Karen Sandler Delivered Keynote at Linux.conf.au

February 2, 2018

At Linux.conf.au (LCA) last week, Conservancy's Executive Director Karen Sandler delivered a keynote "Six Years Later, or Hey, did you ever get the source code to that thing in your heart?" In her first LCA keynote 6 years ago, Karen first told the people of LCA about her heart condition and the defibrillator that she needed to have implanted. This year she described her continued quest to receive the source code for the software running in her defibrillator, and how far she has been able to get in obtaining the source code that she's been requesting for over a decade now.

Karen discussed the continued impact that non-free software is having and will have on society, as people entrust more of their lives to it, whether that be in their self-driving cars or the litany of home appliances they have that are all starting to talk to each other, and how we can help curtail some of these problems through legislation and promoting free software licenses like the GPL.

Earlier in the conference, Karen hosted a well-attended Q&A session on GPL compliance, providing a space for people to ask about what Conservancy is working on in this area and discuss questions about GPL compliance and enforcement in a less public setting. Topics included the different ways in which Conservancy enforces the GPL as well as Conservancy's Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement.

LCA is one of the largest community-organized free software conferences, taking place each year at a different venue in Australasia. You can watch Karen's full keynote on our YouTube channel.