Free Software Supporter
Issue 61, April 2013
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 68,579 other activists. That's 686 more than last month!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Defective by Design and allies condemn proposal for building Digital Restrictions Management into the Web
- The FSF is hiring: Seeking a full-time outreach and communication coordinator
- FSF-certified to Respect Your Freedom: ThinkPenguin USB Wifi adapter with Atheros chip
- Introducing Saurabh, FSF campaigns intern
- GNU Press has restocked all of your favorite shirts!
- Google reinstates federated instant messaging
- Don't let the myths fool you: the W3C's plan for DRM in HTML5 is a betrayal to all Web users
- Boston Marathon bombings
- Friends don't let friends use Windows 8
- MediaGoblin joins GNOME Outreach Program for Women and Google Summer of Code 2013
- Photos and numbers from LibrePlanet
- LibrePlanet featured resource: International Day Against DRM, May 3rd, 2013
- GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 35 new GNU releases!
- GNU Toolchain Update
- Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
- Thank GNUs!
- Take action with the FSF!
Defective by Design and allies condemn proposal for building Digital Restrictions Management into the Web
From April 24th
Today a coalition of twenty-seven organizations released a joint letter to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Web's standards-setting body, condemning Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). EME is a proposal to incorporate support for Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) -- the systems used by media and technology companies to restrict watching, sharing, recording, and transforming digital works -- into HTML, the core language of the Web.
- http://www.fsf.org/news/coalition-against-drm-in-html
- http://www.defectivebydesign.org/dbd-condemns-drm-in-html
Sign the petition: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5
The FSF is hiring: Seeking a full-time outreach and communication coordinator
From April 29th
The Free Software Foundation (FSF), a Boston-based 501(c)(3) charity with a worldwide mission to protect freedoms critical to the computer-using public, seeks a motivated and organized tech-friendly Boston-based individual to be its full-time outreach and communication coordinator. This newly created position, reporting to the executive director, will work closely with our campaigns, licensing, and technical staff, as well as our board of directors, to edit, publish, and promote high-quality, effective materials both digital and printed.
- http://www.fsf.org/news/the-fsf-is-hiring-seeking-a-full-time-outreach-and-communication-coordinator
FSF-certified to Respect Your Freedom: ThinkPenguin USB Wifi adapter with Atheros chip
From April 29th
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the TPE-N150USB Wireless N USB Adapter, sold by ThinkPenguin. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy. The TPE-N150USB can be purchased from http://www.thinkpenguin.com/TPE-N150USB. Software certification focused primarily on the firmware for the Atheros AR9271 chip used on the adapter.
Introducing Saurabh, FSF campaigns intern
From April 24th
Hi, I'm Saurabh. I've been working as an intern with the campaigns team during the spring semester. I worked with Mozilla when I was in college as a Campus Rep and as a Rep later. I'm also a member of Greenpeace and have done a little online activism with DemandProgress, SumOfUs, etc. Since college, I've been working as a professional web developer for the past two years, and I love my job. My areas of interest include accessible technical documentation, standardization, realtime communication technologies and freedom.
GNU Press has restocked all of your favorite shirts!
From April 23rd
If the shop was missing your shirt size, come check it out again! We have restocked a number of our designs: Happy Hacking, GNU Head, Live the Dream, Free Software Free Society, Anti-DRM, ThankGNU, and GPLv3. We also have added a shirt commemorating LibrePlanet 2013.
Google reinstates federated instant messaging
From April 18th
We want to commend Google for doing the right thing. We reported a few weeks ago that Google had started blocking invites sent from non-Google Jabber servers. This was done as a crude anti-spam measure. We are happy to report that Google has since rolled out proper antispam filtering for its Jabber service, and has removed the invite block.
Don't let the myths fool you: the W3C's plan for DRM in HTML5 is a betrayal to all Web users
By Kyra, Free Culture Foundation, from April 23rd
A handful of myths have become common defenses of the W3C's plan for "Encrypted Media Extensions" (EME), a Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) scheme for HTML5, the next version of the markup language upon which the Web is built.
Boston Marathon bombings
From April 16th
Thank you to everyone for thinking of us at the Free Software Foundation office in downtown Boston as yesterday's terrible news unfolded. We appreciate all the concerned emails and queries.
Friends don't let friends use Windows 8
From April 12th
Sometimes, proprietary software actually helps us fight for freedom. Windows 8 is so bad it's almost funny -- it's not only proprietary software full of spyware and security vulnerabilities, but it's also confusing for would-be users. Lucky for us, Microsoft's spectacular failure is the perfect time to help people switch to free software.
