Boston, Massachusetts, USA – Tuesday, May 31, 2016 – The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announces that recordings and slides from its LibrePlanet 2016 free software conference are now available online.

LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the System was held in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Stata Center on March 19 and 20, 2016. Video for the opening keynote with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and dozens more sessions from the conference – over 25 hours of free software ideas – are available on the FSF's instance of GNU MediaGoblin, a free software media publishing platform that is a decentralized replacement to sites like YouTube and Flickr.

Recorded talks include Free software, free society by Allison Randal, current and past director of multiple foundations in the world of free software; Companies, free software, and you by Karen Sandler, executive director of the Software Freedom Conservancy; The Free Software Awards with a talk by Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation; Restore online freedom! by Mike Gerwitz, GNU Project volunteer; and Inessential weirdnesses in free software by Sumana Harihareswara, founder of Changeset Consulting.

The LibrePlanet 2016 program has links to all recorded talks and their accompanying slides. All sessions recorded for LibrePlanet 2016 are now available – 33 talks in all. For more information about how the sessions were recorded with free software, see intern David Testé's post about his experience creating the fully free streaming software package, ABYSS.

LibrePlanet 2016 was produced in partnership by the Free Software Foundation and the Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) at MIT.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software – particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants – and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://my.fsf.org/donate. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

More information about the FSF, as well as important information for journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.

Media Contacts

Georgia Young
Program Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016 -- Today community groups, activist organizations, and businesses are taking part in the International Day Against DRM, celebrating ten years since the first global day of action in 2006. The groups are united in envisioning a world without Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), technology that polices what people can do with digital media by spying on them and compromising their computer security. As the largest anti-DRM event in the world, the International Day Against DRM is intended as a counterpoint to the pro-DRM message broadcast by powerful media and software companies. The Day is coordinated by Defective by Design, a campaign of the Free Software Foundation.

At the time of publication, community members and activists have organized eleven events in Mexico, Bangladesh, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and the US. Fifteen organizations are participating, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, the Document Foundation (home of LibreOffice), and the Free Software Foundation sister organizations in India and Europe. Bookstores and publishers, including O'Reilly Media, are offering sales on DRM-free media

Today Defective by Design released a timeline recounting the first ten years of the International Day Against DRM. Community members are encouraged to continue the timeline by envisioning future victories against DRM on social media.

Zak Rogoff, campaigns manager for the Free Software Foundation said, "Giving its owners power over our cars, medical devices, phones, computers, and more, DRM opens a deep crack in our digital rights and freedoms. That crack will only get wider and more dangerous as our societies continue to interweave with technology. Governments and corporations steer the massive technosocial system that perpetuates DRM and makes it profitable, often steering it away from the best interests of the technology's actual users. Committed to a more ethical technological future, our movement pushes back. Today, looking back on ten years since the first International Day Against DRM, we have a lot of progress to celebrate, and we still have a lot of work to do."

Individuals can participate with a variety of online and in-person actions on dayagainstdrm.org, from DRM-free media purchases to gatherings. To be part of Defective by Design's year-round anti-DRM campaigns, supporters can join the low-volume action alerts email list, the DRM Elimination Crew discussion list and the #dbd IRC channel on Freenode. Media stores, activist organizations and other groups interested in participating in the International Day Against DRM in 2017 should join the email discussion list to get reminders and support when the event is near.

About Defective By Design

Defective by Design is the Free Software Foundation's campaign against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). DRM is the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media, creating a good that is defective by design. DRM requires the use of proprietary software and is a major threat to computer user freedom. It often spies on users as well. The campaign, based at defectivebydesign.org, organizes anti-DRM activists for in-person and online actions, and challenges powerful media and technology interests promoting DRM. Supporters can donate to the campaign at https://www.defectivebydesign.org/donate.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

Media Contact

Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1-617-542-5942 x31
campaigns@fsf.org

At a ceremony on Saturday, March 21st, Free Software Foundation President Richard M. Stallman announced the winners of the FSF's annual Free Software Awards. Two awards were given: the Award for the Advancement of Free Software was presented to Werner Koch for his work on GNU Privacy Guard, the defacto tool for encrypted communication, and the Award for Projects of Social Benefit was presented to the Library Freedom Project, a partnership among librarians, technologists, attorneys, and privacy advocates which aims to make real the promise of intellectual freedom in libraries.

Software Freedom Conservancy executive director Karen Sandler closed out the conference with "Companies, free software, and you," in which she urged free software developers to push their employers to allow them to retain copyleft on their code.

A video of the opening keynote conversation between Edward Snowden and Daniel Kahn Gillmor is available now at http://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/libreplanet-2016-the-last-lighthouse/. Videos of all the conference sessions, along with photographs from the conference, will soon be available on https://media.libreplanet.org, the conference's instance of GNU MediaGoblin, a free software media publishing platform that anyone can run.

