MESSAGE
| DATE | 2026-03-03 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] =?utf-8?q?=5Binfo=40fsf=2Eorg=3A_Free_Software?=
|
----- Forwarded message from Free Software Foundation -----
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2026 04:48:44 -0500
From: Free Software Foundation
To: Ruben Safir
Subject: Free Software Supporter — Issue 215, March 2026
*Please consider adding to your address book, which
will ensure that our messages reach you and not your spam box.*
*Read and share online:
.*
Welcome to the *Free Software Supporter*, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update — being read
by you and 236,380 other activists.
## TABLE OF CONTENTS
* LibreLocal 2026 is in May: Start organizing meetups — we'll help
* App verification isn't Google's only evil
* Maintaining what we love all year long
* Free software praxis: Removing limitations
* MediaGoblin 0.15.0
* Digital Networks Act: The FSFE calls for strong and consistent protection of router freedom
* Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras
* Iowa farmers are leading the fight for repair
* Copilot spills the beans, summarizing emails it's not supposed to read
* No one, including our furry friends, will be safer in Ring's surveillance nightmare
* Microsoft may give your encryption key to law enforcement upon valid request — here's how to keep it safe
* February GNU Emacs news
* Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
* LibrePlanet featured resource: Meetup-guide
* February GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring nineteen new GNU releases: Nano, Pies, and more!
* FSF and other free software events
* Thank GNUs!
* GNU copyright contributions
* Translations of the *Free Software Supporter*
* Take action with the FSF!
View this issue online here:
.
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Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the *Supporter* in French or Spanish.
***
### LibreLocal 2026 is in May: Start organizing meetups — we'll help
*From February 19*
May is LibreLocal month, and it is fast approaching! The FSF invites
free software supporters like you to organize an in-person community
meetup in your area during May to bring people together to swap ideas,
learn from each other, and celebrate free software. In 2025, free
software supporters like you organized twenty-nine LibreLocal meetups
across five continents. This year, let's organize even more meetups!
Organize a meetup, either by yourself or with someone else, and
remember that it doesn't have to be very big or complicated — it can
be as simple as inviting other free software supporters to join you at
your favorite cafe or bar.
*
*
### App verification isn't Google's only evil
*From February 24*
Google has proposed a plan to require Android developers to submit to
onerous restrictions just to be allowed to publish their applications.
These restrictions would impact the publishing of free software on
ethical and freedom-respecting repositories like F-Droid. The FSF
calls for an end to this practice. But, reversal of this proposal is
not enough. We must demand more. Tell Google to support software
freedom in phones, not undermine it.
*
### Maintaining what we love all year long
*From February 17*
February may be over, but celebrating our love for our loved ones, our
communities, and the free software behind much of our digital lives
does not have to end. The free software movement would not be anywhere
near its current size without the vast community of individuals and
organizations building a world where everyone can use, share, study,
and improve the software we rely on every day. This year, we would
like to extend some extra love to the maintainers behind the tens of
thousands of free software projects. If you missed #ILoveFS 2026, it
is not too late — you can still show your appreciation for free
software maintainers and we have a few ideas in the article below to
help you get started.
*
### Free software praxis: Removing limitations
*From January 19*
In this presentation on a practical use of software freedom, GNU/Linux
sysadmin Romeo S. explores how to delve into a codebase written in a
language that you have never used to make the changes that you want.
>From the very basic installation of software to becoming familiar with
the codebase and its language, Romeo takes viewers all the way through
making changes to a program. For those that missed the original talk
at LibrePlanet 2024 (or want to rewatch it), you can now view the
recording of this informative lecture on MediaGoblin.
*
### MediaGoblin 0.15.0
*From February 24 by MediaGoblin*
Just over a year since GNU MediaGoblin's most recent update, 0.15.0
has been released! MediaGolbin, a GNU project fiscally-sponsored by
the FSF, is a free software federated media publishing platform. The
0.15.0 is a relatively small release that resolves installation issues
on Debian Trixie and Bookworm. In addition to these fixes, 0.15.0 also
now features NPM for JavaScript dependencies, removal of lxml
dependency, and added support for sqlalchemy 2.0. Whether you're a
long-time fan of the decentralized platform for hosting and sharing
multimedia content, or this is the first time you've ever heard of
MediaGoblin, give these latest updates a try.
