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John Sullivan on free software and corporations
by Carsten Agger 02 Jul '21

02 Jul '21

A really good discussion from the outgoing FSF director: https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2021/spring/thinking-clearly-about-corporations For software to be considered free, its license must allow for commercial use and redistribution. Yet, free software as a social movement is to a large extent a struggle against for-profit corporate control of our lives. Instead of telling companies they are not welcome in free software, we say they are welcome if they follow the ethical principles -- the Four Freedoms. In our engagement with them, we see both positive and negative impacts. We also see some parts of the community being overly solicitous of corporate support, and other parts describing even seemingly positive actions as necessarily part of a long con to eventually extinguish free software. We need to think clearly -- somewhere between these extremes -- about corporate involvement, neither falling over ourselves to invite it, nor being so endlessly suspicious that we miss out on valuable contributions and ultimately fail to change the practices of a significant sector of global society. Clear thinking begins with seeing for-profit corporations for what they are: for-profit organizations. They are not individuals. A company's behaviors can change dramatically, not just from change in the individuals they employ, but also from changes in leadership, ownership, or business circumstances. These are not hypothetical concerns. In free software, many eyes are now on Red Hat, to see if its behavior toward free software will change as a result of being bought by IBM. We saw Redis Labs switch some of its software from a free license to a nonfree one which ironically prohibits commercial re-use. We've seen Google in the past decide to withhold the source code for Android. We've seen Microsoft switch from publicly calling free software a cancer to saying "We are all in on open source." Companies can commit valuable resources to actions that benefit the free software movement. They can hire developers, sponsor events, fund advocacy and education, and provide infrastructure. Individuals can convince their employers to release code under a free license, and to distribute it with their products. They can even persuade the company to pursue certification under the FSF's Respects Your Freedom program <https://ryf.fsf.org/>. These contributions are meaningful. The challenge is, how do we realize them while avoiding the ways corporations can hurt free software? We need to avoid financial dependency, keep our standards high, and rely on a solid legal framework rather than vague trust. Avoiding financial dependency means making sure our operations as free software projects and organizations won't be seriously harmed by a corporation withdrawing its support due to a disagreement or an ownership change. As an example, while we appreciate and make productive use of all the direct corporate patron support we receive at the FSF, in our last audited financial year, it was less than 3% of our total revenue. To keep standards high, free software projects and organizations should be conservative in what we offer in return for contributions. As with any donation, specific public recognition and appreciation can make sense. But selling conference keynotes, for example, takes the interaction out of the realm of a donation and makes it a transaction. Plus, when some events offer the moon in exchange for sponsorships, it puts more pressure on other events to do so. Relying on a solid legal framework means relying on copyleft, and on explicit, enforceable statements about who holds relevant rights when a contribution is made by the employee of a company. The GNU General Public License (GPL) has enabled decades of constructive engagement, because it requires companies to give back improvements they distribute, under the same terms to everyone, and its terms don't change even with new company leadership or after an acquisition. For certain GNU packages, the FSF gets additional assurances, in the form of copyright assignments and employer disclaimers, to help make sure we can effectively uphold these license terms according to the Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement, and can protect all of the program's users from patent or other ownership claims by contributors' employers. We should stay watchful and firm on these points. Over the last year, I have seen firsthand multiple cases of Google employees encouraging projects to relax their license from the Affero General Public License (AGPL), because of Google's wrong-headed policy forbidding any involvement by employees with AGPL projects. If you receive pressure like this from any company, stay strong and explain how copyleft is in the best interest of all contributors to the project (also, tell us your story at info(a)fsf.org <mailto:info@fsf.org>). A person is capable of moral commitments outside of legal agreements, but accountability for companies works differently. This position isn't based on conspiracy, or on assumptions about corporate employees. It is based on relating to for-profit companies as the kind of entity they are. If we avoid dependency, keep our standards high, and ensure the terms of our work together are copyleft, we can edge the corporate sector ever closer to fully embracing free software, which will in turn help us move all sectors of society in that direction, securing freedom and autonomy for all. /On a personal note, I'll be finishing my term as FSF's executive director before the next issue of the Bulletin is published, so this will be my last article. It's been an honor to appear here, to have had this chance to contribute to important ongoing conversations in this community. We'll be publishing details about the transition to a new executive director on fsf.org. Please continue supporting the work of the FSF's incredible staff, some highlights of which are described in the rest of this issue -- and all the future issues to come!/ //

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Save the date: Digital Sovereignty, Cybersecurity and Human Rights
by Lucas Lasota 16 Jun '21

