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Home , Defective by Design, Eben Moglen, GNU lightning, Karen Sandler, LibreDWG, Luis Villa

Copyright c 2010 Foundation How to Contribute 51 Franklin Street, 5th Floor Boston, MA 02110-1301 Associate Membership: (617)542-5942 Become an associate member of [email protected] the FSF. Members will receive http://www.fsf.org/ a bootable USB card and e-mail Bulletin Issue 16 forwarding. To sign-up or get May 2010 This bulletin was produced using more information, visit member. only free software. fsf.org or write to membership@ fsf.org. The articles in this bulletin are Contents individually licensed under the Online: Use your credit card or Attribu- PayPal account to make a dona- Working together for 1 tion No Derivative Works tion at donate.fsf.org or con- free software 3.0 United States License. tact [email protected] for more LibrePlanet2010 2 To view a copy of this license, information on supporting the Freedom-friendly 4 LibrePlanet shirts now available visit http://creativecommons. FSF. government policy org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/ Encouraging nonprofits 5 Jobs: List your job offers on our or send a letter to Creative Com- to work together for free Working together for jobs page. See fsf.org/jobs for mons, 171 Second Street, Suite software details. free software 300, San Francisco, California, End Software Patents 8 Interview: Nina Paley 9 94105, USA. United Way: As a 501(c)(3) by Peter Brown DRM sticker contest 12 tax-exempt organization, the Executive Director Systems update 12 FSF is eligible to receive United Free software needs free 14 few weeks ago, my six-year-old Way funds. See fsf.org/uw for A tools son Michael looked at my t-shirt more information. New releases by GNU 16 from our LibrePlanet conference and started asking me to name each of the : Press various characters and objects shown Browse and download from thou- PayPal update 16 in the t-shirt design. These characters sands of different free software Assignments on the rise 17 are the mascots of various well-known projects! directory.fsf.org What’s in store 17 GNU network 18 (ahem) free software projects. Shame- Volunteer: To learn more, visit Putting the “me” in 19 faced, my memory slipped on a few and fsf.org/volunteer. membership I had to go look them up for him. Mobile freedom 20 The symbolism of the t-shirt is re- Free Software Supporter: Much a dot about 22 inforced by the tag line “Working To- Make sure you’re getting all the nothing gether for Free Software” and this is a very latest news from the FSF at shop.fsf.org Goneinaflash 22 theme that the Free Software Founda- fsf.org/fss. tion is working to promote within the community—that we need to do a bet- LibrePlanet: Find local groups ter job driving awareness and solidar- in your area or start your own at ity to the cause of software freedom. libreplanet.org! Free software is strong because of its values and because there are many heads to the free software hydra. For

24 1 every project that goes moribund an- Working Together for Free Soft- Gone in a flash For sharing with friends, there is other two (dozen it seems) projects rise ware means: TinyOgg at http://tinyogg.com — to take its place. But all too often we by Osama Khalid a free service I created to convert see high-profile projects, that are often • Telling all users that they de- FSF campaigns intern, Spring YouTube videos and other Flash-based corporately controlled, acting in ways serve to have freedom and that 2010 videos into Ogg Theora and Vorbis and that hurt free software, often putting they should be in control of their s Flash the only, or even the best way host them. By using it, you can make their narrow self-interest ahead of the computing. Ito share your favorite, funny video sure that you do not recommend us- wider adoption of free software plat- clip with your friends over Internet? ing Flash for your friends who may not • Promoting free software as a forms, or promoting ancillary propri- Surely not. Thanks to HTML5 and have customizing scripts. civil liberty, that protects citi- etary software at the expense of other pro-standard browsers for proving oth- You can also help by teaching your zens from government and undue free software projects. The most com- erwise. friends and colleagues about this issue, influence in their lives. mon problem is the lack of effort to ed- It is true that we already have a spreading TinyOgg, joining its Python ucate users to the values of the free • Prioritizing software develop- great Flash player, , but it does development project and participating software they distribute. Leaving a ment for free platforms, and to not move us far towards the software in FSF’s ongoing PlayOgg and End typical user valuing the software only recognize that the aim is to elim- freedom world, because of the non-free Software Patents campaigns. because it can be acquired for little or inate like Flash programs usually used by video- Everyone is capable of voting for no cost. any anti-social behavior. sharing websites to play videos. the free choice. We cannot lose this Our campaign for software freedom But even with HTML5, it is not fight! is not a campaign for freedom of choice. Please join us in promoting our enough to be able to play videos with- Interested in interning at the Free software isn’t just an alternative Working Together for Free Software out Flash if you, or your browser de- FSF? This is an opportunity to to proprietary software. Free software campaign. veloper, still need a license to legally work for the organization that is a social movement, a movement to do that. It is very important for the sponsors the GNU project, pub- rid the world of software that would freedom of the web to support patent- lishes the GNU General Pub- otherwise be used to divide us and keep LibrePlanet 2010 free formats to ensure that no author- lic License (GPL), and fights for us powerless. The software we use is ity controls such an essential technol- software freedom. See fsf.org/ by Matt Lee not a matter of utility or convenience, ogy. volunteer/internships for more Campaigns Manager it is a matter of securing our freedom Several proprietary browsers are information. n March, the FSF hosted the sec- now and ever more so in a future where pushing for the patented codecs. In- Iond of its annual free software con- we become increasingly dependent on ternet Explorer, Safari and Chrome all ferences, LibrePlanet 2010. The con- the integrity of the software we run. do (or will soonish) support the harm- ference replaces the FSF’s traditional In the US, we may have a Bill of ful, patented H.264 codec. Rights that prevents government from associate member meetings, which ran The simple step we can do here from 2003 until 2008. restricting free speech, free press or is to use no Flash and no HTML5 This year’s conference was a huge free assembly, but government can be with patent-encumbered video for- ignored and these rights removed when success, surpassing the first conference mats. Does that mean you can no more on all levels. The conference was ex- proprietary software corporations have watch videos and share them with your panded into three days, with each day control over a citizen’s computing. friends? Of course not. having two separate tracks of events. We need to strengthen the free soft- For your own watching, you This, coupled with the increase in at- ware movement for the long haul. The should consider installing free cus- key to this is to impress software free- tendance, made the event into one of tomizing scripts such as “YouTube the greatest free software events of all dom values on our friends and all the without Flash Auto” for Greasemon- time. people we introduce to free software. key that can easily remove Flash and Our campaign asks free software sup- Friday kicked off with a fantas- play videos using your free multime- tic introduction and tutorial into the porters and projects to promote free player within your favorite free GNU/ command line, led by software in ways that consistently em- browser. You can also download videos former campaigns manager Joshua phasize everyone’s right to freedom. and watch them locally.

