the first who grasped what I
was doing and he created OpenSkipper using the CANboat database, and
others soon joined.</p>
<p>Nowadays it is used by hobbyists (usually professional software
developers with a boat) to monitor their onboard devices. And some
even use it to control stuff -- for example turning a water maker off if
the shore power fails or the generator shuts down. I use it myself to
infer the boat's navigation status and automatically switch on the correct
navigation lights. It uses the anchor winch state, engine RPM and GPS
location to decide what lights should be on and which should be off.</p>
<p>CANboat is also used by people in the marine electronics industry --
software developers and hardware developers that are either
contemplating entering the marine electronics world and are not yet
NMEA members or haven't bought the standard yet. It is also used by
companies that do have the standard but use it as a "lab instrument"
to see what is going on and log data produces by new devices under
development.</p>
<p>Probably the biggest set of users are those using it to feed NMEA 2000
data into Signal K servers. <a href="http://www.signalk.org">Signal K</a> is probably even more
exciting than CANboat. It is the outcome of an association of
frustrated software developers who felt it was time for a completely
new free standard for marine electronics, based on the ideas of
"internet of things" and oriented towards reusing standards such as
TCP, WS and JSON.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets CANboat apart from similar software or projects (if there are any similar projects!)?</h2>
<p>There are a few other projects that contain N2K parsers, but the ones
that I have seen cater more towards very small microcontrollers, and
focus on the most used data sentences only. CANboat is the only one
with the ambition to cover all messages, and to cover company specific
messages.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the GNU GPL version 3 (or later) as the license for CANboat?</h2>
<p>I personally think the RFC method of publishing standards is a better
one than the ISO/IEC style of charged access. I also don't like how
the NMEA uses copyright law to prevents people with access to the
standard to talk about content within the standard. Even the IEC
doesn't do this. When I decided to make my work free software, I felt
that I wanted to help non-professionals to gain access, but I also
wanted to respect the NMEA as much as possible. I'm not trying to
subvert their business model here, just offering an alternative for
free software development. What I didn't want to see happening is that
business would just use my work as a means to evade paying the NMEA
without them contributing back to the community. This is why I made a
deliberate choice for the GPL with its strong copyleft clause, which
ensures this.</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to CANboat?</h2>
<p>If you've installed CANboat and you get "unknown PGN" messages you
should, at the very least, create an issue on Github to make us aware
of this. We can then decide to add at least minimal support for
these. What would be even better is that you exercise the device that
emits the PGNs and do the reverse engineering yourself. This is
especially true if the PGNs are in the "company specific" range, as
these tend to be hard for others to analyze if they don't have access
to a live device.</p>
<p>Over the last five years the amount of community updates has steadily
increased, so I'm not complaining, but this is still a
mostly-one-person-effort right now.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for CANboat?</h2>
<p>The next big thing is support for Signal K. This is a brand new set of
Internet age message and server specifications. If you are a marine
electronics enthusiast that wants to build your own sensors and
connect those into a network, you should not use NMEA 0183 or NMEA
2000, but Signal K. If you are a software enthusiast that wants to
experiment with the data available on your NMEA 2000 network, by all
means use CANboat, but use it to feed data into a Signal K server, and
then use the Signal K data.</p>
<p>As Signal K is a work that stands on its own and does not require the
use of either NMEA 0183 or 2000 it can be the next generation protocol
for marine data interchange. This has been recognized by the NMEA as
well, who now recommend the use of Signal K when creating new products
that communicate over TCP/IP. Signal K code is Apache licensed and
protocols and databases are CC BY-SA licensed.</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-matt-lee-of-gnu-social">Matt Lee of GNU Social</a></em>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-forever-watch-sessions-from-2016-online
title: LibrePlanet forever! Watch sessions from 2016 online
uri: LibrePlanet-forever-Watch-sessions-from-2016-online
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-forever-watch-sessions-from-2016-online
content:
<p>We are thrilled to announce that recordings and slides from
LibrePlanet 2016 sessions are <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/tag/libreplanet-2016-video/">now available
online</a>!</p>
<p>That's right, you can now watch the <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/libreplanet-2016-the-last-lighthouse-3d51/">keynote conversation with
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden</a> and 32 more sessions from
LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the System on the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) <a href="http://www.mediagoblin.org">GNU MediaGoblin</a> instance, including:</p>
<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="LibrePlanet 2016" src="media/7bbae60f.libreplanet-2016-keynote-audience.png" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/1466/libreplanet-2016-keynote-audience.png" width="250" />
<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 />This <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/StillImage" rel="dct:type">work</span> by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Kori Feener</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>.<br />Based on a work at <a xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="media/76ac05ad.Wide_02.png" data-original-source="https://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/1394/Wide_02.png" rel="dct:source">https://u.fsf.org/1t8</a>.
</p></div>

<p>Recorded talks include <strong><em><a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/collection/free-software-free-society/">Free software, free society</a>** by
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/speakers.html#randal">Allison Randal</a>, current and past director of multiple
foundations in the world of free software; </em></strong><a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/collection/companies-free-software-and-you/">Companies, free
software, and you</a><strong><em> by <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/speakers.html#sandler">Karen Sandler</a>, executive
director of the Software Freedom Conservancy; </em></strong><a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/free-software-awards/">The Free
Software Awards with a talk by Richard Stallman</a><strong><em>,
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/speakers.html#stallman">founder of the Free Software Foundation</a>; </em></strong><a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/collection/restore-online-freedom/">Restore
online freedom!</a><strong><em> by <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/speakers.html#gerwitz">Mike Gerwitz</a>, GNU Project
volunteer; and </em></strong><a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/inessential-weirdnesses-in-free-software/">Inessential weirdnesses in free
software</a>*** by <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/speakers.html#harihareswara">Sumana Harihareswara</a>, founder of
Changeset Consulting.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program/">LibrePlanet 2016 program</a> has links to all recorded
talks and their accompanying slides. All sessions recorded for
LibrePlanet 2016 are now available – that's over 25 hours of
free software ideas! This year, we were able to sponsor travel
costs for eight LibrePlanet speakers and two attendees – help
others contribute to LibrePlanet 2017 by <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=33">making a donation to
the LibrePlanet scholarship fund</a>.</p>
<p>You can watch many more FSF videos (and some photos, too) on
<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org">media.libreplanet.org</a>, our instance of the publishing
platform <a href="http://www.mediagoblin.org">GNU MediaGoblin</a>. GNU MediaGoblin is a free software
media publishing platform that is a decentralized replacement to
sites like YouTube and Flickr. You can <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=36">support the project with
a donation via the FSF</a>.</p>
<p>Live streaming and recordings of LibrePlanet were made possible
by our tech team and their volunteers, including intern David
Testé, who wrote about <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/abyss-the-genesis-of-a-fully-free-streaming-software-package-used-at-libreplanet">his experience creating the fully free
streaming software package, ABYSS</a>, that was used to stream
LibrePlanet 2016 live.</p>
<p>Enjoy the videos – and perhaps we'll see you again at
LibrePlanet 2017!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/twenty-seven-new-gnu-releases-in-may
title: Twenty-seven new GNU releases in May
uri: Twenty-seven-new-GNU-releases-in-May
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/twenty-seven-new-gnu-releases-in-may
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/8sync/">8sync-0.1.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/autogen/">autogen-5.18.9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/cflow/">cflow-1.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/denemo/">denemo-2.0.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/fontopia/">fontopia-1.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/">freeipmi-1.5.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/">gcc-6.1.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gdbm/">gdbm-1.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gneuralnetwork/">gneuralnetwork-0.9.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnumach/">gnumach-1.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-pw-mgr/">gnu-pw-mgr-2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.4.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-ncurses/">guile-ncurses-1.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/">gzip-1.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/">help2man-1.47.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/">hurd-0.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-38.8.0-gnu1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/jel/">jel-2.1.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/">librejs-6.0.13</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/make/">make-4.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mig/">mig-1.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160522</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/remotecontrol/">remotecontrol-2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/swbis/">swbis-1.13</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/">tar-1.29</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/">xboard-4.9.0</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 Mohd Isam as the maintainer of the new package
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/fontopia">Fontopia</a>, Peter Cherepanov as
the new maintainer of
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ggradebook">GGradebook</a>, Tom Cato
Amundsen as a returning maintainer of
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/solfege">Solfege</a>, and Leah Woods as the
maintainer of the newly dubbed
<a href="https://www.libreboot.org">GNU Libreboot</a>.</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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-june-10th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: June 10th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-June-10th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-june-10th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, June 10th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/licensing/intel-me-and-why-we-should-get-rid-of-me
title: Intel & ME, and why we should get rid of ME
uri: Intel-ME-and-why-we-should-get-rid-of-ME
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/intel-me-and-why-we-should-get-rid-of-me
content:
<p>Architecturally, the ME varies from model to model, and over the past
decade it has been growing in complexity. In general, it consists of
of one or more processor cores, memory, system clock, internal bus,
and reserved protected memory used as part of its own cryptography
engine. It has its own operating system and suite of programs, and it
has access to the main system's memory, as well as access to the
network through the Intel Gigabit Ethernet Controller. If you had
control over the ME, then it would be a powerful subsystem that could
be used for security and administration of your device.</p>
<p>The ME firmware runs various proprietary programs created by Intel for
the platform, including its infamous <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/active-management-technology">Active Management Technology
(AMT)</a>, Intel's Boot Guard, and an audio and video Digital Restrictions
Management system specifically for ultra-high definition media called
"Intel Insider." While some of this technology is marketed to provide
you with convenience and protection, what it requires from you, the
user, is to give up control over your computer. This control benefits
Intel, their business partners, and large media companies. Intel is
effectively leasing-out to the third-parties the rights to control
how, if, and when you can access certain data and software on your
machine.</p>
<p>Leah Woods of GNU Libreboot states that the "Intel Management Engine
with its proprietary firmware has complete access to and control over
the PC: it can power on or shut down the PC, read all open files,
examine all running applications, track all keys pressed and mouse
movements, and even capture or display images on the screen. And it
has a network interface that is demonstrably insecure, which can allow
an attacker on the network to inject rootkits that completely
compromise the PC and can report to the attacker all activities
performed on the PC. It is a threat to freedom, security, and privacy
that can't be ignored."</p>
<p>At this time, developing free replacement firmware for the ME is
basically impossible. The only entity capable of replacing the ME
firmware is Intel and its OEM partners. And, since the ME is a control
hub for your machine, you can no longer simply disable the ME like you
could on earlier models, such as the Libreboot X200 laptop.</p>
<p>This means that if in the future we want more hardware that can
achieve <a href="https://fsf.org/ryf">Respects Your Freedom certification</a>, we will
need to make it a "High-Priority" to support the work of those who are
getting <a href="https://libreboot.org/">GNU Libreboot</a> and <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html">100% free system
distributions</a> running on other architectures, such as
ARM, MIPS, and <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interested-in-a-powerful-free-software-friendly-workstation">POWER8</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resources-series-a-quick-guide-to-gplv3
title: Licensing resources series: A Quick Guide to GPLv3
uri: Licensing-resources-series-A-Quick-Guide-to-GPLv3
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resources-series-a-quick-guide-to-gplv3
content:
<p>One of our main goals here in the Free Software Foundation's Licensing
&amp; Compliance Lab is education. Over the years we have created a wide
breadth of tools and resources to help users and developers understand
free software licenses and related legal issues. We've been doing this
for so long that some resources, published some years ago but still
very relevant, aren't consulted as often as they could be. With all
these great tools available, we thought it would be good to take some
time to highlight individual resources that you may not know
about. With that, we are starting a regular series of articles, each
promoting a particular tool or resource to help you understand the
legal side of free software.</p>
<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="GPLv3" src="media/8f1a298b.gplv3-127x51.png" data-original-source="https://www.gnu.org/graphics/gplv3-127x51.png" width="250" />
</div>

<p>In this inaugural edition, we'd like to share with you
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.en.html">A Quick Guide to GPLv3</a>. Released around the launch of the
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">GNU General Public License version 3</a>, the guide walks you through
a basic understanding of many of the changes made from previous
versions. From fighting back against
<a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management">Digital Restrictions Management</a> to smoothing the process of
returning to compliance, GPLv3 has quite a few improvements in the way
it protects and promotes the rights of users. With so many projects
<a href="https://u.fsf.org/gplv3directory">upgrading to GPLv3</a>, it's important to know how it differs from
the GPLv2. The guide goes over all the major changes, and even comes
with a beautifully constructed <a href="media/c8b16d9b.quick-guide-gplv3.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.pdf">PDF version</a> that you can print out
to share at conferences or meetups.</p>
<p>The guide finishes by highlighting more resources to help you
understand what was new in GPLv3. The Licensing &amp; Compliance Lab
provides a wide variety of tools on this and many other topics, so
keep a look out for the next edition of our licensing resource series.</p>
<ul>
<li>You can keep up to date on this series and more free software news
  by subscribing to our newsletter, the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fss">Free Software Supporter</a>
  and subscribing to our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/static/fsforg/rss/licensing.xml">RSS feed</a>.</li>
<li>You can help fund our work in creating these licensing resources by
  becoming a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">member</a> or by making a <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donation</a>.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-june-17th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: June 17th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-June-17th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-june-17th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, June 17th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-brett-smith-of-dtrx
title: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Brett Smith of dtrx
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Brett-Smith-of-dtrx
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-brett-smith-of-dtrx
content:
<p>Brett Smith has been using free software since 1998. He worked in
several roles at the Free Software Foundation (FSF) from 2002-2004,
and then worked in its GPL Compliance Lab from 2006-2012. <a href="http://brettcsmith.org/2007/dtrx/">Dtrx</a>
stands for “Do the Right Extraction:” it extracts all kinds of archive
files in a consistent way, so you always get the same results no
matter how the author built the archive.</p>
<h2>What inspired you to create dtrx?</h2>
<p>The idea actually came about while I was working in the FSF’s GPL
Compliance Lab. In the course of investigating violations and
verifying that provided source was complete, I often found myself
downloading files and then repeating the same steps over and over:
figure out a file’s real type, extract it, move extracted files around
to keep things organized, fix permissions. I wrote dtrx to automate
that part of the job, so I could stay focused on compliance itself.</p>
<h2>How are people using it?</h2>
<p>I think most people who install dtrx use it to extract all archives
they download. I know I do: it’s nice to type a single, short command
that I know will do the right thing, no matter what kind of archive it
is or how it’s organized.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets dtrx apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>When you extract an archive with most of the native tools like tar,
they tend to prioritize extracting the files in exactly the same state
they were archived in. For good reason: if the archive is a system
backup, you wouldn’t appreciate it if the tool started reorganizing
the data or changing permissions. Dtrx assumes you’re extracting an
archive someone else made, so its top priority is to make it easy for
you to access the data inside. Both use cases are important, but now
that it’s so common for people to distribute all kinds of files in
archives over the Internet, I think dtrx’s focus is what most people
want most of the time.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the  GPLv3 as dtrx's license?</h2>
<p>I’m a strong believer in copyleft, and GPLv3 (along with its cousin
AGPLv3) does more to ensure the software stays free than any other
license. The strongest patent defenses in a free software license,
broad compatibility with other licenses—why would I choose anything
else?</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to dtrx?</h2>
<p>I’ve received a lot of great bug reports and feature requests over the
years, and those are always helpful. Dtrx tries to make archives as
easy as possible for people, so if it does something unexpected with
an archive, or is missing an important feature, that’s as much a bug
as crashing. I’m always happy to receive feedback by e-mail.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for dtrx?</h2>
<p>I’m slowly planning out a version 8 which will work the same way for
users, but improve a lot under the hood. It will try to extract an
archive with multiple tools, so you don’t have to install one specific
tool to extract an archive type, as long as you have any tool
installed that knows how to do it. It will also run in Python 3, so
users don’t have to keep installing a crufty Python 2.7 to run dtrx.</p>
<p><strong>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-kees-verruijt-of-canboat">Kees Verruijt of CANboat</a>.</strong></p>


title: Building a better LibrePlanet: What we learned from the conference surveys
uri: Building-a-better-LibrePlanet-What-we-learned-from-the-conference-sur
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/building-a-better-libreplanet-what-we-learned-from-the-conference-surveys

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/building-a-better-libreplanet-what-we-learned-from-the-conference-surveys

content:
<div style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; background-color: #EEEEEE; text-align: center;">
<img alt="LibrePlanet 2016" src="media/3b6d1265.Posed_01.medium.png" data-original-source="http://media.libreplanet.org/mgoblin_media/media_entries/1093/Posed_01.medium.png" width="250" />
<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 />This <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/StillImage" rel="dct:type">work</span> by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Kori Feener</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>.<br />Based on a work at <a xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="https://u.fsf.org/1u8" rel="dct:source">https://u.fsf.org/1u8</a>.
</p></div>

<p>Our samples are usually about sixty to seventy respondents, and
self-selecting -- from their responses, we can say with confidence
that LibrePlanet attendees feel we're doing a decent job organizing
the conference. The questions <em>"How much did you enjoy the sessions
you attended, compared to those at other conferences you have
attended?"</em> and <em>"How likely is it that you will return to LibrePlanet
next year?"</em> received an average of about 3.5 out of 4 each of the
last three years.</p>
<p>Here are some more takeaways:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Many LibrePlaneters want a quieter space where they can socialize
  and hack after the conference programming ends for the day. We
  organize parties after sessions wrap up, and will continue to do so,
  but parties aren't everyone's cup of tea. We're exploring ways to
  provide a comfortable, after-hours space in future years.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Our community tends to prefer that the sessions start at 9:45, not
  earlier. 9:45 is a little on the late side for a conference, but many
  attendees like to stay up late hacking, and need their sleep.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>We have many newcomers each year at LibrePlanet -- about half of
  survey respondents say they are attending for the first
  time. Newcomers seems to have a good experience. About two-thirds of
  respondents answer yes to <em>"If you are a beginner or intermediate
  hacker, did you find enough activities to match your skill level?"</em>
  This is encouraging: one of the conference's core purposes is to
  provide a welcoming stepping-stone to our community.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It's important to have more coffee than we think we need. In years
  when we run out early, we hear about it on the survey.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Designing a good survey takes practice and, yes, people to give
feedback on the survey's design. Though we keep a few core questions
the same year-to-year, we adjust each survey based on things we've
learned, like:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Don't use two-part or "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-barreled_question">double-barreled</a>" questions. For example,
  one year, we tried to refine the question <em>"If you are a beginner or
  intermediate hacker, did you find enough activities to match your
  skill level?"</em> by rephrasing it as <em>"Are you a newcomer to the free
  software community? If so, did you find enough sessions that were
  accessible and engaging for you?"</em> Some people responded to the
  first part of that compound question, and some responded to the
  second part, making the results not very useful.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The survey has a subtler, secondary purpose: It shows attendees that
  we care about the LibrePlanet experience, and gives them a space to
  reflect on it. Easy access to the survey -- online and on paper --
  helps achieve this.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>It's important to us to make LibrePlanet better every year, and we
appreciate your help. The community doesn't just provide feedback --
we do the planning, but you supply presentations, hallway
conversations, and new projects to discuss each year.</p>
<p>We are working to finalize the dates for LibrePlanet 2017. Join the
LibrePlanet announcements <a href="https://www.libreplanet.org/conference">list on the conference site</a> to receive
updates. In the meantime, you can:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/program">Watch recordings</a> of the 2016 sessions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Help us bring new people to the conference by <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&amp;id=33">making a donation to
  the scholarship fund</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Participate in the year-round LibrePlanet community on the
  <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss">libreplanet-discuss mailing list</a> and the <a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/libreplanet">#libreplanet Freenode
  IRC channel</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>We hope to see you at LibrePlanet 2017!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/do-you-gnu-attend-the-gnu-hackers-meeting-in-france-this-summer
title: Do you GNU? Attend the GNU Hackers' Meeting in France this summer!
uri: Do-you-GNU-Attend-the-GNU-Hackers-Meeting-in-France-this-summer
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/do-you-gnu-attend-the-gnu-hackers-meeting-in-france-this-summer
content:
<p>You are invited
to the 2016 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/ghm/">GNU Hackers' Meeting</a>, which will take place in Rennes,
Brittany, France, August 18-20, 2016 and is hosted by Inria
(<a href="http://osm.org/go/eri2dsCW1">map</a>).</p>
<p>The GNU Hackers' Meeting is a friendly, semi-formal forum to discuss
technical, social, and organizational issues concerning free software
and GNU. This is a great opportunity to meet GNU maintainers and
active contributors. This meeting will feature:</p>
<ul>
<li>a dinner on the evening of the 17th,</li>
<li>public talks on the 18th and 19th,</li>
<li>an exploration of Brittany during the day on the 20th, followed by a GNU maintainers-only session in the evening.</li>
</ul>
<p>The call for participation is open now. You are encouraged to submit
proposals for GNU-ish presentations, including title, abstract, and
duration of sesion to <a href="mailto:ghm2016@gnunet.org">&#103;&#104;&#109;&#50;&#48;&#49;&#54;&#64;&#103;&#110;&#117;&#110;&#101;&#116;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>.</p>
<p>To register, follow <a href="https://www.gnu.org/ghm/register.html">these instructions</a>.</p>
<p>You will find full details on the meeting, including a detailed
schedule TBA, <a href="https://www.gnu.org/ghm/upcoming.html">here</a>.</p>


title: Tell Europe's regulators: Net neutrality isn't just for the US and India!
uri: Tell-Europe-s-regulators-Net-neutrality-isn-t-just-for-the-US-and-Ind
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tell-europes-regulators-net-neutrality-isnt-just-for-the-us-and-india

