Google recently made headlines after they identified some malware being distributed through the Android Market. Not only did they stop distributing those apps, but they used their "remote kill switch" to remove the apps from phones where they were already downloaded. This is a kind of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) that all computer users should avoid.

The Day Against DRM is an opportunity to unite a wide range of projects, public interest organizations, web sites and individuals in an effort to raise public awareness to the danger of technology that requires users to give-up control of their computers or that restricts access to digital data and media.

Headlines this month:
- Revolution failed: Facebook not available in Egypt;
- Lawyered! - FSFE's legal workshop;
- Leaked documents highlight Germany's Foreign Office move back to non-free software;
- Valentine's Day campaign and PDFReaders news;
- Document Freedom Day: get involved!

This month we're focusing our attention on Sony. Sony has been in the news a lot recently: suing developers for figuring out how to run free software on their PlayStation 3 consoles. Both George Hotz (geohot) and more recently, Graf Chokolo -- operator of the PS3 Hypervisor Reverse Engineering blog have been harrassed by Sony, with Graf Chokolo having his home raided on Feb 23rd.

Massimo Babieri is an IT manager at the Earth Science Department, of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. As well as holding a Ph.D in Geology, Massimo leads the band The Radiostars, releasing their music under a Free license. As well as being a member of the LUG Scandiano, he has been very active in the ongoing success of the PDFreaders campaign in Italy.

Valentine's Day is a celebration of love, and it's a great day to declare your love and gratitude to the people behind every Free Software initiative and organisation. Why not make this February 14th a very special day and show them that you appreciate their work?

We need to build communities and software around open protocols. We need to make it so that social networking is a protocol, much like e-mail is a protocol. [...] We need to create critical mass around open standards and protocols.

Dr Richard Stallman, the global crusader for the freedoms of computer users, will be embarking on a lecture tour during February and March.