Join the petition asking for This American Life in Ogg Vorbis, and help us reach 5,000 signatures

This American Life still hasn't responded to your many messages asking them to use Ogg Vorbis for their downloads and streams. Sign the petition and make your voice heard!

Ogg supporters have sent great emails to This American Life thanking them for their show detailing the problems with software patents and asking them to be part of the solution by using Ogg Vorbis instead of patent-encumbered MP3. Here's one letter, from Matt Kraai:

Thank you for creating "When Patents Attack!" As one of the 80% of software developers who believe that software patents are harmful both to the software industry and to society as a whole, I was happy to see you bringing awareness of this issue to a larger audience.

As you're probably aware by now, the MP3 audio file format that you use to distribute your episodes online is also covered by some software patents. Would you please consider also distributing the episodes using the Ogg Vorbis format? It produces files of comparable size and quality and is not covered by any software patents.

Thanks again for such a great episode,

--
Matt Kraai

We'd like to thank those of you who have written in to the show so far; you all have made countless great points to help illustrate how the MP3 file format has suffered from the same kinds of problems they discussed in last month's episode.

Sadly, we haven't seen or heard about any response from This American Life, even after we made an Ogg version of the show ourselves and offered it to them. We've successfully convinced other public broadcasters like WBUR to use Ogg Vorbis after making that first contact, and we think we can repeat that success here if we can just get a real conversation started. To help with that, we've started a petition to show them just how many people would like to see This American Life available as Ogg Vorbis.

Make your voice heard by signing the petition today! We're working to get 5,000 signatures by September 7, when we'll deliver the first batch, so sign now and make sure you're part of it. It's really easy—we're only asking your name, email address, and a couple of questions about how much you love This American Life and local public radio. After that, you'll get a verification email; click the link in it, and you're done!

Once you've signed, there are other ways you can help:

• Spread the word about this petition by sharing it with your friends and colleagues—the more signatures we get, the better.

• If you haven't already, you can still send a personal note to This American Life asking them to use Ogg Vorbis. You can write them email at web@thislife.org (don't forget to send us a copy at campaigns@fsf.org), or send a message on Twitter to @ThisAmerLife. Remember that you don't need to use the Twitter website (with its proprietary JavaScript) directly when you do this; instead, you can connect your Twitter account to your Identi.ca account and send it that way, or use a local free software client like Gwibber or HeyBuddy.

Thanks again for your support!
--
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

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Android GPLv2 termination worries: one more reason to upgrade to GPLv3

Distributors lose their rights when they violate GPLv2, but the Free Software Foundation is more forgiving in its license enforcement to encourage continued participation in the free software community. GPLv3 has improved termination provisions to codify this approach, giving developers one more reason to upgrade.

Thanks to Android's commercial success, the kernel Linux, which is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2, is being distributed more than ever before. Whenever someone distributes GPL-covered software, they must follow a few conditions set forth in the license. These conditions try to give anyone who receives the software both the legal permission and the practical tools necessary to change and share the software themselves if they wish.

Not all of the companies that distribute Android heed these conditions. We've witnessed an uptick in GPL violation reports—some convincing, others incomplete or misinformed—against these vendors. We generally can't pursue these violations directly, because only copyright holders can enforce free software licenses in most countries, and few Android devices use FSF-copyrighted code. However, people still seek out our opinions about the relevant parts of the GPL, and that discussion has recently turned to GPLv2's termination provisions. Section 4 of the license says, “You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.”

When we enforce the license of FSF-copyrighted software, we give violators back the rights they had after they come into compliance. In our experience, developers of Linux are happy to do the same. Unfortunately, even if we assume they all would restore these rights, it would be extremely difficult to have them all formally do so; there are simply too many copyright holders involved, some of whom haven't worked on the project in years or even decades.

