Discussion July 2013

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

22 participants
12 discussions

Goal for February 14th: More love reports than bug reports! #ilovefs
by Matthias Kirschner 24 Feb '14

24 Feb '14

(If you are reading FSFE's newsletters [1] (and you should when you have not yet given me feedback what I could improve ;) ), and you already use one of our banners [2], you can skip this post because I copied and pasted it. Else please continue.) Let us admit it, the Free Software community is often very critical. Wewrite bug reports, tell others how they can improve the software, ask them fornew features, and to not spare with criticism. Sometimes we forget to say "thank you, for all your work". As in the last years, we want to change this, at least for one day. So on Tuesday the 14th of February we will celebrate the "I love Free Software" - Day [3]. Get active, buy your favourite developer a drink or give them a hug (ask forpermission first), write an e-mail/letter [4] expressing your feelings, create nice pictures, donate to a Free Software initiative, use another of our suggestions [5] or be create yourself to show how you appreciate people, working hard to enlarge or defend our freedom. Beside that help us to promote the activity with our banners [6], by e-mail, (micro)blog or in your (distributed?) social networks. New this year is a whole day event in the Unperfekthaus in Essen (Germany) [7] and that all our Fellows automatically get an login(a)ilovefs.org e-mail alias. So let's make sure that on February 14th there are more love reports, than bug reports! All the best, Matthias 1. http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html 2. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/2012/banners.html 3. http://ilovefs.org 4. http://blogs.fsfe.org/thomaslocke/2012/01/18/why-i-love-free-and-open-sourc… 5. http://ilovefs.org 6. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/2012/banners.html 7. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/2012/unperfekthaus.html -- Matthias Kirschner - FSFE - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator FSFE, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290 +49-1577-1780003 Free Software is important to you? Join today! (fsfe.org/join) Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner)

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Re: Are screenshots from GPLed software free?
by Joshua Gay 30 Jul '13

30 Jul '13

> This may be of interest/useful (?): > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Software_screenshots > >> >E.g. can images from Stellarium, a planetarium software under GPL v2, be >> >used for public communication by an amateur astronomy association? This is a really fun (fair-use and) copyright question! There are so many different edge cases with user data, fonts, creative use of the program, etc. that make it less simple than it might at first seem. I'd love to hear what others are thinking about this and if there have been any interesting law suits over screenshots or the like. Josh -- Joshua Gay Licensing & Compliance Manager Free Software Foundation www.fsf.org/licensing

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Are screenshots from GPLed software free?
by Guillaume Ponce 30 Jul '13

30 Jul '13

Can screenshot from GPLed software be used freely in documents? E.g. can images from Stellarium, a planetarium software under GPL v2, be used for public communication by an amateur astronomy association? I think that it should be covered by the "can be used for any purpose", but not completly sure.

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E-Mail providers with XMPP accounts
by Matthias Kirschner 25 Jul '13

25 Jul '13

The German team of FSFE gave the DFD Award 2012 to 1&1/GMX/Web.de because they provide XMPP accounts to all their customers in form of their e-mail address <https://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120328-01.en.html>. Are you aware of other mailproviders who offer this in other countries? Best Regards, Matthias -- Matthias Kirschner - FSFE - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator FSFE, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290 +49-1577-1780003 Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) Receive monthly Free Software news (fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html)

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GitHub improves code licensing
by Christian Kalkhoff 16 Jul '13

16 Jul '13

Hi, in an other thread on this list I mentioned a study [1] on GitHub which stated, that tons of code there is not properly licensed and therfore unusable for anybody. As H-Online writes today [2], GitHub now makes a license selectable on new project creation. I am not sure what that means for the files, but it sure will improve the awareness for licensing for anybody using GitHub. Best, Christian [1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/github_licensing_study/ [2] http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/GitHub-gets-smart-over-open-source-l… -- Christian Kalkhoff - Softwarebefreier - software liberator Fellow of FSFE - Support FSFE! http://fsfe.org/support/?softmetz CAcert assurer http://softmetz.de/

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Be Open or be insecure – Hemlis must choose
by Matthias Kirschner 15 Jul '13

15 Jul '13

Sam looked into Hemlis, a proposal for a new encrypted mobile messaging app, which received $125,000 in crowdfunding. It’s wonderful to see ambitious new software projects get support from the community, especially when they are Free Software which can be used, studied, shared, and improved by everyone. But is this really the case with Hemlis? https://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=564 Regards, Matthias -- Matthias Kirschner - FSFE - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator FSFE, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290 +49-1577-1780003 Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) Receive monthly Free Software news (fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html)

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laptops sold with free software
by Marcos Marado 15 Jul '13

15 Jul '13

Hi there, In somewhat a reply to this month's FSFE newsletter, regarding avoiding Microsoft tax: " - How can you avoid the Microsoft tax when buying a new laptop? Kevin Keijzer documented some tips and tricks on how to buy a new laptop[33] which is a nice follow-up on last months test of a preinstalled GNU/Linux laptop from Dell[34]. Help us in gathering more information on laptops without Microsoft tax in our wiki[35]. " I didn't have an wiki account, and created one but it seems that it needs to be manually approved, so here's some info via e-mail (and please someone put it on the wiki): Unlike what transpires on that blog post, you can buy some laptops with GNU/Linux on a regular shop in some European countries, including Portugal. We have been allways one or two different choices on the shelves for a couple of years now. This models are usually also sold in some (but not all) other countries with the same sofware. Nowadays we actually have three "international brands' laptops" to choose from (but they're all variants of the same): ASUS X201E-KX133 ASUS X201E-KX134 ASUS X201E-KX135 Asus has been, indeed, the best laptop vendor in Portugal in this regard the last few years. We also have on our shelves INSYS WV2251ELQL, and there's allways several INSYS laptops with GNU/Linux, but not allways do they manage to have them on the usual laptop-selling shops. INSYS is a Portuguese brand, and I don't know if they sell on or to other countries. PS - just to be sure about ASUS' models nowadays, I did a search for X201E on the web, and the first result was this model on amazon.com... with Ubuntu. Best regards, -- Marcos Marado

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Created with Free Software graphic
by Matthias Kirschner 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

As I just added the graphic to my blog, I though a small reminder would not hurt: on https://fsfe.org/contribute/advocacy/cwfs.en.html we have some nice "Created with Free Software" graphics you can use on your website, presentations, etc. Regards, Matthias -- Matthias Kirschner - FSFE - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator FSFE, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290 +49-1577-1780003 Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) Support FSFE! http://fsfe.org/support/?mk

1 0

FLOSS Related Camps?
by Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross 04 Jul '13

04 Jul '13

Hi. I'm looking at what camps there are this year and upcoming years, that are related to FLOSS, free culture, thinking, outdoors, eco, environmentally friendly living, humans, mechanics, spying and the a-like, make, politics, etc? I already know of OHM and Electromagnet Field. I live in the UK. Thanks.

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Security and Javascript
by Matthias Kirschner 03 Jul '13

03 Jul '13

I'd like to have some feedback from you. Do you agree with those points? 1) on most computers Javascript is enabled by default 2) This gives anyone a platform to play with parts of their owners equipment. 3) From a security point you are lost as soon as you give an adversary the opportunity to control your system. 4) Only non-active web content can guarantee that you keep control over your equipment. And the last question: if all above is true, do we want to tell this to the public? Does it help? Or would we be seen as being completely paranoid. Thanks, Matthias -- Matthias Kirschner - FSFE - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator FSFE, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290 +49-1577-1780003 Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) Support FSFE! http://fsfe.org/support/?mk

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Discussion July 2013