Skip to content, sitemap or skip to search.

Personal tools
Join now
You are here: Home › Free Software Supporter › 2024 › Free Software Supporter -- Issue 195, July 2024

Free Software Supporter -- Issue 195, July 2024

by Free Software Foundation Contributions — Published on Jun 26, 2024 04:35 PM

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 231,355 other activists.

The FSF encourages people all over the world to make their dreams come true with free software.

We urgently need your financial support!

From June 24

The FSF firmly believes every computer user deserves freedom and tirelessly demonstrates how to do almost everything with free software. For years to come, the FSF has an important role to play for computer users globally, and we still have a lot of work to do. In order to do so, we need your help! Like many organizations right now, the FSF is suffering. Operational costs have risen, like the legal fees for the work we do in compliance, as well as costs for events, and tech infrastructure. Revenue has not kept up, because people all over the world are going through the same challenges as we are.

Become an associate member today for $12/month ($6 for students) and show the world that you cherish software freedom. Make sure to join before July 19, 2024, and we will send you an FSF-branded travel mug. Or help us reach our goal of 200 new associate members by July 19 by convincing a friend to join and we will reward you with a sustainable wooden GNU head sticker.

Please share the message using the hashtag #BecomeAnFSFAssociateMember on social media networks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • FSF adds three highly qualified board members
  • Your support helps us campaign for computer user freedom
  • Survey on guidelines for the use of Large Language Models
  • Watch, enjoy, and share LibrePlanet: Cultivating Community videos
  • The GNU press shop is open
  • Register your Software Freedom Day event!
  • Julian Assange to go free in guilty plea deal with US
  • Apple’s app store breaches EU’s Digital Markets Act
  • Why going cashless has turned Sweden from one of the safest countries into a high-crime nation
  • US bans sale of Kaspersky software citing security risk from Russia
  • Podcast explaining the UK post office scandal
  • The next generation of cell-site simulators is Here. Here’s what we know.
  • EU Council presidency’s last-ditch effort for mass scanning must be rejected
  • June GNU Emacs news
  • Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
  • LibrePlanet featured resource: Freedom Ladder
  • June GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Seventeen new GNU releases!
  • FSF and other free software events
  • Thank GNUs!
  • GNU copyright contributions
  • Translations of the Free Software Supporter
  • Take action with the FSF!

View this issue online here: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/July

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

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll to the end to read the Supporter in French, Spanish, or Portuguese.

FSF adds three highly qualified board members

From June 26

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has selected John Gilmore, Christina Haralanova, and Maria Chiara Pievatolo to become FSF board members starting June 23, 2024. This exceptional development of adding three new members to the FSF's board of directors is the result of reviewing eighty-three nominations, having ten candidates in forum discussions with FSF associate members, conducting months of conversations between current board members and all candidates, and reviewing input from FSF staff and supporters.

Your support helps us campaign for computer user freedom

From June 27

Read about the campaigns team's work and why Eko K. A. Owen, Greg Farough, and Miriam Bastian think it's worth supporting the FSF.

Survey on guidelines for the use of Large Language Models

From June 27

Are you advising software projects that accept code generated by Large Language Models (LLM)? Please participate in our survey on guidelines for the use of LLMs and help our licensing team learn more about existing practices. We value your input!

Watch, enjoy, and share LibrePlanet: Cultivating Community videos

From June 28

The LibrePlanet 2024 program page now has links to the recorded videos. You can watch them in the LibrePlanet archives on MediaGoblin, as well as on the FSF's PeerTube channel. Make sure to subscribe to our PeerTube channel to receive updates on further video releases.

The GNU press shop is open

From July 1

Your chance to buy FSF merchandise: the GNU press shop opened today and will only stay open for a short amount of time.

Register your Software Freedom Day event!

From June 30 by Digital Freedom Foundation

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of free software with the goal to educate the worldwide public about the benefits of using libre software in education, in government, at home, and in business. Register your Software Freedom Day event today to be part of this awesome celebration on September 21! The Digital Freedom Foundation, which coordinates SFD, is always looking for contributors, so go to the site to see how you or your company can help

Julian Assange to go free in guilty plea deal with US

From June 25 by Simon Sharwood

On Wednesday, June 26, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge for his role in publishing documents concerning the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This move freed him from the prison in London, where he spent 1901 days. The FSF stands for freedom of publication and due process, because they are necessary to exercise and uphold the software freedom we campaign for. In 2019, the FSF therefore called on the United States to drop all present and future charges against Julian Assange relating to Wikileaks activities.

Apple’s app store breaches EU’s Digital Markets Act

From June 24 by Romain Dillet

The European Commission stated that Apple's current app store rules, which requires developers to pay a commission to Apple for purchases made on the developer's website, are in breach of the Digital Markets Act. The real problem is that Apple prevents developers from distributing free software via the Apple store and deprives the users of their freedom to control their own devices and choose which software they want to install and run. It's more than time to brave Apple's monopoly and liberate users and developers. Call in your governments to take measures and establish proper legislation which enables free software developers to distribute and fund their work and empowers us users to control our own devices and the software we use.

Why going cashless has turned Sweden from one of the safest countries into a high-crime nation

From June 21 by Niclas Rolander, Jonas Ekblom, and Bloomberg

Sweden's campaign to push everyone into using digital payments has boosted fraud because a digital payment system fraud can steal far more money than a small store would ever have on hand as cash. Thus, leaving cash has increased the danger from crime in Sweden. But more important is that it is unjust to push everyone into using digital payments, since it tracks all the transactions. If Sweden was using GNU Taler for digital payments, instead of BankID, that would fix both problems. A GNU Taler payment never reveals the payer's identity, and does not enable fraud against merchants. Check it out!

