Thursday, June 27, 2013

Richard Stallman becomes a Hall-of-Famer

Dear Pascal,

Today Free Software Foundation founder and president Richard Stallman was inducted into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame!
He joins other visionaries like Aaron Swartz, Jimmy Wales, and John Perry Barlow, who have all made significant contributions to the advancement of the global Internet. The Internet Hall of Fame inducted Stallman for his contributions as creator of the GNU Project, main author of the GNU General Public License, and his philosophical contributions as founder of the free software movement. Richard has been named an Innovator, a category which recognizes and celebrates individuals who made outstanding technological, commercial, or policy advances and helped to expand the Internet''s reach.
The future of a troubled Internet was on Richard's mind as he learned of his induction. He says, "Now that we have made the Internet work, the next task is to stop it from being a platform for massive surveillance, and make it work in a way that respects human rights, including privacy."
We at the FSF are working hard to stop NSA surveillance, protect the free Internet from DRM, and develop replacements for network services that spy on their users, but we need your support to achieve these goals.
Help us further this vision by becoming a member of the Free Software Foundation or volunteering today.
Nearly 30 years after he first published the GNU Manifesto (stay tuned for coming September celebration plans), Richard Stallman's ideas have spread the world over. Thanks to the support of people like you, the free software movement continues to grow. Please join us in congratulating Richard and all of the other 2013 inductees to the Internet Hall of Fame by sharing this message
Happy hacking,
Libby and the rest of the FSF team
To read this message online, visit https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/richard-stallman-becomes-a-hall-of-famer

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

For immediate release: Richard Stallman inducted into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame

Richard Stallman inducted into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame


BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Wednesday, June 26, 2013 -- Free Software Foundation founder Stallman today joins the ranks of notable individuals who have been inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for their significant contributions to the advancement of the global Internet. The Internet Hall of Fame inducted Stallman for his contributions as creator of the GNU Project, main author of the GNU General Public License, and his philosophical contributions as founder of the free software movement.
Stallman has been named an Innovator, a category which recognizes and celebrates individuals who made outstanding technological, commercial, or policy advances and helped to expand the Internet''s reach.
Stallman had this to say upon his induction: "Now that we have made the Internet work, the next task is to stop it from being a platform for massive surveillance, and make it work in a way that respects human rights, including privacy."
The Free Software Foundation congratulates Stallman and all of the other inductees, and thanks them for their contributions to the Internet.
A complete list of 2012 and 2013 Internet Hall of Fame inductees and their bios can be found at http://www.internethalloffame.org.

About Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman is a software developer and software freedom activist. In 1983 he announced the project to develop the GNU operating system, a Unix-like operating system meant to be entirely free software, and has been the project's leader ever since. With that announcement Stallman also launched the free software movement. In October 1985 he started the Free Software Foundation.
Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time in political advocacy for free software, and spreading the ethical ideas of the movement, as well as campaigning against both software patents and dangerous extension of copyright laws. Before that, Stallman developed a number of widely used software components of GNU, including the original Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU symbolic debugger (gdb), GNU Emacs, and various other programs for the GNU operating system.
Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.

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 http://www.fsf.org and http://www.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.

About the Internet Hall of Fame

The Internet Hall of Fame is an annual awards program that has been established by the Internet Society to publicly recognize a distinguished and select group of leaders and luminaries who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the global open Internet. More information on the program can be found at http://www.internethalloffame.org.

About the GNU Operating System and Linux

Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a free software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only operating system developed specifically for the sake of users' freedom. See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html.
In 1992, the essential components of GNU were complete, except for one, the kernel. When in 1992 the kernel Linux was re-released under the GNU GPL, making it free software, the combination of GNU and Linux formed a complete free operating system, which made it possible for the first time to run a PC without non-free software. This combination is the GNU/Linux system. For more explanation, see http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.
The GNU Project relies on volunteers and individual contributions. To get involved, visit https://gnu.org/help/help.html.

