Sandler Invited to Korean Open Source Conference

by Deb Nicholson on June 21, 2018

The schedule includes a mix of talks on interacting with open source licenses and the evolving undertanding of fair use in the digital age. Karen will give an overview of historic GPL enforcement by Conservancy and FSF as well as other community-focused efforts and discuss how adherence to the Principles of Community Oriented GPL-Enforcement has led to the various initiatives in the industry to reduce risk for corporate actors.

Sandler gives her talk at 4:30 (local time) on the 28th. Swing by or tell your friends in Seoul!

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Tags: conservancy, GPL, conferences

Catch up with Conservancy at the Southeast Linuxfest this Weekend!

by Deb Nicholson on June 5, 2018

Conservancy's Director of Community Outreach, Deb Nicholson, will appear this weekend at Southeast Linuxfest (SELF) on Saturday morning at 10:15am. Her presentation, “FOSS Governance: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” will cover do's and don'ts for setting up sustainable governance for small and medium-sized FOSS projects. The sessions will also be livestreamed for the first time this year.

Conservancy will also have a table at SELF on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So, if you're attending the 10th anniversary of SELF in Charlotte this weekend, be sure to swing by and say hello!

SELF is a community conference dedicated to providing a forum for locals folks to learn more about free and open source software. It's also a great opportunity for us to talk about our work with some new folks. If you're able to help us at the table; hanging out with other Conservancy supporters, talking to attendees about the Conservancy and giving out stickers, please contact us at <supporters@sfconservancy.org> — Thanks!

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Tags: conservancy, events

Conservancy and Bro Announce End to Bro's Member Project Status

by Conservancy + Bro LT on June 4, 2018

Software Freedom Conservancy, a charity that provides a home to free and open source software projects, and the Bro Leadership Team announce that the Bro Project, an open source network traffic analysis framework, will end its status as a Conservancy member project.

During its time with Conservancy the Bro project successfully raised funds and spent them effectively to support the community. For example, Conservancy helped Bro manage a substantial MOSS grant, which created an ecosystem for Bro community contributions through the new Bro package manager & repository. Conservancy also supported three conferences as well as smaller workshops, helped acquire trademarks for the project, and assisted in many other ways. In recognition of all of this work, the Bro Leadership Team is donating $10,000 to the Conservancy’s general fund to aid them in their ongoing efforts to promote and support software freedom and provide a home to other member projects.

The mutual decision for Bro to leave Conservancy is a result of the changing nature of Bro’s community of core contributors, and the diminished fit between the rapidly growing project and Conservancy’s charitable goals and corresponding services. Conservancy will assist Bro moving back to the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI)—the project’s previous home for more than a decade.

When the Bro project first joined Conservancy more than three years ago, the project was primarily a collaboration between two different academic institutions: ICSI and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). At that time, Bro’s development was funded mostly through substantial awards by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), who set out to advance Bro into a powerful security tool for the nation’s education environments and scientific institutions.

Today, the Bro community looks different. With the NSF funding winding down, the team at the NCSA that heavily contributed to Bro for nearly a decade has significantly reduced their work on the project. Most of the core team of Bro is now affiliated with Corelight, placing the company at the center of Bro’s future development—which mismatches Conservancy’s charitable mission. While Bro’s strong footing in the academic community remains, the Bro user community overall has expanded from the public sector to the private sector. This shift has also been reflected in Bro conference attendance. These successes and rapid changes have led to an evolution of the project such that its trajectory is less of an apt match to Conservancy’s goals and services.

Going forward, ICSI will once again provide the Bro Leadership Team with asset and financial management as the project moves into a new phase of its life cycle. The Bro Leadership Team will continue to steer the project’s overall direction as an independent entity working in the best interest of Bro’s large and diverse open-source community, and Conservancy is fully committed to helping Bro transition smoothly to its new home.

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Tags: conservancy, Member Projects

Update on Trademark Action (Fraud Claim Dismissed, New Filing)

by Bradley M. Kuhn on April 30, 2018

As per our commitment to transparency, here's a brief update on the trademark action we have discussed previously.

On Thursday, the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board (TTAB) dismissed SFLC's claim of fraud against Conservancy, as we predicted.

This sensible ruling is just the next step of many; the suit will proceed at the usual near-glacial pace of litigation. On Friday, we moved to the next procedural step, which is to ask the TTAB to allow us to update our answer as planned.

UPDATE: as of 2018-08-24, the Summary Judgement motion is refiled and pending before the TTAB.

We continue steadfast in our previous position: the entire matter remains a waste of resources for both organizations, and SFLC should do the honorable and right thing and simply withdraw their complaint.

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Tags: conservancy