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