155 lines
8.5 KiB
HTML
155 lines
8.5 KiB
HTML
{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}
|
|
{% block subtitle %}Copyleft Compliance Projects - {% endblock %}
|
|
{% block submenuselection %}AboutCompliance{% endblock %}
|
|
{% block content %}
|
|
<h1 id="ourwork">Conservancy's Copyleft Compliance Projects</h1>
|
|
|
|
<p>As existing donors and supporters know, the Software Freedom Conservancy
|
|
is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity registered in New York, and Conservancy
|
|
helps people take control of their computing by growing the software
|
|
freedom movement, supporting community-driven alternatives to proprietary
|
|
software, and defending free software with practical initiatives.
|
|
Conservancy accomplishes these goals with various initiatives, including
|
|
defending and upholding the rights of software users and consumers under
|
|
copyleft licenses, such as the GPL.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Free and open source software (FOSS) is everywhere and in everything; yet
|
|
our software freedom is constantly eroded. With the help of its
|
|
volunteers, <a href="/members/current/">member projects</a>,
|
|
and <a href="/about/staff/">staff</a>, Conservancy stands up for users'
|
|
software freedom via its copyleft compliance work.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Conservancy's primary work in copyleft compliance currently focuses on
|
|
our <a href="/copyleft-compliance/enforcement-strategy.html">Strategic GPL
|
|
Enforcement Initiative</a>. This initiative, <a href="/news/2020/oct/01/new-copyleft-strategy-launched-with-ARDC-grant/">launched in October 2020</a>,
|
|
represents the culmination of nearly 15 years of compliance work of
|
|
Conservancy spanning ten different fiscally sponsored projects, past lawsuits
|
|
against more than a dozen defendants, and hundreds of non-litigation
|
|
compliance actions.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>For these many years, Conservancy has always given the benefit of the
|
|
doubt to companies who exploited our good nature and ultimately simply
|
|
ignore the rights of users and consumers. In that time, the compliance
|
|
industrial complex has risen to a multi-million-dollar industry —
|
|
selling (mostly proprietary) products, services, and consulting to
|
|
companies. Yet, these compliance efforts ignore consistently the most
|
|
essential promise of copyleft — the complete, Corresponding Source
|
|
and "the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the
|
|
executable".</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>We encourage our supporters and software freedom enthusiasts everywhere to
|
|
<a href="/copyleft-compliance/enforcement-strategy.html">read our detailed
|
|
strategic plan for GPL enforcement</a> and its companion
|
|
project, <a href="/copyleft-compliance/firmware-liberation.html">our
|
|
Firmware Liberation Project</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="projects">Compliance Relationship to Fiscally Sponsored Projects</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Historically, Conservancy was well-known for its ongoing license
|
|
compliance efforts on behalf of its BusyBox member project. Today,
|
|
Conservancy does semi-regular compliance work for its BusyBox, Git, Inkscape,
|
|
Mercurial, Samba, QEMU and Wine member projects. If you are a copyright
|
|
holder in any member project of Conservancy, please contact the project's
|
|
leadership committtee,
|
|
via <a href="mailto:PROJECTNAME@sfconservancy.org"><PROJECTNAME@sfconservancy.org></a>
|
|
for more information on getting involved in compliance efforts in that
|
|
project.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="linux">GPL Compliance Project For Linux Developers</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>In May
|
|
2012, <a href="/news/2012/may/29/compliance/">Conservancy
|
|
launched</a> the <cite>GPL
|
|
Compliance Project for Linux Developers</cite>, which handles compliance and
|
|
enforcement activities on behalf of more than a dozen Linux copyright
|
|
holders.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers is comprised of copyright
|
|
holders in the kernel, Linux, who have contributed to Linux under its
|
|
license, <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html">the
|
|
GPLv2</a>. These copyright holders have formally asked Conservancy to engage
|
|
in compliance efforts for their copyrights in the Linux kernel. In addition,
|
|
some developers have directly assigned their copyrights on Linux to Conservancy,
|
|
so Conservancy also enforces the GPL on Linux via its own copyrights in Linux.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Linux copyright holders who wish to assign copyright to or sign an enforcement agreement with
|
|
Conservancy should
|
|
contact <a href="mailto:linux-services@sfconservancy.org"><linux-services@sfconservancy.org></a>.
