circular : FSFLA's GNUsletter - Issue #26

FSFLA's GNUsletter
Issue #26
October/November, 2007
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/171

1. News and Events

Oscar Valenzuela spoke at the 2nd Software Development and Testing Forum in Guanajuato, Mexico.
http://www.2forosw.org/ (in Spanish)

Pedro Rezende spoke at V Votobit in Monterrey, Mexico, and at the 2nd Free Software Festival in Brasília.
http://votobit.org.mx/ (in Spanish)
http://www.festivalsoftwarelivre.org (in Portuguese)

Alexandre Oliva spoke at the V Free Software Forum in Rio de Janeiro and at Convención Visión 2007 and at the II ./Freedom and Open Source Day in Lima, Peru, and was virtually present at Minas Gerais' Free Software Meeting in Lavras, Brazil. Thanks to José Monserrat for offering to present "Free Software and The Matrix".
http://www.forumsoftwarelivre.org.br/ (in Portuguese)
http://www.usmp.edu.pe/convencion2007/ (in Spanish)
http://www.usmp.edu.pe/fosd/ (in Spanish)
http://emsl.softwarelivre.org/ (in Portuguese)

FSFLA thanks the various Free Software organizations at CaFeConf 2007 who helped distribute FSFLA's folders and promote the Free Software cause. Hopefully next year there won't be so many last-minute unfortunate surprises impeding a stronger FSFLA presence.
http://www.cafeconf.org/ (in Spanish)

Fernanda Weiden spoke at the I Free Software Forum in Lisboa, Portugal.
http://www.softwarelivre.com.pt/ (in Portuguese)

Alfredo Rezinovski has left his position of board observer at FSFLA.

FSFLA is planning a strong presence at Latinoware, on November 13-14. Pedro Rezende, Alexandre Oliva and our board observers Daniel Yucra, Anahuac de Paula Gil, Felipe Augusto van de Wiel and Richard Stallman will be there. Please show up by our booth to lend us a hand and to talk about FSFLA and Free Software in general.
http://www.latinoware.org/

Richard Stallman will speak a lot in Latin America this month. He's speaking in Mexico on Nov 9-12, then in Brazil on Nov 14-21 in Foz do Iguaçu (Nov 14, Latinoware), Salvador (Nov 16 and 20), Brasília (Nov 19 at SERPRO and Unieuro) and São Paulo (Nov 21 at USP-Butantã), and in Ecuador on Nov 23.
http://www.fsf.org/events/index_html/document_view
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/blogs/lxo/2007-11-11-rms-br (in Portuguese)

Alexandre Oliva will speak at S[G]LUD VI, in Bogotá, Colombia, on Dec 3-7.
http://glud.udistrital.edu.co/slud6/ (in Spanish)

A shortened English version of RMS's interview to Computerworld Brazil was published, after the publication of our previous GNUsletter that mentioned the full interview in Portuguese.
http://computerworld.uol.com.br/mercado/2007/09/11/idgnoticia.2007-08-23.1171671836/ (in Portuguese)
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/091107-stallman-on-free-software-torvalds.html

Our article about Receita Federal's transgressions regarding the income tax software was published in the 2nd issue of IBDI's magazine.
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/texto/denuncia-irpf.pt (in Portuguese)

Citizens of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais faced severe limitations to on-line services provided by the electrical power retailer company in that state, CEMIG, when the web site was changed so as to require the use of Internet Explorer. The Free Software community mounted pressure and, after six weeks, the web site started accepting again Free Software browsers that comply with Free Open Standards for the Internet.
http://firefoxneles.nababu.org/?cat=14 (in Portuguese)
http://stoa.usp.br/gnusp/weblog/7655.html (in Portuguese)

Brazilian Receita Federal's purchase of almost 45 thousand copies of Microsoft Office 2007 remains suspended, and TCU, the federal court in charge of overseeing federal government agencies spending, has published a report rejecting Receita Federal's poor excuses for their choice for non-Free Software.
http://listas.softwarelivre.org/pipermail/psl-brasil/2007-October/022106.html (in Portuguese)
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/stdlib/offdoc/srf-office/

2. 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

The Brazilian bank ABN AMRO Real recently announced it would require its customers to install a non-Free plugin for Internet Explorer in order to gain access to their on-line banking services. The Brazilian Free Software community has mobilized and, so far, has got the bank to enable customers to request, on an individual and temporary basis, the requirement for this plugin to be dropped. The bank claims to be developing a plugin for Mozilla Firefox that should run on GNU/Linux as well, but we must make it clear to the bank that any non-Free Software plugin requirement is ethically and morally unacceptable, and a threat to customers' choice and security. Please ask the bank to disable the plugin requirement for you, and let them know you don't want non-Free Software imposed on you, not even plugins.
http://br-linux.org/linux/banco-real-anuncia-que-vai-exigir-windows-em-seu-home-banking (in Portuguese)
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/blogs/lxo/2007-11-06-fazendo-mais-que-o-possivel.pt (in Portuguese)

Microsoft keeps on extending its net to capture young, visually-impared or otherwise digitally-excluded minds and turn them into agents to further its unethical monopolies. After the pacts with the Chilean Ministry of Economy and the Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment, it has set a pact with the Inter-American Development Bank's Youth Fund and offered advantages for publicly-accessible telecenters in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to switch away from Free Software. Please help us enlighten decision makers to avoid these traps.
http://www.liberaciondigital.org/ (in Spanish)
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/softimp/ms-brasil/
http://www.fondodejuventud.org/youth2/default.asp (in Spanish and English)
http://www.direitoacomunicacao.org.br/novo/content.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1792 (in Portuguese)
http://www.governo.rj.gov.br/noticias.asp?N=41525 (in Portuguese)
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/circular/2007-09#1

The US House of Representatives has recently approved a "Free Trade" agreement with Peru by which the latter must change its laws to accept software and other kinds of absurd patents, and to criminalize disabling of Digital Restriction Management (DRM) handcuffs even for lawful purposes. Since the Peruvian authorities had already approved the agreement, the US senate is now the only remaining barrier for this disaster. If you are a US citizen, or have any influence over US senators, please help stop this pact. It is terrible for US citizens too. There are similar pacts with Colombia and Panama in imminent danger of approval as well.
http://xicanopwr.com/2007/11/peru-free-trade-agreement-another-disaster-in-the-making/
http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12561
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia_Trade_Promotion_Agreement
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/117

This is the last call for signatures for our petition to Receita Federal to enable Brazilian citizens and taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations with convenience and freedom, in technological and juridic safety and without disrespecting laws or personal philosophical beliefs. Please sign it if you haven't done so yet.
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/anuncio/2007-03-irpf2007 (in Portuguese)
http://www.petitiononline.com/irpf2007/petition.html (in Portuguese)

Copyright 2007 FSFLA

Thanks to Dario Soto, Antonio Negro and Adriano Rafael Gomes for the help with the translations.

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