Free Software Supporter -- Issue 198, October 2024
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Free software in the EU needs your help! Join the international effort before September 20
- Copyright keepers just destroyed a huge digital library
- Here's how Apple is making iPhone 16 more repairable
- The end of Finale: Reflections and advice for composing in a new era
- Will a vital 'Right To Repair' for the U.S. military get enacted now?
- September GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Software/research/ExternalRepositories
- September GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Fourteen new GNU releases!
- FSF and other free software events
- Thank GNUs!
- GNU copyright contributions
- Translations of the Free Software Supporter
- Take action with the FSF!
View this issue online here: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/october.
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We moved! The FSF has changed our address. Find us at: https://www.fsf.org/about/contact.
Free software in the EU needs your help! Join the international effort before September 20
From September 11 and September 16
After the European Commission cut €27 million to fund the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, it became apparent how insecure financial support is for free software in Europe. To protect European technological autonomy, now and beyond, independent and digital infrastructure should have free software at the very core. The FSF joined the Free Software Foundation Europe's (FSFE) call to action to urge the European Commission (EC) to ensure long-term and dedicated funding for free software projects and called for advocates to join them in their efforts.
- https://fsfe.org/news/2024/news-20240911-01.en.html.
- https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/free-software-in-the-eu-needs-your-help.
Copyright keepers just destroyed a huge digital library
From September 20 by David Moscrop
The pandemic-era National Emergency Library (NEL), an Internet Archive (IA) program, suffered a major blow after an appeals court ruled that the lending practices of the NEL were in violation of copyright law. Under the NEL program, more library users checked out digital copies than were permitted under the Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology confining these materials. Following an intense legal battle between the IA and a coalition of large publishers, the IA was ultimately forced to remove over five hundred thousand books from the NEL. The IA isn't giving up yet, but it's going up against a massive hydra and could use your help to restore public access to the books that were taken, as well as preserve and distribute information far into the future. To learn more about DRM, visit https://defectivebydesign.org.
- https://jacobin.com/2024/09/copyright-internet-archive-library-lawsuit.
- https://www.fsf.org/news/worldwide-community-of-activists-protest-overdrive-and-others-forcing-drm-upon-libraries.
Here's how Apple is making iPhone 16 more repairable
From September 18 by Brian Heater
Right to repair continues to gain momentum, enough so that tech giants such as Apple are feeling the pressure to make certain models of the iPhone more repairable. While the shift to making a few components of the iPhone 16 does seem indicative that the fight to repair is working, this change is especially meager considering Apple's long-term history in restricting user repair, going so far as to lobbying to make it illegal for users to modify their own devices. Right now, very limited repairs can be made and they are either quite difficult if not impossible without purchasing their proprietary Self-Service Repair Kit. Additionally, Apple itself clearly states that these self-repair kits and manuals are designed for people with extensive prior experience in repairing electronic devices, which is probably not the average user. It seems that this is more of an attempt to appease the demands of fight to repair activists, and we say it's nowhere near enough.
- https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/18/heres-how-apple-is-making-iphone-16-more-repairable.
- https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2023/spring/free-software-at-the-core-of-the-right-to-repair.
- https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/fight-to-repair.
- https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/apple.
The end of Finale: Reflections and advice for composing in a new era
From September 17 by I Care If You Listen and August 28 by Dale Lyles
After almost forty years, Finale, a widely-used nonfree music composition program and the only one that can read .musx files, is ending development and technical support within the next eleven months, as well as the ability to authorize or reauthorize Finale. The slow death of this program will cost thousands if not millions of Broadway and indie artists immeasurable stress and resources as they rush to obtain new software, learn how to use it, and then convert massive libraries of materials to new files before Finale no longer works as it once did. The consequences of Finale ending are unfortunate reminders of what can happen when one company hoards the source code to a program and denies users freedom.
- https://icareifyoulisten.com/2024/09/end-of-finale-reflections-advice/.
- https://www.lichtenbergianism.com/blog/2024/8/28/arggh.
Will a vital 'Right To Repair' for the U.S. military get enacted now?
From September 13 by Charles Tiefer
An important right to repair provision, 828, in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is up for passage as this session of Congress wraps up, specifically on the right to repair for the United States military. As right to repair for U.S. military equipment and weapons stands currently, vendors hold all of the cards and warranties, leaving the U.S. military without the parts, manuals, and skills to repair as needed, including in circumstances where contractor support is expensive, unreliable, or nonexistent. While provision 828 does have strong bipartisan support, it is facing equally if not stronger opposition from more than 60 state and national manufacturing and trading groups.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2024/09/11/will-a-vital-right-to-repair-for-the-us-military-get-enacted-now/.
- https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2023/spring/free-software-at-the-core-of-the-right-to-repair.
- https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/fight-to-repair.
September GNU Emacs news
From September 30 by Sacha Chua
In these issues: Testing Emacs 30 pre-releases, quick tips on using profiler-start, and more!
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 Libera.Chat, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Libera.Chat is accessible from any IRC client -- Everyone's welcome!
The next meeting is Friday, October 4 from 12:00 to 15:00 EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC). Details here: https://www.fsf.org/events/fsd-2024-10-04-irc.
LibrePlanet featured resource: Software/research/ExternalRepositories
Every month on the LibrePlanet wiki, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help. For this month, we are highlighting Software/research/ExternalRepositories, which attempts to summarize research about third party package managers, especially to understand which ones can be added in or kept in FSDG-compliant distributions, and which ones should be removed or replaced. 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.
September GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Fourteen new GNU releases!
Fourteen new GNU releases in the last month (as of September 30, 2024):
- bash-5.2.37
- gama-2.31
- gawk-5.3.1
- gdb-15.2
- g-golf-0.8.0-rc7
- gnupg-2.5.1
- libtool-2.5.3
- linux-libre-6.11-gnu
- mtools-4.0.45
- nano-8.2
- parallel-20240922
- stow-2.4.1
- texinfo-7.1.1
- unifont-16.0.01
For a full list with descriptions, please see https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/september-gnu-spotlight-with-amin-bandali.
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 most reliably from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/. Optionally, you may find faster download speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing from the list of mirrors published at https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html, or you may use https://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 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 me, bandali@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
FSF and other free software events
- October 27-29, 2024, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC, ATO
- November 8-9, 2024, Online and University of Washington, Seattle, WA, SeaGL
Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, and 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:
- Rolando Garza
- Tomislav Pintaric
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 GNU GPL and keep software free. The following individuals have assigned their copyright to the FSF (and allowed public appreciation) in the past month:
- Alvaro Ramirez (GNU EMACS)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your copyright to the FSF.
Translations of the Free Software Supporter
El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la versión en español haz click aquí: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/octubre.
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Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la version française cliquez ici: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/octobre.
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O Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a versão em português, clique aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/outubro.
Para alterar as preferências do usuário e receber as próximas edições do Supporter em português, clique aqui: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id={contact.contact_id}&{contact.checksum}.
Take action with the FSF!
Contributions from thousands of individual associate 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 always looking for volunteers. From rabble-rousing to hacking, from issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaigns section and take action on software patents, Digital Restrictions Management, free software adoption, OpenDocument, and more.
Do you read and write Portuguese and English? The FSF is looking for translators for the Free Software Supporter. Please send an email to campaigns@fsf.org with your interest and a list of your experience and qualifications.
Copyright © 2024 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/.