Please consider adding [email protected] to your address book, which will
ensure that our messages reach you and not your spam box.
Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/december
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 227,661 other activists. That's 183 more than last month!
Take the next step to software freedom
From November 15
To ensure a liberated future, it is vital that we educate ourselves
and others about the steps we can take to secure our computing rights.
People around the world are realizing their responsibility to stand
for user freedom against technological injustice. Now is the time to
help each other move forward to full software freedom. Without free
(as in freedom) software, we cannot and will not have a free society.
New members will help us pave a way to #UserFreedom. Help us reach
500 new associate members by December 31!
In order to protect your rights, we rely on support from people like
you, who use and appreciate our work. Take the next step towards full
software freedom. Share the free software message using the hashtag
#UserFreedom on social media
networks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- LibrePlanet 2022 will be held March 19-20, CFS extended to December 15
- Free Software Awards: Nominate those who help us live liberation by December 15
- FSF job opportunity: Outreach and communications coordinator
- FSF Giving Guide: Freedom is the greatest gift of all
- Join us for the International Day Against DRM (IDAD) 2021 community planning meeting
- Activists (including the FSF) helped secure a new round of DMCA anticircumvention exemptions
- Wrapping up my internship, focused on helping build the GPLv3 drafting archive
- How to help GNU Emacs maintainers?
- Upcycling Android
- November GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: FSF Translators
- GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: 9 new GNU 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/2021/december
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by
adding our subscriber widget to your Web site.
Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.
Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French, Spanish, or Portuguese.
LibrePlanet 2022 will be held March 19-20, CFS extended to December 15th
From December 1
Have you submitted a talk for LibrePlanet 2022 yet? For those unsure
if they could make it to the virtual event, we have now set the dates:
19 and 20 March 2022! We have also extended the Call for Sessions
(CfS) until Wednesday, December 15th, 2021 at 10:00 EST (15:00 UTC).
This gives us time to get a little more organized, and more
importantly, gives you the chance to make sure you're a part of
LibrePlanet 2022: Living Liberation!
Free Software Awards: Nominate those who help us live liberation by December 15
From October 28
The dedication of the developers, documentation writers, community
organizers, and volunteers of the free software movement is what has
helped us all live liberation in the years the free software movement
has been active. Just using free software makes you part of our
collective journey to freedom, but some go above and beyond in their
dedication to the free software movement. Now, it's time for us to
show those community members and projects that we appreciate their
vital work.
Now is the time to appreciate that particular person or group in the
free software community by nominating them for one of the following
award categories: Award for Advancement of Free Software, Award for
Projects of Social Benefit, Award for Outstanding New Free Software
Contributor.
Like LibrePlanet 2022, the nomination deadline for the awards has been extended to December 15.
FSF job opportunity: Outreach and communications coordinator
From September 2
Reporting to the executive director, the outreach and communications
coordinator works closely with our campaigns, licensing, technical,
and operations teams to plan, write, edit, publish, and promote
high-quality, effective materials, both digital and printed. These
materials are a critical part of advancing the FSF's work in support
of the GNU Project, free software adoption, copyleft licensing, and
freedom on the Internet; and against Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM), software patents, and proprietary software. Nearly every
publication from the FSF goes through this public-facing position,
tying together our work across various constituencies.
FSF Giving Guide: Freedom is the greatest gift of all
From November 18
Given the degree to which our lives are mediated by technology, it's
no surprise that so many holiday sales focus on "devices," that
catch-all name we've given to those computers that run in our pockets,
laps, and living rooms. Yet before you cave to pressure, you should
make sure that gift isn't putting your friend or family member under
unjust control.
For the last twelve years, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has
published our Ethical Tech Giving Guide as a way to help concerned
individuals make sure that the gift they might plan on giving their
loved ones doesn't deprive them of their freedom. Be sure to check out
and share this year's Guide!
Join us for the International Day Against DRM (IDAD) 2021 community planning meeting
From November 8
Each year, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) stages the International
Day Against DRM (IDAD), and this year, we want to work with the
community more closely than ever before and bridge the gap between
anti-DRM activists, those involved with the software freedom movement,
and everyday individuals. Together, we'll stand up against Digital
Restrictions Management (DRM) on December 10.