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tell-europes-regulators-net-neutrality-isnt-just-for-the-us-and-india

content:
<p>Free software activists and allies are fighting for net
neutrality rules country by country, and we've had important victories
in <a href="https://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/fcc-votes-for-net-neutrality-a-ban-on-paid-fast-lanes-and-title-ii/">the US</a> and <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/trai-rules-in-favour-of-net-neutrality/article8209455.ece">India</a> during the last year and a half.</p>
<p>Now Europeans are fighting for the same rights. The Body of European
Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) has followed the US
and India by releasing <a href="http://berec.europa.eu/eng/document_register/subject_matter/berec/public_consultations/6075-draft-berec-guidelines-on-implementation-by-national-regulators-european-net-neutrality-rules">draft net neutrality
protections</a>
that would cover all countries in the EU. But they've left huge holes
allowing some instances of neutrality-violating known as zero-rating
(allowing access to certain sites or applications without affecting a
customer's allotted data usage) and traffic throttling (intentionally
slowing Internet service). Thankfully, we have a chance to fix this:
BEREC has asked the public, along with industry leaders and
entrepreneurs, to give feedback on its draft rules.</p>
<p>BEREC accepts comments from everyone, not just Europeans. Even if you
don't live in Europe, it's important for the global free software
community to take action in solidarity with Europeans; winning net
neutrality there will set an important precedent.</p>
<p><strong>Wherever you live, submit a comment now, demanding strong Net
  Neutrality protections for Europe. You can use the submission form
  created by our allies at
  <a href="https://u.fsf.org/1uf">savenetneutrality.eu</a>.</strong> The form does not
  depend on proprietary JavaScript to work, but if you'd prefer to use
  email, you can send your comment to
  <a href="mailto:NN-Consultation@berec.europa.eu">&#78;&#78;&#45;&#67;&#111;&#110;&#115;&#117;&#108;&#116;&#97;&#116;&#105;&#111;&#110;&#64;&#98;&#101;&#114;&#101;&#99;&#46;&#101;&#117;&#114;&#111;&#112;&#97;&#46;&#101;&#117;</a> instead.</p>
<p><strong>Do you administer a Web site or keep a blog?</strong> If so, we encourage
  you to join savenetneutrality.eu's symbolic "slowdown" by <a href="https://www.savenetneutrality.eu#sites">adding a
  loading icon</a> that simulates
  an Internet slow lane in a future without net neutrality.*</p>
<p>Net neutrality is important to maintain free speech and a healthy
economy on the Internet. But it's also crucial for free software's
continued growth and success. Here's why:</p>
<p>Media distribution giants that use <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management">Digital Restrictions
Management</a> (DRM) and proprietary software to control what's on your computer have also
been fighting to control the network. Without net neutrality,
DRM-laden materials could be easier to access, while DRM-free
competitors could be stuck in the slow lane. Web-based free software
projects like <a href="http://mediagoblin.org/">GNU MediaGoblin</a> could also
suffer the slow treatment while competitors like YouTube shell out big
bucks for speedier service. The bottom line -- an Internet where the
most powerful interests can pay for speed advantages could push free
software projects off the map and make it harder for decentralized
projects to flourish. That's not good for free software, and it's not
good for other innovative voices for change in the digital world.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://u.fsf.org/1uf">Tell BEREC now: Europe needs real net
  neutrality.</a></strong></p>
<p><sup>*</sup> We recommend the animated gif version at the bottom of
the page. As of the time of writing, the JavaScript version is freely
licensed, but it does not work with LibreJS, so it is less friendly to
those committed to preserving their freedom and security online. Don't
know what we're talking about? Learn more about our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/freejs">Free JavaScript
campaign</a> and the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/">LibreJS
browser extension</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-1st
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: July 1st
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-July-1st
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-1st
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, July 1st, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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: GNU Spotlight: Seventeen new GNU releases in the last month (as of June 24, 2016)
uri: GNU-Spotlight-Seventeen-new-GNU-releases-in-the-last-month-(as-of-Jun
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-seventeen-new-gnu-releases-in-the-last-month-as-of-june-24-2016

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-spotlight-seventeen-new-gnu-releases-in-the-last-month-as-of-june-24-2016

content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emms/">emms-4.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/">gcc-5.4.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/">gdb-7.11.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/">gettext-0.19.8.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/">gmp-6.1.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/">gnuastro-0.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.13</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.5.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/liberty-eiffel/">liberty-eiffel-2016.05</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libgcrypt/">libgcrypt-1.7.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/">libmicrohttpd-0.9.50</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/make/">make-4.2.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160622</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">screen-4.4.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/taler/">taler-0.0.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/units/">units-2.13</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/">wget-1.18</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 Bob Weiner as the new co-maintainer of
Hyperbole and Assaf Gordon and Jim Meyering as new co-maintainers of
GNU sed.</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/community/protect-your-privacy-resist-mass-cracking-by-us-law-enforcement
title: Protect your privacy: Resist mass cracking by US law enforcement
uri: Protect-your-privacy-Resist-mass-cracking-by-US-law-enforcement
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/protect-your-privacy-resist-mass-cracking-by-us-law-enforcement
content:
<p>* <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.en.html#Hacker">"Hacking"</a> is often misused to identify those who break
  computer security - we call them crackers.*</p>
<p>In 2014, the Judicial Conference of the United States, which frames
policy guidelines for courts in the US, proposed changes to Rule 41 of
the FRCrmP that gives federal magistrate judges the authority to issue
warrants for cracking and surveillance in cases where the targeted
computer's location is unknown. That means law enforcement could
request warrants allowing mass cracking of thousands of computers at
once. The Supreme Court, which oversees the Rules, submitted the
changes to the US Congress in April. This is an unprecedented, broad
government cracking authorization, and it is dangerous to the privacy
and security of all Internet users.</p>
<p>The FSF opposes these changes and — in spite of its misleading use of
the word "hacking" — supports the Stopping Mass Hacking Act (S. 2952,
H.R. 5321), bipartisan legislation that would block the changes. The
two bills are currently under review by the Judiciary Committees of
the US Senate and House. <strong>Take action: Free software activists around
the world can tell the US Congress to pass the Stopping Mass Hacking
Act</strong> by <a href="https://noglobalwarrants.org/">using the EFF's No Global Warrants tool</a> or by
<a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Lobbying_government">looking up your representatives if you're in the US</a>. Not in the
US? Raise your concerns with your government representative.</p>
<p>The changes to Rule 41 must not be allowed to go in to effect. They
have the potential to touch every Internet user, allowing federal
judges to authorize warrants that:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>aren't limited by location, so law enforcement could crack any
  computer in the world if they wish;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>implicate any computer whose location is "concealed through
  technological means," like using Tor or a VPN;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>target computers that have been "damaged without authorization,"
  including those infected with a virus or other damaging code;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>and infiltrate computers that may be part of a botnet, further
  victimizing computer users whose computers have already been
  accessed with malicious intent.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Much like in our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-statement-on-prism-revelations">fight against bulk surveillance by government
programs, including PRISM</a>, we urge you to resist mass cracking by
US law enforcement authorities, who should not sacrifice the privacy
of all Internet users in an attempt to catch criminals.</p>
<p>This is a free software issue: the FSF aims to defend the rights of
all software users, in part by promoting and supporting <strong>free
software-licensed privacy tools</strong> like <a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/">GnuPG for email encryption</a>
and <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Collection:PRISM"><strong>decentralized Web applications</strong> that emphasize user control
and privacy</a>. The changes to Rule 41 target Internet users who take
steps to protect their online privacy — this could discourage use of
privacy tools, and even weaken their effectiveness by exploiting
vulnerabilities in such tools rather than helping to fix them. Also,
these new powers could be used to target people doing things we defend
as moral even though they are currently illegal, such as sharing
anti-circumvention technology to break Digital Restrictions Management
schemes.</p>
<p>Stop the Rule 41 changes from threatening Internet users: contact US
Congress, use privacy and decentralization tools, and <a href="https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/subscribe">subscribe to
the Free Software Supporter</a> for updates on this and other free
software issues. You can also read <a href="https://www.eff.org/document/rule-41-coalition-letter">EFF's letter to Congress</a>,
endorsed by a coalition of concerned digital rights organizations and
tech companies, as well as the <a href="media/7626f3a7.CDT-Rule41-Written-Statement-final-20141024.pdf" data-original-source="https://cdt.org/files/2014/10/CDT-Rule41-Written-Statement-final-20141024.pdf">Center for Democracy &amp; Technology's
written statement</a> on the issue.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-8th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: July 8th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-July-8th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-8th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, July 8th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-22nd
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: July 22nd
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-July-22nd
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-22nd
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, July 22nd, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-29th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: July 29th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-July-29th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-29th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, July 29th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/twenty-one-new-gnu-releases-in-the-last-month-july-2016
title: Twenty-one new GNU releases in July 2016
uri: Twenty-one-new-GNU-releases-in-July-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/twenty-one-new-gnu-releases-in-the-last-month-july-2016
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/">binutils-2.26.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/denemo/">denemo-2.0.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/direvent/">direvent-5.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/easejs/">easejs-0.2.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnucash/">gnucash-2.6.13</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.14</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.5.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/">guile-2.0.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gworkspace/">gworkspace-0.9.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/health/">health-3.0.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/">icecat-38.8.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/java-training-wheels/">java-training-wheels-2.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libgcrypt/">libgcrypt-1.7.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/">libidn-1.33</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/">linux-libre-4.7-gnu</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/">octave-4.0.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160722</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/">pspp-0.10.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/">tramp-2.3.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/unifont/">unifont-9.0.01</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/">xorriso-1.4.4</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="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 Davin Pearson as the maintainer of the new
package Java-Training-Wheels; David Pirotte as the maintainer of the
new package G-Golf; Alex Burmashev and Daniel Kiper as new
co-maintainers of GRUB; Mike Miller as a new co-maintainer of Octave;
and Eli Zaretskii as a new co-maintainer of Emacs.</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: Fifty of Free Software's greatest hits in honor of the 100th Free Software Supporter!
uri: Fifty-of-Free-Software-s-greatest-hits-in-honor-of-the-100th-Free-Soft
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fifty-of-free-softwares-greatest-hits-in-honor-of-the-100th-free-software-supporter

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fifty-of-free-softwares-greatest-hits-in-honor-of-the-100th-free-software-supporter

content:
<p>Many new free software projects got their start, and LibrePlanet launched to help
bring users from around the world together. New threats to computer
user freedom rose from the shadows and campaigns rose in turn to fight
back and protect the privacy and security of users. With the 100th
edition of the Free Software Supporter, we want to take a look back at
some of the biggest events and popular articles we have covered over the
years.</p>
<p>In no particular order:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2008/march">The first ever Free Software Supporter</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/fry/happy-birthday-to-gnu.html">Video: Happy Birthday to GNU with Stephen Fry</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/profiles/matt-mullenweg">Profile: Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the WordPress project</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/profiles/wikipedia">Profile: Wikipedia</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/profiles/new-york-stock-exchange">Profile: The New York Stock Exchange</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/profiles/department-of-defense">Profile: The US Department of Defense</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/resources/testimonials">Testimonials from Users of Free Software</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">Linux and the GNU System</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">What is free software?</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/government-free-software.html">Measures Governments Can Use to Promote Free Software</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/libreplanet-2016-the-last-lighthouse-3d51/">Video: The Last Lighthouse: a conversation between Edward Snowden and Daniel Kahn Gillmor at Libreplanet 2016</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/inessential-weirdnesses-in-free-software/">Video: Inessential weirdnesses in free software by Sumana Harihareswara at Libreplanet 2016</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/new-documentary-film-patent-absurdity">Video: Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-launches-fundraising-program-for-replicant-the-fully-free-android-based-mobile-os">FSF launches fundraising program for Replicant, the fully free Android-based mobile OS</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-mediagoblin-offers-what-youve-been-missing-in-an-internet-media-sharing-system">GNU MediaGoblin offers what you've been missing in an Internet media-sharing system</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/nintendo">Brick Nintendo before they brick you!</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/oscar-awarded-w3c-in-the-hollyweb">Oscar awarded to W3C for Best Supporting Role in "The Hollyweb"</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2015/fall/for-our-thirtieth-anniversary-thirty-things-we-do-at-the-fsf">For our thirtieth anniversary, thirty things we do at the FSF</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/the-worst-thing-about-drm">The worst thing about DRM is that, most of the time, everything seems to work</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/matthew-garrett-joins-free-software-foundation-board-of-directors">Matthew Garrett joins Free Software Foundation board of directors</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/kat-walsh-joins-fsf-board-of-directors">Kat Walsh joins FSF board of directors</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-enforcement">More about the App Store GPL Enforcement</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/gplv3_launched">FSF releases the GNU General Public License, version 3</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/">Email Self-Defense</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://copyleft.org/">What is Copyleft?</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide">Guide to DRM-Free Living</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.html">How to choose a license for your own work</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference">Archive of the LibrePlanet Conference</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.en.html">A Quick Guide to GPLv3</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html">Selling Free Software by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2007/fall/antifeatures/">Antifeatures by Benjamin Mako Hill</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video">Video: User Liberation</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm/2016/timeline">Know your history — the first ten years of the International Day Against DRM</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/minisummitnotes">One giant step for free software womankind!</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/copyright-versus-community.en.html">Speech transcript: Copyright versus Community in the Age of Computer Networks by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party.html">How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free Software by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/po/not-ipr.zh-cn-en.html">Did You Say “Intellectual Property”? It's a Seductive Mirage by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/trivial-patent.en.html">The Anatomy of a Trivial Patent by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/selfie-against-drm-in-web-standards">Keep DRM out of Web standards</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html">Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.en.html">My Lisp Experiences and the Development of GNU Emacs by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.en.html">Why Software Should Be Free by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html">The JavaScript Trap by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html.en">The Right to Read by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-deception.html">Proprietary Deception</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html">Free System Distribution Guidelines (GNU FSDG)</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.en.html">What's in a Name? by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pragmatic.en.html">Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism by Richard Stallman</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/infographic.html">Infographic: Email Self-Defense</a></p>
</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-5th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: August 5th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-August-5th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-5th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, August 15th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/licensing/licensing-resource-series-h-node-hardware-directory
title: Licensing resource series: h-node hardware directory
uri: Licensing-resource-series-h-node-hardware-directory
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-h-node-hardware-directory
content:
<p>While our <a href="http://fsf.org/ryf">Respects Your Freedom</a> hardware certification program
gets lots of attention from all the new fully free hardware being
certified, the FSF has actually had more resources on hardware for
quite some time. In the past, we maintained a list of hardware that
worked well with free software. But a few years back we made this into
a community run project, <a href="https://www.h-node.org/">h-node</a>.</p>
<p>Hardware listed on h-node doesn't come with FSF certification, but it
does come with the information users need to find out the extent to
which the hardware is supported by
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html">fully free GNU/Linux distros</a>. Members of the community can submit
entries to h-node whenever they get a chance to test it against one of
these free operating systems. By sharing this information, everyone
can help more users to make the switch to a fully free system by
making it easier to know what hardware already works perfectly with a
free system. Hackers looking to help increase support can also find
hardware with some remaining issues and direct their efforts there.</p>
<p>The directory covers a wide breadth of hardware, from basic components
like video cards to full laptops or towers, even peripherals like
printers and webcams. So whether you're looking to upgrade a current
computer, or buying a new one, h-node is a good resource to check
before spending your money. The directory even has information on
devices released quite long ago, so it can be useful for helping you
decide how to re-purpose older hardware. It of course also covers
recently released hardware, but it is only as up to date as its most
recent contributor makes it. As stated before, h-node is a resource
built by the community, so it depends on users like you stepping up to
help out. Here's how you can help:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Create an account on <a href="https://www.h-node.org/">h-node.org</a> to test and add your own
  hardware to the directory. Or you can suggest features/bugfixes for
  the site itself.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You can keep up to date on this series and more free software news
  by subscribing to our newsletter, <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fss">the Free Software Supporter</a>
  and subscribing to our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/static/fsforg/rss/licensing.xml">RSS feed</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You can help fund our work in creating these licensing resources by
  becoming a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">member</a> or by <a href="https://donate.fsf.org/">making a donation</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Enjoy this article? Check out our previous entry on
 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resources-series-a-quick-guide-to-gplv3">A Quick Guide to the GPLv3</a></em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-12
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: August 12th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-August-12th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-12
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, August 12th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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: Support the Libre Tea Computer Card, a candidate for Respects Your Freedom certification
uri: Support-the-Libre-Tea-Computer-Card-a-candidate-for-Respects-Your-Fre
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-libre-tea-computer-card-a-candidate-for-respects-your-freedom-certification

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-libre-tea-computer-card-a-candidate-for-respects-your-freedom-certification

content:
<p>They write:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Now imagine if you owned a computing device that you could easily
fix yourself and inexpensively upgrade as needed. So, instead of
having to shell out for a completely new computer, you could simply
spend around US$50 to upgrade — which, by the way, you could easily
do in SECONDS, by pushing a button on the side of your device and
just popping in a new computer card. Doesn’t that sound like the way
it should be?"</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop">This project</a> certainly sounds appealing, but only if the computer hardware is designed and configured to run software that does as much as possible to respect your freedom and ensure your control over your device. Fortunately, one option you have when backing this project is to purchase a Libre Tea Computer Card. After working closely with the developers and reviewing a sample test board, we are confident that their plans are to create a device that can achieve our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/ryf">Respects Your Freedom (RYF)</a> certification.</p>
<p>The project is being developed by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton of <a href="http://rhombus-tech.net">Rhombus-Tech</a> and is sponsored by Christopher Waid of <a href="https://www.thinkpenguin.com/">ThinkPenguin</a>, a company that sells <a href="https://www.fsf.org/ryf">multiple RYF-certified hardware products</a>.  It is exciting to see passionate free software advocates in our community working with OEMs to produce a computer hardware product capable of achieving RYF certification. We hope that this is the first of many computing systems they are able to design
and build that respect your freedom.</p>
<p>The Libre Tea Computer Card is built with an Allwinner A20 dual core processor configured to use the main CPU for graphics; it has 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of NAND Flash; and it will come pre-installed with <a href="https://www.parabola.nu/">Parabola GNU/Linux-libre</a>, an <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros">FSF-endorsed fully-free operating system</a>. </p>
<p>We encourage you to <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop">back the Libre Tea Computer Card</a>. We'll have to do another evaluation once it is actually produced to be sure it meets our certification standards, but we have high hopes. Their funding deadline is August 26th, so don't delay!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/software-should-be-free-the-fsfs-first-annual-report
title: Software Should Be Free: The FSF's first Annual Report
uri: Software-Should-Be-Free-The-FSF-s-first-Annual-Report
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/software-should-be-free-the-fsfs-first-annual-report
content:
<div style="text-align: center; float: right;" padding="10px">
<a href="media/af9e2954.FY2015_annual_report_LR.pdf" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/annual-reports/FY2015_annual_report_LR.pdf">
<img src="media/eec9892a.FY2015-cover.png" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/annual-reports/FY2015-cover.png" style="margin-left: 15px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; width: 200px;" alt="FY2015 Annual Report cover - Software should be free as in freedom" />
</a>
</div>

