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WEEKLY NEWS
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Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Are you afraid your ideas will be stolen, three free open innovation books, and more
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Free Software Supporter - Issue 65, August 2013
Free Software Supporter
Issue 65, August 2013
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 69,626 other activists.
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.
Subscribe: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter
Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
You're Invited: GNU 30th anniversary celebration and hackathonUnited for a Web without proprietary JavaScriptReplace your LibrePlanet2012 shirt for only $10!GNU MediaGoblin shirts now availableFirst batch of videos from LibrePlanet 2013 published!gNewSense 3.0 releasedFSF to begin accepting GPG signed assignments from the U.S.Interview with Bernd Kreuss of TorChatNew fsfstatus notification accountSell your Netflix stock to send a message: No DRM in HTMLRMS in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, BrazilRMS in Berlin, Germany, for induction into the Internet Hall of FameReplicant project opens forumsConservancy helps Samsung resolve GPL compliance matter amicablyConservancy seeks Systems Analyst / Software Architect for six-month consulting positionUse Libre.fm and GNU FM and help defeat surveillanceParanoia optimization for our modern timesLeastAuthority.com announces a spy-proof storage serviceJoin the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software DirectoryLibrePlanet featured resource: GNU 30th anniversary satellite eventsGNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 15 new GNU releases!GNU Toolchain UpdateRichard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF eventsThank GNUs!Take action with the FSF!
You're Invited: GNU 30th anniversary celebration and hackathon
From August 26th
The GNU system will be celebrating its 30th anniversary on September 28 and 29 in Boston, and in cities around the world. RSVP today.
United for a Web without proprietary JavaScript
From August 30th
The FSF has launched a campaign to persuade organizations to make their Web sites work without requiring that users run any nonfree JavaScript. Users are uniting to focus on one site at a time -- currently, greenpeace.org.
Replace your LibrePlanet2012 shirt for only $10!
From August 1st
Relive the fond memories of LibrePlanet with logo shirts commemorating the events in 2012 and 2013.
GNU MediaGoblin shirts now available
From August 30th
GNU MediaGoblin shirts are now available in the GNU Press store for $25 and are printed on American Apparel t-shirts.
First batch of videos from LibrePlanet 2013 published!
From August 7th
The first batch of videos from LibrePlanet 2013 are now available for streaming and downloading in VP8/Vorbis, both free media formats, and are hosted on an instance of GNU MediaGoblin.
gNewSense 3.0 released
The latest release of gNewSense is out, bringing with it a spate of new features and bug fixes. Most notably, gNewSense 3.0, codenamed "Parkes," is now based on Debian rather than Ubuntu.
FSF to begin accepting GPG signed assignments from the U.S.
The FSF is pleased to announce that we can begin accepting GPG-signed assignments from contributors residing in the United States.
Interview with Bernd Kreuss of TorChat
From August 27th
This is the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works. In this edition, we interviewed Bernd Kreuss, the developer of TorChat, a peer-to-peer instant messenger with a completely decentralized design.
New fsfstatus notification account
From August 28th
The FSF has a new out-of-band notification account at https://pumprock.net/fsfstatus. We will post updates on planned and unplanned service outages there.
Sell your Netflix stock to send a message: No DRM in HTML
From August 28th
We're ramping up the pressure on Netflix to keep DRM away from the HTML standard and asking investors to sell their shares in NFLX.
RMS in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
RMS was in the Centro de Eventos of the Universidad de Passo Fundo, in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on July 1st, 2013, to deliver his speech "A Free Digital Society," to an audience of over four hundred professionals, students, and teachers in the IT field.
RMS in Berlin, Germany, for induction into the Internet Hall of Fame
On August 3rd, 2013, RMS was at the InterContinental Hotel, in Berlin, Germany, where he was inducted in the Internet Hall of Fame, in recognition of his contributions as an innovator and for founding the Free Software Foundation.
Replicant project opens forums
By Paul Kocialkowski, from August 9th
The Replicant project has opened forums to encourage community support and discussion.
Conservancy helps Samsung resolve GPL compliance matter amicably
By Software Freedom Conservancy, from August 16th
Samsung and Conservancy worked together to resolve an issue where a GPLed exFAT filesystem driver was released without the complete corresponding source code.
Conservancy seeks Systems Analyst / Software Architect for six-month consulting position
By Software Freedom Conservancy, from August 26th
Conservancy recently raised funds to begin work on an FSF-endorsed free software non-profit accounting system and now seeks the talent of an experienced systems analyst and software designer to complete a six-month contract project (with the possibility of extension).
Use Libre.fm and GNU FM and help defeat surveillance
By Libre.fm, from August 26th
The Libre.fm and GNU FM developers outline the importance of using free software to combat surveillance and add that with the 30th anniversary of the GNU project coming in September, now is an important time for all GNU projects to work together on providing replacements to sites that users cannot control.