2 23 replacements. It’s catch-up work, but to me that simple chronological order- Gay and membership coordinator Deb and awareness of free software licens- our community is usually successful at ing was not giving a meaningful result, Nicholson. This made for an excellent ing. Eben’s talk gave a real sense of a such tasks. So, let’s get coding on mo- so I then collected transition informa- follow-up to the work that was done job well-done and a mission complete bile! tion along with the thread identifier last year, to write a new manual dur- — all the major parts of a free software Further reading on this topic is (present in the log message) and was ing the conference — the book, Intro- system are now complete, with just a available at: ebb.org/faifmobile pleased to see that the graph now re- duction to the command line, was cre- few loose ends and high-priority emerg- solved into a diagram with 17 states. ated by Adam Hyde from FLOSS Man- ing threats as the next set of battles to This proves that the sequence of tran- uals with volunteers from the commu- be won. Much a dot about noth- sitions is coherent within each thread nity both online and in-person. This This led nicely into the worldwide ing independently (not surprising), some- was followed by a session demonstrat- premiere of a new movie — Patent Ab- thing one could deduce by careful ex- ing some of the latest in free software surdity: How software patents broke by Peter Olson amination of the log itself but which is Web development tools. the system. Directed by Luca Lucarini Senior Systems Adminstrator dramatically illustrated when put into Following lunch, there were ses- and made possible by a grant from the hen a Web server has problems, graphic form. sions on using the GIMP and ’s associate Wwe turn to the server logs to help The graph also has a property sim- graphics tools, as well as hacking ses- membership program, the documen- figure out what is wrong. But a server ilar to an electronic circuit: for the sions for people interested in the de- tary movie features interviews with log is a blizzard of detail and it is hard most part the sum of the counts of the velopment of free software for smart- Dan Ravicher, , Richard to discern the big picture, especially incoming arcs to a node less the counts phones. All of this was paralleled by Stallman, and others, illustrating some when low-level debugging is turned on. of the outgoing arcs is zero. Occasion- the first GNU Hackers Meeting in the of the pitfalls that software patents Recently I did this and obtained a log ally you will find an arc with a higher US, with GNU veterans John Gilmore, have created, and daring to imagine a over 2 GB in size in less than a day. count than expected, but this occurs Rob Savoye, David Sugar and Richard world in which software patents were Fortunately, the low level debug- because the node it is attached to is Stallman, as well as new maintain- removed from the field of play. ging produces messages all of which visited more than once in a typical pat- ers from GNU Generation, GNU Li- The movie, produced entirely with have a function name in an easy-to- tern of transitions, and you can find breDWG, and GNU social in atten- free software, also featured the anima- recognize position, along with other two other paths whose counts sum to dance. tion work of Chicago’s Chris Webber, explanatory text and numeric values. the larger one. Saturday kicked off with John with a pastiche of a familiar scene from Since I knew nothing about how this Some nodes have arcs which link Gilmore’s keynote “We’re done cloning the movie WarGames illustrating the part of the software works, I decided to themselves, indicating a sequence Unix, what next?”, followed by insight- problems that software patents have to make the log tell me how the pro- of messages that occur within a sin- ful talks on diverse subjects such as the created for everyone. gram execution goes from one function gle call to the function. I modified the law, free standards and increasing par- The afternoon was rounded out to another, and what the typical path program to create subgraphs for these ticipation from young people, from the with talks on two emerging graphical of execution is. I wrote a program to cases, so I can see what are the typical likes of , Louis Suarez- user interfaces. From Walter Bender, parse the debugging messages, creat- paths occurring within each function. Potts, Max Shinn, and Steven DuBois. talking about his work on the Sugar ing a matrix showing the transitions in To do this I created node names out of No free software event would be graphical interface and Marina Zhu- successive messages. I used this to gen- the other information in the message, complete without an opportunity for rakhinskaya on her work on the next- erate an input file for the graphic vi- changing numbers to 0 and so on to some keysigning — the exchange of generation interface for the GNU desk- sualization program dot, which among discard the variable part of each mes- public encryption key signatures — to top, the GNOME shell. other things can diagram a state ma- sage. allow people to communicate without The day was rounded out by Chris chine. I labeled the arcs with a count At press time, I have not yet found surveillance over the Internet. Hofstader, talking about his new proj- of how many times each transition was the silver bullet for this bug, but I am In the afternoon, we were pleased ect to increase the accessibility for the observed. very pleased with the information I am to have a late arrival to the sched- GNU Project. Accessibility is for ev- When I first did this, I got an getting out of the graphs. ule of none other than Eben Moglen, eryone, but especially people using as- enormously complex graph with lots of The dot program is part of the a familiar face to many in the free sistive technology, such as a screen 19 apparently random transitions having package graphviz. software world, and head of the Soft- reader, which reads Web pages, emails ware Freedom Law Center, a law firm and other on-screen items to users who low transition counts. This suggested 19http://www.graphviz.org/ specializing in building understanding are blind or have low-vision. In the

22 3 other hall, licensing stalwarts Brett Freedom-friendly govern- Google’s goals do not match that of Fear of an FCC crack down when Smith and Donald Robertson took a ment policy the software freedom community, so in mobile users have software freedom series of questions about all aspects of some cases, a given device will give the is beyond the scope of this article. free software licensing in a talk dubbed by Brett Smith user more software freedom than the However, what Atheros has done with “The Licensing Hoedown.” Licensing compliance engineer N900, but in many cases it will give their Wifi devices shows that software rounded out the he FSF’s Compliance Lab has much less. freedom and FCC compliance can co- day, with the presentation of his Tbeen involved in many different ac- The HTC Dream is the only such exist. Furthermore, the central piece of newest philosophy article, “Who does tivities where free software develop- device I know of where a careful ex- FCC’s concern — the GSM chipset and your server really serve?” — talking ment interacts with the law: license amination of the necessary propri- firmware — runs on a separate proces- about the dangers posed by Software drafting and evaluation, crafting best etary components have been analyzed. sor in modern mobile devices. This is as a Service (SaaS). practices for projects, working for com- There also are about twenty hard- a software freedom battle for another Sunday brought us a day of talks pliance and enforcement, and more. ware interface libraries that do not day, but it shows that the FCC can and workshops on the issue of increas- In the past few months, we’ve started have source code available in a pub- be pacified in the meantime by keep- ing the participation of women in free pushing out into a new area: advo- lic repository. However, when lined ing the GSM device a black box to the software. Currently, women comprise cating for free software users and de- up against the N900 with Maemo, An- free software running on the primary less than 2% of the free software com- velopers when government sets policy. droid on the HTC Dream can be used processor of the device. munity. This was led by an introduc- We’ve already had the opportunity to as an operational mobile telephone Seeking software freedom on mobile tion from our own Deb Nicholson, fol- provide comments and feedback in a and 3G Internet device using only devices will remain a complicated en- lowed by Leslie Hawthorn, discussing couple of different cases, and we’re on three proprietary components: a pro- deavor for some time. Our community how best to handle free software men- the lookout for more. prietary GSM firmware, proprietary should utilize the