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Read and share online:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/september.
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update — being read
by you and 238,181 other activists.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- The FSF is now on Bluesky: Here's how and why we did it
- Job opportunity: Systems Integration Administrator at the FSF
- More organizer tales: LibreLocal 2026, parts two and three
- The hidden cost of today's "smart" devices
- A quarter-century of software freedom: The FSFE turns 25
- EFF to courts: Don't rewrite copyright over ML hype
- The FOSS Force interview with Richard Stallman
- Nitter no more?
- GNU Emacs 31.1: Approaching fifty and still improving
- Group plans one-week PlayStation blackout to protest Sony's plan to end physical game production
- Developer Cold Iron Studios shuts down digital-only version of $60 game with no refunds
- August GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Free JavaScript Action Team
- August GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring eighteen new GNU releases: Emacs, LibreDWG, and more!
- FSF and other free software events
- Thank GNUs!
- GNU copyright contributions
- Translations of the Free Software Supporter
- Take action with the FSF!
View this issue online here:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/september.
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by
adding our subscriber widget to your website.
Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at
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Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French, Portuguese, or Spanish.
The FSF is now on Bluesky: Here's how and why we did it
From August 31
The FSF is now on Bluesky, the microblogging service based on the AT
Protocol. We can't advocate that you sign up for a Bluesky account
like we do with Mastodon or PeerTube since signing up for Bluesky
means loading the registration page's nonfree JavaScript. But, we have
done this ourselves to make an effort to reach people where they are,
letting them know about software freedom, including establishing
understanding of the issues of this service itself. We post on the
platform via a program our tech team specifically wrote for us to
integrate into our existing workflow. If you're on social media,
follow the FSF on Bluesky and on Mastodon today.
Job opportunity: Systems Integration Administrator at the FSF
From August 26
The FSF seeks a motivated and talented individual to be our new
Systems Integration Administrator (SIA). The SIA is part of the team
of sysadmins running the FSF's infrastructure, including the GNU
Project. This role helps with planning and managing the FSF's systems
deployment, interoperability, sustainability, and security strategies.
The SIA is responsible for developing, maintaining, and guiding
systems architecture, development of custom GNU/Linux operating system
images, server setup and disaster recovery, and software deployment
practices across FSF operations. To read more about this position's
requirements, as well as the other technical job opening, and how to
apply, click the link below. We can't wait to meet you!
More organizer tales: LibreLocal 2026, parts two and three
From August 26
A number of established groups got involved in LibreLocal 2026,
including in the US, the UK, Canada, Kenya, Jordan, and Spain. Many of
these groups took the opportunity presented by LibreLocal month and
the FSF's outreach and resources to organize free software-promoting
meetups and increase their community connections around free software.
In the final two parts of our report, we want to share the stories of
more meetup organizers, including an event that drew hundreds of
participants in Poznań, Poland and an update on the detained Iranian
LibreLocal organizer, Abbas, who hosted two meetups from inside a
prison in Shiraz, Iran. Check out what kind of events these dedicated
free software community leaders organized in the articles below.
The hidden cost of today's "smart" devices
From August 24
The closer computers get to our bodies and homes, the less control we
seem to have over them. "Wearable" devices are sold as personal
technology, but they rarely belong to the people who purchase them in
any meaningful sense. We have brought attention to these devices in
our Fight to Repair campaign, emphasizing that owners usually aren't
allowed to inspect them, repair them, or change how they behave.
Though it is sometimes possible to modify the nonfree software, users
can't share the modified versions without facing legal risks. This is
a clear example of a broader problem: technology that is physically
close to us, yet still out of our hands. You can read more about the
implications for our freedom behind wearable and smart home devices in
the article below.