Paranoia optimization for our modern times
By Deborah Nicholson, from August 23rd
GNU MediaGoblin contributer Deborah Nicholson reflects on the social effects of avoiding surveillance on the Web.
LeastAuthority.com announces a spy-proof storage service
By LeastAuthority.com, from July 30th
LeastAuthority.com has announced Simple Secure Storage Service (S4), a backup service that encrypts your files to protect them from the prying eyes of spies and criminals.
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
From August 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 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. 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.
The next meeting is Friday, September 6th from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Details here:
After this meeting, you can check https://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of MONTH's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.
LibrePlanet featured resource: GNU 30th anniversary satellite events
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 list of GNU 30th anniversary satellite events, which provides information about celebrations for the GNU system's 30th anniversary occurring around the world. 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: 15 new GNU releases!
15 new GNU releases this month (as of August 26, 2013):
bison-3.0bzr-2.60combine-0.4.0denemo-1.0.6freeipmi-1.3.1gettext-0.18.3.1glibc-2.18glpk-4.52.1gnubatch-1.9gnupg-2.0.21libmatheval-1.1.11parallel-20130822sipwitch-1.7.0ucommon-6.0.7xorriso-1.3.2
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.
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 August 19th
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 G++, GCC, and more.
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 https://www.fsf.org/events.
So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in September:
Aug 31, 2013 12:30 PM, Johannesburg, Pretoria, "A free digital society"Sep 03, 2013 2:00 PM, Pretoria, South Africa, "Free software: defending your freedom"Sep 05, 2013 6:00 PM, Cape Town, South Africa, "A free digital society"Sep 06, 2013 5:00 PM, Durban, South Africa, "The danger of software patents"Sep 19, 2013 5:00 PM, Biot, France, "A free digital society"Sep 20, 2013 6:00 PM, Paris, France, "A free digital society"
Other FSF and free software events
Sep 21, 2013 09:30 AM to 05:30 PM, Cambridge, MA, Software Freedom Day - CambridgeSep 27, 2013 12:00 AM to 11:55 PM, Worldwide, Happy 30th Birthday, GNU!Sep 28, 2013 10:00 AM to Sep 29, 2013 5:00 PM, Cambridge, MA, GNU 30th Anniversary Celebration and Hackathon
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:
Gregory MaxwellKevin McCarthyColin CarrSteve SprangMartin CohnKrishna KunchithapadamLiang ZhaoBitcoin GrantChris AllegrettaEberhard SchopfHenri Sivonen
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 https://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! https://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442
The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (https://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 (https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents, DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.
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Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
United for a Web without proprietary JavaScript
For some time now, free software users have been concerned about the increasing number of Web sites that cannot run without nonfree JavaScript programs downloaded and executed on the visitor's computer. Richard Stallman first raised the concern with his article The JavaScript Trap, pointing out that most JavaScript programs are not freely licensed, and that even free software Web browsers are usually configured to download and run these nonfree programs without informing the user. We've recently started organizing free software users around the issue.
Now we're proud to announce a new, dedicated Web page for our Free JavaScript campaign, an ongoing effort to persuade organizations to make their Web sites work without requiring that users run any nonfree software. By convincing influential sites to make the transition, we will raise awareness of the need for free software-friendly Web sites and influence the owners of other sites to follow.
The current focus of the campaign is Greenpeace.org, the online home of the famous global environmental organization. They haven't responded to our email requesting that they make their site work without requiring nonfree software, so we're asking you to add your voice with an email of your own. We'll focus on Greenpeace for a period, and then move to another focus, concentrating efforts on one site at a time to maximize our impact.
Head over to the new Free JavaScript campaign area to learn more about the issues and take action by emailing Greenpeace.org. The campaign page also hosts resources for using the Web without nonfree JavaScript, a mailing list and a wiki page where you can share your ideas for the campaign.
Sincerely,
Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager
P.S. If you are an experienced JavaScript developer that's interested in helping with the campaign, please let us know by emailing campaigns@fsf.org!
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Thursday, August 29, 2013
Sell your Netflix stock to send a message
Dear Pascal,
"#CancelNetflix I used it and used to love it. But keep your hands off DRM in HTML5. Not cool. I'm stopping my rel. with you." -- @jordiburcas*
A few weeks ago we put out a call: if you care about freedom on the Web, cancel your Netflix subscription. The company has been leading an aggressive lobbying effort to change the fundamental language of the Web (HTML) to add an official extension accommodating Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). Free software supporters and the blogosphere have responded strongly to our previous posts about this attack on Web freedom, and many (like @jordiburcas above) have canceled their accounts. Now we're asking you to take this to the next level by dumping any stock you own in the company.
