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FSF Opens Nominations For Free Software Awards 2012

jrepin writes "The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU Project today announced the opening of nominations for the 15th annual Free Software Awards. The Free Software Awards include the Award for the Advancement of Free Software and the Award for Projects of Social Benefit. The Award for the Advancement of Free Software is presented annually to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software. The Award for Projects of Social Benefit is presented to the project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free software movement, in a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society in other aspects of life."

9 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. 1 hour later, only 2 comments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apparently, nobody gives a shit.

    1. Re:1 hour later, only 2 comments by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: 2
      I guess not all subjects inspire comments. It is still a worthy bit of news though, and I'm sure it's being read. Have an adage or two if it helps:

      "The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear..."

      - Backtrack Linux

      If an article breaches the firehose and nobody leaves a comment, does it make a thought?

      - Penurious Tzu

      --
      Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
  2. TOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As always, TOR would be up there for me, as would the Byzantium Mesh Network and Freedombox Projects.
    People often talk about privacy technology, and fantasise about file sharing and mesh applications, Those few who
    bite the bullet and actually develop and push these technologies into the hands of those who most need them are to
    be commended.

  3. Re:Not very free by andrew3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not sure if it's worth replying, because I doubt I'll convince you. But I shall try.

    The GPL gives you Freedom 0, to run the software as you wish. In fact, the GPL states in section 9:

    You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run a copy of the Program. [...]

    Freedom 1: freedom to read understand the source code. Again, there are no restrictions on this, AFAIK.

    Freedom 2: freedom to modify the software. No restrictions on this, AFAIK (as long as you don't distribute).

    Freedom 3: freedom to distribute and create derivative works. There are some restrictions on how you do this. For example, you must clearly state the license and derivative works must be licensed under the GPL.

    If you like permissive licensing, I won't blame you. There are a lot of free software licenses that are free software licenses as well. But a lot of them have restrictions as well, e.g. acknowledgement in sources. Only software in the public domain has no restrictions, and provides "true" freedom according to your definition.

    Going back to the subject, you might be interested to know that NetBSD cofounder and OpenBSD project leader Theo de Raadt was awarded the Advancement For Free Software in 2004. The advancement of free software has nothing to do with the GPL.

  4. Re:Not very free by byornski · · Score: 2

    Ridiculous rubbish........ 7,000m/380m = 5%, not 0.05%. Please try to be sensible with your numbers. That is one in twenty people is a native English speaker.

  5. Re:Not very free by bmo · · Score: 3, Informative

    > However it seems to me that using the GPL for the freedom of the peoples are shortsighted at best.

    Say what?

    >rant on english only
    >eupl

    Is written with European Union Law in mind.

    To turn your argument around and do some substitution, the Eurocentrism of the EUPL is a bad thing, especially since it doesn't apply to Brazil, Philippines or China. How come the EUPL isn't translated into Brazilian Portuguese, Tagalog, or Cantonese? The European Commission certainly has more resources than the FSF, so why don't they do it?

    Your argument is specious and hypocritical.

    > In fact, the FSF treat non-english speaker as second-class human,
    > Anglocentrism link

    The reasons given in the FSF link you gave do not match up with the definition of Anglocentrism. Indeed, the first sentence in the FSF link you gave indicates that in a perfect world translations would be desirable, but due to the properties of legal language being much like a programming language and laws in different countries being, you know, different, it is not always feasible or reasonable to do so. Indeed, to make another real-world comparison, the Treaty of Tripoli is written in Arabic. An English translation presented to the US Congress was not the official one - it was there for explanation. The official ratified treaty is the Arabic version and the US is bound to it. There are other translations, like the Italian version, but that's not binding either.

    But not only that, to get back to the original article and to get really on topic, the requirements for winning are not that you must be a GPL supporter. Indeed, Theo de Raadt is the most angry and vociferous troll against the GPL, yet he's won. Other winners don't necessarily have English as a first or third language. Miguel's native language is Spanish. So there goes your other claim of Anglocentrism.

    You are just a troll here to bash the GPL and push Eurocentrism. Not only Eurocentrism, but European Union Centrism.

    --
    BMO

  6. Just Voted... by firewrought · · Score: 2
    ...not in the FSF thing, but by donating cash to several open source projects I use daily.

    Not large amounts, mind you, just $5 or $10 to some small projects and $20 each to a few large projects. I'm not a very generous person and this is something I should have been doing years ago, but I would like to get in the habit of routinely kicking back a few bucks each month to the various projects and organizations that enrich my life.

    --
    -1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
  7. Re:Not very free by bmo · · Score: 2

    >It still is better than the GPL

    Circular argument is circular. I think we're done here. I think you should re-read your message and smell the reeking hypocrisy.

    >my inflammatory language

    Like you didn't say that non-english speakers are treated like second class humans. That's not only inflammatory, it's a lie.

    This makes you an asshole of the first order.

    Meet your new status.

    --
    BMO

  8. jQuery by maestroX · · Score: 2

    Excellent library, used everywhere.