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posted by martyb on Thursday March 29 2018, @05:53AM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @08:48AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @08:48AM (#659891)

    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.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @05:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @05:14PM (#660061)

    this is the exact point i just made on the wanna cry story. too many go for the whip instead of the key.