Greek advocates of free and open source software are warning that the Greek government is going to waste millions of euro on proprietary software licenses for the country's schools. They are calling on the Ministry of Education to cancel its latest procurement.
Read more »FOSS groups warn Greece will waste millions on school software
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Category: Government Tags:
Guide to DRM-free Living gets a big update!
http://www.defectivebydesign.org –
We've just finished a major update of the Guide to DRM-free Living with dozens of new places to get ebooks, movies, and music without DRM and a page of worst-offenders. There have been some exciting developments in the realm of DRM opposition on ebooks, like Tor/Forge dropping DRM on ebooks, and we wanted to spruce up the guide to reflect all the progress that's been made.
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German government should open source its software, committee advises
http://www.computerworlduk.com –
A government committee recommends a change in German law to enable public administrations to make their software available as free and open source. The current law prohibits governments from being part of the development process in the free software community.
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Stop the inclusion of proprietary licenses in Creative Commons 4.0
http://freeculture.org –
FreeCulture.org (Students for Free Culture) has just published a thorough and detailed post calling for the retirement of the non-free clauses, NoDerivatives (ND) and NonCommercial (NC).
Read more »Microsoft Threat Management Gateway blocks donate.fsf.org under the category of "Gambling"
http://www.reddit.com –
From Reddit user rebbsitor, "After reading about RMS having his laptop stolen, I clicked the link to donate.fsf.org. I'm at work at the moment, and our IT department uses Microsoft Threat Management Gateway to prevent access to certain types of sites.
Read more »Skype with care – Microsoft is reading everything you write
http://www.h-online.com –
Anyone who uses Skype has consented to the company reading everything they write. The H's associates in Germany at heise Security have now discovered that the Microsoft subsidiary does in fact make use of this privilege in practice. Shortly after sending HTTPS URLs over the instant messaging service, those URLs receive an unannounced visit from Microsoft HQ in Redmond.
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Category: Opposition Tags:
Don’t let the myths fool you: the W3C’s plan for DRM in HTML5 is a betrayal to all Web users.
http://freeculture.org –
The Free Culture Foundation has posted a thorough response to the most common and misinformed defenses of the W3C's Extended Media Extensions (EME) proposal to inject DRM into HTML5. The FCF counters the three most common myths by unpacking some quotes which explain that 1.) DRM is not about protecting copyright. That is a straw man.
Read more »Hispalinux takes Microsoft to EC re UEFI Secure Boot
http://www.linuxbsdos.com –
Hispalinux’s complaint called the implementation of UEFI Secure Boot an “obstruction mechanism” and “a de facto technological jail for computer booting systems.”
Read more »LibrePlanet software freedom conference announces line-up
http://www.fsf.org –
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced the line-up for its upcoming LibrePlanet 2013 conference, to be held in Cambridge, MA at the Harvard Science Center on March 23-24.
Read more »Freedom on Buses, Computers and Everywhere
http://www.linuxadvocates.com –
Today, I watched the president of the USA speak at the installation of the statue of Rosa Parks. She was an icon of the US movement for civil rights when I was just a child. In the world of computers we have our own Rosa Parks, Richard Stallman, who expanded the concept of freedom to include running the software, examining the software, modifying the software, and distributing the software.
Read more »Matching grants for EFF donations until Tuesday
https://supporters.eff.org –
Every dollar you give will provide two dollars to help EFF! Thanks to bonus challenge grants, donations up to $158,000 will get a 2x matching grant until Tuesday.
Read more »Category: Community Tags:
Avoid being locked in as Microsoft turns off Windows Messenger
http://fsfe.org –
On April 8, Microsoft will discontinue its Windows Messenger service. All current users will be switched to Skype. The Free Software Foundation Europe advises former users of Windows Messenger to take this as an opportunity to embrace Open Standards such as Jabber (XMPP) instead of switching to Skype.
Read more »A call to arms for obfuscated bridges
https://lists.torproject.org –
Fresh obfuscated Tor bridges are needed more than ever, since they are the only way for people to access Tor in some areas of the world (like China, Iran and Syria). But it is not the same as an exit node.
Read more »Category: High End Tags:
A Vision of the Future of FOSS Collaboration
http://www.linuxadvocates.com –
Participation and open access are key themes in Free software. It encourages dynamic community structures that blur the line between technology consumer and creator. This has been so successful that echoes of it can be found throughout the technology world from mobile app user engagement to game community content creation.
Read more »Say it ain’t so, ETNO: Dangerous proposal a threat to net neutrality
https://www.accessnow.org –
WCIT delegates will approve changes to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). One of the most controversial proposals was submitted this past June by ETNO (the European Telecommunications Network Operator's association), an ITU sector member, which if passed, would establish a tiered service model for internet traffic.
Read more »Category: Government Tags:
