Free Software Supporter, Issue 45, December 2011

Free Software Supporter

Issue 45, December 2011

We've raised $151,923 for free software this month, and only need $148,077 more to reach our goal by January 31st! Help today at http://donate.fsf.org.

                            .-.                             .'   '.                                  *         ( 2012! )                /\         \     /       /\     /o \   /\    '- -'      / /    /_ _o\  \ \     "      \ \__.'  '   './ /      '       \___.---'---___/        )          /    @    @_     __.'         /  )     _   '   /_/        ;_-'    _(,\__,) / /          / \   \'uuuu' / /        ,'   "", '---' ' /       /       """,--, ,/      /  /       '"\\\ '            *************          * HAPPY GNU *          *   YEAR!   *          ************* 

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 52,702 other activists. That's 776 more than last month!

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

• Subscribe: http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter
• Widget: http://www.fsf.org/associate/widget

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

Multilingual? Send translations of the Supporter to campaigns@fsf.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• We want to do more for you: Help us raise $300k for free software by January 31st!
• LibrePlanet 2012 dates announced: March 24th-25th, 2012
• Make 2012 the Year of Accessibility for GNOME!
• Stallman class graduates from IMERIR
• Fixing rogue printers: don't trade one security threat for another
• It's been great!
• Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater, DRM-free
• EU court advisers: Owning software ideas detrimental to progress
• LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet Quebec
• GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
• Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
• Take action with the FSF!

We want to do more for you: Help us raise $300k for free software by January 31st!

With your support this past year, we made a difference and accomplished a great deal for free software around the world. But we don't just want to repeat this in 2012 -- we want to make an even bigger impact, and we need your help to do it.

To reach our fundraising goal, we need to raise just under $150,000 more over the next month. If we meet this goal, we will be confident that our existing program expenses will be covered for the remainder of the year, and we can focus on how best to start doing more.

You can help us get there by joining -- an FSF membership is $120/year, which is $10/month or 33 cents per day. Note that while you can contribute $10 or more automatically each month, we cannot yet automatically collect your 33 cents each day

We hope you've been enjoying our series of "We Want to Do More for You" articles, introducing you to the work of current FSF staff members and explaining what we'd do with increased resources.

• http://www.fsf.org/appeal/2011/we-want-to-do-more-for-you
• http://www.fsf.org/appeal/2011/part-2-we-want-to-do-more-for-you

LibrePlanet 2012 dates announced: March 24th-25th, 2012

Since 2009, the Free Software Foundation has run an annual conference in the Boston area for free software developers, activists, and the FSF's own associate members. This conference grew out of a smaller members-only event which ran successfully for six years.

The dates of our next conference have been announced -- March 24th and 25th 2012, at the University of Massachusetts campus in Boston. We have promised to make that conference bigger and better than ever, but we need your financial support to rent a comfortable venue, promote the event and provide audio and video recording.

• http://www.fsf.org/news/libreplanet-2012-press-release
• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-us-make-libreplanet-2012-a-success

Make 2012 the Year of Accessibility for GNOME!

GNOME Foundation executive director Karen Sandler announced the launch of a fundraising campaign for accessibility work on GNOME. Please donate to the campaign now and tell your friends!

• http://blogs.gnome.org/gnomg/2011/12/16/make-2012-the-year-of-accessibility-for-gnome/

Stallman class graduates from IMERIR

On 28 October, 2011, FSF president Richard Stallman delivered the graduation speech to the Institut Méditerranéen d'Étude et de Recherche en Informatique et Robotique (IMERIR) class of 2011, which was named after him. We have published photos of that event.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/20111028-perpignan

Fixing rogue printers: don't trade one security threat for another

Researchers at Columbia University recently demonstrated that many HP printers can have their firmware reprogrammed by specially crafted print jobs. This is a real and serious security threat, now that printers have a lot of the same functionality as computers. The solution is not to force printers to only run code singed by the manufacturer. Real security requires running free software controlled by its owners.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/restricted-printers

It's been great!

Our FSF campaigns intern Andrew has written about what he has done during this fall, especially his work improving the Free Software Directory. Thank you, Andrew. It was a real pleasure working with you!

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/its-been-great

Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater, DRM-free

Boston's Louis CK has a new show on his website, but he's doing things a little differently with this one. To quote his site: "No DRM, no regional restrictions, no crap. You can download this file, play it as much as you like, burn it to a DVD, whatever." And it's available in Ogg Theora!

• http://www.defectivebydesign.org/louisck-beacon

EU court advisers: Owning software ideas detrimental to progress

There are no patents involved in the SAS Institute v. World Programming Ltd case, but there's a very interesting statement from the European Court of Justice's legal advisers, the Advocates-General:

To accept that a functionality of a computer program can be protected as such would amount to making it possible to monopolize ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development.

It seems likely then that the Advocates-General would also find patent-based software idea monopolies detrimental to technological progress and industrial development. Good to know we might have an ally there.

• http://news.swpat.org/2011/12/eu-legal-advistors/

LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet Quebec

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 LibrePlanet Quebec, whose primary objective is to act as a liaison between the FSF (and similar international organizations) and what's happening in Quebec, in order to promote freedom across technology and the arts.

• http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Quebec

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

---

autoconf-archive-2011.12.21 icecat-9.0.1 autogen-5.13 liquidwar6-0.0.13beta automake-1.11.2 parallel-20111222 bayonne-2.99+3.0apionly2 sipwitch-1.1.4 freeipmi-1.0.10 stow-2.1.2 gnufdisk-2.0.0a1 ucommon-5.1.0 gnunet-0.9.1 vc-dwim-1.6 gnunet-gtk-0.9.1 xnee-3.11 gnutls-3.0.9 zile-2.4.3 gv-3.7.3

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.

This month I'd like to specially mention the first release of Stow in many years, thanks to much work by the new co-maintainer Adam Spiers.

This month we welcome Pouya Kary as the new maintainer of GNU Gleem.

Several GNU packages 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 GNU, 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.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events

• March 24th-25th, 2012 -- Boston, MA, USA -- LibrePlanet

http://www.fsf.org/events/libreplanet-2012

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.

#

The Free Software Supporter is edited by FSF volunteer Osama Khalid.

Copyright © 2011 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.

"Happy GNU Year" is copyright © 2011 Chris Webber and used with permission. It is also licensed as a separate work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

--
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Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

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[FSF] Part 2: We want to do more for you!

We've raised $107,694!
Can you help us reach our goal of $300,000 by January 31st?
Become an associate member for just $120 or $10/month

 

Thank goodness the FSF does not pay our founder and president, Richard M. Stallman (RMS). We couldn't afford him!

This year, RMS delivered over 100 talks in two dozen countries. He met with students, teachers, policymakers, and the general public, giving presentations in English, Spanish, and French. He addressed a variety of topics from the dangers of software patents to building a free digital society.

Somehow RMS also squeezed in time to write articles for the Guardian and Huffington Post, gave dozens of statements to press around the world, and responded to more email in a year than the average person will in a decade. Oh, and he wrote a little code too.

So you might ask, what is RMS's secret to being so productive while managing an insane travel and speaking schedule?

A big part of the answer: FSF staff member, Jeanne Rasata.

Jeanne's job title may officially be stated as "assistant to the president," but would you call Robin the assistant to Batman? Of course not.

She's a superhero in her own right!

Jeanne not only helps in coordinating and planning RMS's grueling travel and speaking schedule -- which often involves communicating in several different languages with event organizers -- she is also the front-line of communication for nearly all email sent to the FSF, and is our virtual front-desk for questions and requests from FSF associate members. (With over 40% of our funding coming from our members, this is no small task!) In her, um, remaining time, she's managed to start a new habit of sharing photos and accounts from some of the events she's helped to organize:

• Compilation from various cities
• Mexico
• Sweden
• UK

But, like a true superhero, Jeanne is not content with simply doing well in a demanding job. She wants to do a lot more for free software.

After editing the second edition of Free Software, Free Society last year (yes, she edits books too), Jeanne is eager to see this and other FSF publications translated into more languages. As a polyglot, she has the training and skills to tackle such a task, but, does she have the time?

After six years of interacting with members and free software activists around the globe, Jeanne knows the problems and challenges that individuals face when they first start getting into free software. She knows we can do better in publishing more comprehensive and multilingual sets of educational materials. But should she have to try to do it alone?

Support Jeanne's mission to do more for free software

From her secret home base in Germany, Jeanne helped the FSF accomplish a lot around the world this year for free software. But, next year, we want to support her in being able to do even more.

You can support this goal by helping us reach the fundraising target of $300,000 by January 31st. If we meet this goal, we will be confident that our existing program expenses will be covered until this time next year, and we can focus on how best to start doing more.

• Become an associate member  for just $120 or $10/month**
• Donate any amount
• Add our fundraising widget to your site or blog
• And simply let your friends and co-workers know about our fundraiser! 

**But you might consider pitching in $20/month to cover the cost of all those unpaid superhero sidekicks out there!

 

Your friends, 

Josh, Brett, Donald, Jasimin, Jeanne, John, Martin, Matt, Peter, Richard, and Ward

--
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Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

51 Franklin Street
Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1335
United States

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Your group membership has been activated

Welcome. Your membership in the "Free Software Supporters" group has been activated.

[FSF] We want to do more for you!

Help us raise $300,000 for free software by January 31st.

• Join: https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom

With your support this past year, we made a difference and accomplished a great deal for free software around the world. But we don't just want to repeat this in 2012 — we want to make an even bigger impact, and we need your help to do it.

To reach our fundraising goal, we need to raise just $229,000 more over the next seven weeks. If we meet this goal, we will be confident that our existing program expenses will be covered for the remainder of the year, and we can focus on how best to start doing more.

You can help us get there by joining -- an FSF membership is $120/year, which is $10/month or 33 cents per day. Note that while you can contribute $10 or more automatically each month, we cannot yet automatically collect your 33 cents each day.