When we wrote GPLv2 in 1991, we didn't imagine that a free software project might have hundreds of copyright holders, making it so difficult to get a violator's rights restored. We want it to be easy for a former violator to know that they're still allowed to change and share the software; if they stop distribution because of legal uncertainty, fewer people will have free software in the long run. Hence, we created new termination provisions for GPLv3. These terms offer violators a simple method to earn back the rights they had. Parties who violate the license have their rights restored provisionally as soon as they come back into compliance, and permanently if no copyright holders terminate those rights within sixty days of the last violation. Furthermore, first-time violators will have their rights restored permanently if they come into compliance within thirty days of receiving such notice.

GPLv3's approach has several advantages over GPLv2's. By having the license grant forgiveness by default, instead of terminating rights permanently, it better matches our community's expectations and normal compliance strategy. It will be easier for violators to get their rights restored by any copyright holders who do terminate rights, because the notice will establish a clear way for the violator to get in touch. Finally, GPLv3's termination provisions don't sacrifice anything we need: the license's conditions still do their best to protect software freedom, and copyright holders will still be able to legally enforce the license against parties that don't comply.

This is just one of many reasons why GPLv3 is better than GPLv2. This change has already given some companies the reassuring nudge they needed to start distributing GPL-covered software, and we expect to see more of that in the future. When we give distributors a chance to rejoin the free software community and fix any mistakes they might make—in stark contrast to most proprietary software licenses—we get both compliance and more allies. GPLv3 improves on earlier versions of the license by codifying that enforcement strategy. For this reason and others, we urge developers who are releasing projects under GPLv2 to upgrade to GPLv3. Companies that sell products that use Android can help out by encouraging the developers of Linux to make the switch to GPLv3.

--

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[FSF] Free Software Supporter -- Issue 39, June 2011

Free Software Supporter

Issue 39, June 2011

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 43,202 other activists. That's 1,445 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

• Statement on OpenOffice.org's move to Apache
• AVM violating license of the Linux kernel
• Two new projects can help free software replace Skype
• Are you up to the Tor challenge?
• Introducing the Compliance Lab's summer intern
• Holding Nintendo Accountable
• LibrePlanet featured resource
• GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
• Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
• Take action with the FSF!

Statement on OpenOffice.org's move to Apache

Oracle, IBM, and the Apache Software Foundation jointly announced earlier this month that OpenOffice.org would become an official Apache project. Users and contributors should be aware that it will become easier for proprietary software developers to distribute OpenOffice.org as nonfree software since all Apache projects are distributed under the terms of the Apache License.

While we do recommend the Apache License in specific situations, we do not believe it is the best choice for software like OpenOffice.org. This situation calls for copyleft, because the gains free software stands to make from a non-copyleft license don't justify giving a handout to proprietary software developers.

• http://www.fsf.org/news/openoffice-apache-libreoffice

AVM violating license of the Linux kernel

A legal case is being heard before the District Court of Berlin which may have enormous consequences for the way that software is developed and distributed. The adversaries in the case are the manufacturer and distributor of DSL routers AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM), and Cybits AG (Cybits) which produces children's web-filtering software.

The case was brought to court by AVM with the aim of preventing Cybits from changing any parts of the firmware used in AVM's routers, including the Linux kernel. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and http://gpl-violations.org consider AVM's action as a broad attack against the principles of free software, and thus against the thousands of individuals and companies developing, improving and distributing free software.

• http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.en.html

Two new projects can help free software replace Skype

Skype has been in the news a lot lately: Microsoft agreed to buy the company, their network has gone down twice recently, and they're threatening to take unspecified action against developers who try to write free software to make calls on their system.

There are two free software project that stand to make Skype obsolete: GNU Free Call and WebRTC and they both could benefit from your contribution!

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/skype-replacement-projects

Are you up to the Tor challenge?

