[en] FSFLA's GNUsletter - Issue #22

Jue Mayo 3 14:28:20 UTC 2007

FSFLA's GNUsletter
Issue #22
May, 2007
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/161

1. Editorial: Freedom festivals
2. FSFLA's constitution approved
3. FSFLA joins the international front against DRM
4. FSFLA frees the Lion
5. Events
6. Farewell

== 1. Freedom festivals (*)

Participating in a Free Software installation festival is
entertaining, and for many it is the first step to be part of our
large community.  It is important that these new participants of the
community learn a little more about Free Software, the principles that
motivate us and the philosophy that gets us together.  And also about
the problems that we face.

***Free Software is a matter of freedom.***  It is software that
respects your individual freedom and that of the community around you.
Free Software is defined by 4 basic freedoms: to use, study, adapt,
and distribute the software, with or without modifications.  These
freedoms are essential for living together in a society based on
sharing of the knowledge, the mutual aid and the equality of
opportunities.  Any software that respects the 4 fundamental freedoms
is Free Software.  Unlike many people think, ***Free Software is not
software licensed only under the GPL***.  There are many Free
licenses.

When we use Free Software, we accept the participation in this
community in equal conditions.  It is exactly the opposite of what
happens when we accept proprietary software licenses.  These
***proprietary licences*** curtail your freedoms, and cause our
society's basic values of ***sharing*** to be seen as ***something
undesirable***.

Accepting a license of proprietary software, we are accepting ***to
use*** a knowledge that "belongs" to ***somebody who does not want to
permit us to learn***.  Our access to this knowledge is limited
precisely to create a form of ***control over us***.  These licenses
do not respect your freedoms, and also they do not respect the people
around you, imposing a division of what can and cannot be known by you
and your friends, creating a hierarchy in access to knowledge.

Some of these licenses also explicitly ***prohibit*** you from sharing
this program to your friends, turning ***life in society*** into
something ***egoistic*** and nearly impossible.  Who has never loaned
a book or a magazine to a friend?

Ok, you might now be thinking: "but this Free Software thing is
getting to be quite complicated!"  You have no idea.  Besides our
declared enemies, there are other dangers harder to pinpoint.

Given the growing amount and quality of Free Software available, we're
beginning to see more and more systems that we call hybrid.  These
systems have the distinguishing feature of putting together both
non-Free and Free Software.  For example, some GNU/Linux distributions
publish proprietary software (including firmware) as part of a system
primarily composed of Free Software.  They often fail to warn users
clearly about this situation.  This practice hides some dangers in
causing some users to ***think they are living in freedom*** while
they actually aren't.  And it is quite likely that they will only find
that out when they need the freedoms, and then it may be too late.

Fortunately, thanks to hard work by Free Software activists, we're on
track to eliminate these dangers.  Examples are initiatives to create
***100% Free GNU/Linux distributions*** such as gNewSense (Free
Ubuntu), BLAG (Free Fedora) and Ututo, an independent, Latin American
distribution.  Recently, Ubuntu announced it is going to have a 100%
Free alternative to its current hybrid forms.  We must remember that,
once it's installed, it can be hard work to identify and remove the
software whose license does not respect our freedom, especially for
newbies.
http://www.gnu.org/links/links.html

It is always important to remember that living in freedom is not like
getting a finished gift.  ***Freedom requires maintenance***, and also
commitment.  Every day the interests in limiting the individual and
collective freedoms grow, as a means to control and to profit from
this position of control.  Therefore deciding to live in freedom is
deciding to ***commit to a day-to-day struggle*** for not acceptance
of the path that may even appear to be easier in the short term, but
that in the long run may be too costly.  Not only for you, but for all
the people.  And not only in the software field.

If some (perhaps unfortunately many) people do not realize the danger
of accepting a proprietary license in exchange for ensuring some
functionality to their systems.  These people unintentionally form
***critical mass*** that, by giving up part of their freedoms,
contributes to weakening the task of defending them.  This attitude
doesn't aid the understanding of the principles of Free Software by
new community members, it debilitates our requests before abusive
vendors and, in general, before an industry that's as powerful as it
is disregarding of ethics in its development.

By reducing the importance of these freedoms for the sake of practical
aspects, it ends up more difficult to emphasize that ***freedom is
something essential***.  And we all know how essential it is.
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/139#1

FSFLA would like to request everyone who organizes and participates in
install fests to ponder on our motivations, and to help us take up
this commitment and day-to-day struggle for freedom.

(*) Adapted from the article published in:
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/texto/flisol2007

== 2. FSFLA's constitution approved

FSFLA board members approved, during the International Free Software
Forum (FISL8.0), FSFLA's new constitution.  It's been in effect since
April 13, and FSFLA wishes to acknowledge all the people who
participated and contributed to the processes of drafting and
translating the text.  You can read the full Constitution at:
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/134

== 3. FSFLA joins the international front against DRM

FSFLA has become one of the contributing organizations of the platform
DRM.info (http://drm.info).  Along with FSFLA, also forming the
organization are: Electronic Information for Libraries, Consumer
Project on Technology, iCommons, among others, in this platform
created and maintained by our sister organization Free Software
Foundation Europe, with the goal of informing people about the dangers
of DRM.  To join our anti-drm group, subscribe the mailing list at:
http://www.fsfla.org/mailman/listinfo/anti-drm

== 4. FSFLA frees the Lion

On April 25, FSFLA completed the process of liberation of the program
IRPF2007, originally distributed by Receita Federal (Brazil).  This
work enabled the submission of the first income tax electronic
declaration in Brazil prepared exclusively with Free Software.  More
information at our announcement:
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/157

== 5. Events

Alexandre Oliva, Pedro Rezende and Fernanda G Weiden participated in
the Free Software International Forum (FISL), offering speeches and
running a booth.  We wish to thank the FISL organizers for the space,
to people who helped at our booth, particularly Ines Weiden,
Alessandra Domingues, Eder Marques and Glauber Costa.  With help from
these people, FSFLA raised about R$6.000,00 (six thousand reais) in
donations.  Thank you very much!

Alexandre Oliva and Pedro Rezende participated in the Latin-American
Free Software Install Fest - FLISoL, in Campinas and Brasília,
respectively.  FSFLA offered to organizers some written material and
also a vídeo/lecture by Alexandre Oliva, both about the fundamentals
of our community.  The material is available at:
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/texto/flisol2007/

We wish to thank them for the space opened for FSFLA, and also to
everyone who made donations during the event.  Thank you very much!

On May 2nd, Alexandre Oliva will present the speech "Free Software and
the Matrix" at USP-EACH (AKA Eastern campus), in São Paulo.

Alexandre Oliva will participate in ESLAM - Amazon Free Software
Meeting, that will take place on May 25-26 in Manaus.  He will present
the speeches "FSFLA's Coolest Actions" and "Free Software and the
Matrix".

FSFLA confirmed formal endorsement for the event Séptimas Jornadas
Regionales de Software Libre, to take place on August 7-11 in Córdoba,
Argentina.
http://jornadas.grulic.org.ar/?set_language=en

== 6. Farewell

Enrique Chaparro is no longer a member of the FSFLA board.  We wish to
thank him for his contribution and dedication throughout these more
than 2 years, and wish him good luck in his projects.

Copyright 2007 FSFLA

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