From info at sfconservancy.org Wed Jan 3 20:32:46 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2018 15:32:46 -0500 Subject: Conservancy Joins in Cisco v. Arista Amicus Brief Message-ID: <47e64462-f61c-0d67-d4b1-33bcc7c4d120@sfconservancy.org> URL: Software Freedom Conservancy is pleased to announce that it has joined GitHub, Mozilla Corporation, and Engine Advocacy in an amicus brief for the Cisco v. Arista case. In the brief, we argue against extending copyright law unduly to ideas and functionality embodied in software — namely, that imitating command-line interfaces should not alone constitute copyright infringement. The case, which Cisco appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, considers whether a defense called “scènes à faire” should allow Arista Networks, Inc. to create a command-line interface that operates similarly to an interface developed by Cisco Systems, Inc. The lower court found, in a jury trial, that the defense was appropriate. Now, Cisco challenges that finding as a legal matter in their appeal. In the amicus brief, we and the joined amici argue that the public interest is well-served by allowing the scènes à faire affirmative defense to apply to copyright infringement with respect to software command-line interfaces. Even though FOSS licenses, such as copyleft, defend software freedom, the public interest is not served if copyright restrictions extend too far. Many software freedom projects, including Conservancy’s own projects, must imitate or interoperate with proprietary software via the command-line. Users deserve this functionality and should not need explicit copyright permission to do so. If you’re interested in reading and learning more about this issue, you can read the amicus brief at . Our Distinguished Technologist, Bradley M. Kuhn, has written a blog post about the brief at . We’d like to thank the other amici and Marcia Hofman of Zeitgeist Law PC for their work on this. -- Become a Conservancy Supporter Now: https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/   (And then ask a friend to become a Supporter, too! :) From info at sfconservancy.org Thu Jan 11 16:42:31 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2018 11:42:31 -0500 Subject: Pineapple Fund Supports Conservancy; Invests in free software with Bitcoin donation Message-ID: URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2018/jan/11/pineapple-fund-donation/ Software Freedom Conservancy thanks the Pineapple Fund and its anonymous backer for its recent donation of over 18 Bitcoin (approximately $250,000). The Pineapple Fund is run by an early Bitcoin adopter to give about $86 million worth of Bitcoin to various charities. Shortly after the fund’s announcement earlier this month, volunteers and Conservancy staff members applied for its support. That application was granted this week. The Pineapple Fund’s organizer explained, “I believe free and open source software is a cornerstone of the successes of technology today. FLOSS not only empowers anyone in the world to create and improve software, but it also powers critical internet infrastructure. Even the Pineapple Fund’s simple website used at least a dozen projects that call Conservancy their home, and I believe Conservancy is an invaluable resource to invaluable projects.” Conservancy’s Executive Director Karen Sandler explained, “We will use these funds to focus on work that will ensure the long-term stability of our organization and our support of free software generally.” As part of that work, Conservancy will implement the infrastructure necessary to accept Bitcoin donations and payments on behalf of all of its member projects. You can join the Pineapple Fund in securing the future of free software and Software Freedom Conservancy. Donations made by January 15 will be matched by Private Internet Access and another anonymous donor! Related links: ​ https://pineapplefund.org/ https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/ From info at sfconservancy.org Fri Jan 12 21:43:04 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2018 16:43:04 -0500 Subject: Tony Sebro to Join Conservancy Board of Directors & Outreachy Leadership Message-ID: <05b2f8fe-bbaf-88dc-f88e-8d8748e84c55@sfconservancy.org> URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2018/jan/12/sebro-joins-board/ Tony Sebro, who was Conservancy’s second full-time employee, is moving on to become Deputy General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, the home of Wikipedia. We say goodbye to Tony as a Conservancy employee today, but more importantly we welcome him to a number of new volunteer roles at our organization. Specifically, Conservancy’s Board of Directors has invited Tony to serve as an at-large Director. Tony has also joined the Project Leadership committee of Conservancy’s Outreachy project (our internship program for free and open source software contribution for underrepresented groups). We are thrilled that Tony will continue to contribute his expertise to our organization, and to formalize his participation with our key internship program. Mark Galassi, Chairman of Conservancy’s board, stated: “We are delighted to have Tony Sebro join our board of directors. Tony has worked with Conservancy since 2011 and immediately jumped in to the work of helping free/open-source software projects and advising Conservancy on legal matters. He has always given the board clear and careful options and advice on various matters, and having him on the board we will be able to continue to rely on his experience and judgment.” Tony