[FSFTN] Fwd: [FSF] Free Software Supporter -- Issue 39, June 2011

[Shanu]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Free Software Foundation <info at fsf.org>
Date: Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 1:09 AM
Subject: [FSF] Free Software Supporter -- Issue 39, June 2011
To: Shanu S Sukoor <shanuss at gmail.com>


Free Software Supporter

Issue 39, June 2011

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 43,202
other activists. That's 1,445 more than last month!

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by
adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

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Multilingual? Send translations of the Supporter to campaigns at fsf.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement on OpenOffice.org's move to Apache
AVM violating license of the Linux kernel
Two new projects can help free software replace Skype
Are you up to the Tor challenge?
Introducing the Compliance Lab's summer intern
Holding Nintendo Accountable
LibrePlanet featured resource
GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
Take action with the FSF!

Statement on OpenOffice.org's move to Apache

Oracle, IBM, and the Apache Software Foundation jointly announced
earlier this month that OpenOffice.org would become an official Apache
project. Users and contributors should be aware that it will become
easier for proprietary software developers to distribute
OpenOffice.org as nonfree software since all Apache projects are
distributed under the terms of the Apache License.

While we do recommend the Apache License in specific situations, we do
not believe it is the best choice for software like OpenOffice.org.
This situation calls for copyleft, because the gains free software
stands to make from a non-copyleft license don't justify giving a
handout to proprietary software developers.

http://www.fsf.org/news/openoffice-apache-libreoffice

AVM violating license of the Linux kernel

A legal case is being heard before the District Court of Berlin which
may have enormous consequences for the way that software is developed
and distributed. The adversaries in the case are the manufacturer and
distributor of DSL routers AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM),
and Cybits AG (Cybits) which produces children's web-filtering
software.

The case was brought to court by AVM with the aim of preventing Cybits
from changing any parts of the firmware used in AVM's routers,
including the Linux kernel. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
and http://gpl-violations.org consider AVM's action as a broad attack
against the principles of free software, and thus against the
thousands of individuals and companies developing, improving and
distributing free software.

http://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.en.html

Two new projects can help free software replace Skype

Skype has been in the news a lot lately: Microsoft agreed to buy the
company, their network has gone down twice recently, and they're
threatening to take unspecified action against developers who try to
write free software to make calls on their system.

There are two free software project that stand to make Skype obsolete:
GNU Free Call and WebRTC and they both could benefit from your
contribution!

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/skype-replacement-projects

Are you up to the Tor challenge?

In March at the LibrePlanet 2011 conference, we presented the 2010
Award for Projects of Social Benefit to the Tor Project for enabling
millions of people to experience freedom of access and expression on
the Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and
anonymity.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is encouraging people to run more
Tor nodes to help keep up with the increasing number of people who
rely on Tor. The FSF is already running a Tor node and we hope some of
you reading this will take the challenge too.

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tor-challenge

Introducing the Compliance Lab's summer intern

We recently welcomed William Theaker at FSF as our summer's licensing
intern. In a blog post, he wrote about what brought him to free
software, and the goals for his internship.

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/william-theaker-intro

Holding Nintendo Accountable

Over a period of 10 days, 138 people from twenty different countries
made donations of $10 or more in order to send Nintendo's President
and COO, Reggie Fils-Aime, a total of 220 bricks.

Earlier this month, our volunteers assembled the cardboard bricks and
we wrapped each one of them and attached our signed letter calling for
dropping DRM and changing the terms of service.

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/holding-nintendo-accountable

LibrePlanet featured resource: Free System Distribution Checklist

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.

This month, we are featuring the Free System Distribution Checklist.
This page provides a checklist of practical steps you can take to see
whether or not a particular distribution complies with the "Free
System Distribution Guidelines".

Free System Distribution Checklist:
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Free_System_Distribution_Checklist
Free System Distribution Guidelines:
http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at campaigns at fsf.org.

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

New GNU releases:

autogen-5.12 gprolog-1.4.0 parallel-20110622 binutils-2.21.1 grep-2.9
parted-3.0 ccrtp-2.0.0 help2man-1.40.4 sipwitch-1.0.3 gawk-4.0.0
icecat-5.0 solfege-3.20.0 gcc-4.3.6 libgcrypt-1.5.0 ucommon-5.0.3
gcc-4.6.1 libmicrohttpd-0.9.12 unrtf-0.21.2 glibc-2.14
libzrtpcpp-2.0.0 xorriso-1.1.0.pl01 global-5.9.6 mtools-4.0.17
gnutls-2.12.7 octave-3.4.2

To get announcements of most new GNU releases, 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.

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 at gnu.org, with any
GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

2011-07-01 The Danger of Software Users Don't Control Vienna, Austria

http://www.fsf.org/events/20110615-cvc-berlin

2011-07-12 Philosophie et histoire du logiciel libre Strasbourg, France

http://www.fsf.org/events/20110701-dsudc-vienna

2011-07-13 Réflexions quant à l'utilisation et la modification du
droit d'auteur en faveur de la Liberté Strasbourg, France

http://www.fsf.org/events/20110613-roundtable-strasbourg

Other FSF and free software events

2011-08-25 -- 2011-08-28 GNU Hackers Meeting Paris, France

http://www.fsf.org/events/20110825-ghm-paris

2011-07-13 John Sullivan at the Greater Hartford GNU/Linux User Group
Hartford, CT

http://www.fsf.org/events/20110713-johns-ghglug

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.

###

The Free Software Supporter is edited by FSF volunteer Osama Khalid.

Copyright © 2011 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
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-- 
Thank you,

Shanu S Sukoor
---------------------------------------------
Please do not send me Microsoft Office/Apple iWork documents. Send
OpenDocument instead!