Free Software Supporter - Issue 94, February 2016

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 101,835
other activists.

## We exceeded our winter fundraiser goal of $450,000! Thank you to everyone for your support!

![Edward Snowden announcement]
(https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/libreplanet/feature-images/s...)

## Edward Snowden will kick off LibrePlanet 2016: Will you be there? 

This is huge: the opening keynote for LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the
System is a conversation with National Security Agency (NSA)
whistleblower Edward Snowden and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Technologist Daniel Kahn Gillmor. **Register for LibrePlanet today!**

  *
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/edward-snowden-will-k...>

## TABLE OF CONTENTS

* What is your free software story?
* New tools for teaching and learning Email Self-Defense
* Support the FSF for thirty more years
* Hardware we certified in 2015 to Respect Your Freedom
* What's your vision for the FSF?
* Laying a foundation for growing Outreachy
* The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Guillaume Roguez, Ring Project Director
* From TPP to saving WiFi, the FSF fights for you
* Reaching people through Giving Guide Giveaways
* Key charities that advance software freedom are worthy of your urgent support
* Picture montage from RMS' talk at Stockholm University
* The problem with self-driving cars: who controls the code?
* I'm running for the Linux Foundation board of directors
* The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz
* MEPs vote for more free software in public sector
* Free Basics investigation
* GNOME.Asia Summit 2016 call for participation is now open
* Digital freedom depends on the right to tinker
* Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
* LibrePlanet featured resource: Libre Browsers Libre Formats
* GNU Spotlight with Brandon Invergo: Sixteen new GNU releases!
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
* Thank GNUs!
* GNU copyright contributions
* Take action with the FSF!

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

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

  * Subscribe: <https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter>
  * Widget: <https://www.fsf.org/associate/widget>

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

###

El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la
versión en español haz click aqui: <https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2016/febrero>

**Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos números
del Supporter en español, haz click aquí:**
<https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/edit?reset=1&gid=3...>

Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici: <https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2016/fevrier>

**Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines
  publications du Supporter en français, cliquez ici:**

<https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/edit?reset=1&gid=3...>

### What is your free software story?

*From January 19th*

Story connects us to what we do. We all come from different
backgrounds and experiences, some involving developing free software,
some not, but all connecting to the philosophy. Watch the stories of
how folks got involved in free software.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/what-is-your-free-sof...>

### New tools for teaching and learning Email Self-Defense
	
*From January 22nd*

We're excited to be launching version four of our Email Self-Defense
guide to free software-powered encryption. We think that this guide is
the best on the Web for helping newcomers take their first steps into
encryption, and we're excited for all the improvements in this
version.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/new-tools-for-teachin...>

### Support the FSF for thirty more years

*From January 30th by Henry Poole*

Publicly declaring a goal for a free operating system was visionary
in 1984. We have quite a bit to celebrate -- this vision has
manifested. We could retire fulfilled. But, as we imagine into the
future, it is clear that operating systems are becoming embedded in
everything.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/support-the-fsf-for-3...> 
  *
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fundraiser-ends-sunda...>
  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/gnu-press-fundraiser-...>
  
### Hardware we certified in 2015 to Respect Your Freedom

*From January 6th*

The world of computer hardware products is in many respects a dark and
dismal place when it comes to computer user freedom: graphics
processors, network controllers, and even the low-level boot systems
of most computers use proprietary software. However, we know that this
situation is not due to a lack of demand from users for hardware that
respects them. People want this, but in the absence of options, have
just resigned themselves to accepting mistreatment.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/hardware-we-certified...>

### What's your vision for the FSF?

*From January 8th*

2015 was the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) thirtieth year defending
and advancing computer users' rights. The free software community has
sustained the Foundation throughout these decades and been deeply
involved in our work.  The survey closed on February 1st.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/news/whats-your-vision-for-the-fsf-fi...>
  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/vision-survey-closes-...>

### Laying a foundation for growing Outreachy

*From December 31st by Marina Zhurakhinskaya*

2015 was a year of transition and expansion for Outreachy, which was
only possible with the fiscal and legal support Conservancy provided
us. Becoming a Conservancy Supporter will ensure the future in which
more free software success stories like Outreachy's are possible.