added: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working alongside the amazing thought leaders and doers on Conservancy’s staff for the past six years. Conservancy has a unique and vital voice on a wide range of issues surrounding society’s relationship with technology, and has the potential to do even more in the years to come. I look forward to staying connected as a board member, and as a member of Outreachy’s organizing committee.” Conservancy’s legal needs have long been met by both paid and pro bono counsel, which include some of the most prominent lawyers in free and open source software. Pam Chestek, long-time outside counsel to Conservancy, will immediately step up her involvement. That work will continue to be supplemented by our strong group of pro bono counsel. Related links: https://sfconservancy.org/about/outside/ From info at sfconservancy.org Tue Mar 27 14:02:26 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2018 10:02:26 -0400 Subject: Karen Sandler Wins the Prestigious Free Software Award Message-ID: <4ff88b03-c31f-95a7-a2b2-a97018c0fe62@sfconservancy.org> URL: This past Saturday at the LibrePlanet conference, Conservancy’s Executive Director, Karen Sandler won the most prestigious Award in the area of software freedom: the Free Software Foundation’s annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software. The award is given annually by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to an individual who has made “a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software.” Richard Stallman, President of the FSF, presented Sandler with the award during a ceremony. Stallman highlighted Sandler’s dedication to software freedom. Stallman told the crowd that Sandler’s “vivid warning about backdoored nonfree software in implanted medical devices has brought the issue home to people who never wrote a line of code. Her efforts, usually not in the public eye, to provide pro bono legal advice to free software organizations and [with Software Freedom Conservancy] to organize infrastructure for free software projects and copyleft defense, have been equally helpful.”. In her acceptance speech, Sandler spoke about her dedication to free software as a patient, advocate and professional:. “Coming to terms with a dangerous heart condition should never have cost me fundamental control over the technology that my life relies on”, said Sandler. “The twists and turns of my own life, including my professional work at Conservancy, led me to understand how software freedom is essential to society. This issue is personal not just for me but for anyone who relies on software, and today that means every single person.” The audience responded enthusiastically with vigorous applause and a standing ovation. Sandler has worked for over a decade in free and open source software. She is known for her advocacy for the issue, particularly in relation to the software on medical devices. Sandler is Executive Director of Conservancy, leading the organization to provide a nonprofit home for over 40 member projects and tackle the most critical issues facing free software today. Sandler previously served as the Executive Director and and later member of the board of directors of the GNOME Foundation, and before that, she was General Counsel of the Software Freedom Law Center. She co-organizes Outreachy, the award-winning outreach program that provides paid internships in free software for people who are typically underrepresented in these projects. She also serves as on the advisory committee of the Center for Research in Open Source Software at University of California, Santa Cruz. As is traditional for the award winner, Sandler gave a Sunday session talk at LibrePlanet describing her work and its context in the future of software freedom. She also participated in a panel about medical software and data. Other Conservancy’ staff members including Distinguished Technologist, Bradley Kuhn, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Brett Smith, and Compliance engineer, Denver Gingerich also delivered talks at the conference. ​ From info at sfconservancy.org Wed Apr 11 14:49:53 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:49:53 -0400 Subject: Conservancy Welcomes the Common Workflow Language as a Member Project Message-ID: URL: Software Freedom Conservancy welcomes the Common Workflow Language (CWL) as Conservancy’s newest member project. The CWL team develops and maintains a specification for describing data analysis workflows and tools in a way that makes them portable and scalable across a variety of software and hardware environments, as well as a supporting reference implementation. The Common Workflow Language project follows the OpenStand principles for collaborative open standards development to openly evolve the CWL specifications, which have already been implemented by a large number of independent vendors and open source projects. CWL has seen a large uptake by researchers, in particular in the bioinformatics community, with more than 700 public CWL workflows developed across academia and industry. The CWL project also maintains the cwltool reference implementation, documentation, CWL tooling and libraries, as well as facilitates interactions and collaborations within the wider CWL community and related external activities. Conservancy, a public charity focused on ethical technology, is the home of over forty projects dedicated to free and open source software. Conservancy acts as a corporate umbrella, allowing member projects to operate as charitable