Our copyright & licensing associate Craig Topham is working together
with free software developers, lawyers, and volunteers to help the
community with licensing questions, finding hardware that respects
your freedom, and keeping the public informed of interesting free
software projects out there. In this email, Topham shares some of the
accomplishments the Licensing and Compliance Lab achieved during the
last six months.
At the Licensing and Compliance Lab, we are actively answering
licensing questions sent to us through the [email protected] email
address. Over the last year, we've answered approximately more than
300 questions from free software developers and others wishing to get
clarity on free software licensing. Although we have resources that
cover the family of GNU General Public License (GPL) and other
free software licenses such as the GPL FAQ and the FSF's license
list, developers of free software and folks curious about
licensing always find new and thought-provoking questions to
ask. However, helping the community by answering licensing questions
isn't a one directional service being offered. Your questions help
sharpen the minds of us working in the Lab, so that together we can
grow to tackle the tougher questions.
If you are new to free software licensing, a great way to enter this
space is by attending our weekly Free Software Directory (FSD)
meetings where we evaluate programs to see if they are free software
or not. Several times a month, I find myself walking someone through
the evaluation process. It is easier than you think, especially when a
program follows our guidelines of how to use GNU licenses for your
own software. Even if a program doesn't use a GNU license, by
following our recommendations, every recipient can easily find out
what license the code is under. If you know a project which isn't in
the FSD, you can add it, and either myself or another administrator will
review it when we can. Alternatively, you can come to a FSD meeting
and we can work together to see if the program is free software. FSD
meetings are held every Friday from 12:00 to 15:00 EDT in the #fsf
channel of the Libera.Chat IRC network.
Once you have access to free software, you'll want to run it on
hardware which respects your freedom. When you use a proprietary
system, you don't control that device, the manufacturer does. This is
unjust and unethical. To help others find hardware which exclusively
runs free software, the Lab also facilitates the Respects Your
Freedom (RYF) certification program. RYF is designed to certify
devices and how they are presented to the customer to make sure your
freedoms are not being curtailed. Since the last fundraiser, the Lab
was able to certify the Think Penguin's Free Software Gigabit Mini
VPN Router (TPE-R1400) which runs on LibreCMC, an FSF-endorsed
distribution. I will be working hard to certify more devices in
the future.
In order to get the word out about projects which use a GNU license,
the Lab has been publishing new GPL interviews, featuring free
software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works. In
September, we published an interview with Martin Dougiamas of
Moodle, a free software learning platform licensed under the
GNU General Public License version 3. In May, we interviewed
Frans de Jonge who talked about KOReader, a free software
e-reader program licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License
version 3. We help to keep the public informed of interesting
free software projects out there, and you can expect more GPL
interviews in the future. If you know of a cool project you'd like to
see highlighted for an upcoming interview, send your ideas to
[email protected].
The associate member program started in November of 2002 to
support the core work of the free software movement, independent from
major individual or corporate donors. The FSF wanted to be sustained
by the community we serve. As of today, membership dues make up most
of the FSF's operational costs. Without members we would not be able
to carry out the important work the FSF does for the free software
movement. The membership program keeps us working, and the Licensing
and Compliance Lab has been working for you nonstop. Together with
your help, we can strive towards a world where computer user freedom
is universal. Can you join this effort as an FSF associate
member? You can start for as little as $10 per month ($5 for
students), or $120 per year. With your support we can get to the
strength in numbers we need to both continue our work and take on
the challenging developments where we need to take a stance. Plus,
your membership will count towards achieving our spring goal of 175
new associate members before July 21. You'll be able to enjoy all the
member benefits, which include merchandise discounts, a 16GB
bootable membership card, and use of our associate member
videoconferencing server. When you join as an annual associate member
at $120 or more, you'll also be eligible for this year's sustainable
and stylish, genuine wood GNU head sticker.