*
*
### Digital Networks Act: The FSFE calls for strong and consistent protection of router freedom
*From February 18 by Free Software Foundation Europe*
The Digital Networks Act (DNA) aims to reform the telecommunications
sector in the European Union (EU), and could ensure router freedom
with amendments in Recital 14, Article 69, and Article 125. Router
freedom is important for user autonomy, competition, and privacy as it
enables users to run free software operating systems on their routers
and modems of choice. Unfortunately, in the most recently passed code
regulating routers, national regulators were allowed to exclude router
freedom from determined network topologies when "objective
necessities" were in place. You can read more about how user freedom
is restricted for some nations in the EU in the article below.
*
### Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras
*From February 23 by Zack Whittaker*
Some people in the United States seem to be fed up with mass
surveillance: across the United States, Flock surveillance cameras are
being dismantled and destroyed. Flock, a surveillance startup and
maker of license plate readers, has been allowing federal authorities
open access to its massive network of nationwide license plate
readers. Flock and their surveillance cameras have faced strong local
and national opposition, from city council members to organized
community efforts. In spite of this opposition, one estimate puts the
total number of Flock cameras near 80,000. People should not feel like
they have to resort to vandalism in order to protect their privacy. If
you are feeling frustrated by mass surveillance, you are not
powerless: there are steps you can take to better protect yourself and
your community listed in our surveillance campaign.
*
*
### Iowa farmers are leading the fight for repair
*From February 23 by Elizabeth Chamberlain*
John Deere is still trying to kill the Right to Repair bill in Iowa,
but Iowa farmers are pushing hard to retake their rights. On February
18, the Iowa House Agriculture Committee advanced a fix, HSB 751, by
an 18-5 vote. That’s quite a large margin, putting Iowa (one of the
country's largest agricultural producers) on a very real path to
become a right to repair state. This is a great sign for Iowa farmers,
but it's also a great sign for free software and everyone who buys
their food. Right to repair grants farmers the power to open up the
machine they rely on to harvest crops and make repairs as needed.
Without right to repair, these farmers (and by connection, anyone who
enjoys the food they grow) are dependent upon the machine proprietors
to make speedy and cost-effective repairs. If you live in Iowa, tell
your Senators you support HSB 751!
*
*
### Copilot spills the beans, summarizing emails it's not supposed to read
*From February 18 by Thomas Claburn*
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat has been summarizing emails labeled
“confidential” even when data loss prevention policies were configured
to prevent it. Though there are data sensitivity labels and data loss
prevention policies in place for email, Copilot has been ignoring
those and talking about secret stuff in the Copilot Chat tab. If users
are aware that Copilot is summarizing confidential emails, is anyone
else able to read these emails? The sad fact is, users can't be sure
one way or another despite assurances from Microsoft because the code
behind Copilot is kept secret. If you or someone you know is disturbed
by this invasion of privacy and currently a Microsoft 365 user, switch
to a freedom-respecting office suite like LibreOffice.
*
*
### No one, including our furry friends, will be safer in Ring's surveillance nightmare
*From February 10 by Beryl Lipton*
In a Super Bowl ad for its Ring doorbell cameras, Amazon previewed a
disturbing future disguised as a heartfelt effort to reunite lost dogs
with their caregivers. In the ad, biometric identification could be
unleashed from consumer devices to identify, track, and locate
anything — human, pet, and otherwise. Many people, including Ring
users, criticized the ad, calling it "creepy" and expressed deep
concern about how data captured by these cameras could be used against
their neighbors. Less than a week later, in response to this public
backlash, Amazon announced the end of its partnership with Flock, the
controversial surveillance start-up. Users do not have control over
any videos and audio captured by their Ring video doorbells, but when
enough people push back, Amazon is forced to listen. You can read more
about Amazon Ring's anti-user practices in the recent *Bulletin*
article below.
*
*
*
### Microsoft may give your encryption key to law enforcement upon valid request — here's how to keep it safe
*From January 29 by Lance Whitney*
Microsoft has confirmed to Forbes that it will provide your BitLocker
recovery key to the FBI if it receives a valid legal order, and if
your BitLocker recovery key is uploaded to the cloud. BitLocker is
marketed by Microsoft as a security feature built into Windows that
encrypts the entire hard drive, with the idea being that your personal
files will be protected should your PC ever be lost or stolen.
Decrypting the hard drive requires a BitLocker recovery key which is
supposed to be kept safe from access by others, and yet Microsoft, by
default, uploads this key to Microsoft's servers. Microsoft is a
proprietary company, and it has no interest in protecting users or
their privacy, no matter how many times it claims to protect users.
Read more about how you can use freedom-respecting encryption to
protect yourself in the article below and why it matters.
*
*
### February GNU Emacs news
*From February 28 by Sacha Chua*
In these issues: using minimal Emacs with Nix, Org Mode 9.8 released, and more!
