# Free Software Supporter -- Issue 182, June 2023 *Please consider adding to your address book, which will ensure that our messages reach you and not your spam box.* *Read and share online: * Welcome to the *Free Software Supporter*, the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 231,437 other activists. That's 253 more than last month! ## TABLE OF CONTENTS * Transcript: The state of software patents in 2022 with Panos Alevropoulos * Frans de Jonge tells us about KOReader in this AGPLv3 interview * The FSF board candidate discussions will start on May 29 * Announcing the FSF's board candidates * I won an award for my Emacs contributions * Interoperable Europe Act: Committee of the Regions fails to substantially promote free software * May GNU Emacs news * Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory * LibrePlanet featured resource: Going NoPhone * May GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Nineteen 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: Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your website. * Subscribe: * Widget: Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at . Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll to the end to read the *Supporter* in French or Spanish. ### Transcript: The state of software patents in 2022 with Panos Alevropoulos *From May 25* This month, we published a transcript of "The state of software patents in 2022" by FSF licensing volunteer Panos, which was given during the 2022 LibrePlanet conference. The talk covers many important basics about patents and software patents in particular. This edited and updated version of Panos's presentation promises to be an excellent perennial primer to share with and educate the public. * ### Frans de Jonge tells us about KOReader in this AGPLv3 interview *From May 19* In the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works, we interviewed Frans de Jonge of KOReader. Frans shares, among other things, how he started contributing to KOReader after Hans-Werner, how enthusiasts of all skillsets can contribute to its improvements, and what the next steps are for KOReader development. Learn more about this project, which is proud to enable users to read in freedom. * ### The FSF board candidate discussions will start on May 29 *From May 16* Now that we have published the full list of candidates to consider in the FSF board process, it is time to start discussions about some of them. The Voting Members have chosen these two as the first candidates to invite the associate members to discuss: John Gilmore and Christina Haralanova. The discussion forum opened on May 29 and is planned to close six weeks later. Participants must pledge to abide by the participation agreement. [Eligible discussion participants](https://u.fsf.org/3zp), according to the board process outline, are current associate members who were already members (or donated a comparable amount) between 2018-01-19 and 2022-10-19, and they have been sent an email of the discussion forum's opening. * * * (Accessible to eligible participants only.) ### Announcing the FSF's board candidates *From May 2* Early this month, we announced the list of candidates who have proceeded to the next step in the FSF's process to finding new board members. Nominees confirmed their interest by filling out a questionnaire that helps introduce themselves and their backgrounds to the FSF voting members. The FSF voting members thank everyone who nominated a candidate and the nominees who responded to the questionnaire. * ### I won an award for my Emacs contributions *From May 25 by Protesilaos Stavrou* 2021 Award for Outstanding New Free Software Contributor recipient Protesilaos "Prot" Stavrou received an award this month for his work on Modus themes. Created with the intent to improve the accessibility of GNU Emacs, the themes are high contrast for optimized for people with deuteranopia or tritanopia. Read about the theme as well as Prot's recent writings on accessibility and software freedom. *Note: The award was presented by Google, a company that all-too-often works against user freedom and privacy. For us, the important aspect of Prot's announcement is that he made a significant contribution to GNU Emacs, not that it was presented to him by any particular entity.* * * ### Interoperable Europe Act: Committee of the Regions fails to substantially promote free software *From May 24 by Free Software Foundation Europe* Following a push earlier in the year to revise the *Interoperable Europe Act* to better emphasize software freedom's critical role in interoperability, the committee responsible for revising the text has unfortunately failed to fully incorporate the recommendations. Of the results, project manager Lina Ceballos of Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) said, "[T]his decision only reaffirms the importance of the involvement of stakeholders, who have actual competence, in these decision-making processes. We, therefore, urge the European Parliament to include the free software community in the *Interoperable Europe Board* to guarantee sustainability and innovation in digitalization." * ### May GNU Emacs news *From May 29 by Sacha Chua* In these issues: RSS reading in GNU Emacs, crafting a website with Org Publish, "Devil Mode," and more! * [2023-05-01](https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/05/2023-05-01-emacs-news/) * [2023-05-08](https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/05/2023-05-08-emacs-news/) * [2023-05-15](https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/05/2023-05-15-emacs-news/) * [2023-05-22](https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/05/2023-05-22-emacs-news/) * [2023-05-29](https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/05/2023-05-29-emacs-news/) ### 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, June 2 from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC). Details here: * ### LibrePlanet featured resource: Going NoPhone Every month on [the LibrePlanet wiki](https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Main_Page), we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help. For this month, we are highlighting Going NoPhone, which provides information about living a (mobile) phone-free life, including its benefits and creative hacks to get around and have fun. 