Free Software, Free Society
This group's aim is to encourage the use and adoption of open-source software and development practices.
From the GNU Project's home page:
What is Free Software?
“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”.
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
All You Artists, Musicians, Writers, and Poets Out There...
...dig on Creative Commons. It's a rather awesome project that sets up a correlary to some contemporary copyright laws.If you dig on the legal aspect of your work, or of artistic work in general, then learn more about the whole shebang here.
Re: Generation Gap -- jakethorn's Offspring post
Okay, so I've been struggling with these things for a long time. The generation gap of the 60's, the generation gap today, activism, etc. My parents used to be major hippies, and whereas I feel my mother has kind of lost touch (yay mercedes! marble bathrooms for all!) my pop is really still in tune with it, and understands my frustration with the current 'way of the world.' I spoke to him at length about the 60's. The few things that hit me (and that I wrote down) went as follows:
Petition for Free National Wireless Network
Please sign.
Background:
The federal government is on the verge of turning over a huge portion of our public airwaves to companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast--who will use them for private enrichment instead of the public good.
These newly available airwaves are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revolutionize Internet access -- beaming high-speed signals to every park bench, coffee shop, workplace, and home in America at more affordable prices than current Internet service. Phone and cable companies don't want this competition to their Internet service--they'd rather purchase the airwaves at auction and sit on them.
What do Free Software and the War o(n/f) Terror have in common?
Who knew that Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation and the father of GNU Emacs, would also have a knack for writing protest songs?
Broken Technology
Good morning, everyone. My post today is intended to wake you up to some pretty serious technology issues. The language might get a little technical, but I've tried to keep it as simplified as I possibly can. The story starts after the jump.
Streaming radio could die.
Similar to radio stations, anyone who broadcasts a streaming audio feed with copyrighted content over the Internet is required to pay royalties to the copyright holders. Unlike radio stations, these rates have been contested and disputed for years. Copyright associations (like ASCAP, BMI, and surprise, surprise, the RIAA) maintain that streaming broadcasters should have to pay a rate equal to that of radio stations, while the streaming broadcasters maintain that their smaller sizes and smaller audiences should be taken into account when calculating these rates.
A small victory, but an important one.
Last night, I succeeded in doing something that I've been trying to do for the past 2 months. It may seem minor to you, but it's a big deal for me.
My home computer can now turn itself off automatically, without me pressing the power button. Furthermore, it can now save the contents of its memory and turn itself off, both on my command and automatically after 45 minutes, so that when I press the power button it will restore itself to the same point it was at when I last used it.
This is a big deal for me because my home computer is roughly 10 years old, and runs Ubuntu Linux.
Broken Music
As many of you may well know, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA for short) has long made it a practice to troll file-sharing networks, subpoena internet service providers for customer data, and sue people for hundreds of thousands of dollars on grounds of music piracy with often spurious evidence. They have also thrown the concept of fair use out the window, by requiring restrictive and paranoid technologies of third-party software and equipment manufacturers.
All of this is with the intent of controlling what you as a consumer do with your music, so that they can effectively dictate the terms on which you give them your money.
Software and Community in the 21st Century
Below is a link to a fantastic speech by Eben Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and general counsel for the Free Software Foundation. It is a wonderful and detailed description of how computers and technology have the ability to change our world for the better.