Free Software Supporter
Issue 55, October 2012
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update — being read by you and 63,183 other activists. That's 1,414 more than last month!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Free Software Supporter available in Spanish!
- GNUs trick-or-treat at Windows 8 launch
- Nominate your free software heroes
- Happy Ada Lovelace Day!
- GNU MediaGoblin offers what you've been missing in an Internet media-sharing system
- Jeremy Allison on why Samba switched to GPLv3
- Your right to own, under threat
- Update on the effort to defeat Restricted Boot
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- Copyright Office fails to protect users from DMCA
- Summer 2012 trip to Europe: Photos from InterTice, in Marly-le-Roi
- LulzBot AO-100 3D printer now FSF-certified to respect your freedom
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Windows 8 Group
- GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 13 new GNU releases!
- GNU Toolchain update
- Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
- Thank GNUs!
- Take action with the FSF
Free Software Supporter available in Spanish!
From October 31st
Starting tomorrow (November 1st), Spanish speakers will be able read our monthly e-mail newsletter in their native language.
GNUs trick-or-treat at Windows 8 launch
From October 26
Last Thursday, the Free Software Foundation crashed the Windows 8 launch event in New York City. A cheerful GNU and her team handed out DVDs loaded with Trisquel, FSF stickers, and information about our new pledge, which asks Windows users to upgrade not to Windows 8, but to GNU/Linux.
Sign the pledge!
Our press release for the action:
French version of the press release:
Nominate your free software heroes
From October 18th
The nomination window for the 15th annual Free Software Awards is open. Now is your chance to show some love for your favorite free software hero or an inspiring project that uses free software or free software principles to benefit humanity. November 15th is the deadline for nominations, so don't wait!
Our press release for the Free Software Awards is here:
Happy Ada Lovelace Day!
From October 16th
October 16th is Ada Lovelace Day, a day to celebrate women's contributions to science and technology.
Last year, FSF executive director John Sullivan wrote, “these stories are an important way to simultaneously highlight both the under-representation of women in these fields and — based on the achievements of women who are in these fields — the potential we could realize if barriers to participation can be named and removed.” This year, FSF campaigns manager Libby Reinish takes this thought and builds on it.
Apropos of this, Deb Nicholson, an organizer of the FSF's Women's Caucus, is quoted in a recent article on sexism in free software:
GNU MediaGoblin offers what you've been missing in an Internet media-sharing system
From October 11th
Today the Free Software Foundation is proud and excited to assist the GNU MediaGoblin project in its fundraising effort. MediaGoblin's volunteer team is working on a next-generation social web system where users will share their experiences through photos, videos and audio, all without running proprietary software. This project is ambitious, not just because it will support multiple media types, but also because it will use a special new network system called federation, which unifies a group of separately-owned servers into a single interface for the user. This means that anyone wishing to start a MediaGoblin server will be able to do so, optionally customizing the code to their needs and offering unique options to users.
We'd also like to mention that right now all contributions to MediaGoblin are being doubled!
Our press release for the fundraiser is here:
Also check out MediaGoblin's beautiful intro video on this page:
See pictures of the team and read about some of their design considerations:
Jeremy Allison on why Samba switched to GPLv3
From October 31st
This is the second installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works.
Your right to own, under threat
From October 28th
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today in a case called Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, and their final decision could help shape the future of “first sale,” a legal doctrine that underpins the right to sell, lend, or give away the things you buy, even if those things contain copyrighted elements.
Check out our blog post on the case:
Update on the effort to defeat Restricted Boot
From October 31st
Ubuntu has decided to stick with GRUB 2 after all; 48 organizations and over 37,000 people have signed the statement opposing Restricted Boot, but Microsoft's new tablet is hitting stores.
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
From October 30th
Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org 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.
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 staying up to date with new and exciting free software projects.
To help, join volunteer leader Andrew Engelbrecht on Fridays from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as new volunteers. Everyone's welcome.
Copyright Office fails to protect users from DMCA
From October 26th
The Copyright Office picked Sony over you and failed to expand DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions to devices other than cell phones, or to the sharing of anti-circumvention software.
Summer 2012 trip to Europe: Photos from InterTice, in Marly-le-Roi
From October 11th
RMS was in Marly-le-Roi, France, on 27 June, to deliver his speech “Logiciels Libres et éducation,” at InterTice Logiciels Libres, a selection of practical workshops designed to present possible pedagogical uses of free software, to an audience of over 200 educational inspectors, teachers, school directors, and local authorities.
LulzBot AO-100 3D printer now FSF-certified to respect your freedom
From October 9th
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded its first Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the LulzBot AO-100 3D Printer sold by Aleph Objects, Inc. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy.
LibrePlanet featured resource: Windows 8 Group
Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful — often one that could use your help.
For this month, we are highlighting the Windows 8 group page, where people are sharing their concerns about the new proprietary operating system. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource. Ideas from this page will likely be used in a whitepaper and campaign about Windows 8.
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.
GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 13 new GNU releases!
13 new GNU releases this month (as of October 29, 2012):
- binutils-2.23
- bison-2.6.4
- coreutils-8.20
- freeipmi-1.2.2
- gnuhealth-1.6.4
- gnutls-3.1.3
- libcdio-0.90
- libextractor-1.0.1
- parallel-20121022
- patch-2.7.1
- units-2.01
- xnee-3.14
- zile-2.4.9
To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see http://www.gnu.org/server/
As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
GNU Toolchain update
From October 29th
The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms. This post on the GNU toolchain blogs covers developments from the last two months.
Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit http://www.fsf.org/events.
Richard Stallman has the following events in November:
- November 6, 2012, 6:00 PM, Helsinki, Finland, “How to begin contributing to a free software project and do a good job”
- November 7, 2012, 7:30 PM, Reykjavik, Iceland, “Copyright vs. community”
- November 16, 2012, 9:00 AM, Santa Clara, California, “The danger of software patents”
Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
- Stephen Compall
- Justin Frankel
- Thane Williams
- Taku Fujita
- Philipp Weis
- Vincent Povirk
- John Gilmore
- Vincent Launchbury
- Mason Smith
- Eric Rollins
- James H. McConville
- Michael Makuch
You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org.
Take action with the FSF
Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at http://www.fsf.org/join. If you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email signature like:
I'm an FSF member — Help us support software freedom! http://www.fsf.org/jf?
The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (http://www.fsf.org/volunteer)
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Copyright © 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/
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