Free Software Supporter - Issue 93, January 2016
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HAVE A COSMIC HAPPY GNU YEAR 2016!
*(ASCII art by Chris Webber)*
Got a light? Help the FSF's guiding light shine brighter
For thirty years, the Free Software Foundation has been seen as a guiding light for the free software movement, fighting for computer user freedom worldwide — so far we have raised $277,575 toward our goal of $450,000 — but we can't continue this work without your support.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Join with me to support the Software Freedom Conservancy
- Libreboot T400 laptop now FSF-certified to respect your freedom
- Be a guide for tech giving
- GNU Press fundraiser discount: members enjoy 30 percent off, nonmembers get 10 percent!
- FSF announces fundraising support for GNU Guix, a new approach to GNU/Linux
- Help put the Planet in LibrePlanet by sponsoring an attendee
- Shining a spotlight on free software: the FSF's Licensing & Compliance Lab's interview series
- A look at the FSF tech team's tireless work for user freedom
- November/December 2015 — Gent and Mexico
- Brighten our light — expose Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)!
- Free software activists come together to improve proposed U.S. Department of Education regulations
- Conservancy Announces 2015: Year in Review series
- MediaGoblin update: End-of-year state-of-the-goblin, Stripe retreat, and more
- MediaGoblin 0.8.1: Security release
- TheSetup ChangeLog
- Saving "FreeBasics"(Facebook) while destroying Internet
- Partnership with Microsoft: Unworthy of the values French national education advocates
- The fight for freedom
- GCC 5 Release series
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Giving Guide Suggestions
- GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: 22 new GNU releases!
- Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
- Thank GNUs!
- GNU copyright contributions
- Take action with the FSF!
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Join with me to support the Software Freedom Conservancy
From December 21st by John Sullivan
This is a key moment to stand up for yourselves, to give back for work that's already been done, and to ensure the continued growth of free software as a means to ensure our freedom, and the freedom of future generations. Fortunately, since we have the strength of numbers to draw on, you can do your part for both organizations for less than the monthly cost of a couple Netflix subscriptions or a single dinner out.
- https://www.fsf.org/blogs/executive-director/support-the-software-freedom-conservancy
- https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/dec/21/fsf-endorsement
Libreboot T400 laptop now FSF-certified to respect your freedom
From December 11th
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the Libreboot T400 laptop as sold by Minifree. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy.
Be a guide for tech giving
From December 11th
In the flurry of holiday advertising that happens at the end of the year, many people are swept into buying electronics gifts that trample their recipients' freedom and that take more than they give. Can you spread the word by organizing a Giving Guide Giveaway in your community?
GNU Press fundraiser discount: members enjoy 30 percent off, nonmembers get 10 percent!
From December 14th
Until January 31st, we are offering 30 percent off for members with their regular member discount code, and 10 percent off for nonmembers with the discount code GNUInTheDark.
FSF announces fundraising support for GNU Guix, a new approach to GNU/Linux
From December 16th
GNU Guix is liberating, dependable, and hackable! The FSF today announced that we would begin accepting donations as part of our support for GNU Guix!
Help put the Planet in LibrePlanet by sponsoring an attendee
From December 18th
Here at the Free Software Foundation, we're selecting the program for LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the System right now. It's shaping up to be another standard-setting free software conference -- but we need your help.
Shining a spotlight on free software: the FSF's Licensing & Compliance Lab's interview series
From December 28th
In August of 2012, the Licensing & Compliance Lab kicked off a series of interviews with developers of free software. With 2015 in the rear-view mirror, we take a moment to look back on the series and highlight these great projects once again.
A look at the FSF tech team's tireless work for user freedom
From December 29th
Our tech team keeps the FSF and the GNU Project running -- and in order to fulfill their goals for 2016, they need your support. Find out what they have been working on and what is to come!
November/December 2015 — Gent and Mexico
*From December 30th"
RMS gave his speech "Copyright vs Community" at the Quetelet auditorium, Sint Pietersplein, in Gent, Belgium, on November 17th, to a diverse student audience. Later the same month, he was in Mexico. Here is a photoblog of his travels.
Brighten our light — expose Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)!
From December 22nd
Defective by Design's ray of light is desperately needed -- there is a long way to go before we have enough popular support to end DRM forever. But we run this campaign as a part-time project of only a handful of activists juggling this work and the needs of our parent organization, the Free Software Foundation. We need stable financial support so we can increase our focus on DRM, deepen bonds with other movements, organize more in-person protests and keep producing materials that speak to people from diverse backgrounds.
Free software activists come together to improve proposed U.S. Department of Education regulations
From December 22nd
The Free Software Foundation submitted comments from free software activists in response to the U.S. Department of Education's proposed new regulations on the licensing of grant-funded works.
From December 7th
The U.S. Department of Education has issued a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) with a request for comments from the public regarding new regulations relating to the licensing of grant-funded works -- both software and courseware.
Conservancy announces 2015: Year in Review series
From December 10th by Software Freedom Conservancy
Conservancy announces today a blog post series called, Conservancy 2015: The Year in Review. This series will run throughout December 2015 and will recap major events in free software movement that Conservancy impacted through the year of 2015.
MediaGoblin update: End-of-year state-of-the-goblin, Stripe retreat, and more
From December 18th by Christopher Allan Webber
There’s some particularly huge news in this update, including something about funding something oh hey this should help us get MediaGoblin 1.0 out the door, plus something about the standards work we’re doing, something something. So let’s dive in and resolve all those somethings, right?
