Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one
Joined Aug 2019
@eff I agree that is probably true, but then, I also agree that we need much better age restrictions on the internet. The critical mass of governments also believe there needs to be age restrictions, so if we're to have any chance of keeping anonymity on the internet, we need to accept that age restrictions are required, and focus our work on making sure they get implemented in the best possible way. Even in the #US with its #FirstAmendment, age restrictions are legal and in place for decades.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Element users on the default http://matrix.org homeserver are currently impacted by a serious database outage (https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix/115136245785561439)which will take at least 12 hours to recover - many apologies to everyone impacted. Users on their own deployments are of course unaffected.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Did you know there's a German non profit association (Verein) behind #NewPipe? [1]
You can donate to it, or even join the association.
And also, did you know they are looking for two freelancers for android development and sysadmin things? [2]
[1] https://newpipe-ev.de/about.html
[2] https://newpipe-ev.de/opportunities.html
I believe in the rule of law. At the same time, I recognize it is important that people can break the law in order for human societies to develop. When I make software, I aim to guide users to respect the law without forcing them to. Software developers should not enforce the law, they should respect #UserFreedom.
Martin Luther King, Jr explained the guiding principal best in this interview
https://youtu.be/fAtsAwGreyE?feature=shared&t=702
(the whole thing is also worth listening to)
#MLK #ethical #software #law #FOSS
@lightrush @commonsguy yes, they will do that, but then other countries will know that they have already implemented said feature, and it becomes easy to ask them to enable it for them as well.
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.
Joined Aug 2019
