Software Freedom Conservancy
Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit charity that helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to focus on what they do best — writing and improving FLOSS for the general public — while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that do not relate directly to software development and documentation.
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Recent News
Donors Challenge Conservancy Supporters with Largest Match Yet
November 25, 2019
We’ve been challenged by a group of amazing individuals and Private Internet Access to raise a total of $113,093 during this fundraising season. These are folks who believe in software freedom and believe in Conservancy. This illustrious group includes; Leslie Hawthorn, Daniel Kahn Gillmor, Martin Krafft, Mark Wielaard, David Turner & Danielle Sucher, and Bdale Garbee — you'll be hearing more about them in the coming weeks on our blog.
Sign up as a Supporter now or renew your Support by January 15th and have your donation count twice!
Karen Sandler Featured on Explained
Ethics in Software is Critical
October 24, 2019
Our Executive Director, Karen Sandler was featured in today's episode of "Explained" (presented by Vox) on the topic of Coding. The episode covers the history of coding, how computing became ubiquitous and what that means for the average non-coding computer user. It's a great piece for the lay person, which is very handy for that friend or family member who doesn't really understand what software actually is.
Announcing the Second Annual CopyleftConf!
February 3rd in Brussels
October 10, 2019
Photo by Leslie Hawthorn, CC BY
Last year's event was the first ever CopyleftConf. It was great! We have some videos up and more are coming. Also, our call for proposals is open now, through the end of the month -- we'd love to hear from you.
Conservancy Asks Trademark Office to Protect Applicant's Personal Privacy
September 19, 2019
Software Freedom Conservancy today submitted a petition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) asking that Office to reconsider recent rulemaking that exposes trademark owners' personal addresses. This rulemaking has a direct impact on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects and charities (like Conservancy) that work to advance software freedom. FOSS is developed virtually, with limited budgets, and rarely does a FOSS project have office space. FOSS projects that register trademarks should not be required to disclose the personal, residential, home address of the project leaders. Furthermore, software freedom organizations are more likely to be full-telecommute organizations, in which case, the new USPTO rule requires disclosure of officers and/or directors home addresses.
Richard Stallman Does Not and Cannot Speak for the Free Software Movement
September 16, 2019
We are passionate about software freedom because we know it is a necessary precondition to safe and effective software that we can rely on in the long term. We fight for copyleft because it is a powerful tool to help us actually control the technology that is being increasingly embedded in our lives. The fight for diversity, equality and inclusion is the fight for software freedom; our movement will only be successful if it includes everyone. With these as our values and goals, we are appalled at recent statements made by the President and founder of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, in his recent email to the MIT CSAIL mailing list.
When considered with other reprehensible comments he has published over the years, these incidents form a pattern of behavior that is incompatible with the goals of the free software movement. We call for Stallman to step down from positions of leadership in our movement.
We reject any association with an individual whose words and actions subvert these goals. We look forward to seeing the FSF's action in this matter and want to underscore that allowing Stallman to continue to hold a leadership position would be an unacceptable compromise. Most importantly, we cannot support anyone, directly or indirectly, who condones the endangerment of vulnerable people by rationalizing any part of predator behavior.
Edited to add: Late this past Monday night, Richard Stallman resigned as president and from the board of directors of the FSF.
Conservancy Blog
Adventures with Proprietary Software in Disneyland
by on December 2, 2019
I'm not a big fan of Disney - I don't like the impact the company has had on copyright or the social messages that they have insinuated over the years. But I have little kids and when I was in the Los Angeles area I knew I had to take them to Disneyland. I have happy childhood memories myself of a visit there. Like my mother did when I was young, I researched everything I could about how to make the trip the most enjoyable for my kids. I planned out a route to get to the rides, what we would likely eat, even what my kids would wear. I noticed that the tickets that I got came with the ability to skip some of the lines. In order to use that part of the tickets, you had to download the Disneyland app.
Calling all Tesla owners: let's discuss the source code for the GPLed parts of your car!
by on October 30, 2019
Tesla owners are encouraged to join us in a discussion about the GPL source code for their cars. Read on to learn how!Follow Conservancy
Support Conservancy
As a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity, Conservancy relies on charitable donations for its operations. Please join 540 others and become a Conservancy Supporter today and/or donate generously to help our work!
Learn More about Conservancy
An Overview of Conservancy… Conservancy's current member projects… Services Conservancy provides to its member projects… Conservancy's unique work defending and upholding copyleft licenses (e.g., the GPL) … Conservancy's Non-Profit Accounting Project …