LibrePlanet 2016 was produced in partnership by the Free Software Foundation and the Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) at MIT.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://my.fsf.org/donate. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

More information about the FSF, as well as important information for journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.

Media Contacts

Georgia Young
Program Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org

The completed evaluations can be viewed on the evaluation page, while the criteria page offers more information on the evaluation process, as well as the criteria themselves.

Repositories are used not only by software developers but also by software users, and they have a large impact on the free software community. The evaluations promote and honor good ethical practices on the part of repositories, and make it easy for users to find services that respect them.

Version 1.0 of the criteria ranks sites on a score from F (unacceptable) to A+ (extra credit). No site has yet received extra credit, but Savannah achieved an A grade. An F grade shows the service has not met even the minimum ethical standards expected for the hosting of a GNU package. GNU's Repo Criteria Discussion list is happy to offer assistance to repository-hosting organizations seeking to improve their service's score.

One service which has passed the criteria is GitLab. "We want to allow everyone to contribute to software. We recognize that many people have a need for free software to do this," said GitLab's CEO Sytse Sijbrandij, adding that "as a former developer myself, I think it is natural that you can contribute to the software you use to collaborate." Many repository sites require the user to run proprietary JavaScript to access their full functionality, but GitLab has addressed this by relicensing its JavaScript as free software.

Savannah, which has also passed these criteria, "host[s] projects for the sake of the ideals of freedom and community that the free software movement stands for," according to its Web site, which also makes clear that "[t]he space given to you on this server is given for the expressed purpose of advancing free software." Savannah is hosted by the FSF but run almost entirely by a dedicated team of volunteers.

Andrew Ferguson, a community member who played a leadership role in the evaluation project, said "More volunteers with coding ability are needed to aid the development of existing repository services to help them meet these criteria. 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 license chooser to include the GPLv3 license. However more community advocacy is required, as GitHub still fails to meet the criteria."

General discussion regarding the criteria or evaluations can be directed to the libreplanet-discuss mailing list. If you'd like to lend your help evaluating repositories, please join the repo-criteria-discuss list.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

More information about the FSF, as well as important information for journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.

Media Contacts

Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x31
campaigns@fsf.org

This position works closely with FSF staff and management to ensure all administrative functions of the FSF run smoothly and efficiently, preserving our 4-star Charity Navigator rating and boosting all areas of our work.

The Operations Assistant is responsible for handling phone calls, managing office operations, and being a friendly face for visitors to our office at the center of Boston's Downtown Crossing. Examples of job responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• fulfilling orders for FSF merchandise and related bookkeeping,
• blogging about merchandise-related news,
• processing incoming donations,
• coordinating volunteers,
• updating our contact database,
• organizing fundraising mailings, membership mailings, and similar communications,
• assisting with local and special events, including our annual LibrePlanet conference,
• assisting with website maintenance, and
• looking after the office space.

This is a great opportunity for a team-oriented self-starter who thrives on multitasking, is calm under pressure, has an eye for detail, and wants to make a difference. The position must be worked from the Boston office, and the position must be able to lift small to medium-size packages (up to 50 pounds) on a regular basis. With our small staff of thirteen, each person makes a clear contribution. We work hard, but offer a humane and fun work environment.

Because our mission is worldwide, language skills and a demonstrated ability to interact with people across cultures and age groups will be highly valued. While the position does not require advanced computer skills, a willingness to learn and work with new software is a must. We use free software like CiviCRM, Plone, Emacs, and LibreOffice, all running on GNU/Linux.

The FSF is a growing organization and provides great potential for advancement; existing staff get the first chance at any new job openings. Previous Operations Assistants have often gone on to hold other positions within the organization.

Benefits and salary

This job is a union position. The salary is fixed at $51,646/year and is non-negotiable. Other benefits include the following:

• full family health coverage through Blue Cross/Blue Shield's HMO Blue program,
• subsidized dental plan,
• four weeks of paid vacation annually,
• seventeen paid holidays annually,
• public transit commuting cost reimbursement,
• 403(b) program through TIAA-CREF, and
• yearly cost-of-living pay increases (based on government guidelines).

Resumes and cover letters must be submitted via email to hiring@fsf.org. The email must contain the subject line, "Operations Assistant". Resumes should be attached in text, PDF, or OpenDocument. No Word documents, please. Email submissions that do not follow these instructions will be ignored.

Applications must be received by Friday, May 20, 2016.

The FSF is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any employee or application for employment on the basis of race, color, marital status, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, handicap, or any other legally protected status recognized by federal, state or local law.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.