  * <https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/dec/31/yir-outreachy/>

### The Licensing and Compliance Lab interviews Guillaume Roguez, Ring Project Director

*From January 7th*

This is the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's
series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their
works. In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with
Guillaume Roguez, the Project Director of Ring.

  *
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-licensing-and-com...>

### From TPP to saving WiFi, the FSF fights for you

*From January 13th*

Protecting and promoting free software often requires making your
voice heard by those with the power to legislate freedom away. In
2015, the FSF organized with activists and
organizations from around the world to petition governments on a wide
variety of issues affecting computer users.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/from-tpp-to-saving-wi...>

### Reaching people through Giving Guide Giveaways

*From January 15th*

In December, the FSF and community members carried out our yearly
holiday season tradition of Giving Guide Giveaways.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/reaching-people-throu...>

### Key charities that advance software freedom are worthy of your urgent support

*From January 26th by Bradley Kuhn*

In this blog post, Bradley discusses his years of work for both the
FSF and Software Freedom Conservancy and
explains why your donations, before the January 31st fundraising
deadlines for both charities, are essential and urgent. He asks you
today to become both a a Supporter of Conservancy and an Associate
Member of the FSF.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/key-charities-that-ad...>

### Picture montage from RMS' talk at Stockholm University

*From January 29th*

On January 25th, 2016, RMS was back at Stockholm University's Aula
Magna, where he had already spoken back in 2011,1 to give his speech
“A Free Digital Society,” to an audience of over 800 people.

  * <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-20160125-stockholm>

### The problem with self-driving cars: who controls the code?

*From December 23rd by Cory Doctorow*

Should autonomous vehicles be programmed to choose who they kill when
they crash? And who gets access to the code that determines those
decisions?

  *
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/23/the-pr...>

### I'm running for the Linux Foundation board of directors

*From January 17th by Karen Sandler*

Linux Foundation by laws allow for two Board Seats elected by
individuals. This gives individuals a minority voice on their Board
of Directors, so that companies that control Linux Foundation's board
have a direct path to hear from the community. I signed up last year as an
Individual Affiliate of Linux Foundation and nominated myself as a
candidate for Linux Foundation's Board of Directors.

  * <https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2016/jan/17/karen-LF-candi...> 

### The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz

*From January 3rd by Benjamin Mako Hill*

The New Press has published a new collection of Aaron Swartz’s writing
called The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron
Swartz. I worked with Seth Schoen to introduce and help edit the
opening section of book that includes Aaron’s writings on free
culture, access to information and knowledge, and copyright. Seth and
I have put our introduction online under an appropriately free license
(CC BY-SA).

  *
<https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/the-boy-who-could-change-th...>

### MEPs vote for more free software in public sector

*From January 28th by FSFE*

The Parliament took an affirmative attitude and a bolder stance
towards the increased use of free software and its importance to
digital single market.

  * <https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160128-01.en.html>

### Free Basics investigation

*From January 20th by SFLC*

We decided to check out Free Basics in action. So we got hold of a
Reliance SIM card and a dying smart phone to take the free ride.

* <http://sflc.in/free-basics-investigation/>

### GNOME.Asia Summit 2016 call for participation is now open

*From January 22nd by GNOME*

The GNOME.Asia Summit 2016 team invites proposals for presentations at
the conference. GNOME.Asia Summit is GNOME Asia’s user and developer
conference, with the goal of spreading GNOME across Asia and
encouraging contributions.

  *
<https://www.gnome.org/news/2016/01/gnome-asia-summit-2016...>

### Digital freedom depends on the right to tinker

*From January 20th by Kit Walsh*

One of the most crucial issues in the fight for digital freedom is the
question of who will control the hardware that you have in your home,
in your pocket, or in your own body.