initiatives without having to independently manage their own corporate structure and administrative services. “By joining Conservancy, the CWL project hopes to expand its outreach efforts across additional countries and scientific fields to promote open, reproducible science through the use of standards-based workflows for data analysis,” said Peter Amstutz, co-founder of CWL and Senior Software Engineer at Veritas Genetics. “CWL is solving important problems that will make collaborating on big data analysis easier,” said Karen M. Sandler, Conservancy’s Executive Director. “We’re excited to have the Common Workflow Language project join Conservancy.” For more information: Common Workflow Language:   OpenStand:   cwltool:   Software Freedom Conservancy:   From info at sfconservancy.org Tue May 1 04:18:51 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Tue, 01 May 2018 00:18:51 -0400 Subject: The First Annual International Copyleft Conference Message-ID: <6112d782ee8199c526a7f7b4585ac664@sfconservancy.org> URL: Save the date: Monday 4 February 2019 in Brussels, Belgium Software Freedom Conservancy — the home to many key copyleft projects like Inkscape, Samba and Wine, and known for its work enforcing the GPL for its own projects as well as Linux — announced today that Conservancy will coordinate the first conference focused entirely on copyleft licensing, strategy, enforcement, governance and best practices. In response to requests during the FOSDEM Legal and Policy DevRoom, which is coordinated by a team of four that includes Conservancy's own Bradley M. Kuhn and Karen M. Sandler, Conservancy will organize a separate conference on the day following FOSDEM 2019, in Brussels, Belgium, called: The Annual International Copyleft Conference, or CopyleftConf for short. Participants from throughout the copyleft world — developers, strategists, enforcement organizations, scholars and critics — will be welcomed for an in-depth, high bandwidth, and expert-level discussion about the day-to-day details of using copyleft licensing, obstacles facing copyleft and the future of copyleft as a strategy to advance and defend software freedom for users and developers around the world. The event will provide a friendly and safe place for discussion of copyleft as a key strategy for defending software freedom. Conservancy encourages everyone to save the date of Monday 4 February 2019 in Brussels, Belgium for this first CopyleftConf. We've chosen the date and location to ease travel for those already attending FOSDEM the weekend preceding CopyleftConf. Important Dates: Monday 16 July 2018: official CFP announcement and venue details announced. Sunday 19 August 2018: CFP submission deadline. Monday 10 September 2018: Conference schedule announced. Watch Conservancy's RSS feeds for CopyleftConf announcements as those dates approach! _______________________________________________ announce mailing list announce at sfconservancy.org https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/announce From info at sfconservancy.org Tue May 1 16:33:48 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Tue, 1 May 2018 12:33:48 -0400 Subject: Deb Nicholson joins Conservancy as Director of Community Operations Message-ID: <8dfe545f-d82c-da4b-927b-843f6e3cab08@sfconservancy.org> URL: Today Software Freedom Conservancy announces its newest employee, Deb Nicholson. Nicholson is a prominent software freedom advocate and organizer. Nicholson’s professional roots are in the world of local community organizing in Massachusetts. Her first roles in the free software movement were as a staff member at the Free Software Foundation. Nicholson won the O’Reilly Open Source Award for her volunteer work with GNU MediaGoblin, a federated media-hosting service and OpenHatch, an initiative to help bring newcomers into free software. She is also a founding organizer of the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference, an annual event dedicated to surfacing new voices and welcoming new people to the free software community in the Pacific Northwest. Most recently, she served as the Community Outreach Director for the Open Invention Network, a company that builds a defensive patent pool for open source software. Nicholson has volunteered for Conservancy for many years, including on Conservancy’s Evaluations Committee since 2015. “Deb did an extraordinary job as OIN’s Director of Community Outreach,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “While we will miss her, she will remain part of the OIN family and the extended open source community. We are confident she will be a great asset to Software Freedom Conservancy and wish her all the best as she takes on this new and exciting challenge.” Nicholson recently delivered the opening keynote at the Free Software Foundation’s LibrePlanet, an annual conference for free software contributors, enthusiasts and activists. In the talk, “Free Software Forever,” Nicholson outlined her vision for building a vibrant, diverse free software movement that enthusiastically welcomes and empowers new people. “Deb has been a force for software freedom,” said Karen Sandler, Conservancy’s Executive Director. “In her jobs and as a volunteer she has had a strong impact on the communities she’s participated in. She’s a great fit for Conservancy and we’re all excited to work with her.” As Director of Community Operations, Nicholson will be working with our member projects to find more ways to help them achieve their goals and increasing our member engagement opportunities. She will also be deepening relationships with other free software organizations, facilitating public outreach efforts and helping with some of our internal operational duties. Links:   From info at sfconservancy.org Tue May 8 18:47:46 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Tue, 8 May 2018 14:47:46 -0400 Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?Backdrop_CMS_is_Conservancy=e2=80=99s_Newest_Member_Proje?