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 . ### May GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Nineteen new GNU releases! Nineteen new GNU releases in the last month (as of May 28, 2023): * [cpio-2.14](https://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/) * [ddd-3.4.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/) * [diffutils-3.10](https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/) * [gawk-5.2.2](https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/) * [gcc-12.3.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/) * [gdb-13.2](https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/) * [global-6.6.10](https://www.gnu.org/software/global/) * [gnuastro-0.20](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/) * [grep-3.11](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/) * [guile-opengl-0.2.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-opengl/) * [less-633](https://www.gnu.org/software/less/) * [libmicrohttpd-0.9.77](https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/) * [mailutils-3.16](https://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/) * [nettle-3.9](https://www.gnu.org/software/nettle/) * [parallel-20230522](https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/) * [poke-3.2](https://www.gnu.org/software/poke/) * [shepherd-0.10.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/shepherd/) * [unifont-15.0.04](https://www.gnu.org/software/unifont/) * [wget-1.21.4](https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/) *For a full list with descriptions, please see: * For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: . To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from . Optionally, you may find faster download speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing from the list of mirrors published at , or you may use to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror. This month, I'm happy to announce the launch of the GNU Spotlight archive at , where you can browse through all GNU Spotlights published to date. A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at . If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see . As always, please feel free to write to me, , with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments. ### FSF and other free software events * June 05, 2023, Online, [LibrePlanet talk -- WorldVistA EHR version of the Department of Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record by Nancy Anthracite](https://www.fsf.org/events/libreplanet-talk-june-5-worldvista-ehr-version-of-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-electronic-health-record) * July 13-16, 2023, Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR [FOSSY](https://sfconservancy.org/fossy/) * September 27, 2023, Volkhause, Biel, Switzerland [GNU 40](https://www.gnu.org/gnu40/) * October 15-17, 2023, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC [ATO](https://2023.allthingsopen.org/) * November 3-4, 2023, Online and Seattle, WA [SeaGL](https://seagl.org/) ### 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: * Adarsh Melethil * Arthur Gleckler * Dario Armani * David Klann * Richard Ellwood * Ron Hume You can add your name to this list by donating at . ### 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: * Colin Woodbury (GNU Guile) * David Leatherman (GNU Emacs) * Enrico Flor (GNU Emacs) * Jens Schmidt (GNU Emacs) * Kierin Joseph Bell (GNU Emacs) * Labib Abidur Rahman Asari (Gnuastro) * Mehmet Tekman (GNU Emacs) * Reuben Rhys Thomas (Recode) * Siyang He (Gnuastro) * Slawomir Grochowski (GNU Emacs) * Tim Ruffing (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: **Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos números del *Supporter* en español, haz click aquí:** Le *Free Software Supporter* est disponible en français. Pour voir la version française cliquez ici: **Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines publications du *Supporter* en français, cliquez ici:** ### Take action with the FSF! Contributions from thousands of individual associate members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at . 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! > The FSF is always looking for [volunteers](https://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 [campaigns section](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and [take action on software patents](https://endsoftwarepatents.org/), [Digital Restrictions Management](https://www.defectivebydesign.org/), [free software](https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Freedom_Ladder) adoption, [OpenDocument](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/opendocument/download), 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 with your interest and a list of your experience and qualifications. *** Copyright © 2023 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 .