BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, May 3, 2012 -- Defective by Design will hold its annual International Day Against DRM on Friday, May 4th, targeting the use of Digital Restrictions Management on ebooks. Several other organizations have joined to express their concern for the freedoms of authors and readers, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, O'Reilly Media, No Starch Press, the Accessible Computing Foundation, Libre Graphics Magazine, Fight for the Future, Angry Robot Books, APRIL, the Free Software Foundation and its sister organizations, FSF France, FSF India and FSF Europe.

Matt Lee, campaigns manager of Defective by Design, said, "DRM is a growing problem in the area of ebooks, where people have had their books restricted so they can't freely loan, re-sell or donate them, read them without being tracked, or move them to a new device without re-purchasing all of them. They've even had their ebooks deleted by companies without their permission."

As part of the day, people fed up with DRM are holding protest and awareness events in Cincinnati, Orlando, Amherst, San Francisco, Boston, Madrid, Rome, Manchester, Nagoya (Japan), and Aveiro (Portugal). More events are still being added at http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:DefectiveByDesign/Day_Against_DRM_2012.

Supporters are also taking action online, displaying the campaign's banner and using the opportunity to blog about their frustrations with DRM.

Notable science fiction author and editor of the influential BoingBoing.net blog, Cory Doctorow said, "As an author, I understand that DRM doesn't do squat to protect my interests. As a businessperson, I understand that DRM usurps my commercial relationships with my customers and hands them to DRM vendors."

Sanders Kleinfeld, author of HTML5 for publishers said in an interview with O'Reilly Media, "What's disappointing right now is that Amazon is very set on their Mobi format for their Kindle device, Apple has made strides away from EPUB 3 with their latest iBooks 2.0 and iBooks Author. I think vendors that make these devices are interested in maintaining that lock-in for customers."

Defective by Design has held previous international days against DRM in 2006, 2010 and 2011, focusing on use of DRM by Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and the RIAA. Defective by Design is a campaign of the Free Software Foundation.

Information on how to participate can be found at http://dayagainstdrm.org. Pictures, videos, and accounts will be posted afterward at http://defectivebydesign.org.

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 http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

Media Contacts

Matt Lee
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1-617-500-3284
campaigns@fsf.org

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BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Monday, March 26th, 2012 — Free Software Foundation president Richard M. Stallman announced the winners of the FSF's annual free software awards at a ceremony on Sunday, March 25th, held during the LibrePlanet 2012 conference at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

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

This year, it was given to Yukihiro Matsumoto (aka Matz), the creator of the Ruby programming language. Matz has worked on GNU, Ruby, and other free software for over 20 years. He accepted the award in person and spoke at the conference on his early experiences with free software, especially the influence of GNU Emacs on Ruby.

Yukihiro Matsumoto joins a distinguished list of previous winners:

• 2010 Rob Savoye
• 2009 John Gilmore
• 2008 Wietse Venema
• 2007 Harald Welte
• 2006 Ted Ts'o
• 2005 Andrew Tridgell
• 2004 Theo de Raadt
• 2003 Alan Cox
• 2002 Lawrence Lessig
• 2001 Guido van Rossum
• 2000 Brian Paul
• 1999 Miguel de Icaza
• 1998 Larry Wall

The Award for Projects of Social Benefit is presented to the project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free software movement, in a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society in other aspects of life. This award stresses the use of free software in the service of humanity.

This year, the award went to GNU Health, a free software project that works with health professionals around the world to improve the lives of the underprivileged. GNU Health has been adopted as the Health and Hospital Information System of choice by the United Nations University. Luis Falcon, the president of GNU Solidario (the organization behind GNU Health), was present to accept the award on behalf of the project.

GNU Health joins an impressive list of previous winners:

• 2010 Tor
• 2009 Internet Archive
• 2008 Creative Commons
• 2007 Groklaw
• 2006 Sahana Disaster Management System
• 2005 Wikipedia

This year's award committee was: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Peter H. Salus, Wietse Venema, Raj Mathur, Hong Feng, Andrew Tridgell, Jonas Oberg, Vernor Vinge, Richard Stallman, Fernanda G. Weiden, Harald Welte, and Rob Savoye.

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 http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

Media Contacts

John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org

High resolution press photos

• Yukihiro Matsumoto and Richard Stallman
• Luis Falcon and Richard Stallman
• Luis Falcon and Yukihiro Matsumoto

Photos under CC BY 3.0 Attribution by Jason X Self.

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If you browse the Web today, your browser will probably download and run nonfree JavaScript software on your behalf. You should be able to say no to that software—but to date, that hasn't been practical. JavaScript License Web Labels are our newest effort to make this easier.