= =?UTF-8?Q?ct?= Message-ID: URL: Software Freedom Conservancy is excited to announce that Backdrop CMS has joined as its newest member project. Backdrop CMS is a lightweight content management system for small to medium sized businesses and non-profits. Backdrop CMS best serves the kinds of organizations that need complex functionality, on a budget. Smaller organizations deserve a tool built especially for their changing and particular needs. Backdrop CMS is committed to providing that service by leveraging the flexibility and collaborative nature of free and open source software. Conservancy, a public charity focused on ethical technology, is home to over forty member projects dedicated to developing and promoting free and open source software. Conservancy acts as a corporate umbrella, allowing member projects to operate as charitable initiatives without having to manage their own corporate structure and administrative services. “Conservancy’s commitment to smaller projects, non-profits, and educational efforts mirrors our own audience. We’re looking forward to working with them.” said Jen Lampton, Backdrop CMS Co-founder and Senior Developer. “Backdrop CMS fills an important niche in the content management system space and we love their commitment to free software and usability.” said Karen M. Sandler, Conservancy’s Executive Director. “We’re looking forward to supporting them as they continue building an important tool to empower small organizations.” Links:   From info at sfconservancy.org Tue Jun 12 18:47:14 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Deb Nicholson) Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2018 14:47:14 -0400 Subject: Conservancy Welcomes Racket as its Newest Member Project Message-ID: <1528829234.2165.4.camel@sfconservancy.org> URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2018/jun/12/racketjoins/ Software Freedom Conservancy and the Racket community are pleased to announce that Racket is Conservancy's newest member project. Racket is a general-purpose programming language as well as the world’s first ecosystem for developing and deploying new languages. Racket comes with special support for novices and for on-boarding beginners. Several popular online learning platforms include Racket courses. The Realm of Racket is also a great place for programmers who want to become familiar with the basics of the language. Racket was launched in 1995 as an educational environment. It is still widely used by educators, but it has also grown into a programmable programming language. As such, it is often used to quickly prototype embedded (domain-specific) languages. Its innovative features have influenced the development of Clojure and Rust, many other languages. Development is ongoing with this summer bringing big internal changes as the project prepares to move from a C-based run-time system to one based on Chez Scheme. Conservancy, a public charity focused on ethical technology, is home to over forty member projects dedicated to developing and promoting free and open source software. Conservancy acts as a corporate umbrella, allowing member projects to operate as non-profit initiatives without having to manage their own corporate structure and administrative services. "We look forward to a productive collaboration with the Software Freedom Conservancy. We're always working to improve the Racket language and its implementation. Joining the Conservatory will help Racket's organization and administration keep pace." says Matthew Flatt of the newly formed Project Leadership Committee. "It's always exciting to bring in a new member project but we rarely get to bring in a project that has also already inspired so many other important free software programming languages and pedagogic tools. We're very excited to support Racket's unique and critical role in the creation of languages and the education of the next generation of programmers." says Deb Nicholson, Director of Community Operations at Conservancy. Conservancy's Distinguished Technologist, Bradley M. Kuhn added: "Earlier in my career, I had the pleasure of using Racket's IDE (then called DrScheme) to aid in secondary education in the 1990s and have more recently tutored friends who wanted to learn programming using the modern Racket environment. Racket is an essential component of computer science education, and I'm proud that Racket is now part of our organization."  -- Deb Nicholson Software Freedom Conservancy From info at sfconservancy.org Mon Jul 9 21:09:51 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Deb Nicholson) Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2018 17:09:51 -0400 Subject: Conservancy in Portland next week! Message-ID: <1531170591.2848.8.camel@sfconservancy.org> Hi all,  If you will be in Portland, OR (either for OSCON or because you live there) next week, we'd love to see you!  Monday, July 16th, 7pm -10pm McMenamin's Broadway Pub 1504 NE Broadway St 20 minute walk or 11 minute bus from the Convention Center We'll buy some snacks to get the hangout started, but you'll be on your own for drinks.  Meet other (new?) Conservancy supporters and help us with OSCON's busy expo floor!   