free software releases toring. Later, Chris Ball, Hanna Wal- The first case was for the US Trade wifi firmware, and two audio interface from companies, but should not forget lach, Erinn Clark and Denise Paolucci Representative’s (USTR) Special 301 libraries. Further proprietary compo- that, until viable community forks ex- gave us their insights into ways to re- Review. The Special 301 Review is a nents are needed if you want a work- ist, software freedom on these devices cruit and retain women in free software process that the USTR undertakes ev- ing accelerometer, camera, and video exists at the whim of these companies. projects. After lunch, gave ery year to evaluate the enactment and codecs, as their hardware interface li- A traditional “get some volunteers to- us his look at network services from a enforcement of , patent, and braries are all proprietary. gether and write some code” approach client perspective, while talks trademark laws throughout the world. A healthy community-oriented phone can achieve great advancement toward took place in Hall A. The day rounded The office then produces a report plac- project will ulti- community-oriented free software sys- out with talks from Chris Montgomery ing countries on a Watch List—or even mately be an essential component to tems on mobile devices. Developers and Gregory Maxwell from the Theora a Priority Watch List—if the USTR software freedom on these devices — interested in applications should ini- project and a workshop on non-coding feels the laws and enforcement aren’t on this point, I must also mention the tially focus on applications for the ex- roles in free software from Selena Deck- forceful enough. Neo FreeRunner device and the Open- isting mostly free platforms of MeeGo lemann, followed by GNU LibreDWG Traditionally, the report is a huge Moko project. This was a noble ex- and Android/Linux. Meanwhile, the and GNU Gnash giving us their own favor to the big copyright industries periment: a freely specified hardware challenging and more urgent work is lightning talks on their respective proj- from the US government. It en- platform running 100% free software. to replace lower-level proprietary com- ects. courages foreign countries to enact I used an OpenMoko FreeRunner my- ponents on these systems with free The conference was a huge success, laws that are as outrageously bad for self, hoping that it would be the mo- software alternatives, but admittedly with over 230 people attending. Next freedom as its own, including longer bile phone our community could rally needs special programming skills that year’s conference will have a lot to live terms for copyright restriction, and around. I do think the device and its aren’t easy to find. up to. Digital Millennium Copyright Act-like (various) software stack(s) have a fu- We should be hopefully optimistic (DMCA) legislation. This year, for the ture as an experimental, hobbyist de- about the mobile space. There are first time, the USTR accepted com- vice. But, just as GNU/Linux needed challenges for software freedom, but ments from the public throughout the to focus on hardware to succeed, so they are challenges our community month of February. We sent a let- must software freedom efforts in mobile knows well how to face: we need to ter explaining how anti-circumvention systems focus on mass-market, widely identify the proprietary software that used, and widely available hardware. is important, and write free software

4 21 terials you need to do it right! tracts should go even longer. The laws like the DMCA hurt free software quences that they’ll have to deal with If you’re just getting the spark, we “race to mediocrity” of the phone mar- developers and technology users gener- sooner or later. want to help you fan the flames. As ket has ended. Phones need real fea- ally, and asked the USTR to stop advo- Overall, we like the results we’ve you read the stories and ideas, in our tures to stand out. Phones, in fact, cating similar legislation in the Special seen from these efforts thus far, and blogs, and on the LibrePlanet wiki, we aren’t phones anymore. They are small 301 Review. we plan to participate in other pro- hope you’ll be inspired. Please contact mobile computers that can also make Then, in March, the newly cre- cesses like this. Follow the Compli- us if you need feedback on your ideas phone calls. ated executive “ ance Lab blog at http://fsf.org/ to promote free software. Enforcement Coordinator” heard com- blogs/licensing for more informa- We want you to succeed so we can The current state of mobile soft- ments on how the US government tion about these activities, along with feature your stories next! ware freedom could go about stronger enforcement of all the other work we do. , patents, and trademarks. For its part, Nokia likely benefited We wrote in to say that the gov- Mobile freedom greatly from the traditional carrier ernment would be better off focus- system. Most of their phones were ing on adoption of free software for by Bradley Kuhn provided relatively cheaply with con- its own functioning. It would be the FSF board member tracts. Nokia sold new hardware ev- ethical choice, allowing the govern- he mobile telephone market has ery time a phone contract was renewed, ment to share software with its citizens Tnever functioned like the tradi- and the carrier paid the difference be- and help them more actively partici- tional computer market. Historically, tween the loss-leader price and Nokia’s pate in society. It would also let the the mobile user made arrangements wholesale cost. The software on the de- government provide an unprecedented with some network carrier through vices was simple and mostly internally amount of transparency about its inner a long-term contract. That carrier High-priority projects include replacing developed. workings, and reallocate resources cur- “gave” the user a phone or discounted Flash and Skype. In parallel, Nokia chased another rently wasted on compliance and en- it as a loss-leader. Under that sys- market: the tablet PC. GNU/Linux forcement for proprietary software li- tem, few people take their phone hard- remains the ideal system for these de- censes. ware choice all that seriously. Perhaps vices, and Nokia saw that. Nokia built The Special 301 Report was re- Encouraging nonprofits users pay a bit more for a slightly bet- the Debian-based Maemo system as a leased in mid-May. We were disap- ter phone, but generally they nearly to work together for tablet system, with no phone. This pointed but unsurprised to discover always pick among the limited choices eventually became the tablet/phone it still advocates for the same bad free software provided by the given carrier. hybrid: the N900. This is among legislative changes as before. We Meanwhile, Research in Motion only a few available phones that make won’t be surprised if we hear simi- by John Sullivan was the first to provide corporate- any strides toward a fully free software larly negative news from the “Intellec- Operations Manager slave-oriented email-enabled devices. phone platform. Yet, the list of propri- tual Property Enforcement Coordina- t’s obvious that the Free Software Indeed, with the very recent focus on etary components required for opera- tor,” either. But Rome wasn’t built IFoundation must use free software public-oriented devices like the iPhone, tion remains quite long. The common in a day. We’re putting policymakers for its daily operations, because pro- most users forget that Apple is by far joke is that you can’t even charge the on notice: these are not one-sided is- moting and protecting free software is not the preferred fruit for the smart battery on your N900 without propri- sues. We represent constituents who our mission. Using Office phone user. Today, most people using etary software. want to see policies that help free soft- at the FSF would be like the Nature a “smart phone” are using one given to Android/Linux is a nearly fully ware, rather than hurt it. And that’s Conservancy draining some wetlands them by their employer to chain them free non-copylefted phone operating clearly a huge group of people; our sub- to build its new headquarters. to their office email 24/7. system platform where Linux is the missions rank highly in web searches But other socially oriented non- Apple, excellent at manipulating only GPL-licensed component essen- about the issues. By bringing the profits, whether or not their missions users into paying more for a prod- tial to Android’s operation. Ide- force of that group to these public relate to technology, should also be us- uct merely because it is shiny, also ally, Google wants to see it adopted discussions, and their coverage in the ing free software. All such charities de- convinced everyone that now a phone broadly in both free software and media, we let the government know pend for their existence and effective- should be paid for separately, and con- mixed free/proprietary deployments. that their choices have negative conse- ness toward their respective goals on a

