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from the what's-inside-the-device-that's-inside-of-you? dept.
At the recent LibrePlanet conference, Karen Sandler was awarded the Free Software Foundation's annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software. It is awarded annually to individuals who have made great contributions to the progress and development of free software, as a result of activities in accordance with the spirit of free software.
Richard Stallman, President of the FSF, presented Sandler with the award during a ceremony. Stallman highlighted Sandler's dedication to software freedom. Stallman told the crowd that Sandler's "vivid warning about backdoored nonfree software in implanted medical devices has brought the issue home to people who never wrote a line of code. Her efforts, usually not in the public eye, to provide pro bono legal advice to free software organizations and [with Software Freedom Conservancy] to organize infrastructure for free software projects and copyleft defense, have been equally helpful.".
Among other things, Karen Sandler is known for her long-term quest towards getting access to the source code for the embedded medical device on which her life depends.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @06:27AM (5 children)
Karen Sandler is apparently the main person of this post. Might wanna describe briefly what she is known for. Most here knows RSM, so it's not necessary for him and his likes, but I don't remember anything about Karen Sandler, and still not clear from the summary why she is given the award.
(Score: 3, Informative) by qzm on Thursday March 29 2018, @07:07AM (4 children)
She is a lawyer, and the person responsible for the fuss about spending a large amount of gnome foundation money on women in technology outreach efforts.
Take that as you will, but there is certainly a lot more politics than technology involved here.
It seems that the actual creators of technology are considered less important to the FSF than those playing more political games.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Thursday March 29 2018, @07:59AM
Another problem with prizes is that you will run out of people worthy of the prize at some point. You start awarding the lesser folks, lowering standards and denuding the prize of its value.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @08:48AM (1 child)
It is important to show appreciation for conduct favorable to a general public cause. Principles before realizations, etc.
Free software is not about software but about freedom, or precisely about freedom not being taken away by means of software.
With closed, hidden away knowledge, computer code notwithstanding, advanced technology truly is indistinguishable from magic, and people using it, or even just being unwilling objects of it, are truly but a slaves at mercy of the wizards wielding it. I know that many of you like it that way, because you deem yourselves wizards and it strikes your ego (and there are many commoners you hate or despise), but there are pyramids of power in that as well, and you almost certainly are not on top of one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @05:14PM
this is the exact point i just made on the wanna cry story. too many go for the whip instead of the key.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @03:00PM
That sucks and shouldn't have been awarded at all, but perhaps the creation side was so bleak. What was a standout free software achievement last year, the integration of fsck into SystemD?