The Free Software Foundation, has announced that it received its largest donation ever, 91.45 bitcoin from an anonymous entity called Pineapple Fund. The 91.45 bitcoin, at the time of payment, was roughly equal to $1 million. The Free Software Foundation is an organisation that promotes the concept of free software, which is defined by the ‘four essential freedoms’.
John Sullivan, FSF executive director, said:
“The FSF is honored to receive this generous donation from the Pineapple Fund in service of the free software movement. We will use it to further empower free software activists and developers around the world. Now is a critical time for computer user freedom, and this gift will make a tremendous difference in our ability, as a movement, to meet the challenges.”
With the donation from Pineapple Fund, the FSF will increase innovation and the number of new projects in high priority areas of free software development, including the GNU project; the FSF’s licensing, compliance, and hardware device certification programmes will be expanded; the free software movement will be introduced to new audiences; and lastly, the money will create long-term stability for the organisation.
As mentioned earlier, the FSF revolves around giving people the four freedoms, they are the freedom to run a program as you wish, for any purpose; the freedom to study the program, and change it so it does what you want, having access to the source code is a precondition; the freedom to redistribute copies so you can (legally) help your neighbour; and the freedom to distribute modified copies to others, giving the community the chance to benefit from your changes. Access to source code is a precondition for the final freedom too.
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