[FSF] Free Software Supporter, June 2008

[Matt Lee]

# Free Software Supporter
Issue 5, June 2008

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
monthly news digest and action update.

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## In this issue

* New FSF store
* Farewell Justin, Hello Danny
* DRM elimination crew at the Apple Store launch
* Savannah adds Subversion, Mercurial
* Freedom and privacy in the cloud: a call for action
* Boycott Windows Media Center!
* GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF speeches
* Take Action with the FSF


## New FSF store

After many, many years the GNU order form is to be decommissioned and
replaced with a brand new store. In addition to the enhanced look and
feel of the store, we are very pleased to announce the limited
availability of plush gnus. We have a limited supply, and once they're
gone, they're gone... so get them while you still can!

        * <http://shop.fsf.org/>

## Farewell Justin, Hello Danny

After three years, Senior Systems Administrator Justin Baugh has left
the Free Software Foundation to pursue other challenges. Justin
remains committed to free software and hopes to be able to work on
more GNU projects in the future. Justin said, "It's been a pleasure
contributing my time and energy to GNU and the Foundation over the
last three years, and I will miss everyone at the FSF and having the
chance to work with GNU hackers all over the world."

Justin has been succeeded by Danny Clark, who joins the FSF from One
Laptop Per Child. Danny joins our team of systems administrators, Ward
and Joshua, and will be working closely with the gNewSense team.

## DRM elimination crew at the Apple Store launch

The DRM Elimination Crew attended the grand opening of Apple's new
store in Boston -- now its largest US store.

The clear glass front of the store stands in stark contrast to Apple's
unethical business practices, including using opaque Digital
Restrictions Management software to take rights away from its
customers.

Though Apple did attempt to have us evicted, the Boston police
apparently did not agree. They watched while we handed out flyers and
stickers and asked the people waiting in line to get in to make their
opposition to DRM known inside the store.

        * <http://defectivebydesign.org/blog/1138>

## Savannah adds Subversion, Mercurial

Savannah has added Subversion and Mercurial support, with more version
control options coming in the future.

        * <http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=5340>
        * <http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=5345>

## Freedom and privacy in the cloud: a call for action

Marco at Clipperz writes, "Web apps are great and I'm in love with
them. But I think it's time to ask for more freedom and more privacy.
Here is a three step plan to achieve both these results."

1. Choose AGPL
2. Add zero-knowledge sauce
3. Build a smarter browser

        *
<http://www.clipperz.com/users/marco/blog/2008/05/30/freedom_and_privacy_cloud_call_action>

## Boycott Windows Media Center!

Microsoft is using DRM to prevent users from saving certain television
shows to their hard drive. Saving such streams is a normal feature
that comes with Windows Media Center, but they have locked you out of
it for NBC television shows and others. They claim that they are just
following FCC regulations -- but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that the FCC has no authority to make such regulations. The
truth is Microsoft is just power hungry and making use of DRM wherever
and whenever they can in order to secure media deals for themselves
and lock in their customers.

        * <http://defectivebydesign.org/blog/BoycottWindowsMediaCenter>

## GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

Notable GNU releases for May 2008 include gcc, guile, and libtool.
Here's the complete list:

autogen-5.9.5          cgicc-3.2.6         clisp-2.45   gcc-4.2.4
gnu-ghostscript-8.62.0 gnurobots-1.1.0     gnutls-2.2.5 gtypist-2.8
guile-1.8.5            libmicrohttpd-0.3.1 libtasn1-1.4 libtool-2.2.4
sipwitch-0.1.2         smalltalk-3.0.3     sourceinstall-2.5rc1
ucommon-1.9.2          wget-1.11.3         zile-2.2.59

See the packages' announcements, web pages
(http://www.gnu.org/software/PKGNAME) or the distributions themselves
for details.  Nearly all are available from <http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu>, or
preferably one of the mirrors: <http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html>.

To get announcements of most new GNU packages, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list (<http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu>), which is
publicly archived (<http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/info-gnu>).

Several GNU packages are looking for maintainers.  Please see
<http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint>.

Finally, I'd like to give a warm welcome to the newly-dubbed GNU
maintainers this month: Paul Goins (gtypist) and Markus Steinborn
(gv).

Please feel free to write to me, <address@hidden>, with any GNUish
questions or suggestions for future installments.

## Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF speeches

### Watch Richard Stallman's talk in Manchester, England

       * <http://www.files.tdobson.net/mfs/video/20080501-rms.ogg>

### 07/04 - 07/05 | Libre Software Meeting, Mont de Marsan, France

These speeches will be in French. They will be accessible to all
audiences and the public is encouraged to attend.

       * More information: <http://2008.rmll.info/>

### 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, Vista, Opendocument, RIAA and more.

###

Copyright © 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

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