Media Contacts

John Sullivan, Executive Director
Libby Reinish, Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org
Read this release online: https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-stallman-inducted-into-the-2013-internet-hall-of-fame

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Announcing a second FSF-certified device from ThinkPenguin: long-range USB Wifi adapter with Atheros chip

Read online

A second FSF-certified device from ThinkPenguin: long-range USB Wifi adapter with Atheros chip

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Monday, June 24th, 2013 — The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the TPE-N150USBL long-range 802.11n USB adapter, sold by ThinkPenguin. This wireless adapter is based on the Atheros AR9271, using the same chip and firmware as the TPE-N150USB, which was awarded RYF certification in April. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy. The TPE-N150USBL can be purchased from http://www.thinkpenguin.com/TPE-N150USBL.
TPE-N150USBL long-range wireless N USB adapter
Where the TPE-N150USB is a small and a convenient wireless USB adapter, the TPE-N150USBL is designed to handle a large antenna so that users can connect to a wireless access point at greater distances.
"We were excited to certify a much needed wireless product designed for portability and traveling, and are now very happy to add its larger, longer-range companion to our list of RYF certified devices," said FSF licensing and compliance manager, Joshua Gay.
"Free software compatible USB wifi devices are one of our most demanded products, so we are very pleased to be able to offer our customers the choice of a second wifi adapter -- one that is not only powerful and long-range, but that also respects their freedom," added Christopher Waid, Founder & CEO of ThinkPenguin.
To learn more about the Respects Your Freedom hardware certification, including details on the certification of the TPE-N150USB 802.11n USB adapter, as well as information on the driver and firmware for the device, visit http://www.fsf.org/ryf. Hardware sellers interested in applying for certification can consult http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/criteria.
Subscribers to the FSF's Free Software Supporter newsletter will receive announcements about future Respects Your Freedom products.

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.

About ThinkPenguin, Inc

Started by Christopher Waid, founder and CEO, ThinkPenguin, Inc. is a consumer-driven company with a mission to bring free software to the masses. At the core of company is a catalog of computers and accessories with broad support for GNU/Linux. The company provides technical support for end-users and works with the community, distributions, and upstream projects to make GNU/Linux all that it can be.

Media Contacts

Joshua Gay
Licensing & Compliance Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x20
licensing@fsf.org
Media Inquires
ThinkPenguin, Inc.
+1 (888) 39 THINK (84465) x703
media@thinkpenguin.com
###

Monday, June 3, 2013

HTML5 Webpage Locks 'Would Stifle Innovation'


BBC News (05/30/13)

Innovation could be held back by the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) plans to include ways to digitally lock media in the Web's core technology. These locks also could limit the ability to share images and videos, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has formally objected to plans to include rights management in the HTML5 formatting language. EFF says the proposed rights management system, Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), would create a "black box" that the entertainment industry could use to control what is done with media online. EFF's Danny O'Brien warns that accepting EME could change the free and open way the Web currently works, possibly generating a "Web where images and pages cannot be saved or searched, ads cannot be blocked, and innovative new browsers cannot compete without explicit permission from big content companies." W3C CEO Jeffrey Jaffe says EME is necessary to provide users with a rich Web experience. "Without content protection, owners of premium video content, driven by both their economic goals and their responsibilities to others, will simply deprive the open web of key content," Jaffe says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22714209

Computer Scientists Oppose Oracle's Bid to Copyright Java APIs

IDG News Service (05/30/13) James Niccolai

In a court brief, nearly three dozen computer scientists voiced concerns over Oracle's plan to copyright its Java application programming interface (API), which they believe would hinder the computer industry and limit end users' access to affordable technology. The group, which includes MS-DOS author Tim Paterson and ARPANET developer Larry Roberts, signed the amicus brief in support of Google in its copyright lawsuit with Oracle. Oracle accuses Google of infringing the copyright on its Java APIs in the development of Google's Android operating system, and is seeking billions of dollars in damages. Google argues that software APIs are not eligible for copyright protection under U.S. law. Last year, a district court in California mostly agreed with Google and ruled against Oracle in the case, but Oracle appealed the decision. "The freedom to reimplement and extend existing APIs has been the key to competition and progress in the computer field--both hardware and software," the brief states. "It made possible the emergence and success of many robust industries we now take for granted--such as industries for mainframes, PCs, peripherals, workstations/servers, and so on--by ensuring that competitors could challenge established players and advance the state of the art."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040360/computer-scientists-oppose-oracles-bid-to-copyright-java-apis.html

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Free Software Supporter - Issue 62, May 2013

Free Software Supporter

Issue 62, May 2013
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 68,736 other activists. That's 268 more than last month!
View this issue online here: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/free-software-supporter-issue-62-may-2013
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.
Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

