Free Software News
Find out what's happening in the free software world.
Contents
June 24
- Introducing FSFE's New President, Vice President and Executive Team
The members of FSFE elected new coordinators for several of the organization's activities, including strategy, legal and executive coordination. Full Story
June 23
- Please, Don’t Replace the GIMP With F-Spot (Mono)
There is a brand new proposition that GIMP should be removed from the default installation of Ubuntu, the most ubiquitous desktop distribution of GNU/Linux. The justification for this was that a Mono-based application can serve as an acceptable replacement. Full Story]
June 22
- Who's Liable: FOSS Users or Developers?
Who should be responsible for infringement on copyrights and patent claims, the user or developers? Should FOSS users be concerned about the software they use, in case it opens them up to copyright, trademark or patent claims? Or should such concerns be left exclusively to developers? Full Story
- Introduction to the Command Line
Over the course of two days the FSF and FLOSS Manuals collaborated together on a Book Sprint at the LibrePlanet event in Boston. Together, and with the help of many contributors, a new textbook entitled "Introduction to the Command Line" was produced for GNU/Linux newbies to learn how to use the command line. Full Story
June 21
- Iran Uses Novell and Microsoft Software to Make Bombs
There is an old slur about GNU/Linux being the operating system for “terrorists” (or something along those lines). Why does Microsoft get a free ride? Full Story
June 20
- Open Video Conference
The main focus of the Royalty Free Codecs session seemed to be around Ogg Theora. Also present though were Sun, speaking about their new Open Media Stack, and David Schleef to represent his work on the Schroedinger Dirac library Full Story
June 17
- Introducing RDF for GNU Licenses
For the past few months, the Compliance Lab has been working with Creative Commons on a new project, and it's just been released. I'm happy to announce that Resource Description Framework (RDF) metadata now accompanies all of the GNU licenses. Full Story
- No, Amazon did not release all of the Swindle's source code
It was unfortunately reported yesterday by a number of sources (including one pointed to by the New York Times) that Amazon had released the source code for the software running on the Kindle DX. Not all of the Kindle source code was released. It’s a selection released in order to comply with the license requirements of the code originally written by other people (like the GNU Project) which Amazon modified for its own purposes. The Kindle is afflicted with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and is tivoized, blocking your ability to put modified code back on your own device. Full Story
June 8
- Microsoft Office tries to break ODF
Just a quick update to our OpenDocument campaign, with news that Microsoft Office has added support for ODF, but in a state that leaves it incompatible with every other ODF capable application out there, including OpenOffice.org and KOffice. Full Story
June 2
- FSF welcomes AdBard network for free software advertising
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today welcomed the launch of AdBard a new advertising network for technology based websites based upon the promotion of free, libre and open source software (FLOSS) friendly products and services. The AdBard Network has been created by Tag1 Consulting to serve websites dedicated to free software ideals, helping them connect with companies selling products and services targeting a FLOSS audience. AdBard solves the problem that more generic advertising has led to the display of proprietary software products on sites that otherwise promote computer user freedom. [FSF welcomes AdBard network for free software advertising Full Story
- FSF at the Connecticut Film Festival
On June 6th, FSF's John Sullivan gave a workshop titled "Copyleft and the War on Sharing" at the Connecticut Film Festival in Danbury, CT. There was a discussion about the history and experience of GNU, the FSF, and the free software movement; and about some of the different fronts in the War on Sharing that is being waged against the public by groups like the RIAA, MPAA, BSA, Microsoft, and Apple. Full Story]
May 27
- Help rewrite Canada's copyright law
The Globe and Mail has put C-61, a bill to reform Canadian copyright law, on a wiki for editing. This is a great opportunity to remove the bad parts of the bill, and to guide the reform efforts toward something sane and consistent with free software principles. Full Story
May 20
- FSF Settles Suit Against Cisco
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Cisco Systems, Inc. are pleased to announce that they have reached a joint agreement. Cisco has agreed to appoint a Free Software Director for Linksys, a subsidiary of Cisco, to supervise Linksys' compliance with the requirements of free software licenses such as the GPL (the GNU General Public License). The Free Software Director will report periodically to the FSF regarding Linksys' compliance efforts. Cisco has further agreed to take certain steps to notify previous recipients of Linksys products containing FSF programs of their rights under the GPL and other applicable licenses, to publish a licensing notice on the Linksys website, and to provide additional notices in a separate publication. In addition, Cisco will continue to make the complete and corresponding source code for versions of FSF programs used with current Linksys products freely available on its website. Cisco will also make a monetary contribution to the FSF. Full Story
May 14
- War on Sharing: RIAA moves to block new FSF court brief
While we were publishing our response to the RIAA's recent attack on the merit of organizations who represent the public's interest filing informative briefs in cases that threaten to negatively affect the public's interest, the RIAA was attacking us again. Full Story
May 5
- New Zealand in urgent danger of software patents
The New Zealand government has proposed allowing unlimited software patenting. They are accepting comments until July 2nd, but participation from the people who will be harmed seems very low. The details of how to participate can be found on swpat.org
