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guide, and we’d like to give away prizes for those who win the competition. You can help make this project all the How to Contribute more awesome with your donation! This competition also needs peo- Associate Membership: ple like you to enter and do awesome Become an associate member of things with it. Interested in taking the FSF. Members will receive Bulletin Issue 20 part? Read up more here and join us at a bootable USB card and e-mail July 2012 #liberatedpixelcup on irc.gnu.org — forwarding. To sign-up or get the admins and judges can be reached more information, visit member. E-books must increase for questions on the official forum as fsf.org or write to membership@ Contents well. fsf.org. our freedom, not Online: Use your credit card or E-books must increase 1 decrease it PayPal account to make a dona- our freedom, not tion at donate.fsf.org or con- decrease it by Richard Stallman tact [email protected] for more GNU Emacs Reference 3 FSF President information on supporting the Mugs and more I love The Jehovah Contract, and I’d FSF. Your money and your 4 like everyone else to love it too. I freedom have lent it out at least six times over Copyright c 2012 Jobs: List your job offers on our Update from the CTO 6 the years. Printed books let us do that. Free Software Foundation, Inc jobs page. See fsf.org/jobs for Around the world with 7 I couldn’t do that with most com- The articles in this bulletin are indi- details. RMS mercial e-books. It’s “not allowed.” And if I tried to disobey, the soft- vidually licensed under the Creative Free Software Directory: A hardware 7 endorsement hunch ware in e-readers has malicious fea- Commons Attribution No Deriva- Browse and download from thou- tures called Digital Restrictions Man- tive Works 3.0 United States Li- sands of different free software Volunteering on the Free 8 agement or DRM to restrict reading, cense. To view a copy of this license, projects! directory.fsf.org Software Directory visit http://creativecommons.org/ The right to repair 10 so it simply won’t work. The e-books licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/ or send a Volunteer: To learn more, visit Liberated Pixel Cup 11 are encrypted so only that malicious letter to Creative Commons, 171 Sec- fsf.org/volunteer. software can display them. ond Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, Many other habits that we readers Free Software Supporter California, 94105, USA. : are accustomed to are “not allowed” Make sure you’re getting all the for e-books. With the Amazon “Kin- Published twice yearly by the Free very latest news from the FSF at dle”, to take one example, users can’t Software Foundation, 51 Franklin fsf.org/fss. buy a book anonymously with cash. “Kindle” books are typically available Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02110- LibrePlanet: Find local groups from Amazon only, and Amazon makes 1301 in your area or start your own at users identify themselves. Thus, Ama- (617)542-5942 libreplanet.org! [email protected] zon knows exactly which books each http://www.fsf.org/ user has read. In a country such as the UK, where you can be prosecuted for possessing a forbidden book, this is Order a GNU Emacs Reference Mug at shop.fsf.org more than hypothetically Orwellian. Furthermore, you can’t sell the e- book after you read it (if Amazon has its way, the used book stores where I

12 1 have passed many an afternoon will be books available only at the price of Motor Company, meanwhile, is back- history). You can’t give it to a friend freedom. I will not read any book at ing the OpenXC Platform which “runs either, because according to Amazon that price. Five years from now, will on a combination of the Arduino and you never really owned it. Amazon re- unauthorized copies be the only ethi- Android platforms,” meaning support quires users to sign an End User Li- cally acceptable copies for most books? not only for free software, but free cense Agreement which says so. It doesn’t have to be that way. hardware designs. Internationally, the You can’t even be sure it will still With anonymous payment on the In- 160+-member GENIVI Alliance is try- be in your machine tomorrow. Peo- ternet, paying for downloads of non- ing to get wide-spread adoption of ple reading 1984 in the “Kindle” had DRM non-EULA e-books would re- an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) free an Orwellian experience: their e-books spect our freedom. Physical stores software development platform. Here vanished right before their eyes, as could sell such e-books for cash, like ‘infotainment’ (a somewhat outdated Amazon used a malicious software fea- digital music on CDs — still avail- term) refers to applications like driver- A screenshot from the Liberated Pixel ture called a “back door” to remotely able even though the music industry is drowsiness detection and instrument- Cup styleguide’s demo game delete them (virtual book-burning; is aggressively pushing DRM-restrictive