Wednesday, July 18th, 10am - 7pm Thursday, July 19th, 10am - 6pm  Email me about when you'd like to help out or put your name into the pad here, https://pad.sfconservancy.org/p/OSCON2018_ExpoFloor We can't wait to see you in Portland! Thanks,  Deb -- Deb Nicholson Software Freedom Conservancy From deb at sfconservancy.org Tue Aug 14 15:49:03 2018 From: deb at sfconservancy.org (Deb Nicholson) Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2018 11:49:03 -0400 Subject: Death, taxes and free software at DebConf this year Message-ID: <1534261743.2000.35.camel@sfconservancy.org> Hi all,  In case you missed it, our most excellent Executive Director, Karen Sandler and FSF Campaigns Manager, Molly de Blanc presented together at DebConf in Taiwan earlier this month on what *really* constitutes a software freedom issue. Turns out that lots of things are affected by the absence or presence of software freedom including; many serious topics like depression treatments, automated devices in our homes, public transportation, domestic violence and government data. There were also some very funny moments, but I won't spoil the video for you. This year is the first time this critical event has taken place in Asia . Over 300 free software enthusiasts attended talks, squashed bugs and discussed critical issues like reproducible builds, what contributing is like around the world and how to increase diversity in free software projects. Both Karen and Molly have been to DebConf multiple times and highly recommend this event. You can catch Karen next in New York in early October where she'll be k eynoting PyGotham. Molly's next public appearance is at the end of the month in Vancouver where she'll be participating in a panel that will be discussing ways to use metrics to help create common understanding around diversity and inclusion goals. Thanks for supporting our work! Best,  Deb -- Deb Nicholson Software Freedom Conservancy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From deb at sfconservancy.org Wed Aug 22 18:18:37 2018 From: deb at sfconservancy.org (Deb Nicholson) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2018 14:18:37 -0400 Subject: Handshake Provides a Leg Up -- Conservancy has been gifted $200K Message-ID: <1534961917.2670.4.camel@sfconservancy.org> Handshake has recently awarded funds to many critical free and open source software projects. In particular Conservancy has been gifted $200K for our ongoing work to support software freedom by providing a fiscal home for smaller projects, enforcing the GPL and undertaking strategic efforts to grow and improve free software. Outreachy, the organization offering biannual, paid internships for under-represented people to work in free software (itself a member project of Conservancy) has also been awarded $100,000 from these funds. "We are grateful for this donation that will allow us to continue supporting people from underrepresented backgrounds in gaining focused experience as free software contributors and shaping the future of technology," said Marina Zhurakhinskaya, Outreachy Organizer. Donations to the Outreachy general fund support program operations and increasing awareness of opportunities in free software among people from underrepresented groups in tech. Handshake is a decentralized replacement for the root zone file, which leverages blockchain technology to make DNS-based spying and censoring more difficult. Purse.io and Private Internet Access provided Handshake with the funding to launch decentralized market for Internet names. The Handshake organizers said that they received much more than they needed to get started and so decided to reinvest $10.2 million dollars back into free software by gifting it to FLOSS developers and projects, as well as non profit organizations and universities that support free software development. >From Handshake, "The Internet, and civilization as a whole, would not be where it is today without the hard work of the free software and open source community and the projects that they work on. The Handshake blockchain will start with an initial supply of 1.36 billion coins, of which 77.5% will be gifted to FLOSS developers and projects, as well as non profit organizations, universities." "We're glad to be included in this list of organizations that are so important to the Internet and to free and open source software." says Karen Sandler, Executive Director of Conservancy. "The funds will make a big difference in our ability to support and defend free software and ethical technology." As a small organization, we are always working to do the most with what we have. The Handshake grant allows us to tackle some of the work that we would have otherwise had to put off to a later date. Unfettered donations give us the freedom to say yes to hiring contractors to help with tasks that we don't have expertise for in house, they help us move up our timetables for critical infrastructure and they enable us to spend less time fundraising. These kinds of gifts are absolutely critical for Conservancy and for our frugal sister organizations in the free software community. "...Handshake has everything we need and that capital is better deployed by the FOSS organizations to which we have pledged to contribute it. In the spirit of free software and radical gifting we’ve taken the validation value from this project and shared it with the world." We hope others are inspired to support the free software commons on which so many modern businesses and essential platforms rely. If all the amazing work done by free software developers