• Join: https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom

Who we are and what we do

Last year we helped arrange over 110 events around the world, including our annual LibrePlanet conference. We responded to well over 14,000 email requests from our members, reporters, and the broader public. We gathered tens of thousands of signatures, and broke stories on computer user freedom into the mainstream media. We helped people learn about getting started with free software, and ran educational advocacy campaigns about the efforts of major corporations to eliminate free software. We took in over 100 new copyright assignments for the GNU Project, replied to over ten times that many free software licensing questions, and provided important distribution and development infrastructure for GNU hackers. We offered feedback to organizations and standards bodies, and gave guidance on legislation and policies being enacted around the world. We run a store and publishing company out of our office, shipping freely licensed books, printed t-shirts, and stickers to dozens of countries.

"The FSF is a small, humble organization of passionate individuals working tirelessly for our software freedom."

Benjamin Mako Hill, FSF board of directors

But we want to do more — a lot more. And the only way that can happen is if you help us grow.

The Free Software Foundation is a staff of ten dedicated and effective individuals, working with a global network of volunteers and supporters of the free software movement. Our president, Richard Stallman, does not receive a salary from the FSF. Every person and function in our organization is pushed to its capacity, and to do more, we need to grow.

Each week until the end of our fundraiser on January 31st, we will be presenting you short focus pieces detailing our work and our desire to do even more for you!

The goal of our fundraiser is to raise $300,000 for free software. Our goal as an organization is to spend your donations wisely and effectively, so that we can do our very best on your behalf at defending the rights of computer users around the world and encouraging free software development.

How you can help

• Join: https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom
• Donate: https://my.fsf.org/donate
• Add our fundraising widget to your site or blog: https://my.fsf.org/associate/widget
• And simply let your friends and co-workers know about our fundraiser! http://www.fsf.org/appeal/2011/we-want-to-do-more-for-you

Sincerely,

Josh, Brett, Donald, Jasimin, Jeanne, John, Martin, Matt, Peter, Richard, and Ward

PS. If you are in the US, please call your representatives this week to stop the Internet blacklist legislation, SOPA, from becoming a law! Visit http://fsf.org and follow the instructions on the pop-up window (if you do not see the pop-up, clear your cache and refresh).

--
Follow us on identi.ca at http://identi.ca/fsf | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS at http://fsf.org/blogs/RSS
Join us as an associate member at http://fsf.org/jf

Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

51 Franklin Street
Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1335
United States

You can unsubscribe to this mailing-list by visiting the link http://crm.fsf.org/index.php?q=civicrm/mailing/unsubscribe&reset=1&jid=125493&qid=1009163&h=5ba344cdfd4d3587.

To stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design,
and the Free Software Supporter newsletter, click this link:

http://crm.fsf.org/index.php?q=civicrm/mailing/optout&reset=1&jid=125493&qid=1009163&h=5ba344cdfd4d3587.

Help us make LibrePlanet 2012 a success!

The dates have been announced for our next conference -- March 24th and 25th 2012, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. A call for papers has also been announced. The conference will include talks from the FSF staff and board, GNU project contributors, and other members of the global free software community. I hope you will join us!

Since 2009, the Free Software Foundation has run an annual conference in the Boston area for free software developers, activists, and the FSF's own associate members. This conference grew out of a smaller members-only event which ran successfully for six years.

The conference has featured many free software luminaries over the years, including FSF president Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen of the Freedom Box Foundation and Software Freedom Law Center, EFF co-founder John Gilmore, GNOME Foundation executive director Karen Sandler, Jeremy Allison of the Samba project, Selena Deckelmann of PostgreSQL, Máirín Duffy of Fedora, and veteran GNU developer Rob Savoye.

We are planning the upcoming conference in the midst of our annual winter fundraiser, the time of year when we work the hardest at inviting new people to become FSF associate members. Our associate members are the most important means of financial support for the Free Software Foundation -- individuals in our community, making a financial commitment to software freedom. Because we want the conference to be an opportunity for these free software supporters to meet each other, our associate members can attend the conference without charge.

At last year's event, I promised we would make this conference bigger and better than ever before. As I and the other staff work hard to bring some of the pioneers of our community together, we are relying on your contributions to help make the financial aspect of this event possible, without hanging ugly corporate banners everywhere.

We just need 100 new members, and the conference is paid for entirely. Funding is necessary for us to provide a comfortable venue, devote enough staff time to promote it and have it run smoothly, and offer other features like audio and video recordings of the talks for future use.

• Chip in by becoming an associate member.

• Already a member? Thank you! If you can, give a gift membership or three, or make a one-time donation. A gift membership is especially great if you have a friend who's on the fence about coming to the conference.

• Finally, please join the mailing list for updates and be the first to get your ticket for LibrePlanet 2012.

--
Follow us on identi.ca at http://identi.ca/fsf | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS at http://fsf.org/blogs/RSS
Join us as an associate member at http://fsf.org/jf

Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

51 Franklin Street
Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1335
United States

You can unsubscribe to this mailing-list by visiting the link http://crm.fsf.org/index.php?q=civicrm/mailing/unsubscribe&reset=1&jid=125466&qid=960694&h=b84121e0d1e39544.

To stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design,
and the Free Software Supporter newsletter, click this link:

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Free Software Supporter, Issue 44, November 2011

Free Software Supporter

Issue 44, November 2011

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 51,926 other activists. That's 1,559 more than last month!

