Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 230,658 other activists. That's ninety-two more than last
month!
Defend the freedom to share!
From November 14
Consider the presence of software in your life and how so much of what
we do depends on sharing, studying, and building upon the works of
others. This is why the freedom to share is at the core of the FSF's
work. We can only truly foster free software, free documentation, and
free cultural works for users around the world if we have the ability
to share. Motivated by profit, mega-corporations are trying to limit
this ability. They not only prevent interoperability between social
media platforms and messengers to maintain their monopolies, but also
impose Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM) on books and other media.
With your support, we can continue protecting the freedom to
share. The goal: to grow our sharing community by 455 new associate
members by December 31 -- For $10/month ($5 for students) you can
join us today! Share the message using the hashtag #FreedomToShare on
social media networks.
Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French or Spanish.
Fifteen years of LibrePlanet: Register now to join us on March 18 and 19
From November 30
The fifteenth edition of LibrePlanet will be another great two days of
excitement, community, and knowledge-sharing! After three years of
meeting everyone exclusively online, we are looking forward to having
a hybrid event on March 18 and 19, 2023 that allows you to choose
whether you want to participate online or in person. With the
submissions we received and the schedule we are planning, we're
certain you will be excited by what this fifteenth LibrePlanet has in
store for you!
Baby gnus, hoodies, and more: Show your support for free software through the GNU Press shop
From November 23
Thinking about getting a gift for your GNU-loving friends or family?
Well, now is the time to place that order! If you're in the US, and
you place your order by Friday, December 16 there is a good chance
that it will arrive on, or before, December 24. We have the all-new
(and much anticipated) stuffed baby gnu, a maroon "Free Software, Free
Society" hoodie, a stylish GNU beanie, a GNU Emacs "Auto-Fill Mode"
mug for your warm winter beverages, and more! Plus, don't forget that
FSF associate members receive a 20% discount on all purchases in the
FSF's shop.
FSF Giving Guide: Put freedom first in your giving this year
From November 18
Freedom is the best gift you can give, and the one that keeps on
giving. Taking your first steps to freedom often doesn't just help you
win back your digital autonomy: it provides an opportunity for you to
deepen your relationship with the ones you care about through a shared
experience, and inaugurates you into a worldwide community of
users. If you're already technical and committed to furthering free
software, we've also included a short list of devices that need
developer attention to clear the last hurdles to freedom that stand
between the chips they employ and full acceptability.
LibrePlanet CFS has closed. Thank you for your submissions!
From November 21
The call for sessions is now over, but we thank all who have taken the
time to submit a talk as well as a special thanks to this year's
LibrePlanet committee.
Tax filing Web sites have been sending users' financial information to Facebook
From November 22 by Simon Fondrie-Teitler, Angie Waller, and Colin Lecher
US taxpayers do not have many good options when it comes to filing
what, for some individuals, can often be a burdensome array of tax
forms. Unlike some other countries, the US has a heavily privatized
system for filing taxes, one that often requires the use of
third-party tax preparers. Unfortunately, when it comes to software,
the IRS currently only publishes a list of proprietary software for
individual tax preparation. Citizens who care about their freedom may
file by paper, of course, but many people feel obligated to use the
software. The Markup conducted research on widely used tax
preparation software and found several instances where, in addition to
its inherently unjust power over its users, the software examined
utilized the Meta (Facebook) Pixel to send sensitive financial and
personal data to Meta, which included "not only information like names
and email addresses but often even more detailed information,
including data on users' income, filing status, refund amounts, and
dependents' college scholarship amounts."
Sign the FSFE's open letter about the right to install any software on any device
From November 22 by the Free Software Foundation Europe
Advocating for "the universal right to install any software on any
device," the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is asking for
signatures in an open letter to European Union legislators. Backed and
signed by more than a hundred civil society organizations, the FSFE is
calling for the right to freely choose operating systems and software
running on their devices; the right to freely choose between service
providers; devices to be interoperable and compatible with free and
open standards; and that the source code for the devices' drivers,
tools, and interfaces to be published under a free license. Read more
about the campaign and sign the letter in advance of the European
Parliament and Council's reading of the Proposal for a Directive on
empowering consumers for the green transition.
France says "non" to Office 365 and Google Workspace in school
From November 22 by Thomas Claburn
The French minister of national education and youth has said that
certain versions of Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace should
not be used in schools, citing data sovereignty issues involved with
storing students' personal data on American servers. While this
decision is promising, it fails to address other issues. For example,
in order to maintain software freedom for students, software in
so-called "cloud" computing instead should be
installed onto students' computers when, in principle, it could be run
on students' computers. Data storage on servers should allow for
encryption by the end users in order to keep teachers and students in
control of their personal data. This is an important opportunity for
the French government to do the right thing for students' freedom and
privacy, and we urge them to recognize comprehensive software freedom
as being an imperative prerequisite to protecting its citizens' data
sovereignty.
ChessBase GmbH and the Stockfish team reach an agreement and end their legal dispute
From Joost VandeVondele on November 18
An agreement in accord with the spirit of free software was reached
between the leading developers of the chess engine Stockfish, which is
licensed under the General Public License version 3 (GPLv3), and
ChessBase Gmbh. Fat Fritz 2 and Houdini 6 software are based on
Stockfish, and ChessBase infringed on the license by not distributing
these as free software in accordance with the GPLv3. ChessBase's
customers were given neither the license nor the source code of these
programs, which they would need to exercise the rights granted by the
GPLv3. In a year from now, Stockfish will reinstate ChessBase's
license. To prevent future violations, ChessBase will, among other
things, create the position of a Free Software Compliance Officer, and
will maintain a domain that lists free software they distribute.
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 2 from 12:00 to 15:00 EST (17:00 to
20:00 UTC). Details here:
LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet 2023 BoF
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 LibrePlanet 2023 Birds of a
Feather sessions, which provides information about how to propose a
social event for the upcoming LibrePlanet 2023. You are invited to
propose BoFs for LibrePlanet 2023.
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 using
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
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.
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:
Asaf Fisher (GDB, GNU Binutils)
Zachary Ryan Romero (GNU Emacs)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to 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:
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.