A quarter-century of software freedom: The FSFE turns 25
From August 3 by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
In 2001, a group of European free software advocates worked together
to build something that would help protect software freedom in Europe:
the Free Software Foundation Europe. Twenty-five years later, the FSFE
is now a Europe-wide charity with active volunteers across Europe,
legal experts, a podcast, a children's book turned movie, a
programming competition for teenagers, and court victories against
some of the world's largest tech companies. Like us at the FSF, the
FSFE envisions reaching a reality where software freedom is the norm.
Especially if you live in Europe, wish our European friends a happy
birthday and thank them for the important work they do!
EFF to courts: Don't rewrite copyright over ML hype
From August 31 by Tori Noble and Corynne McSherry
New markets, new ideas, and new creators are what copyright is
supposed to promote, not restrict. Using copyright to guarantee the
profits of existing gatekeepers and massive rightsholders helps
neither the public nor individuals. Machine learning (ML) has sparked
the latest wave of anxiety and with it a massive wave of litigation.
In multiple cases around the US and the world, rightsholders are
asking courts to dramatically expand copyright protections to
non-infringing works created by others. They should decline to do so.
Granting this level of control will have a massive chilling effect on
creativity, and will likely only be expanded to put the power to
create in the hands of the few.
The FOSS Force interview with Richard Stallman
From August 30 by Christine Hall
In this wide-ranging interview, the founder of the free software
movement discusses GNU, Linux, the open-source split, large language
models, SaaSS, digital surveillance, and why software freedom remains
a moral issue. Without Richard Stallman, the free software movement
would (at the very least) have taken a different shape and the four
software freedoms might still be waiting for someone to voice them.
There would also be no GPL, the first general-purpose copyleft
license. It should surprise absolutely no one that more than a quarter
of the way through the current century, Stallman remains as much an
advocate for free software and software freedom as he was during the
last couple of decades of the previous one. You can read more about
his views and work in this interview with Christine Hall below.
Nitter no more?
From August 26 by Richard Speed
X has reportedly sent legal takedown notices to Nitter and related
service XCancel over alleged data scraping and rules violations.
Nitter doesn't use JavaScript or ads, or track user IP address, and is
used by those who prioritize software freedom (including the FSF!).
It's too early to say whether X will squash one of the few (perhaps
only) ways to view posts on X in freedom, but for the time being
nitter.net is offline and development has stopped. XCancel, one of the
services built around Nitter that gives users an alternative way to
browse public X content, has also been taken down for the foreseeable
future. If you were using Nitter to view microblog posts on X, it's
time: kick X to the curb and follow users on platforms that actually
respect your freedom, like Mastodon.
GNU Emacs 31.1: Approaching fifty and still improving
From August 24 by Christine Hall
Proving there are some aspects of free software that not only last
forever, but are constantly being made new again, GNU Emacs is out
with version 31.1. This is the first new release in about a year for
Emacs, which is, of course, many developers' favorite text editor, and
the first in the 31.x series. Wanna grab it? Signed tar.gz and tar.xz
builds are available, with PGP signature files for tar.gz.sig and
tar.xz.sig also available. A list of GNU mirrors is available online,
or if the new release isn't there yet, you can download from the main
GNU ftp server.
Group plans one-week PlayStation blackout to protest Sony's plan to end physical game production
From August 22 by Jowi Morales
Sony's decision to end physical game production by 2028 is facing
backlash, with one group announcing a concrete protest. DoesItPlay, a
community dedicated to video game preservation, called for a one-week
(now indefinite) boycott of PlayStation, and asked players to turn off
their consoles or log out of the PlayStation Network from August 23 to
30. We've been boycotting Sony for more than twenty years for many
reasons, such as their selling only nonfree games that users can never
own. The organizers of DoesItPlay are continuing to urge users to not
turn on their PS5s, not play, and not buy a single thing from the
PlayStation Store. Public pressure seems to already be impacting Sony,
based on reports that Sony is reconsidering its plans to abandon
PlayStation game discs. It's up to us: we must continue to demand an
end to digital restrictions management (DRM).