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

• Subscribe: http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter
• Widget: http://www.fsf.org/associate/widget

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

Multilingual? Send translations of the Supporter to campaigns@fsf.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation
• Amazon's Kindle source code: Much ado about nothing
• Announcing Debugging with GDB, Tenth Edition for Version 7.3.1
• Holiday Shopping Guide
• Richard Stallman on Russia Today
• Photos from Richard Stallman's talk in San Juan del Rio
• This holiday season donate support to free software!
• Will sprint for freedom: Report from the NYC CiviCRM code sprint
• Web search by the people, for the people
• LibrePlanet featured resource
• GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
• Upcoming Richard Stallman speeches
• Take action with the FSF

Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

Join us, Fight for the Future, EFF, Demand Progress, and most of the Internet in opposing the latest round of Internet Blacklist legislation. If you live in the US, it's vital that you contact your Senators today and ask them to oppose the legislation.

• http://fsf.org/blogs/community/stop-the-internet-blacklist-legislation
• http://americancensorship.org/index2.html

Amazon's Kindle source code: Much ado about nothing

This week there's been a lot of fuss about Amazon releasing source code for software on its Kindle devices, including the Kindle Fire. A lot of the hype we've seen is simply unwarranted; while you can download the source code that Amazon was legally required to publish, most of the software on the device remains proprietary, and every Kindle is still Defective by Design.

• http://fsf.org/blogs/licensing/amazons-kindle-source-code-much-ado-about-nothing

Announcing Debugging with GDB, Tenth Edition for Version 7.3.1

The GNU Press is happy to announce that the latest version of our popular GDB manual is now available at shop.fsf.org. The book features over 500 pages of documentation, updated to correspond with version 7.3.1 of the GNU Debugger.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/announcing-debugging-with-gdb-tenth-edition-for-version-7.3.1

Holiday Shopping Guide

Thinking of doing some holiday shopping? We hope that when purchasing for loved ones and friends that you'll consider avoiding companies and products designed to restrict freedom and consider supporting companies and organizations that defend freedom.

• http://www.defectivebydesign.org/holiday

Richard Stallman on Russia Today

The free software movement’s indefatigable founder Richard Stallman is known the world over as a software freedom activist and programming whiz. On Thursday, December 1, he will appear on RT’s Spotlight program.

• http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/richard-stallman-software-freedom-579/

Photos from Richard Stallman's talk in San Juan del Rio

Back in May 2011, Richard was in San Juan del Rio, Mexico, where several hundred people were in attendance to hear him speak, to give his speech "El movimiento del software libre."

Free software supporter José Oscar Alvarez Cervantes was there and took some great photographs which really captured the mood at the event.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/20110530-fsm-sanjuandelrio

This holiday season donate support to free software!

Opt out of the season's usual consumerism, and give a gift membership to your loved ones. Are you dreading the end of this month and all it entails in terms of mall-parking expeditions and frenzied spending amidst crowds of other buyers?

Membership donations are the most critical part of the FSF's funding, and an FSF membership will go to support our campaigns to defend and promote computer users' freedom. Your gift recipient will receive a number of benefits: an ultra-slim USB membership card, the opportunity to take advantage of the FSF-member e-mail forwarding service, free attendance at the annual LibrePlanet conference, a 20 percent discount on FSF merchandise, the FSF's biannual bulletin, and discounts on training classes.

• http://fsf.org/blogs/membership/this-holiday-season-donate-support-to-free-software

Will sprint for freedom: Report from the NYC CiviCRM code sprint

Late last month, FSF executive director John Sullivan attended a two-day code sprint in New York for CiviCRM, the free software constituent relationship management system. He wanted to say a few words about it because he thought it was a great experience, and a good model for other free software projects to follow (many already do!).

• http://ur1.ca/67wng

Web Search By The People, For The People

The YaCy project is releasing version 1.0 of its peer-to-peer free software search engine. The software takes a radically new approach to search. YaCy does not use a central server. Instead, its search results come from a network of currently over 600 independent peers. In such a distributed network, no single entity decides what gets listed, or in which order results appear.

• http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20111128-01.en.html

LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet 2012 Call for Papers

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 our call for papers for the upcoming LibrePlanet 2012 conference.

• http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2012/CFP

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

---

binutils-2.22 gnutls-2.12.14 libtasn1-2.11 bzr-2.4.2 gnutls-3.0.8 mediagoblin-0.1.0 ccrtp-2.0.2 grep-2.10 mit-scheme-9.1.1 emacs-23.3b gss-1.0.2 parallel-20111122 freeipmi-1.0.9 gtypist-2.9 recutils-1.4 gdbm-1.10 gtypist-2.9.1 sipwitch-1.1.3 gnu-c-manual-0.2.2 libcdio-0.83 ucommon-5.0.7 gnuhealth-1.4.2 libextractor-0.6.3 wdiff-1.1.0 gnunet-0.9.0pre4 libidn-1.23 xboard-4.5.3a gnustep/libobjc2-1.6 libmicrohttpd-0.9.17 xorriso-1.1.8

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.

This month we welcome Adam Spiers as the new co-maintainer of GNU Stow.

