FSF News
FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Friday, May 6th, 2011 — The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has just released in tandem the second edition of its president and founder Richard Stallman's selected essays, Free Software, Free Society, and his semi-autobiography, Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman and the Free Software Revolution.
2010 Free Software Awards announced
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 -- Free Software Foundation president Richard M. Stallman announced the winners of the FSF's annual free software awards at a ceremony on Saturday, March 19th, held during the LibrePlanet 2011 conference at Bunker Hill Community College.
FSF announces new executive director
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Monday, March 7th, 2011 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced the appointment of John Sullivan as its new executive director.
Tell the USTR to reject ACTA
The ACTA drafting process is finished, and countries are beginning to turn an eye toward signing it. Help us stand against it!
Debian "Squeeze" makes key progress toward being a fully free distribution
Cheers to the Debian community!
Call for nominations for the 13th annual Free Software Awards
BOSTON, February 2, 2011--The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU Project today announced the opening of nominations for the 13th annual Free Software Awards.
OSI and FSF Send Joint Position to Department of Justice
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and Free Software Foundation (FSF) have sent a joint position statement to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), urging it to scrutinize Novell's proposal to sell patents to the newly-formed CPTN Holdings. Both organizations believe that CPTN Holdings may use these patents to attack free, libre, and open source (FLOSS) software. The full text of the statement follows.
No double standards: supporting Google's push for WebM
We've signed up as a supporter of the WebM Project, and we encourage other foundations and organizations to join us—write to webmaster@webmproject.org to learn how. Today, we're also urging Web site operators to distribute videos in the WebM format, and abandon H.264
Fostering free software education: Free Technology Academy and Free Software Foundation partner to expand access to master's program in free software and free standards
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- Tuesday, October 26, 2010 -- The Free Technology Academy (FTA) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today their partnership in the FTA's Associate Partner Network. The Network aims to expand the availability of professional educational courses and materials covering the concepts and applications of free software and free standards.
Hardware we all want: FSF announces criteria for hardware endorsement program
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, October 14, 2010 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today that it has published an initial set of criteria for endorsing computers and other devices. The FSF seeks both to obtain feedback on the criteria, and raise interest in the program among hardware manufacturers. Ultimately, the FSF plans to promote an endorsement mark to be carried on products that the FSF endorses.
Windows Phone 7: the best choice for Patent Trolls.
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Friday, October 8th, 2010 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today issued a warning to consumers over Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 Phone Series. The software release is backed by a reported 400 to 500 million dollar marketing campaign that aims to distract consumers from its history of abusive behavior, and recent actions as a patent troll: attacking free software based phones like Android.
Free Form: Free Software News for September 29th 2010
Recently, in free software news, Richard Stallman protested representatives of the European Patent Office giving a presentation in Australia concerning software patents. Trisquel released their newest LTS version, codename: Taranis. The chief architect of Apple's compiler group answered a question about the upstream potential of their work on the GNU Compiler Collection.
Over 450 letters sent to the USPTO proposing guidelines to end software patents
Last week, we put out an action item asking people to write to the USPTO, and explain to them why software should not be eligible for patents under their forthcoming post-Bilski guidance. To answer the call, you all sent in more than 450 letters, offering the USPTO all kinds of legal and practical reasons why they should stop issuing software patents. This is a tremendous response, and we're very grateful to you all for participating. Thank you very much!
Encourage the USPTO to stop issuing software patents; deadline September 27
Following the Supreme Court's decision in Bilski v. Kappos, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) plans to release new guidance as to which patent applications will be accepted, and which will not. As part of this process, they are seeking input from the public about how that guidance should be structured.
Celebrate Software Freedom Day with the LibrePlanet community
Please join us in bringing some of the Software Freedom Day celebration and advocacy to the LibrePlanet wiki, to build a resource and meeting place that will last throughout the year.
FSF responds to Oracle v. Google and the threat of software patents
As you likely heard on any number of news sites, Oracle has filed suit against Google, claiming that Android infringes some of its Java-related copyrights and patents. Too little information is available about the copyright infringement claim to say much about it yet; we expect we'll learn more as the case proceeds. But nobody deserves to be the victim of software patent aggression, and Oracle is wrong to use its patents to attack Android.
Delivering the ACTA petition: Sign before Thursday to have your voice heard!
A month ago, we published a statement against ACTA and asked for your signatures in support. Over 3,000 of you joined us in calling on ACTA negotiators to either dramatically change the agreement or drop it all together.
Women's Caucus internship opportunity
The Women's Caucus is seeking an intern to assist with its work to increase the number of women involved in free software.
Women in free software: Recommendations from the Women's Caucus
Nearly a year ago the FSF held a mini-summit for women in free software to investigate practical ways to increase the number of women involved in the free software community.