Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one
Joined Aug 2019
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
An app developer has jailbroken Echelon exercise bikes to restore functionality that the company put behind a paywall last month, but copyright laws prevent him from being allowed to legally release it.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
> If every author in the class filed a claim, industry advocates warned, it would "financially ruin" the entire AI industry.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/authors-celebrate-historic-settlement-coming-soon-in-anthropic-class-action/
Good.
To be clear, copyright maximalism is a problem and I had spent years fighting it.
But in this case I am celebrating. That whole industry is built on the idea that they can take whatever they want without anyone's consent.
At the same time, publishers selling of whole catalogs for training data showed how morally bankrupt copyright is.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
📣 we are pushing one last OTA update before the new CalyxOS release to reach as many current users as we can about the current CalyxOS hiatus and its impact. Details about this OTA update: https://calyxos.org/news/2025/08/27/last-ota-update-before-new-calyxos-release/
@commonsguy They are seeking public input from anyone who knows about the technical details of Android (among other things). Writing posts like you do is very helpful, plus that lets other competition authorities, the US's FTA included, find out the details of how things are working. I think it is clear that Apple and Google are using "security" to protect their monopolies. Devs like us are best positioned to make that case.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Thank you @grote for sharing this.
In addition to telling #Google that locking down #Android is bad, I'd also recommend every app developer to write to the @EUCommission's #DMA enforcement team and tell them that this practically circumvents Article 6(4) of the #DigitalMarketsAct, which was supposed to *enable* 3rd party app (stores).
The EC is discussing the same question with #Apple atm and they have to understand what happens if they let this happen.
Contact form:
https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/contact-dma-team_en
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Alas, it is time for more uncomfortable questions, in this case regarding the announced Android developer verification program: https://commonsware.com/blog/2025/08/26/uncomfortable-questions-android-developer-verification.html #AndroidDev
@commonsguy really great questions, thanks for writing this up! Also, this is the kind of stuff the #EuropeanCommission needs to enforce the #DigitalMarketsAct as well as competition authorities in other countries. If you'd like to get involved with providing feedback directly to governments, let me know, and I'll make the introductions!
@s3nnet @fdroidorg great! If you'd like to contribute to the official translation, join here:
https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/f-droid/website-posts/de/
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Let's carry on our legal series, in part two we will discuss jurisdiction, legal entities and liability in #FLOSS #FOSS.
Ever wondered “What laws apply to #FDroid ?" We had to...
Just 12 minutes of your time: https://f-droid.org/2025/08/20/legat-two.html
(And yes, that typo in the URL will stay there forever 🙄)
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
#DEfO has completed #ECH implementation for #nginx and there is a pull request:
https://github.com/nginx/nginx/pull/840
If you want to see ECH in nginx sooner rather than later, please jump in and review, give feedback, thumbs up, etc.
A really great post on about how governments should be funding the free open source software that our governments and societies rely on.
https://dri.es/funding-open-source-like-public-infrastructure
#FOSS #FreeSoftware #funding #government #sustainability #DigitalSovereignity #EU #SovereignTechFund
@funkylab @fdroidorg we are always looking for qualified help running these secure servers, if you know anyone that might be interested. Also, donations of hosting, hardware and money are always appreciated. https://gitlab.com/fdroid/wiki/-/wikis/Internal/Servers#how-to-donate-servers-andor-hardware
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Oh dear, the Belgian government's #cybersecurity centre manages to write an entire page about the #EndOf10 without mentioning any other operating system than #Microsoft #Windows. Instead of telling people they might want switch to e.g. #Linux, they suggest to:
* pay Microsoft for #ESU, or
* buy a new computer. 😤
@fdroidorg #ReproducibleBuilds helps a lot here, that is our long term plan. Then we do not have to trust the buildserver as much. The majority of apps on F-Droid can now be built reproducibly, but many important ones still cannot. So we still need the same setup with high security requirements.
@fdroidorg We have to put a lot of trust in a couple of systems: the signing server and the production buildserver. That is why they are not easy to upgrade. That provides key benefits down the line, like knowing that the client app will always receive uncompromised files, no matter where it downloads the files from (e.g. verification via the signed index). Thanks for your patience while we work in getting new hardware into our trusted #secure #maintenance setup. 1/2
oops "own military" instead of "only military"
Washington DC is always full of slightly surreal surprises. This time the US' only military was occupying its own capital for no apparent reason. Note the bored National Guard soldiers just leaning against their truck. There were a handful of these scattered around the city.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Journalist Discovers Google Vulnerability That Allowed People to Disappear Specific Pages From Search
@rl_dane thank you for #NecroReplying, this is still worth discussing! Is there some mechanism with #RCS that enforces which implementations are allowed to interoperate? If it is a standard protocol, it seems that #AdversarialInteroperability should work just fine. Google's implementation is just an app, isn't it?
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Europe has a unicorn obsession, and frankly it needs to stop. 🦄
The EU is pouring €43 billion through the CHIPS act into creating "European champions," but we're missing the bigger picture: why are we treating essential tech infrastructure as private property instead of public commons?
We need a different approach. One that serves public benefit over private extraction. Read my thoughts here: https://tarakiyee.com/the-hardware-innovation-monopoly-problem-why-europe-should-stop-chasing-unicorns/
#OpenHardware #TechPolicy #DigitalSovereignty #PublicInterestTech
Joined Aug 2019
