Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update — being read
by you and 233,734 other activists.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
October FSF40 challenge: Participate in FSF40 on October 4
Twelve reasons to come to FSF40
FSF40: Free software activists to speak on their history of involvement
Electronic Frontier Foundation, F-Droid, and Sugar Labs leaders to speak at FSF's fortieth anniversary
Job opportunity: Program Manager at the Free Software Foundation
Legal corner: The war on ad blockers — Axel Springer's assault on user freedom
F-Droid says Google’s new sideloading restrictions will kill the project
Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French or Spanish.
October FSF40 challenge: Participate in FSF40 on October 4
Every month during our fortieth anniversary year, we're inviting free
software supporters everywhere to join us in celebrating #FSF40. For
this month's challenge, we're inviting you to join us in Boston or
online on Saturday, October 4 in our celebration of forty years of
free software activism. Already planning to take part in FSF40? Invite
someone in your community to join you. If you can't take part in this
#FSF40Challenge, fear not—we've got two more coming.
Have an idea for a challenge? Send us a message at
[email protected]!
Twelve reasons to come to FSF40
From September 18
We are excited to celebrate forty years of the FSF and software
freedom advocacy with everyone, in person and online. Even if you
can't join us for FSF40 live in Boston or online (we really hope you
can!), you can help us reach more free software supporters who can. By
sharing the word about FSF40, you'll help us honor four decades of
progress in software freedom. The more we all talk about free
software, the more we cement it as an important and powerful part of
our lives. If you haven't decided yet to attend FSF40, or are trying
to encourage someone you know to come, check out some of the reasons
we think FSF40 is a great way to spend this upcoming Saturday and
share them with everyone you know!
FSF40: Free software activists to speak on their history of involvement
From September 17
As part of the FSF's fortieth birthday celebration, long-time free
software community members will be speaking on their work for the FSF,
GNU, and free software generally. The three panelists, all of whom
have worked with the FSF for many years, have a wide range of
experiences that they use to push free software forward; Panos
Alevropoulos is a lawyer from Thessaloniki, Greece; Amin Bandali is a
computer scientist; and Corwin Brust is a Savannah hacker and GNU
Emacs volunteer. You can listen to these three committed free software
volunteers this Saturday, either in Boston or online.
Electronic Frontier Foundation, F-Droid, and Sugar Labs leaders to speak at FSF's fortieth anniversary
From September 10
FSF40 will bring together the international free software community,
including four speakers from organizations focused on digital privacy,
mobile phone applications, education, and free software advancement.
The panelists include: Paige Collings, senior speech and privacy
activist from the Electronic Frontier Foundation; F-Droid board
member and App Fair Project founder Marc Prud'hommeaux; Devin
Ulibarri, the executive director of Sugar Labs; and Greg Farough, the
FSF's campaigns manager. The panelists will discuss what the mission
of the FSF means for privacy, education, and mobile phone freedom, why
the FSF is still relevant after forty years, and what the future may
bring for the free software movement. Tune in for what these four
knowledgeable people have to say this Saturday, either in Boston or
online.
Job opportunity: Program Manager at the Free Software Foundation
From September 19
Do you want to work for the FSF? We're looking for a motivated and
talented program manager! Reporting to the executive director, the
program manager co-leads our campaigns team. The program manager plays
a key role in external communications, fundraising, associate member
engagement, and special events. If you or someone you know is
interested in joining the FSF staff, please apply by Friday, October 3
to guarantee consideration.
Legal corner: The war on ad blockers — Axel Springer's assault on user freedom
From September 16 by the Free Software Foundation Europe
For many internet users, adblockers are an important piece of software
that allows them to control the digital information they receive from
their browsers, providing a browsing experience they have more control
over. In a 2023 ruling, a German court affirmed that the use of
adblockers is a choice that users are entitled to make based on the
freedom to choose what information to receive and refuse. Despite
this, a recent decision by the German Federal Court of Justice is
giving Axel Springer, a large media and publishing company that
brought the 2023 lawsuit against free software adblocker AdBlock Plus,
a second chance to erode user freedom. Read on to better understand
how a possible positive verdict for Axel Springer would affect user
rights.
F-Droid says Google’s new sideloading restrictions will kill the project
From September 29 by Ryan Whitwam
Google's new restrictions for Android developers could kill free
software app stores like F-Droid. F-Droid has been around for about 15
years and is the largest source of free software for Android. Apps in
F-Droid are not installed via Google Play Store, but sideloaded.
Google is targeting that process in the name of so-called security.
Read more about how dangerous and freedom-blocking Google's new
restrictions are for free software progress in mobile phones in the
article below.
Samsung has found another way to demonstrate how little users own
their own device — enter the "smart" refrigerator, ranging in price
from $1,800 to $3,500 USD. Under the latest update, Samsung is pushing
ads onto fridge screens without user consent. Unfortunately, because
the user doesn't control their own refrigerator, there is no way for
users to stop Samsung forcing itself into people's homes. When you
purchase an appliance, even if only for a few dollars, it is
completely reasonable to expect that you own and have full control of
it, and should be true for more expensive appliances. You can read
more about this disturbing pilot program in the article below.
Senator blasts Microsoft for 'dangerous, insecure software' that helped incapacitate US hospitals
From September 11 by Carly Page
Not only does Microsoft's software aim to control users, it also aims
to expose them to cybercrooks, as was the case for a US hospital
network last year. It's unacceptable that individual users have their
freedom and security stolen, and beyond unjust that institutions such
as hospitals and governments entrust the sensitive data of millions to
an immoral and ill-protected company such as Microsoft. Microsoft can
continue to promise that it will be soon be more secure, but with no
way to check the accuracy of this promise, institutions and users are
better off advocating for widespread adoption of free software. You
can help your country switch away from predatory and irresponsible
software providers: talk about the benefits of choosing free software
for protecting sensitive medical information with everyone you know.
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to
discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth
of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version
control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software
Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past
decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and
exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place
in the #fsf channel on Libera.Chat and usually include a handful of
regulars as well as newcomers. Libera.Chat is accessible from any IRC
client—Everyone's welcome!
Every month on the LibrePlanet
wiki, we highlight one
resource that is interesting and useful—often one that could use
your help.
For this month, we are highlighting FSF40/meetups. Free software
supporters from all over have responded to this call and organized a
FSF40 meetup, and there are meetups still being organized. You can
organize a meetup and add it here or plan to attend one already
listed. You are invited to help update, adopt, spread, and improve
this important resource.
To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/. Optionally, you may find faster download
speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing
from the list of mirrors published at
https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html, or you may use
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation,
and we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have
donated $500 or more in the last month.
Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us
defend the GNU GPL and keep software free. The following individuals
have assigned their copyright to the FSF (and allowed public
appreciation) in the past month:
Eric Frederickson (GNU Emacs)
Milos Nikic (GNU Hurd)
Przemyslaw Kaminski (GNU Emacs)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.
If you no longer wish to receive the Free Software Supporter in
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opt out here.
Take action with the FSF!
Contributions from thousands of individual associate members enable
the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at
https://my.fsf.org/join. If you're already a member, you can help
refer new members by adding a line with your member number to your
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Do you read and write Portuguese and English? The FSF is looking
for translators for the Free Software Supporter. Please send an
email to [email protected] with your interest and a list of your
experience and qualifications.