Several GNU packages 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 GNU, 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.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

• Dec 01, 2011 11:30 AM -- Moscow, Russia -- Defending your freedom

http://www.fsf.org/events/20111201-fs-moscow-2

• Dec 02, 2011 04:00 PM -- Moscow, Russia -- Copyright vs. Community

http://www.fsf.org/events/20111202-cvc-moscow

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 © 2011 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.

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In the US: Please join us on November 16th for American Censorship Day

American Censorship Day is Wednesday, November 16th: http://americancensorship.org

When you visit http://fsf.org this Wednesday, November 16th, you won't see the usual site. Instead, you'll see a preview of what the site could look like in the future, if we were accused of copyright infringement by companies who routinely manipulate copyright law to attack free expression and sharing on the Internet -- values fundamental to the free software movement.

You've probably heard that Old Media is trying to push through legislation that would obligate the US government to blacklist and censor sites they accuse of copyright infringement. This legislation is called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and PROTECT IP in the Senate -- it is no surprise that groups pushing hard to take away the public's freedom picked an analogy to raping and pillaging for one bill and the manipulative terminology of "intellectual property" for the other.

We've stopped bills like this before, but we didn't do it by sitting on our hands.

If you have a web site, I urge you to join us and our colleagues at organizations like Fight for the Future, EFF, Public Knowledge, Demand Progress, and the Participatory Politics Foundation, as we blacklist ourselves for a day to make it abundantly clear what the Internet will look like if this legislation passes.

If you don't have a web site, you can still help! Take action by writing to your representatives in the House and Senate, and help spread the word to your friends and colleagues.

Participate in American Censorship Day:

• http://americancensorship.org/

Spread the word:

• On Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/m7zan/the_mpaa_will_soon_be_able_to_block_americans/

• On your social networks (many are using the #blacklist tag): http://www.fsf.org/share?u=http://americancensorship.org&t=Stop%20the%20Internet%20Blacklist!

Learn more about the issue:

• https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/sopa-hollywood-finally-gets-chance-break-Internet
• http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/house-takes-senates-bad-internet-censorship-bill-makes-it-worse.ars
• http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html

Thank you for doing your part,

John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation

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[FSF] Stop the Internet Blacklist legislation

Join us, EFF, Demand Progress, and Fight for The Future in opposing the latest round of Internet Blacklist legislation.

Take action and sign petitions on the following sites:

• EFF
• Demand Progress
• Fight For the Future

The EFF explains the legislation, which is titled the PROTECT-IP Act in the Senate and SOPA in the House, as follows:

As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet's domain name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to redirect or dump users' attempts to reach certain websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the reliability and universality of the DNS evaporates.

It gets worse: Under SOPA's provisions, service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities. While PROTECT-IP targeted sites “dedicated to infringing activities,” SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would be enough). And it creates new powers to shut down folks who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of the world sees (not just the “U.S. authorized version”).

This legislation is an example of the severely flawed thinking you get when approaching issues in terms of "intellectual property".

We helped stop this bill before, but now it's back under a different name. Please take a minute and help stop this one too!

 

In Solidarity,

Josh, John, Matt, and Richard

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Free Software Supporter, Issue 43, October 2011

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 50,367 other activists. That's 2856 more than last month!

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

• Subscribe: http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter
• Widget: http://www.fsf.org/associate/widget

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

Multilingual? Send translations of the Supporter to campaigns@fsf.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Nominations close soon for the 14th annual Free Software Awards
• FSF calls for signatures to stop computers from becoming Windows-only
• Ada Lovelace Day: Karen Sandler
• GNU PDF project leaves High Priority Projects list: mission complete!
• GNU/Linux Inside stickers are back and better than ever!
• Behind the scenes of the new Free Software Directory
• Introducing Andrew, FSF campaigns intern
• LibrePlanet featured resource: Free VPS
• GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
• Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
• Take action with the FSF!

Nominations close soon for the 14th annual Free Software Awards

Time is running out for you to send your nominations for our annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software and Award for Projects of Social Benefit. Each year, we recognize the winners at the free software activism conference LibrePlanet tentatively scheduled for March 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Get your nomination in by Monday, November 7th, 2011!

• http://www.fsf.org/news/14th-nomination

FSF calls for signatures to stop computers from becoming Windows-only

In a response to Microsoft's announcement about "Secure Boot", the FSF has issued a statement that warned against the danger that, if done wrong, this system would have to be called Restricted Boot, because it could make computers incapable of running anything but Windows.

Please sign our statement to show your support for the freedom of installing free software operating system! Over 18,000 people have added their support so far... with your help we can push it over 30,000!

• http://www.fsf.org/news/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot-in-windows-8
• http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/

Ada Lovelace Day: Karen Sandler

October 7th was Ada Lovelace Day, a day in which we share stories about women in science and technology who have influenced us. FSF executive director, John Sullivan, took the chance to thank Karen Sandler for all the help she had provided to the free software community.

Karen worked for several years as a lawyer at the Software Freedom Law Center. She also co-hosts Free as in Freedom podcast and more recently she became the executive director at the GNOME Foundation.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ada-lovelace-day-karen-sandler

GNU PDF project leaves FSF High Priority Projects list!