16 Jun '21

Hello, On 23 June, 14:15 CEST, Lucas Lasota, FSFE Deputy Legal Coordinator and an Research Associate at Humboldt University of Berlin, will moderate a discussion on cybersecurity, human rights, and digital sovereignty together with Katerina Yordanova and Elisabetta Biasin from the KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law. The panel will be held in English. The Humboldt University BBB instance will be used for the event. Entrance is free but access is limited. To receive the link for participation, please send an email to sekretariat.zech(at)rewi.hu-berlin.de Hope to see some of you there! Lucas -- Lucas Lasota - Deputy Legal Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 |(fsfe.org/support)

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Fw: [free-software-melb] FSM Jun 17th - Everyday Hardware for Free Software: Mobile Phones, Laptops, and more
by Jacob Hrbek 12 Jun '21

12 Jun '21

The Free Software Australia group is spreading the importance of libre hardware to the public. I suggest we support them as their actions are aligned with FSF* mission. -------- Original Message -------- On Jun 12, 2021, 12:50, Jacob Hrbek wrote: > I suggest to highlight the importance of projects such as https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/ which is a libre hardware development of POWER9 based notebook. > > Also I suggest highlighting raptor computers and their Talos II, but their development is non-free (schematics, boardviews, etc.. not publicly accesible under four freedom respecting license) even though FSF highlight them in respect your freedom campaign . > > Talking about projects such as kicad used to develop free hardware should also be a priority > > And highlighting the importance of breakout boards such as what pinepen is doing so that the end user can actually interact with the device easily on hardware level to avoid doing lots of jumper wires for programming the chips. > > I also suggest talking about ecology especially in this day of age the libre hardware developers should ensure that their devices are 100% recyclable while giving recycling centers motivation to perform the recycling e.g. using investment silver for traces to get the price for 30 USD per board recycled, but FR4 (the fibreglass holding the components on the PCB) is not great either as it produces waste.. I personally work on glass PCBs but that is not yet ready.. > > and the recent HUGE! win for the right to repair in New York https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SMByk0Oml44 people such as Louis rossman would be probably more then happy to talk about that with you. > > Sent from ProtonMail mobile > > -------- Original Message -------- > On Jun 12, 2021, 10:56, FSM Committee wrote: > >>>> Free Software is owned by its community of users and creators, for the benefit of that community, and of human society in general. Free Software respects the autonomy and privacy of its users — especially important in this age when so many companies base their business on control and surveillance of their customers. >>>> >>>> But all software runs on hardware, and similar considerations apply. In order to maintain control over our software we also need hardware devices that respect the autonomy and privacy of their users. >>>> >>>> This is a vast topic. My goal for this talk is more modest: A tour of some hardware that's friendly to Free Software, in the hope that you might learn about something you can use. My main focus will be on devices for everyday use: mobile phones, laptops, and single-board computers usable as desktop computers or as home servers, some of which I own and can therefore demonstrate live in the talk, and can speak of from my own experience. >>>> >>>> Devices I plan to talk about: Pinephone, Pinebook Pro, SOPINE A64 (from Pine64); Librem5 phone and Librem laptops (from Purism); Odroid-XU4, Odroid-H2+, Odroid Home Cloud devices (from HardKernel); Raspberry Pi 4; and possibly the MNT Reform laptop and GNUBee PC-1. >>>> >>>> Also, if you have some favorite privacy respecting or open hardware you would like to demonstrate or show off, you're welcome to join in at the meeting and do a brief lightning talk about it, especially if you have it at hand for show'n'tell. >>>> >>>> We look forward to seeing you at the online meeting! >>>> >>>> Details >>>> >>>> - Thursday,17th June 2021, 7:30pm-9:00pm >>>> >>>> - Join us at: https://meet.glasswings.com.au/b/fsm-iv6-tce-vpu >>>> >>>> - Short video intro to Big Blue Button (BBB): [https://www.y](https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=uYYnryIM0Uw)[ewtu.be](https://w… >>>> >>>> - Meeting Tips: >>>> >>>> - Be sure to test your audio on the way in. >>>> >>>> - Your mic will be muted when you join the room. >>>> >>>> - Headsets are recommended to reduce any feedback. >>>> >>>> - Code of Conduct: https://freesoftware.org.au/code-of-conduct >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Free-software-melb mailing list >>>> Free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au >>>> https://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-software… >>>> >>>> Free Software Melbourne home page: http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/

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2 discussions from Discourse
by Daniele "Mte90" Scasciafratte 11 Jun '21

11 Jun '21

Hi people, I wasn't subscribed in the mailing list but just on the forum (also if member since few years). I am here to share 2 discussion that I started on Discourse: * https://community.fsfe.org/t/there-is-a-list-of-projects-that-applied-to-th… * https://community.fsfe.org/t/how-to-get-in-touch-with-other-members-of-the-… -- Daniele Scasciafratte - OpenSource MultiVersal Guy daniele.tech <https://daniele.tech> - @Mte90Net <https://twitter.com/Mte90net> - GitHub <https://github.com/Mte90> - Italian Linux Society council member <http://www.ils.org/> - Mozillian <https://people.mozilla.org/p/Mte90> Mozilla Reps, Mozilla TechSpeakers, WordPress Core Contributor <https://profiles.wordpress.org/mte90>, FSFE member <https://fsfe.org/>, LibreItalia member <http://www.libreitalia.it/soci/>, Wikimedia Italia member <https://www.wikimedia.it/> and LUG Rieti founder <http://lugrieti.linux.it/>.

