El Software y el conocimiento debe ser Libre
Software Libre
Entrevista a Linus Torvalds
Dec 13th
[FSF] Free Software Supporter – Issue 21, December 2009
Dec 12th
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation’s
monthly news digest and action update — being read by you and
27,304 other activists.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
* Spread the free software philosophy by joining the new FSF Community Team
* FSF credit card (initially for US residents only) now with new images *
Heroid Shehu is the GNU Generation member of the month!
* First GNU Bucks awarded
* FSF works with PayPal to the benefit of the free software community *
Free Software Foundation executive director Peter Brown reflects on Bilski
case
* Windows 7 Sins e-mail signatures
* Acer discovered using crippled GNU/Linux
* GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
* Richard Stallman’s speaking schedule and other FSF events
* Take action with the FSF!
## Spread the free software philosophy by joining the new FSF
Community Team
The FSF is putting together a Community Team of supporters to spread the
free software philosophy in blogs, online press, and through
social networking sites. If you spend some time each day reading
popular blogs or mainstream press and you have a good handle on the debate
around software freedom, this could be a great opportunity.
* <http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Group:FSF/Community_Team>
## FSF credit card (initially for US residents only) now with new images
If you haven’t yet ordered an FSF credit card, there are three great new
card images to choose from:
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/new-credit-card-images>
More than 75% of our members and donors use a credit card when
donating to the FSF. Now you can add to that support by using a credit
card with an FSF logo on it.
(Please don’t let the thought of supporting us encourage you to start
using a credit card if you don’t already, or discourage you from
buying anonymously with big-brother-resistant cash.)
## Heroid Shehu is the GNU Generation member of the month!
Heroid has been working on a wide variety of projects. He is one of the
four developers on a new GNU/Linux distribution called RMS
GNU/Linux — based on Slax, but includes only free software. Another
project Heroid has been contributing to (through his GLUG) is
FreeKosovaArena, a game that includes some history of his home
country, Kosova.
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-generation-november-2009>
## First GNU Bucks awarded
The GNU Bucks bounty program is off to a great start. Two contributors
have already found instances of nonfree components in FSF-endorsed fully
free distributions.
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/first-gnu-bucks-awarded>
## FSF works with PayPal to the benefit of the free software community
The FSF recently discovered that PayPal had added a proprietary
software license to its User Agreement. Of course, the FSF couldn’t agree
to those terms, so as soon as we learned about them, we
contacted PayPal to see if we could make other arrangements. The
company listened to our concerns, and specifically excepted us from these
conditions. But not only that: next year, PayPal is also
updating its user agreement to ensure that the free software community can
continue to receive and make payments without having to accept a
proprietary software license.
* <http://www.fsf.org/news/paypal>
## Free Software Foundation executive director Peter Brown reflects on
Bilski case
“This is a case that could have huge implications for developers’
ability to patent software, but software developers were nowhere to be
found, or if present, were out-numbered twenty to one by lawyers. There is
something rather perverse about the patenting of software when the vast
majority of those that practice the art of software
development want nothing to do with the patent system – and for good reason.”
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/supreme-court-bilski>
## Windows 7 Sins e-mail signatures
Microsoft is using Hotmail signatures to spread Windows 7. We, as a
community, can spread the “Windows 7 Sins” campaign in like manner.
* <http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Windows_7_Sins_mail_signatures>
## Acer discovered using crippled GNU/Linux
A few weeks ago, a free software supporter encountered an Acer netbook
that came pre-loaded with a distribution of GNU/Linux (provided by a
company called Linpus that offers distributions for the Asian market –
the netbook in question was sold in the Philippines) that lacked almost
every basic feature you would expect from a modern GNU/Linux
distribution.
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/acer-bad-distro>
## GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry
Here are the recent GNU software releases:
archimedes-0.9.0 autoconf-2.65 automake-1.11.1
cgicc-3.2.9 coreutils-8.1 denemo-0.8.10
dionysus-1.1.0 freeipmi-0.8.1 gama-1.9.07
glibc-2.11 glpk-4.40 gnun-0.4
gsasl-1.4.0 gzip-1.3.14 icecat-3.5.5
ignuit-0.0.16 libextractor-0.5.23 libgsasl-1.4.0
libtool-2.2.6b mpfr-2.4.2 mtools-4.0.12
myserver-0.9.1 nano-2.2.0 patch-2.6
sipwitch-0.5.11 tramp-2.1.17 ucommon-2.0.7
xboard-4.4.2 zile-2.3.14
I’d like to specially note the first new release of patch in many years.
Thanks to the new co-maintainer, Andreas Gruenbacher, for reviving this.
To get announcements of most new GNU packages, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu>. Nearly
all GNU software is available from <http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/>, or
preferably one of its mirrors (<http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html>). You
can use the url <http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/> to be automatically
redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror; for example,
<http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gdb/> will redirect to the GDB directory on a
mirror.
This month we welcome Spencer Buckner, author of the new GNU package
gsegrafix, an advanced plot-generating program that integrates well with
GNU Octave.
