44404865
submission
kxra writes:
Defective by Design, the Free Software Foundation's campaign against DRM has just released a new graphic to mark DRM-free works on the web. The new iteration of the DRM-free label quickly communicates the DRM-free status of files, increases in value as more distributors adopt the label, and adds value to being DRM-free by linking to an informational page about DRM. The logo is already in use by O'Reilly, Momentum, the Pragmatic Bookshelf, and Magnatune. It is available in a few different styles with source files under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
44400241
submission
kxra writes:
The EFF and FSF are pushing a Defective by Design petition to tell the W3C and it's member organizations that "We don't want the Hollyweb", and they aim to have 50,000 signers by May 3rd. Even after the EFF published a comprehensive breakdown of why the Encrypted Media Extensions proposal puts the web as we know it at stake, a lot of myths are still floating around about how this could bring about a timely death for proprietary plugins like Silverlight and Flash. A detailed FAQ on Reddit explains that this proposal would only serve to put the restrictive functionality of those proprietary plugins into the HTML5 standard itself, and with that comes the very same proprietary software requirements, platform incompatibilities, and device limitations. This is toxic to the web regardless of how easily-cracked DRM is. You can also send a personal message to the W3C directly.
44165527
submission
kxra writes:
Do you have a federated jabber instant messaging account that never gets responses from Google accounts anymore? Or do you have a Gmail account that a friend has been unable to invite from their 3rd party Jabber account? The Free Software Foundation reports, "Google users can still send subscription requests to contacts whose accounts are hosted elsewhere. But they cannot accept incoming requests. This change is akin to Google no longer accepting incoming e-mail for @gmail.com addresses from non-Google domains." This sounds like something Facebook would try in order to gain even tighter control over the network, but they never even federated their Jabber service to begin with. According to a public mailing list conversation, Google is doing this as a lazy way to handle a spam problem.
43483469
submission
kxra writes:
The Free Software Foundation's annual LibrePlanet conference is an event at the intersection of software, social justice, and media studies. They have announced the conference and a new jabber server for associate members at the same time. This years conference seems to be the most broad and diverse yet, with a lineup of speakers from various backgrounds between programming, activism, and academia.
42876507
submission
kxra writes:
The Free Software Foundaton, Students for Free Culture, and the Ada Initiative have all posted a radical statement in support of a new group for women of color and queer people of color in free software and free culture. The Empowermentors Collective is an "effort to identify, expose, and confront crucial issues within our communities; to bridge our movement with our contemporaries in the critical intersectional analysis of oppression, hierarchy, and domination; and to develop our own philosophy at the cutting-edge of feminist, queer, critical race, and cyborg theory." They explain the imperative for this effort by saying: "We recognize the need to address deep-seated cultural norms [...] which, under the guise of openness, have excused and perpetuated alienating behavior. [...] We cannot afford to be an inward-facing movement.
42790335
submission
kxra writes:
The Free Software Foundation and Students for Free Culture have both posted a radical statement in support of a new group for women of color and queer people of color in free software and free culture. The Empowermentors Collective is an "effort to identify, expose, and confront crucial issues within our communities; to bridge our movement with our contemporaries in the critical intersectional analysis of oppression, hierarchy, and domination; and to develop our own philosophy at the cutting-edge of feminist, queer, critical race, and cyborg theory." They explain the imperative for this effort by saying: "We recognize the need to address deep-seated cultural norms [...] which, under the guise of openness, have excused and perpetuated alienating behavior. [...] We cannot afford to be an inward-facing movement."