* [2026-02-02](https://sachachua.com/blog/2026/02/2026-02-02-emacs-news/)
* [2026-02-09](https://sachachua.com/blog/2026/02/2026-02-09-emacs-news/)
* [2026-02-16](https://sachachua.com/blog/2026/02/2026-02-16-emacs-news/)
* [2026-02-23](https://sachachua.com/blog/2026/02/2026-02-23-emacs-news/)
### Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to
discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth
of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version
control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software
Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past
decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and
exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place
in the #fsf channel on Libera.Chat and usually include a handful of
regulars as well as newcomers. Libera.Chat is accessible from any IRC
client — everyone's welcome!
The next meeting is this Friday, March 6 from 12:00 to 15:00 EST
(17:00 to 20:00 UTC). Details here:
*
### LibrePlanet featured resource: Meetup-guide
Every month on the LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful — often one that could use your help. For this
month, we are highlighting Meetup-guide. If you would like to organize
a community meetup but don’t know how to get started and what’s
important, we’ve got you covered! Here are some tips and tricks for
organizing a stellar community meetup. You are invited to help update,
adopt, spread, and improve this important resource.
*
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at .
### February GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring nineteen new GNU releases: Nano, Pies, and more!
Nineteen new GNU releases in the last month (as of February 28, 2026):
* [binutils-2.46.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/)
* [coreutils-9.10](https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/)
* [ed-1.22.5](https://www.gnu.org/software/ed/)
* [g-golf-0.8.3](https://www.gnu.org/software/g-golf/)
* [gawk-5.4.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/)
* [gnutls-3.8.12](https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/)
* [groff-1.24.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/)
* [less-692](https://www.gnu.org/software/less/)
* [libunistring-1.4.2](https://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/)
* [linux-libre-6.19-gnu](https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/)
* [m4-1.4.21](https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/)
* [mediagoblin-0.15.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/mediagoblin/)
* [moe-1.16](https://www.gnu.org/software/moe/)
* [nano-8.7.1](https://www.gnu.org/software/nano/)
* [nettle-4.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/nettle/)
* [octave-11.1.0](https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/)
* [parallel-20260222](https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/)
* [pies-1.9](https://www.gnu.org/software/pies/)
* [units-2.26](https://www.gnu.org/software/units/)
*For a full list with descriptions, please see:
*
For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: .
To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from
. Optionally, you may find faster download
speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing
from the list of mirrors published at
, or you may use
to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
This month, we welcome Collin Funk as a new co-maintainer of GNU Hello
and GNU Time. Thanks and welcome aboard, Collin.
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see
if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
.
If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
.
As always, please feel free to write to me, ,
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
### FSF and other free software events
* March 5-8, 2026, Pasadena, California, United States,
[SCALE](https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x)
* April 24-26, 2026, Bellingham, Washington, United States,
[LFNW](https://lfnw.org/)
* June 14-16, 2026, Prague, Czech Republic, [Flock to
Fedora](https://fedoraproject.org/flock/2026/)
* July 16-18, 2026, Porto, Portugal,
[SECRYPT](https://secrypt.scitevents.org/)
### Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation,
and we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have
donated $500 or more in the last month.
*
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
* Aaron Ball
* Apperjit Dhillon
* Boris Litvin
* Jason Carroll
* Katherine Brady
* Kevin Spiteri
* Podbielniak Giving Fund
* Ramana Kumar
* Sean Mccauliff
* Valerio Poggi
You can add your name to this list by donating at
.
### GNU copyright contributions
Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us
defend the GNU GPL and keep software free. The following individuals
have assigned their copyright to the FSF (and allowed public
appreciation) in the past month:
* Arkady Pogostkin (GNU Coreutils)
* Collin Funk (GNU Autoconf)
* Collin Funk (GNU Time)
* Lee Thompson (GNU Emacs)
* Matthew Lugg (GDB)
* Marten Lienen (GNU Emacs)
* Pavan Mantha (GNU Emacs)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.
*
### Translations of the *Free Software Supporter*
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versión en español haz click aquí:
**Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos
números del *Supporter* en español, haz click aquí:**
Le *Free Software Supporter* est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
**Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines
publications du *Supporter* en français, cliquez ici:**
If you no longer wish to receive the *Free Software Supporter* in
English (but still receive other communications in English), you can
opt out [here][7].
[7]: https://my.fsf.org/node/75
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. If you're already an associate member, you
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----- End forwarded message -----
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
_______________________________________________
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