  *
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/why-owning-your-stu...>

### 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, February 5th from 12pm to 3pm EST (17:00
to 20:00 UTC). Details here:

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

### LibrePlanet featured resource: Libre Browsers Libre Formats

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 Libre Browsers Libre Formats,
which provides information about which browsers support free formats
and how. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important
resource.

  * <https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Libre_Browsers_Libre_Formats>

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

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

16 new GNU releases in the last month (as of January 24, 2016):

* [coreutils-8.25](https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/)
* [datamash-1.1.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/datamash/)
* [findutils-4.6.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/)
* [gettext-0.19.7](https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/)
* [gnucash-2.6.11](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnucash/)
* [gnuhealth-3.0.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/health/)
* [gnutls-3.4.8](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/)
* [guile-clutter-1.12.2.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-gnome/)
* [guile-gnome-platform-2.16.4](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile-gnome/)
* [icecat-38.5.2-gnu1](https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat/)
* [jel-2.1.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/jel/)
* [linux-libre-4.4-gnu](https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/)
* [mcsim-5.6.3](https://www.gnu.org/software/mcsim/)
* [nano-2.5.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/)
* [parallel-20160122](https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/)
* [tramp-2.2.13](https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/)

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
<https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/> to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

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>.

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

  * February 1st, 06:00 PM to 08:00 PM, Fribourg, Switzerland ["The free software
movement"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160201-fribourg)
  * February 5th, 03:00 PM to 05:00 PM, Bern, Switzerland ["A free digital
society"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160205-bern)
  * February 8th, 06:00 PM to 08:00 PM, Zurich, Switzerland ["Free software and your
freedom"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160208-zurich)
  * February 10th, TBA, Sirre, Switzerland ["Une société numérique
libre"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160210-sierre)
  * February 20th, 06:00 PM to 09:00 PM, Barcelona, Spain ["El software libre en la ética y en la
práctica"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160220-barcelona)
  * February 26th, TBA, Pilani, India ["Speaking at APOGEE
2016"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160226-pilani)
  * February 28th, TBA, Delhi, India ["Free software and your
freedom"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20160228-delhi)

### 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. A glitch prevented a few
people from being thanked in the last month's supporter, so we have
included them this month.

  * <https://www.gnu.org/thankgnus/2016supporters.html>
  * <https://www.gnu.org/thankgnus/2015supporters.html>
  
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
* Adam Klotblixt
* Christian Sperr
* Matthias Herrmann
* Jeff Crane
* Johan Nestaas
* Alan Beadle
* Lyle Frost 
* Alison Chaiken
* Sabahattin Gucukoglu
* Jean-Francois Blavier
* Nicholas Grandy
* Martin Jansche
* Julian Graham
* kurt Bruno Friedrich Jungbluth
* Eric Cooper
* Philipp Weis
* Inouye Satoru
* René Genz
* Tobias Platen
* Maximilian Machedon
* David Moews
* James Fitzgerald
* Richard Shao
* Daniel Gillmor
* Detlef Girke
* Robert Dionne
* Luiz Paternostro
* Iñaki Arenaza
* Martynas Andrisiunas
* Dennis Clarke
* Luis Rodriguez
* Warren Knight 
* Paul Allen
* Ben Pfaff
* Philippe Ombredanne
* Felipe Tonello 
* Mark Nagel
* Dave Crossland
* Hemant Patel
* Daniel Riek

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:

* Arash Esbati (emacs)
* Romian Geissler (binutils)
* Nazim Djafar (jwhois)
* Federico "Larroca" La Rocca (GNU Radio)

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/>
.
-- 
* Follow us at <https://status.fsf.org/fsf>. 
* Subscribe to our RSS feeds at <https://fsf.org/blogs/RSS>.
* Join us as an associate member at <https://www.fsf.org/jf>.

Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335
UNITED STATES