#

El Supporter en español se esta traduciendo. En los próximos dias estará disponible en: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/free-software-supporter-numero-62-mayo-2013
Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos números del Supporter en castellano, haz click aquí: http://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=34&reset=1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Take action for free JavaScript
  • Software Freedom Conservancy launches fundraising campaign for nonprofit accounting software
  • Google abandons XMPP for instant messaging
  • With interns from GNOME Outreach Program for Women and Google Summer of Code, MediaGoblin is in for a summer of awesome
  • GNU/Linux flag at the top of the Americas
  • GNU/Linux chosen as operating system of the International Space Station
  • GNU Hackers Meeting 2013: August 22-25 in Paris, France
  • The W3C's soul at stake
  • "Oscar" awarded to W3C for Best Supporting Role in "The Hollyweb"
  • Show your friends you care about freedom from DRM; use a banner on your social media profile
  • International Day Against DRM 2013 sent a message
  • Stepping it up as W3C takes the next step towards the Hollyweb
  • Help needed documenting events of May 2013 -- End Software Patents campaign
  • Single-board computers and software freedom
  • Emacs chat: Bastien Guerry
  • Illegal procurement favoring Microsoft killed in Portuguese court
  • Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
  • LibrePlanet featured resource: List of free software webmail systems
  • GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 19 new GNU releases!
  • GNU Toolchain update
  • Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
  • Other FSF events
  • Thank GNUs!
  • Take action with the FSF

Take action for free JavaScript

From May 29th
As Richard Stallman pointed out in his article The JavaScript Trap, most of the Web's JavaScript programs are not freely licensed. We're launching a campaign to demand that prominent sites stop requiring proprietary JavaScript, either by switching to a free program to do what they need, or by making the JavaScript unnecessary. The plan is to maximize impact by having as many people as possible email one site at a time. It's easy to get involved in the campaign:

Software Freedom Conservancy launches fundraising campaign for nonprofit accounting software

By Software Freedom Conservancy, from May 1st
The campaign seeks to raise $75,000 to fund a full-time developer for one year to first reevaluate existing Free Software solutions for their viability as a nonprofit accounting system, and then improve and augment the best available system to create a new solution that will help nonprofits around the world manage their finances better. Please donate generously to this important cause!

Google abandons XMPP for instant messaging

By Parker Higgins at the EFF, from May 22nd
In several places around the Web, the company is replacing the existing "Talk" platform with a new one called "Hangouts" that sharply diminishes support for the [free] messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from [free] protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users.
This comes in light of our recent blog post commending Google for reinstating federation on their Talk platform, after they took it down as a crude security measure.

With interns from GNOME Outreach Program for Women and Google Summer of Code, MediaGoblin is in for a summer of awesome

By Chris Webber of MediaGoblin, from May 27th
MediaGoblin just announced all the students they're accepting. It's quite a few in quite a few awesome areas!

GNU/Linux flag at the top of the Americas

From May 30th
GNU/Linux enthusiast Sebastian Satke has taken GNU/Linux to new heights -- literally. He summited Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, with a GNU/Linux flag in tow. Check out these incredible pictures from his ascent.

GNU/Linux chosen as operating system of the International Space Station

From May 22nd
Gnus now join astronauts of many countries in humanity's biggest space station.
This is a wise choice for the space station, and a high-profile victory for software freedom. It brings good publicity for free software, demonstrating its respected position in the world of science and technology.

GNU Hackers Meeting 2013: August 22-25 in Paris, France

From May 21st
We are happy to announce the seventh GNU Hackers Meeting, which will take place from August 22 to August 25 2013 in Paris, France. The GNU Hackers Meetings are a friendly and informal venue to discuss technical, social and organizational issues concerning GNU and free software.

The W3C's soul at stake

From May 2nd
Richard Stallman's latest piece calling on the World Wide Web Consortium to save its own soul: "Now is when the W3C should use the influence it has built up, saying, "DRM: Not in our name!"

"Oscar" awarded to W3C for Best Supporting Role in "The Hollyweb"

From May 3rd
In celebration of International Day Against DRM today, we rolled out the red carpet at W3C to deliver your petition signatures. Internet freedom's most stylish gathered to present W3C with an award for "Best Supporting Role in 'The Hollyweb'", accompanied by over 22,500 verified signatures from members of the public who oppose a proposal that would weave Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into the fabric of the Web.
Here's our blog post with photos from the petition delivery:
Our press release:

Show your friends you care about freedom from DRM; use a banner on your social media profile

From May 2nd
By posting the banner, you're helping raise awareness of the problem and rallying your networks in this fight. The more people know about it, the harder it will be for Hollywood and its tech allies to slip this through. Let's stop the Hollyweb!

