blog/data/2015-11-30-software-freedom-conservancy-support.txt

   1 Title: The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust
   2 Tags: english, opphavsrett, debian, debian edu
   3 Date: 2015-11-30 09:55
   4
   5 <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
   6 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
   7 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
   8 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
   9 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
  10
  11 <blockquote>
  12
  13 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
  14
  15 <blockquote>
  16 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
  17
  18 The first step is to choose a
  19 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
  20 code.<br/>
  21
  22 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
  23 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
  24
  25 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
  26 work<br/>
  27
  28 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
  29 </blockquote>
  30
  31 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
  32 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
  33 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
  34 0x57</a></small></p>
  35
  36 <p>As the Debian Website
  37 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
  38 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
  39 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
  40 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
  41 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
  42 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
  43 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
  44 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
  45 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
  46 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
  47 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
  48 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
  49 Freedom">FaiF</a>
  50 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
  51 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
  52 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
  53 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
  54 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
  55 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
  56 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
  57 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
  58 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
  59 In March the SFC supported a
  60 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
  61 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
  62 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
  63 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
  64 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
  65 conferences
  66 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
  67 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
  68 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
  69 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
  70 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
  71 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
  72 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
  73 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
  74 Software.</p>
  75
  76 <p>If you support Free Software,
  77 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
  78 what the SFC do, agree with their
  79 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
  80 principles</a>, are happy about their
  81 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
  82 work on a project that is an SFC
  83 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
  84 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
  85 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
  86 Allan Webber</a>,
  87 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
  88 Smith</a>,
  89 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
  90 Bacon</a>, myself and
  91 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
  92 becoming a
  93 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
  94 next week your donation will be
  95 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
  96 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
  97 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
  98 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
  99 social media accounts.</p>
 100
 101 </blockquote>
 102
 103 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
 104 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
 105 supporter too?</p>