Developer Cold Iron Studios shuts down a digital-only version of $60 game with no refunds
From August 10 by Scharon Harding
Sony isn't the only proprietary game provider that seems to be testing
exactly how much users will put up with/reminding them exactly who has
power over these games. Following its announcement in March, game
developer Cold Iron Studios has shut down the servers for the
digital-only version of Aliens: Fireteam Elite on the Nintendo Switch.
The game originally cost $30 (or $60 for an "Ultimate" version with
additional content). With digital, DRM-ridden goods like Aliens:
Fireteam Elite, users don't actually own the games, despite forking
over hard-earned cash. You can learn more about DRM and how to avoid
it on Defective by Design.
August GNU Emacs news
From August 31 by Sacha Chua
In these issues: how to cancel a command in Emacs, Emacs 31.1, and
more!
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 categorization 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!
The next meeting is next Friday, September 4 from 12:00 to 15:00 EDT
(16:00 to 19:00 UTC). Details here:
https://www.fsf.org/events/fsd-2026-09-04-irc
LibrePlanet featured resource: Free JavaScript Action Team
Every month on the LibrePlanet wiki, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful — often one that could use your help. This
month, we are highlighting Free Javascript Action Team. Community
members on this page put pressure on webmasters to make their sites
work without proprietary JavaScript. They can do this by switching to
free JavaScript libraries, or by modifying their sites so they don't
need JavaScript at all to run. Our tactic is to organize lots of
people to contact the webmasters and request the change. You are
invited to help update, adopt, spread, and improve this important
resource.
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at [email protected].
August GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring eighteen new GNU releases: Emacs, LibreDWG, and more!
Eighteen new GNU releases in the last month (as of August 31, 2026):
For a full list with descriptions, please see:
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2026-august-gnu-spotlight
For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.
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.
This month, we welcome Ricardson as a new co-maintainer of
src-highlite, with
Lorenzo Bettini stepping down from the role. Thanks and welcome
aboard, Ricardson, and thank you Lorenzo for all of your work on
src-highlite throughout the years. We also welcome Kamila Szewczyk
and Karl Berry as new co-maintainers of
automake. Welcome aboard,
Kamila, and welcome back, Karl! Thank you both.
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see
https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.
If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.
As always, please feel free to write to me, [email protected],
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
FSF and other free software events
Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the FSF, and 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:
- Andrew Comly
- Casper Freksen
- David Combs
- David Lecompte
- Dwayne Dever
- John Wheeler
- Uday Kale
- Wade Cline
You can add your name to this list by donating at
https://donate.fsf.org/.
GNU copyright contributions
Assigning your copyright to the FSF 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:
- Haidong Sun (GNU Emacs)
- Laura Herrero García (GNU Emacs)
- Varun Malladi (GNU Emacs)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.
Translations of the Free Software Supporter
El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la
versión en español haz click aquí:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/septiembre
Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos
números del Supporter en español, haz click aquí:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=47025e622fb5ba62316f7d7622854266_1788411729_168
Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/septembre
Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines
publications du Supporter en français, cliquez ici:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=47025e622fb5ba62316f7d7622854266_1788411729_168
O Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a
versão em português, clique aqui:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/setembro
Para alterar as preferências do usuário e receber as próximas
edições do Supporter em português, clique aqui:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=47025e622fb5ba62316f7d7622854266_1788411729_168
If you no longer wish to receive the Free Software Supporter in
English (but still receive other communications in English), you can
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 an associate member, you
can help refer new members by adding a line with your associate member
number to your email signature like:
I'm an FSF associate member — Help us support software freedom!
https://my.fsf.org/join
The FSF is always looking for
volunteers. From rabble-rousing to
hacking, from issue coordination to envelope stuffing — there''s
something here for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaigns
section and take action on software
patents, Digital Restrictions
Management, free
software adoption,
OpenDocument,
and more.
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.
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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