20 5 functioning civil society, where individ- motely deleted books from their cus- age; peers that contribute to the net- hood software expert or your house- uals can freely communicate and asso- tomers’ Kindle Swindle ebook readers. work are rewarded with better service. hold’s resident geek. ciate. The more they use technology to They claim that the power to do this Whether you’re bridging the gap by do that communication and organize stems from the EULA people agree to GNU social — .org/s/social designing new user interfaces or qui- that association, the more they must when they use their Kindles. etly converting your whole apartment be concerned with the nature of that It is a short step for any other GNU social development has begun building into free software users, we technology. A nonprofit attempting to company selling proprietary software — this summer, Ian Denhart and want to tell your story — free software communicate with potential support- or “software as a service” to commit Sean Corbett from Clark University is all about helping your neighbor. ers and the public undermines itself crimes against civil society similar to in Worcester, Massachusetts, together In addition to sharing the software, when it hands veto power over those Apple’s and ’s. Nonprofits of with volunteers from the wider free the FSF wants to facilitate neighborly communications to a company with in- any kind owe it to themselves, their software community will show off the sharing of ideas and tactics for promot- terests opposed to the organization’s supporters, and civil society in gen- first public version of GNU social. ing free software locally. freedom or autonomy. eral, to resist this control. They should GNU social represents a dramatic Starting this fall, we’ll be regularly That veto power comes in many not hand information about their sup- change in the way most social networks featuring free software activists on our forms, including proprietary software porters over to software as a service have worked until now — decentral- Web site. Have you recently hosted copyright licenses and End User Li- groups,1 where that information can ized, secure communication amongst an inspiring local free software event? censing Agreements (EULAs). Such be more easily subpoenaed or com- public and private servers running the We’d love to publish a blog about it. licenses and agreements often specify promised, and they should not require GNU social stack. Were you instrumental in getting free that any use of the software is subject their supporters or themselves to agree software adopted at your school, li- to the permission and inspection of the to software licenses that give consent to Putting the “me” in brary or office? We’d love to inter- software’s developers. For an organiza- searches while prohibiting them from view you for fsf.org. Maybe this isn’t tion to give up control over technology helping themselves by installing and membership you, but you know someone who’s been in this way is to lose not just control improving their own software. doing great work to promote software over medium; it’s also to lose control Dependency on proprietary soft- by Deborah Nicholson freedom — please tell us about them! over message. ware also manifests in substantive Membership coordinator Got something to say about bring- While it may seem like just legalese ways for nonprofits, such as upgrade n today’s world, we use comput- ing free software to schools or some fine print, the threat posed to social costs, migration pains, and lock-in. Iers for correspondence, for news- pointers on approaching your local li- change by this power continues to be- But most importantly, nonprofits need gathering, and for enjoying media. brary? Please add it to our activist come more tangible. Some nonprof- free software — software which can be Even more importantly, we have the guide!18 its have been appealing to people us- studied, modified, and shared — to ac- capability to use our computers for so- Have you been doing a great job of ing iPhones and iPads, but Apple has complish their missions. They need the cial criticism, anonymous communica- bringing women to your Python group been shamelessly dictating what appli- freedom to make decisions based on the tion and dissent. As an FSF member, or diversifying your school’s CS pro- cations can and cannot be run on these need of their missions. Free software you’re someone who understands that gram? Please tell us how you did it! computers. Apple claims that it is il- is the only way to guarantee this free- free software is more than an interest. Got a precocious free software ad- legal for users to install applications dom, and even if its cost were actu- It is a belief that empowering all people vocate in your house? We bet they’d from anywhere other than the official ally higher than the cost of proprietary to be in full control of their computing enjoy connecting with other young free Application Store — and they arbitrar- software, it would be worth it. will ultimately help to build a better software users in GNU Generation. ily and without explanation reject and As people knowledgeable about free world. Want to be a free software ambas- remove applications from that Store. software, we can all help encourage You’re more than a name on our sador at an event in your area? We’ve The applications affected have often other organizations to recognize these list of supporters, you’re our proxy in reached out to folks at all kinds of directly related to matters of expres- facts and the impact of this technol- your local community. events, everything from Earth Day ex- sion, including political cartoons and ogy. You can help by writing to other For some members that means be- travaganzas to film festivals. Let us columnists. nonprofits that you donate to, and ask- ing a free software advocate in the know and we can send you all the ma-

Companies like Amazon have pro- 1 workplace or a usergroup organizer, for 18 gnu.org/philosophy/ others it means being the neighbor- http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/ vided further illustration of the prob- who-does-that-server-really-serve.html ActivismGuide lems that can arise, when they re-

6 19 designs — “Live The Dream,” “GNU Currently, three projects are part ing them to publicly support free soft- of fully free distributions.6 Head,” “Happy Hacking,” and “Libre- of GNU network: GNU FM, GNUnet ware, and to adopt an internal technol- Planet.” The women’s sizes of “Live and GNU social. Here’s a rundown on ogy policy that commits them to using • CiviCRM can take the place The Dream” are available in royal blue, each of these projects, and how it’s be- more and more free software over time. of proprietary fundraising pro- and “GNU Head” in lovely pink. ing used. If you’d like to suggest a To find the needed expertise, you grams like Raiser’s Edge and The sticker pack is always one of new project for GNU network, please can suggest to nonprofits that they ad- software as a service products the most popular GNU gear items write to [email protected] — we vertise on the FSF Jobs Board.2 You like Convio. It handles donation records, email and postal mail- for showing your support of GNU, also have a mailing list for discussion can offer yourself as a consultant, or 7 the FSF and our current campaigns around the creation of network services point to the FSF Service Directory,3 to ings, and contact management. against DRM and Windows 7, as well in GNU. further help nonprofits make the tran- • We do graphic design, im- as stickers for GPLv3 and more. Each sition. age editing, and typesetting package comes with 50 stickers. To GNU FM — gnu.org/s/fm Don’t be afraid to start small — with Inkscape, the GNU Image thank you for your support of the FSF, getting your local neighborhood asso- Manipulation Program (GIMP), GNU FM is a project to create both we are happy to customize a sticker ciation to use free software is a victory and LaTeX.8 pack for you — if you have a favorite a server and user-facing component in itself, and can lead to more change, sticker of ours and would like to re- for the reporting of music listening as volunteers and staff move back and • For double-entry accounting, we 9 ceive more samples of it than of the habits. Implementing the Audioscrob- forth to other organizations. Small or- use SQL Ledger. others, you can send in an email to bler API created by Richard Jones in ganizations are often very eager to ac- • To maintain job documentation [email protected] after you have placed 2002 and most commonly associated cept volunteer help with their infras- and other organizational knowl- your order through the online shop. with Last.fm, GNU FM allows anyone tructure — offering to set up a free edge, and to collaboratively edit Please visit shop.fsf.org, the to set up and run their own similar software contact database for a local text for publication, we run a only place that you can get the unique system. GNU FM is most commonly group might be a simple and effective Libre.fm couple of internal wikis, using shirts for yourself or for someone you associated with the website, way to introduce them to free software. 