« It took me almost five and a half years, from the first class to my final defense, but here it is: my dissertation. Maybe one day I’ll write about the emotional and personal cost of a PhD but for now, I’ll try to revel in the relief of completion. Comments, as always, welcome! And of course, it is copyleft. So share and share alike (but give credit where credit’s due!)...
Read more »Hackers & Global Justice: Another World is Possible - by Kate Milberry
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iPad DRM endangers our rights
«...This past year, we have seen how human rights and democracy protestors can have the technology they use turned against them. By making a computer where every application is under total, centralized control, Apple is endangering freedom to increase profits...»
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“The US Censors Syrian Internet,” By Idaf
"Sourceforge just became the latest US-based entity to censor Syria along with five other countries. Despite being one of the leading proponents of Free Software, Sourceforge has succumbed to pressure from the US government to deny access to its products to millions of people.
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FSFE honoured with Theodor Heuss Medal - "trendsetting organisation"
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) receives this year's Theodor Heuss Medal for its extraordinary work for equitable participation in the information society. Since 2001 FSFE has been committed to the freedom to use, investigate, modify and redistribute software in all parts of society and politics.
Read more »Why IPv6 is Essential for Your Freedom
Will IPv4 exhaustion reduce the original Internet to the "traditional mass-media" model, strictly separating the participants into “publishers” of content, and mere "consumers" of it? How do we ensure that all users of the Internet will always be free to directly communicate and cooperate with each other?
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Video, Freedom And Mozilla
"My LCA talk on Friday was about why open video is critically important to free software, and what Mozilla is doing about [...] So why doesn't Mozilla just license H.264 (like everybody else)? One big reason is that that would violate principles of free software that we strongly believe in.
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Patents or Life
Contradiction between values of patents (mortality) and values of sharing (morality)
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Why Free Software matters for Society (draft)
A short explanation for beginners about the importance of Free Software even if they are not able hackers or programers. (Version 2 of, "Democracy and Hacking")
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The GNU GPL and the American Way - Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project - February 28, 2001
"Defenselessness is not the American Way. In the land of the free and the brave, developers defend their freedom with the GNU General Public License [...] The Free Software Movement was founded in 1984, but its inspiration comes from the ideals of 1776: freedom, community, and voluntary cooperation. This is what leads to free enterprise, to free speech, and to free software. "
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A free software conference or an open source conference?
"...The free software movement is primarily concerned with building and defending software freedom—the freedom to run, share, and modify published computer software. This is an ethical consideration borne out of considering how we ought to treat one another using computers and software [...] Calling attention to the name "GNU" helps draw attention to the cause of freedom and cooperation..."
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It’s Free as in Freedom
A rebuttal to Dana Blankenhorn, who redefines "FOSS" in a very unhelpful way
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"Defining the contours of freedom" - Free Software Foundation
«Great, great video from Lawrence Lessig about the importance of the free software movement to society and culture as a whole. Lessig also wrote the forward to Richard Stallman's book "Free Software, Free Society" and it's one of the many things that helped me see the big picture where free software is concerned.»
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Strengthen the Commons
"...They form the social fabric of a free society. Commons do not belong to anyone individually nor do they belong to no one. Different communities, from the family to global society, always create, maintain, cultivate, and redefine commons. ... They produce free software and free knowledge, and create films, music, and images to be shared.
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Give me that Microsoft Religion - NOT!
It looks like Microsoft has now become a cult or a religion. Microsoft worshipers troll the net, trying to stop blasphemy (criticism of the company or it's products).
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Five things Free Software has taught me
I’ve been in Free Software for a few years now and learned a ton from it. Sure, I learned how to use new types of software, became efficient on them, and honed my programming skills, but stopping there would be missing the point. Free software has so much more to offer than just computing and technical benefits.
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