<p>Now we are publishing
our first <a href="media/af9e2954.FY2015_annual_report_LR.pdf" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/annual-reports/FY2015_annual_report_LR.pdf">Annual Report</a>, which covers the 2015 fiscal year of
October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015. The report offers a look
at the Foundation's activities, accomplishments, and financial
picture. You will also read about the impact of our programs and
FY2015's major events, including LibrePlanet and our thirtieth
anniversary. A <a href="media/9155580f.FY2015_annual_report_HR.pdf" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/annual-reports/FY2015_annual_report_HR.pdf">high resolution version</a> is also available.</p>
<p>You can support the FSF's fight for user freedom by:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">becoming an Associate Member</a></li>
<li><a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate/">making a one-time donation</a></li>
<li>sharing this report <a href="https://www.fsf.org/share?u=http://u.fsf.org/fy15annualreport&amp;t=Software%20Should%20Be%20Free:%20The%20FSF%27s%20first%20Annual%20Report">on social media</a>, and with your friends and colleagues who may want to support user freedom by becoming a member</li>
</ul>
<p>This report is a snapshot of the FSF's work, and we hope you will
continue with us for the next thirty years. Please send any questions
or comments regarding the report 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>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-19th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: August 19th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-August-19th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-19th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, August 19th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-august-12th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for August 12th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-August-12th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-august-12th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together
in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on
the Friday, August 12th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Mordcai discovered that the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Participate/">Participation Guide</a>'s formatting was
broken and got it fixed, and Mviinama helped fix some links as
well. Donaldr3 approved a few minor changes, with updated versions for
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Bas55">Bas55</a> and <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Anonymine">Anonymine</a>. <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Nazghul">Nazghul</a> needed an updated website
and versions. Adfeno announced the creation of a script to help with
licensing check, and updated projects on their todo list. The whole
channel helped to discuss a project with a dependency on a package
with a world-record candidate for longest licensing file. The
resolution was to file an issue at the project seeking a fix for the
licensing issue. The meeting ended with getting Adfeno's
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Participate/Script_aid">script up</a> on the directory and helping choose a license for it.</p>
<p>It was a busy meeting, but there's still lots of work left to do. If
you want to help out, join us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org
from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-august-19th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for August 19th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-August-19th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-august-19th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together
in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on
the Friday, August 19th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week we had a guest leader, Yoni Rabkin (yrk), a long time
volunteer on the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/team">FSF Compliance Lab Team</a>. yrk did a great job
leading the directory team and we thank them for their efforts.</p>
<p>The meeting started off with lots of new faces jumping in to help
out. Guest37375 worked on updating the entry for <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/WordNet">WordNet</a>, and
mimi89999 updated the page for <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Alsaplayer">Alsaplayer</a>. The channel worked
together to add an initial entry for <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Kaku">Kaku</a>, and some candidates
for deletion were also found. mattlav1 found a package that seemed to
be out of commission, and yrk contacted the maintainers about getting
an update. mew007 helped update the listing for <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Crossword_Builder">Crossword Builder</a>,
and the channel spent some time tracking down licenses for several
packages.</p>
<p>yrk did a great job leading the group and getting so many people
involved. If you would like to join in on the fun, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to
19:00 UTC).</p>


title: Only a short time left to support Libre Tea Computer Card; crowdfunding ends August 26th
uri: Only-a-short-time-left-to-support-Libre-Tea-Computer-Card-crowdfundin
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/only-a-short-time-left-to-support-libre-tea-computer-card-crowdfunding-ends-august-26th

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/only-a-short-time-left-to-support-libre-tea-computer-card-crowdfunding-ends-august-26th

content:
<p>We wrote previously about <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-libre-tea-computer-card-a-candidate-for-respects-your-freedom-certification">why you should support the Earth-friendly
EOMA68 Computing Devices project</a>. It's built around devices with
interchangeable parts, based on unencumbered hardware standards, and
with a dedication to protecting and promoting user freedom. The
project's decision to raise funds via <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop">Crowd Supply</a> means that you
can support their work with anonymous payments, and without the use of
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html">proprietary JavaScript</a>.</p>
<p>As we wrote previously:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Libre Tea Computer Card is built with an Allwinner A20 dual core
processor configured to use the main CPU for graphics; it has 2 GB
of RAM and 8 GB of NAND Flash; and it will come pre-installed with
<a href="https://www.parabola.nu/">Parabola GNU/Linux-libre</a>, an <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros">FSF-endorsed fully-free operating
system</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It's a device with a lot of potential, and purchasing one will help
support the development of even more hardware that respects users'
freedom. While we will have to make a final evaluation before granting
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/ryf">Respects Your Freedom certification</a>, we have high hopes given the
history of the developers involved and the details currently
available.</p>
<p>When we last wrote about the project, there was an outpouring of
support, helping it get significantly closer to its funding goal (at
the time of this writing, 85% there). But with just days left, we need
to make one final push. Can you be the one to put the project over the
top by <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop">backing the Libre Tea Computer Card</a>? The final deadline is
Friday, August 26th, so now is the time to act if you want to help
promote the creation of devices whose software is fully under your
control.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-26th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: August 26th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-August-26th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-august-26th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, August 26th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT
(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="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: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Stefano Zacchiroli of Software Heritage
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Stefano-Zacchiroli-of-Soft
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-stefano-zacchiroli-of-software-heritage

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-stefano-zacchiroli-of-software-heritage

content:
<p><a href="https://www.softwareheritage.org">Software Heritage</a> is a recently announced non-profit initiative
to archive, organize, and share all publicly available software source
code. <a href="https://upsilon.cc/~zack/">Stefano Zacchiroli</a> is a co-founder and current CTO of the
Software Heritage project. He is a Board Director of the Open Source
Initiative, member of FSF's High Priority Projects committee, and
former 3-times Debian Project Leader.</p>
<h2>Can you tell us a little about Software Heritage and what inspired you to create it?</h2>
<p>Software Heritage's ambition is to be the memory of humanity when it
comes to (Free) software. Our goal is to collect, preserve in the very
long term, organize, and share <em>all</em> software that is publicly
available in source code form. The vast majority of the corpus we
target is the result of decades of work by the free software
community. The rest of it will eventually (after copyright expiration)
become free software too.</p>
<p>As for our inspiration to start the project, we were discussing
seemingly unrelated topics: the cultural value of free software and
the risk of losing some of it, the closed nature of state-of-the-art
databases used in the IT industry to track the provenance of free
software code, and the sad state of scientific reproducibility when
software is used as part of scientific experiments. Software Heritage
is the result of realizing that a comprehensive, curated archive of
free software source code can help on all those fronts.</p>
<h2>Can you tell us a little about the free software that powers software heritage?</h2>
<p>The Software Heritage software stack is entirely free software. We use
<a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> GNU/Linux (main) on all our machines, be them bare metal
servers or virtual machines. On top of them run our software
foundations: <a href="https://www.postgresql.org/">PostgreSQL</a> (knowledge base), <a href="https://wordpress.org/">Wordpress</a> (main
website), <a href="https://www.phacility.com/phabricator/">Phabricator</a> (development forge), and <a href="https://puppet.com/">Puppet</a>
(configuration management). Our business logic---source code crawling,
ingestion, indexing, publishing on the Web, etc.---is implemented in
<a href="https://www.python.org/">Python 3</a> using several free software libraries and framework;
some of those are: <a href="http://initd.org/psycopg/">Psycopg2</a>, <a href="https://www.dulwich.io/">Dulwich</a>, <a href="https://www.samba.org/~jelmer/subvertpy/">Subvertpy</a>,
<a href="http://www.celeryproject.org/">Celery</a>, and <a href="http://flask.pocoo.org/">Flask</a>.  All the code we develop ourselves is
released under copyleft licenses (GNU AGPLv3 for public facing
services, GNU GPLv3 for back-end code), with the exception of code
meant to be reused in context where lax, permissively licenses are
dominant (e.g., our Puppet modules, that we release under the
Apache 2.0 license).</p>
<h2>What features do you find unique about software heritage and what sets it apart from similar projects?</h2>
<p>The field of digital preservation is luckily vast and full of
initiatives that are all trying to prevent the risk of an upcoming
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dark_age">digital dark age</a>. The <a href="https://archive.org/index.php">Internet Archive</a> and the
<a href="http://archiveteam.org/">Archive Team</a> are known to many free software hackers, but there
are dozens of invaluable digital preservation projects out there. The
peculiarity of Software Heritage is that we focus on source code, and
that we aim at being exhaustive in that "little" niche. We love
working with others though, and we are already doing so to make sure
that the source code we archive can be cross-referenced with other
important artifacts of software development (e.g., home pages,
documentation, mailing lists, binaries, etc.)  that others are already
doing a great job at archiving.</p>
<p>As for our "style", we pride ourselves on our commitments to being a
charitable initiative, to run the project openly and collaboratively,
and to release all our own software as free software.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the GNU AGPLv3 and the GNU GPLv3 licenses for your software?</h2>
<p>Copyleft licenses are the most natural choice for all sorts of
critical software. They guarantee via legal means that not only the
current version of some software is free, but also that all future
adaptations of it will remain so.</p>
<p>Preserving the source code memory of humanity is a critical
endeavor. It should be done transparently, as that allows everyone to
review how the archival is being done, what safety measures are being
put in place, etc. Additionally, the archived source code should be
mirrored massively, as each additional independent copy reduces the
chances of losing something. To that end archival software will be
reused by diverse stakeholders and sometimes it will need to be
adapted to fit new scenarios.</p>
<p>Releasing our software under copyleft licenses is first of all a
contribution to operational transparency on what we are doing. Second,
it creates a level playing field for everyone who will want to reuse
our software, for archival or as yet unseen purposes.</p>
<h2>How can individuals and organizations contribute?</h2>
<p>I'm glad you asked! We're a very dedicated but also very small
<a href="https://www.softwareheritage.org/people/">team</a>, and we welcome help from all interested parties.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.softwareheritage.org/community/developers/">Developers</a> can participate as they usually do in free software
  projects: join our development mailing list or IRC channel, and dive
  into <a href="https://forge.softwareheritage.org/">our code</a> to submit bug reports or patches.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Users can contribute by curating content on our
  <a href="https://wiki.softwareheritage.org/">wiki</a>, that most notably hosts
  a <a href="https://wiki.softwareheritage.org/index.php?title=Suggestion_box">suggestion box</a> of endangered source code that we should
  archive. Raising awareness of the project by promoting it with peers
  and on social media is very welcome too.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Organizations can help by becoming <a href="https://www.softwareheritage.org/support/testimonials/">testimonials</a> for what we do
  and by joining our <a href="https://www.softwareheritage.org/support/sponsors/program/">sponsorship program</a> to support our work.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>What's the next big thing for Software Heritage?</h2>
<p>Up to now we've focused on creating a solid initial corpus for the
<a href="https://www.softwareheritage.org/archive/">Software Heritage archive</a>. We're quite pleased with the result:
the archive already contains more than 2.8 billion unique source code
files, 600 million commits, and covers more than 22 million
projects. And it is growing steadily as we keep up with changes pushed
to tracked version control systems (e.g., <a href="https://github.com/">GitHub</a> repositories).</p>
<p>The next big thing is content retrieval. Users can already check if we
have archived source code they care about, but they cannot yet browse
or download it. This is our top priority. Delivering on it requires
engineering work, computing resources (e.g., bandwidth), and
administrative scaffolding (e.g., processes to deal with takedown
notices). In parallel with this we keep on expanding the coverage of
the archive and growing a distributed network of mirrors to avoid
single points of failure of any kind. It's a lot of work, but it's
necessary and also a lot of fun!</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-brett-smith-of-dtrx">Brett Smith of dtrx</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/special-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-2nd
title: Special Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: September 2nd
uri: Special-Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-September-2nd
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/special-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-2nd
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, September 2nd, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (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>This week we're having a special theme focusing on improving the usability of the directory. In particular, we'll be discussing updating the categories of software to make finding the software you need easier. We'll also be looking for other suggestions on improving the usability of the site. It's an opportunity to have a big impact in making the directory as useful as possible. So please join us for the discussion, and stick around to help update and add entries to the directory.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-august-26th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for August 26th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-August-26th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-august-26th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together
in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the
<a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on
the Friday, August 26th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week's meeting got off to a great start as there had been many
updates during the week that needed reviewing. Many packages had
updates and other new ones were added, including <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Unknown_horizons">Unknown Horizons</a>
and <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Fontopia">GNU Fontopia</a>. adfeno added documentation for their script to
the wiki, so now volunteers can have a bit of an easier time checking
the packages. The channel also discussed a licensing issue with a game
remake and some potentially non-free data, and adfeno set out to file
an issue with the project. The meeting also saw the return of jgay,
who initiated and previously ran the weekly meetings. He reviewed a
bunch of updates in record time, so it was great having his experience
and knowledge back at the meeting. GuiltyDolphin updated <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Shutter">Shutter</a>,
but found some issues with the available categories and user interface
with the directory. So the channel decided that next week's meeting
will have a theme of looking to improve the categories and other user
interface aspects of the directory. juri_ joined in the meeting and
announced that they had succeeded in upgrading the license on their
project to the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 by
contacting each previous contributor, a truly impressive task. The
channel caught a small issue with the package in that the license
document hadn't been updated yet! We'll be helping juri_ get their
project listed in the directory next week, along with many other
packages. If you would like to join in on the fun, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to
19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/eightteen-new-gnu-releases-in-august-2016
title: Eighteen new GNU releases in August 2016
uri: Eighteen-new-GNU-releases-in-August-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/eightteen-new-gnu-releases-in-august-2016
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/adns/">adns-1.5.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/">binutils-2.27</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/dico/">dico-2.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/">diffutils-3.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/fontopia/">fontopia-1.7</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/">freeipmi-1.5.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gama/">gama-1.18</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/">gcc-6.2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/glibc/">glibc-2.24</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnudos/">gnudos-1.9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuhealth/">gnuhealth-3.0.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.15</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.5.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/">guix-0.11.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/hyperbole/">hyperbole-6.0.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/jtw/">java-training-wheels-2.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160822</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/">xboard-4.9.1</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 Ricardo Wurmus as a new co-maintainer of GNU
Guix, Benno Schulenberg as the new maintainer of GNU nano, and Robert
Weiner as the maintainer of the new package GNU OO-Browser.</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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-2nd-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for September 2nd, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-September-2nd-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-2nd-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, September 2nd, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week's meeting had a special theme of looking at the categories and other user interface elements of the directory. The directory is one of the most frequently visited resources maintained by the Free Software Foundation, often by users who may not be familiar with free software. So we want to make sure the way that it presents itself is welcoming and useful. The first hour of the meeting was dedicated solely to discussing these issues.</p>
<p>johnsu01 pointed out that the categories are based on tags from Debian, and that we need to maintain some conformity to enable ease importing packages. GuiltyDolphin set about to investigate the format for adding new categories. mattl noted that the site currently doesn't work well on mobile. bill-auger found many issues related to how search results and other pages displayed, particularly how text-filled and intimidating they appear. They also called for a clearer interface for downloading packages, since that is why many people come to the directory in the first place. </p>
<p>For volunteers, VictorM wanted a better way to find older entries that hadn't received a recent update. GuiltyDolphin was able to create a search that pulls up the entries and added it to the participation guide, meaning that next week's meeting we can focus on 'Golden Oldies'. For other items discussed, we've put together a good list of things we'd like to see fixed that we can work on in the future.<br />
</p>
<p>For the rest of the meeting we set about updating and approving entries, getting a bunch added and filing bug reports for projects with licensing issues. If you would like to join in on the fun, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


title: Friday "Golden Oldies" Free Software Directory IRC meetup: September 9th
uri: Friday-Golden-Oldies-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-September-9
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-golden-oldies-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-9th

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-golden-oldies-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-9th

content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, September 9th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (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>This week we're having a special theme focusing on updating older entries. The directory was started many years ago, and while maintainers and volunteers work to add new packages and keep others up to date, with over 15,000 entries there are many that haven't been updated in a while. With a newly implemented interface for finding entries that haven't been updated recently we are going to be focusing on getting these older entries up to date.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-16th
title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: September 16th
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-September-16th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-16th
content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, September 16th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (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>This week we're having a special theme focusing on updating entries for accessibility software. Free software is for everyone, but unless we make quality tools that everyone can use, many people will be left out. If you have the knowledge and know how to discuss improving the accessibility of the directory itself, we'd also love to have you join us.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-9th-2016
title: Free Software Directory recapping the "Golden Oldies" meeting
uri: Free-Software-Directory-recapping-the-Golden-Oldies-meeting
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-9th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.or/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, September 9th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week we had a special theme of "Golden Oldies" where we worked particularly on entries that hadn't received an update in quite a while. The meeting started off a bit slow with the channel just trying to get our new tool for discovering old entries looking nicely formatted and usable. Once challenge that had been discussed the previous week was the fact that users sometimes forgot to update the review dates of entries, but hopefully this issue will resolve itself as more older entries get reviewed.</p>
<p>kamel also jumped in with a new project for improving the directory: a tool for scanning entries to help predict tags/categories for the entry. This tool will be critical in making adding categories to the directory feasible. If we add categories, having a tool to find previous entries that can fit into that category will be extremely useful. In working on this project, kamel also found many pages that were not working, and has listed them on the directory for us to review what the issue is.</p>
<p>The channel also discussed the <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Requirements">requirements</a> for inclusion in the directory. While it can seem like a straightforward question of whether the package is freely licensed, there can be some interesting wrinkles. In particular, the channel discussed the inclusion of packages that are freely licensed, but then offer a 'premium' proprietary fork of the work. While <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/selling-exceptions">selling exceptions</a> to a freely licensed copyleft work can be acceptable, offering broken version of  software under a free license as an advertisement for a fully featured proprietary version is a different story. A further complication to the issue arises when there is a community developed version that isn't associated with the proprietary developer. More work will need to be done to hash out all the details and write up proper guidance on dealing with this problem.</p>
<p>The meeting ended with the channel deciding that next week's theme should focus on packages related to accessibility. Free software is for everyone, but unless we make quality tools that everyone can use, many people will be left out. If you would like to help update entries related to accessibility or just help update the directory in general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-software-freedom-day-a-few-words-from-rms
title: Happy Software Freedom Day! A few words from RMS
uri: Happy-Software-Freedom-Day-A-few-words-from-RMS
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-software-freedom-day-a-few-words-from-rms
content:
<p>It's a great day to celebrate software freedom -- and to educate your
friends and colleagues about the importance of free software. Richard
Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), has created a
brief, informative video about why software freedom is important to
all. <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/richard-stallman-explains-free-software-on-software-freedom-day-2016/">Check it out</a>, and share the video by posting about it on your
blog, or microblog about the video with the hashtag #SFD (be sure to avoid
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/twitter">nonfree software</a> when you do). Thanks to free software community
members Devin Ulibarri and Daniel Fitzmartin for editing this video.</p>
<p>There are more than 100 events planned for <a href="http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/">Software Freedom Day</a>
across the globe. Check out <a href="http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/map">the map</a> to find an event near you --
and if you're attending an SFD event, suggest that they show the
video.  Even if there isn't an event in your area, you can get
inspired by exploring the resources on the Software Freedom Day
website, as well as on the <a href="https://www.fsf.org">FSF</a> and <a href="https://www.gnu.org">GNU Project</a> websites.</p>


title: Calling all free software supporters: It's time to renew our shop inventory!
uri: Calling-all-free-software-supporters-It-s-time-to-renew-our-shop-inve
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/calling-all-free-software-supporters-its-time-to-renew-our-shop-inventory

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/calling-all-free-software-supporters-its-time-to-renew-our-shop-inventory

content:
<p>The <a href="https://shop.fsf.org">merchandise</a> we sell there helps get the message of software freedom into the world, and the money we raise from sales is indispensable to our operation. Besides all that, the goods are useful, whether generating true random numbers or keeping you warm in cold weather. To help us accomplish these goals, we are asking you, the free software community, for your ideas about what you'd like to see in the shop.</p>
<p>Do you have a neat design idea for a new T-shirt? Think we could sell a bale of GNU-branded socks? Know what we could put on a sticker that would get the software freedom message across? Please add your idea(s) to the <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Ideas#Store_suggestions">LibrePlanet Wiki's Ideas page</a>. If you see that someone has already suggested your idea, feel free to add a "+1".  OR: you can email your merchandise idea to the FSF Operations team directly at <a href="mailto:sales@fsf.org">&#115;&#97;&#108;&#101;&#115;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>.</p>
<p>Together we can come up with the most practical and stylish ways to get the software freedom message out there. We'll be actively looking at submissions into early October, and hope to have designs done by the middle of that month.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your suggestions and thank you for supporting free software!</p>


title: Friday "Back to School" Free Software Directory IRC meetup: September 23rd
uri: Friday-Back-to-School-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-September
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-back-to-school-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-23rd

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-back-to-school-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-23rd

content:
<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, September 23rd, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (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>This week we're having a special theme focusing on updating entries for educational software. With school starting back up for many students, we want to make sure they have the free software tools they need for their studies are up to date and current in the Directory.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-16th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for September 16th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-September-16th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-16th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, September 16th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week we had a special theme of focusing on <em>accessibility packages</em>. Free software is for everyone, but unless we make quality tools that everyone can use, many people will be left out. So making sure those packages are up to date and added to the Directory is really important. The meeting started off great with the discovery that one volunteer, Alejandroindependiente, had sat down the day before and updated just about every single package that was tagged as accessibility. Their awesome effort made it easy for us to go through and approve their changes during the meeting, and take steps on the last few that couldn't be updated. As a result, we were able to get an update or a bug filed for every single accessibility package in the Directory during the course of the meeting. It goes to show that even if you can't make it to the meetings on Friday, you can still have a huge impact on their success if you have time earlier in the week.</p>
<p>The channel also revisited discussions from our previous meetings regarding the user interface and categories available in the directory itself. While mattl discussed the accessibility features of MediaWiki (which the directory runs on), we also looked at more general issues regarding the interface of the directory.</p>
<p>The meeting concluded with the channel deciding that next week's theme should focus on education related packages. So next week's theme will be 'Back to School'.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update entries related to education or just help update the directory in general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-23rd-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for September 23rd, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-September-23rd-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-23rd-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, September 23rd, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week we had a special theme of focusing on educational packages. The directory has quite a number of educational resources, so while we made great progress just working through the education category, we'll have to revisit this topic to get all the packages up to date. In going over some of the packages, the channel found several with broken links, another item that we'll want to focus on in future meetings.</p>
<p>In addition to our work on education packages, dachary set about on a new project to help automate updating versions for entries. Some resources already exist externally for tracking new versions and downloads, and dachary is working on a script to pull in that data and have it update the directory with less leg work. johnsu01 helped by putting together information and resources that can help to implement the script.</p>
<p>The meeting concluded with the channel deciding that next week's theme should focus on collaboration software. So next week's theme will be 'Working Together for Free Software'.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update entries related to education or just help update the directory in general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-do-you-have-to-say-share-it-at-libreplanet-2017
title: What do you have to say? Share it at LibrePlanet 2017
uri: What-do-you-have-to-say-Share-it-at-LibrePlanet-2017
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-do-you-have-to-say-share-it-at-libreplanet-2017
content:
<p>The <a href="https://my.fsf.org/lp-call-for-sessions">call for proposals</a> is open now, until November
14th, 2016. General registration, exhibitor registration, and
volunteer applications will open soon.</p>
<p><strong>Do you have a free software-related topic to teach or talk
  about? You've got until Wednesday, November 14th, 2016 at 18:59
  EST (23:59 UTC) to <a href="https://my.fsf.org/lp-call-for-sessions">submit your proposals</a>.</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/2016">last year's conference site</a> and
<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/tag/libreplanet-2016/">session videos</a>, including the opening keynote, a
<a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/libreplanet-2016-the-last-lighthouse-3d51/">conversation with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden</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. You might:</p>
<ul>
<li>Share an update on your free software project</li>
<li>Examine how free software can aid education, community
  organizing, medicine, art, or social movements</li>
<li>Teach a workshop on how to use a free software program or free
  hardware project</li>
<li>Lead a project "sprint" (a group work session)</li>
<li>Explore issues related to free software licensing and copyleft</li>
</ul>
<p>This year, the theme of LibrePlanet is "The Roots of Freedom."
This encompasses the historical "roots" of the free software
movement -- the Four Freedoms, the GNU General Public License and
copyleft, and a focus on strong security and privacy protections
-- and the concept of roots as a strong foundation from which the
movement grows. What aspect or advantage of free software is most
valuable to you? What's arising from the movement's deep roots,
and where? Can you identify exciting developments from the roots
of freedom in education, business, activism, or 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 thought-provoking,
useful, and entertaining contributions from our speakers, attendees,
exhibitors, and volunteers. We can't wait to hear your
ideas. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/lp-call-for-sessions">Submit a proposal now</a>!</p>
<p>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>.</p>


title: Friday Working together for Free Software Directory IRC meetup: September 30th
uri: Friday-Working-together-for-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-Septem
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-working-together-for-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-30th

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-working-together-for-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-september-30th

content:
<img alt="Working together for free software" src="media/47af016c.gnu.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/working/w/gnu.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>Join the FSF and friends Friday, September 30th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (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>This week we're having a special theme focusing on updating entries for collaborative software. Working together as a team takes tools that let you plan, communicate, and collaborate, so making sure people have great free software for these tasks is really important. Come collaborate with all of us in updating the directory entries for these tools!</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/licensing-resource-series-free-gnu-linux-distributions-gnu-bucks
title: Licensing resource series: Free GNU/Linux distributions & GNU Bucks
uri: Licensing-resource-series-Free-GNU-Linux-distributions-GNU-Bucks
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-free-gnu-linux-distributions-gnu-bucks
content:
<img alt="A GNU buck" src="https://www.gnu.org/help/gnubuck400.jpg
" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p>When Richard Stallman set out to <a href="https://www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.en.html">create the GNU Project</a>, the goal was to create a fully free operating system. Over 33 years later, it is now possible for users to have a computer that runs only free software. But even if all the software is available, putting it all together yourself, or finding a distribution that comes with only free software, would be quite the task. That is why we provide a list of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html">Free GNU/Linux distributions</a>.</p>
<p>Each distro on the list is commited to only distributing free software. With many to choose from, you can find a distro that meets your needs while respecting your freedom.</p>
<p>But with so much software making up an entire operating system, how is it possible to make sure that nothing nasty sneaks into the distro? That's where you, and <a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/gnu-bucks.en.html">GNU Bucks</a> come in.</p>
<p>Our GNU Bucks program is a fun bounty program for finding licensing issues in endorsed distros. Helpful users and volunteers can file bugs with the distro if they happen to find some potentially non-free software. At the same time, they can email the FSF at <a href="mailto:report-nonfree@fsf.org">&#114;&#101;&#112;&#111;&#114;&#116;&#45;&#110;&#111;&#110;&#102;&#114;&#101;&#101;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>. Once the maintainer of the distro verifies the issue, the reporter can receive a GNU Buck, signed by Richard Stallman.</p>
<p>Like many of our resources, we depend on users like you to keep our endorsed distributions list and GNU Bucks program up and running. Here's how you can help:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Install and use a fully <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html">free GNU/Linux distribution</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Report any licensing issues you might find in an endorsed distro and let us know at <a href="mailto:report-nonfree@fsf.org">&#114;&#101;&#112;&#111;&#114;&#116;&#45;&#110;&#111;&#110;&#102;&#114;&#101;&#101;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You can help fund our work in creating these licensing resources by <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">becoming a member</a> or by <a href="https://donate.fsf.org/">making a donation</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Enjoy this article? Check out our previous entry on <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-h-node-hardware-directory">the h-node hardware directory</a></em>.</p>


title: Libre Learn Lab: a summit on freely licensed resources for education
uri: Libre-Learn-Lab-a-summit-on-freely-licensed-resources-for-education
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libre-learn-lab-a-summit-on-freely-licensed-resources-for-education

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libre-learn-lab-a-summit-on-freely-licensed-resources-for-education

content:
<p>The keynote addresses will be delivered by the FSF’s own 
Richard M. Stallman, former Chief Open Education Advisor
Andrew Marcinek and founder of HacKIDemia Stefania Druga. At
the event, there will be a special tribute to Dr. Seymour 
Papert (the father of educational computing) by Dr. Cynthia 
Solomon.</p>
<p>The event will have workshops and presentations given by 
over 20 speakers, with perspectives from the free software, 
maker  education, open education communities and more. The 
event will challenge participants with the theme “From Play
to Policy," leading to next steps for the community.</p>
<p>Here are the details:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.librelearnlab.org">http://www.librelearnlab.org</a></p>
<p>Saturday, October 8th and Sunday, October 9th</p>
<p>MIT Tang Center</p>
<p>Cost: $25,  or Free (as in beer) for students. Registration 
is optional if only attending Dr. Richard Stallman’s talk, 
“Education for Freedom with Libre Software.” If you plan to 
attend the rest of the event, please <a href="http://www.librelearnlab.org/registration">register</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-september
title: August and September 2016: photos from Pittsburgh and Fresno
uri: August-and-September-2016-photos-from-Pittsburgh-and-Fresno
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-september
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>RMS was in Pennsylvania last month and in California this month. He
was

<p>&#8230;in <strong>Pittsburgh, PA,</strong> on August
20<sup>th</sup>, at the Abstractions conference, on the invitation of
Code &amp; Supply, an organization that &ldquo;nurture[s] Pittsburgh's
growing tech community,&rdquo; to give his speech &ldquo;Free Software
and Your Freedom&rdquo; to an audience of over 800 professional
developers involved in all aspects of development, from design to
management to back-end engineering to front-end development and
more:</p>

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

<img src="media/43f58772.20160820-pittsburgh-01-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160820-pittsburgh/20160820-pittsburgh-01-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/83a6deb4.20160820-pittsburgh-02-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160820-pittsburgh/20160820-pittsburgh-02-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>.  Photos courtesy of Jesse Reese.)</em>

<p>&#8230;and in <strong>Fresno, CA,</strong> where, on the invitation
of the Clovis ACM Student Chapter, he gave his speech &ldquo;What
Makes Digital Inclusion Good or Bad?&rdquo;</a><sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup> on September 27<sup>th</sup>:</p>

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

<img src="media/ea847523.20160927-fresno-mason-bill-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160927-fresno/20160927-fresno-mason-bill-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a2c38c7d.20160927-fresno-15-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160927-fresno/20160927-fresno-15-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/dcfd4423.20160927-fresno-16-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160927-fresno/20160927-fresno-16-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/a1a423a7.20160927-fresno-19-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160927-fresno/20160927-fresno-19-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/d6be3c36.20160927-fresno-22-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160927-fresno/20160927-fresno-22-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/cf2accbd.20160927-fresno-24-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160927-fresno/20160927-fresno-24-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" /> 
<img src="media/d67966fd.20160927-fresno-25-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20160927-fresno/20160927-fresno-25-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>.  First two photos courtesy of Bill Kerney; the others, of Mason Tijuanta.)</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=316&amp;reset=1">Montreal</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=456&amp;reset=1">Pittsburgh</a>,
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=457&amp;reset=1">Amsterdam</a>,
and <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=144&amp;reset=1">Oakdale</a>,
all of which RMS visited over the past two months.  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 Justin, Mason, and Bill for having made these trips possible!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<div align="left">
<div style="margin-left:4px;">

<sup id="fn1">1. A recording of RMS's September 27<sup>th</sup>, 2016, Fresno, CA, speech will soon be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2016">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
</div>
</div>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-30th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for September 30th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-September-30th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-september-30th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, September 30th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week we had a special theme of focusing on collaboration related software. This was another big category, but we made some great progress in updating tools for helping people work together. The channel also did some great collaboration in improving the tools we use to work on the directory. adfeno and dachary worked together on the participation guide tools section, improving guides for scripting work in the directory. They made a section in the guide for using <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Participate/Using_pywikibot">pywikibot</a>, a command line, to simplify tasks in the directory.</p>
<p>Iankelling and donaldr3 each started from opposite ends of the project management category and got close to meeting in the middle on updating the pages. jgay helped approve a massive batch of updates to the directory, and mattl was also there to help update entries and provide insight on some of the scripting tasks. The meeting ended up running long after its scheduled end time as everyone wanted to keep working on their projects.</p>
<p>adfeno and Iankelling worked long after the end of even the long-running meeting to put together a resource on broken links in the directory. Using pywikibot they were able to generate a listing of dead external links on the directory. Which means that our first meeting in October will be the 'Meeting of the Undead' where we focus on finding and bring back to life dead links.</p>
<p>If you would like to help hunt for the dead links or just help update the directory in general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/twenty-two-22-new-gnu-releases-in-september
title: Twenty-two new GNU releases in September
uri: Twenty-two-new-GNU-releases-in-September
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/twenty-two-22-new-gnu-releases-in-september
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/apl/">apl-1.6a</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf-archive/">autoconf-archive-2016.09.16</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/autogen/">autogen-5.18.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/">bash-4.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/denemo/">denemo-2.0.12</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo-16.10a</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">emacs-25.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/">gawk-4.1.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/global/">global-6.5.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnucash/">gnucash-2.6.14</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/chess/">gnuchess-6.2.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-c-manual/">gnu-c-manual-0.2.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">gnutls-3.5.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/">gsl-2.2.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/">libmicrohttpd-0.9.51</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/osip/doc/html/group__libosip2.html">libosip2-5.0.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/">nano-2.7.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20160922</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/readline/">readline-7.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/">texinfo-6.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/unifont/">unifont-9.0.02</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/">xorriso-1.4.6</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 Boris Bobrov as the new GNU MediaGoblin
co-maintainer.</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: Register now for LibrePlanet 2017: "The Roots of Freedom" March 25-26, 2017 in Boston, MA
uri: Register-now-for-LibrePlanet-2017-The-Roots-of-Freedom-March-25-26
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/register-now-for-libreplanet-2017-the-roots-of-freedom-march-25-26-2017-in-boston-ma

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/register-now-for-libreplanet-2017-the-roots-of-freedom-march-25-26-2017-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 2017</strong><br />March 25-26<br />Greater
Boston<br /><br />Gratis for students and FSF associate members<br /><br /> <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=47&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>Clear your calendars for the last weekend of March 2017!
<a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=47&amp;reset=1">Registration</a> for <a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet</a> is now open. The
conference will be held March 25-26, 2017, in the Boston area.</p>
<p>Last year, over 350 people participated in LibrePlanet, traveling
from 11 countries and 28 U.S. states. And guess what? 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=47&amp;reset=1">register</a> at our non-member
rate.</p>
<p>This year's theme is "The Roots of Freedom." Some talks at this year's
conference will look back at the historical "roots" of the free
software movement, including the Four Freedoms, the GNU General Public
License and copyleft, and the focus on strong security and privacy
protections. Others will look at the movement's strong, foundational
"roots" -- and the exciting developments that grow from them in
education, business, activism, and the arts.</p>
<h1>Want to speak at LibrePlanet?</h1>
<p>You have just a few weeks left to <a href="https://my.fsf.org/lp-call-for-sessions">submit a session proposal</a>
-- the deadline is November 14th, 2016 at 18:59 EST (23:59 UTC).</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
1st from 15:00 - 18:00 EDT (19:00 - 22:00 UTC). Join us in the
<a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/libreplanet">#libreplanet</a> IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. 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/lp-scholarship-application">You can
apply for a scholarship starting now</a> -- the application
deadline is Monday, December 1st, 2016 at 10:00 EST in
the morning (15:00 UTC). 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.</p>
<h1>Will your company sponsor LibrePlanet?</h1>
<p>Would your employer consider sponsoring LibrePlanet? We'll be
providing the info you need to persuade them soon, but you can
also contact us now 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> for more information.</p>
<p>LibrePlanet is an energizing, friendly event 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. We work hard to ensure a
welcoming environment for all, and we have a <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2017/safe-space-policy/">safe space
policy</a>. Don't wait to register: we want you here with us on
March 25-26, 2017 for <a href="https://libreplanet.org/conference">LibrePlanet 2017</a>.</p>
<p>Check out LibrePlanet 2016's <a href="https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/libreplanet-2016-fork-the-system/">video of testimonials</a>
about why the free software community loves this annual event!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-7th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for October 7th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-October-7th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-7th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, October 7th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week was the 'Meeting of the Undead' where we hunted down dead and broken links in the directory. Thanks to the efforts of Iankelling and adfeno, we have a script that runs to find dead external links on the directory and compile them into a list. One common problem we ran into was packages changing the location of their documentation without providing a redirect or updating their directory entry. So, if you are  a maintainer out there who is itching to move documentation to a new location, keep in mind that you might be making your documentation harder to find.</p>
<p>We had lots of participants at this week's meeting cracking away at the hordes of undead, but as fmkb pointed out we couldn't get to everything and needed a good way to track entries where a new link couldn't be immediately found. We resolved to simply add notes at the top of the script generated list, but we'll have to revisit and work on a more nuanced solution in the future. Biotim, enrico, and jantwisted were some new faces to the meeting, and bill-auger returned to help mow down dead links.</p>
<p>We didn't end up deciding on a theme for this week during the meeting, but a suggestion afterwards came in that we work as the 'Skeleton GNU' and work on beefing up entries with limited information. While an entry can still be useful with only a short description and a few items of information, robust entries provide better documentation and make the directory an even better resource.</p>
<p>If you would like to help hunt and put meet on the bones of skeleton articles or just help update the directory in general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-skeleton-gnu-directory-irc-meetup-october-14th
title: Friday 'Skeleton GNU' Directory IRC meetup: October 14th
uri: Friday-Skeleton-GNU-Directory-IRC-meetup-October-14th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-skeleton-gnu-directory-irc-meetup-october-14th
content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week we're the 'Skeleton GNU' looking to beef up bares bones entries with more information. While even the most skeletal entry can be useful, the best ones have robust description, links to documentation and other resources. We'll be looking for entries with minimal information, adding as much as we can and making sure they're up to date.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/photo-blog-2016-october-libre-learn-lab
title: October 2016: photos from Libre Learn Lab, in Cambridge
uri: October-2016-photos-from-Libre-Learn-Lab-in-Cambridge
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-october-libre-learn-lab
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 was in <strong>Cambridge, Massachusetts,</strong> last week, at
the <a href="http://librelearnlab.org/">Libre Learn Lab</a>
(2016-10-08&ndash;09), a summit &ldquo;for people who create and
implement freely licensed resources for education, bringing together
educators, policy experts, software developers, hardware hackers, and
activists to share best practices and address the challenges of
widespread adoption of these resources in education.&rdquo; He was one
of the keynote speakers and, on October 8<sup>th</sup>, gave his
speech &ldquo;Education for Freedom with Free (Libre)
Software,&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup> underscoring
why exclusive use of free software is essential to educational
institutions' role in teaching social responsibility and
independence:</p>

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

<img src="media/0f74805e.20161008-cambridge-01-02-03-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-01-02-03-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/8d6751e0.20161008-cambridge-04-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-04-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1c5fd0cd.20161008-cambridge-05-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-05-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/dae70f98.20161008-cambridge-07-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-07-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1ddea5eb.20161008-cambridge-06-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-06-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ec6536b2.20161008-cambridge-08-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-08-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/61b42c28.20161008-cambridge-09-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-09-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1698b9c6.20161008-cambridge-10-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-10-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/9bd891fb.20161008-cambridge-11-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-11-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a9913d59.20161008-cambridge-12-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-12-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/306bfd1e.20161008-cambridge-13-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-13-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/4fb2c703.20161008-cambridge-14-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-14-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ae7b78f7.20161008-cambridge-15-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-15-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b56aeca3.20161008-cambridge-17-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-17-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1e4d35c0.20161008-cambridge-16-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-16-thumb.png" alt="" width="170" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ecbdd0b8.20161008-cambridge-18-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-18-thumb.png" alt="" width="360" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/4cbc07e0.20161008-cambridge-19-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-19-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/5696e5b9.20161008-cambridge-20-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-20-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a2928633.20161008-cambridge-21-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161008-cambridge/20161008-cambridge-21-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 4.0</a> and courtesy of Rubén Rodriguez.)</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=228&amp;reset=1">
Cambridge</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 Mariah Villarreal,
Mark Barnett, and Walter Bender for having made this appearance
possible!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<div align="left">
<div style="margin-left:4px;">

<sup id="fn1">1. A recording of RMS's speech will soon be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2016">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
</div>
</div>


title: Friday 'Ghosts' Directory IRC meetup: October 21st starting at a new time! 1pm EDT/17:00 UTC
uri: Friday-Ghosts-Directory-IRC-meetup-October-21st-starting-at-a-new-t
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-ghosts-directory-irc-meetup-october-21st-starting-at-a-new-time-1pm-edt-17-00-utc

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-ghosts-directory-irc-meetup-october-21st-starting-at-a-new-time-1pm-edt-17-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week we're chasing Ghosts, at a brand new time! Some projects on the directory are currently unmaintained or dormant. While up to date software is always needed, these older projects still present value and the possibility of resurrection. We want to make sure that the resources on the directory are up to date and help people to find both current and older packages. We'll be hunting down these projects this week at a new later time. Lots of our regulars couldn't make it out for our first hour, so we're shifting the schedule back one hour. </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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">FSD Meetings pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.</p>


title: Judge Mayer provides a strong case against software patents in Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec
uri: Judge-Mayer-provides-a-strong-case-against-software-patents-in-Intelle
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/judge-mayer-provides-a-strong-case-against-software-patents-in-intellectual-ventures-v-symantec

