Free Software Supporter Issue 93, January 2016

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 100,698
other activists.

    *      .-.                      .
          (   )      .     *               *
    _      '-'    ,               ,    ,
   (_)  _ /   \.--.\         .    \\__//    .
    _ >(_)    "    ;"           _ / o o\ _
   (_)       (    / )          / '------' \
              ;._/."    . O () "._o_o_o_o."
         *    \.'    .           .           *
 .       
         HAVE A COSMIC HAPPY GNU YEAR 2016!
*(ASCII art by Chris Webber)*

### Got a light? Help the FSF's guiding light shine brighter

For thirty years, the Free Software Foundation has been seen as a
guiding light for the free software movement, fighting for computer
user freedom worldwide — so far we have raised $277,575 toward out
goal of $450,000 — but we can't continue this work without your
support.

 * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/got-a-light-help-the-...>

## TABLE OF CONTENTS

* Join with me to support the Software Freedom Conservancy
* Libreboot T400 laptop now FSF-certified to respect your freedom
* Be a guide for tech giving 
* GNU Press fundraiser discount: members enjoy 30 percent off, nonmembers get 10 percent!
* FSF announces fundraising support for GNU Guix, a new approach to GNU/Linux
* Help put the Planet in LibrePlanet by sponsoring an attendee
* Shining a spotlight on free software: the FSF's Licensing & Compliance Lab's interview series
* A look at the FSF tech team's tireless work for user freedom
* November/December 2015 — Gent and Mexico
* Brighten our light — expose Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)!
* Free software activists come together to improve proposed U.S. Department of Education
regulations
* Conservancy Announces 2015: Year in Review series
* MediaGoblin update: End-of-year state-of-the-goblin, Stripe retreat, and more
* MediaGoblin 0.8.1: Security release
* TheSetup ChangeLog
* Saving "FreeBasics"(Facebook) while destroying Internet
* Partnership with Microsoft: Unworthy of the values French national education advocates
* The fight for freedom
* GCC 5 Release series
* Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
* LibrePlanet featured resource: Giving Guide Suggestions
* GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: 22 new GNU releases!
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
* Thank GNUs!
* GNU copyright contributions
* Take action with the FSF!

View this issue online here: <https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2016/january>

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### Join with me to support the Software Freedom Conservancy

*From December 21st by John Sullivan*

This is a key moment to stand up for yourselves, to give back for work
that's already been done, and to ensure the continued growth of free
software as a means to ensure our freedom, and the freedom of future
generations. Fortunately, since we have the strength of numbers to
draw on, you can do your part for both organizations for less than the
monthly cost of a couple Netflix subscriptions or a single dinner out.

 * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/executive-director/support-the-...>
 * <https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/dec/21/fsf-endorsement>

### Libreboot T400 laptop now FSF-certified to respect your freedom

*From December 11th* 

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom
(RYF) certification to the Libreboot T400 laptop as sold by
Minifree. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the
FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product,
and privacy.

 * <https://www.fsf.org/news/libreboot-t400-laptop-now-fsf-ce...>

### Be a guide for tech giving 

*From December 11th*

In the flurry of holiday advertising that happens at the end of the
year, many people are swept into buying electronics gifts that trample
their recipients' freedom and that take more than they give. Can you
spread the word by organizing a Giving Guide Giveaway in your
community? 

 * <https://www.defectivebydesign.org/2015-Giving-Guide-Giveaway>

### GNU Press fundraiser discount: members enjoy 30 percent off, nonmembers get 10 percent!

*From December 14th*

Until January 31st, we are offering 30 percent off for members with
their regular member discount code, and 10 percent off for nonmembers
with the discount code GNUInTheDark.

 * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/gnu-press-fundraiser-...>

### FSF announces fundraising support for GNU Guix, a new approach to GNU/Linux

*From December 16th*

GNU Guix is liberating, dependable, and hackable! The FSF today
announced that we would begin accepting donations as part of our
support for GNU Guix!

 * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-announces-support...>

### Help put the Planet in LibrePlanet by sponsoring an attendee

*From December 18th*

Here at the Free Software Foundation, we're selecting the program for
LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the System right now. It's shaping up to be
another standard-setting free software conference -- but we need your
help.

 * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-put-the-planet-i...>

### Shining a spotlight on free software: the FSF's Licensing & Compliance Lab's interview series

*From December 28th*

In August of 2012, the Licensing & Compliance Lab kicked off a series
of interviews with developers of free software. With 2015 in the
rear-view mirror, we take a moment to look back on the series and
highlight these great projects once again.

*
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/shining-a-spotlight-o...>

### A look at the FSF tech team's tireless work for user freedom

*From December 29th*

Our tech team keeps the FSF and the GNU Project running -- and in
order to fulfill their goals for 2016, they need your support. Find
out what they have been working on and what is to come!

