|
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/2022/april
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 228,186 other activists. That's 542 more than last month!
Join our team fighting for freedom! The FSF is expanding, and we
are currently looking for a program manager, temporary
bookkeeper, and summer interns. If you are interested in one
of these opportunities, please apply. If you know someone who might be
interested, please forward and share. Thank you!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Antitrust Day: Tech monopolies shouldn't be allowed to control app stores
- Take the next step in "living liberation": Watch the LibrePlanet 2022 videos today!
- LibrePlanet: "Living Liberation" day two retrospective, and motivation for freedom
- Day one reflections for LibrePlanet: "Living Liberation"
- Free Software Awards winners announced: SecuRepairs, Protesilaos Stavrou, Paul Eggert
- EARN-IT threatens encryption and therefore user freedom
- Freedom from coercion
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act: Free software is key!
- An erroneous preliminary injunction granted in Neo4j v. PureThink
- Stop invasive remote proctoring: Pass California's student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act
- Keeping one's home tidy
- New crypto sanctions bill targets publishing code, facilitating transactions
- First ever eco-certified computer program: KDE's popular PDF reader Okular
- March GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Cipilot Watch Group
- GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Eleven 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/2022/april
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 and Spanish.
Antitrust Day: Tech monopolies shouldn't be allowed to control app stores
From April 4
There are currently two tech antitrust bills currently on the US
Senate floor: the Open App Markets Act (OAMA), and the American
Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA). These are two separate
bills, their general focus remains the same: preventing large tech
corporations from behaviors that that take away people's freedom. This
article highlights how the two bills can help further the goals of the
free software movement in an important way, and gives instructions for
how you may contact your senator and congressperson to express your
support.
Take the next step in "living liberation": Watch the LibrePlanet 2022 videos today!
From March 29
Both days of LibrePlanet 2022: "Living Liberation" featured a wide
range of speakers covering how nearly every topic you can think of
relates to one common concept: free software. This year, we worked
hard to get the videos published closer to the event, and this time,
we managed within a week! The LibrePlanet 2022 program page has links
to all recorded videos, audio, and accompanying slides. You can watch
them on MediaGoblin, in the LibrePlanet archives, and on the FSF's
PeerTube channel.
LibrePlanet: "Living Liberation" day two retrospective, and motivation for freedom
From March 20
The second day of this year's LibrePlanet conference offered an array
of informative and delightful talks. In our blog post, we highlight
some of the exciting topics such as using the command line for graphic
design, the state of free software mobile operating system Replicant,
a keynote by Hundred Rabbits, discussions on free software in
education, a closing keynote by the FSF's newly appointed executive
director, Zoë Kooyman, and the FSF president, Geoffrey Knauth, and
more.
Day one reflections for LibrePlanet: "Living Liberation"
From March 19
Among some of the highlights from day one of this year's LibrePlanet
conference were free software hactivism within public administrations,
an opening keynote with Marleen Stikker of Waag, the challenges and
opportunities to "building an ethical e-book," and more. Our blog post
from day one provides screenshots and an overview of some of the
noteworthy moments.
Free Software Awards winners announced: SecuRepairs, Protesilaos Stavrou, Paul Eggert
From March 19
During LibrePlanet, the FSF announced the recipients of the 2021 Free
Software Awards, which are given annually at the conference to groups
and individuals in the free software community who have made
significant contributions to the cause for software freedom. This
year's recipients of the awards are Paul Eggert, Protesilaos Stavrou,
and SecuRepairs. Please join us in congratulating and thanking them
for their work.
EARN-IT threatens encryption and therefore user freedom
From March 10
Are you "hiding" when you lock the door of your home every day, just
because the government is not permitted to enter it without a warrant?
Is it "hiding" to seal the envelope of the card you're sending your
Valentine? The "Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive
Technologies" (EARN-IT) Act currently on the floor of the US Senate
seems to suggest that end-to-end encryption can be used for no other
purpose than hiding criminal activity. As this affects everyday users
who may just be using these tools for lawful purposes, we urge US
citizens to call their congressperson.
Freedom from coercion
From March 30 by Kyle Rankin
"As a software user, be thoughtful about the software you depend on,
especially for security- or business-critical applications. Are you
safe from coerced backdoors or software bans if governments lean on
your vendors?" This post offers free software as the solution as it
allows you (or someone you appoint) to inspect the code running on
your computers. Free software, and only free software, allows you to
easily revoke trust, fully own and control keys, and audit your
digital supply chain.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act: Free software is key!
From March 30 by Free Software Foundation Europe
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) calls on the European
Parliament to "include requirements to release AI under a free
software license." They identify three important pillars that guide
their demands: innovation, control, and trustworthiness. Read the
article, FSFE's dedicated document for decision makers, and the
discussion thread to learn more about the FSFE's advocacy in a topic
of worldwide relevance.