cluster software as well as the more that what “Kindle” means?). But services such as Spotify. Physical traditional navigation and music pro- Liberated Pixel Cup don’t worry, Amazon promised never CD stores face the burden of an ex- grams. to do this again, except by order of the pensive inventory, but physical e-book Government regulatory bodies are by Matt Lee state. stores could write copies onto your growing interested in the safety im- Campaigns Manager With software, either the users con- USB memory stick, the only inventory plications of new vehicular software. iberated Pixel Cup is a two-part trol the program (making such soft- being memory sticks to sell if you need. Notably, the US National Highway Lcompetition: make a bunch of awe- ware Libre or Free) or the program The reason publishers give for their Transportation Safety Agency has some free culture licensed artwork, and controls its users (non-Libre). Ama- restrictive e-books practices is to stop advocated mandatory Event Data then program a bunch of free software 13 zon’s e-book policies imitate the distri- people from sharing copies. They say Recorders; that raise obvious pri- games that use it. bution policies of non-Libre software, this is for the sake of the authors; but vacy concerns; has proposed an in- Phase one of the competition is but that’s not the only relationship be- even if it did serve the authors’ inter- vehicle mobile-phone ban that would to build a set of artwork that’s dual tween the two. The malicious software ests (which for quite famous authors limit device use models; and consid- licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 and features described above are imposed it may), it could not justify DRM, ered mandatory backup cameras that GPLv3 and stylistically consistent. To on users via software that’s not Li- EULAs or the Digital Economy Act would show video within two seconds that end, we’re currently working on 14 bre. If a Libre program had malicious which persecutes readers for sharing. of power-on, which is a real challenge a style guide which incorporates these features like those, some users skilled In practice, the copyright system does for underlying operating systems. components. at programming would remove them, a bad job of supporting authors aside Both opportunity and peril for free Phase two of this competition will then provide the corrected version to from the most popular ones. Other au- software abound in the rapidly evolv- be building GPLv3 or later games that all the other users. Users can’t change thors’ principal interest is to be bet- ing automotive sector. By listening incorporate artwork from the artwork non-Libre software, which makes it an ter known, so sharing their work ben- carefully, with open minds, to the very building phase of the project. People ideal instrument for exercising power eﬁts them as well as readers. Why not real safety and security concerns of can work in teams or individually. Par- over the public. switch to a system that does the job sympathetic parties within the indus- ticipants will be judged based on fun Any one of these encroachments on better and is compatible with sharing? try, advocates can engage new allies factor, innovativeness, and of course our freedom is reason aplenty to say no. A tax on memories and Internet and have a positive impact on the envi- how well they incorporate assets built If these policies were limited to Ama- connectivity, along the general lines of ronmentally and economically critical for the contest. Phase two runs from zon, we’d bypass them, but the other e- what most EU countries do, could do transportation sector. July 1st thru July 31st. book dealers’ policies are roughly sim- the job well if three points are got 13ur1.ca/9hxn9 Liberated Pixel Cup will be awe- ilar. right. The money should be collected 14ur1.ca/9hxnk some, but it can’t happen without the What worries me most is the by the state and distributed according help of people like you! prospect of losing the option of printed to law, not given to a private collect- We’re paying artists for comissions books. The Guardian has announced ing society; it should be divided among on the artwork for the initial style “digital-only reads”: in other words, all authors, and we mustnt let compa-