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/judge-mayer-provides-a-strong-case-against-software-patents-in-intellectual-ventures-v-symantec

content:
<p>The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has argued for years via its <a href="http://endsoftpatents.org/">End Software Patents</a> campaign that software patents are a threat to computer users everywhere and need to be abolished. In 2010, the FSF even funded a documentary, <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/new-documentary-film-patent-absurdity">"Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system,"</a> laying out the history of this destructive force.  More recently, FSF, the Open Source Initiative, and the Software Freedom Law Center filed an <a href="https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2014/alice_v_cls-sflc_amicus.html">amicus curae</a> in the United State's Supreme Court case of <em>Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l</em> (<em>Alice</em>). There, we explained the dangers of software patents and <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-joins-forces-with-software-freedom-law-center-and-open-source-initiative-to-fight-software-patents-in-u-s-supreme-court">argued</a> that "not only do software idea patents fail established tests for patentability; they also violate the First Amendment." It appears that someone on the Federal Circuit (the court that hears appeals on cases involving patents in the U.S.) took note.</p>
<p>That someone is Judge Haldane Robert Mayer, who in a stunning concurrence in <a href="media/09e80861.15-1769.Opinion.9-28-2016.1.PDF" data-original-source="http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions-orders/15-1769.Opinion.9-28-2016.1.PDF"><em>Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec</em> (links to a PDF)</a> outlined the case against software patents. The argument will be familiar to those who have read the FSF's Amicus in <em>Alice</em>: software patents fail basic tests for patentability and violate the First Amendment. And while the fact that it is only a concurrence (and not the main opinion of the court) means that it is not settled law, it is a huge step forward in protecting computer users from the dangers of software patents.</p>
<p>Mayer lays out the First Amendment argument against patentability of certain subjects, noting that limits on the subject matter of patents are meant to protect free expression. Under U.S. law, 35 U.S.C § 101 (section 101) lays out the scope of patentable subject matter. In analysing this section, courts have carved out certain subjects as being outside the scope of patentability so as to protect freedom of expression. In particular, abstract ideas and mental process have been found too threatening to the free exchange of ideas to permit them to be locked up in patents. After outlining the basics, Mayer goes on to state that "Most of the First Amendment concerns associated with patent protection could be avoided if this court were willing to acknowledge that <strong>Alice sounded the death knell for software patents.</strong>"</p>
<p>This is a really significant statement, offering clear guidance in the right direction as to how the Supreme Court case should be viewed.</p>
<p>Mayer notes that the Supreme Court in <em>Alice</em> "... explained that the 'mere recitation of a generic computer cannot transform a patent-ineligible abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.' ... Accordingly, '[t]he fact that a computer necessarily exist[s] in the physical, rather than purely conceptual, realm is beside the point'..."</p>
<p>Mayer explains that "Software lies in the antechamber of patentable invention. Because generically-implemented software is an 'idea' insufficiently linked to any defining physical structure other than a standard computer, it is a precursor to technology rather than technology itself."</p>
<p>Mayer continues the line of thought to its practical conclusion: "Given that an 'idea' is not patentable ... and a generic computer is 'beside the point' in the eligibility analysis ... <strong>all software implemented on a standard computer should be deemed categorically outside the bounds of section 101.</strong>"</p>
<p>Mayer even points out that the existence of free software itself is a strong argument against the granting of software patents. That the free software community has flourished for decades without the use of patents "suggests that innovation can flourish in software absent patent" restrictions. </p>
<p>This opinion is exactly the sort of thing we've been fighting for all these years. If only the rest of the court in <em>Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec</em> had joined in with Mayer in recognizing that software should never be subject to patents. While it is a great victory to see this analysis produced by a judge here in the U.S., there's obviously more that needs to be done before the 'death knell' truly sounds for software patents all around the world. Here's what you can do to help bring about that victory even faster:</p>
<ul>
<li>Keep up to date on the fight against software patents by joining the campaign to <a href="http://endsoftpatents.org/">End Software Patents</a></li>
<li>Support our work in fighting software patents by making a <a href="https://donate.fsf.org">donation</a> or joining as an <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">FSF Associate member</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-14th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for October 14th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-October-14th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-14th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, October 14th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week we were the "Skeleton GNU", with a theme of looking to add substance to entries with only a few details. Unfortunately we were a bit of  skeleton crew, with only a few participants. We discussed a bit how to improve turnout and decided to experiment next week with starting the meeting an hour later. Most participants in the past have been joining in the second hour or later of the meeting, so hopefully scheduling the meeting a little later will help overlap better with people's schedules.</p>
<p>The meeting started out working through GNU Project packages to make sure they were robustly detailed on the directory. In the end that turned out to be not a great starting point, as the GNU entries tended to be well documented already, which is a good problem to have.</p>
<p>In working to flesh out entries, we often found that packages with limited information were often quite old and dormant. For some of these the home for the project had disappeared, and new resources were difficult to track down. Iankelling proposed using some new method of tagging these dormant but still potentially useful packages. Even a package that isn't under active development can be useful in some particular cases, and even where a package hasn't been developed in some time, someone can obviously choose to pick it back up and make it live once again. The meeting ended with the decision that handling these 'Ghost' packages would be the theme of next week's meeting.</p>
<p>If you would like to help chase down ghost entries or just help update the directory in general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1pm to 4pm EDT (17:00 to 20:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-october-paris
title: October 2016: Docteur Honoris Causa Stallman
uri: October-2016-Docteur-Honoris-Causa-Stallman
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-october-paris
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>Last week, on October 11<sup>th</sup>, RMS received an honorary
doctorate from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in <strong>Paris,
France.</strong> In anticipation of the merger between the UPMC and
the Université Paris-Sorbonne, which will be finalized in January
2018, the two institutions organized, in the great amphitheater of the
Sorbonne, a joint ceremony that recognized both achievers in the
sciences and in medicine, as well as ones in the arts and the
humanities. The UPMC <a href="http://www.upmc.fr/fr/universite/histoire_et_personnalites/les_docteurs_honoris_causa/retour_sur_dhc_2016.html">stated</a>,
&ldquo;This joint ceremony was the occasion to welcome with pride into
two communities, soon to be joined as one, these men and women of
remarkable achievement who are committed to the service of the common
good.&rdquo; Six women and eight men<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup> were honored, &ldquo;each one for the essential
role they play in their discipline.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Dr. Alice P. Gast, president of Imperial College London, in her
speech to represent the eight doctors in medicine and in the
sciences,<sup><a href="#fn2" id="ref2">2</a></sup> stated that she and
her fellow honorees were &ldquo;proud to be joining the group of 130
eminent scientists who have received this recognition since
1975.&rdquo; &ldquo;We have all had different starting points,&rdquo;
she continued, &ldquo;and very different paths.  But our carriers and
our love of science have one thing in common: the ardent will to
contribute to the progress of society.&rdquo;</p>

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

<img src="media/5ef4bbbc.20161011-paris-dhc-02-allorge-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-02-allorge-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;">

Some of the honorees, including RMS, along with their respective hosts.<br /> 
<em>(Photo under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Lionel Allorge.)</em>
<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

<img src="media/167cef47.20161011-paris-dhc-16-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-16-ardhuin-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/c4714366.20161011-paris-dhc-17-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-17-ardhuin-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/c9a0295a.20161011-paris-dhc-18-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-18-ardhuin-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;">

The UPMC's Dr. Nathalie Drach-Temam introducing RMS.<br />
<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Laurent Ardhuin for the UPMC.)</em>
<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

<img src="media/9facb78f.20161011-paris-dhc-19-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-19-ardhuin-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/56c85905.20161011-paris-dhc-20-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-20-ardhuin-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/6b04bd62.20161011-paris-dhc-21-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-21-ardhuin-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/17ace534.20161011-paris-dhc-22-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-22-ardhuin-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e454a819.20161011-paris-dhc-23-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-23-ardhuin-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;">

UPMC president Jean Chambaz, in red, awards RMS the diploma and the medal, while Paris-Sorbonne University president Barthélémy Jobert, in yellow, drapes the three-banded, doctoral epitoge over RMS's left shoulder.<br /> 
<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Laurent Ardhuin for the UPMC.)</em>
<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

<img src="media/d75d5783.20161011-paris-dhc-24-ardhuin-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-24-ardhuin-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;">

The honorees and their hosts and representatives from the two universities.  Those in the burgundy-colored university robes are from the sciences; those in the red, from medicine; those in the yellow, from the humanities.<br />
<em>(Photo under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Laurent Ardhuin for the UPMC.)</em>
<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

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

<img src="media/d056a2e5.20161011-paris-dhc-14-allorge-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-14-allorge-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/27e9af67.20161011-paris-dhc-15-allorge-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161011-paris/20161011-paris-dhc-15-allorge-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />

RMS enjoying a snack and socializing at the post-ceremony reception.<br />
<em>(Photos under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Lionel Allorge.)</em>
<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

<p>Later that day, RMS was on the UPMC's Jussieu campus to deliver his
speech &ldquo;What Makes Digital Inclusion Good or Bad?&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn3" id="ref3">3</a></sup> to an audience of about four to five
hundred people.

<!-- 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=46&amp;reset=1">Paris</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 UPMC for having
recognized RMS in this way!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<div align="left">
<div style="margin-left:4px;">

<sup id="fn1">1. You can find a list of all the honorees <a href="http://www.upmc.fr/en/university/history_and_famous_people/doctors_honoris_causa/the_2016_dhcs.html">here</a>.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn2">2. Read Alice P. Gast's full speech <a href="media/79d210fc.Alice_P.Gast_DHC.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.upmc.fr/modules/resources/download/default/a_universite/DHC/Alice_P.Gast_DHC.pdf">here</a> (in French).<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn3">3. A recording of RMS's speech will soon be available both <a href="https://www.lip6.fr/colloquium/?guest=Stallman">here</a> and in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2016">our audio-video archive</a>.<a href="#ref3" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
</div>
</div>


title: Friday 'Frankenstein' Directory IRC meetup: October 28th starting at 1pm EDT/17:00 UTC
uri: Friday-Frankenstein-Directory-IRC-meetup-October-28th-starting-at-1
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-frankenstein-directory-irc-meetup-october-28th-starting-at-1pm-edt-17-00-utc

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-frankenstein-directory-irc-meetup-october-28th-starting-at-1pm-edt-17-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over
the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value.
But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week we're playing the part of Dr. Frankenstein by adding and approving new
entries to the directory, but our creations won't be monsters! Helping to grow
the directory is one of the best ways to make sure it is a great resource for
users looking for free software they can use. While we've focused the past few
meetings on improving and updating existing entries, there are still plenty of
packages looking to make their way onto the directory.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">FSD Meetings pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to
before, during, and after each meeting.</p>


title: Licensing resource series: How to choose a license for your own work
uri: Licensing-resource-series-How-to-choose-a-license-for-your-own-work
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-how-to-choose-a-license-for-your-own-work

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-how-to-choose-a-license-for-your-own-work

content:
<p>We provide plenty of resources when it comes to picking a license. From our
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">list of licenses</a> to essays on <a href="https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html">copyleft</a>, if you are looking to figure
out what license is right for you there is plenty of information to rely upon.
But this month's resource helps to pull that information together in one place
to make selecting a license simple.</p>
<p>Our guide, "<a href="https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html">How to choose a license for your work</a>" is one stop browsing for
answering many of the questions you may have when it comes to finding the right
license. It provides recommendations based on the state of the work, but also
based on the type of work that it is. While the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html">Affero GNU General Public
License version 3</a> works great for server software, documentation would
probably be better served with a license directed at such, like the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html">GNU Free
Documentation License version 1.3</a>. Smaller works can often get away without
a strong copyleft, but still need to address patents, and so <a href="https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0">Apache License
version 2.0</a> might be appropriate. The guide explains the reasoning behind
the different recommendation for these and more. It also links to all those
other resources mentioned above in case you need to dive in deeper when picking
out a license.</p>
<p>Choosing a license isn't always the easiest decision, but it can be one of the
most important ones you make when starting out your project. The license is the
document that grants users the freedoms outlined in the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html">free software
definition</a>. Without a license (or the right license), users won't have the
ability to study, share, and modify your work, so choose wisely. This guide
should make it easy to pick the right one for you, but if you need a little
extra help, you can always contact the licensing and compliance team here at the
FSF by emailing <a href="mailto:licensing@fsf.org">&#108;&#105;&#99;&#101;&#110;&#115;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#64;&#102;&#115;&#102;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>.</p>
<p>We hope you'll take a look at our guide the next time you start up a project, or
that you'll review it right now if your current project is without a license!
Resources like "How to choose a license for your own work" are made possible
thanks to the users who support our work, here's what you can do to help:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can keep up to date on this series and more free software news by
subscribing to our newsletter, the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fss">Free Software Supporter</a> and subscribing
to our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/static/fsforg/rss/licensing.xml">RSS feed</a>.</li>
<li>You can help fund our work in creating these licensing resources by <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">becoming
a member</a> or by <a href="https://donate.fsf.org/">making a donation</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Enjoy this article? Check out our previous entry on <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-free-gnu-linux-distributions-gnu-bucks">Free GNU/Linux distributions &amp; GNU Bucks</a></em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-21st-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for October 21st, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-October-21st-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-21st-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf
on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a>. This
recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, October 21st, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week we were hunting 'Ghost' entries in the directory, and the ghost of our
previous meeting time was present with some volunteers starting early. The
meeting kicked of with Iankelling outlining their ideas on how to handle older,
historical packages. The first order of business was determining what criteria
would be needed for treating a package as historical. The criteria we came
together on was that a package should be tagged as historical if it had not been
updated in a long while and could no longer run on current versions of
GNU/Linux. That way, the tag would let people know that the package, while still
potentially useful, probably wasn't something you can just download and easily
get running on your machine. After getting the criteria squared away, Iankelling
also help update the version status and tool-tips to enable tagging actual
entries.</p>
<p>Once we had the criteria and tools in place we turned to marking packages as
historical. Iankelling once again helped out by producing a list of packages by
their version date. Several entries apparently came out at the beginning of time
all the way back in 1970 and so we focused our energies on those packages.
mangeurdenuage and donalr3 worked on GNU ghost packages and were able to get
them either appropriately tagged our updated. fmkb worked over a number of
packages, nominating some for deletion where the package was truly a ghost and
had no software or other remnants available. The channel was able to get through
quite a few packages but more work will need to be done in future to root out
all the ghosts. With the tools and criteria in place, that would should be easy
to continue.</p>
<p>cmhobbs pointed out that with all the focus on the past, we've accumulate a bit
of a backlog of new entries awaiting approval. So it was decided that next week
we will be working as Dr. Frankenstein, working to bring new entries to life. </p>
<p>If you would like to help add new entries or just help update the directory in
general, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1pm to 4pm
EDT (17:00 to 20:00 UTC).</p>


title: Who in the world is changing it through free software? Nominate them today!
uri: Who-in-the-world-is-changing-it-through-free-software-Nominate-them-t
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-in-the-world-is-changing-it-through-free-software-nominate-them-today

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-in-the-world-is-changing-it-through-free-software-nominate-them-today

content:
<p>Nominations for the 19th annual Free Software Awards opened at
LibrePlanet 2016, right after the most recent Free Software Awards
were presented -- and we need you to nominate more projects by
November 6th, 2016 at 23:59 UTC. For details see instructions below.</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://libreplanet.org/2017/">LibrePlanet 2017</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, Werner Koch was recognized with the
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/library-freedom-project-and-werner-koch-are-2015-free-software-awards-winners">Award for the Advancement of Free Software</a> for his work on
<a href="https://www.gnupg.org/">GnuPG</a>, the defacto tool for encrypted communication.</p>
<h3>Award for Projects of Social Benefit</h3>
<p>The Award for Projects of Social Benefit is presented to a 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, the <a href="https://libraryfreedomproject.org/">Library Freedom Project</a> received the award, for
their work teaching librarians about surveillance threats, privacy
rights and responsibilities, and offering digital tools to stop
surveillance, all with the aim of creating a privacy-centric paradigm
shift in libraries and the local communities they serve.</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>.
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>Winners will be decided by a committee to be announced, including several
previous winners. Last year's committee was:</p>
<ul>
<li>Suresh Ramasubramanian</li>
<li>Rob Savoye</li>
<li>Jonas Öberg</li>
<li>Fernanda Weiden</li>
<li>Wietse Venema</li>
<li>Matthew Garrett</li>
<li>Vernor Vinge</li>
<li>Hong Feng</li>
<li>Andrew Tridgell</li>
<li>Marina Zhurakhinskaya</li>
</ul>
<h3>Instructions</h3>
<p>After reviewing the eligibility rules above, please click on
the links below to submit your nominations. All nominations need
to be submited before Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 23:59 UTC.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Nominations for the <a href="https://my.fsf.org/projects-of-social-benefit-award-nomination">Award for Projects of Social Benefit</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Nominations for the <a href="https://my.fsf.org/advancement-of-free-software-award-nomination">Award for the Advancement of Free Software</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Attend the Free Software Awards at LibrePlanet 2017</h3>
<p>Want to be in the room when the winners are announced? <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&amp;id=47">Registration is already open</a>
for the <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2017/">LibrePlanet conference</a>, March 25-26 2017,
in the Boston area. 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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-28th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for October 28th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-October-28th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-october-28th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free
Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the
Friday, October 28th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week we were playing as Dr. Frankenstein in bringing new
entries to life. We set about adding new entries but also working on
approving entries that were already submitted. One issue the channel
came across was the fact that not all our entries listed as
unapproved actually were unapproved. It turned out that the act of
moving an entry to a new location, even without updating the entry,
would cause it to be tagged as unapproved. It's a slight hiccup in
the system, that probably could be fixed at some point. But for now,
it is a simple process of reviewing the entry, seeing that it was
only moved, and approving as necessary.</p>
<p>beloved2 also joined in to work on their script for handling Icecat
extensions. They've been working on adding these extensions to the
directory for a long while, but their new script should help make
the process simpler. bill-auger pointed out that the way browsers
handle extensions might be changing in the near future, so if the
maintainers of particular extensions don't port them over they won't
function any longer. All the more reason to speed up the process of
getting the extensions added to the directory, so people will have a
resource for tracking down and reviving extensions they would like
to use.</p>
<p>Calinou brought up some general issues with the directory and how it
functions, and mattl jumped in to note that they plan on making some
improvements in the future when they have a little extra time. One
great suggestion Calinou added was to provide some sort of flag on
older entries, so users would know if there hadn't been an update in
a while. This could help encourage maintainers to keep their own
entry up to date, or help a volunteer to find an older entry that
needed updating.</p>
<p>The meeting wrapped up without selecting a new theme, but beloved2
mentioned that they wanted a meeting to focus on different things
rather than a particular theme, so next week's meeting is going to
be a free for all.</p>
<p>If you would like to help help update the directory in general, meet
with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1pm to 4pm EDT
(17:00 to 20:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/nineteen-new-gnu-releases-in-october-2016
title: Nineteen new GNU releases in October 2016
uri: Nineteen-new-GNU-releases-in-October-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/nineteen-new-gnu-releases-in-october-2016
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/">freeipmi-1.5.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/">gdb-7.12</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/">gnuastro-0.2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://health.gnu.org/">gnuhealth-3.0.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnun/">gnun-0.11</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/">grep-2.26</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/">guile-2.0.13</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-ncurses/">guile-ncurses-2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libcdio/">libcdio-0.94</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/">libmicrohttpd-0.9.52</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/">linux-libre-4.8-gnu</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mpfr/">mpfr-3.1.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/nettle/">nettle-3.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20161022</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/pies/">pies-1.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/rush/">rush-1.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/taler/">taler-0.1.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/unifont/">unifont-9.0.03</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/zile/">zile-2.4.13</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 Tyhender as the new MetaHTML maintainer, and
Adrien Béraud and Alexandre Viau as the maintainers of the new package
GNU Ring.</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>


uri: Live-from-SeaGL-it-s-the-Friday-Directory-IRC-meetup-November-11th-st
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/live-from-seagl-its-the-friday-directory-irc-meetup-november-11th-starting-at-1-p-m-est-18-00-utc

title:
Live from SeaGL it's the Friday Directory IRC meetup: November 11th starting at 1 p.m. EST/18:00 UTC

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/live-from-seagl-its-the-friday-directory-irc-meetup-november-11th-starting-at-1-p-m-est-18-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week we're having an in person meeting at the <a href="http://seagl.org/">Seattle
GNU/Linux conference</a>. If you are going to be at the conference
(attendance is gratis!) join Iankelling and donaldr3 in the expo
hall at the usual meeting time (10:00 a.m. PST) for a directory
hackfest. If you can't make it to the conference, we'll still be
working in the #fsf channel, so make sure to join us their as well.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-4th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for November 4th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-November-4th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-4th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free
Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the
Friday, November 4th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week was a free for all meeting where we worked on a variety of
projects. Iankelling worked through a huge chunk of the approval
backlog, approving tons of new entries for the directory. beloved
had some suggestions for updating the home page of the directory,
such as linking to the meeting announcements there, which we were
able to implement. They also had some suggestions about the
requirements, which they're putting to the mailing list for further
discussion. There's more work to be done in refining the
requirements to ensure the directory is a great resource for finding
only freedom respecting packages, and we will be discussing that
more at the next meeting. The upcoming meeting will have a live
component as well as we have some space at the upcoming Seattle
GNU/Linux conference to work as a group. We hope to see more of you
there!</p>
<p>If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST (18:00
to 20:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-now-offering-paperless-option-for-all-copyright-assignments
title: FSF now offering paperless option for all copyright assignments
uri: FSF-now-offering-paperless-option-for-all-copyright-assignments
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-now-offering-paperless-option-for-all-copyright-assignments
content:
<p>The GNU Project is built by volunteers from all around the globe.
For many packages, sharing your code involves assigning copyright on
your changes to the Free Software Foundation (FSF). This enables us
to enforce the terms of the license on packages like the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Gcc">GNU
Compiler Collection</a> and the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Libc">GNU C Library</a> to ensure that
the software always remains free. In 2010, we wrote that
contributors from <a href="https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2010/fall/gnu-contributors-around-the-world">66 different countries</a> had assigned their
copyright to the FSF. At that time, and for about 30 years prior,
each assignment required sending paper documents via the
international post, not always an easy or inexpensive process.</p>
<p>In 2012, the FSF <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-scanned-assignments-from-germany">announced</a> that it would begin accepting
scanned documents for assignments of copyright for contributors
residing in the United States. We then set about a long process of
trying to expand the countries where we could accept scanned
documents. While a few countries have been added over the years, the
ultimate goal has always been to smooth the assignment process for
all contributors.</p>
<p>Today we have achieved that goal. With the advice of counsel, we can
begin accepting scanned copies of assignments from all contributors,
regardless of where they reside. With a small update to our
assignment contract, we can finally make it possible for all
contributors to avoid having to send their forms via the post. </p>
<p>This doesn't end our process. There are lots of ways to sign
documents these days, including using <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/GPG">GNU Privacy Gaurd</a> or
other forms of digital signature. We will keep working to smooth
that process and make more options available. While there is still
more work to do to make the process as simple as possible, this is
one big step that will help contributors from all around the world
to share their code.</p>


title: Friday Free for All Directory IRC meetup: November 4th starting at 1pm EDT/17:00 UTC
uri: Friday-Free-for-All-Directory-IRC-meetup-November-4th-starting-at-1pm
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-for-all-directory-irc-meetup-november-4th-starting-at-1pm-edt-17-00-utc

