Free Software Foundation (FSF)

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OpenMRS Receives Free Software Award For Projects Of Social Benefit

Press Release | OpenMRS | March 23, 2013

OpenMRS, an Indianapolis-based free software platform for Health IT in the developing world, has received the 2012 Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit. Read More »

7 Notable Legal Developments in Open Source in 2016

In 2012 the jury in the first Oracle v. Google trial found that Google's inclusion of Java core library APIs in Android infringed Oracle's copyright. The district court overturned the verdict, holding that the APIs as such were not copyrightable (either as individual method declarations or their "structure, sequence and organization" [SSO]). The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, applying 9th Circuit law, reversed, holding that the "declaring code and the [SSO] of the 37 Java API packages are entitled to copyright protection." The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case, and in 2016 a closely watched second trial was held on Google's defense of fair use. In May 2016 the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Google...

7 Reasons Why Free Software Is Losing Influence

Bruce Byfield | Datamation | November 22, 2011

Five years ago, when most of the Java code was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), Sun Microsystems took care to enlist the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in the announcement, collecting approving statements from Richard Stallman, the president of the FSF, and Eben Moglen, its legal counsel. Read More »

7 Reasons Why Free Software Is Losing Influence

Bruce Byfield | Datamation | November 22, 2011

Five years ago, when most of the Java code was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), Sun Microsystems took care to enlist the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in the announcement, collecting approving statements from Richard Stallman, the president of the FSF, and Eben Moglen, its legal counsel.

Read More »

A Whirlwind Tour Of All The Connected Sites That Form The World Of Open Source Social Networks

People want to communicate over the internet as easily as they do in real life, with similar protections but, potentially, farther reach. In other words, people want to be able to chat with a group of other people who aren't physically in the same location, and still maintain some control over who claims ownership of the conversation. In today's world, of course, a lot of companies have a lot to say about who owns the data you send back and forth over the world wide web. Most companies seem to feel they have the right to govern the way you communicate, how many people your message reaches, and so on. Open source, luckily, doesn't need to own your social life, and so appropriately it's open source developers who are delivering a social network that belongs, first and foremost, to you.

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Copyleft Can’t Undo Copyright

Matt Jacobs | Open Source Delivers | October 10, 2012

As Black Duck’s in-house counsel, I talk to many lawyers representing our customers and in the Global 2000 generally. I’ve found that there is a common misperception around the impact of the GPL on IP that is worth clearing up. Read More »

Do We Still Need The FSF, GNU and GPL?

Glyn Moody | The H Open | June 13, 2011

It's easy to take things for granted – to assume that the world will always be as it is. And then sometimes you receive a mild jolt: some new information appears that makes you sit up and reconsider your preconceptions. Here's one jolt I received recently: Read More »

Free Software Foundation Gives New iPhones The Bargepole Treatment

Dave Neal | The Inquirer | September 12, 2013

THE UNCOMPROMISING Free Software Foundation (FSF) looks unlikely to adopt the latest Apple iPhones and roll them out across its organisation. Read More »

Free Software Foundation to offer seminar on GPL enforcement and legal ethics

Richard Fontana | opensource.com | March 12, 2014

The Free Software Foundation will be providing a half-day legal seminar titled "GPL Enforcement and Legal Ethics", taking place on Monday, March 24 at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Read More »

FSF Uses Unproven Compliance Issue to Promote GPLv3

Brian Proffitt | IT World | August 22, 2011

The Free Software Foundation (FSF), in its quest to promote version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GPL) over the GPLv2, has joined the chorus of observers who have made broad hints that vendors within the Android operating system ecosystem are guilty of some violation of the GPLv2. Read More »

Further defining 'Free' and/or 'Open Source' Software

The battle continues over the correct definitions of 'Free' and/or 'Open Source' Software (FOSS). For many readers who don't follow this issue closely, it's time to take another look at the subject.

According to the GNU organization and the Free Software Foundation (FSF)'Free' Software is not about price – it's about liberty and freedom.. Read More »

GPL, Copyleft Use Declining Faster Than Ever

Brian Proffitt | IT World | December 16, 2011

A new analysis of licensing data shows that not only is use of the GPL and other copyleft licenses continuing to decline, but the rate of disuse is actually accelerating. That was the conclusion of Matthew Aslett's analysis of recent data from Black Duck Software, which shows that while use of the GPL, LGPL, and AGPL set of copyleft licenses dominates free and open source projects, that us Read More »

Interview With Free Software Foundation Executive Director Zoë Kooyman

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) started promoting the idea of sharing code way back in 1985, and since then it's defended the rights of computer users and developers. The FSF says that the terms "open" and "closed" are not effective words when classifying software, and instead considers programs either freedom-respecting ("free" or "libre") or freedom-trampling ("non-free" or "proprietary"). Whatever terminology you use, the imperative is that computers must belong, part and parcel, to the users, and not to the corporations that owns the software the computers run. This is why the GNU Project, and the Linux kernel, Freedesktop.org, and so many other open source projects are so important.

Microsoft In OPEN-SOURCE .Net Love-In With New Foundation

Neil McAllister | The Register | April 4, 2014

Microsoft has opened its .Net programming framework to the developer community by releasing the code for a broad range of .Net-related software as open-source projects under the stewardship of a new, dedicated foundation.  The surprise announcement came during the Thursday keynote at Redmond's annual Build developer conference, taking place this week in San Francisco.

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Mozilla Announces Second Set of COVID-19 Solutions Fund Recipients

Press Release | Mozilla | June 8, 2020

Innovations spanning food supplies, medical records and PPE manufacture were today included in the final three awards made by Mozilla from its COVID-19 Solutions Fund. The Fund was established at the end of March by the Mozilla Open Source Support Program (MOSS), to offer up to $50,000 each to open source technology projects responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In just two months, the Fund received 163 applicants from 30 countries and is now closed to new applications.

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