Blonging for Freedom

2010-05-26-calling-on-mpegla-bluff.en

Wed May 26 03:21:31 2010

Even just before Google released VP8 and WebM as Free Software, MPEG-LA and likely partners started rattling their (dark)light sabers threatening to assemble a patent pool to collect royalties from WebM users, just like they do with MPEG and H.264. Please bear with me while I show why it's nothing but a bluff to scare businesses and people away from the multimedia format that will displace the MPEG-LA golden-egg layer. Unless their FUD campaign succeeds, that is.

It can be taken as a given that MPEG-LA or other patent trolls will attempt to collect royalties from any multimedia formats. What got my attention was a combination of the fanfare, the timing and the wording of the press announcements.

Smart patent trolls don't scare people away from technology covered by their patents: they instead let businesses become dependent on it, and only then do they offer, erhm, protection.

MPEG-LA is doing no such thing. The announcement, echoed to anyone who would listen just as Google contributed WebM to humankind, clearly intends to steer people away from the new competitor. They seem terrified by it, and they should be. If they are yet to assemble a patent pool to cover VP8, right now they have nothing on it, and if On2's and Google's analyses are correct, that's all they will ever have.

Now, what if Google's and others' analyses are wrong? The nature of patents is such that, unless you can show all technology you use is at least 20 years old, you may find yourself at the wrong end of a patent lawsuit. It doesn't matter how many patents or patent licenses you've got, you're always at risk that someone else holds a patent that covers some technology your business depends on. Even if you did plenty of patent reseach, patents can be granted after your research, and if they were applied for early enough, you still lose.

This is just as true for WebM as it is for H.264 and any other codecs that MPEG-LA claims to control. Even if MPEG-LA offered to idemnify or hold harmless any of its licensees should a patent holder outside the pool initiate litigation, they can't possibly promise to obtain a license for the licensees. Any such patent holder could just decide not to license the patent at all.

What kind of stupid patent holder would do such a nonsensical thing?, you might ask. Well, what if Google held a patent that read on H.264, and that wasn't in MPEG-LA's pool?, I might respond.

I say we call on MPEG-LA's bluff. Worst case, if they succeed in pooling patents to cover VP8 and WebM, we'll be no worse off than with H.264.

So blong...

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2010-05-21-fsfla-back-up.en

Fri May 21 22:07:27 2010

Yay! FSFLA.org was down for a bit longer than two weeks, because of a disk failure, but it's now up and running again.

Thanks to FSFE's sysadmins for their hard work in bringing FSFE's and FSFLA's servers back up, at a new location where physical access to the servers won't be a problem!

We now return to our regular programming...

So blong...

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2010-02-14-bye-bye-google.en

Sun Feb 14 07:02:32 2010

Dear Google,

We've been together for several years, but I must say I've thought of breaking up with you more and more often lately. Your recent public betrayal got me to decide I don't want to be involved with you any more. I realize it's Valentine's Day, and also Carnival, but... what did you expect me to do? Trust is something we work hard to build over the years, but lose in a split second.

I have long granted you access to some private parts of my life. At first, it was just archiving public mailing lists. Then, you helped me keep in touch with friends that I might otherwise never see again. Then you started listening on my conversations, but even that was sort of ok, for I had agreed with it, hadn't I? You always said I could trust you, and I did. It didn't look like you'd share the private information I shared with you, so trust built over the years.

But the other day I met a side of yours I didn't know, saying on TV how much you valued privacy: that if there was something I didn't want anyone else to know, I shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Still, I thought that was a simple mistake of yours, and that I could still trust you, so I carried on with you.

And then Buzz hit me. That was too much.

As far as I know, I depend on my privacy right now for my physical safety, like Harriet Jacobs, or for the performance of my job, like journalists who had their sources exposed when Buzz was pushed upon them.

But, like trust, privacy is something that takes dedication over the years, and a single mistake will undo a lot of hard work. I don't want to wait for the day I realize I need my privacy back.

Google, I lost the trust I had in you, but I don't think it's too late for me to avoid losing also my privacy. I'm closing our shared accounts, I'm emptying the drawers you saved for me in your closet, I'm destroying the keys after locking the doors, and I won't grant you access to my private parts any more.

I'm also telling all my friends that I broke up with you, and why. I'll also invite them to keep in touch with me through other means.

For instant messaging, I'm reachable at lxoliva@jabber.org and lxoliva@jabber-br.org. Even those who choose to remain with you can register this alternate address in GTalk, although I'd much rather they registered at jabber.org using some Free Software implementation of the XMPP instant messaging protocol adopted by GTalk, like Pidgin.

For social networking, I'm sticking to the PSL-Brasil network, that runs Noosfero, and gNewBook, built upon elgg. Don't worry, Google, I'm not joining Facebook, that would be at least as stupid as remaining on Orkut.

For microblogging, I'm sticking to identi.ca, that runs the StatusNet.

Pidgin, Noosfero, elgg and StatusNet are all Free Software. They respect the essential freedoms of its users, even those users across the net. I know I'm entitled to share them with my friends, adapt them to my own needs, install my own copies and set up my own interoperable networks if I want to, and more. That's unlike other microblogging, social networking and instant messaging services. And, what's more, I'm in love with their developers.

As for e-mail, I use lxoliva@fsfla.org for Free Software matters and oliva@lsd.ic.unicamp.br for other stuff... E-mail is supposed to be private, so I wouldn't recommend using any third party service, even if it's built on Free Software. It's not hard to set up one's own web mail service; I manage myself the servers of both personal addresses I use. They don't have an army of your employees behind them, but given the Facebook employee interview, such an army sounds more like a curse than a blessing.

Google, if you need, you know where to find me and, if you didn't, there are other search engines out there that may know. The same goes to all of my friends. I'll see you all around.

So blong,

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2009-09-21-linux-2.6.31-libre1.en

Tue Sep 22 02:50:25 2009

Oops. Linux-2.6.31-libre wouldn't build if you enabled the usbdux drivers in staging. Non-Free firmware name deblobbing error. Fixed in 2.6.31-libre1.

Aside from that, there are changes to the deblobbing of Radeon, R128 and MGA drivers, in preparation for the removal of the non-Free firmware from the drivers proper, and some improvements contributed by Trisquel's Rubén Rodríguez Pérez to make it easier to run the deblob scripts on a kernel that's already partially deblobbed, or for a different variant or base release.

Along with 2.6.31-libre1, 2.6.27.34-libre2 and 2.6.30.7-libre were released, and binary packages for Freed-ora 12 testing are underway.

http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/

Be Free!

So blong...

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2009-09-18-sugar-labs.en

Tue Sep 22 02:10:52 2009

Edit Link Top

Sugar Labs and FSF announce joint efforts to promote learning platform for children

Sugar Labs and Free Software Foundation Celebrate Software Freedom Day, Announce Joint Efforts to Promote the Sugar Learning Platform for Children Worldwide

CAMBRIDGE, MA, September 18, 2009 – Sugar Labs, nonprofit provider of the Sugar Learning Platform for children, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which promotes computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs, have announced joint efforts to collaborate and promote Sugar on the occasion of Software Freedom Day, September 19th. The FSF will host an event in Boston featuring Sugar Labs Executive Director Walter Bender, FSF president Richard Stallman, and other speakers. Peter Brown, FSF's executive director, said, "The Sugar Learning Platform is fast becoming an essential route to computer user freedom for children around the world. The international free software movement is getting behind Sugar, and we want to use Software Freedom Day as an opportunity to help draw community attention, developer resources, and external funders to the important work going on at Sugar Labs."

The FSF has upgraded its hosting services support of Sugar Labs to keep pace with its growth. As part of the ongoing relationship, Bernardo Innocenti, a member of the Sugar Labs Oversight Board, is working at the FSF offices. Mr. Innocenti stated: "The FSF and Sugar Labs are pursuing distinct, but interdependent goals; Free (as in Freedom) Software is a fundamental part of globally accessible education, and good education enables critical thought, a pre-requisite for appreciating the value of Freedom."

Sugar is a global project. Translated into 25 languages, it is used in classrooms in 40 countries by over 1 million children as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) nonprofit program. Sugar's simple interface, built-in collaboration, and automatic backup through each student's Journal have been designed to interest young learners. The recently released Sugar on a Stick (SoaS) project brings Sugar to even more children, allowing young learners to keep a working copy of Sugar on a simple USB stick, ready to start up any PC or netbook with the child's environment and data. Pilot projects in schools with Sugar on a Stick are underway in Boston, Berlin, and elsewhere. SoaS is free software available under the General Public License (GPL) and is available for download without charge at sugarlabs.org.

According to Walter Bender, "Sugar is running on over 99% of all of the OLPC-XO laptops around the world because governments prefer its quality, openness, built-in collaboration, and easy localization to indigenous languages. Teachers and students are exercising their freedom by modifying and improving Sugar and its Activities. With Sugar on a Stick, access to Sugar is even more widespread."

For example, Uruguay has distributed a Sugar-equipped OLPC laptop to every student in the country. Alexandre Oliva of FSF's sister organisation Free Software Foundation Latin America (http://www.fsfla.org) said, "I was amazed when I first saw Sugar in action in Peru two years ago; shortly thereafter, my daughter tasted Sugar and loved it. She's going to elementary school next year, and I'm very happy she can now easily carry Sugar with her, and share it with her friends. Myself, I'm going to spread its freedom into as many schools as I can." Karsten Gerloff, President of Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfe.org), added: "Education and Free Software are both all about sharing knowledge. Through projects like Sugar, young people around the world can discover the creativity that freedom makes possible. Together with the political backing that FSFE's Edu-Team and others are building, Sugar puts Free Software in its rightful place in education."

Sugar Labs relies on the efforts of software developers who donate their skills to the project. Mr. Bender continued, "We are looking for developers with experience in GNU/Linux, Python and/or Gtk+ for contributing to the Sugar shell and educational Activities for children. We also need testers, experienced packagers, and educators willing to contribute their ideas for Sugar in the classroom."

Republished joint FSF and Sugar Labs press release, with permission.

So blong...

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2009-09-12-linux-2.6.31-libre.en

Sat Sep 12 18:38:50 2009

Linux-libre 2.6.31 is available. Go get it at one of the mirrors listed at http://fsfla.org/selibre/linux-libre/

http://linux-libre.fsfla.org will be down tomorrow (2009-09-13), moving to a newer and faster machine. Thanks, FSF!

So blong...

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2009-06-12-linux-2.6.30-libre.en

Sat Jun 13 00:19:28 2009

Wow, I didn't quite expect linux-2.6.30 to come out this week. I hadn't been able to get my hands onto the 2.6.30 rcs through the entire cycle, save for a few hours circa rc2 or so.

Lucky for me, on the 9th I got a time slot to fix a few deblobbing bugs in earler releases of Linux-libre, and when I was about done with it, Linus published 2.6.30. Turns out deblobbing a release is so much easier that deblobbing the rc patches. Thank you, Linus! :-)

Anyhow... With 2.6.30 out of the way, I guess I'll go back to trying to speed up deblob-check, and to back-port the gen3 deblobbing machinery to 2.6.26 and earlier.

But this will probably have to wait until I finish writing a couple articles, preparing and delivering one new speech and some GCC patches, all before the end of June.

So blong...

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2009-05-11-isca-anzol-rede.en

Mon May 11 18:37:49 2009

The second issue of Revista Espírito Livre (Free Spirit Magazine), with the Portuguese version of the article The Bait, The Hook and The Wide Net, about the risks of computing in the cloud for schools of users, in a fishing allegory.

So blong...

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