10 Ikiwiki and Mediawiki. know! Wear the special shirts around which is currently the largest GNU FM You can amplify your efforts further by to support free software, and check installation, with over 30,000 users and sharing the text of any emails or let- • Our online store selling t-shirts, out the store’s new stickers, books and over 23 million recorded song listens. ters you write on the LibrePlanet wiki, books, and other merchandise, manuals. so others can use them and improve uses Satchmo, an e-commerce 4 We welcome any new product GNUnet — gnu.org/s/gnunet them. product built on the Django web 11 ideas, so please send in your sugges- GNUnet is a framework for secure When talking to nonprofits, it helps framework. sales@fsf. tions for GNU Press to peer-to-peer networking that does to be familiar with some free options org • We use free software Web site re- . Your support and ideas are, as not use any centralized or otherwise for the kinds of software they typically always, valuable assets to us. need. Knowing what software the FSF vision systems for our sites, in- trusted services. A first service imple- cluding Drupal and Plone. Many mented on top of the networking layer uses might be a good place to start. This is not an exhaustive list; there other organizations use Word- GNU network allows anonymous censorship-resistant press, or Movable Type.12 file-sharing. Anonymity is provided are many more free software options in each of these categories. More can be by making messages originating from In addition to using free software by Matt Lee found in the Free Software Directory.5 Maintainer, GNU network a peer indistinguishable from messages themselves, there are some basic best that the peer is routing. All peers act NU network is a new initiative • To start with, all of our desktops 6gnu.org/distros as routers and use link-encrypted con- 7 Gwithin GNU to encourage the de- and servers run the GNU/Linux civicrm.org nections with stable bandwidth utiliza- 8See inkscape.org, .org, and velopment of free network services and operating system. For distribu- tion to communicate with each other. latex-project.org. web applications that are free software tions to recommend, see our list 9sql-ledger.org/ GNUnet uses a simple, excess-based 10 that can replace existing, proprietary 2 ikiwiki.info and .org economic model to allocate resources. fsf.org/jobs 11 services and create new ways for peo- 3 See www.satchmoproject.com and www. fsf.org/resources/service Peers in GNUnet monitor each other’s 4 djangoproject.com. ple to communicate in freedom. groups.fsf.org 12 behavior with respect to resource us- 5 drupal.org, plone.org, wordpress.org, directory.fsf.org and movabletype.org/download.html

18 7 practices that they should follow in or- Encouraging everyone to see free ing their local bank accounts and is attracting more talented coders than der to be compatible with the use of software as fundamental to a free soci- debit/ATM cards, rather than poten- ever before. free software by their supporters: ety, in which nonprofits pursuing a va- tially costly credit-card transactions. The number of contributors seeking riety of charitable missions can operate The FSF recently discovered that assignment has more than doubled in • Web sites should be friendly to with freedom, is a key part of working PayPal had added a proprietary soft- the past few months, with close to 150 free software browsers like Icecat together for free software. ware license to its User Agreement. new assignment requests since April. and Firefox, and should not re- Of course, the FSF couldn’t agree There is usually an up-tick in contribu- quire or encourage Adobe Flash to those terms, so as soon as we learned tions at this time of year, as students or Microsoft Silverlight. End Software Patents about them, we contacted PayPal to look to use their summer wisely by • Audio, video, and text should see if we could make other arrange- contributing to free software projects, by Ciaran O’Riordan be distributed in free formats, ments. The company listened to our but it has never been this large before. Director, End Software Patents like Ogg Vorbis for audio; Ogg concerns, and specifically excepted us New projects like GNU social are gen- s you read this, the US Supreme Theora for video; and Open- from these conditions. erating a lot of interest and bringing ACourt will probably have pub- Document, PDF, HTML or plain But not only that: next year, Pay- in plenty of new faces to GNU. Even lished the Bilski decision and the soft- text for documents. Pal is also updating its user agree- well-established packages are gaining ware patents debate will be roaring, ment to ensure that the free software more recruits these days, particularly • Any applications the organiza- and not just in the USA. There is also community can continue to receive and younger coders, many of whom have tion might produce or distribute software patent legislation on the ta- make payments without having to ac- not previously contributed. should be free software and run ble or being written in New Zealand, cept a proprietary . All of this is good news for the on free operating systems. This Australia, Israel, and other countries. GNU Project. It means that we are means, for example, resisting the How ready are we? I mean the broad having success at recruiting the next trend of releasing iPhone and “we” — we around the world who are Assignments on the rise generation of hackers to a project that iPad-only applications, since Ap- against software patents. has been integral to the goal of creat- ple has banned free software for by Donald Robertson We have important landmark vic- ing a free computing environment. It those platforms. tories. Getting the Software Patents Copyright Administrator is a testament to the strength of GNU Directive rejected in the European s part of its support for the GNU Of course nonprofits sometimes A that so many who were born after its need to appeal to the technologies that Union in 2005 was a big victory after Project, the FSF accepts copy- inception are now joining its ranks and seven years of work. We also have im- right assignment on numerous GNU people already have, in order to get contributing code. portant stepping stone victories, like packages. their message out, but they also have the recent recommendation by New We do this in order to be in the best a leadership role, and need to consider Zealand’s government that “computer position to protect and promote these what kind future they are supporting. What’s in store When they do make appeals in programs [be included] among inven- packages and ensure that they remain tions that may not be patented.” One free. by Jasimin Huang problematic ways, they can take a common factor between these two vic- Whenever a new hacker decides to Operations Assistant minute to encourage people in those places to follow them using better tories is that we took par.t In many contribute to one of the hundreds of his spring, the GNU Press intro- other activities, taking part seems ob- packages held by the FSF, or a vet- Tduced the newly designed Libre- methods. For example, they can pro- vious, but when it comes to politics, eran hacker decides to try her hand at Planet t-shirt. We have seen a dra- vide their audio recordings in both the software enthusiasts often stop short of a different package, I get to help them matic increase of member and non- patent-restricted MP3 patent-free Vor- taking part. with the process of assigning that code members orders of this new shirt, bis formats, but highlight the Vorbis version. No matter what, the problem- A contrast is the Australian sit- to the FSF. As the copyright admin- which is now one of the most pop- uation. A government-commissioned istrator here at the FSF, I essentially ular items in the shop. The cream- atic channels and formats should not study concluded in 2009 that “in new get to take the pulse of the GNU Proj- colored text with the popular free soft- be requirements for people wanting to keep up with an organization’s work. areas of patenting such as software and ect as I watch the assignments come ware icons are a perfect match to the business methods, there is strong evi- rolling in. I am pleased to report that brown shirt background. In case you Free software is more than capable dence that existing [. . . ] arrangements the GNU Project is quite healthy, and haven’t noticed, we have also intro- of meeting all of a nonprofit’s organi- are hampering innovation.” Software duced shirts in women’s sizes in several zational and multimedia needs.