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We help projects adopting licensing best practices
by Max Mehl 09 Jun '21

09 Jun '21

Hi all, Today, we've launched REUSE Booster. This is a programme to help Free Software projects to adopt the REUSE best practices for copyright and licensing. Especially if projects contain multiple licenses or a more complex copyright history, marking this properly can become burdensome. REUSE assists with this, providing very simple guidelines and tools. In the end, you'll have a project whose conditions for re-use and copyright status are clear and unambiguous. The existing documentation and tools make adopting these best practices no rocket science at all. However, some projects might prefer a helping hand, especially if the licensing situation is unclear. These can now register for getting help by the FSFE's legal experts here: https://reuse.software/booster/ The registration is open until 8 July. If you would like to read some more context, please refer to our today's news: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210609-01.html We are looking forward to your project's registration. Please also motivate others to have a look at REUSE. Thank you! Best, Max -- Max Mehl - Programme Manager - Free Software Foundation Europe Contact and information: https://fsfe.org/about/mehl | @mxmehl Become a supporter of software freedom: https://fsfe.org/join

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Re: FSFE has no Freenode presence any more
by kreyren＠rixotstudio.cz 26 May '21

26 May '21

On 5/26/21 6:30 AM, Heiki Lõhmus wrote: > Dear all, > > After announcing our migration to Libera Chat > <https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210525-01.en.html>, our channel was > taken over by network staff along with countless others. This means FSFE > has no presence on Freenode any more. #fsfe, ##fsfe, or any other > channel on the network is not affiliated with us. Cloaks of the form > fsfe/account_name or fsfe/function/account_name on Freenode should not > be trusted. > > If you use IRC, please join us on Libera Chat in > <ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/#fsfe>, where we remain in control of the > FSFE project (#fsfe, #fsfe-* channels should we need them in the future, > and fsfe/* cloaks). > > > Cheers, > -- > Heiki Lõhmus > Vice President > Free Software Foundation Europe > xmpp:repentinus@fsfe.org > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion(a)lists.fsfe.org > https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion > > This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All > participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other: > https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct dissapointed -- - Krey

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FSFE has no Freenode presence any more
by Heiki Lõhmus 26 May '21

26 May '21

Dear all, After announcing our migration to Libera Chat <https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210525-01.en.html>, our channel was taken over by network staff along with countless others. This means FSFE has no presence on Freenode any more. #fsfe, ##fsfe, or any other channel on the network is not affiliated with us. Cloaks of the form fsfe/account_name or fsfe/function/account_name on Freenode should not be trusted. If you use IRC, please join us on Libera Chat in <ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/#fsfe>, where we remain in control of the FSFE project (#fsfe, #fsfe-* channels should we need them in the future, and fsfe/* cloaks). Cheers, -- Heiki Lõhmus Vice President Free Software Foundation Europe xmpp:repentinus@fsfe.org

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GNOME fndn. is actively violating the Freedom 3
by Jacob Hrbek 14 May '21

14 May '21

The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits is being actively violated by GNOME foundation[2] which is causing free software projects to die[1] while supporting the spread of this harmful mentality to the whole open-source field[3]. Why is the FSF network not taking any action agains it? Recommendation: Publicly declare GNOME fndn. non-free developer so that distros such as debian puts their software in `non-free` directory and spread the word about these practices. 1. https://github.com/thestinger/termite 2. https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=679658 3. https://stopthemingmy.app/ -- - Krey

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Apple App store's alternative instance for GPL programs
by Lucas Lasota 11 May '21

11 May '21

Hi, we received an inquiry from a project that want to make their software licensed with GPL for iPad, but they are analyzing not to make the app available on Apple App Store. Would there be an alternative for projects make available their software available for iPad and iPhone users outside the Apple App Store? Looking forward for your suggestions! Thanks a lot, -- Lucas Lasota - Deputy Legal Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 |(fsfe.org/support)

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BEREC workshop on interoperability
by Lucas Lasota 10 May '21

10 May '21

Hi, BEREC is organising a workshop on interoperability from the perspective of end-users in the context of EC's proposal Digital Markets Act. Probably issues concerning router freedom will be tackled. For those who has interest, here is the registration link: https://berec.europa.eu/eng/events/berec_events_2021/281-berec-workshop-on-… Best, -- Lucas Lasota - Deputy Legal Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 |(fsfe.org/support)

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