over the last 30+ years has put you in a situation where you have "extra money" feel free to reach out to us! We can definitely help you with that. Thank you again to Handshake for your generous leadership! -- Deb Nicholson Software Freedom Conservancy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From info at sfconservancy.org Fri Sep 21 14:28:06 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Deb Nicholson) Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 10:28:06 -0400 Subject: Highlighting Some of Our Leaders in the Linux Kernel Message-ID: <1537540086.1972.11.camel@sfconservancy.org> URL: https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2018/sep/20/kernelLeaders/ This week has shown two interesting events related to Linux. Yesterday, the New Yorker published an article pointing out that abusive behavior in the Linux project specifically has created an unfriendly and unwelcoming environment for underrepresented groups. Linus Torvalds, Linux Foundation Fellow and leader of the Linux project, after having been contacted by the New Yorker in connection with the article, admitted his past behavior has been problematic and is taking time off from the project. While these moves are a step forward, they cannot alone change the problematic culture we have in technology generally, and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in particular. One press article and one leader temporarily stepping aside can only take one small step toward reversing decades of unfriendly culture, where abusive language and conflict are often considered the appropriate way to resolve disputes. We at Conservancy, particularly in its Outreachy project, do our best to help improve this situation for FOSS. Outreachy provides mentors and coordinators a method and process to promote inclusive culture in their FOSS projects. Our program would not be possible without a lot of key FOSS contributors who behave professionally and are deeply committed to improving the situation. We thank all the people who have contributed to great experiences for Outreachy mentees and hope that recent news helps more people in the community take heart that change is possible. I contacted a few of these people to highlight here. picture of Vaishali Thakkar Vaishali Thakkar, Outreachy internship graduate who now co-coordinates of kernel internships commented: "Outreachy is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I came from an education system where asking questions didn't always end up in positive encounters but rather we were made fun of because not knowing things isn't normal. My first friendly encounters with bunch of mentors in outreachy kernel mailing list also helped me to understand that open learning and open education is not only normal here [in open source] but is also something you are celebrated for. Which was really a huge thing for me at that time because it helped me to build my confidence and make my space in the open source industry. Lately, I've been giving a lot of Linux Kernel contribution workshops in Indian universities [offline] and in Kenya [online] to spread the word about the wonderful opportunities the program provides with a hope to increase more diverse set of contributors in the kernel community. Outreachy is touching so many lives at so many levels ranging from giving equal pay opportunity to people traditionally underrepresented in open source to help building a welcoming and diverse communities. My motivation for volunteering as a coordinator is merely an expression of saying thanks to all wonderful people who has helped me reach at where I am today and also about enjoying a feeling that comes from playing a role in building welcoming communities together." picture of Shraddha Barke Shraddha Barke, who is also an Outreachy internship graduate and now co-coordinates kernel internships with the Outreachy project added: "During my undergrad, I was desperately looking for opportunities to work on real problems. That's when I got the chance to intern with Outreachy and that exposed me to the wonderful Linux community and gave me lifelong mentors and friends. Julia Lawall has mentored me for the past few years, right from Outreachy to my graduate school. Outreachy opened more doors for me than I could've imagined. My motivation to volunteer stems from the feeling to give back to the community that has given me so much. Outreachy provides a supportive platform for people underrepresented in technology. I love knowing that I'm playing a small role in the worldwide impact Outreachy is having today! And I'm excited to see how big it will grow. :)" picture of Julia Lawall Julia Lawall, who has previously coordinated Outreachy participation in Linux, and continues to mentor noted: "As a former teacher and as a researcher, I have observed that many female students who start in computer science become discouraged and drop out during or after their studies. Thus, complementarily to my research activities, over the past four years, I have been active as a mentor and then as the coordinator for Linux for the Outreachy Internship program. Providing female students in computer science with the opportunity to interact with and get feedback from top-quality well-known developers helps build their confidence making it possible to move beyond the inevitable discouraging moments. There were 71 applications for Linux internships while I was coordinator for Linux, and 30 internships offered. After their internships, interns have gotten jobs at companies such as Red Hat, Intel, Bloomberg, Oracle