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-for-all-directory-irc-meetup-november-4th-starting-at-1pm-edt-17-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week we're having a free for all meeting. We've had many themed
meetings over the past few weeks that started up interesting
projects that could still use some work. So this week we're
going to be focusing on the projects that we're personally
interested in working on. While even themed meetings leave room for
anyone to work on whatever they please, this week we want to focus
on whatever we please.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">FSD Meetings
pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during,
and after each meeting.</p>


title: Friends and Family Friday Directory IRC meetup: November 25th starting at 1 p.m. EST/18:00 UTC
uri: Friends-and-Family-Friday-Directory-IRC-meetup-November-25th-starting
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friends-and-family-friday-directory-irc-meetup-november-25th-starting-at-1-p-m-est-18-00-utc

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friends-and-family-friday-directory-irc-meetup-november-25th-starting-at-1-p-m-est-18-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week's theme is friends and family. We have a great team of
regulars showing up to help improve the directory each week, but as
the saying goes, the more the merrier. So this week we're hoping
that you invite your friends and family to join in on the fun. We'll
be focusing on training new volunteers on how to update and improve
the directory. We'll be continuing work on other projects from
previous weeks as well.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-18th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for November 18th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-November-18th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-18th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free
Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the
Friday, November 18th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week started off with a theme of outreach to maintainers of
free software packages. mangeurdenuage and donaldr3 put together
template volunteers can use to contact package maintainers to get
them interested in keeping their own entries up to date.
mangeurdenuage then went on to contact many maintainers. We hope to
see everyone they contacted at upcoming meetings or at least in the
revision log.</p>
<p>While the theme was maintainer outreach, there was still a lot of
excitement about the previous week's discussion on how to deal with
certain edge cases. David_Hedlund and IanKelling worked out that
using categories to tag potential issues was probably the best
system, as tagged categories could still flag a post with text
explaining the potential issue. Lots of different categories of
issues were discussed, with David_Hedlund implementing some of them
for review. Those categories, their text, and implementation are
still being reviewed and iterated on. That work will continue in
this upcoming meeting as well, so be sure to join us all in
directing the future of the directory.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST (18:00
to 20:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tear-the-wrapping-paper-off-the-2016-ethical-tech-giving-guide
title: Tear the wrapping paper off the 2016 Ethical Tech Giving Guide
uri: Tear-the-wrapping-paper-off-the-2016-Ethical-Tech-Giving-Guide
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tear-the-wrapping-paper-off-the-2016-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/22d102ae.IMG_9260.JPG" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/givingguideaction2013/IMG_9260.JPG" width="250" />
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">An activist sharing the Giving Guide at a Giveaway.</p></div>

<p><em>As software permeates more and more aspects of society, the FSF
 must expand <a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal">our work to protect and extend computer user
 freedom</a>. On Monday, we launched our yearly fundraiser with the
 goal of welcoming 500 new members and raising $450,000 before
 December 31st. Please support the work that we do: <a href="https://www.fsf.org/donate">make a
 donation</a> or -- better yet -- <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">join as a member</a> today.</em></p>
<p>Electronics are popular gifts for the holidays, but people often
overlook the restrictions that manufacturers slip under the wrapping
paper. From surveillance to harsh rules about copying and
sharing, some gifts take more than they give.</p>
<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 2016 Giving Guide, your key to
smarter and more ethical tech gifts.</p>
<p><strong>Explore the Giving Guide <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide">online</a> and <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer">in print</a>. To sweeten
  the deal, many of the recommended gifts are specially discounted for
  the holiday season.</strong></p>
<p>If you appreciate the guide, we invite you to to spread the word
about it. Here's what you can do:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><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.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.fsf.org/share?u=https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v7&amp;t=Check%20out%20the%20Free%20Software%20Foundation%20Ethical%20Tech%20Giving%20Guide">Share the guide on social media with the hashtag #givefreely</a>
  and comment about it on gift or tech-related online articles.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Email it to your family and friends – heck, you might even get a
  gift out of it!</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Some translations are already available, but we need more volunteers
to port the Giving Guide to their own languages. Check out the
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/giving-guide-giveaway-primer">primer page</a> for translation instructions.</p>
<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>


title: Friday Maintainers Outreach Directory IRC meetup: November 18th starting at 1 p.m. EST/18:00 UTC
uri: Friday-Maintainers-Outreach-Directory-IRC-meetup-November-18th-starti
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-maintainers-outreach-directory-irc-meetup-november-18th-starting-at-1-p-m-est-18-00-utc

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-maintainers-outreach-directory-irc-meetup-november-18th-starting-at-1-p-m-est-18-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week we're having a focus on reaching out to maintainers of
packages to help keep their entries up to date. Plenty of
maintainers like to add their package to the directory in order to
take advantage of all the extra publicity it can bring to a project.
But keeping things up to date will have the most impact, letting
users know that the package is still under active development. So
this week we'll be reaching out to maintainers to help get their
directory entry looking the best it can.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-11th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for November 11th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-November-11th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-11th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free
Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the
Friday, November 11th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week was a live meeting at the <a href="http://seagl.org/">Seattle GNU/Linux
Conference</a>. Iankelling and donaldr3 were joined by helpful
attendees in checking whether their favorite free software packages
were already included in the directory. While the directory is very
robust these days, most packages suggested were actually already
included, there were a few new entries added. It was just a great
opportunity to meet with people who weren't already involved in the
directory and to help them get involved by learning about the
project.</p>
<p>On the channel, there was also a long discussion about updating the
requirements for the directory. The channel discussed two different
scenarios which we have name 'bait and surrender' and 'freedom
betrayed'. In 'bait and surrender', a developer offers an inferior
free software version of their work in attempt to get users to
surrender their freedom and switch to a more fully featured
proprietary version. In 'freedom betrayed', a formerly free software
project changes to a proprietary license. In both cases, we want to
make clear to users that while there may be a free software version
available that they have to be wary of the project, and understand
that there are proprietary versions. The channel came up with a
proposal to tag these different situations, which is now being
discussed on the mailing list.</p>
<p>The meeting concluded with deciding that the next meeting should
focus on contacting maintainers to help them include their packages
on the directory or keep their entries up to date.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST (18:00
to 20:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/join-us-as-a-member-to-give-back-for-the-free-software-you-use
title: Join us as a member to give back for the free software you use
uri: Join-us-as-a-member-to-give-back-for-the-free-software-you-use
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/join-us-as-a-member-to-give-back-for-the-free-software-you-use
content:
<p><em>As software permeates more and more aspects of society, the FSF
 must expand <a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal">our work to protect and extend computer user
 freedom</a>. We launched our yearly 
 fundraiser with the goal of welcoming 500 new members and raising 
 $450,000 before December 31st. Please support the work at the root
 of the free software movement: <a href="https://www.fsf.org/donate">make a donation</a> or – 
 better yet – <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">join us and become a member</a> today.</em></p>
<p>For the past year, we have been very busy upgrading our server
infrastructure, which <a href="https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2016/fall/head-in-the-clouds-files-on-an-actual-server">we wrote about</a> in the Fall <em>FSF
Bulletin.</em> The new stack of machines works fully on free software all
the way down through the BIOS, and makes use of redundant network
attached storage over 10Gbps Ethernet. Cool stuff! We take care
to prevent issues with freedom and privacy on our machines, which means avoiding the
current <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/intel-me-and-why-we-should-get-rid-of-me">x86 server CPUs that are encumbered with back doors</a> as
well as other components that require the user to load nonfree
firmware. We use a high-end ASUS KGPE D-16 server motherboard,
supported by Libreboot. Despite being a few years old – and thus
supporting CPUs without known back doors – it is a beefy piece of
gear, running up to 32 CPU cores, 256GB of RAM, and many terabytes of
Solid State Disk storage.</p>
<p>Making the extra effort to build a uniquely free server stack does
not come without some hiccups. Although the motherboards work
fine on their own – we are already using them to run <a href="https://lists.gnu.org">lists.gnu.org</a>
and <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org">Savannah</a> services – they do have rough edges that need to be
polished, for example, to get reliable Peripheral Component Interconnect
support. The setup of the new stack and migration of our services
will require a sustained effort from our three-person tech team during 2017, which
cannot happen successfully without your support.</p>
<p>By hosting most of the GNU Project, we enable development on free software components
that are key for the whole computer industry,
such as Emacs, Bash, and the utilities at the base of all the
GNU/Linux distributions powering supercomputers and the Internet's servers. Our public FTP server, ftp.gnu.org, serves
100Mb per second of free software all day, every day. That is
more than a terabyte! On top of that, lists.gnu.org and lists.nongnu.org
spool out about a half million emails between free software developers and users each day!</p>
<p>We are excited to have the opportunity to benefit the community by
building, testing, and perfecting new hardware and technology that
doesn't just work, but also supports our freedoms. Our
ability to provide dependable servers for the FSF and GNU Project
comes from your generosity and commitment. Your support funds hardware and the time
of free software experts to work on deployments. We need you to give
back and support this root infrastructure, enabling future free software
development and distribution to thrive.</p>
<p><em>P.S.: If you have not already submitted, the <a href="https://my.fsf.org/lp-call-for-sessions">LibrePlanet Call For
Papers</a> is closing tomorrow, November 30th, 10:00 EST (15:00
UTC)!</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-license-violations-and-compliance
title: Licensing resource series: License Violations and Compliance
uri: Licensing-resource-series-License-Violations-and-Compliance
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-license-violations-and-compliance
content:
<p>A big part of our work in the compliance lab revolves around license
compliance. We handle compliance for many GNU Project packages, like
GCC and GNU EMACS. When someone fails to meet the conditions of the
GNU General Public License we help them to understand what is needed
to be a good citizen in the free software community. But the nature
of that work generally means that it all happens behind the scenes.
We're not in the business of shaming those who need help with
compliance, so when a compliance case arises there may never be any
public statement about the situation. That can leave people
wondering about the inner workings of the compliance lab. And
whether that's borne out of pure curiosity or wanting to understand
the system when going about their own compliance efforts, we want to
share as much of that process as we can.</p>
<p>Thus, ten years ago we published an article <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/compliance">License Violations and
Compliance</a> that helps to paint a picture of the work we do in
the compliance lab. Beginning with an explanation of our philosophy
when it comes to compliance (which has since been codified into <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/enforcement-principles">The
Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement </a>), the article
goes on to explain the life of a compliance case. From the report of
a potential violation, to confirming that a violation does exist, to
the process of educating the violator about best practices, this
article gives an inside look into how compliance work is actually
done.</p>
<p>On the tenth anniversary of the publication of that article, it's
remarkable how that process has remained in place. Of course, the
FSF had been handling compliance work for decades at the time it was
written. And while the software and devices involved in such cases
has truly changed over the years, the basic principles for
correcting an errors have remained unchanged.</p>
<p>We hope you'll enjoy looking back and learning more about how we
have handled compliance issues for so long. Resources like "<a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/compliance">License
Violations and Compliance</a>" are made possible thanks to the users who
support our work, here's what you can do to help</p>
<ul>
<li>You can keep up to date on this series and more free software news
  by subscribing to our newsletter, the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fss">Free Software Supporter</a>
  and subscribing to our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/static/fsforg/rss/licensing.xml">RSS feed</a>.</li>
<li>You can help fund our work in creating these licensing resources
  by <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">becoming a member</a> or by <a href="https://donate.fsf.org/">making a donation</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Enjoy this article? Check out our previous entry on <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-how-to-choose-a-license-for-your-own-work">Licensing
resource series: How to choose a license for your own work </a></em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-25th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for November 25th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-November-25th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-november-25th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free
Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the
Friday, November 25th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week's theme was friends and family, where we asked our regular
volunteers to invite new volunteers to participate in the weekly
meeting. mangeurdenuage had some great success posting in the
Trisquel forums and some other spaces and attracted two new
volunteers. They then trained the new recruits and helped them to
add their first entries. While we didn't get as many new volunteers
as we might have hoped, we put together some ideas for attracting
more volunteers going forward.</p>
<p>And while the theme was about new friends and family joining us,
there was still a lot of work from previous meetings that needed
more attention. David_Hedlund has taken the lead in working through
new requirements and categories for free software in the directory.
For any free software package, a user always has the ability to
modify the work to meet their needs. But for someone newly
introduced to a package by the directory, there can be some other
pertinent information they would like to know before diving in and
downloading the software. The work we're doing on the categories
should eventually make it easy for volunteers to tag certain issues
with packages, and have some template text displayed on the entry.
This feeds off the work we did in tagging some works as historical,
but addresses a wider range of issues. While the work is not
complete, a lot of progress was made at the meeting and we hope to
have this feature fully implemented in the near future.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST (18:00
to 20:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/seventeen-new-gnu-releases-in-november
title: Seventeen new GNU releases in November
uri: Seventeen-new-GNU-releases-in-November
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/seventeen-new-gnu-releases-in-november
content:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/chess/">chess-6.2.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/dico/">dico-2.4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/electric/">electric-9.07</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emms/">emms-4.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/">freeipmi-1.5.5</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnudos/">gnudos-1.10</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/ghostscript/">ghostscript-9.14.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/">gnupg-2.1.16</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-ncurses/">guile-ncurses-2.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gvpe/">gvpe-3.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/kawa/">kawa-2.2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/">linux-libre-4.8.10-gnu</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/">mailutils-3.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/">octave-4.2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/">parallel-20161122</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/taler/">taler-0.2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/unifont/">unifont-9.0.04</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 Mathieu Lirzin as the new maintainer of GNU
Freetalk.</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/directory/friday-new-beginnings-directory-irc-meetup-december-2nd
title: Friday New Beginnings Directory IRC meetup: December 2nd starting at 1 p.m. EST/18:00 UTC
uri: Friday-New-Beginnings-Directory-IRC-meetup-December-2nd-starting-at-1
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-new-beginnings-directory-irc-meetup-december-2nd
content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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
irc.freenode.org</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 FSD contains a
wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions,
dto 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week's theme is new beginnings. With new volunteers joining us
from last weeks meeting, and the fact that we haven't had a meeting
focused on adding new entries to the directory, it's time to focus a
bit on the new. We'll of course be discussing ongoing projects as
well, but this week we want to make sure the directory keeps growing
even as we do the work on the infrastructure needed to make it
better.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">FSD Meetings
pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during,
and after each meeting.</p>


title: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Micah Lee of GPG Sync
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Micah-Lee-of-GPG-Sync
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-micah-lee-of-gpg-sync

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-micah-lee-of-gpg-sync

content:
<p><a href="https://firstlook.org/code/project/gpg-sync/">GPG Sync</a> is a recently launched project for managing the
sharing of GPG keys, particularly within an organization. Micah Lee
made the project internally at <a href="https://firstlook.media/">First Look Media</a> and has now
shared it with the world.</p>
<h2>What inspired the creation of GPG Sync?</h2>
<p>Since the very beginning of First Look Media we've taken computer
security seriously, and that includes every single employee using
encrypted email. But as an organization that has over 100 employees
at this point, most of whom aren't already computer nerds, I quickly
realized that managing keys is too complicated of a task for every
single person to be required to do. I use GPG Sync to solve this
problem: all of the complexity of key management can be managed by a
small group of techies, allowing our growing user base to use
encrypted email without having to think about the details nearly as
often.</p>
<h2>How will people use it?</h2>
<p>At First Look Media, we've installed GPG Sync on everyone's
workstations and just let it run in the background, ensuring that
everyone will have everyone else's public keys without having to
think about it. But I think a lot of other organizations will find
it useful as well. I've spoken with people who work for other news
organizations, as well as the non-profit world, who are excited
about implementing it internally there. And I'm personally going to
subscribe to multiple GPG Sync fingerprints lists, so I'll have
trustworthy public keys available for a much larger group of people.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets GPG Sync apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>GPG Sync is really focused on the needs of organizations, while most
other email encryption-related software is focused on the needs of
individuals.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the  GPLv3 as GPG Sync's license?</h2>
<p>Whenever I decide I want to release some code, I like to default to
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">GNU GPL</a> so I can lock it open. I'm not opposed to using
permissive licenses like BSD or MIT, but I only use them if I think
there's a compelling reason for them.</p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to GPG Sync?</h2>
<p>First, start using it! If you're part of an organization where
everyone uses encrypted email -- even if it's just the other people
in your Dungeons and Dragons party -- try setting up a fingerprints
list and have everyone use it. See what you think, and report any
bugs, or suggest features you'd like to see, in the <a href="https://github.com/firstlookmedia/gpgsync/issues">issue
tracker</a>. And if you have programming skills, please take a look
at the issue tracker and make some pull requests. I'm always happy
to merge other people's code into the project.</p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for GPG Sync?</h2>
<p>I'm not sure yet, but probably I will focus on a port to other
platforms.</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-stefano-zacchiroli-of-software-heritage">Stefano Zacchiroli of Software Heritage</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-november-lisbon
title: November 2016: photos from Lisbon
uri: November-2016-photos-from-Lisbon
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-november-lisbon
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>RMS was in <strong>Lisbon,</strong> Portugal, this month to give a
stand-alone speech, &ldquo;Should We Have More Surveillance Than the
USSR?&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup>, hosted by the
Núcleo de Alunos de Ciência Política (the political-science students'
group), at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), on November
10<sup>th</sup>.  FSF member and the event organizer Daniel Sousa
underscored the advantage of being able to reach such a broad
audience, especially in light of the how Portugal's &ldquo;most recent
governments have been taking measures that are quite Orwellian for
fighting tax evasion&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn2" id="ref2">2</a></sup>:

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

<img src="media/c038d987.20161110-lisbon-13-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161110-lisbon/20161110-lisbon-13-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>(Photo under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Diana Ramos.)</em>

<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

<p>&#8230;and to take part in <strong>Web Summit</strong>
(2016-11-07&ndash;10), a technology marketplace.  RMS was one of the
six hundred speakers and gave his speech &ldquo;Reclaim Your Freedom
with Free (Libre) Software&rdquo; to an audience of about a thousand
developers and engineers:

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

<img src="media/83af69be.20161110-lisbon-12-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161110-lisbon/20161110-lisbon-12-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>(Photo under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> and courtesy of Diana Ramos.)</em>

<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

<!-- 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=50&amp;reset=1">Lisbon</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 Web Summit organizers and to Daniel Sousa for having made these appearances possible!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<div align="left">
<div style="margin-left:4px;">