8 17 Further thoughts on this topic can as users face — showing the insidious is currently very patentable in Aus- through our fingers if we each leave it be found in “On the savannah, where ways in which these traps can erode tralia, so this is a clear criticism of soft- to someone else. You’ll find most or the gnu roam” at fsf. org/blogs/ our freedoms — and assess the situ- ware patents. However, when the gov- all of what you need on en.swpat.org. community/savannah ation and invite us to be more proac- ernment then held a public consulta- That wiki is publicly editable and your tive and to look beyond convenience to tion on what should be patentable, the contributions will in turn help others. civic values, keeping the ideals of free- only software organization that replied New releases by GNU dom, community, and neighborliness in was Microsoft. “We” didn’t take part, Press the foreground. and the government’s legislative pro- In tandem with this second edition, posal based on this consultation will by Jeanne Rasata GNU Press will be releasing a second now likely be an uphill battle for us. Assistant to the president edition of Free as in Freedom, Sam The participation in New Zealand e are pleased to announce the Williams’ biography of Richard Stall- was that a half-dozen letters were sent Wupcoming release of the second man. Proceeds from the sale of the in response to a public consultation, edition of Free Software, Free Society: books will help fund our campaigns to and some of those letter writers also Selected Essays of Richard M. Stall- promote and defend computer users’ turned up to oral hearings to explain man. rights. We hope that you will down- their letters. It’s a surprisingly man- This new edition features updated load or buy the books to help spread ageable amount of work for such a solid versions of the essays on the GNU the word and support free software. victory. The EU victory involved mas- Project and free software and, in lieu of Richard Stallman continues to sive work, including protests on the some of Stallman’s speech transcripts, further the cause of free software, streets, but it was also based largely on incorporates many of the essays he has speaking to audiences worldwide: writing letters and meeting the politi- written since the first edition was pub- in June, he will give speeches in cians. There’s a reason that interact- lished in 2002. A concerted effort was the Balkans, Lebanon, Germany, and ing with politicians on this issue works: made to draw a distinction between the Spain; in July, he will be in Venezuela we have studies and other evidence to often conflated fields of copyright and and the US; the following month, back up our claims. patents, and new essays relating to the he will visit China, India, and New One of End Software Patents’ main by Nina Paley latter will, we hope, define the issues Zealand; and, so far, trips to Australia, projects is the en.swpat.org wiki, and help clear up the confusion. Armenia, and Switzerland are planned where you can find lists of studies To make the licenses more palat- for the fall. showing that software patents harm able and accessible to the uninitiated, Please help spread the word about the economy and innovation, and you Interview: Nina Paley we’ve included an introduction — his speeches by keeping an eye on up- can find lists of examples where soft- which provides some historical back- coming speeches at fsf.org/events/ ware patents were used to destroy soft- by Adrin Yanes Martnez ground and context and explains the as well as sharing it with your friends ware projects, or to block software DRM Elimination Crew significance of the documents — and and colleagues. projects from having features which ina Paley is an American cartoon- an essay on why projects should up- Please let us know if you would like users require. Nist, animator and free culture ac- grade to version 3 of the GNU Gen- Richard to visit your city or area. I’ve interacted with campaigns tivist. She directed the animated fea- eral Public License. A more prominent against software patents from more ture film Sita Sings the Blues. She was than twenty countries, and the free place has been given to the importance PayPal update the artist and often the writer of comic of using the correct nomenclature; a software community has played a key strips Nina’s Adventures and Fluff, but part of the book focuses on the issues role in every one of them. For post- most of her recent work has been in an- Bilski, my advice is simply to partic- of vocabulary and the unfortunate con- he FSF now accepts associate imation. Her early short films include sequences of not referring to something T ipate. Write to politicians, quoting Fetch!, The Stork, and The Wit & Wis- membership payment via monthly studies and real world examples, and by its right name. PayPal payments! dom of Cancer. follow up with a phone call. This is Finally, the last two parts inform This payment method is ideal for Interview questions were asked by something we’ve proven we can do well, us on some of the types of traps we non-US members, who can pay us- Adrin Yanes Martnez. and it’s a powerful tool, but it can slip

16 9 What is the motivation to their only competition is “pirates.”13 ware development, but this commit- is only as free as the software it de- spread your works? Lots of people would be happy to pay ment does not extend to their own soft- pends on for its continued use, distri- Cultural works have more value the for non-DRMed products. They’re ware that runs the development plat- bution, and evolution. more they are shared. Consider lan- getting pretty sick of paying for au- forms. The source code to each of these The GNU GPL license and source guages: the more people speak En- thorized products that are inferior to systems remains private and unmodifi- code mean little to a user attempting glish, the more want to learn it, and illegal versions. able by the developers using the ser- to modify a program without free ac- the more people need to have it. That’s What is the best choice for the vices. cess to the software required to make cultural value. I need as many people artist that wants to publish with- These nonfree development tools that modification. Is is not only de- as possible to see my work for it to have out DRM? present a dilemma for many free soft- velopers’ freedom at stake but, eventu- cultural value. This value becomes ev- There’s still a vast and free Inter- ware developers. The goal of many of ally, their users and all future “down- ident when people quote the work, or net that can distribute non-DRMed these tools is, through more efficient stream” developers as well. Those share it, or build on it, or talk about works. But the more popular outlets free software development, more free choosing to use nonfree tools put ev- it. Parodies are a great sign of cultural insist on DRM, the more difficult it be- software and more freedom. Collab- eryone at the whim of the groups and value. comes for artists. I really want Sita Net, Google and GitHub each claim to individuals who produce the tools they What kind of freedom is the in as many mainstream media chan- want free software to succeed and claim depend on. film industry providing to au- nels as possible. I’d love the film to they want to help it. For a series of While proprietary development tools thors? Are the authors’ choices be on Netflix’s video-on-demand sys- reasons though these companies choose may help free software developers cre- respected? tem, but they currently offer no non- to support software freedom through ate more free software in the short It depends what