We also welcome Benoit Hamet as the new maintainer of GNU phpGroupWare,
and Chris Simon as a new co-maintainer of GNU miscfiles, and Dhaivat
Pandya and Medhamsh Vuthpala as the new co-maintainers of GNU gtypist.
Thanks also to existing maintainers taking on additional packages: Andy
Wingo for volunteering to co-maintain Guile, Eric Blake for findutils, Jim
Meyering for diffutils and grep, Alfred Szmidt for miscfiles, and Paolo
Bonzini for grep.
Several GNU packages are looking for maintainers and other assistance.
Please see <http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint> if you’d
like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
<http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html>. To submit new packages to GNU, see
<http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html>.
As always, please feel free to write to me, <karl@gnu.org>, with any
GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
## Richard Stallman’s speaking schedule
* 2009-12-12 | El Software Libre en la Ética y en la Práctica, Santiago,
Chile.
– <http://www.fsf.org/events/20091211santiago>
* 2010-01-12 | Richard Stallman et la révolution des logiciels libres:
une biographie autorisée. Paris, France – Amphithéatre Eyrolles,
Librairie Eyrolles, 5, 57, 61 et 63 boulevard Saint-Germain.
– <http://www.fsf.org/events/20100112paris>
* 2010-01-14 | Le logiciel libre dans l’éthique et dans la pratique.
Grenoble, France – Amphithéatre de l’École de Management de Grenoble,
12, rue Pierre Sémard.
– <http://www.fsf.org/events/20100114grenoble>
* 2010-01-15 | Comment soutenir les arts sans restreindre les libertés
essentielles. Autrans, France – L’Escandille, Village Vacances Cap
France, Route de la Sure.
– <http://www.fsf.org/events/20100115autrans“>
* 2010-02-10 | El Software Libre en la Ética y en la Práctica. Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
– <http://www.fsf.org/events/20100210laspalmasdegrancanaria>
### Take action with the FSF
Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF’s work.
You can contribute by joining at <http://www.fsf.org/join>. If you’re
already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some rewards)
by adding a line with your member number to your email
signature like:
I’m an FSF member — Help us support software freedom!
<http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442>
The FSF is also always looking for volunteers
(<http://www.fsf.org/volunteer>). From rabble-rousing to hacking, from
issue coordination to envelope stuffing — there’s something here for
everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section
(<http://www.fsf.org/campaigns>) and take action on software patents, DRM,
free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.
###
Copyright © 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative
Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/> or send a letter to
Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California,
94105, USA.
[FSF] An urgent update on our DRM campaign
Dec 11th
Dear Free Software Supporter,
We’re at a crucial moment in the fight against DRM. This year–thanks
to the strength of the movement FSF has been building through its
Defective By Design campaign–we defeated DRM on music. But DRM on
movies, books, games, and other digital media is a bigger threat than
ever.
Free software is our best weapon against DRM. When you use free
software, no company can use your hardware to control you. You’re
free to share whatever you want with whomever you want. And there are
no artificial rules or restrictions: the only limit is our
community’s imagination and ingenuity.
If you believe that the technology we use should be free from
arbitrary restrictions, the best way to put that belief into action
is by becoming an FSF member.
The FSF can take on controversial campaigns like Defective By Design
because it isn’t built on the support of big companies and Silicon
Valley CEOs: it’s built on the support of activists like you. What
gives us the independence to speak out–and the power to make our
voice heard–is the support of our members and donors.
The world *needs* a strong, principled, and uncompromising voice
against DRM. Please support this work by becoming an FSF member.
The FSF is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and donations are tax deductible in
the US.
Here are some highlights from Defective by Design’s work in 2009:
– 2009 was the year that music DRM died. But when Apple’s iTunes store
went DRM-free on music, we celebrated the victory without buying the
hype: Apple still uses DRM on virtually everything else they sell
(movies, TV shows, games, audiobooks, applications, and of course
hardware).
* <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/itunes-drm-free>
– Ebooks and ebook readers took off this year, and so did the threat of
DRM on books. When Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984
from hundreds of people’s ebook readers, we collected thousands of
signatures from readers, authors, public intellectuals and librarians
demanding an end to ebook DRM.
* <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/amazon1984>
– At the same time, we praised and promoted the work of authors and
publishers who do the right thing and keep their books DRM-free, like
Harlequin’s new publishing house Carina Press, or the hundreds of
publishers who tagged their work “drmfree”.
* <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/carina-drm-free>
* <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/1240>
Through all this, Defective by Design is proud to be the only voice
saying loud and clear that there’s no such thing as “better” or
“friendlier” DRM. No matter how many devices it works on, or what
“features” it includes to trick people into accepting it, DRM robs us
of our basic rights and insults human curiosity–it needs to go.
This work is critical. The FSF is a member-supported nonprofit.
Please consider donating or becoming a member today:
Thanks for your time, and thanks for all the work you’ve
done this year. We’re proud of it, and we’re proud of you!
Sincerely,
Holmes Wilson
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation / Defective by Design