<sup id="fn1">1. The recording of RMS's ISCTE speech will be available in <a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#2016">our audio-video archive</a> soon.<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup><br />
<sup id="fn2">2. See example <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-portugal-taxevasion-veto-idUSKCN120281">here</a> (en.) and <a href="https://www.publico.pt/2016/09/30/politica/noticia/marcelo-veta-lei-do-sigilo-bancario-1745714">here</a> (pt.).<a href="#ref2" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩</a></sup>
</div>
</div>


title: Friday Ted Teah Directory IRC meetup: December 9th starting at 12 p.m. EST/17:00 UTC
uri: Friday-Ted-Teah-Directory-IRC-meetup-December-9th-starting-at-12-p-m
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-ted-teah-directory-irc-meetup-december-9th-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-ted-teah-directory-irc-meetup-december-9th-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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
irc.freenode.org</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week's theme is welcoming back our old friend Ted Teah, who
previously worked at the FSF and is now back for round two. Ted had
worked on the directory before it became a volunteer project, and so
has personally added many entries to the directory. So as he gets
back into the swing of things, we'll be reviewing and updating
entries that he added long ago.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-december-2nd-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for December 2nd, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-December-2nd-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-december-2nd-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free
Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the
Friday, December 2nd, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week's theme was new beginnings, and the newest beginning was
deciding on a new start time for the meetings. A while back we had
switched to a later time to see if it easier for more volunteers to
show up. But a lot of us kept forgetting and showing up early any
ways, and the later time didn't seem to have an effect on attracting
other volunteers. So from here on out, our new beginning time is the
old beginning time of 12 p.m. EST.</p>
<p><em>mangeurdenuage</em> kept up the good work of attracting new volunteers,
and brought in and helped train <em>regagain</em> on adding entries to the
directory. <em>goncalor</em> and <em>BruiserTom</em> also got their start this
week. <em>David_Hedlund</em> continued their work on the new tags, with
<em>johnsu01</em> directing the channel to documentation on using semantic
properties instead of categories. Using semantic properties will
make sure that the new tags are easily machine readable. Still more
work needs to be done to set up these properties and having them
display the correct information, but it was a good start.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST (17:00
to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/socks-stickers-and-freedom-support-the-free-software-foundation
title: Socks, stickers, and freedom: Support the Free Software Foundation!
uri: Socks-stickers-and-freedom-Support-the-Free-Software-Foundation
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/socks-stickers-and-freedom-support-the-free-software-foundation
content:
<p>The <a href="https://shop.fsf.org">GNU Press Shop</a> is a key part of the Free Software
Foundation's fundraising, and is essential to our
outreach. As the go-to source for books and other reference
materials for the happy hacker on your list, not to mention apparel,
stickers, and other nifty objects to spread the message of software
freedom, GNU Press can be a part of your holiday shopping as well.
<strong>Members get a 20%</strong> discount – so if you're not one already, <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">join 
today</a>!</p>
<p>We've set an ambitious fundraising goal for 2016, and naturally need
to back up that ambition with some great merchandise. This past
autumn, the FSF asked the community to suggest new products they
would like to see in the GNU Press Shop, and you provided. Through
an <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Ideas">editable document on libreplanet.org</a>, free software
supporters submitted all kinds of ideas, some of which we're excited
to announce have become real products, available for purchase now!</p>
<div style="float: left; width: 200px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px; text-align: center;">
<img width="200px" src="media/d95466a7.webcam20sticker20shop20photo_0.png" data-original-source="https://shop.fsf.org/sites/default/files/styles/mediumsquare/public/webcam%20sticker%20shop%20photo_0.png" /><br /><br />
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://shop.fsf.org/stickers/antisurveillance-webcam-stickers" class="big-button"><b>FSF Web Cam Stickers</b></a></div>
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">A low-tech but high-effectiveness solution to
webcam spying.</p>
</div>

<div style="float: left; width: 200px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px; text-align: center;">
<img width="200px" src="media/c10fdfbc.bagontable.png" data-original-source="https://shop.fsf.org/sites/default/files/styles/mediumsquare/public/bagontable.png" /><br /><br />
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://shop.fsf.org/gear/fsf-collapsable-tote-bag" class="big-button"><b>FSF Tote bag</b></a></div>
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">A low-tech but high-effectiveness solution to carrying
objects.</p>
</div>

<div style="float: left; width: 200px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px; text-align: center;">
<img width="200px" src="media/aa3d239c.GNUsocksbehind.png" data-original-source="https://shop.fsf.org/sites/default/files/styles/mediumsquare/public/GNUsocksbehind.png" /><br /><br />
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://shop.fsf.org/tshirts-hoodies/gnu-socks" class="big-button"><b>GNU Socks</b></a></div>
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">A low-tech but high-effectiveness solution to cold or unfashionable
feet.</p>
</div>

<br style="clear: both;" />

<p>In addition to these very cool new products, for a limited time
we've packaged a few of our most popular items together to offer at
a discount – save with three of a kind:</p>
<div style="float: left; width: 205px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px; text-align: center;">
<img width="200px" src="media/5897403a.Winter20bundle.png" data-original-source="https://shop.fsf.org/sites/default/files/styles/mediumsquare/public/Winter%20bundle.png" /><br /><br />
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://shop.fsf.org/tshirts-hoodies/winter-warmup-bundle" class="big-button"><b>Winter
Warmer Bundle</b></a></div>
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">Keep the winter chill away in style: a warm hoodie,
a knit hat, and a thermal mug (saves $10!).</p>
</div>

<div style="float: left; width: 200px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px; text-align: center;">
<img width="200px" src="media/5bb1854e.GCC20Bundle.png" data-original-source="https://shop.fsf.org/sites/default/files/styles/mediumsquare/public/GCC%20Bundle.png" /><br /><br />
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://shop.fsf.org/tshirts-hoodies/gcc-starter-pack" class="big-button"><b>GCC Starter pack</b></a></div>
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">Learn all about the GNU Compiler
Collection, and get a nifty matching sticker and t-shirt, too (saves $8!).</p>
</div>

<div style="float: left; width: 200px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px; text-align: center;">
<img width="200px" src="media/ab114760.Emacs20Bundle.png" data-original-source="https://shop.fsf.org/sites/default/files/styles/mediumsquare/public/Emacs%20Bundle.png" /><br /><br />
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://shop.fsf.org/gear/emacs-reference-kit" class="big-button"><b>Emacs Reference
kit</b></a></div>
<p style="margin: 10px 0px;">A full set of reference materials for the world's most
powerful and versatile text editor (saves $8!).</p>
</div>

<br style="clear: both;" />

<p>The FSF relies on individual supporters to sustain our work and the
free software movement – that's why we have an online shop, and why
we ask you to participate in product development. Help us reach our
goal while spreading the message of free software by visiting <a href="https://shop.fsf.org">the
GNU Press Shop</a> and having a look at these
deluxe new offerings.</p>
<p>(Submissions for GNU Press merchandise are always open — <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Ideas">visit the
editable document</a> and pitch your idea(s). We hope to bring more
innovative, useful, and just-plain-cool items to market in 2017, and
your input helps!)</p>
<p>As always, thank you for supporting the FSF!</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-december-9th-2016-1
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for December 9th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-December-9th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-december-9th-2016-1
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in <a href="irc://irc.freenode.org/fsf">#fsf channel on irc.freenode.org</a> to help improve
the Free Software Directory. This recaps the work we accomplished on
the Friday, December 9, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>This week's theme was welcoming me back. I previously worked at the
Free Software Foundation and am now back for round two. I had worked
on the directory before it became a volunteer project, and so I have
personally added many entries to the directory. So as I get back
into the swing of things, we reviewed and updated my entries that I
had added long ago. <em>mangeurdenuage</em> and <em>donaldr3</em> did great work
updating numerous entries, including some very dense ones like GNU
Hurd and GAP. In total the group worked on 33 entries, such as
Clabbers, Chrootkit, EMACS Common Lisp and Alerttail.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update entries in the directory we meet
every Friday in <a href="irc://irc.freenode.org/fsf">#fsf channel on irc.freenode.org</a> from 12pm to
3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-talos-secure-workstation-by-december-15th-1
title: Support the Talos Secure Workstation by December 15th
uri: Support-the-Talos-Secure-Workstation-by-December-15th
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-talos-secure-workstation-by-december-15th-1
content:
<p>The project's decision to raise funds via <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/raptor-computing-systems/talos-secure-workstation">Crowd Supply</a> means that
you can support their work with anonymous payments, and without the
use of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html">proprietary JavaScript</a>. We wrote about this project
previously, and encouraged people to <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interested-in-a-powerful-free-software-friendly-workstation">voice their support</a>. While
there are several companies that offer refurbished computers that
have been freed to <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">Respect Your Freedom</a>, the Talos Secure
Workstation will be built from its inception with freedom in mind.
But in order for that to happen, the project needs your help to meet
their fund raising goal.</p>
<p>The project has set a crowdfunding goal of $3.7 million and still
has a ways to go to reach that mark. It may seem like they are
asking for a lot of money, but relative to the scope of what the
folks at Raptor Computing are trying to accomplish, it is a small
amount. As Raptor Computing Systems Senior Electrical Engineer
Timothy Pearson explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Large, complex systems such as Talos require minimum order
quantities to be met for the component parts in use, in addition to
R&amp;D expenditure for prototyping, validation, and conformance
testing. We have set the goal at the minimum level required to
ensure that we can not only design the Talos systems, but also
purchase the parts needed to manufacture these complex machines.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They need every dollar they can get to make this system a reality.
It is a difficult goal, but also one that is critical for the future
of free computing. As they note in their <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/raptor-computing-systems/talos-secure-workstation/updates/a-word-on-lockdown">explanation</a> of the
problem:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As of this writing, all currently manufactured, low- to mid-range
and higher x86 devices, with the exception of two obsolete AMD CPUs,
incorporate a security processor that is cryptographically signed,
updateable, unauditable, and for which no source code or
documentation has been made public. Worse, these security processors
must load and continually execute this signed firmware for the
system to either be brought online (AMD) or for it to remain
operational (Intel).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If we want a future in which we can continue to have fully free
systems that run only free software, we have to build that future
ourselves. The Talos Secure Workstation is a proposed system to help
secure that future. Their plans are to create a device that will
meet the criteria for <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">Respects Your Freedom</a> certification, but
in order for their plans to come to fruition, they need your help.</p>
<p>You can support their work by backing the project via their
<a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interested-in-a-powerful-free-software-friendly-workstation">crowdfunding page</a>, or even better, by purchasing a mainboard
and accessory package. Every little bit counts. Will you help
support the future of free computing? </p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-fsf-licensing-team-its-volunteers
title: Support the FSF Licensing Team & its volunteers
uri: Support-the-FSF-Licensing-Team-its-volunteers
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-fsf-licensing-team-its-volunteers
content:
<p><em>As software permeates more and more aspects of society, the FSF
must expand <a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal">our work to protect and extend computer user
freedom</a>. We launched our annual fundraiser with the goal of
welcoming 500 new members and raising $450,000 before December 31st.
Please support the work at the root of the free software movement:
<a href="https://donate.fsf.org/">make a donation</a> or – better yet – <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">join us and become a member
today</a>. Now is a great time to give, because the next $10,000 in
donations will be generously matched by longtime dedicated FSF and
GNU supporters Cristian and Andreea Francu. Your donation counts
double!</em></p>
<p>Licensing support is one of the major services we provide here at
the FSF. With over 30 years of experience, and being the creators
and guardians of free software licenses like the GNU General Public
License (GPL), we have a long history as the organization that
hackers, companies, and governments turn to when they need help with
licensing issues. We provide necessary <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing">services and tools</a> to
enable individuals, communities, and companies to become better free
software citizens. Our work includes answering licensing questions
from the public, managing certification programs like <a href="https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">Respects Your
Freedom</a>, upholding the GPL and other free software licenses, and
providing resources like our <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">list of free software licenses</a>,
and <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html">GPL FAQ</a>.</p>
<p>The FSF is a growing organization with 13 employees today. Every one
of those employees supports a large network of volunteers and
contributors, magnifying our impact. That is particularly true in
the licensing department, where we organize volunteers from all over
the world. In many ways one of our main jobs is facilitating the
work of our volunteers. Without their efforts, we'd only be able to
do a fraction of the work the free software movement needs from us.</p>
<h1>Answering questions from the public</h1>
<p>We have a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/team">team of licensing volunteers</a> who help answer
questions from the community. This small group of licensing veterans 
works closely with FSF staff. We meet with them regularly via IRC to 
discuss difficult questions, and to double-check that we're always 
giving the right information to requesters. Our volunteers also 
review licensing publications and assist in keeping our educational 
materials up-to-date and useful. The FSF provides the framework, 
infrastructure, training, and guidance that lets the volunteers help 
teach the world about free software licensing. They are able to get 
an incredible amount of work done, answering nearly 1,000 difficult 
licensing questions from the community last year alone.</p>
<p><em>"Volunteering for the FSF has given me the privilege to engage with
people from all over the world who write in to the FSF. The free
software community relies on the FSF, and I'm happy for the
opportunity to help." - Yoni Rabkin, long-time licensing volunteer.</em> </p>
<h1>The Free Software Directory</h1>
<p>Volunteer contributors are necessary to the maintenance and growth 
of the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page">Free Software Directory</a>. The Directory is a massive 
listing of over 15,000 software packages that have been vetted to 
ensure that they are free software. This resource helps users 
find free software, but also helps maintainers of free software 
packages to find out about potential licensing issues with their 
code. The group of contributors working on the Directory is quite 
large, and while there is a dedicated core who work on it 
regularly, many more contributors drop in to improve entries on 
their favorite packages. We have a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/">weekly meeting</a> every Friday 
via IRC with the contributors, where we all work together to review 
the licensing of free software packages so that they can be added 
to the Directory. If there's an issue, we file a bug with the 
project letting them know about the licensing problem. Previously 
maintained by a member of the FSF staff, a core group of 
contributors now take an active role in building the Directory. It 
has grown by almost 7,000 entries since 2015.</p>
<h1>Verification and Certification</h1>
<p>In addition to individual packages or particular licenses, users
need to know that their systems as a whole are free.
Through our <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html">List of Free GNU/Linux distributions</a>, users can
find a complete operating system that contains and recommends only 
free software. When the maintainers of a distro want to be added to
the list they first contact our volunteers, who review the
operating system for any licensing issues. By working with the
maintainers, they help remove nonfree software and point out other
potential issues with the distro. While staff at the FSF, along with
Richard Stallman, make the final determination as to whether a distro
can be endorsed, these first rounds of review are invaluable for
easing that process.</p>
<p>Of course, once a user has a fully free operating system, they'll
need some hardware on which to run it. For their general hardware
needs, users can turn to <a href="https://h-node.org/">h-node</a>, a volunteer project from the
FSF like the Directory, that focused on hardware. The volunteers 
there grade various hardware on how well it runs using a fully 
free system. While h-node is a great resource for finding hardware 
that works with free software, being able to purchase hardware 
that only comes with free software takes more effort, which is 
where our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">Respects Your Freedom</a> certification program comes 
in. While the detailed review and expertise required to endorse 
hardware as coming with only free software requires FSF staff 
largely handle potential candidates, even here a small group of 
dedicated volunteers can and do aid in reviewing devices. Through 
our programs, we are making it possible and progressively easier 
for users to live in a fully free world. That in turn creates the 
incentives for people to make the hardware and devices needed to 
run only free software.</p>
<h1>And much more</h1>
<p>The reality is that people want to support others. They want to
share free software and educate users about their rights. But
without someone guiding that effort, it is hard for people to get
involved. That is why the work we do as staff members is so
important. The FSF has over 30 years of institutional experience in
handling licensing issues, which enables us to provide a framework
for volunteers to flourish. We train and educate the volunteers
about licensing so that they can do the same for others. We
facilitate legal and policy discussions with Richard Stallman, our
board members, and legal counsel to guide our work in the right
direction. When all the educational materials aren't enough, and
someone fails to provide the rights guaranteed under a free license
like the GPL, FSF staff take special care to teach them how to come
back into our community. Where necessary, we uphold free software by
enforcing the license according to <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/enforcement-principles">the Principles of
Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement</a>. With these roots in place,
we are able to support the branching network of volunteers and
enable their great work.</p>
<p>For activists around the world, the FSF is a focal point for finding
resources and directing efforts. That is why supporting the FSF can
have such a huge impact. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">Becoming a member</a> or <a href="https://donate.fsf.org/">making a 
donation</a> doesn't just support a few employees at a non-profit 
in Boston. It supports the work of thousands of people around the 
globe. People are often surprised at the smaller size of the FSF, 
but that's a testament to our community's ability to turn small 
donations into big positive change. </p>


title: Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow will speak at LibrePlanet 2017: Register to attend today!
uri: Boing-Boing-s-Cory-Doctorow-will-speak-at-LibrePlanet-2017-Register-t
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/boing-boings-cory-doctorow-will-speak-at-libreplanet-2017-register-to-attend-today

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/boing-boings-cory-doctorow-will-speak-at-libreplanet-2017-register-to-attend-today

content:
<p><a href="https://craphound.com/bio/">Cory Doctorow</a> is a science
fiction author, activist, journalist, and blogger — and he will be
one of the keynote speakers at <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2017/">LibrePlanet 2017</a>: The Roots of
Freedom, March 25-26, 2017 at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's (MIT) Stata Center in Cambridge, MA!</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Software has eaten the world, and all too often, that code is a
black box — not just designed to be unauditable, but to be illegal
to audit, to improve, to reconfigure. Software freedom is human
freedom: not because 'information wants to be free,' but because
people can't be free in an information age when their information
technology is designed to control them.</p>
<p>-Cory Doctorow</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Doctorow is the co-editor of <a href="http://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a> and the author of a
number of books — most recently <em>In Real Life</em>, <em>Information
Doesn't Want to be Free</em>, and <em>Homeland</em>, the award-winning,
best-selling sequel to the 2008 young adult novel <em>Little Brother</em>.</p>
<p>His award-winning science fiction tackles issues relevant to
software freedom, turning the theoretical risks of proprietary
technology and copyright, ethical dilemmas of technology, and
experiments in participatory culture into stories of very possible
futures.</p>
<p><img src="media/520d349d.8059328633_253e6ee322_n.jpg" data-original-source="https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8462/8059328633_253e6ee322_n.jpg" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; background-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; padding: 7px;" alt="Photo of Cory Doctorow" /></img></p>
<p>Serving as a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier
Foundation on several occasions, he is currently working with them
on Apollo 1201, an anti-Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)
campaign. He co-founded the peer-to-peer free software company
OpenCola, and serves on the boards and advisory boards of the
Participatory Culture Foundation, the Clarion Foundation, the
Metabrainz Foundation and The Glenn Gould Foundation.</p>
<p>At LibrePlanet, Doctorow will talk about "how we will kill all the
DRM in the world in a decade."</p>
<p>For the fourth year in a row, LibrePlanet — the Free Software
Foundation's annual conference — will be held at MIT's Stata Center
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this time on March 25th and 26th, 2017.
The Free Software Foundation's partnership with MIT's Student
Information Processing Board (SIPB) has been key to making
LibrePlanet a vibrant gathering of free software enthusiasts. The
rest of the LibrePlanet program, including other keynotes,
workshops, and sessions, will be <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2017">announced soon</a>. </p>
<p>Don't miss out on Cory Doctorow and more! <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&amp;id=47">Registration for
LibrePlanet is now open</a>, and admission is gratis for Free
Software Foundation members and students. Not a member? <a href="https://my.fsf.org/join">Join
today</a> for gratis admission to LibrePlanet and other exclusive
benefits — plus, you'll help us meet our winter fundraising goal of
$450,000 by the end of the year.</p>
<p><em>Includes text adapted from <a href="https://craphound.com/bio/">https://craphound.com/bio/</a>.</em><br />
<em><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/8059328633/in/album-72157622138315932/">Photo</a> courtesy of <a href="http://www.schoenfeldt.com">Alex Schoenfeldt Photography</a> CC-BY.</em><br />
</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/be-the-envy-of-the-internet-with-a-shiny-fsf-member-badge
title: Be the envy of the Internet with a shiny FSF member badge
uri: Be-the-envy-of-the-Internet-with-a-shiny-FSF-member-badge
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/be-the-envy-of-the-internet-with-a-shiny-fsf-member-badge
content:
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="media/92395ffa.1507073.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/associate/crm/1507073.png" alt="FSF Associate Member" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="media/38aec851.664.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/associate/crm/664.png" alt="FSF
Associate Member" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="media/7d3a0a6c.243302.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/associate/crm/243302.png" alt="FSF
Associate Member" /></p>