We are pleased to announce that another project can be removed from our list of high priority free software projects: GNU PDF.

libpoppler, the most common PDF library on GNU/Linux, has matured its support for many of modern PDF features -- a move that means every free software user can have PDF software with capabilities that were until recently exclusive to proprietary software.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-pdf-project-leaves-high-priority-projects-list-mission-complete

GNU/Linux Inside stickers are back and better than ever!

We are proud to reintroduce our popular GNU/Linux Inside stickers. The new sticker features the same artwork as the classic GNU/Linux Inside sticker but is now on a much more durable sticker backing, perfect for putting on your phone or laptop.

In addition to that, we only have a limited supply of our classic stuffed gnu in stock. As they are no longer being manufactured, once these classic gnus are gone, they are gone!

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-linux-inside-stickers-are-back

Behind the scenes of the new Free Software Directory

Our press release covered the basics about why we have re-launched the Free Software Directory, and why people might want to both use it and help build it, but in this post, we explain in detail why we view the Directory as an important component of our strategy to promote free software.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/behind-the-scenes

Introducing Andrew, FSF campaigns intern

In this post, our Fall campaigns intern introduces himself to the free software community and writes about his internship plans.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/andrew2011intern

LibrePlanet featured resource: Free VPS

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 FreeVPS group, which provide information about virtual private servers that can run a free distribution of GNU/Linux. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.

• http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:FreeVPS

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

GNU releases this month:

• archimedes-2.0.0
• cflow-1.4
• coreutils-8.14
• denemo-0.9.2
• electric-9.01
• freedink-data-1.08.20111016
• freeipmi-1.0.8
• gcc-4.6.2
• glibc-2.14.1
• global-6.1
• gnufdisk-2.0.0a
• gnutls-2.12.12
• gnutls-3.0.5
• guile-2.0.3
• gworkspace-0.9.0
• health-1.4.0
• icecat-7.0.1
• libcdio-0.83
• libmicrohttpd-0.9.15
• libosip2-3.6.0
• libtasn1-2.10
• libtool-2.4.2
• liquidwar6-0.0.11beta
• mediagoblin-0.0.5
• mit-scheme-9.1
• mpfr-3.1.0
• octave-3.4.3
• parallel-20111022
• sipwitch-1.1.2
• solfege-3.20.4
• tramp-2.2.3
• ucommon-5.0.6
• xboard-4.5.3a
• xorriso-1.1.6
• zile-2.4.2

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.

Several GNU packages 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 GNU, 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.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

• 2011-11-02 A Free Digital Society London, United Kingdom -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111102-fds-london
• 2011-11-03 It's Free Software and It Gives You Freedom London, United Kingdom -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111103-fs-london
• 2011-11-04 A Free Digital Society Oxford, United Kingdom -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111104-fds-oxford
• 2011-11-08 Free Software and Your Freedom Stockholm, Sweden -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111108-fs-stockholm
• 2011-11-21 Copyright vs. Community Newark, DE -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111121-cvc-newark
• 2011-11-30 For a Free Digital Society Moscow, Russia -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111130-fds-moscow

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.

---

The Free Software Supporter is edited by FSF volunteer Osama Khalid.

Copyright © 2011 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.

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[FSF] Stand up for your freedom to install free software

Dear Supporters,

• Please join us in signing the statement: Stand up for your freedom to install free software

The free software movement has come a long way over the past 25+ years. While we still face many challenges ahead for us to create a world in which it is normal and expected for computer users to have freedom, we have made steady progress. Right now, however, there is a potential threat that could put us back years. Microsoft has announced that if computer makers wish to distribute machines with the Windows 8 compatibility logo, they will have to implement a measure called "Secure Boot."

When done correctly, "Secure Boot" is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from loading unauthorized binary programs when booting. In practice, this means that computers implementing it won't boot unauthorized or modified operating systems. This could be a feature deserving of the name, as long as the user is able to authorize the programs she wants to use, so she can run free software written and modified by herself or people she trusts.

However, we are concerned that Microsoft and hardware manufacturers will implement these boot restrictions in a way that will prevent users from booting anything other than unmodified Windows. In this case, a better name for the technology would be Restricted Boot, since such a requirement would be a severe restriction on computer users and not a security feature at all.

We're looking at a world in which it could become impossible for the average user to install GNU/Linux on any new computer, so too much is at stake for us to wait and see if computer manufacturers will do the right thing. "Secure Boot" could all too easily become a euphemism for restriction and control by computer makers and Microsoft -- freedom and security necessitate users being in charge of their own computers.

So please, join us in signing this statement against Restricted Boot, and consider encouraging your friends, family, and colleagues to do the same.

If you are part of an organization or company that would like to prominently show their support, please contact us at campaigns@fsf.org.

For your convenience, here is a list of additional articles and resources related to this statement:

• Public statement: http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement
• Press release: http://www.fsf.org/news/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot-in-windows-8
• Detailed explanation of the issue: http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot

Sincerely,

John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation

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Your group membership has been activated

Welcome. Your membership in the "Free Software Supporters" group has been activated.

Nominations are open for the 14th annual Free Software awards

Nominations are open for the 14th annual Free Software awards

BOSTON, October 4, 2011 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU Project today announced the opening of nominations for the 14th annual Free Software Awards.