In 2009, Richard Stallman published “The JavaScript Trap.” It observed that JavaScript served from the Web is now often significant software—and if it's nonfree, it causes all the same problems for users as any other proprietary software. Anybody who's serious about protecting their freedom should reject nonfree JavaScript, just like you'd reject traditional proprietary desktop software.

Unfortunately, this has been easier said than done so far. Browsers will typically download and run JavaScript without the user's knowledge. People who want to avoid running nonfree JavaScript have had little recourse to date besides disabling JavaScript entirely—but that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Enter JavaScript License Web Labels. This is a format that we propose webmasters use to publish license information and source code for the JavaScript they deploy on their sites. It looks simple enough to be accessible to any visitor, but provides enough detail that automated tools can confirm that all of a site's JavaScript is actually free. Such software will make it practical for people to run free JavaScript and refuse nonfree code. Tools like this are already being developed: LibreJS is a plug-in for Mozilla-based browsers that will support JavaScript License Web Labels.

Webmasters should find a lot to like in JavaScript License Web Labels, too. We believe that webmasters that correctly publish JavaScript License Web Labels will comply with conditions in the GNU GPL and AGPL to accompany object code with a copy of the license terms and a way for recipients to get source code. The format is flexible enough that any interested webmaster should be able to use it: it doesn't require them to serve the JavaScript files any specific way, or coordinate with upstream JavaScript developers.

We hope these labels will empower users to be as selective about what licenses they'll accept for JavaScript as they are for traditional desktop software. That said, this is an early effort to tackle the problem, and we're happy to consider changes that can make it more attractive to webmasters or their visitors. For details about the decision-making process behind JavaScript License Web Labels, and how you can send feedback to us, please read our accompanying rationale document. We look forward to hearing from you.

BOSTON, October 4, 2011 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU Project today announced the opening of nominations for the 14th annual Free Software Awards.

Award for the Advancement of Free Software

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

Last year, Rob Savoye was recognized with the Award for the Advancement of Free Software for his contributions to compiler and testing tools, and his leadership of the GNU Gnash project, a fully-free replacement for Adobe Flash. Savoye joined a prestigious list of previous winners including John Gilmore, Wietse Venema, Harald Welte, Ted Ts'o, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Alan Cox, Larry Lessig, Guido van Rossum, Brian Paul, Miguel de Icaza and Larry Wall.

Award for Projects of Social Benefit

Nominations are also open for the 2011 Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

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

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

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

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

Last year, The Tor Project received this award, in recognition of its work to fight against surveillance inflicted by increasingly restrictive governments and to improve the safety and wellbeing of all Internet citizens.

Previous winners have included the Internet Archive, Creative Commons, Groklaw, the Sahana project, and Wikipedia.

Eligibility

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).

The award committee has not been finalized, but is made up of previous winners, free software activists and FSF president, Richard Stallman.

Please send your nominations to award-nominations@gnu.org, on or before Monday, November 7th, 2011. Please submit nominations in the following format:

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

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

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

Information about the previous awards can be found at http://www.fsf.org/awards. Winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the LibrePlanet conference tentatively scheduled for March 2012, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Well, you did it! We raised $300,000 for free software during our winter fundraising drive, thanks to your contributions.

Even better, we also exceeded our "behind the scenes" goal, which was to sign up at least 400 new members over the two months. I'm really thrilled to welcome so many new supporters, including our 423 new associate members.

On behalf of everyone here at the FSF, I'd like to thank all of you who donated and joined, and all of you who helped promote the effort through your networks. The amount of response this year was incredibly gratifying, and makes me feel extremely optimistic about what we can get done in the year ahead.

I'd specifically like to thank Mark Holmquist, who referred 15 of those 423 new members all by himself, our intern emeritus Danny Piccirillo who went above and beyond in getting the word out, Max and the gang from reddit, and everyone who donated $500 or more to appear on our ThankGNU list.

We had a lot of fun writing the fundraiser pieces this year describing the work of the different staff members here at the FSF, and how we could get more done in each area with increased financial support. We didn't get a chance to write about everyone yet (like, ahem, me!), but we'll pick up where we left off next time. Thank you to all of you who wrote to us with encouraging comments about this series of articles — of course we always worry about annoying our supporters by being too pushy, so it was very good to hear that the articles were worthwhile reading.

Now that you've given us a vote of confidence to do more for you, it's time for us to get to it!

You can keep tabs on our work by signing up for our monthly Free Software Supporter newsletter (along with occasional interim updates), and subscribing to our blogs RSS feed.

I hope to see all of you in person at LibrePlanet this March in Boston! And for anyone who will be at FOSDEM this weekend, look me up.