<p>You will see this badge on blogs, social media, email signatures,
and anywhere else on the whole wide Web that members display their
FSF pride. The longer you are a member, the cooler it gets.</p>
<p><strong>If you are already a member</strong>, thank you for your support! Here is
what you need to know:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/member-dashboard">Access your new badge from your member
dashboard</a> by logging
in and then clicking <em>Benefits</em>. If you do not see it there, please
refresh your browser cache. </li>
<li>If your badge is already embedded on
the a Web page via a link to static.fsf.org, it will update
automatically. If you copied it to another server and referenced it
there, you must update it manually.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you like the badge, please share it on <a href="https://www.fsf.org/share">social
media</a>. Your own commitment to digital
rights will inspire others.</p>
<p><strong>If you are not already a member</strong>, we hope you <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">join
now</a> for $10/month ($5/month for students)
to get your own badge and <a href="https://fsf.org/associate/benefits">other
benefits</a>, not to mention a warm
glow from supporting the Foundation as we defend user freedom and
provide infrastructure for the <a href="https://www.gnu.org">GNU Project</a>.
Join before December 31st, 2016, and you will also help the FSF meet
our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal">annual fundraising goal</a> so we can
hit the ground running in 2017.</p>


title: Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: December 23rd starting at 12 p.m. EST/17:00 UTC
uri: Friday-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-December-23rd-starting-at-1
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-december-23rd-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-december-23rd-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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
irc.freenode.org</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week's theme is sharing free software. We have done a lot of
great work over the past year and now is the time to share that with
the world. We'll be focusing on software that helps connect people
and also be spending some time reaching out to others to share in
the fun of our weekly meetings.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">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/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-december-16th-2016
title: Free Software Directory meeting recap for December 16th, 2016
uri: Free-Software-Directory-meeting-recap-for-December-16th-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/free-software-directory-meeting-recap-for-december-16th-2016
content:
<p>Every week free software activists from around the world come
together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">Free
Software Directory</a>. This recaps the work we accomplished on the
Friday, December 16th, 2016 meeting.</p>
<p>Last week's theme was tracking down entries with bad repositories.
While companies that offer hosting can fold or close up operations,
the free software that resided there lives on. It's just a matter of
making sure that the Directory points users in the right direction.
We had a very productive meeting, updating around 50 entries in line
with theme. </p>
<p>We also had a few new contributor arrive looking for help getting
their own particular packages reviewed or added. <em>tfisgnag</em> wanted
help figuring out whether a program their school was making them was
free software, but stuck around to be trained by <em>mangeurdenuage</em> in
updating the Directory. A maintainer for <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Nextcloud">Nextcloud</a> also joined
the meeting to help get their package added to the directory. </p>
<p>The meeting wrapped up with <em>Iankelling</em> staying late to update even
more packages. While we were able to get a ton of packages updated,
there's still more work to do in this area. We also want to return
to some of our other ongoing projects to improve the Directory. The
next meeting however will focus on sharing free software, so we hope
you'll join in sharing the fun of updating the directory.</p>
<p>If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every
Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST (17:00
to 19:00 UTC).</p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-the-most-popular-resources-for-2016
title: Licensing resource series: The most popular resources for 2016
uri: Licensing-resource-series-The-most-popular-resources-for-2016
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-the-most-popular-resources-for-2016
content:
<p>With 2016 drawing to a close, we thought it would be interesting to
look back on the resources that garnered the most attention
throughout the year. While this series generally focuses on drawing
attention to perhaps lesser known and older resources, we wanted to
end the year by looking back on resources that many users already
know and love.</p>
<ul>
<li>5 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions about version 2 of the GNU GPL</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>With the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) still being
one of the most popular free software licenses in the world it's
unsurprising that people have lots of questions on how it works. The
FAQ is a nice resource focusing on the older license, and even as
many projects upgrade to or choose the GNU General Public License
version 3 (GPLv3) for their projects, it's still great to see so
much interest in understanding version 2.</p>
<ul>
<li>4 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html">A Quick Guide to GPLv3</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>While this resource was already covered in our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resources-series-a-quick-guide-to-gplv3">inaugural edition of
this series</a>, it ended up making the top list as well this year.
Once you understand the GPLv2 in detail you can quickly get up to
speed on the latest version of the license with this simple guide.</p>
<ul>
<li>3 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>And once you have the basics down, this very detailed FAQ can fill
in the picture for you. As GPLv3 adoption continues to spread, this
resource has grown in popularity to eclipse the similar FAQ for the
GPLV2. </p>
<ul>
<li>2 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html">Free GNU/Linux distributions</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>Once you understand the various versions of the GPL, it's time to
get some freely licensed software. To make this task simple, the
Free Software Foundation publishes a list of endorsed distributions.
These distros are guaranteed to come with only free software, so you
can have a computing system you know is under your control.</p>
<ul>
<li>1 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html">Licenses</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>Of course, there are many more resources available when it comes to
licensing. This page is a great review of what resources are
available, while giving users an overview of free software
licensing.</p>
<ul>
<li>0 <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page">The Free Software Directory</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>But far and away the most popular resource we make available is our
directory of free software. The Directory lists over 15,000 free
software packages making it easy for users to find the software they
need.</p>
<p>We hope you liked looking back on some of the most popular resources
we make available. While free software licensing isn't terribly
hard, having these tools and guides makes our more than thirty years
of experience available for all. Resources like these are made
possible thanks to the users who support our work, here's what you
can do to help:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>You can keep up to date on this series and more free software
 news by subscribing to our newsletter, <a href="https://www.fsf.org/fss">the Free Software
 Supporter</a> and subscribing to our <a href="https://www.fsf.org/static/fsforg/rss/licensing.xml">RSS feed</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You can help fund our work in creating these licensing resources
 by <a href="https://www.fsf.org/join">becoming a member</a> or by <a href="https://donate.fsf.org/">making a donation</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>*Enjoy this article? Check out our previous entry on <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/licensing-resource-series-license-violations-and-compliance">License
Violations and Compliance</a></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-november-pamplona-san-sebastian
title: November 2016: Photos from European Dialogues, Pamplona, San Sebastián
uri: November-2016-Photos-from-European-Dialogues-Pamplona-San-Sebastiá
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/photo-blog-2016-november-pamplona-san-sebastian
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>RMS was in <strong>Pamplona</strong> on November 22<sup>nd</sup>,
to give his speech &ldquo;​El software Libre para tu privacidad y tu
control de tu informática,&rdquo; as part of <a href="http://www.europeandialogues.eu/en/program-of-events-2016">European
Dialogues</a>, a project "designed to foment and promote reflection
and debate," a "space in which the citizenry can gather and exchange
ideas." The talk was in Spanish, with simultaneous translation into
Basque, and took place in the Baluarte Sala de Cámara, before over 350
people&mdash;students, alumns, politicians, representatives of
nongovernment organizations, and professionals.</p>

<p>Two days later, again as part of European Dialogues, RMS gave the
same speech at the San Telmo museum in San Sebastián.&rdquo;<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup></p>

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

<img src="media/d3f318b6.20161122-pamplona-01-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-01-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/13f5bd67.20161122-pamplona-03-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-03-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/9ab98c04.20161122-pamplona-07-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-07-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e41792b4.20161122-pamplona-08-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-08-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f6bf6ad7.20161122-pamplona-02-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-02-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/73217bb0.20161122-pamplona-04-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-04-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0db8369f.20161122-pamplona-05-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-05-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/c37a0fc9.20161122-pamplona-06-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-06-thumb.png" alt="" width="132" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/379a88a6.20161122-pamplona-09-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-09-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ccffcecd.20161122-pamplona-12-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-12-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/6a88bcb8.20161122-pamplona-14-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-14-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a15bbb6a.20161122-pamplona-10-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-10-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/150f5164.20161122-pamplona-11-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-11-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/54ec6d28.20161122-pamplona-15-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-15-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/46a33390.20161122-pamplona-13-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-13-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/a5068eed.20161122-pamplona-16-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-16-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/dd45400b.20161122-pamplona-17-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-17-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f82d7887.20161122-pamplona-18-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-18-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/c9c32913.20161122-pamplona-20-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-20-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/79633fe2.20161122-pamplona-22-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-22-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/ccf5ad3d.20161122-pamplona-19-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-19-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/e06d5c0c.20161122-pamplona-21-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-21-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/0f016324.20161122-pamplona-24-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-24-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/02f45b4e.20161122-pamplona-23-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-23-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/20cbdebe.20161122-pamplona-25-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-25-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/683b61bd.20161122-pamplona-29-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-29-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f007d893.20161122-pamplona-26-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-26-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/2dbb4f4a.20161122-pamplona-28-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-28-thumb.png" alt="" width="265" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/f31ab52d.20161122-pamplona-30-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-30-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/b16f9175.20161122-pamplona-36-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-36-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/331d69aa.20161122-pamplona-27-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-27-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/1b8e62d2.20161122-pamplona-31-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-31-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/615e9ee9.20161122-pamplona-32-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-32-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/d7888e22.20161122-pamplona-33-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-33-thumb.png" alt="" width="175" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/7d57f560.20161122-pamplona-34-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-34-thumb.png" alt="" width="530" style="margin-top:4px;" />
<img src="media/3daa0b60.20161122-pamplona-35-thumb.png" data-original-source="http://www.fsf.org/static/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-35-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 European Dialogues.)</em>

<br style="margin-bottom:15px;" />

<p>Katerina Yiannibas, Globernance (one of the sponsors of the talk
and an institution for democratic governance) Project Manager and
Director of European Dialogues, remarked:</p>

<blockquote>The relationship between a European citizen and an ever
increasingly complex stack of local, regional, national, and
supranational governance merits a more diligent consideration of
fundamental values and liberties. We invited Richard Stallman to join
our debate and speak on the issue of privacy and one's control over
one's data. The recent reform of EU data-protection rules shows that
there is more work to be done to protect our individual liberty.
Mr. Stallman, in an informative yet surprisingly entertaining
intervention, reminded us that maintaining democracy and protecting
the right to protest requires individual privacy vis-a-vis the
State. The message he left us with was that we needn't become a hero,
just less of a coward.</blockquote>

<!-- 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=463&amp;reset=1">Pamplona</a>
and <a href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=464&amp;reset=1">San
Sebastián</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 organizers for having hosted RMS!</strong></p>

<hr /></hr>

<div align="left">
<div style="margin-left:4px;">

<sup id="fn1">1. The recording of RMS's San Sebastián is available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEnQ1ktxDwk&amp;t=3s">here</a><a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup>

</div>
</div>


uri: Friday-Goodbye-2016-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-December-30th
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-goodbye-2016-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-december-30th-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

title:
Friday Goodbye 2016 Free Software Directory IRC meetup: December 30th starting at 12 p.m. EST/17:00 UTC

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-goodbye-2016-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-december-30th-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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
irc.freenode.org</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week's theme is looking back on 2016. The Directory has gone
through a lot of changes in the past year, with many different
projects and themes focusing our work. With this last meeting of
the year we will be looking back and focusing on our favorite
projects and goals we started during the year. With 2017 just around
the corner there is still a lot of work to do on these projects, so
we want to cap the year off by making some real progress.</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 weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">FSD Meetings
pages</a> that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during,
and after each meeting.</p>


title: The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Björn Schießle of Nextcloud
uri: The-Licensing-and-Compliance-Lab-interviews-Björn-Schießle-of-Nextcl
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-bjorn-schiessle-of-nextcloud

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-compliance-lab-interviews-bjorn-schiessle-of-nextcloud

content:
<img alt="Nextcloud logo" src="media/69cf42e1.nextcloud-logo.png" data-original-source="https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/logos/nextcloud-logo.png" style="float: right; width: 250px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" />

<p><a href="https://www.schiessle.org">Björn</a> has been developing federated technology for ownCloud and
now Nextcloud since 2012. He is a computer scientist and has
conducted research in the area of distributed robotics before he
joined ownCloud and later on Nextcloud. Over the years he worked in
many areas of Nextcloud with a special interest in
privacy-respecting, distributed and federated networks. He has been
active in the free software community for over than 20 years. As a
long-time free software activist he has a deep understanding about
the political, legal, and social aspects of software freedom.</p>
<p><a href="https://nextcloud.com">Nextcloud</a> provides a decentralized and free platform enabling
people to stay in control of their data while leveraging all the
advantages of the servers like synchronizing their files, calendars,
and contacts across multiple devices. It also allows sharing data
with people on the same server and outside servers while allowing
you to work collaboratively on them. Nextcloud started 6 months ago
as a fork of ownCloud by ownCloud founder Frank Karlitschek and a
dozen of its core developers. Hundreds of people have joined since,
and Nextcloud now consist of a globally diverse community, and a
healthy and growing company which provides support to large
enterprise customers.</p>
<h2>What inspired you to work on Nextcloud?</h2>
<p>Today more and more stuff is done remotely. People store files,
address books and calendars online. They want to synchronize them
across multiple devices and share them with their friends. But they
do not have control over the servers hosting their data, or the data
itself. The terms of service from the companies hosting are terrible
and their software is proprietary. This results in a loss of
freedom, control, and privacy. I think we in the free software
movement need to provide a constructive answer to it. More than 30
years ago Richard Stallman founded the GNU Project to enable people
to continue to use their computers without giving up their freedom.
Today, Nextcloud tries to do the same, we want to enable people to
continue to sync and share their data without losing their freedom
and privacy. Providing such a solution based on free software is a
challenging but also extremely motivating task.</p>
<h2>How are people using it?</h2>
<p>The great thing about Nextcloud is its flexibility. On one hand,
people use it on a RaspberryPi with one or two users, and on the
other hand Nextcloud is used by large organizations and enterprises
with tens of thousands of users. As you can imagine, with varied
users the use cases can be quite different. Sometimes Nextcloud is
used as a file sync and share solution. Other people extend it with
more collaboration features like <a href="https://apps.nextcloud.com">Collabora Office</a> which gives
you a complete LibreOffice in your browser or the <a href="https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/spreed">new voice/video
chat</a> we are working on. Many people leverage the complete power
of Nextcloud by using it as a platform for which they and others
build many great applications. Some of the most used applications
are Calendar and Contacts, Notes, Tasks, a Newsreader, Mails and
Music. No matter what you expect from your private server, the
chances are high that it is already there and if not you are welcome
to develop the next great application.</p>
<h2>What features do you think really sets Nextcloud apart from similar software?</h2>
<p>There are some projects which try to do similar things. Depending on
to which you compare Nextcloud I think there are three main reasons
that makes Nextcloud different.</p>
<p>First, Nextcloud really aims to become your private remote solution
with everything you need. This means we want to provide everything
users expects. This includes file sync and share but continues with
collaboration features, contacts and calendar management, streaming
your music, etc. You can see it as your personal construction kit
for your server. You start with the Nextcloud server and then you
extend it with the functionality you need to meet your requirements
by adding various Nextcloud apps.</p>
<p>Second, Nextcloud is the only completely free software solution
which does this. There are no hidden proprietary features, no
contributor license agreement which gives some entities in the
community more rights than others, or something similar. At the end
of the day it is a free software project licensed under the GNU
Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPL).</p>
<p>Last, it not only has a healthy, strong community but also a company
behind it which makes sure anyone can use it and that it is well
maintained and supported. The company is deeply committed to free
software, collaboration, and doing the ethical thing.</p>
<h2>Tells us more about the Cloud Federation</h2>
<p>This is a really important topic for us. People should be able to
set up their own server so that they stay in control of their data
but at the same time they should still be able to collaborate with
other people who might have their own Nextcloud. That's what we want
to enable with Cloud Federation. Together with the <a href="https://wiki.geant.org/display/OCM/Open+Cloud+Mesh">Open Cloud
Mesh</a> initiative from GEANT. We developed a standard which
enables people to share their data with people on the same server as
well as with people on other servers. At the moment this works to
share files across multiple servers. In the future we want to extend
it to all other kind of data like address books, calendars,
comments, and activities. Further we also want to make it possible
to do audio/video calls across instances. For us it is really
important that this becomes a standard used by as many solutions as
possible. We don't want to create the next island. Therefore I'm
proud that federated sharing for files works today between Nextcloud
servers, and also with Pydio and ownCloud.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose the GNU Affero General Public License v3 as Nextcloud's license?</h2>
<p>Nextcloud exists as a free software project and as a company which
provides services and support. We believe that a level playing field
is extremely important to maintain and grow a healthy community,
which consists of individual contributors, the Nextcloud company and
other commercial entities. The AGPL provides exactly this. It is a
license which ensures that everyone will always have the same rights
to use, study, share and improve the software, no exception.
Further, as a licenses based on the GNU General Public License and
released by the Free Software Foundation we can be sure that we are
using a well known and established license written in cooperation
with experts from all over the world. We also believe it offers real
benefits to customers and we try to explain that to them! </p>
<h2>How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to Nextcloud?</h2>
<p>Community is really important for us, all we do happens in the
<a href="https://nextcloud.com/contribute/">open</a>. The code and our bug tracker is publicly available, we
have IRC channels and a forum. That's where all the development
happens. Of course the most obvious way to get involved is to improve
the software together with us. You can work directly on the server,
pick one of the many apps available or start writing your own app.
But also non-programmers are welcome in all areas. People can help
with translations, documentation, artwork, even our homepage, which
serves for both the project and the company, regularly gets pull
request from the community and we are happy to merge them. Beside
that you can also help to create public awareness, talk about
Nextcloud in your community, join one of the regular meetings, or
start a new one. </p>
<h2>What's the next big thing for Nextcloud?</h2>
<p>One of the things we are working at the moment is the integration of
a video/audio/text chat called <a href="https://spreed.me">Spreed</a>. We already released an
early version last week together with Nextcloud 11. It is based on
webRTC and provides basic video/audio chat with a arbitrary number
of participants. But many features are still missing like screen
sharing, integration of a text chat and the integration of
federation to enable the user to not only call people on the same
server but also on other Nextcloud servers. Of course we also want
to provide desktop and mobile apps. This means a lot of work ahead
but also exciting times.</p>
<p><em>Enjoy this interview? Check out our previous entry in this series,
featuring <a href="https://brains.fsf.org/wiki/licensing/writings/2016/2016-10-17-gpg-sync-interview/">Micah Lee of GPG Sync</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/a-message-from-rms-support-the-free-software-foundation
title: A message from RMS: Support the Free Software Foundation
uri: A-message-from-RMS-Support-the-Free-Software-Foundation
url: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/a-message-from-rms-support-the-free-software-foundation
content:
<p><em>Please make a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=rms-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">donation</a> to help us meet our fundraising
goal of $450,000 by December 31st. With your gift, we can continue
to push the frontiers of free software.</em></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/f0c81873.20161122-pamplona-11.jpg" data-original-source="http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/rms-photos/20161122-pamplona/20161122-pamplona-11.jpg" width="240" px="px" alt="Photo of Richard M. " /></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td style=" text-align: center; line-height: 1em; padding: 4px; margin: 0px; border: none;">Richard M. Stallman at the European<br /> Dialogues in Spain, November 2016</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>I announced the plan to develop the GNU operating system in 1983.
GNU was to be a Unix-compatible operating system for timeshared
computers and for workstation computers. Not PCs, though, because
the PCs of 1983 were not powerful enough to run such a system.
Neither were laptops, of course.</p>
<p>In 1992, when the kernel Linux was freed and filled the last gap in
GNU, PCs had become more powerful. It was possible to run GNU on
desktop PCs using Linux as the kernel. GNU/Linux in 1992 was
"complete" in the sense that nothing essential was missing, but it
was rudimentary in that many much-used proprietary applications had
no free counterparts.</p>
<p>Nowadays many of those applications have been replaced, but some are
missing. Meanwhile, new theaters of computing have come to exist,
and the work of liberating them remains ahead of us.</p>
<p>All commercial mobile phones require proprietary software (in the
modem processor that talks to the phone radio network) that has a
universal back door: it can be changed remotely through the radio.
It should be a felony to make such a product, but it isn't.</p>
<p>With funds, the FSF could launch a campaign to make that practice a
felony. With funds, the FSF could develop a mobile phone that
encapsulates the modem processor so as to make the phone, in a
limited sense, safe to use.</p>
<p>On the other end of computing, many web sites' pages contain nonfree
software (sent in the form of JavaScript code) which they install
and run in the user's browser. In many cases that code spies on the
user.</p>
<p>With funds, the FSF could develop free software front ends to enable
Internet users to talk to various important web services without
running any nonfree software to do it.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, freedom is threatened even at the level of the processors
in PCs. The current generation of Intel and AMD processor chips are
designed with vicious back doors that users cannot shut off. (In
Intel processors, it's the "management engine".)</p>
<p>No users should trust those processors.</p>
<p>With funds, the FSF could campaign to pressure those companies to
give us a way to shut those back doors off.</p>
<p>We also need to enforce the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL)
against companies that regard its requirement to respect users'
freedom as a nuisance. This too requires funds.</p>
<p>Why do people support the FSF? Because they appreciate the
importance of the freedom that we defend, for them and for everyone.
However, since 1998 we have had to make an explicit effort to spread
awareness of this issue. In that year, a corporate-funded campaign
to disconnect free software from our ideas began to rebrand free
software as "open source" so as to disconnect it from our ideas of
right and wrong. People who don't understand how proprietary
software denies them freedom may not see what there is to fight for.</p>
<p>The FSF campaigns team spreads awareness of computing freedom. With
more funds, we could hire additional staff to do more of this.</p>
<p>Please support the FSF today. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.fsf.org/donate?pk_campaign=rms-appeal&amp;pk_kwd=donate">Donate</a> and <a href="https://www.fsf.org/share">share this appeal</a> with your friends.</em></p>
<p><em>Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, courtesy of the European Dialogues.</em></p>


uri: Friday-New-Resolve-Free-Software-Directory-IRC-meetup-January-6th-sta
feed_id:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-new-resolve-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-january-6th-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

title:
Friday New Resolve Free Software Directory IRC meetup: January 6th starting at 12 p.m. EST/17:00 UTC

url:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-new-resolve-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-january-6th-starting-at-12-p-m-est-17-00-utc

content:
<p>Participate in supporting the <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/">FSD</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
irc.freenode.org</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 FSD 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 FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the
world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource
of even greater value. But it needs your help!</p>
<p>This week's theme is focusing on adding new packages to the FSD.
With a new year, it's time to add some new packages. While the
FSD already lists over 15,000 packages, there are more out there
that need to be added. We want to start 2017 off with some fresh
packages. </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
FSD today! There are also weekly <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Meetings">FSD Meetings pages</a> that
everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each
meeting.</p>