An erroneous preliminary injunction granted in Neo4j v. PureThink
From March 30 by Bradley Kuhn
Neo4j, Inc. v. PureThink, LLC, an ongoing case in the Northern
District of California, has been receiving increased attention in
public discourse, and it has implications for copyleft and free
software licenses. In this article, Kuhn writes, "While it's true that
part of the summary judgment decision in the lower court bodes badly
for an important provision in AGPLv3 section 7, paragraph 4, the good
news is that the case is not over, nor was the appeal (decided this
month) even an actual appeal of the decision itself!"
Stop invasive remote proctoring: Pass California's Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act
From March 24 by Jason Kelley
While "many educators have likewise recommended against remote
proctoring," companies like Proctorio, ProctorU, and ExamSoft continue
to insert their freedom-denying services into schools. They "collect
all manner of private data on students and test takers, from biometric
information to citizenship status to video and audio of a user's
surroundings." California's Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act
(STTPPA) seeks to remedy some of the most glaring issues the emergence
of such self-described "remote proctoring" presents, but more work
remains to be done to help assure software freedom and privacy for
school administrators, teachers, and students. As the FSF has
reported upon previously, proprietary software
enables companies to use their unjust power to leverage more and more
personal data.
Keeping one's home tidy
From March 21 by Ludovic Courtès
GNU Guix, a "transactional package manager and an advanced
distribution of the GNU system that respects user freedom," has a
handy way of managing and sharing configuration files called "Guix
Home." This well-written and informative article explains the
rationale behind Guix Home as well as how to use it in your everyday
workflow. The FSF is Guix's fiscal sponsor, and you can donate to
support the project's work.
New crypto sanctions bill targets publishing code, facilitating transactions
From March 17 by Jerry Brito & Peter Van Valkenburgh
A bill by US Senator Warren and other Democratic co-sponsors calls for
"sanctioning technologists and users merely for the act of publishing
[free software] or facilitating communication among network
participants." Read more about this bill and its potential impact to
developers and maintainers of free software, node operators, and
miners.
First ever eco-certified computer program: KDE's popular PDF reader Okular
From March 16 by Joseph Veaugh-Geiss
In February 2022, Okular was awarded the Blue Angel environmental
label, the official environmental label awarded by the German
government. "The four freedoms have always put free software at the
forefront of sustainable software design. What is new is that [free
software] values are now recognized as being directly related to
sustainability by organizations such as the German Environment Agency
(Umweltbundesamt), who developed the award criteria."
March GNU Emacs news
From March 28 by Sacha Chua
In these issues: Note-taking in GNU Emacs with howm, tweaking
appearance with font-patcher, upcoming GNU Emacs events, many new
packages, 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, April 8 from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to
19:00 UTC). Details here:
LibrePlanet featured resource: Copilot Watch Group
For this month, we are highlighting the Copilot Watch Group, which
provides information about the implications of auto-generated code,
generated by way of machine learning, trained on software (mostly
free/libre and copyleft) hosted on GitHub. You are invited to adopt,
spread, and improve this important resource.
March GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Eleven new GNU releases!
Message from Amin Bandali, who is taking over Mike Gerwitz's role for
GNU Spotlight:
Hello! I'm Amin
Bandali, and
starting this month I'm taking over the GNU Spotlight from my fellow
GNU hacker and free software activist Mike Gerwitz. Mike, thank you
so much for all your work over the past four years for curating and
preparing the monthly GNU Spotlight, which is a personal favorite
part of the Free Software Supporter for me. I will do my best to
continue in your steps in bringing exciting news on new releases of
GNU packages to our dear readers.
Eleven new GNU releases in the last month (as of March 27, 2022):
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
- April 15, 2022, Online, Richard Stallman: The state of the free software movement
- July 22-24, 2022, St. John's University in Queens, New York, HOPE 2022
- September 26-30, 2022, Capital Hilton in Washington DC, GRCon 2022
- July 17-24, 2022, Prizren, Kosovo, DebConf
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:
- Adam Oberbeck
- Andy Kopra
- Denis López
- James Wilson
- Jason Self
- Morten Lind
- Russell Hernandez Ruiz
- Stéphane Bortzmeyer
- Valerio Poggi
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:
- Dr. Detler Steuer (GNU Emacs)
- Ignacio Casso San Roman (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/2022/abril
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=58c1cd1b63c9f96a7e24eb01fded2bdd_1649153692_168
Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2022/avril
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=58c1cd1b63c9f96a7e24eb01fded2bdd_1649153692_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, free
software adoption,
OpenDocument,
and more.
Do you read and write Portuguese and English? The FSF is looking
for translators for Free Software Supporter. Please send an email to
[email protected] with your interest and a list of your experience
and qualifications.
Copyright © 2022 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/.
|
