circular : FSFLA's GNUsletter - Issue #23

FSFLA's GNUsletter
Issue #23
June, 2007
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/164

1. Editorial: FSFLA is growing

After a lengthy public consultation period about its constitution, FSFLA approved the text that is now the basis for the work of members and volunteers. The restructuring time is over and now we're moving towards growth.

The month of May was especially devoted to this growth. FSFLA members, after several months working and interacting with other people in the Latin American community, decided to invite about 25 people, from various countries in Latin America, to join the group as observers of our board.

Observers are invited to participate in board discussions, such that they can not only keep up to date with regards to our activities, but also help us to serve better the Free Software cause in Latin America.

The idea is to expand the team, and also to expand FSFLA's activities, such that the organization achieves broader reach in its activities all over Latin America.

A list with the names will be published as soon as the process is completed. We're still waiting for a response on some of the outstanding invitations.

If you have suggestions of Free Software activists that have devoted efforts to the cause, and that in your opinion should be part of our team, don't refrain from letting us know at info@fsfla.org.

2. GPLv3 "Last Call" draft

On May 31, 2007, the FSF published the fourth and "last call" draft for version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
http://www.fsf.org/news/gpl3dd4-released

Please help us scrutinize and translate this draft, such that the final text of GPLv3 as good as we can all make it.
http://gplv3.fsf.org/gpl3-dd4-guide.html
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/trad/GPLv3

Richard Stallman wrote an essay on the benefits of migration to GPLv3. Please help us translate it.
http://gplv3.fsf.org/rms-why.html
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/trad/GPLv3-why

3. In the News

The news site Linux.com covered our progress in the campaign against Softwares Impostos.
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/05/11/1813251
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/blogs/lxo/pub/freeing-the-lion.en

The Brazilian magazine ARede published an article on the release of IRPF2007-Livre, and covered one of our presentations at FISL 8.0.
http://www.arede.inf.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=963&Itemid=82 (in Portuguese)
http://www.arede.inf.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=961&Itemid=82 (in Portuguese)

The Brazilian newspaper O Globo published some of our recommendations as to 100% Free Software GNU/Linux installable distros.
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/blogs/lxo/2007-05-07-sem-fronteiras-para-a-liberdade.pt (in Portuguese)

The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo asked us for ten reasons to dislike Microsoft. In addition to various ways of disrespecting users' freedoms, such as unethical copyright and patent licensing practices, use of DRM and denying access to source code, we listed many others, having to do with abuse of monopoly power and other unethical and often illegal attitudes towards users and competitors. We reproach these attitudes because they're bad for society, not because it's Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't hold a monopoly on any of them, and we dislike them regardless of the perpetrator. If Microsoft dropped them all, it would likely be welcome to our community.
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/blogs/lxo/pub/microsoft-10.pt (in Portuguese)
http://adadigital.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=2 (in Portuguese)

4. Events

Alexandre Oliva presented "Free Software and the Matrix" at USP-EACH on May 2 and at ESLAM on May 25, where he also participated in a round table about various legal aspects of Free Software and presented "FSFLA's Coolest/Most Legal Actions."
http://eslam.comunidadesol.org (in Portuguese)

Alexandre Oliva will speak at SESOL, on June 6-9, in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. In addition to "Free Software and the Matrix", he will present "Magic Mirror on the Net, What's the Fairest License Yet? A GPLv3 fairness tale" and "Speeding Up Thread-Local Storage Access from Dynamic Libraries".
http://www.sesol.ufc.br/sesol3/ (in Portuguese)

Pedro Rezende will attend the ABNT meeting on OOXML standardization on June 14, in Brasília. ABNT is the Brazilian standardization body.

Pedro Rezende will speak about Free Culture in the 21st century on June 20 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

5. Help wanted

FSFLA depends on voluntary work from Free Software enthusiasts. If you can and want to help, please join our workgroups. If you'd prefer to work on another projet, please bring it up at discusion@fsfla.org.
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/about/participate.en

Copyright 2007 FSFLA

Translated to Spanish by Antonio Negro.

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