2 11 The right to repair The advent of issues like Right to Re- nies take any of it from them; and the pair presents free software with the op- distribution of money should be based by Alison Chaiken portunity to address the concerns of a on a sliding scale, not in linear pro- Help Eliminate DRM! she-devel.com new audience of stakeholders like auto portion to popularity. I suggest using amiliar battles over privacy, secu- mechanics whose level of interest in the cube root of each author’s popu- Frity and (alas!) DRM will pop-up traditional desktop software may be larity: if A is eight times as popular as Join Defective By Design next in the automotive space. To date, low. B, A gets twice B’s amount (not eight defectivebydesign.org/join software innovation in the automotive In April, Jason Wacha of Mon- times B’s amount). This would sup- arena has been slow due to conser- taVista Software and Claus-Peter port many fairly popular writers ade- vatism motivated by over-riding safety Wiedemann of Bearing Point gave an quately instead of making a few stars concerns plus the high expense and important presentation called “Moti- richer. GNU Emacs Reference long lifecycle of products. Now the ad- vations and Challenges for the Use of Another system is to give each e- vent of wireless connectivity in vehicles FOSS in the Automotive Industry” at reader a button to send some small Mugs and more has dragged them into the 21st cen- the FSF-Europe Free Software Legal sum (perhaps 25 in the UK) to the au- by Chrissie Himes tury, where standards such as 1991’s and Licensing Workshop. The authors thor. Operations Assistant Controller Area Network 2.0 bus pro- argue that the GPLv3 “Requirement Sharing is good, and with digital e recently announced the avail- tocol are showing their age. The CAN to deliver certificates/keys which nor- technology, sharing is easy. (I mean Wability of our GNU Emacs Ref- protocol has little security, as befits a mally protect car infrastructure from non-commercial redistribution of exact erence mugs, and promptly sold out of hardwired network optimized for ro- being tampered with” prevents use of copies.) So sharing ought to be legal, our entire stock in less than 18 hours. bustness and low cost that is accessed GPLv3 in vehicles since it “has no ex- and preventing sharing is no excuse to These mugs were initially created by a only by trusted individuals. Wire- ception for safety-critical operations.” make e-books into handcuffs for read- generous person who decided to donate less exploits against CAN by an aca- The controversy of Secure Boot vs Re- ers. If e-books mean that readers’ free- 6 9 them to us, so we only had a limited demic collaboration show the urgent stricted Boot on new consumer elec- dom must either increase or decrease, number to sell. But, we have quickly need for the adoption of best prac- tronic devices is pertinent, as is the dis- we must demand the increase. replenished our stock of mugs and they tices exemplified by the Internet Pro- cussion initiated by Karen Sandler of are again available for purchase. tocol. Unfortunately, calls instead for the GNOME Foundation about how to If you want to sign up to be noti- security-by-obscurity in vehicles are al- manage source code for safety-critical 10 fied about news and updates from the ready being voiced. devices. 7 FSF store, please join the GNU Press The Right to Repair movement The Defective by Design campaign 1 11 Mailing list. We’re looking forward to is an example of a new natural ally in its 2011 “Holiday Buying Guide” announcing more fun items like these for free software. Right to Repair called out the problems with the My- mugs in the future. If you have a great “would require automakers to provide Ford Touch software created by Mi- idea of what we should offer, please add the same service information and tools crosoft. Now with the shipment of your suggestion to our ideas page.2 to independent auto and maintenance the Chevy Volt and three new mod- We also recently launched our shops, as well as to consumers, that els running the “Cadillac User Expe- 12 new Office Volunteers group on Libre- the automaker dealership service cen- rience,” buyers have the opportunity 2011 Free Software Awards Planet. People often ask us if there is ters receive.” In Massachusetts, the to purchase a car that is still locked, Left: Luis Falcon, the president of GNU 8 a day when we could use volunteers at State Senate has approved the bill but at least is running a lot of famil- Solidario, accepted the Award for Proj- ects of Social Benefit on behalf of GNU the office — the answer is always the although the auto industry “worries iar software underneath, like the ker- that the proposed legislation threatens Health. same: yes, every day! nel Linux and the X11 client-server. Right: Yukihiro Matsumoto (aka Matz), intellectual property (sic) rights, and Here at the FSF, we are constantly General Motors’ website now features the creator of the Ruby programming lan- could compromise online security of in need of help around the office with a corresponding Offer of Source. Ford guage, recieved the Award for the Ad- the data, putting consumers at risk.” various ongoing projects. This group 9 vancement of Free Software. ur1.ca/9lgms 1 6 10 ur1.ca/9hlog autosec.org ur1.ca/9ranr 2 7righttorepair.org/about/ 11defectivebydesign.org/holiday libreplanet.org/wiki/Group: 8ur1.ca/9hxmp 12ur1.ca/9dotm FSF/Ideas