Although the meeting has passed, you can still join us on December 10
for IDAD! Participate in our action against Disney+, or come chat
about anti-DRM activism in the #dbd room of the Libera.Chat IRC
network.
Activists (including the FSF) helped secure a new round of DMCA anticircumvention exemptions
From November 8
We have some good news to share. The FSF was one of several activist
organizations pushing for exemptions to the anticircumvention rules
under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that make breaking
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) illegal, even for ethical and
legitimate purposes. We helped bring public awareness to a process
that is too often only a conversation between lawyers and bureaucrats.
As of late last week, there are now multiple new exemptions that will
help ease some of the acute abuse DRM inflicts on users. However, the
main lesson to be learned here is that we should and must keep
pushing. Individual, specific exemptions are not enough. The entire
anticircumvention law needs to be repealed.
We want to thank the 230 individuals who co-signed their names to our
comments supporting exemptions across the board. We should take this
as a sign that even though it can be difficult, anti-DRM activism
yields practical results.
Wrapping up my internship, focused on helping build the GPLv3 drafting archive
From November 16
Hey everyone!
My name is Daniel Katz, and I interned at the FSF this past summer. My
internship was easily a high point of the past year (and not just
because it's been a rough one). I got to make real contributions,
learned more about the amazing free software community, and had a
blast. I started things off by scavenging around the office for RAM to
put in my laptop before delving into my first project: archiving the
GPLv3 drafting website.
Many thanks to Daniel for all of his work! The FSF's internship
program is currently accepting applications until December 8, 2021.
How to help GNU Emacs maintainers?
From November 28 by Bastien Guerry
In this post on his personal blog, Emacs contributor Bastien Guerry
lends his advice on how to get started contributing to everyone's
favorite realtime, extensible, self-documenting display editor. It
covers the basic workflow of the emacs-devel mailing list, and other
instructions on how best to help with development.
Upcycling Android
From November 26 by FSFE
Every year, manufacturers produce 1.5 billion smartphones worldwide -
and unfortunately, probably just as many are thrown away after what is
usually a far too short hardware lifespan. E-waste increases every
year. The energy required to produce the devices is extremely high,
and the manufacturing and supply chain spans the globe several times.
With Upcycling Android we address the problem by extending the
hardware lifespan of phones and Android devices in particular!
Upcycling Android is a new initiative from Free Software Foundation
Europe (FSFE) focused on installing free software operating systems on
older Android phones, or in other words, "upcycling" them: just as we
suggested Microsoft do with Windows 7.
November GNU Emacs news
From November 22 by Sacha Chua
In these issues: Video support in eww.el, a new book on Emacs Lips,
information about EmacsConf, 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 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 Friday, December 3 from 12pm to 3pm EST (17:00 to
20:00 UTC). Details here:
LibrePlanet featured resource: FSF Translators
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 the FSF Translators group, which
is a new initiative for the community to help us spread the message of
free software and current FSF projects to as wide of an audience as
possible. 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: 9 new GNU releases!
9 new GNU releases in the last month (as of November 25, 2021):
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.
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.
FSF and other free software events
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:
- Bret Fisher
- Christian Probst
- Lena Voytek
- Massimo Spadotto
- Michael Albert
- Michael Gran
- Nikolay Ksenev
- René Genz
- Will Beason
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:
- Frédéric Giquel (GNU EMACS)
- Feraidoon Mehri (GNU EMACS)
- Carlo Marcelo Arenas Belón (GNU GREP)
- Ryan Scott (GNU EMACS)
- Zhang Caowei (GNU EMACS)
- Vityazev Aleksandr Igorevich (GNU EMACS)
- John Carroll Cummings (GNU EMACS)
- Noboru Ota (GNU EMACS)
- Dai Suetake (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 aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/diciembre
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=0582897d5bf046d8304a01ef46222f76_1638435084_168
Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/decembre
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=0582897d5bf046d8304a01ef46222f76_1638435084_168
O Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a
versão em português, clique aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/
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=0582897d5bf046d8304a01ef46222f76_1638435084_168
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 (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 © 2021 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/.
|