MediaGoblin 0.8.1: Security release
From December 20th by Jessica Tallon
We have had a security problem in our OAuth implementation reported to us privately and have taken steps to address it. The security problem affects all versions of GNU MediaGoblin since 0.5.0. I have created a patch for this and released a minor version 0.8.1 (see the release notes page). It’s strongly advised that everyone upgrade as soon as they can.
TheSetup ChangeLog
From December 16th by Benjamin Mako Hill
Several years ago, I did a long interview with TheSetup — a fantastic website that posts of interviews with nerdy people that ask the same four questions: Who are you, and what do you do? What hardware are you using? And what software? What would be your dream setup?
Saving "FreeBasics"(Facebook) while destroying the Internet
From December 17th by Free Software Movement of India
FSMI calls upon all programmers, hacktivists, Facebook users and concerned citizens to rise to the occasion and work towards having a free Internet and stop the balkanization of the Internet.
Partnership with Microsoft: Unworthy of the values French national education advocates
From December 18th by April
At the end of 2011, François Hollande had made youth "the great cause of the presidential election." Once more, obviously, youth and the shaping of minds are being sacrificed to the economic interests of big US corporations. French Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, announced that the Ministry and Microsoft had signed a partnership.
The fight for freedom
From December 21st by Mike Saunders and Graham Morrison
Free software isn’t just about getting shiny new programs for no cash – it’s part of a much larger social movement. Mike Saunders and Graham Morrison explore the history and future of Free Libre Open Source Software.
GCC 5 Release series
The GNU project and the GCC developers are pleased to announce the release of GCC 5.3.
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. 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, January 6th from 12pm to 3pm EST (16:00 to 19:00 UTC). Details here:
LibrePlanet featured resource: Giving Guide Suggestions
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 Giving Guide Suggestions, which provides space to discuss future suggestions for the Giving Guide. 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 Brandon Invergo: 22 new GNU releases!
22 new GNU releases in the last month (as of December 24, 2015):
- autogen-5.18.7
- ccaudio2-2.2.0
- ccscript-5.1.0
- freeipmi-1.5.1
- gcc-5.3.0
- gdb-7.10.1
- global-6.5.2
- gnucash-2.6.10
- gnudos-1.8
- gnupg-2.1.10
- guile-clutter-1.12.2.1
- guile-gnome-2.16.4
- icecat-38.4.0-gnu1
- libmicrohttpd-0.9.48
- mcsim-5.6.2
- mdk-1.2.9
- nano-2.5.0
- parallel-20151222
- sipwitch-1.9.15
- ucommon-7.0.0
- wget-1.17.1
- xorriso-1.4.2
For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.
To download: nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors from https://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.
This month, we welcome Darshit Shah and Tim Ruehsen as new comaintainers of GNU wget and Evgeny Grin as a new co-maintainer of libmicrohttpd.
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.
If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.
As always, please feel free to write to us at maintainers@gnu.org with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
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/rms-speeches.html.
So far, Richard Stallman has the following events this month:
- January 25th, Stockholm, Sweden, Richard Stallman to speak in Stockholm, Sweden
- January 27th, Oestersund, Sweden, Richard Stallman to speak in Oestersund, Sweden
- February 1st, Fribourg, Switzerland, Richard Stallman to speak in Fribourg, Switzerland
Other FSF and free software events
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.
- January 30th/31st, Brussels, Belguim, John Sullivan, executive director to speak at FOSDEM, "Pick a peck of license pickers"
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:
- Matthias Herrmann
- Orlando Wingbrant
- Mr. Pete Batard / Akeo
- Kenyon Cotton
- Lyle Frost
- Matt Kraai
- Bruce Baumgart
- Ron Horrell
- Adam Lee
- Alain Schneble
- Chaitanya Bayapuneni
- Luiz Paternostro
- Sudheera Fernando
- Brett Smith
- Daniel Dehennin
- Sam Halliday
- Leah Rowe
- Pariksheet Nanda
- Yuji Shinokawa
- James Jones
- Olaf Kayser
- Jim Wright
- Bashar Al-Abdulhadi
- Minoru Sekine
- Cătălin Frâncu
- Shawn the R0ck
- Preston Maness
- Daniel Hoodin
- Alvin Khaled
- Blue Systems
- Charles Birk
- Mohan Noone
- Judicaël Courant
- Mirko Luedde
- Inouye Satoru
- Marcus Pemer
- Puduvankunnil Udayakumar
- Stephen Eichblatt
- Aaron Grothe
- Mikaël Cluseau
- Trevor Spiteri
- Tiago Vieira
- Alessandro Vesely
- Rui Ueyama
- Antonio Carzaniga
- Colin Carr
- Matteo Frigo
- Stanley Zisk
- Norman Richards
- Michael Tria
- René Genz
- Michael Cavanaugh
- Eric West
- Phillip Wolf
- Russell McManus
- Laurent Ostiz
- Roland Pesch
- Jonathan Howell
- Clifford Ireland
- Stephen Ippolito
- Arthur Gleckler
- Paul Cambria
- Steve Sprang
- Stefan Alexander Maric Meng
- Donald Craig
You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org/.
GNU copyright contributions
Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us defend the GPL and keep software free. The following individuals have assigned their copyright to the FSF in the past month:
- Lambda Coder (GNU Tramp)
- Pitomets Yuriy Volodymyrovych (Emacs)
- Steve Moreau (Emacs)
- Alexey Lebedev (Emacs)
- David Adam Barker (Emacs)
- American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Inc. (GCC)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your copyright to the FSF.
https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#dev
Take action with the FSF
Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at https://my.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://my.fsf.org/join
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.
Copyright © 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.