10 3 on LibrePlanet is meant to help inform cerns people already think about. In volunteers who are local to Boston of fact, because we want people to use all the opportunities to come by the of- a free program even when it’s uglier, fice, hang out with the FSF crew, and more expensive, and less functional, we help the Foundation with its day to day try not to “lead” with those concerns, tasks. The more help we get from vol- which basically means not going out of unteers, the more we can do to help our way to mention them unless we are promote and protect free software. So going to follow up the mention with if you are in the Boston area (even for some points about software freedom. a visit!), check out the volunteer page, This is because we are trying to send a message to [email protected], and help people help themselves at a deeper come on by the office. level than becoming a skillful user of a program or device appropriate to their practical needs. We help people Your money and your protect their interests against contain- freedom ment and control by proprietary software companies. We want them to see by John Sullivan how using free software is better for Executive Director their privacy and security, and how it alking to people about free soft- is wrong to subjugate themselves to a Tware involves asking them to stop corporation’s control. for a moment and consider aspects of This process is complicated by the the technology they use that aren’t fact that, in many countries, people are readily evident. Most people haven’t accustomed to having such a relationship with corporations. Corporations This work(a) by Erik Steinmann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution been introduced to what “source code” 3.0 Unported License(b), and was the winning entry in the Restricted Boot Webcomic try to squeeze everything they can out is, or why it would be an important Contest. Learn more about Secure Boot vs Restricted boot(c). thing to have or to see. I’m just guess- of us, and we try to get everything we a. eriksteinmann.nl/secureboot_webcomic.html ing, but in my experience most peo- can from them. This attitude comes b. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ple judge and choose their technology fully into play when something hap- c. www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/ based on what it does for them, how pens which makes the abuse of propri- well it does those things, how much it etary software come to the attention of costs, how it looks and sounds. those who don’t usually focus on these and license information, to suggesting pand the database, while bringing the At the FSF, we can and do provide issues. new entries for the database. most popular projects’ information up answers along these axes on behalf of When Amazon, using its pro- SMW’s flexibility has also allowed to date. Anyone who is interested in free software. We’re happy to explain prietary Kindle software, remotely for the creation of RSS news feeds that making improvements to SMW code when a piece of free software is good deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984 list recently added or updated entries and adding new features is also wel- at doing a particular job, we’re happy from readers’ devices, or when they to the database. And that’s just the come to join. disabled the Text-to-Speech features beginning of what can be done. Visit our Participate page on the to point out when it doesn’t cost much 5 money, and we publicly boast when it on many e-book titles, people recog- I think that this directory is a great Free Software Directory. . resource for the free software commu- looks good. nized this as bad behavior but mostly 5directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD: However, making these points is saw it as an example of a company nity, one that will certainly improve Participate not the most important thing we do, making some individually bad deci- with time, considering the volunteer as free software activists. These aren’t sions, rather than as natural and ex- spirit of the hackers who have made all the concerns we want people to stop pected outcomes to a model of soft- the free software listed there. and think about — they are the con- ware distribution that gives Amazon We are looking for administrators immense power over readers. who are willing to help curate and ex-

4 9 ful that we’ll have products to endorse When Apple bans politically con- for free software activists who want is the increase in DIY electronics being troversial applications from being dis- to advocate free software on a basis done by makers and hardware-hackers tributed through the App Store, or re- more significant than just showing peo- around the world. It seems like ev- moves some feature from applications ple good programs to use. I don’t mean ery day a new hackerspace is popping- users already have installed on their that they are opportunities to compare up somewhere in the world, and more phones, people have complained about proprietary software to abused factory and more we are seeing people creat- those decisions but often think that labor. But they are opportunities to ing hardware that not only ships with the problem is that Apple didn’t ex- argue that some misbehaviors by pro- free software and free