Award for the Advancement of Free Software

The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software is presented annually by FSF president Richard Stallman to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software.

Last year, Rob Savoye was recognized with the Award for the Advancement of Free Software for his contributions to compiler and testing tools, and his leadership of the GNU Gnash project, a fully-free replacement for Adobe Flash. Savoye joined a prestigious list of previous winners including John Gilmore, Wietse Venema, Harald Welte, Ted Ts'o, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Alan Cox, Larry Lessig, Guido van Rossum, Brian Paul, Miguel de Icaza and Larry Wall.

Award for Projects of Social Benefit

Nominations are also open for the 2011 Award for Projects of Social Benefit. The Social Benefit award recognizes a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society through collaboration to accomplish an important social task.

Last year, The Tor Project received this award, in recognition of its work to fight against surveillance inflicted by increasingly restrictive governments and to improve the safety and wellbeing of all Internet citizens.

Previous winners have included the Internet Archive, Creative Commons, Groklaw, the Sahana project, and Wikipedia.

Eligibility

In the case of both awards, previous winners are not eligible for nomination, but renomination of other previous nominees is encouraged. Only individuals are eligible for nomination for the Advancement of Free Software Award (not projects), and only projects can be nominated for the Social Benefit Award (not individuals).

The award committee has not been finalized, but is made up of previous winners, free software activists and FSF president, Richard Stallman.

Please send your nominations to award-nominations@gnu.org, on or before Monday, November 7th, 2011. Please submit nominations in the following format:

• In the email message subject line, either put the name of the person you are nominating for the Award for Advancement of Free Software, or put the name of the project for the Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

• Please include, in the body of your message, an explanation (40 lines or less) of the work done and why you think it is especially important to the advancement of software freedom or how it benefits society, respectively.

• Please state, in the body of your message, where to find the materials (e.g., software, manuals, or writing) which your nomination is based on.

Information about the previous awards can be found at http://www.fsf.org/awards. Winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the LibrePlanet conference tentatively scheduled for March 2012, in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Free Software Supporter Issue 42, September 2011

Free Software Supporter

Issue 42, September 2011

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 47,511 other activists. That's 1647 more than last month!

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

• Subscribe: http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter
• Widget: http://www.fsf.org/associate/widget

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at http://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

Multilingual? Send translations of the Supporter to campaigns@fsf.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• FSF re-launches its Free Software Directory, with over 6500 programs listed
• XKCD: Sharing
• EU: A presentation about the unitary patent
• Petition the White House to end software patents
• Amazon Kindle extinguishes the fire of learning
• Keep the pressure on Barnes and Noble
• Help fix the wireless firmware problem on the Openmoko GTA04
• Dyne:bolic GNU/Linux hits version 3!
• Is Android really free software?
• FSF speaks against patent and DRM provisions at Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiators' meeting
• Over 1,000 sign This American Life petition for Ogg Vorbis
• New FSF membership benefit: Digital Credit Union eligibility
• FSF speaks against patent and DRM provisions
• LibrePlanet featured resource: Support free distributions with BitTorrent
• GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
• Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
• Take action with the FSF!

FSF re-launches its Free Software Directory, with over 6500 programs listed

The FSF has re-launched the Free Software Directory as a wiki system based on Mediawiki.

Because each entry is individually checked and tested, users know that any program they come across in the Directory will be free software with free documentation and without proprietary software requirements. Programs that run on proprietary operating systems like Mac and Windows are listed, but only if they also run fully on GNU/Linux. The new version of the Directory will continue to provide users these same assurances, but it has been rebuilt so that members of the free software community can become familiar with the criteria and then work together to curate and grow the catalog.

• Read the behind the scenes details -- http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/behind-the-scenes.
• Read the press release -- http://www.fsf.org/news/directory-relaunch.
• Find out how YOU can participate -- http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate.

Big thanks go to Josh Gay and Peter Olson at the FSF for their work in getting this launched.

XKCD: Sharing

If you haven't seen Sharing by xkcd, it's worth a look.

In the strip, some friends discover a tree with a USB port sticking out of it. Upon connecting a computer to it, they discover an ebook -- Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, as a DRM'd Amazon Kindle file. The book cannot be opened and sharing is not allowed.

• http://xkcd.com/956/

EU: A presentation about the unitary patent

The battles seen in the US over software patents could spread to the UK and the rest of Europe if the unitary patent is allowed to come into force.

The folks at unitary-patent.eu have made a video to explain the dangers of this proposal:

• http://www.unitary-patent.eu/content/presentation-about-unitary-patent

For further information, see

Petition the White House to end software patents

Sign the WhiteHouse.gov petition to "Direct the Patent Office to Cease Issuing Software Patents".

• Sign here: http://wh.gov/gEm -- but, be please note, you may want to turn off JavaScript as some of the files are nonfree programs.

• Read about the White House's petition review and response process and our reasons why we think it's worth signing this petition: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/petition-the-white-house-to-end-software-patents

Amazon Kindle extinguishes the fire of learning

Amazon came out with their newest line of Kindle ebook readers this week, including the appropriately named "Kindle Fire".