In March at the LibrePlanet 2011 conference, we presented the 2010 Award for Projects of Social Benefit to the Tor Project for enabling millions of people to experience freedom of access and expression on the Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and anonymity.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is encouraging people to run more Tor nodes to help keep up with the increasing number of people who rely on Tor. The FSF is already running a Tor node and we hope some of you reading this will take the challenge too.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tor-challenge

Introducing the Compliance Lab's summer intern

We recently welcomed William Theaker at FSF as our summer's licensing intern. In a blog post, he wrote about what brought him to free software, and the goals for his internship.

• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/william-theaker-intro

Holding Nintendo Accountable

Over a period of 10 days, 138 people from twenty different countries made donations of $10 or more in order to send Nintendo's President and COO, Reggie Fils-Aime, a total of 220 bricks.

Earlier this month, our volunteers assembled the cardboard bricks and we wrapped each one of them and attached our signed letter calling for dropping DRM and changing the terms of service.

• http://www.defectivebydesign.org/holding-nintendo-accountable

LibrePlanet featured resource: Free System Distribution Checklist

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.

This month, we are featuring the Free System Distribution Checklist. This page provides a checklist of practical steps you can take to see whether or not a particular distribution complies with the "Free System Distribution Guidelines".

• Free System Distribution Checklist: http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Free_System_Distribution_Checklist
• Free System Distribution Guidelines: http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html

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

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

New GNU releases:

autogen-5.12 gprolog-1.4.0 parallel-20110622 binutils-2.21.1 grep-2.9 parted-3.0 ccrtp-2.0.0 help2man-1.40.4 sipwitch-1.0.3 gawk-4.0.0 icecat-5.0 solfege-3.20.0 gcc-4.3.6 libgcrypt-1.5.0 ucommon-5.0.3 gcc-4.6.1 libmicrohttpd-0.9.12 unrtf-0.21.2 glibc-2.14 libzrtpcpp-2.0.0 xorriso-1.1.0.pl01 global-5.9.6 mtools-4.0.17 gnutls-2.12.7 octave-3.4.2

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

2011-07-01 The Danger of Software Users Don't Control Vienna, Austria

• http://www.fsf.org/events/20110615-cvc-berlin

2011-07-12 Philosophie et histoire du logiciel libre Strasbourg, France

• http://www.fsf.org/events/20110701-dsudc-vienna

2011-07-13 Réflexions quant à l'utilisation et la modification du droit d'auteur en faveur de la Liberté Strasbourg, France

• http://www.fsf.org/events/20110613-roundtable-strasbourg

Other FSF and free software events

2011-08-25 -- 2011-08-28 GNU Hackers Meeting Paris, France

• http://www.fsf.org/events/20110825-ghm-paris

2011-07-13 John Sullivan at the Greater Hartford GNU/Linux User Group Hartford, CT

• http://www.fsf.org/events/20110713-johns-ghglug

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.

--

Sent from the 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.

John Sullivan, Executive Director

John started working with GNU Press and the Free Software Foundation in 2003 and then became the FSF's first Campaigns Manager, working on outreach efforts like Defective by Design, BadVista, and PlayOgg. In 2011, John became the Executive Director after four years as Manager of Operations.

His background is mainly in the humanities, with an MFA in Writing and Poetics and a BA in Philosophy, but he has been spending too much time with computers and online communities since the days of the Commodore 64. He's become a dedicated GNU Emacs user after first trying it around 1996, and contributes code to several of its extensions.

Prior to the FSF, John worked as a college debate team instructor for both Harvard and Michigan State University.

Build up from Schools, Inspire The Children and Make Them Creative

I just agree with Thomas Thym. We have to introduce Free Software from Schools.

As I know 'Kak' Seto Mulyadi, National Commission for Child Protection's Chairman, have support the movement to stimulate children creativity. And we know that it's the advantage of Free Sofftware.

Let's promote the movement and support our children's creativity.

MySQL : Dolphin as Logo

Do you ever stop and think? It happens to me all the time, random subjects kick in and I end up searching (aka googling) and today I wondered … Why is MySQLs logo a dolphin? Shame on me it took me so long to ask the question but as the saying goes, better late than never.

See it there.