documentation, ercise its authority in justified ways, prietary software companies are prob- but that very often comes with hard- rather than contest that they should lems that can’t be addressed simply by ware designs also released under a free have that authority at all. shopping elsewhere. They are oppor- license. Because of this framing, a com- tunities to show how we can and should . . . so, our hunch is that from this mon response to these problems has take actions stronger than simply not culture, we will also find more and been, “If that makes you uncomfort- buying Kindles in order to help others, more small companies forming with able, then just don’t buy products and to make our societies better, freer the goal of producing products that from that company. Don’t buy a Kin- places. carry freedom to the user; computer dle or an iPad.” If the problem is seen What puts proprietary software in products the FSF can endorse, that as a company just doing something un- the category of misbehaviors that re- Respect Your Freedom. skillful, or making a bad product, this quire a bigger response? The propri- The FSF Associate Membership Card We need your help in discovering is a sensible response. Dumb products etary control that these companies ex- these companies (big or small) that aren’t illegal or unethical. However, ercise over software stems from the le- computer product endorsement pro- are selling, or even seriously thinking there are many examples of alleged cor- gal subsidies given to them around the gram with the goal of promoting the about selling computer products (of porate misbehavior which do provoke world. These legal subsidies — by creation and sale of hardware that will any kind!) that respect your freedom. a stronger reaction in people. When which I mean subsidies in the form of do as much as possible to respect your If you have any leads, send an email to there was a controversy over the reli- laws and accompanying law enforce- freedom and your privacy, and that [email protected]. ability of the brakes in Toyota hybrid ment — take public freedoms such as will ensure that you have control over cars, the predominant reaction was not freedom of expression, and give them 3 “just don’t buy a Toyota.” Many de- to corporations in the form of copy- your device. Volunteering on the Free While at the time of writing this manded an investigation, and possible right holdings. Without laws dictat- article we do not yet have a product Software Directory legal action. ing terms under which people are not to endorse, but there are a lot of fac- Some of the concerns recently permitted to share or modify software, tors that leave us feeling hopeful that by Andrew Engelbrecht raised about Apple have elicited sim- such sharing would be a form of free ex- pretty soon we’ll begin to see products FSD Community Volunteer ilar reactions. There has been an expression and association. Free societies shipping with a “Respects Your Free- Over the past six months I have plosion of interest in Apple’s manufac- know that these basic freedoms should dom” logo. For starters, we’ve been been volunteering on the Free turing practices. People are concerned not be taken away by other laws unless pleased to see an increase of the num- Software Directory (directory.fsf. about reports that Apple suppliers’ absolutely necessary. ber of hardware devices that work with org), a database that lists over six factory workers commit suicide at a Therefore, whether or not we computers running fully free operat- thousand free software projects. It’s high rate, and that they are treated buy their products, these companies ing systems. Check-out H-Node4 for a now written using Semantic Medi- poorly. People are also concerned that get something from us — our soci- database of hardware that works with aWiki (SMW), which extends Me- Apple’s retail workers are exploited, etal endorsement enacted as subsidies free software operating systems. diaWiki with numerous features for because they make such low wages through our laws, funded by our free- Another thing that makes us hope- querying and displaying data. But, compared to the value of the products doms. When people ask me whether even more importantly, it allows for they are selling. They are upset when the FSF thinks proprietary software 3 fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/ contributions by everyone, from sub- they think that Apple and Microsoft should be illegal, I suggest that this is criteria 4www.h-node.org mitting bugs against outdated version don’t pay the taxes they should. missing the point. The question is not These moments are opportunities whether to make it illegal — the ques-

8 5 tion is whether to remove the laws that which we are extremely appreciative. On his return to the United States create proprietary software in the first We also want to explicitly thank he spoke on six college campuses: at place. This is not banning proprietary The Free Software all of you who reached out to us af- Norwich University, at the University software; it is undoing subsidies, with- Supporter ter our call for help with colocation. of Pennsylvania, at the University of out which proprietary software simply We deeply appreciate all your help and Maryland, College Park, as part of does not exist. support, and we are very grateful to the iPAC Speaker Series, at Cogswell Changing laws to this end through Sign up today to receive our have found a solution for our coloca- Polytechnical College, at the John Jay public education and awareness-raising monthly newsletter, tion needs that is 100% donated. Ev- College to an audience from through- is a long and hard process. Until fsf.org/fss ery dollar we do not have to spend on out the CUNY system, including lo- that can be successful, we will instead colocation can be spent on the core cal and federal law enforcement agen- pressure companies not to take self- mission of the FSF. Thank you, all! cies as well as local forensic and secu- ish advantage of the legal subsidy of- As part of the move to the new rity firms, at Purdue, at the Univer- fered them. The mechanism for this Update from the CTO colocation facility, the FSF is now part sity of Chicago, and at Southern Ore- refusal is copyleft licensing of the soft- of the new Boston Internet Exchange, gon State University, as part of the ware they write — using the power by Ward Vandewege which allowed us to roll out support for Campus Theme — this year focused on of the legal subsidy given to them to Chief Technical Officer IPv6, the new addressing system for “Civility” — speaker series, and at the encourage sharing and freedom. We irst of all, we’d like to welcome the Internet. Eventually all of our ser- Noisebridge Hackerspace, in San Fran- want to reward those companies who Four new full-time system adminis- vices will be available natively on IPv6. cisco. do refuse the unethical subsidy, and trator, Nicolas Cesar! He’s getting up We look forward to stories and pho- criticize those who take advantage of to speed fast, and we’re very happy to tographs from his trips to Brazil, Ar- it. have him on the team. gentina, the United Kingdom, France, Certainly one step in addressing We’ve been pretty busy since our Around the world with Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany, the abuses of proprietary software last update. At the end of Febru- RMS Venezuela, and Colombia. You can companies is to not buy their prod- ary, we completed the move of our see photographic excerpts of some of ucts, and to encourage others to do servers to a new facility. For more by Jeanne Rasata his recent appearances on his blog at the same. But it’s not the last step, than 10 years, Global NAPs gra- Assistant to the President fsf.org/blogs/rms, and hear those and it’s not the only step. We also ciously provided the FSF with donated ichard Stallman, the founder and of his speeches for which we have must end the mechanism that hands colocation, power and bandwidth for Rpresident of the FSF, continues recordings at audio-video.gnu.org. these companies the public’s freedoms, our servers. Late last year, Global his work of tirelessly advocating for Please write to [email protected] whether or not we buy their products. NAPs informed us that the arrange- computer users’ freedom. Over the with any photographs you would like We “buy” these devices not only at the ment would come to an end as the com- past six months, he has traveled over to share or to extend an invitation for store with our dollars, but also through pany was sold, and their local coloca- eighty thousand miles by land and Richard to come speak. our acceptance of the laws that em- tion facilities would be shut down. by air to bring the message of the power them at our expense. Let’s Luckily, several organizations stepped free software movement to thousands make sure this problem is heard when- up to help us out. of people — students and academics, A hardware endorse- ever other social and human impacts James Jun and Joshua Myles newcomers and experts, policy mak- ment hunch of these companies’ practices are being helped us broker a deal with Markley ers, software developers, researchers, discussed. Group and TowardEX, who provide us business people, and all members by Joshua Gay and Donald Rob- with colocation space and bandwidth of the general public interested in ertson, III respectively, while Matthew Bloch and civil liberties and the social aspects Licensing and Compliance Team Peter Taphouse at Bytemark donated of computing — delivering over fifty e have a hunch, but we need your the use of a beefy dedicated server in speeches in thirty-eight cities across Whelp to see if it is right! Manchester, UK. thirteen countries, including Sweden, OK, here’s the back story ... Barton Bruce was instrumental Russia, France, India, Portugal, Slove- In the Fall of 2010 the FSF an- during our time at Global NAPs, for nia, Croatia, Tunisia and Spain. nounced “Respects Your Freedom,” a

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