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Jan 13, 2022.

This article is incomplete. The original article which I based this off is at https://libreboot.org/news/usa-libre.html by Leah Rowe. This article is a "fork" of that article and contains parts of it. Thanks to everybody who contributed to this event and supports software freedom. I'd recommend reading the original one, too.

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For the general public: In this article, I explain what's happening in New Hampshire, why software freedom matters for you and the society in general, and what you could do to help us in this battle.

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For the general public: In this article, I explain what's happening in New Hampshire, why software freedom matters to you and the society in general, and what you could do to help us in this battle.

For supporters of the free software movement: Please read this. As far as I know, this is the first time software freedom as we know it is proposed as a bill for law. Thank you so much.

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Free software is software that gives you the user the freedom to share (original or modified), study and modify it. Copyleft

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Free software is software that gives you the user the freedom to share (original or modified), study and modify it. Copyleft is a copyright-based method at preventing people from turning free software into proprietary software.

Since the beginning of the free software movement, we've been advocating for the use of free software. Showing people the freedom (and power) they have in GNU/Linux and the BSDs, many power users replaced nonfree software with free software. Now, at least 90% of servers worldwide run GNU/Linux. My personal one runs OpenBSD.

But ultimately, it's the people who use software. Not every user knows how to fiddle around with computers, not every user can take individual advantage of the freedom to study and change the software. Along with the lack of advertising, we've been alive—but invisible to the public.

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The use of proprietary software in government and social activities, especially mandatory tasks, by law or social, such as educatioon and medical services, including COVID vaccination, and especially trial in courts with proprietary software, are unjust because.

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This event of such global importance to Free Software projects, and the Free Software movement as a whole, has made me decide to write an article. The events in question, covered by this article, will occur on 11 January 2022. This is just three days away from today, 8 January 2022 when this article was written, so if you make a decision, you should make it now, today, and prepare. Please continue reading.

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If you live in New Hampshire or in one of the neighbouring states, especially Massachusetts, please listen up! If you are further away and unable to reach New Hampshire all that easily, please spread the following news anyway. It's important. As alien as it may seem to many of my readers, I'm actually writing parts of this article as though someone who has never heard of Free Software is reading it, because I expect precisely that such people will read this particular article.

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You will see the term Free Software used in this article, but some people call it Open Source Software. However, you should call it Free Software. The word "free" refers to freedom, not price, though the software is usually also free as in gratis / zero price.

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The opposite of Free Software is called proprietary software, or non-free software. Proponents of Open Source sometimes call non-free software Closed Source, but you should call it non-free or proprietary, to highlight the fact that it isn't free.

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The use of proprietary software in government and social activities, especially mandatory tasks, by law or social, such as educatioon and medical services, including COVID vaccination, and especially trial in courts with proprietary software, are unjust because by fulfilling these responsibilities, as defined by law, we are giving up essential freedoms, defined but unprotected by law, which can be avoided.

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If you live in New Hampshire or in one of the neighbouring states, especially Massachusetts, please listen up! If you are further away and unable to reach New Hampshire all that easily, please spread the following news anyway. It's important. As alien as it may seem to many of the readers, I'm actually writing parts of this article as though someone who has never heard of Free Software is reading it, because I expect precisely that such people will read this particular article.

What's happening in New Hampshire?

An important bill is being proposed in New Hampshire, which would enshrine much of what we know as Free Software into law. Here is the proposed bill, technically named "HB1273":
https://gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/billText.aspx?sy=2022&id=1363&txtFormat=html

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At first glance, it may not seem that the bill affects individuals, but don't be fooled; this is a hugely positive step forward for everyone! If the state is using Free Software, that most likely means it'll be used in education aswell.

Although perhaps not immediately and readily apparent, this is a stake in the heart of proprietary software's current dominance, because it would remove one key element of its attack against us; its abuse of education services.

If education services are using Free Software, that means they'll probably have children (the ones being educated) using it too. This is a huge step, and it will result in more Free Software developers in the future. Free Software will become more and more mainstream to the masses, which can surely only be a good thing!

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Freedom is always superior. The more people that have it, the better off we all are, because freedom is also collective; it relies on others around us also having it, so that we can defend each other. If more people have it, especially if it results in more Free Software developers in the future, that's one thing, but imagine if more states like what they see and start to copy the new legislation.

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Freedom is always superior. The more people that have it, the better off we all are, because freedom is also collective; it relies on others around us also having it, so that we can defend each other. We fought for our rights before, when we founded modern nations&emdash;democracies&emdash;so that we the people have inalienable rights of our own, our basic human rights, and not to have dictatorships and monarchs who may violate them. Slowly, subtlely, but very effectively, proprietary software is taking away the freedoms we always fought for. What we fought for, for seven centuries, would be gone in the matter of decades. If more people have it, especially if it results in more Free Software developers in the future, that's one thing, but imagine if more states like what they see and start to copy the new legislation.

Now imagine that countries besides the US start doing it, inspired by the US's success (and I think it will be a resounding success).

Imagine a world where Free Software, free as in freedom, is the default everywhere. Imagine a world where Free Software licensing is required reading material in schools. Imagine a world where any five year old can install a free operating system such as GNU+Linux, and Computer Science is mandatory in schools from a young age. Imagine filing your tax returns with Free Software, exclusively. Imagine not even thinking about that, because it became the norm.

Imagine a world where proprietary software doesn't exist, because it is obsolete; entire generations of people are taught to value freedom, and to staunchly defend it, helping each other learn and grow (and produce better software in the process, with less bugs, because people are now free to do that, without relying on some evil company).

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