and Collabora. Several interns have instead opted for further studies, including two who are starting as PhD students at UCSD and Columbia this fall. Former interns have also been active in outreach, both through informal events that they have organized on their own and through Outreachy itself." picture of Daniel Vetter Daniel Vetter, who mentors Outreachy interns in the Linux Kernel's GPU driver subsystem adds: "The Outreachy program is the best program we have to improve diversity and inclusiveness in FOSS long-term. While Linux as a project is deeply problematic, there are pockets of sub-communities who really care about creating inclusive spaces and can provide Outreachy participants a great internship experience contributing to critical technology low in the stack. I am very glad to provide my help supporting Outreachy participants as a mentor and Outreachy's critical role in building better communities and a diverse and inclusive FOSS culture." We hope the events of this week indicate that times are changing, and the status quo of behavior fails as an adequate standard for civility, inclusiveness and diversity. We thank all those who have spent years, both behind the scenes and in the public fray, pointing out and pushing for inclusiveness in Linux and all other FOSS communities. We welcome mentors, coordinators and sponsors to get involved in Outreachy and we hope to continue working on related issues and supporting those of you who are working behind the scenes to make free software a place for everyone. -- Deb Nicholson Software Freedom Conservancy From info at sfconservancy.org Wed Sep 26 18:27:23 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 14:27:23 -0400 Subject: Conservancy Adds Expanded Section To Copyleft Guide On GPLv2 Irrevocability Message-ID: In discussion of the Linux project’s new Code of Conduct, a few people have suggested that contributors who reject the Code of Conduct might disrupt Linux licensing in response. This seems unlikely to most, but to ensure that uncertainty around this issue casts no shadow over contributions to GPLv2 works, Conservancy engaged our outside counsel, Pamela Chestek , to update the Copyleft and the GNU General Public License: A Comprehensive Tutorial and Guide (called the Copyleft Guide for short) on copyleft.org to clarify this issue. Copyleft.org is an initiative that fosters a collaborative community to share and improve information about copyleft licenses (especially the GNU General Public License (GPL)) and best compliance practices for those licenses. It’s primary output is the Copyleft Guide, an extensive 157 page tutorial on GPL and other forms of copyleft licensing, available as an online book and as a PDF . Today, a new section in the Guide explains GPLv2’s safeguards to prevent the very scenario recently contemplated. In particular, a contributor may only modify the software and distribute that contribution *if* they have agreed to the full text of the GPLv2. (“By modifying or distributing the Program… you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.”) Part of the grant from the contributor is an irrevocable license to that person’s contribution, provided that the downstream user complies with the conditions on the license grant. (“Parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.”). The contributor is, of course, free to make no /future/ grants, but they can’t withdraw /past/ grants. The Guide’s new section also explains how promissory estoppel is an additional legal safeguard ensuring the withdrawal of permission will not disrupt the use of those who rely on the software. The Copyleft Guide is itself licensed under a copyleft license, currently CC BY SA 4.0. Experts, lawyers and anyone else interested in copyleft are welcome to help improve it, via Conservancy’s Kallithea instance , or on Github . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From info at sfconservancy.org Tue Nov 20 14:14:45 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2018 09:14:45 -0500 Subject: $90K Year-end Match to Fund an Ambitious Year for Conservancy Message-ID: <51708160-f5a2-9bf5-c654-9f0db75fe64e@sfconservancy.org> [Read this announcement on our web site ] Today, Software Freedom Conservancy announces the launch of its most ambitious match challenge ever, generously brought forward by Private Internet Access and bolstered by a cadre of passionate individual donors. All donations up to $90,000 will be matched dollar for dollar until January 15. *Sign up as a Supporter today to have your donation count twice, but please act soon. The end of the year comes up fast! * Conservancy is a scrappy organization that fiscally sponsors nearly 50 free software projects by helping them with accounting, event planning, paying developers and defending their trademarks. Conservancy is also the leading organization for ensuring compliance with copyleft licenses. We work for the future of software freedom by helping projects stay community-driven, by fostering relationships with those who are new to free software and by building a software freedom movement where everyone feels welcome. We can’t do this important work without the support of people like you, who read our news feed and blog, who have opinions about where free software should be in five years, who help your friends and family find free software solutions. We can’t do this without your moral and financial support. Conservancy made a lot of progress this year in our quest to provide a fantastic “back office” for community-driven free software projects. This year Conservancy