 *
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/a-look-at-the-fsf-tec...>

### November/December 2015 — Gent and Mexico

*From December 30th"

RMS gave his speech "Copyright vs Community" at the Quetelet
auditorium, Sint Pietersplein, in Gent, Belgium, on November 17th, to
a diverse student audience. Later the same month, he was in
Mexico. Here is a photoblog of his travels.

 *
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/201511-gent-201512-chapingo...>

### Brighten our light — expose Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)!

*From December 22nd*

Defective by Design's ray of light is desperately needed -- there is a
long way to go before we have enough popular support to end DRM
forever. But we run this campaign as a part-time project of only a
handful of activists juggling this work and the needs of our parent
organization, the Free Software Foundation. We need stable financial
support so we can increase our focus on DRM, deepen bonds with other
movements, organize more in-person protests and keep producing
materials that speak to people from diverse backgrounds.

 * <https://www.defectivebydesign.org/brighten-our-light>

### Free software activists come together to improve proposed U.S. Department of Education
regulations

*From December 22nd*

The Free Software Foundation submitted comments from free software
activists in response to the U.S. Department of Education's proposed
new regulations on the licensing of grant-funded works.

 *
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/free-software-activis...>

*From December 7th*

The U.S. Department of Education has issued a notice of proposed rule
making (NPRM) with a request for comments from the public regarding
new regulations relating to the licensing of grant-funded works --
both software and courseware.

 * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/send-comments-to-doe-...>


### Conservancy announces 2015: Year in Review series

*From December 10th by Software Freedom Conservancy*

Conservancy announces today a blog post series called, Conservancy
2015: The Year in Review. This series will run throughout December
2015 and will recap major events in free software movement that
Conservancy impacted through the year of 2015.

 * <https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/dec/10/2015-yir>

### MediaGoblin update: End-of-year state-of-the-goblin, Stripe retreat, and more
	
*From December 18th by Christopher Allan Webber*

There’s some particularly huge news in this update, including
something about funding something oh hey this should help us get
MediaGoblin 1.0 out the door, plus something about the standards work
we’re doing, something something. So let’s dive in and resolve all
those somethings, right?

 * <http://mediagoblin.org/news/stripe-retreat-state-of-the-g...>

### MediaGoblin 0.8.1: Security release

*From December 20th by Jessica Tallon*

We have had a security problem in our OAuth implementation reported to
us privately and have taken steps to address it. The security problem
affects all versions of GNU MediaGoblin since 0.5.0. I have created a
patch for this and released a minor version 0.8.1 (see the release
notes page). It’s strongly advised that everyone upgrade as soon as
they can.

 * <http://mediagoblin.org/news/stripe-retreat-state-of-the-g...>

### TheSetup ChangeLog

*From December 16th by Benjamin Mako Hill*

Several years ago, I did a long interview with TheSetup — a fantastic
website that posts of interviews with nerdy people that ask the same
four questions: Who are you, and what do you do? What hardware are you
using? And what software? What would be your dream setup?

 * <https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/thesetup-changelog>

### Saving "FreeBasics"(Facebook) while destroying the Internet

*From December 17th by Free Software Movement of India*

FSMI calls upon all programmers, hacktivists, Facebook users and
concerned citizens to rise to the occasion and work towards having a
free Internet and stop the balkanization of the Internet.

 * <http://fsmi.in/content/saving-freebasicsfacebook-while-de...>

### Partnership with Microsoft: Unworthy of the values French national education advocates

*From December 18th by April* 

At the end of 2011, François Hollande had made youth "the great cause
of the presidential election." Once more, obviously, youth and the
shaping of minds are being sacrificed to the economic interests of big
US corporations. French Minister of National Education, Higher
Education and Research, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, announced that the
Ministry and Microsoft had signed a partnership.

 *
<https://www.april.org/en/partnership-microsoft-unworthy-v...>

### The fight for freedom

*From December 21st by Mike Saunders and Graham Morrison*

Free software isn’t just about getting shiny new programs for no cash
– it’s part of a much larger social movement. Mike Saunders and Graham
Morrison explore the history and future of Free Libre Open Source Software.

 * <https://www.linuxvoice.com/the-fight-for-freedom/>

### GCC 5 Release series

The GNU project and the GCC developers are pleased to announce the
release of GCC 5.3.

 * <https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-5/>

### 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 irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of
regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.

The next meeting is Friday, January 6th from 12pm to 3pm EST (16:00 to
19:00 UTC). Details here:

  * <https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Me...>

### LibrePlanet featured resource: Giving Guide Suggestions

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

For this month, we are highlighting Giving Guide Suggestions, which
provides space to discuss future suggestions for the Giving Guide. You
are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.