you mean by the DRM option. There are some stream- means that are less in line with free term, it is at an unacceptable cost. In “film industry.” Hollywood has no ing services that don’t use DRM, but of software ethics than the the ones they the controversial area of private soft- place for someone like me; big studios course they’re smaller, because the big seek to create. The result is develop- ware and network services, free soft- are attached to increasingly obsolete studios won’t license their content on ers who are disempowered. The soft- ware developers should err on the side business models. I don’t consider that them. I worry that more devices will ware freedom of the code these hackers of “too much” freedom. To com- oppressive; I just stay out of that sys- be designed to only play compatible produce is contingent on unacceptable promise our principles in attempts to tem. Today the tools of production are DRMed content, making it impossible exclusivity. achieve more freedom is self-defeating, so affordable, artists can make films on for free works to play on them. DVD First, the use of nonfree tools sends unstable, and ultimately unfair, to our their own, without needing a big stu- is kind of like that; it’s a crappy codec, an unacceptable message to users of users and to the larger free software dio. The less dependent the artist is certainly “,” but for the free software produced. “Software development community. on studios, investors, and institutions, years it’s been the most widespread freedom is important for you as users,” Just as the early GNU maintain- the more freedom they have. standard of content delivery. I want developers seem to say, “but not for ers first focused on creating free tools Digital Restrictions Manage- people to see Sita, so I offer DVDs, but us.” — such behavior undermines the for creating free software, we should ment (DRM): necessity or para- it pains me when much better video basic effectiveness of the strong ethical ensure that we can produce software noia? codecs are available. commitment at the heart of the free freely and using unambiguously free It’s certainly not a necessity. You Because Sita is available in mul- software movement. As those that are tools. Our failure to do so will result can charge money for copies without tiple formats at archive.org, peo- already committed to free software, we in software that is, indirectly, less free. putting DRM on them. You can charge ple who are willing to spend the time should demonstrate that we can suc- We should resist using tools that do money for a streaming service with- downloading high quality versions may ceed — and thrive — using free soft- not allow us the freedoms we are try- out DRM. DRM has absolutely noth- do so. My hope is that enough people ware. We should support free alterna- ing to provide our users in the develop- ing to do with whether you can charge care about quality to develop easy-to- tives to proprietary systems such as Sa- ment of their software and we should money for something. DRM-free prod- use delivery channels without DRM. vane which can replace SourceForge or apply pressure on the producers of our ucts are more useful and more valuable What are your words for DRM Google Code and runs GNU Savannah, development tools. Free software has than DRM-encumbered ones, so logi- advocates? or Gitorious which can replace GitHub not achieved success by compromising cally you could charge more for them. No DRM for me, thanks. — by using them and by improving our principles. We will not be well But the mainstream entertainment in- them in the areas where they fall short. served, technically, pragmatically, or 13See gnu.org/philosophy/ dustry doesn’t offer such products, so words-to-avoid.html Secondly, we should realize that, ethically, by compromising on freedom going forward, the software we produce of the tools we use to build a free world.

10 15 Systems administration au- development tools undermine our cred- Difficult question: What is the worthy to actually own their comput- tomation ibility in advocating for software free- direction of the industry with re- ers. But I paid for mine; I own it, and 17 dom and compromise our freedom, and spect to DRM? Is the industry lis- I’m not OK with a handful of corpora- We have started rolling out Puppet that of our users, in ways that we tening to their clients? tions trying to take away my authority to manage our ever-growing list of (vir- should reject. Remember I’m not part of the over my own property. tual) servers. Puppet is a tool to keep In 2002, announced mainstream entertainment industry, so In this way I am a “propertarian” machine configuration consistent. It that the kernel Linux would move to when you ask these questions about — it’s just that culture isn’t property. allows systems administrators to man- the “BitKeeper” distributed version “the industry” I can only answer as a Scarce goods can be property. Non- age more machines with less effort, be- control system (DVCS). While the de- relative outsider. scarce goods, like language, culture, cause a lot of the work can be auto- cision generated much alarm and de- Hollywood seems pretty wedded to and information, cannot. And before mated with Puppet “recipes.” Puppet bate, BitKeeper allowed kernel devel- DRM. They won’t have any “clients” some dork says, “Oh, then your bank also guarantees that machine configs opers to work in a distributed fashion that don’t apply DRM. So they’ll con- account number isn’t property,” let me stay in line with the configured recipes, in a way that, at the time, was unsup- tinue to build a their own all-DRM say indeed numbers (non-scarce) are which provides peace of mind for over- ported by free software tools — some world, and maybe sue fans who obtain not property, but the money in my worked sysadmins. Linux developers decided that benefits higher-quality media illegally. They’ll bank account (scarce) is; my bank ac- Puppet can also drive auto genera- were worth the trade-off in developers’ keep pushing for more draconian “In- count number is not property, but it tion of configuration files for our moni- freedom. Three years later the skep- tellectual Property” laws.14 is PRIVATE. That’s why I don’t pub- toring software, which is something we tics were vindicated when BitKeeper’s DRM wouldn’t really be a problem lish it. That’s why I don’t even charge plan on doing. owner, Larry McVoy, revoked several if it weren’t for the Digital Millennium tickets to see it, or sell it on a pay- core kernel developers’ gratis licenses Copyright Act (DMCA). Without bad per-view channel with DRM. People Free software needs free to BitKeeper after Andrew Tridgell at- laws, DRM would never survive “the conflate copying non-scarce goods with tempted to write a free replacement discipline of the market.” That’s the fraud, which are quite different things. tools for BitKeeper. Kernel developers were real problem: bad laws. All DRM can In fact I’m sure my bank account num- forced to write their own free software be broken, but if it’s illegal to break ber shows up in equations, computa- by replacement: the project now known it, or even to help develop software tions, maybe even in textbooks; should FSF board member as Git. that breaks it, then you get a nation I look for all instances of that num- ver the last decade, free software Of course, free software’s relation- of criminals. It’s scary. ber and sue? No, because without a Odevelopers have been repeatedly ships to nonfree development tools is What is your opinion on com- claim of identity associated with me tempted by development tools that of- much larger than BitKeeper. The