Bulletin Issue 27
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Issue 27 Bulletin November 2015 Contents For our thirtieth 1 anniversary, thirty things we do at the FSF FSF is seen as a guiding 4 light: help us shine brighter The time to fight back 5 against TPP is now Winter Book Club with 6 GNU Press! Popular education, 7 movements and free Share the badges at u.fsf.org/badges. software Administrate files, not 8 time User Freedom Summit, followed systems by an evening party featuring toasts On the road with RMS 9 by longtime friends and associates of Privacy – who needs it? 10 the FSF, and an address by our pres- ident Richard M. Stallman (RMS). Friends around the world also cele- For our thirtieth brated, putting on over 22 events in 8 anniversary, thirty countries. Individuals who couldn’t at- tend events watched our free-software- things we do at the FSF powered video stream.1 At the FSF and in the GNU Proj- by John Sullivan ect, we want all computer users to be Executive Director able to do everything they need to The Free Software Foundation (FSF) do on any computer, using only free turned thirty years old on Octo- software. The FSF has been working ber 4th, 2015. We celebrated the oc- toward this goal for thirty years. casion — not just what it means for In order to make steady progress the organization, but what it means toward our goal, the FSF divides its re- for the success and longevity of the 1 free software movement — with a day- fsf.org/fsf30 1 sources (over 80 percent of which come 8. Submit briefs to key Supreme from individuals) between three ma- Court cases, such as those on jor areas of work — advocating and software patents and copyright spreading free software ideals; promot- issues, and file other official com- ing and facilitating use of free software ments to agencies like the FCC licenses, especially the copyleft GNU and Library of Congress General Public License; and driving actual development of free programs. 9. Fight against plans to have an of- In honor of the thirtieth anniver- ficial DRM extension to HTML5 sary, here are thirty concrete things we 10. Certify and promote hardware do at the FSF to transform our global that requires only free software, society into one which respects com- under our Respects Your Free- puter user freedom. dom program 1. Provide general infrastructure 11. Produce an annual Giving Guide support for GNU developers, in- encouraging freedom-friendly gifts, cluding software hosting, Web and organize events around the space, mailing lists, copyright as- world to distribute it in key shop- signment, and more ping areas 2. Support fundraising and promo- 12. Help people get started using tion for Replicant, as part of our specific free programs, such as initiative to create fully free mo- our Email Self-Defense Guide, bile devices which teaches people how to en- crypt their email 3. Support fundraising and promo- tion for GNU MediaGoblin, as 13. Speak to journalists at all kinds part of our initiative to ad- of publications about the neces- vance free, decentralized replace- sity of free software and fun- ments for network services that damental flaws with proprietary threaten user freedom software 4. Maintain the High Priority Proj- 14. Host the monthly Boston Civi- ects List to inspire and organize CRM meetup at our office free software development in key areas 15. Receive frequent visitors from around the world who want to 5. Speak at events all over the see the home of GNU and the world advocating free software FSF and copyleft 16. Encourage and help other non- 6. Organize the annual Interna- profits use free software for their tional Day Against DRM (Dig- operations like we do, whether ital Restrictions Management) their mission focuses on technol- ogy or not 7. Run the annual LibrePlanet con- ference 2 17. Celebrate achievements by oth- 27. Run a Tor relay node, and par- ers in the free software move- ticipate in efforts to expand the ment, such as through our annual Tor network Free Software Awards 28. Produce and sell printed freely 18. Answer thousands of questions licensed documentation, both emailed (and snail mailed!) to us technical and philosophical by people wanting to know more about free software 29. Contribute code to free software that we use 19. Build the Free Software Direc- tory and the community of con- 30. Host GPL compliance seminars tributors around it so that peo- and help steward copyleft.org ple can find free software to do everything they need to do This list does not cover everything that we do. Nor does it cover all of the 20. Build a database of hardware things we need to be doing. But we that works with free operating have to consider whether it’s too many systems, at h-node.org, so peo- things for our staff of twelve, our nine ple know what to buy volunteer board members, and our core 21. Enforce the GPL family of li- team of community contributors, to censes, following up on reports tackle at once. We take on so many of companies not following their things because we don’t want to ig- terms nore any threats to user freedom, or miss any opportunities to expand this 22. Answer hundreds of questions movement. each year from developers about During his address at the anniver- how to properly use free software sary event in Boston, RMS said, “If licenses for their work you want to finish something tak- ing decades, nothing’s more important 23. Fund Outreachy, as part of our than remembering where you’re trying support for initiatives to improve to get to.” I’d also add, you’d better diversity in the free software know where you are. movement We’re taking the occasion of this 24. Make attractive materials ex- significant anniversary to start a year- plaining the basics of free software long intensive process of reviewing to newcomers, like our “Usr Lib” where we are — taking stock of our video, and organize translations current initiatives, making sure we of our materials into many dif- have appropriate metrics and desired ferent languages outcomes associated with each one, and assessing how we use our resources 25. Campaign for the abolition of in light of that information. With a software patents (not just fight- clearer sense of where we are, we can ing “bad” patents or “trolls”) improve our efficiency, and do a bet- 26. Campaign against Restricted Boot ter job at prioritizing what’s most im- and other attempts to lock down portant. Being able to clearly demon- our devices strate our successes will in turn lead to 3 more resources, enabling us to expand and take on more projects. You can help with this effort — you can always send your thoughts to [email protected], but we’ll also be offer- ing more structured opportunities to provide feedback. I hope you’ll partic- ipate. Make sure you are on our main mailing list at fsf.org/fss to receive the announcements. I look forward to sharing the re- sults of this reflection with you. We greatly appreciate all the contributions you make in the form of time, money, and ideas. We couldn’t do any of this work without you, and all of us at the FSF are determined to be the most ef- fective organization we can be for you. Software Directory, assisting with ev- Here’s to the next thirty years! ery aspect of the annual LibrePlanet conference, representing us at the FSF booth at conferences around the world, FSF is seen as a even pointing out bugs on our Web guiding light: help sites. Your passion and dedication to the cause extends our reach and helps us shine brighter our small staff make the most of the by Georgia Young work we do. Program Manager And yes, your financial support is utumn has arrived here in Boston, crucial to our work, too. We have Aand as the leaves change, the FSF about 3,400 members, each of whom has, too. There are several new faces has agreed to put their money where on staff, and a few people have shifted their mouth is, on a monthly or an- roles. We celebrated our thirtieth an- nual basis. Memberships account for niversary, but there’s no time to rest nearly half of our funds each year, and on our laurels — we’re looking ahead in the last year, more than 80 per- to the free software community’s future cent of our funding came from individ- actions and achievements. uals, both members and non-member What keeps us going, you might donors. That’s a staggering amount of wonder. Of course, our vision of a support from people like you, and clear world where all software is free is proof that the FSF simply could not paramount to the work we do. But exist without you. the twelve of us who make up the FSF Raising money takes work. At staff rely on you. You give your time: present, the FSF does not have a translating FSF materials into multi- staff position dedicated exclusively to ple languages, coming to the FSF of- fundraising. The campaigns team — fice to help with our semi-annual Bul- Zak, Georgia, and Stephen — oversee letin mailing, contributing to the Free much of our fundraising work, but ev- 4 erybody on staff helps out, by encour- foundation of the philosophy of free- aging free software enthusiasts to be- dom, sharing, and change that we all come members, helping with the Bul- love so well.