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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2020/november
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 222,937 other activists.
LibrePlanet 2021 will be an online event, Call For Sessions (CFS) extended to November 11th
From October 22nd
Mark your calendars: LibrePlanet 2021 will be held online in March,
2021. To give more remote speakers the opportunity to submit a talk,
we are extending the Call for Sessions
(CFS)
to November 11th at 12:00 EST, so that everyone in the global
community has a chance to submit their talk or panel.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- FSF calls for community participation to help update High Priority Free Software Projects list
- Thank you for being a part of our 35th birthday celebration
- Watch and share "Rewind" to help explain free software
- Improvements to the FSF homepage
- FSF 35 years: Limited edition T-shirt and poster for sale
- Streaming services, beware: International Day Against DRM (IDAD) is coming Dec. 4
- The FSF is now on PeerTube!
- Trisquel GNU/Linux 9.0 is here for those who seek 100% freedom for their PCs
- The SeaGL 2020 program is live!
- Announcing the first online Guix Day Conference
- With Microsoft's support, music industry forces youtube-dl offline
- GNU Taler news: 'Payto' URI scheme for payments published
- GUADEC 2020 group photo
- October GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Defective by Design
- GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: Fourteen new releases
- 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/2020/november
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Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French, Spanish, or Portuguese.
FSF calls for community participation to help update High Priority Free Software Projects list
From October 28th
The FSF has announced a call for feedback from the community to help
assemble an update to the Foundation's High Priority Free Software
Projects list (HPP).
The HPP initiative draws attention to areas of development and
specific projects of strategic importance to the goal of freedom for
all computer users. The HPP list helps guide volunteers, developers,
funders, and companies to projects where their skills and resources
can be utilized, whether they be in coding, graphic design, writing,
financial contributions, or activism.
Thank you for being a part of our 35th birthday celebration
From October 16th
While the Free Software Foundation’s actual thirty-fifth birthday
passed relatively quietly, our birthday week has been
action-packed. We started with a
request
for birthday videos and donations, then the
unveiling
of the gorgeous thirty-fifth birthday designs by David Revoy, followed
by the announcement of the
program
for the birthday celebration and a sleek new responsive homepage
design,
and finally, we introduced our new educational video,
"Rewind".
On Friday, October 9, we topped off the week with an online
celebration that provided a broad overview of the past, present, and
plans for the future of our ambitious social movement, with luminaries
both old and new offering their views and insights.
Watch and share "Rewind" to help explain free software
From October 8th
"Rewind" is an animated video made for the Free Software Foundation
about a scientist in a dystopian reality who modifies the code of a
program, leading to a groundbreaking discovery. But in our world,
which is dominated by proprietary software, would she have the freedom
she needs to make a difference?
Improvements to the FSF homepage
From October 7th
As part of our birthday plans, we've been focusing on the successes
the Free Software Foundation has had over the last thirty-five years
in our work for software freedom. This has also given us a reason to
start making ambitious plans for the future, including some much
needed improvements to the FSF Web site.
FSF 35 years: Limited edition T-shirt and poster for sale
From October 5th
For the Free Software Foundation's thirty-fifth birthday, we
collaborated with free culture illustrator David Revoy to create a
marvelous design, and we think you'll like the results, available at
the GNU Press Shop on a poster and T-shirt. Many sizes of the shirt
are sold out, but we are reordering soon, so stay tuned!
Streaming services, beware: International Day Against DRM (IDAD) is coming Dec. 4
From October 22nd
The fourteenth International Day Against DRM (IDAD) is coming soon,
and the Defective by Design (DbD)
campaign needs your help to spread
the word. This year's annual day in protest of Digital Restrictions
Management (DRM) will be on December 4th, 2020, and will focus on
streaming services' unjust use of DRM. We need your help to spread
that message far and wide to both anti-DRM activists and those simply
concerned with how in a world with continued technological
advancement, our digital freedoms are increasingly under threat.
The FSF is now on PeerTube!
From October 29th
PeerTube is a decentralized, federated video platform powered by
ActivityPub and WebTorrent. Thanks to Framasoft, the FSF now has a
PeerTube account, hosted on the Framatube instance, where we will be
posting FSF videos from now on. Our past animated videos are now
available, and FSF35 anniversary celebration videos will be posted
soon. Of course, we will be continuing to post all videos on our GNU
MediaGoblin instance.
Trisquel GNU/Linux 9.0 is here for those who seek 100% freedom for their PCs
From October 19th by Marius Nestor
The Trisquel GNU/Linux 9.0 distribution, based on Ubuntu, is now
available. Trisquel is built only from free software, for those who
seek 100% freedom for their computing, and it's the GNU/Linux
distribution used by the FSF.
Coming more than two years after the Trisquel GNU/Linux 8.0 LTS
“Flidas” release, which is still supported with security updates until
April 2021, Trisquel GNU/Linux 9.0 is dubbed “Etiona” (continuing the
distro’s tradition to name new releases from Celtic mythology), and
promises to be one of the most polished releases so far, and also the
most up to date.
The SeaGL 2020 program is live!