International Day Against DRM 2013 sent a message

From May 20th
The seventh annual International Day Against DRM featured a glamorous petition delivery, awareness-raising events on three continents, and ebook sales from prominent DRM-free publishers.
Free Software Foundation Europe participated with an in-depth post about the ideas behind the Day Against DRM:

Stepping it up as W3C takes the next step towards the Hollyweb

From May 9th
On May 3rd, we made a powerful statement to the W3C by delivering the verified signatures of over 22,500 people against Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), Big Media's proposal to incorporate DRM support into HTML. Today the W3C advanced EME one step further in their approval process, to "first public working draft." This doesn't mean we've lost, but it shows that the media and software companies behind EME are not giving up, and that we need to keep pushing. Here's Defective by Design's blog post:
And our press release:

Help needed documenting events of May 2013 -- End Software Patents campaign

By Ciarán O'Riordan, from May 23rd
May brought exceptionally good pieces of news for campaigns against software patents, but I'm stuck studying for law exams. If anyone would like to help, it would be great to have better write-ups about these recent events on the ESP wiki:

Single-board computers and software freedom

From May 23rd
Single-board computers (SBCs) are computers delivered as one circuit board that are powerful enough to run a real operating system. SBCs are typically inexpensive and versatile. However, all of the SBCs currently available have major flaws -- hardware that doesn't work without running a nonfree program.

Emacs chat: Bastien Guerry

By Sacha Chua, from May 20th
In this video interview, blogger Sacha Chua chats with GNU Emacs Org mode developer Bastien Guerry. Org mode is a popular Emacs extension for planning, writing and organizing. Bastien tells stories about getting started in Emacs, reading his mail/news/blogs in Gnus, and hacking his life with Org.
You can listen to just the audio from the conversation in Ogg format here:

Illegal procurement favoring Microsoft killed in Portuguese court

By the Free Software Foundation Europe, from May 2nd
On April 27, the administrative court of Almada, Portugal, declared a 550,000 Euro contract between Microsoft and the municipality of Almada to be illegal. The technical specifications of the competition launched by the municipality prevented any company other than Microsoft and their partners to submit a proposal.

Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

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 version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays from 3pm to 6pm EDT (20:00 to 23:00 UTC). Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.
After this meeting, you can check http://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of June's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.

LibrePlanet featured resource: List of free software webmail systems

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.
The Free Software Webmail Systems page is a place to find and share resources for people interested in doing their email on the Web without compromising their freedom. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 19 new GNU releases!

New GNU releases this month (as of May 28, 2013):
  • autogen-5.17.4
  • gmp-5.1.2
  • rcs-5.9.0
  • automake-1.13.2
  • gnubatch-1.8
  • solfege-3.22.0
  • dap-3.8
  • gnupg-2.0.20
  • ucommon-6.0.5
  • denemo-1.0.2
  • help2man-1.42.1
  • xboard-4.7.1
  • freeipmi-1.2.7
  • libmicrohttpd-0.9.27
  • xorriso-1.3.0
  • gawk-4.1.0
  • nettle-2.7.1
  • glpk-4.50
  • parallel-20130522
To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). You can use the URL http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
Last month I erroneously gave Jeffrin Jose as the author of the new GNU package guile-sdl. Its author is actually Thien-Thi Nguyen, who also maintains GNU RCS and GNU Alive. Sorry, Thien-Thi! However, I can now welcome Jeffrin as the new maintainer of GNU Gleem, so no one is left out :). I'd also like to welcome Michael Petch as a new co-maintainer of gnubg (GNU Backgammon).
I'd also like to mention the GNU Hackers Meeting for 2013, scheduled to take place from August 22 to August 25 in Paris, France. More information at http://www.gnu.org/ghm/2013/paris/.
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/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.
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 May 20th
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.
Read about updates to binutils, GAS, and GCC.

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.
So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in June and July:

Other FSF events

  • June 7, 2013, San Francisco, CA: FSF members and friends will be gathering for a social hour to discuss FSF campaigns, with FSF campaigns manager Libby Reinish. RSVP to campaigns@fsf.org by June 5th if interested.
  • June 8-9, 2013, San Francisco, CA: Libby Reinish will be participating in AdaCamp

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:
  • Markus Schaldach
  • Julian Eden
  • Walter Lain
  • Giacomo Castellano
You can add your name to this list by donating at http://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?referrer=2442
The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (http://www.fsf.org/volunteer). From rabble-rousing to hacking, from issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section (http://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents, DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.

#

Copyright © 2013 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/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.