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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fighting-for-freedom-and-we-need-your-help
Dear Free Software Supporter,
Every morning I wake up and sit down in front of my computer. I open
up Emacs in Org mode where a system I trust tells me what to do
next, and it is coupled with my clear vision of purpose, principles,
and values which are to defend and promote computer user freedom. Or I
just go back to sleep. I am beyond grateful to serve the free software
community as the copyright and licensing associate for the Free
Software Foundation (FSF). I believe my efforts deliver benefits to
the community, but the work is only made possible by the community's
support! (big wink) This is an appeal after all.
But I'm not alone! Having worked with Krzysztof, the FSF's licensing
and compliance manager, I have come to know that he shares my passion
for user freedom and cares deeply about the work we have in front of
us; however, we need your support so that we can continue our work
into the future. Our goal is USD $400,000 for the 2024 fall
fundraiser, and I know the free software community will get us
there. We've had a busy past few months, and I'd like to share how
your generous contribution will help us continue to protect your
freedom.
Over the summer, the FSF, led by the Licensing and Compliance Lab
(Lab), stood up with the community when it erupted with righteous
indignation over Winamp's attempt to please the free software
community with freewashing branding, a confusing license, and possible
GNU General Public License (GPL) violations. Winamp is not alone with
this troubling licensing behavior, and is unfortunately part of an
unsettling trend, one that we've been working hard to disrupt. The
saying that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance" is worth
repeating, and something that the FSF knows well.
Can we please stop talking about "AI?!" Ok, let's talk about "AI"! The
term "AI" is in quotes because it seems to be the dominant expression
for what we believe to be more accurately called machine learning (ML)
applications. Contrary to the meaning of the word "intelligence,"
almost all ML systems do not have the analytical capacity for
understanding anything, and they do not know anything, but merely
calculate possibilities based on numeric values. Determining what
constitutes a free ML application has been the focus of users and
lawyers for several years now. This is a complex issue requiring a
thoughtful approach. It involves elaborate discussions inside the
community and dealing with unknown future developments. The ethical
issue of freeing data deserves special consideration, for example, as
it is an essential component for an ML application to be useful to
users. This year, the FSF formed an ML working group consisting of FSF
board members, staff, and management, and they have consulted various
external experts. My colleague Krzystztof is representing the Lab. The
ML working group is preparing a statement of criteria to help
reach a conclusion for the ongoing discussions around freedom and ML
applications.
Last month, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend and speak at
SeaGL 2024 in Seattle, Washington. What a great conference to
represent the Lab and the FSF. Besides the conference, we organized a
community meetup where I got to socialize with members and
newcomers spreading the good word about software freedom, but also
engaged in many conversations about licensing and our Respects Your
Freedom (RYF) program. My talk for the conference was a brief
history of how I came to free software and what it means to me. Free
software is free as in freedom, and like all freedoms, it is
something that must be fought for, and if left undefended, will be
taken away. When someone casually uses "open source" instead of
"free software", it takes away from the software freedom movement. The
free software movement is important because it gives us the tools
(with the message of freedom) to get other critical work done, like
guarding ourselves from oppression, protecting free speech, and
maintaining a free society. This is one of the main reasons the Lab is
doing the work that it does, to keep these tools free, and to keep
building upon a foundation which has been grounded in freedom.
A challenge to software freedom is the increasing difficulty in
finding a modern general purpose computer in the form of a laptop
which runs exclusively on free software. Since the fully free machines
we do have are aging, the Lab is focusing its efforts in the search to
find a laptop which meets the criteria for the RYF certification
program. There are a lot of component manufacturers who strive to
create parts which are fully free; however, the lack of cooperation
from certain hardware companies makes the prospect of finding a fully
free laptop very dim. The Licensing and Compliance Lab will not give
up, and there are promising candidates which we hope will someday
offer the community a fully free modern-day device which we can add to
the list of RYF-certified laptops.
No appeal from the Licensing and Compliance Lab would be complete
without mentioning the constant ground-level work we do to support the
free software community. As usual, the Lab, including its group of
dedicated volunteers, is actively educating the public about the
GPL and free software licensing through answering licensing
questions and hosting weekly meetings for the Free Software Directory
(FSD), a one-of-a-kind catalogue of over 17,000 free packages.
Free software licensing questions that come in to [email protected]
are fielded and answered by the Lab. Although the FSF cannot give
legal advice, it can provide insight into how the GPL is intended to
work. Many of the questions are already answered on our GPL FAQ,
but new and interesting questions from the community make their way to
our inboxes daily, and sometimes a question and answer get added to
the FAQ.
The FSD meetings are a great way to expose a user new to software
licensing through examining a computer program which is licensed under
a free software license. If an issue is found, like nonfree code
files or if the licensing is unclear, a volunteer will reach out to
the project and explain the concern with a recommendation on how to
resolve it so the entry can be added to the FSD. More times than not,
the project responds positively and resolves the issue. This is real
ground-level, grassroots work that is done which helps the free
software community.
We know not everyone is in a position to, but if you can, can you
support our efforts by making a donation? Or, an associate
membership is a great show of support we can rely on, and an annual
FSF associate membership translates to a mere $2.69 USD per week,
or $0.38 USD per day! We need more resources to continue our work, but
my request is even bigger, because we have to do more. Associate
members will also be able to enjoy all the associate member
benefits. Will you help us reach our year-end fundraising
goal of $400,000 USD this year-end? If you join as a member this
period, we'll send you a set of five unique postcards to help you
promote computer user freedom.
That's all for now. I hope this helps to convince you to generously
give to our fundraiser. We need your support. Thank you for reading.
Yours in freedom,
Craig Topham
Copyright & Licensing Associate
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