Software Freedom Conservancy News

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 02:02:00 -0500

This past weekend at FOSDEM, Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) announced an innovative new community tool in the software right to repair: Use The Source. Use The Source is an elegant collaborative platform for users to catalog, find and test source code candidates for real products to verify their reproducibility and reinstallability. Users can discuss whether their device's software is repairable, so they know if the device can be fixed or updated, especially to fix security vulnerabilities or otherwise adapt it to their needs.

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 23:32:19 -0500

This year's fundraiser went right up to the last hour; thanks to all of you for supporting the work we do, and showing us we're on the right track. We're so thankful for meeting our biggest match yet, $161,729 and $1,942 additional raised for a total of $325,400! Our Sustainers and donors showed particular interest in promotion and defense of copyleft, including our case against Vizio, as well as in our work On Outreachy. Funding our organization leads directly to more compliance action and more initiatives to further software freedom for all of us.

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 23:51:18 -0500

Photo CC-BY Outreachy

Celebrating 14 Years of Impact

In 2023, Outreachy marked a significant milestone in its 14-year journey by welcoming over 1,000 interns into the open source community. This remarkable achievement was commemorated through a series of 6 local celebrations across various countries and 3 virtual events, showcasing the global reach of Outreachy's impact. The celebrations served as a testament to the diversity and inclusivity that Outreachy champions.

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 13:55:14 -0500

A very welcome victory in our case against Vizio was presented last week. Judge Sandy Leal denied Vizio's Motion for Summary Judgment, allowing the case to proceed in state court. The Order echoes SFC arguments in court that the claim is not preempted by copyright law and that consumers like SFC have standing to enforce the GPL as third-party beneficiaries to the GPL — without any action by copyright holders of copylefted code.

SFC counsel and Policy Fellow posing outside the courthouse - CC BY-SA 4.0

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:02:02 -0500

In the case of Green v. Department of Justice, filed in 2016 concerning section 1201 of the DMCA, Software Freedom Conservancy — along with Public Knowledge, The Digital Right to Repair Coalition, iFixit, The Open Source Hardware Association, and Jonathan Askin, Aaron Perzanowski, and Anthony Rosborough — all joined an amicus curiae brief led by Charles Duan in support of the defendant. The DMCA includes many incredibly harmful policies. In particular, for almost 20 years, the DMCA has allowed overbroad corporate control of our technology in the name of copyright. Particularly harmful are the Draconian §1201-backed TPMs (“technological protection measures”) — which have curtailed and nearly eliminated these core rights of ownership:

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 17:24:19 -0500

We at Software Freedom Conservancy are proud to be supported by individuals who find the mission of providing ethical technology for all worth investing in. Your support is what lets us develop free and open source alternatives to proprietary technologies like being the home to Inkscape, OpenWrt, Git and many others, support copyleft compliance, and run Outreachy, which just hosted its 1000th intern this year! It's the continued support of individuals which enables our work to protect us all from incursion of our digital rights and freedoms.

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 07:44:28 -0400

This week, Software Freedom Conservancy responded to the United States Copyright:baccarat liveM?i quy?n ???c b?o l?u cho trang web ch��nh th?c Office's request for comments to better understand how so-called generative AI systems present new challenges and concerns to copyright. SFC's comments, prepared primarily by our Policy Fellow, Bradley M. Kuhn and Director of Compliance, Denver Gingerich, addressed the unique issues raised in relation to copyleft-licensed materials and the implications of their use in training set materials.

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -0400

SFC lawyers posing outside the courthouse - CC BY-SA 4.0

Last Thursday, Software Freedom Conservancy took the next step in our ongoing litigation to liberate the complete, corresponding source code for Vizio televisions. Our lawyers argued on our behalf the core legal issues at the center of our case against VIzio. The motion and responses were filed in the weeks prior to the hearing and in-person oral arguments took place before Judge Sandy N. Leal of the Superior Court of California, County of Orange on Thursday, October 5, 2023.

Software Freedom Conservancy News

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 13:00:00 -0400

Both Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) are committed to defending and expanding software freedom and the rights of people to use, understand, share and improve their software.