# Free Software Supporter Issue 124, August 2018 Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 191,868 other activists. That's 1,847 more than last month! ### FSF job opportunity: Copyright and Licensing Associate *From July 9* The FSF seeks a motivated and talented Boston-based individual to be our full-time Copyright and Licensing Associate. This position, reporting to the executive director, works as part of our licensing and compliance team to protect and promote the use of freely licensed works of software and documentation. For this position, we are looking for a strong writer who is familiar with free software copyright licenses, and understands the basics of how software is written, compiled, and distributed. Neither a legal nor computer science education is required, but both would be a plus. Ideal candidates will also have experience with administrative tasks and record keeping. Visit this link to learn how to apply. * ## TABLE OF CONTENTS * A key victory against European copyright filters and link taxes -- but what's next? * Trump's Supreme Court nominee is a major net neutrality opponent * RMS, May 2018: Photos from Brazil and Argentina * How ProPublica Illinois uses GNU Make to load 1.4GB of data every day * *Metal Gear Rising* Mac unplayable because of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) * GNOME Foundation opens recruitment for further expansion * Introducing Alyssa Rosenzweig, intern with the FSF tech team * Sonali's progress on the Free Software Directory, weeks 1-2 * David's progress on the Free Software Directory, internship weeks 2-3 * Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory * LibrePlanet featured resource: Hardware/Workarounds * GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: 15 new GNU releases! * GNU Toolchain update: Support GNU Toolchain * Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events * Thank GNUs! * GNU copyright contributions * 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 Web site. * Subscribe: * Widget: Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at . ### El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la versión en español haz click aqui: **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:** O Free Software Supporter está disponível em Português. Para ver a versão em Português, clique aqui: **Para alterar as preferências do usuário e receber as próximas edições do Supporter em Português, clique aqui:** # ### A key victory against European copyright filters and link taxes -- but what's next? *From July 16 by Danny O'Brien* Against all the odds, but with the support of nearly a million Europeans, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted earlier this month to reject the European Union's [proposed copyright reform](https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/take-a-stand-before-july-5th-contact-your-mep-today) -- including controversial proposals to create a new "snippet" right for news publishers, and mandatory copyright filters for sites that published user uploaded content. Now all MEPs will have a chance in September to submit new amendments and vote on a final text, or reject the directive entirely. To make sure the right amendments pass in September, we need to keep that conversation going. * The FSF was part of the effort to urge Europeans to contact their MEPs and demand that they reject the copyright filters: thank you so much to our supporters who participated, and great work! * ### Trump's Supreme Court nominee is a major net neutrality opponent President Donald Trump has nominated federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a major opponent of net neutrality, to the United States Supreme Court. Kavanaugh argued that net neutrality rules were unconstitutional because they violated the free speech rights of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Access to the tools we use to build, download, and share free software are at risk when net neutrality is no longer there to protect them -- and users -- from ISPs controlling access to those sites. * ### RMS, May 2018: Photos from Brazil and Argentina *From July 2* Free Software Foundation president Richard Stallman (RMS) went on a twelve-city visit to Brazil and Argentina this past May and June. The trip took him to the Federal Institute of São Paulo, in Araraquara, São Paulo, Brazil, where, on May 14th, he gave his speech, "A Free Digital Society." The event was well-attended, with universities and schools from neighboring cities having organized to shuttle their students to it by bus. * ### How ProPublica Illinois uses GNU Make to load 1.4GB of data every day *From July 10 by David Eads* I avoided using GNU Make in my data journalism work for a long time, but this year, I needed to load 1.4GB of Illinois political contribution and spending data every day, and the extract, transform, load (ETL) process was taking hours, so I gave Make another chance. Now the same process takes less than 30 minutes -- it's both practical AND free! * ### *Metal Gear Rising* Mac unplayable because of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) *From June 25 by Astrid Johnson* Proprietary software is an injustice and it breeds more injustice. A recent example: the *Metal Gear Rising* Mac version has suddenly become completely unplayable. The Mac port of the game included DRM that made a constant online connection necessary. Now that the port developer has shut down, there’s no server for the game to contact, rendering it useless. This is a fine example of how any item with DRM is damaged right out of the gate (or, if you prefer, [Defective By Design](https://www.defectivebydesign.org)). Join us to protest this disgrace and others on the [International Day Against DRM](https://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm) on September 18, 2018! * ### GNOME Foundation opens recruitment for further expansion *From July 6* The GNOME Foundation has announced a number of positions it is recruiting for to help drive the GNOME Project and free software, thanks to a generous grant that the Foundation has received. The positions are: development coordinator, program coordinator, devops/sysadmin, and GTK+ core developer. See the link below to apply. * ### Introducing Alyssa Rosenzweig, intern with the FSF tech team *From July 12* Howdy there, fellow cyber denizens; 'tis I, Alyssa Rosenzweig, your friendly local biological life form! I'm a certified goofball, licensed to be silly under the GPLv3, but more importantly, I'm passionate about free software's role in society. I'm excited to join the Free Software Foundation as an intern this summer to expand my understanding of our movement. * ### Sonali's progress on the Free Software Directory, weeks 1-2 *From July 12* The last few weeks have been very enlightening. I learned about MediaWiki extensions, like MobileFrontend, CSS, vim, and other mobile extensions. I installed MobileFrontend, and resolved a few issues I faced regarding HeaderTabs and in-line view. It feels great to have been able to get the basic structure for mobile view by now. * ### David's progress on the Free Software Directory, internship weeks 2-3 *From July 20* I'm working on creating a list of free software extensions for Mozilla-based browsers on the [Free Software Directory](https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page) based on data from [addons.mozilla.org](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/). This is needed because the official extensions repository includes many proprietary extensions. * ### 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.freenode.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Freenode is accessible from any IRC client -- Everyone's welcome! The next meeting is Friday, August 3, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC). Details here: * ### LibrePlanet featured resource: Hardware/Workarounds 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 Hardware/Workarounds, which provides information about how to work around the device features that may be missing when you're using a fully free operating system; the missing components can be worked around to enable a fully free operating system with minimal compromises on usability. 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 . ### GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: 15 new GNU releases! * [autogen-5.18.14](https://www.gnu.org/software/autogen/) * [binutils-2.31.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/) * [coreutils-8.30](https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/) * [gcc-8.2.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/) * [gdbm-1.16](https://www.gnu.org/software/gdbm/) * [gnupg-2.2.9](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnupg/) * [gnu-pw-mgr-2.3.3](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-pw-mgr/) * [gnutls-3.6.3](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/) * [guile-2.2.4](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/) * [guix-0.15.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/) * [libextractor-1.7](https://www.gnu.org/software/libextractor/) * [libredwg-0.5](https://www.gnu.org/software/libredwg/) * [linux-libre-4.17.9-gnu](https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/) * [parallel-20180722](https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/) * [tramp-2.4.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/) For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: . To download: nearly all GNU software is available from , or preferably one of its mirrors from . You can use the URL to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror. This month, we welcome Jan Nieuwenhuizen as maintainer of the new GNU Mes. 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 us at with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments. ### GNU Toolchain update: Support GNU Toolchain Donate to support the GNU Toolchain, a collection of foundational freely licensed software development tools including the [GNU C Compiler collection (GCC)](https://gcc.gnu.org/), the [GNU C Library (glibc)](https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html), and the [GNU Debugger (GDB)](https://sourceware.org/gdb/). * ### 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 . So far, Richard Stallman has the following event this month: * August 27, 2018, Brussels, Belgium, ["Contrôle ton ordinateur pour ne pas être contrôlé!"](https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20180827-brussels) ### Other FSF and free software events * August 2, 2018, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, [Karen Sandler and Molly de Blanc, "That's a free software issue!"](https://www.fsf.org/events/karen-sandler-molly-deblanc-20180802-hsinchucity-debconf) * August 3, 2018, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, [Molly de Blanc and John Sullivan, "The Free Software Foundation, Debian, and the free software movement"](https://www.fsf.org/events/molly-deblanc-john-sullivan-20180803-hsinchucity-debconf) * November 9, 2018, Seattle, WA, [SeaGL 2018](https://www.fsf.org/events/conference-20181109-seagl-seattle) * November 23, 2018, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, [GNU Health Con 2018](https://www.fsf.org/events/event-20181123-laspalmas-gnuhealthcon) ### 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: * Arthur Gleckler * Blue Systems * Boone Gorges * Clint Priest * Daniel Hoodin * David Turner * John Sullivan * Kendall Griffith * Martin Krafft * Mridul Muralidharan * René Genz * Tegonal GmbH * Todd Weaver * Yidong Chong 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 GPL and keep software free. The following individuals have assigned their copyright to the FSF in the past month: * Federico Tedin (GNU) (Emacs) * Siraphob Phipathananunth (GNU) (Emacs) Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your copyright to the FSF. * ### Take action with the FSF! Contributions from thousands of individual 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 (). 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 () and take action on software patents, Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), free software adoption, OpenDocument, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and more. ### Copyright © 2018 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 .