# Free Software Foundation

BULLETIN | Issue 35 | Spring 2020

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*Read and share online: <[link removed]>*



Dear Free Software Supporter,

Right now, in a rapidly changing and uncertain world, free software
has a special role to play. This issue of the biannual *Free Software
Foundation Bulletin* addresses some of the challenges that life during
the COVID-19 pandemic poses to software freedom, but it also
highlights some of the unique contributions that activists are making
to safeguard your rights today. Whether through manufacturing
desperately-needed medical supplies, advocating for and supplying free
and secure videoconferencing for remote learning, or creating flexible
and portable libre medical information systems, activists have put in
extraordinary effort to ensure that our user freedom is protected
along with our safety.

**[Read the *Free Software Foundation Bulletin* online][1]**

[1]: [link removed]


Every free software supporter is important to our mission, and we’re
so grateful for your commitment. If you can spare just $10/month ($5
for students), it’s more important than ever to take that commitment
to the next level by [becoming an associate member][6] of the Free
Software Foundation (FSF).

[6]: [link removed]

The value of a membership goes far beyond the dollars and cents needed
to help us weather the challenges of this year: a membership is a vote
of confidence that helps us launch and support initiatives like the
ones you’ll read about in this *Bulletin*. Plus, membership comes with
plenty of [benefits][7], including the newest member perk: access to
our [Jitsi Meet videoconferencing server][8].

[7]: [link removed]
[8]: [link removed]


The *Bulletin* is one way that the FSF gives a platform to
hard-working activists all over the world. This deluxe edition makes
the articles even easier to share, in order to introduce others to the
work that is being done globally. Despite the pandemic challenging us,
we *also* managed to send out printed versions of the *Bulletin*, so
you may already have one in your mailbox! If you’ve gotten yours, we
encourage you to post a picture on [social media][9] with
\#fsfbulletin.

[9]: [link removed]

In these difficult times, it’s so encouraging to see the community
come together and apply their diverse skills and inspiring idealism to
the challenges of the moment. New threats may arise, but free software
users and developers are creative problem-solvers with an ironclad
commitment to freedom and ethical treatment of others. We hope the
stories in this *Bulletin* inspire as well as inform, and we can’t
wait to see how you and the rest of our vibrant community continue to
put free software into action.

Happy and healthy hacking,

Dana Morgenstein
Outreach and Communications Coordinator

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### TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Trial by proprietary software
2. Copyleft at thirty-five
3. True privacy and security depend on free software
4. Updates from the FSF tech team
5. Building a framework for a free online classroom
6. HACKERS and HOSPITALS: Bringing the free software community together to fight COVID-19
7. Freeing videoconferencing, one village at a time: A story from Spain
8. An introduction to GNU Health Embedded

## Trial by proprietary software
By John Sullivan, Executive Director

There has been so much to worry about during the COVID-19 pandemic,
even just within the category of technology policy. At the FSF, our
role is to worry specifically about the impact of software on human
freedom. Software can be a tremendous tool for solving social and
scientific problems, but only when the terms of its distribution and
use allow everyone to inspect how it works, share copies of it, modify
it for their own purposes, and share those improvements or tweaks with
others.

In this article, I will primarily address the new ubiquity of Zoom and
similarly pernicious proprietary software for videoconferencing, and
especially the use of Zoom by government institutions, particularly
courts of law.

Read more at: [link removed]

## Copyleft at thirty-five
By Donald Robertson, III, Licensing and Compliance Manager

Thirty-five years ago, the Emacs General Public License brought about
the age of copyleft. It was a revolutionary concept, for the first
time ensuring that once software was released freely, it would always
remain free. Copyleft licenses achieve this by turning copyright law
on its head, requiring that distributions of the software, or modified
versions of it, be released under the same terms. These terms
guarantee that everyone is free to run, study, modify, and share the
work or their own modifications to it.

So what does copyleft look like today, over three decades after its
creation? And what does the future hold for it?

Read more at: [link removed]

## True privacy and security depend on free software
By Greg Farough, Campaigns Manager

Among technical users, it's common knowledge that privacy is dependent
on strong encryption. However, the complex connection between software
freedom, encryption, and privacy can be a little difficult to explain
in the course of our individual activism, and is due for a more
in-depth explanation.