MediaGoblin joins GNOME Outreach Program for Women and Google Summer of Code 2013
By Chris Webber, GNU MediaGoblin, from April 9th
I'm extremely proud to announce that MediaGoblin is in for a summer of awesome... we're participating in both GSOC 2013 (under the GNU umbrella) and the GNOME Outreach Program for Women 2013! (Yes, you might notice we're not a GNOME project, but the super awesome people at GNOME have extended the program to other free software projects.) Are you a student looking for a summer job contributing to free software? Or maybe you are a woman interested in contributing to free software, something like MediaGoblin maybe? Then you should apply! (Maybe you are both... we encourage you to apply to both programs then, actually!)
Photos and numbers from LibrePlanet
From April 9th
The involvement and energy of the free software community make LibrePlanet what it is: brilliant and passionate people coming together around software freedom, drinking lots of coffee and forging the future of our movement. This year, we particularly appreciated your contributions to the theme of "Commit Change": a focus on making connections to other movements and building diversity within free software.
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
From April 11th
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 from 3pm to 6pm EDT (20:00 to 23:00 UTC). Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.
After this meeting, you can check http://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of MONTH's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.
LibrePlanet featured resource: International Day Against DRM, May 3rd, 2013
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 Day Against DRM, May 3rd, 2013, where you can organize and sign up to attend events or online actions. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.
GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 35 new GNU releases this month (as of April 30, 2013)
- archimedes-2.0.1
- autoconf-archive-2013.04.06
- autogen-5.17.3
- barcode-0.99
- binutils-2.23.2
- bison-2.7.1
- dbuskit-0.1.1
- denemo-1.0.0
- diffutils-3.3
- ed-1.8
- freeipmi-1.2.6
- gcal-3.6.3
- gcc-4.7.3
- gdb-7.6
- glpk-4.49
- gnu-linux-libre-3.9-gnu
- gprolog-1.4.4
- gsrc-2013.04.06
- guile-2.0.9
- guile-ncurses-1.4
- guile-sdl-0.4.3
- help2man-1.41.2
- hyperbole-5.0.4
- libcdio-paranoia-10.2+0.90+1
- libmicrohttpd-0.9.26
- libtasn1-3.3
- macchanger-1.6.0
- nettle-2.7
- parallel-20130422
- pyconfigure-0.2
- rcs-5.8.2
- serveez-0.2.1
- sharutils-4.13.5
- shishi-1.0.2
- smalltalk-3.2.5
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 Arjun E as the new co-maintainer of GNU Ferret, H.S. Rai as the new maintainer of libredwg, and Jeffrin Jose as the author and maintainer of the new package GNU guile-sdl (in addition to already maintaining GNU rcs and GNU alive).
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, 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 the GNU operating system, 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.
GNU Toolchain update
From April 22nd
The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms.
This month, there are updates on new options for GCC and Newlib.
Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit http://www.fsf.org/events.
So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in May:
- May 02, 2013, 4:15 PM, Biella, Italy, Free software and education
- May 08, 2013, 10:00 AM, Benevent, Italy, The free software movement
Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
- Peter Olson
- Neal Pawar
- Matt Kraai
- Pariksheet Nanda
- Jon Erlichman
- Jonathan Wakely
- Judicael Courant
- Julian Graham
- Kevin J. McCarthy
- Kimura Masaru
- Kristian Rickert
- Li-Cheng Tai
- Lowell Anderson
- Luiz Paternostro
- Mario Lardieri
- Mark Nelson
- Mason Smith
- Michael Makuch
- Michael Pacey
- Mikiya Okuno
- Peter Rock
- Morten Lind
- Oleg Lyubimov
- Pete Batard
- Phillips Wolf
- René Kyllingstad
- Robert Baldy
- Robert Dionne
- Robert L. McDonald
- Rok Jaklič
- Roland Emile Jacoby
- Ron McCall
- Roozbeh Pournader
- Sencha
- Sarah Koskie
- Sebastian Tennant
- Stefan K. Berg
- Uday Kale
- Taku Fujita
- Steven Miller
- Sudheera Ruwanthaka Fernando
- Filip M. Nowak
- Trevor Spiteri
- Valerio Poggi
- Vincent Launchbury
- Wayne Chapeskie
- William Pollock
- Yuji Shinokawa
- Adel Shalawi
- Donald E. Knuth
- Wolfgang Ocker
You can add your name to this list by donating at http://donate.fsf.org.
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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Copyright © 2013 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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