[p2p-research] FSF initiates "Respects your Freedom" hardware endorsement

[Michel Bauwens]

Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> Oct 14 10:35AM -0500 ^


FSF initiates "Respects your Freedom" hardware endorsement
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/FSF-initiates-Respects-your-Freedom-hardware-endorsement-1107844.html

"""
The Free Software Foundation has announced the initial criteria of the
"Respects Your Freedom" hardware endorsement programme. Under the programme,
the FSF will endorse products that comply with its conditions, which
include; using only free software in all parts of the product, ensuring the
software can be built using only free software tools and allowing user
installation of modified software. The non-profit organisation is seeking to
get feedback on these criteria and hopes to use the process to raise the
interest of hardware manufacturers.

Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF said the programme was needed
because "As citizens and their customers, we need to promote our desires for
a new class of hardware – hardware that anyone can support because it
respects your freedom". The initial criteria include – users not needing
proprietary software to interact with the device, a licence for free
software users for all patents which may be owned or licensed to the device
maker, provision of alternatives to patent encumbered file formats and –
when talking about the device – the use of FSF approved terminology such as
"GNU / Linux" and speaking of 'Free Software' more prominently than 'open
source'.

"Every software component needed to produce endorsable hardware is now
available" said Brett Smith, FSF licence compliance engineer, pointing to
the LinuxLibre kernel, which contains only free microcode and the free
software based Android and MeeGo. Smith says that the programme is designed
to allow vendors to connect with customers when they make their hardware
free software friendly adding that "With our endorsement mark and the strong
criteria that back it, we plan to bridge that gap and demonstrate to
manufacturers that they stand to gain plenty by making hardware that
respects people's freedom instead of curtailing it".
"""

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507



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