  * <https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Giving_Guide_Suggestions>

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

### GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: 22 new GNU releases!

22 new GNU releases in the last month (as of December 24, 2015):

* [autogen-5.18.7](https://www.gnu.org/software/autogen/)
* [ccaudio2-2.2.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/ccaudio/)
* [ccscript-5.1.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/ccscript/)
* [freeipmi-1.5.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/)
* [gcc-5.3.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/)
* [gdb-7.10.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/)
* [global-6.5.2](https://www.gnu.org/software/global/)
* [gnucash-2.6.10](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnucash/)
* [gnudos-1.8](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnudos/)
* [gnupg-2.1.10](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/)
* [guile-clutter-1.12.2.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-gnome/)
* [guile-gnome-2.16.4](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-gnome/)
* [icecat-38.4.0-gnu1](https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/)
* [libmicrohttpd-0.9.48](https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/)
* [mcsim-5.6.2](https://www.gnu.org/software/mcsim/)
* [mdk-1.2.9](https://www.gnu.org/software/mdk/)
* [nano-2.5.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/)
* [parallel-20151222](https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/)
* [sipwitch-1.9.15](https://www.gnu.org/software/sipwitch/)
* [ucommon-7.0.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/commoncpp/)
* [wget-1.17.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/)
* [xorriso-1.4.2](https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/)

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 from
<https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/>, or preferably one of its mirrors from
<https://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.

This month, we welcome Darshit Shah and Tim Ruehsen as new
comaintainers of GNU wget and Evgeny Grin as a new co-maintainer of
libmicrohttpd.

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 us at <maintainers@gnu.org>
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

### Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future
events in your area, please visit <https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-speeches.html>.

So far, Richard Stallman has the following events this month:

  * January 25th, Stockholm, Sweden,
    [Richard Stallman to speak in Stockholm,
Sweden](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160125-stockholm)
  * January 27th, Oestersund, Sweden,
    [Richard Stallman to speak in Oestersund,
Sweden](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160127-oestersund)
  * February 1st, Fribourg, Switzerland,
    [Richard Stallman to speak in Fribourg,
Switzerland](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160201-fribourg)
  
### Other FSF and free software events

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future
events in your area, please visit <https://www.fsf.org/events>.

  * January 30th/31st, Brussels, Belguim, John Sullivan, executive
director to speak at FOSDEM, "Pick a peck of license pickers"

### Thank GNUs!

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

  * <https://www.gnu.org/thankgnus/2015supporters.html>

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

  * Matthias Herrmann
  * Orlando Wingbrant
  * Mr. Pete Batard / Akeo 
  * Kenyon Cotton 
  * Lyle Frost 
  * Matt Kraai 
  * Bruce Baumgart 
  * Ron Horrell 
  * Adam Lee 
  * Alain Schneble 
  * Chaitanya Bayapuneni
  * Luiz Paternostro 
  * Sudheera Fernando 
  * Brett Smith 
  * Daniel Dehennin 
  * Sam Halliday
  * Francis Rowe 
  * Pariksheet Nanda
  * Yuji Shinokawa
  * James Jones
  * Olaf Kayser
  * Jim Wright
  * Bashar Al-Abdulhadi
  * Minoru Sekine
  * Cătălin Frâncu
  * Shawn the R0ck
  * Preston Maness
  * Daniel Hoodin
  * Alvin Khaled
  * Blue Systems
  * Charles Birk
  * Mohan Noone
  * Judicaël Courant
  * Mirko Luedde
  * Inouye Satoru
  * Marcus Pemer
  * Puduvankunnil Udayakumar
  * Stephen Eichblatt
  * Aaron Grothe
  * Mikaël Cluseau
  * Trevor Spiteri
  * Tiago Vieira
  * Alessandro Vesely
  * Rui Ueyama
  * Antonio Carzaniga
  * Colin Carr
  * Matteo Frigo
  * Stanley Zisk
  * Norman Richards
  * Michael Tria
  * René Genz
  * Michael Cavanaugh
  * Eric West
  * Phillip Wolf
  * Russell McManus
  * Laurent Ostiz
  * Roland Pesch 
  * Jonathan Howell 
  * Clifford Ireland 
  * Stephen Ippolito 
  * Arthur Gleckler 
  * Paul Cambria 
  * Steve Sprang 
  * Stefan Alexander Maric Meng
  * Donald Craig 

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 GPL and keep software free. The following individuals have
assigned their copyright to the FSF in the past month:

 * Lambda Coder (GNU Tramp)
 * Pitomets Yuriy Volodymyrovych (Emacs)
 * Steve Moreau (Emacs)
 * Alexey Lebedev (Emacs)
 * David Adam Barker (Emacs)
 * American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Inc. (GCC)
 
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.

<https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#dev>

### Take action with the FSF

Contributions from thousands of individual 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 also 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 campaign section
(<https://www.fsf.org/campaigns>) and take action on software patents,
DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA, and more.

###

Copyright © 2016 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/>.
-- 
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