US bans sale of Kaspersky software citing security risk from Russia

From June 20 by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

The US government bans Kaspersky because the feds say it being based in Russia threatens national security and user privacy. Remember: any proprietary software, no matter where it's based, threatens privacy and national security! Upgrade to free software now. Browse the Free Software Directory to find replacements.

Podcast explaining the UK post office scandal

From June 14 by Brooke Gladstone

Listen to the middle segment of this podcast to learn more about the UK post office scandal. The podcast explains how British postal workers were erroneously prosecuted for fraud and how secrecy of code was central to the scandal. Government entities should use free software, which would prevent tragedies like this. Please lobby for free software adoption by your government. The LibrePlanet wiki has a free software in government page that offers some resources and advice.

Note: You don't need to enable JavaScript on the page. You can just click download and listen to the podcast with your favorite libre podcast program.

The next generation of cell-site simulators is here. Here’s what we know.

From June 12 by Beryl Lipton and Cooper Quintin

A proposal document that Jacobs Technology sent to the Massachusetts State Police reveals that the next generation of cell-site simulators (CSS) makes every phone in the vicinity connect with the device. CSS pretend to be cell phone towers and thereby coax mobile devices into connecting to them and providing the location of the user and metadata for phone calls, text messages, and other app traffic. People who can be completely unrelated to an investigation get heavily surveilled. Read more on the latest revelations about this surveillance technology used by dozens of policing agencies.

EU Council presidency’s last-ditch effort for mass scanning must be rejected

From June 6 by Joe Mullin

The European Council is currently debating a proposal by the Belgian government which, if adopted, forces providers of private chat services to ban users from sharing URLs, images, and videos if they don't agree to machine learning based scanning of their private communication. After chat control, this is the next mass scanning proposal and as big of a threat to end-to-end encryption, the technology that enables privacy in online conversations, as chat control. Signal president Meredith Whittaker warns: "mandating mass scanning of private communications fundamentally undermines encryption." Appeal to the your country's representative in the European Council to stand up for end-to-end encryption and check out our Email Self-Defense guide and surveillance campaign to learn how you can protect yourself from bulk surveillance.

June GNU Emacs news

From June 24 by Sacha Chua

In these issues: Emacs 29.4 release, emergency bugfix release for Org mode 9.7.5, and more!

Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and exciting free software projects.

To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on Libera.Chat, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Libera.Chat is accessible from any IRC client -- Everyone's welcome!

The next meeting is Friday, July 5 from 12:00 to 15:00 EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC). Details here:

LibrePlanet featured resource: Freedom Ladder

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

For this month, we are highlighting the Freedom Ladder, which is a collaborative effort between the FSF and the free software community and still a work in progress. The goal of the Freedom Ladder campaign is to help users get their first start in software freedom. We recently expanded step five with a list of mobile phone apps that respect the user's freedom and are easily adopted. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.

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

June GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Seventeen new GNU releases!

Seventeen new GNU releases in the last month (as of June 30, 2024):

For a full list with descriptions, please see: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/june-gnu-spotlight-with-amin-bandali-seventeen-new-gnu-releases

For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.

To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/. Optionally, you may find faster download speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing from the list of mirrors published at https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html, or you may use https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

This month, we welcome Andrea Corallo as a new comaintainer of emacs. Thank you for all of your efforts, Andrea, and congratulations and welcome aboard!

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.

If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to me, bandali@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

FSF and other free software events

Thank GNUs!

We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, and we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

  • Andrew Gaul
  • Catalin Francu
  • Deborah Jackson
  • Kim Minh Kaplan
  • MailmanLists
  • Maks Romih
  • Norm Gunn
  • Zacchae Us

You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org/.

GNU copyright contributions

Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us defend the GNU GPL and keep software free. The following individuals have assigned their copyright to the FSF (and allowed public appreciation) in the past month:

  • Alvaro Morales Marquez (GNU Astro)
  • Bar Magal (GNU Emacs)
  • Bruno Campos Cardoso (GNU Emacs)
  • Kristofer Hjelmtorp (GNU Emacs)
  • Christopher Floess (GNU Emacs)
  • Seyed Sajad Kahani (GCC)
  • Alekseev Nikita (GNU Emacs)
  • Edgar Vincent (GNU Emacs)

Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your copyright to the FSF.

Translations of the Free Software Supporter

El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la versión en español haz click aquí: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/julio

Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos números del Supporter en español, haz click aquí: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id={contact.contact_id}&{contact.checksum}

Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la version française cliquez ici: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/juillet

Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines publications du Supporter en français, cliquez ici: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id={contact.contact_id}&{contact.checksum}

O Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a versão em português, clique aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/julho

Para alterar as preferências do usuário e receber as próximas edições do Supporter em português, clique aqui: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id={contact.contact_id}&{contact.checksum}

Take action with the FSF!

Contributions from thousands of individual associate members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at https://my.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! https://my.fsf.org/join

The FSF is always looking for volunteers. From rabble-rousing to hacking, from issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaigns section and take action on software patents, Digital Restrictions Management, free software adoption, OpenDocument, and more.

Do you read and write Portuguese and English? The FSF is looking for translators for the Free Software Supporter. Please send an email to campaigns@fsf.org with your interest and a list of your experience and qualifications.

Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Document Actions

The FSF is a charity with a worldwide mission to advance software freedom — learn about our history and work.

fsf.org is powered by: