From the FSF (Free Software Foundation):

*With new tablet device, Apple’s Steve Jobs pushes unprecedented
extension of DRM to a new class of general purpose computers*

Please sign our petition to Steve Jobs at:
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad

SAN FRANCISCO, California, USA — Wednesday, January 27, 2010 — As
Steve Jobs and Apple prepared to announce their new tablet device,
activists opposed to Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) from the
group Defective by Design were on hand to draw the media’s attention to
the increasing restrictions that Apple is placing on general purpose
computers. The group set up “Apple Restriction Zones” along the
approaches to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco,
informing journalists of the rights they would have to give up to Apple
before proceeding inside.

(images from the action http://i.imgur.com/nUtZK.jpg,
http://i.imgur.com/0wpvY.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/iL2vT.jpg)

DRM is used by Apple to restrict users’ freedom in a variety of ways,
including blocking installation of software that comes from anywhere
except the official Application Store, and regulating every use of
movies downloaded from iTunes. Apple furthermore claims that
circumventing these restrictions is a criminal offense, even for
purposes that are permitted by copyright law.

Organizing the protest, Free Software Foundation (FSF) operations
manager John Sullivan said, “Our Defective by Design campaign has a
successful history of targeting Apple over its DRM policies. We
organized actions and protests targeting iTunes music DRM outside Apple
stores, and under the pressure Steve Jobs dropped DRM on music. We’re
here today to send the same message about the other restrictions Apple
is imposing on software, ebooks, and movies. If Jobs and Apple are
actually committed to creativity, freedom, and individuality, they
should prove it by eliminating the restrictions that make creativity and
freedom illegal.”

The group is asking citizens to sign a petition calling on Steve Jobs to
remove DRM from Apple devices. The petition can be found at:
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad

“Attention needs to be paid to the computing infrastructure our society
is becoming dependent upon. This past year, we have seen how human
rights and democracy protesters can have the technology they use turned
against them by the corporations who supply the products and services
they rely on. Your computer should be yours to control. By imposing such
restrictions on users, Steve Jobs is building a legacy that endangers
our freedom for his profits,” said FSF executive director Peter Brown.

Other critics of DRM have asserted that Apple is not responsible, and it
is the publishers insisting on the restrictions. However, on the iPhone
and its new tablet, Apple does not provide publishers any way to opt out
of the restrictions — even free software and free culture authors who
want to give legal permission for users to share their works.

“This is a huge step backward in the history of computing,” said FSF’s
Holmes Wilson, “If the first personal computers required permission from
the manufacturer for each new program or new feature, the history of
computing would be as dismally totalitarian as the milieu in Apple’s
famous Super Bowl ad.”

### About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users’ right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
in freedom) software — particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants — and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
Donations to support the FSF’s work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

This is not going to be a patriotic post, sorry about that.  I’ve been listening to a couple of podcasts lately that are dedicated to Linux and Open Source Software.  It has caused me to think about the idea and philosophy behind Open Source Software and Free Software.

The idea is that Software should be free.  Not free as in no cost, but free as in the user is free to do what he or she wants with it.  A person should be able to share it, modify it, repackage it, really use it without restrictions.  It is really about learning, sharing and improving.

The Free Software Foundation has a lot of information on the subject.  Here is a quote from their website.

Free software is software that gives you the user the freedom to share, study and modify it. We call this free software because the user is free.

To use free software is to make a political and ethical choice asserting the right to learn, and share what we learn with others.  Free software has become the foundation of a learning society where we share our knowledge in a way that others can build upon and enjoy.

A really good read is this Essay on The Definition of Free Software.

I haven’t contributed a lot to the Open Source community but I have shared a few pieces of code.  I have been thinking of areas that I could contribute.  This post is my first step.  Helping people understand the philosophy.  I guess I have to start somewhere.

Other Links:

• Linux Outlaws (Podcast)
• Debian Linux Distribution
• Sourceforge (Open Source Software)