|
|
In 2016,
|
|
Conservancy <a href="/news/2016/nov/03/linux-compliance-agreements/">made
|
|
public the template agreements used as part of this project</a>; both the
|
|
<a href="/docs/blank_linux-enforcement-agreement.pdf">non-anonymous</a> and
|
|
<a href="/docs/blank_anonymous-linux-enforcement-agreement.pdf">anonymous</a>
|
|
versions are available. However, please <strong>do not</strong> sign these
|
|
unilaterally without contacting and discussing
|
|
with <a href="mailto:linux-services@sfconservancy.org"><linux-services@sfconservancy.org></a>
|
|
first.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="debian">The Debian Copyright Aggregation Project</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>In August 2015, <a href="/news/2015/aug/17/debian/">Conservancy announced the Debian Copyright Aggregation
|
|
Project</a>. This project allows Debian contributors to assign copyrights to
|
|
Conservancy, or sign enforcement agreements allowing Conservancy to enforce
|
|
Free and Open Source (FOSS) licenses on their behalf. Many Debian contributors
|
|
have chosen each of these options already, and more continue to join.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Debian contributors who wish to assign copyright to or sign an enforcement agreement with
|
|
Conservancy should contact <a href="mailto:debian-services@sfconservancy.org"><debian-services@sfconservancy.org></a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="commitment">Conservancy's Commitment to Copyleft License Compliance</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>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 has co-published,
|
|
with the Free Software Foundation (FSF), <a href="/copyleft-compliance/principles.html">the principles that both organizations
|
|
follow in their compliance efforts</a>.
|
|
Also in collaboration with the FSF, Conservancy also sponsors
|
|
the <a href="https://copyleft.org/guide/"><cite>Copyleft and the GNU
|
|
General Public License:A Comprehensive Tutorial and Guide</cite></a>,
|
|
which <a href="/news/2014/nov/07/copyleft-org/">formally
|
|
launched in fall 2014</a>. The Guide includes tutorial materials about
|
|
copyleft and compliance with copyleft licenses,
|
|
including <a href="https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidepa2.html"><cite>A
|
|
Practical Guide to GPL Compliance</cite></a>. The materials
|
|
on <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a> have been developed and
|
|
improved since 2002, and are themselves copylefted, and developed
|
|
collaboratively in public.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>However, the Guide is admittedly a large document, so for those who are
|
|
interested in a short summary of describing how Conservancy handles GPL
|
|
enforcement and compliance
|
|
work, <a href="/blog/2012/feb/01/gpl-enforcement/">this blog post outlining
|
|
the compliance process</a> is likely the best source.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="reporting">Reporting GPL Violations To Us</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>If you are aware of a license violation or compliance issue regarding
|
|
Debian, Linux, or any <a href="/members/current/">Conservancy member
|
|
project</a> (— in particular BusyBox, Git, Inkscape, Mercurial,
|
|
Samba, Sugar Labs, or Wine),
|
|
please <a href="mailto:compliance@sfconservancy.org">contact us by email at
|
|
<compliance@sfconservancy.org></a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<!--- FIXME: bkuhn is rewriting this blog post fresh the weekend of --
|
|
2020-07-18 so we need not link to ebb.org anymore when we roll out
|
|
these changes -->
|
|
|
|
<p>If you think you've found a GPL violation, we encourage you to
|
|
read <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2009/11/08/gpl-enforcement.html">this
|
|
personal blog post by our Policy Fellow, Bradley M. Kuhn</a>, about good
|
|
practices in discovering and reporting GPL violations. (We'd also like
|
|
someone to convert the text of that blog post into a patch for
|
|
<a href="http://compliance.guide">The Compliance Guide on
|
|
copyleft.org</a>; submit it
|
|
via <a href="https://k.copyleft.org/guide/">k.copyleft.org</a>.)</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2 id="support">Donate to Support This Work</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Finally, Conservancy welcomes <a href="#donate-box"
|
|
class="donate-now">donations</a> in support of our GPL Compliance Projects,
|
|
and we encourage you to become a <a href="/supporter/">an official
|
|
Supporter of Software Freedom Conservancy</a>. </p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
{% endblock %}
|