Netflix's plan is to hijack the standards-setting power of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body that coordinates the development of HTML, in an attempt to make it easier to distribute media with DRM. Netflix's proposed extension to HTML, called Encrypted Media Extensions or EME, is supported by software companies like Microsoft and Google, as well as the powerful media corporations that provide the primary impetus for DRM. This cabal supports DRM because it gives them control over Web users. By adding artificial restrictions to media, they are able to corral people into their outdated business models and revoke customers' access to media (even media they have paid for) when it suits them.
As if we didn't already have reason enough to oppose this scheme, the proliferation of DRM inherently makes it harder to use free software. EME would indubitably lead to an explosion of DRM-encumbered media on the Web, restricting our freedom and pressuring users to install proprietary software to satisfy the demands of digital restrictions. For those committed to freedom and unwilling to install this software, DRM-encumbered sites would create a growing dark zone on the Web.
Dump your Netflix stock and post about it to inspire other shareholders to join you. If you're still holding on to a Netflix membership, cancel it for a double whammy and post with the hashtag #DivestNetflix*. Even if you don't own Netflix stock or have an account, you can help by spreading this message to the many others that do.
"#CancelNetflix I used it and used to love it. But keep your hands off DRM in HTML5. Not cool. I'm stopping my rel. with you." -- @jordiburcas*
This is a pivotal moment in the W3C deliberations over EME, when its proponents are struggling to maintain the illusion that EME won't cause any problems for the Web. Also, despite previous hype, Netflix recently released new subscriber numbers that were below expectations for the second quarter of 2013. These facts mean this is a critical time to send a message by divesting.
We should also remember that this is part of a larger struggle for freedom and control over our media. The world is in the initial stages of a great transition from locally stored to remotely hosted media. This shift will come with more opportunities for media distributors to encumber their products with DRM, and we need to demonstrate from the outset that doing so will cost them our support as customers and investors. That's why we're asking you to join the movement and divest from Netflix.
Sincerely,
Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager
* We encourage users to do their microblogging with Web sites that do not include nonfree JavaScript, like instances of pump.io or GNU social. If you use Twitter, you can access the mobile version of the Twitter site which works with JavaScript turned off, even on a desktop computer.
You can view this post online at https://www.defectivebydesign.org/divest-from-netflix.
"#CancelNetflix I used it and used to love it. But keep your hands off DRM in HTML5. Not cool. I'm stopping my rel. with you." -- @jordiburcas*
A few weeks ago we put out a call: if you care about freedom on the Web, cancel your Netflix subscription. The company has been leading an aggressive lobbying effort to change the fundamental language of the Web (HTML) to add an official extension accommodating Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). Free software supporters and the blogosphere have responded strongly to our previous posts about this attack on Web freedom, and many (like @jordiburcas above) have canceled their accounts. Now we're asking you to take this to the next level by dumping any stock you own in the company.
Netflix's plan is to hijack the standards-setting power of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body that coordinates the development of HTML, in an attempt to make it easier to distribute media with DRM. Netflix's proposed extension to HTML, called Encrypted Media Extensions or EME, is supported by software companies like Microsoft and Google, as well as the powerful media corporations that provide the primary impetus for DRM. This cabal supports DRM because it gives them control over Web users. By adding artificial restrictions to media, they are able to corral people into their outdated business models and revoke customers' access to media (even media they have paid for) when it suits them.
As if we didn't already have reason enough to oppose this scheme, the proliferation of DRM inherently makes it harder to use free software. EME would indubitably lead to an explosion of DRM-encumbered media on the Web, restricting our freedom and pressuring users to install proprietary software to satisfy the demands of digital restrictions. For those committed to freedom and unwilling to install this software, DRM-encumbered sites would create a growing dark zone on the Web.
Dump your Netflix stock and post about it to inspire other shareholders to join you. If you're still holding on to a Netflix membership, cancel it for a double whammy and post with the hashtag #DivestNetflix*. Even if you don't own Netflix stock or have an account, you can help by spreading this message to the many others that do.
"#CancelNetflix I used it and used to love it. But keep your hands off DRM in HTML5. Not cool. I'm stopping my rel. with you." -- @jordiburcas*
This is a pivotal moment in the W3C deliberations over EME, when its proponents are struggling to maintain the illusion that EME won't cause any problems for the Web. Also, despite previous hype, Netflix recently released new subscriber numbers that were below expectations for the second quarter of 2013. These facts mean this is a critical time to send a message by divesting.
We should also remember that this is part of a larger struggle for freedom and control over our media. The world is in the initial stages of a great transition from locally stored to remotely hosted media. This shift will come with more opportunities for media distributors to encumber their products with DRM, and we need to demonstrate from the outset that doing so will cost them our support as customers and investors. That's why we're asking you to join the movement and divest from Netflix.
Sincerely,
Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager
* We encourage users to do their microblogging with Web sites that do not include nonfree JavaScript, like instances of pump.io or GNU social. If you use Twitter, you can access the mobile version of the Twitter site which works with JavaScript turned off, even on a desktop computer.
You can view this post online at https://www.defectivebydesign.org/divest-from-netflix.
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