The GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers is comprised of copyright holders in the kernel, Linux, who have contributed to Linux under its license, the GPLv2. These copyright holders have formally asked Conservancy to engage in compliance efforts for their copyrights in the Linux kernel.
Historically, Conservancy was well-known for its ongoing license compliance efforts on behalf of its BusyBox member project. In May 2012, Conservancy announced a coordinated compliance effort on behalf of its BusyBox and Samba projects, and also launched this unique project, called the GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers, which handles compliance and enforcement activities on behalf of more than a dozen Linux copyright holders.
Conservancy's GPL Compliance Project is run in a collaborative manner with the project developers. All copyright holders involved have the opportunity to give input and guidance on Conservancy's strategy in dealing with compliance issues. Thus, all Conservancy's compliance matter have full support of relevant copyright holders.
Conservancy is dedicated to encouraging all users of software to comply with Free Software licenses. Toward this goal, in its compliance efforts, Conservancy helps distributors of Free Software in a friendly spirit of cooperation and participation. In this spirit, Conservancy also sponsors the Copyleft and the GNU General Public License:A Comprehensive Tutorial and Guide, in collaboration with the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which Conservancy formally launched in fall 2014. The Guide includes tutorial materials about copyleft and compliance with copyleft licenses that has been developed and improved since 2002. Conservancy and FSF develop the Guide, which is itself copylefted, collaboratively in public.
Those who are interested in how Conservancy handles GPL enforcement and compliance work should read in detail our blog post outlining the compliance process.
If you are aware of a license violation or compliance issue regarding Linux, or any Conservancy member project (and in particular BusyBox, Evergreen, Inkscape, Mercurial, Samba, Sugar Labs, or Wine), please contact us by email at <compliance@sfconservancy.org>.
Finally, Conservancy welcomes donations in support of the GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers. Just use the PayPal link on this page or any of our other donation methods listed. Be sure to mention “GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers” in the memo line or description field of the donation.
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