Encryption is about keeping secrets secret, whether that means
messages between you and a loved one, sensitive documents, or an
entire hard drive. It also isn't only for those with something to
hide: making strong encryption part of standard practice increases the
safety of all those who really do need it by making it a normal thing
to do. When your personal information is at stake, it's all the more
important that encryption technology be based on free software. Even
the most "benign" proprietary programs have a long history of
mistreating their users, and a single "snitch" or backdoor in a
proprietary encryption program in some cases could cost lives.

Read more at: [link removed]

## Updates from the FSF tech team
By Andrew Engelbrecht, Senior Systems Administrator

The FSF tech team is always at the free software community's service,
even when we're working mostly from home due to COVID-19. We're
constantly maintaining and improving the infrastructure that you
depend on, while simultaneously launching and supporting new FSF
projects. We're a small team in a small organization, but we like to
think that together, we pack a powerful punch. This update is our
opportunity to share some of the work we've done for the FSF and the
broader free software community so far this year.

Read more at: [link removed]

## Building a framework for a free online classroom
By Devin Ulibarri, Free Software Activist & Sugar Labs Oversight Board Member

The world has changed drastically in the past few months due to the
ongoing crisis of the novel coronavirus. As a musician, educator, and
a free software advocate, I was very worried because education, in
particular, has been impacted: college students have been sent home,
day cares have been closed (leaving parents to juggle their work
responsibilities with childcare), and public schools have closed their
campuses and continued their educational services online.

Read more at: [link removed]

## HACKERS and HOSPITALS: Bringing the free software community together to fight COVID-19
By Michael McMahon, Web Developer

Free software has a unique role to play in fighting the pandemic:
unethical restrictions on medical equipment have long prevented
medical staff from controlling their software and hardware, and from
duplicating parts. So I started a project to consolidate information
and discover how the community could best help to battle the pandemic
using free software and free culture designs for 3D printers, 3D
scanners, laser cutters, sewing machines, etc. I thought up a catchy
name, and HACKERS and HOSPITALS (HaH) was born!

Read more at: [link removed]

## Freeing videoconferencing, one village at a time: A story from Spain
By Javier Sepulveda, Owner and Proprietor, Valenciatech

San Antonio de Benagéber, just outside of Valencia, Spain, has a bit
over 8,000 residents, and thanks to Javier Sepulveda, a system
administrator and local free software activist, hundreds of families
in the area are now using the free software videoconferencing program
Jitsi Meet to educate their children. His story is only one of many
inspiring examples from the COVID-19 era, in which activists have used
the rise in use of remote communication software as an opportunity to
teach, but it’s a great example of a single activist making a big
difference. It’s also an excellent reminder of how the free software
movement can use privacy violations as a lever and an entry point to
educate the people around us. After all, free software doesn’t
guarantee privacy, but nonfree software guarantees NO privacy at all.

Read more at: [link removed]

## An introduction to GNU Health Embedded
By Sean O'Brien, Founder of Yale Privacy Lab and PrivacySafe

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vital importance of public
health, scarring the globe with a dreadful impact on humanity. This
harm is rooted in our technological landscape, as societies are not
only injured by inequity in their healthcare systems, but also
inequity and injustice built into the hardware and software they rely
upon. Free software has a central role to play in the public health
arena, a fact embodied by GNU Health and its deployments around the
world. GNU Health Embedded, as I'll explain in greater detail below,
is an initiative that extends the benefits of GNU Health by making it
even more portable and simple to use, by applying it to small
single-board computers.

Read more at: [link removed]

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## How to contribute

Associate Membership: Become an associate member of the FSF. Members
will receive a bootable USB card, email forwarding, and an account on
the FSF's Jabber/XMPP server. Plus: participate in our members forum
at forum.members.fsf.org! To sign up or get more information, visit
member.fsf.org or write to [email protected].

Donate: Make a donation at donate.fsf.org, or contact [email protected]
for more information on supporting the FSF.

Jobs: List your job offers on our jobs page: fsf.org/jobs

Free Software Directory: Browse and download from thousands of
different free software projects.

Volunteer: To learn more, visit fsf.org/volunteer

LibrePlanet: Find local groups in your area or start your own at
libreplanet.org! And join us for the yearly LibrePlanet conference
next spring.

Free Software Supporter: Receive our monthly email newsletter or write
to [email protected].

_____________________________________________________________________________


Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

The articles in this Bulletin are individually licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
[link removed]

Published twice yearly by the Free Software Foundation,
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335
United States


This Bulletin was produced using all free software, including Scribus
and GIMP.

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[link removed]