panies who use DRM to say what and my bank account, it’s just a num- fer the ability to build free software source to the free software develop- you can install on your computer ber. Copying the number 449-36-2971 more efficiently or powerfully. ment support service SourceForge was and how you can install it? (which I just made up, but it could be a The only cost, we are told, is once available to its users but its au- People are forgetting that comput- Social Security number) is not a crime, that the tools themselves are non- thors have returned to a completely ers are machines built to serve US. You or immoral, or harmful; using it to LIE free or run as network services with closed model. While SourceForge is buy a computer, it should work for is. code we cannot see, copy, or run our- built using free software, SourceForge you. Instead, it works for Sony, Dis- But my computer, which I paid for? selves. In their decisions to use these users interact with the software over ney, Warner, Viacom, and other cor- Hell yes! That is my property. And tools and services — services such the web. Because users never have porations. We’re letting these corpo- no one should be able to decide what as BitKeeper, SourceForge, Google any copy of the SourceForge software, rations spy on us and control our ma- I do with it, but me. It has “natu- Code and GitHub — free software de- they can never demand source. Simi- chines. Many people surrender their ral” limitations of course; that it can’t velopers have made “ends-justify-the- lar projects like CollabNet’s Tigris.org, autonomy and property far too easily. make a live unicorn is not due to any- means” decisions that trade away the Google Code’s “Open Source Proj- They think that the price of entertain- one taking away my rights. But con- freedom of both their developer com- ect Hosting” services, and GitHub, ment is not just the money they pay sidering all the wonderful things com- munities and their users. These deci- each served similar purposes and have to see it, but their privacy and freedom puters can do, intentionally crippling sions to embrace nonfree and private kept their code similarly out of reach. too. That’s sad. Maybe they don’t feel them, designing defects into them that 17 Their services are often provided with- serve nothing but an obsolete busi- puppetlabs.com 14See gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html. out charge and promoted for free soft- ness model, that seems immoral. Tak-

14 11 ing something good and making it to fans means releasing work without and move lists to new hardware, at bad, something healthy and making it DRM. our co-location facility just outside of sick, something functional and making Boston. it dysfunctional, something beautiful This will improve mail processing and making it ugly — that crosses me DRM sticker contest times for the hundreds of mailing lists on a deep level. It’s one reason I avoid we host. by Matt Lee freelance work, because so often I’d DRM Elimination Crew produce something beautiful and then ith the release of the iBad, Ap- coreboot update be paid to make it worse and worse. Wple’s latest restriction, and the I guess that answers your ear- Coreboot is a free software project lier question about what an artist recent furor over their new developer aimed at replacing the proprietary licensing agreement, it occurred to me is. An artist works in the service BIOS (firmware) you can find in most that our anti-DRM sticker needed an of beauty, quality, functionality. An of today’s computers. In many cases update. artist chooses these over clients, or the BIOS is the only thing standing in So, back in April, we quietly an- money, when there’s such a choice to Jeremy Todaro’s winning sticker depicts the way of a person running their sys- be made. nounced a contest for the design of a Apple CEO Steve Jobs talking to a crowd tem using exclusively free software. new one. I’m pleased to announce that of drones using iBads, mimicking Apple’s Finally: What do you say to The FSF sysadmins have not had Jeremy Todaro is the winner of our De- infamous “1984” commercial. people who are buying works un- much time to contribute to the core- der DRM because “they have no fective by Design sticker contest for his boot project lately, but exciting things accurate portrail of Steve Jobs as Big alternatives”? of planning a migration to Drupal and are happening. Brother. Jeremy is a freelance artist 15 I don’t hold it against anyone. It CiviCRM. Another laptop is now supported from Wentzville, Missouri who special- sucks that most alternatives are ille- We currently have no plans to move — the Getac P470 — thanks to the izes in using free software tools for his 16 gal. The market is really broken be- the FSF Web site away from Zope and hard work of coresystems GmbH. work. Well done Jeremy! cause of the DMCA and information Plone. This work done under contract by Runner-up prizes will also go to monopolies. If the market were free the German equivalent of the Depart- Andreas Marschke, Valessio S. Brito, and functioning, there would be legal GNU mail update ment of Defense. Clearly, the German alternatives to inferior DRMed copies, Diego Trujillo and William Demchick government understands the security for their contributions. and DRM would go away. The sysadmins have also spent some risks of running proprietary BIOS soft- I don’t think fans should be held time on the gnu.org e-mail infrastruc- ware. responsible for DRM. Fans are forgiv- Systems update ture. The way gnu.org e-mail is routed In other news, AMD contributed ing, and generous with their attention; between our various mailservers is a bit support for a few new chipsets (AMD they’re willing to go to great lengths by Ward Vandewege exotic, to put it kindly. RS780 / SB700) which means that to enjoy works they love, including Senior Systems Adminstrator In February, we introduced a new once again, there are quite a few desk- putting up with DRM. I would focus s you may know, the FSF’s Web primary mail gateway, which will top motherboards for sale that could on artists and authors. Asite runs on Zope and Plone. Last over time replace the ageing monty- easily be ported to coreboot. Core- Artists, I urge you to respect your year, we split our Zope/Plone instance python.gnu.org. The new gateway is boot will have 3 or 4 Google summer fans. Make your work available so your into two separate instances — one for called ‘eggs.gnu.org’, and it lives at our of code students this year, and a mass- fans can enjoy high quality without the public Web site, and one for the colocation facility. Monty-python and porting effort is planned for a number breaking the law. membership area. The membership lists are still at the FSF offices — be- of motherboards based on the AMD That’s why I paid through the nose area runs on top of a membership man- hind a high-speed T1 internet connec- RS780/SB700 chipsets. Also as part to clear those godawful song licenses in agement application that we have de- tion — which is something we will ad- of GsoC, a USB 3.0 software stack will Sita Sings the Blues. I respected my veloped internally. We have recently dress in the next few months. The plan be added to coreboot. fans enough to not ask them to break decided to start migrating away from is to retire monty-python altogether, 16coreboot.org/pipermail/ coreboot-announce/2010-May/000007.html the law to enjoy my work. Fans are this application, and are in the middle 15fsf.org/news/ the lifeblood of cultural works, and the nonprofit-fundraising-civicrm main support of artists. Being good

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