AI

  • EU Parliament wants to protect Free Software in AI regulation

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Politics, Tech

    FSFE logoToday the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) reports that the European Parliament’s two competent committees – the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) – today voted by a large majority to protect Free Software in the EU’s AI Regulation. Furthermore, non-profit organisations and small Free Software projects up to the size of micro-enterprises, are largely to be exempted from this regulation.

    In addition, the FSFE comments that this principle must be anchored in the Cyber Resilience Act and Product Liability Directive and the parliament’s forthcoming votes.

    Alexander Sander, FSFE’s Senior Policy Consultant, explains as follows:

    Instead of putting the responsibility on the Free Software developers, it should be put on the companies that profit from it on the market. Smaller organisations and non-profit activities, for example by foundations, must be excluded. With this vote, the Members of the European Parliament are thus recognising the reality of Free Software development and trying to protect it. The principle of transferring responsibility and liability to those who profit on the market instead of focusing on developers must also be anchored in the Cyber Resilience Act and the Product Liability Directive. This is the only way to not only protect Free Software and its contributors but also consumers and customers.

    The final vote on the AI Act is expected in the next few weeks, after which discussions on the final text will take place between the Parliament, Council of Ministers and the Commission. The Parliament is currently discussing the amendments to the Cyber Resilience Act and the Product Liability Directive which have been submitted.

  • New Alpha of 0 A.D. released

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Wildfire Games has published a new version of its free real-time strategy game 0 A.D. The game comes with an open source licence and can be played on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. New translations have made their way into 0 A.D. Alpha 16 “Patañjali” and the game can now be played in 13 different languages. Additional languages will follow. A Japanese translation is also ready; however, it has not been incorporated into the latest release due to the size of the script files. In addition, these make heavy demands on the hardware. The Japanese translation with its script files is therefore available as a separate download.

    A new AI called Petra should demand more of players and behave more aggressively during expansion and fighting. Just like human opponents, it builds defensive towers and fortifications. Petra will handle resources better than its predecessor (called Aegis) and also conduct trade with allies.

    The interface style introduced with the multi-player lobby in version Alpha 15 is now used throughout the game. Biolinum, a font from the Libertine Open Fonts Project is used as the game’s new font. In a multi-player game all players must now conform the game settings using “Ready” before it can start. A new version of the SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine, which provides new functions, has also been incorporated in 0 A.D. Alpha 16. Information about additional new features in 0 A.D. can be found in the release notes.

    Download 0 A.D. Alpha 16 Patañjali.

  • Canaries save money with open source

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Politics, Tech

    Canary Islands coat of armsCanary Islands news site La Provincia reports that the autonomous government of the Canaries is saving €400,000 per year by backing the use of free and open source operating systems and software and avoiding paying licences to multinational companies for the use of programs and their updates. Apparently the autonomous government annual IT costs have reduced from €1,006,500 to €750,000. Roberto Moreno, the general director for telecommunications and new technologies explains that the migration from proprietary to free and open source software means the government is ridding itself of dependency on one vendor because, in this case “the owner is the one who buys it and can make the changes and modifications needed with his own resources and personnel, which is always much cheaper” than being beholden to an outside company.

    Moreno, who is a professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), states that the objective is shown by the current legislature’s wishes to introduce these changes to reduce expenditure, given the current economic crisis and the lack of funds in the region’s coffers.

    The next step planned by the Canaries government is to replace the ubiquitous MS Office suite currently used with a free and open source alternative, which is most likely to be Apache OpenOffice. That change will involve some 30,000 desktops and will save the public purse a fair few euros more.

  • Happy 30th, GNU!

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Today is the 30th birthday of the GNU Project, which instigated the whole move towards free and open source software and the wealth of GNU/Linux distributions and software currently available.

    GNU’s initial aim, as outlined by Richard Stallman, was to develop a Unix-like operating system, but one which contained no proprietary Unix code.

    GNU 30th anniversary logo

    Stallman’s original announcement is reproduced below.

    Free Unix!

    Starting this Thanksgiving I am going to write a complete Unix-compatible software system called GNU (for Gnu’s Not Unix), and give it away free(1) to everyone who can use it. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly needed.

    To begin with, GNU will be a kernel plus all the utilities needed to write and run C programs: editor, shell, C compiler, linker, assembler, and a few other things. After this we will add a text formatter, a YACC, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other things. We hope to supply, eventually, everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and anything else useful, including on-line and hardcopy documentation.

    GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to have longer filenames, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, filename completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will have network software based on MIT’s chaosnet protocol, far superior to UUCP. We may also have something compatible with UUCP.

    Who Am I?

    I am Richard Stallman, inventor of the original much-imitated EMACS editor, now at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT. I have worked extensively on compilers, editors, debuggers, command interpreters, the Incompatible Timesharing System and the Lisp Machine operating system. I pioneered terminal-independent display support in ITS. In addition I have implemented one crashproof file system and two window systems for Lisp machines.

    Why I Must Write GNU

    I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. I cannot in good conscience sign a non-disclosure agreement or a software license agreement.

    So that I can continue to use computers without violating my principles, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free.

    How You Can Contribute

    I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and money. I’m asking individuals for donations of programs and work.

    One computer manufacturer has already offered to provide a machine. But we could use more. One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU will run on them at an early date. The machine had better be able to operate in a residential area, and not require sophisticated cooling or power.

    Individual programmers can contribute by writing a compatible duplicate of some Unix utility and giving it to me. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not work together. But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this problem is absent. Most interface specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility. If each contribution works with the rest of Unix, it will probably work with the rest of GNU.

    If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full or part time. The salary won’t be high, but I’m looking for people for whom knowing they are helping humanity is as important as money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them the need to make a living in another way.

    For more information, contact me.

    Arpanet mail:
    RMS@MIT-MC.ARPA

    Usenet:
    …!mit-eddie!RMS@OZ
    …!mit-vax!RMS@OZ

    US Snail:
    Richard Stallman
    166 Prospect St
    Cambridge, MA 02139

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