OpenWrt Joins Conservancy!

[Software Freedom Conservancy]

URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2020/sep/10/openwrt-joins/

                         OpenWrt Joins Conservancy

OpenWrt — building on their sixteen years of success as the most popular
Free and Open Source (FOSS) wireless router project — today joins
Conservancy as a member project. FOSS wireless routers assure software
freedom for all Internet users. Conservancy will help OpenWrt continue to
thrive and grow as its new fiscal sponsor.

OpenWrt occupies a special place in the history of software
freedom. OpenWrt's creation and launch shows that GPL enforcement works and
advances software freedom. In 2004, when Linksys released the firmware code
for the WRT54G router series, coders and tinkerers regained control over
their own routers, and launched OpenWrt based on the sources liberated from
GPL enforcement. Today, OpenWrt leverges software freedom protected by the
GPL to share that freedom and control with everyone who uses wireless
routers to connect to the Internet.

Bradley M. Kuhn, our Policy Fellow and Hacker-in-residence has a long
history with OpenWrt. “A few times in my career, I've had the opportunity to
collaborate with like-minded developers and techologists who took a stand
that became a catalyst for major change. The proudest, though, was when I
led the coalition who enforced the GPL on Linksys' non-compliant WRT54G”,
said Bradley. “It brings me great joy these many years later to have the
opportunity to support, defend, and improve the OpenWrt project through our
work at Conservancy. OpenWrt structures itself primarily as a user-focused,
grassroots project to provide liberated after-market firmwares for as many
wireless router models as possible. I cannot even imagine a project that
fits better with the mission and focus of Conservancy to bring FOSS to the
general public.”

Inside Conservancy, as with our other member projects, a small
representation committee will represent the OpenWrt community and leadership
to streamline interactions and work with staff. This initial representation
committee will be John Crispin, Hauke Mehrtens, and Jo-Philipp Wich. Excited
to join Conservancy today, on behalf of the committee, Jo-Philipp stated:
“The OpenWrt team is proud to continue our work towards internet software
freedom as a Conservancy member project. Conservancy's commitment to
software freedom and its nonprofit expertise make it a natural fit for
OpenWrt. We look forward to improving our project's organization and
securing the future development and availability of FOSS embedded router
firmware together”.


Even before OpenWrt's joining today, Conservancy collaborated in other ways
with the OpenWrt project, including many regular contributors to OpenWrt
joining Conservancy's GPL Compliance Project for Linux
Developers. Conservancy also often uses OpenWrt's porting status on various
models as a reference to assess GPL compliance status in the wireless router
market. Formalizing our various connections in this new way is an exciting
step for OpenWrt and Conservancy, and we all look forward to doing more to
advance the state of software freedom for wireless device users.

About OpenWrt:

The OpenWrt Project is a Linux-based operating system targeting embedded
devices. Instead of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt
provides a fully writable filesystem with package management. This frees you
from the application selection and configuration provided by the vendor and
allows you to customize the device through the use of packages to suit any
application. For developers, OpenWrt is the framework to build an
application without having to build a complete firmware around it; for users
this means the ability for full customization, to use the device in ways
never envisioned.

About Software Freedom Conservancy:

Conservancy is a resourceful, non-profit organization dedicated to helping
people take control of their computing experience by growing the software
freedom movement, supporting community-driven alternatives to proprietary
software and defending free software builders with practical
initiatives. Conservancy believes that the future of software should be for
everyone, and in particular, home users of small electronic devices such as
wireless routers.

Social Media posts:
 https://twitter.com/conservancy/status/1304115454189826048
 https://mastodon.technology/@conservancy/104841893326002148

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