brought in seven new member projects—-four that help free software developers write more great free software and three that help introduce new people to free software. We helped our projects run events and hackfests, set up grants to pay for development, sort through contracts and reimburse travel to critical free software events all over the world. We worked with companies on GPL compliance, commented on trends in the industry and talked to people at dozens of different events this year. With your help, we’ll be doing more of the same, while also building more infrastructure for our member projects, piloting a brand new event to talk about copyleft licenses and adding a fifth person to our full-time staff. We are proud to say that our steadfast matching donors keep coming back. Thank you very much to our one humble anonymous individual who has matched donations *every year* for the last four years! Private Internet Access also returns to support Conservancy with $50,000 for the third time this year! 2018 is very special because this year, they are also joined by eight more passionate, individual super-supporters. These individual donors led by free software champion Molly de Blanc have pledged an additional $15,000, making this year’s match our biggest one yet. Read more about what Conservancy has achieved this past year thanks to your past support. Donate now to help us make the most of this generous match opportunity and make 2019 a great year for software freedom. The matching funds expire in January, so if you can, please donate *right away.* Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. If you support us now, not only do you help us meet the challenge grant but your contribution is also deductible on your 2018 US taxes, to the extent permitted by law. Please act now and help us continue supporting the free and open source software projects you rely on every day . ​ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From info at sfconservancy.org Thu Nov 29 21:11:45 2018 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Deb Nicholson) Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2018 16:11:45 -0500 Subject: Appeal Moving Forward in GPL Compliance Suit Against VMware Message-ID: <1543525905.1878.25.camel@sfconservancy.org> URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2018/nov/29/gplappeal/ Conservancy dedicates itself to fighting for software freedom for as long as it takes. GPL enforcement requires steadfast, unwavering diligence. Two years have passed since Christoph Hellwig announced his intention to appeal the Hamburg District Court's decision, and more than three and a half years have passed since Conservancy announced its financial support for this lawsuit. Christoph's case is in Germany against VMware for their failure to provide the complete source code of the kernel they distribute, which is covered by the GPL and based on Linux. The lower court dismissed the case as a result of evidentiary rules and likely an incomplete understanding of the documentation of the code in question. Yesterday, the German Court of Appeal held the first hearing on the appeal. As staunch proponents of community-driven enforcement, Conservancy remains committed to supporting Hellwig's case for as long as it takes. The hearing yesterday was a tiny step in a long process toward resolving this issue, and, as we understand the situation, nothing is yet decided. As courts always do, they encouraged the parties to settle their dispute out of court. VMware could still choose to do the right thing here, admit that they did not meet the terms of the GPL and acquiesce to Christoph's request. The Courts have set a deadline of January 24, 2019 for settlement. If Christoph and VMware cannot reach a settlement by then, the Court is expected to adjudicate the appeal. Linux's license, GPL version 2, was specifically designed to defend the rights of developers and users in this situation; the GPL forbids companies from combining their own proprietary software with GPL'd software. Conservancy discovered that Christoph's code was combined in that manner, and that Christoph's GPL'd code is an essential part of VMware's kernel. Christoph confirmed Conservancy's compliance conclusions and undertook enforcement efforts with legal representation from Till Jaeger. VMware incorporated, into a larger proprietary work, Christoph's GPL'ed code from the Linux project. VMware continues to infringe Christoph's, as well as many individuals' and companies', Linux copyrights. Among so many, Christoph is the developer who was willing to stand up and demand that VMware stop their copyright infringement. Christoph has rightly asked that VMware fulfill its obligations and comply with the terms of the license. His tenacity in this matter is heroic and he deserves the unceasing support of the community in this matter. Conservancy, a public charity focused on ethical technology, is home to over fifty member projects dedicated to developing and promoting free and open source software. Conservancy acts as a corporate umbrella, allowing member projects to operate as non-profit initiatives without having to manage their own corporate structure and administrative services. Conservancy is also the only charity currently pursuing enforcement of Linux's license for the public good.  Please consider financially supporting our work on GPL enforcement and fiscal sponsorship today. For more background on this action, please see our FAQ. -- Deb Nicholson Software Freedom Conservancy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: