Software Freedom Conservancy is a nonprofit organization
centered around ethical technology. Our mission is to ensure the
right to repair, improve and reinstall software. We promote and
defend these rights through fostering free and open source
software (FOSS) projects, driving initiatives that actively make
technology more inclusive, and advancing policy strategies that
defend FOSS (such as copyleft).
Our work on copyleft
compliance, including enforcement of the General Public
License (GPL), is world-renowned. We believe fundamentally that
copyleft licenses are the best tool available today to empower
users and consumers to take control of their electronic devices,
liberate themselves from planned obsolesce, and join a free market
where they choose who provides their software.
We also believe that FOSS functions best when built by a
egalitarian community in which hobbyists, volunteers, and
individuals stand on equal footing with companies and large
organizations. Vendor neutrality is simply not enough — as
that merely makes companies equal to each other and leaves
hobbyists and volunteers out in the cold. To foster FOSS creation
in this manner, we are the non-profit home to
dozens of member projects and initiatives whom we assist to
remain transparent and prioritize the public good in their
development of FOSS.
Furthermore, diversity and inclusion is a critical component to
egalitarian FOSS communities. We acknowledge that FOSS
communities historically have struggled on these fronts and the
myth of “pure meritocracy” so popular in FOSS circles
willfully ignores the systemic biases in our societies and
cultures. We are thus the proud home of
the Outreachy initiative that
offers paid internships in FOSS for contributors who have faced
systemic bias in their efforts to join the FOSS community.