To quote their TV commercial:

"The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all."

This device does not kindle that fire -- it extinguishes it, with more of the same digital restrictions.

• http://www.defectivebydesign.org/kindle-fire

Keep the pressure on Barnes and Noble

A few weeks ago, we asked you to reach out to Barnes & Noble about their Nook eBook reader.

Many of you did, and while Barnes & Noble have yet to formally respond, we can continue to put pressure on them.

If we continue to put pressure on B&N, we can use the increased pressure from Amazon's Kindle Fire as a reason to make the Nook a device for everyone, not just large book publishers.

• http://www.defectivebydesign.org/nook/blogs/keep-the-pressure-on-barnes-and-noble-nook

Help fix the wireless firmware problem on the Openmoko GTA04

Occasionally, we post tasks that we'd like to draw specific attention to. Here is one such task: help fix the wireless firmware problem on the Openmoko GTA04 and move us closer to a phone we can recommend.

The Openmoko GTA04 is currently at the prototyping stage. For us to be able to recommend it, a piece of nonfree software that is loaded to allow access to wireless network hotspots needs to be replaced.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/task2-openmoko

Dyne:bolic GNU/Linux hits version 3!

A new version of the fully free GNU/Linux distribution Dyne:bolic is now available! Dyne:bolic is a user-friendly, multimedia-oriented, deb-based system.

The new version introduced optimization for old hardware, docking, nesting, good introductory documentation, the modules mechanism and more possibilities to customize and to cluster machines on the same network in various ways.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/dynebolic-three

Is Android really free software?

In this Guardian-published article, FSF president and founder Richard Stallman writes about how free Android really is and explains the difference between Android and GNU/Linux systems.

Google's smartphone code is often described as 'open' or 'free' – but when examined by the Free Software Foundation, it starts to look like something different

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/19/android-free-software-stallman

FSF speaks against patent and DRM provisions at Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiators' meeting

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a free trade agreement currently under negotiation that could require member countries to enact strict copyright and patent legislation that hurts free software users and developers. Our license compliance engineer Brett Smith talked about the FSF's opposition to these terms with negotiators last weekend; in this blog post, he shares his perspective on the event.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-speaks-against-tpp

Over 1,000 sign This American Life petition for Ogg Vorbis

In late July, This American Life aired an episode titled “When Patents Attack!” that reported on some of the problems that software patents cause developers and businesses. We just delivered the first batch of signatures to the show, thanking them and asking them to be part of the software patent solution by using a free format. If you haven't signed yet, you still can!

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tal-petition-delivered

New FSF membership benefit: Digital Credit Union eligibility

Free Software Foundation members living in the US are now eligible to join the Digital Federal Credit Union for their banking!

Credit unions are cooperative and often nonprofit financial institutions which provide the same services as banks, but because they are member-owned, there can be dramatic differences from banks in the cost of borrowing money and use of their services.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/membership/new-fsf-membership-benefit-digital-credit-union-eligibility

LibrePlanet featured resource: Help support free distributions using BitTorrent

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 http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Free_distros_torrent, which provides a comprehensive listing of free software only distributions. BitTorrent works by splitting up a large file into hundreds and thousands of smaller files, which are downloaded equally from all the people who are sharing, or seeding, the file. You can do your bit to help get these distributions to the maximum number of people by seeding their installer CD images.

• http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Free_distros_torrent

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

archimedes-1.5.0 glpk-4.47 libextractor-python-0.6 autoconf-archive-2011.09.17 gnubatch-1.4 libmicrohttpd-0.9.14 bzr-2.4.1 gnuchess-6.0.1 mediagoblin-0.0.5 coreutils-8.13 gnuhealth.1.3.3 nettle-2.4 diffutils-3.2 gnunet-0.9.0pre3 solfege-3.20.3 fdisk-1.3.0a gnunet-gtk-0.9.0pre3 source-highlight-3.1.5 freeipmi-1.0.6 gnutls-2.12.11 wdiff-1.0.1 gdb-7.3.1 gnutls-3.0.3 wget-1.13.4 gengetopt-2.22.5 gsegrafix-1.0.6 zile-2.4.1 global-6.0 icecat-6.0.2

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.

This month I'd like to specially mention the first release of MediaGoblin as a GNU package, http://www.gnu.org/software/mediagoblin/, aiming to support decentralized services for media hosting.

Several GNU packages 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 GNU, see http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

Finally, I regret to report that Brendan Kehoe, a long-time GNU contributor and supporter, passed away earlier this year http://www.zen.org. He will be greatly missed.

As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

2011-10-01 Free as in Freedom Scranton, PA * http://www.fsf.org/events/20111001-faif-panel-scranton

2011-10-12 Free Software for a Free Society Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland * http://www.fsf.org/events/20111012-fs-yverdonlesbains

2011-10-18 A Free Digital Society Zurich, Switzerland * http://www.fsf.org/events/20111018-fds-zurich

2011-10-19 What Makes Digital Inclusion Good or Bad? Paris, France * http://www.fsf.org/events/20111019-fs-paris

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.

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The Free Software Supporter is edited by FSF volunteer Osama Khalid.

Copyright © 2011 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.

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