From October 28th by SeaGL
We are pleased to announce that the Seattle GNU/Linux conference
(SeaGL) 2020 program is now live! SeaGL is a project that is fiscally
sponsored by the FSF under the Working Together For Free Software
Fund.
The schedule is filled with lots of great talks from very talented
speakers, and spans November 13-14. Take some time to browse through
the list of talks and start deciding which ones you will be
attending. As a reminder, SeaGL 2020 is completely virtual. SeaGL is
also completely free as in tea, with no registration required, so
everyone is welcome to attend.
Announcing the first online Guix Day Conference
From October 16th by Guix Hackers
The Guix hackers are very happy to announce the first online Guix Day
Conference on Sunday November, 22nd. This conference is open to
everyone and will be held entirely online. Want to speak? Submit your
proposal! Propose your talks by sending them to
[email protected]. Feel free to drop in #guix on irc.freenode.net
to discuss what you would like to talk about before submitting.
With Microsoft's support, music industry forces youtube-dl offline
From October 26th by Parker Higgins
The popular free software project “youtube-dl” was removed from GitHub
on Friday following a legal notice from the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) claiming it violates US copyright
law. According to the RIAA, the tool's “clear purpose” includes
reproducing and distributing “music videos and sound recordings
... without authorization.”
In fact, youtube-dl is a powerful general purpose media tool that
allows users to make local copies of media from a very broad range of
sites: journalists can use it to create their own local copies of
videos so they can examine potentially controversial content that
YouTube is likely to remove or ban. This has secured it a place in the
toolkits of many reporters, newsroom developers, and archivists. For
now, the code remains available to download through youtube-dl's own
site, but the disruption of its development hub and the RIAA
saber-rattling jeopardizes both the future of the software and the
myriad journalistic workflows that depend on it.
Given the important role that youtube-dl plays in public interest
reporting and archiving, the RIAA’s efforts to have the tool removed
represent an extraordinary overreach with the possibility for dramatic
unforeseen consequences. We urge RIAA to reconsider its threat, and
GitHub to reinstate the account in full.
GNU Taler news: 'Payto' URI scheme for payments published
From October 25th by the GNU Taler Project
We are happy to announce the publication of RFC 8905 by the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF). RFC 8905 defines the 'payto' Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI) scheme for designating targets for
payments. A unified URI scheme for all payment target types allows
applications to offer user interactions with URIs that represent
payment targets, simplifying the introduction of new payment systems
and applications. This is an important step towards broader use of
systems like GNU Taler.
GUADEC 2020 group photo
From October 2nd by the GNOME Project
There are many challenges with online conferences, and one big
challenge is having hundreds of people turn on their cameras for a
group photo during a livestream. The GNOME Project has a long
tradition of mosaic pictures, and they decided to bring that format
back for the GUADEC conference. The results are pretty cool!
October GNU Emacs news
From October 26th by Sacha Chua
In these issues: popular Emacs themes charts; Emacs-Calc;
emacs-ludicrous-speed; CRDT-based collaborative editing; 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 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 irc.freenode.org, and usually include a handful
of regulars as well as newcomers. Freenode is accessible from any IRC
client -- Everyone's welcome!
The next meeting is Friday, November 6th, from 12pm to 3pm EST (16:00 to
19:00 UTC). Details here:
LibrePlanet featured resource: Group: Defective by Design
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 Group: Defective by Design, which
provides information about the FSF's participatory and grassroots
campaign that fights the menace of Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM). 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 [email protected].
GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: Fourteen new GNU releases
14 new GNU releases in the last month (as of October 26, 2020):
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 from
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors from
https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html. You can use the URL
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
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.
As always, please feel free to write to us at [email protected]
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
FSF and other free software events
- November 5-7, 2020, online, OLF
- November 13-14, 2020, online, SeaGL
- November 20-21, 2020, online, GNU Health Conference 2020
- November 22, 2020, online, Guix Day Conference
- November 28-29, 2020, online, EmacsConf 2020
Thank GNUs!
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.
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
- Douglas Hauge
- Eric Brown
- Hideki IGARASHI
- Max Sievers
- NOMADIC LABS
- René Genz
- stephen waite
- Trevor Spiteri
You can add your name to this list by donating at
https://donate.fsf.org/.
GNU copyright contributions
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:
- Ali Tavakol (GNU Radio)
- Antoine Heikki Kalmbach (Emacs)
- Henrik Lissner (Emacs)
- Michael Finder (Emacs)
- Pedram Ashofteh Ardakani (Gnuastro)
- Ruthra Kumar (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 aqui:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2020/noviembre
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=7e27d6c929b7aae8b54aa819e14f4d9f_1604371250_168
Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2020/novembre
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=7e27d6c929b7aae8b54aa819e14f4d9f_1604371250_168
O Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a
versão em português, clique aqui:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2020/novembro
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=7e27d6c929b7aae8b54aa819e14f4d9f_1604371250_168
Take action with the FSF!
Contributions from thousands of individual 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 (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!
https://my.fsf.org/join
The FSF is always looking for volunteers
(https://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 campaigns section
(https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents,
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), free software adoption,
OpenDocument, and more.
#
Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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