{% include "opengraph_partial.html" with url="/sustainer/" title="Support Conservancy!" description="Software freedom is critical to many of today’s most pressing social issues, but it’s only effective when FOSS is for everyone. Support Conservancy today to help make that happen!" %}
<p>We are so proud that we're funded by individuals and stay unbeholden to corporate interests and pressures. We stand up for developers, consumers and those who have been historically excluded. We work to make technology truly fair for all. </p>
<li>Standing up for consumer rights in <ahref="/copyleft-compliance/">copyleft compliance</a></li>
<li>Supporting <ahref="https://outreachy.org">Outreachy</a> with its increasing number of interns</li>
<li>Bringing <ahref="/vizio">legal action against prolific license violators</a></li>
<li>Hiring team members to get projects <ahref="https://reproducible-builds.org/news/">like Reproducible Builds</a> to continue pushing the forefront of software reproducibility</li>
and <ahref="/news/2021/oct/28/2021-DMCA-final-exemptions-win/">we won on
every single one</a>. We clarified the right to jailbreak of routers (an
essential activity of our <ahref="https://openwrt.org">OpenWrt
project</a>), won a new right to safely investigate devices for license
compliance, and helped solidify privacy-related research. Karen (our
executive director) also participated with a coalition that achieved yet
another exemption for medical devices! Our lawyer, Pam Chestek, <ahref="https://www.copyright.gov/1201/2021/hearing-transcripts/210407-Section-1201-Public-Hearing-Class-15-7a-7b.pdf#page=13">testified</a> at the DMCA
hearings on these exemptions, and confronted industry lobbyists directly as
they sought to use their extreme
wealth and legal power to harm consumers. We stridently fight their overreach — one bit at a time.</p>
<divdata-read-more="Click more for on our new staff…">
<p>At the end of last year we were able to hire <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2020/dec/02/sharp-newest-employee/">Sage Sharp</a> as Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion and they are rounding out their first year with us. And finishing up his first six months is <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/may/18/pono-introduction/">Daniel Pono Takamori</a> our Community Organizer & Non-Profit Problem Solver. These two have been very welcome additions to our team of just five full time employees, and one part time employee. We are proud of the breadth of skills and dedication of our team.</p>
<p>As a testament to "practice what you preach", we undertook what we consider a fair and equitable hiring process which our executive director Karen wrote about <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/oct/15/equitable-hiring/">here</a>. We lead by example with transparency and making sure we cast a wide net to avoid just hiring within our circles.</p>
<p>We also spent some time updating our website to make it easier to use and better convey our mission and work. Our chat platform moved to <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/jun/21/chat-options/">XMPP</a>. Bridging to IRC and Matrix is supported, so you are welcome to join with whatever client you like (unlike other loose options). As mentioned above, we are committed to using free software for communication and demonstrating that organizations of all sizes can make the same commitment.</p>
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<h3id="WritingAndSpeaking">Writing and Speaking</h3>
<divdata-read-more="Find out about our writing and speaking engagements…">
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy team members published some very important writings this year to both give further historical context and modern interpretation. Denver Gingerich wrote about the <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/mar/25/install-gplv2/">installation requirement for the GPLv2</a>. Bradley Kuhn documented the historical record in his related piece about <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/jul/23/tivoization-and-the-gpl-right-to-install/">“Tivoization” and Your Right to Install Under Copyleft</a>. And he writes about <ahref=" https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/jun/30/who-should-own-foss-copyrights/">It Matters Who Owns Your Copylefted Copyrights</a>, which garnered a lot of great community conversations. In another vein, Sage Sharp of Outreachy wrote a tremendous piece titled <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/apr/20/how-to-apologize/">So you want to apologize… Now what?</a>, which has helped explain the entire life cycle apologizing for your own behavior. We can all learn from this piece about how to act more humanely in our shared spaces of production.</p>
<p>This was another long year of online conferences. While the traveling was easier (by not doing it), we miss the face to face relationship building that we've come to expect from our big conference gatherings. We can't wait to get back to a sense of normalcy and at least have a little less latency between us.</p>
<p>Karen, our executive director, gave two keynotes this year, one at the <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2021/mar/23/karen-lailec-2021/">Leuven AI Law & Ethics Conference</a> and another at <ahref="https://conf.linuxappsummit.org/event/3/contributions/71/">Linux App Summit</a>. Karen also spoke with Marina Zhurakhinskaya at All Things Open about the 10+ year history of Outreachy. She was also an invited speaker at <ahref="https://heales.org/2021/05/28/conference-big-data-a-i-and-healthy-longevity-how-to-progress-faster-and-better-for-all-scientists-thursday-september-9-2021/">Big Data, A.I. and Healthy Longevity. How to progress faster and better for all scientists</a>.</p>
<p>Karen and Bradley were also co-organizers (with others) of the Legal & Policy Devroom at FOSDEM, where they also moderated panels and spoke. Sage Sharp spoke at the <ahref="https://chanzuckerberg.com/eoss/">Chan Zuckerberg Essential Open Source</a> event. Daniel Pono Takamori gave a talk about <ahref="http://pdxlinux.org/2021-07-01-FreeSoftware-LegacyOfCommunication.pdf">"How Free Software Continues the Legacy of Open Communication"</a> to the Portland Linux/ Unix Group.</p>
<p>We were also a sponsor of the fantastic <ahref="https://seagl.org/">SeaGL</a> event. A community focused conference that does an incredible job giving opportunities to first-time speakers (suitable for community members of all walks of life). They hosted their conference on the Matrix platform, which further proved it's possible to run a virtual conference with free software.</p>
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<h3id="HelpUs">Help us Continue this Work</h3>
<p>We are beyond thankful for ability to continue our work due to your financial contributions. We recognize that not everyone has the same financial leeway to donate as they have in the past. But please consider giving what you can so that our organization can continue to advocate and support the rights of all software users. We will continue to work as hard as we can with our small staff. And we hope that through our hard work, creativity and passionate dedication, we've demonstrated over the years how Software Freedom Conservancy continues to be the beacon of change for software freedom that the world needs. <ahref="https://sfconservancy.org/donate/">Please consider donating here.</a></p>
<imgsrc="/img/scaled-LLW-2015-Conservancy-Supporters-by-Carlo-Piana-CC-0.jpg"alt="Zack, Karen, John and Jim pose, mostly wearing the vintage t-shirt!"/>
<p>Vintage-shirt-wearing Sustainers pose with Karen! <br/>From left: Stefano “Zack” Zacchiroli, Karen M. Sandler, John Sullivan, and Jim Wright</p>
<p>We know you are sick of hearing about supply chains, global shortages, and deliveries being delayed. But we must be up front that since we have a small staff we try to batch our t-shirt orders, and given the realities of the pandemic we are somewhat behind on our t-shirt deliveries. We're working on a new t-shirt design for this year and will send everybody their shirts after the end of this fundraiser. We so appreciate everyone's patience! </p>
by <ahref="https://twitter.com/bensturmfels/status/599118574641262592">our earliest Sustainers</a> at <ahref="https://twitter.com/conservancy/status/786480068512002048">conferences and events</a>? If so, read on!</p>
<imgsrc="/img/2019-08-26_Neil-alone_GUADECSupporterNight.jpg"alt="Neil McGovern, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, wears the vintage t-shirt!"/>
<p>Neil McGovern wearing that stylish vintage shirt!</p>
