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Free as in Freedom
January 14, 2021
Summary
Software Freedom Conservancy filed multiple exemptions in the USA
Copyright Office Triennial Rulemaking Process under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA). In this episode, Karen and Bradley explore the
details of Conservancy's filing to request permission to circumvent
technological restriction measures in order to investigate infringement of
other people's copyright, which is a necessary part of investigations of
alleged violations of the GPL and other copyleft licenses.
This show was released on Thursday 14 January 2021; its
running time is 00:51:45.
Show Notes
Segment 0 (00:39)
●Bradley claims that you'll now love the audcast more than ever
(02:51)
●Conservancy filed many exemptions as part of the currently ongoing
triennial DMCA Process. (02:50)
Segment 1 (04:22)
●Everyone in the Free Software community wishes the USA's Digital
Millennium Copyright Act didn't exist. (05:24)
●Bradley is currently doing research going to the year 1790 that shows
the foundations of the copyright act, but Karen points out that Bradley
isn't a professional copyright historian (yet). He points out he
isan amateur copyright historian (05:45)
●DMCA is the USA's implementation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT),
but is more a restrictive copyright act than the WCT requires. (06:50)
●Bradley mentioned that the three videos from the Copyright Office,
which
are linked to from Conservancy's blog post on the subject that, while
they are Copyright Office propaganda, that are helpful to explain the
DMCA (10:57):
●
A Legal Overview of § 1201 (PDF slides only).
●The Triennial Rulemaking Process for §1201 (PDF slides only).
●Streamlined Petitions for Renewed Exemptions (PDF slides only).
●Conservancy filed the most
exemption requests in the 2020/2021 Rulemaking Process (21:25)
Segment 2 (28:07)
●Conservancy filedanexemption request
and a “Long
Form” comment in support of it that was labeled
“Class 16: Computer Programs &—; Copyright License Investigation”
by the Copyright Office (29:00)
●Bradley
mentioned that people can get arrested just for giving talks under the DMCA,
referring to Dmitry Sklyarov. Adobe simply called the FBI and got him
arrested under DMCA. (38:50)
Segment 3 (34:36)
If you are a Conservancy Supporter as well as being a FaiFCast listener,
you can join this
mailing list to receive announcements of live recordings and attend
them through Conservancy's Big Blue Button (BBB) server.
Tags: faif, copyright, copyleft, Conservancy
March 31, 2020
Summary
The first live podcast of Free as in Freedom, hosted at SeaGL
2019 in November 2019. Hear questions from the studio audience and
answers from Bradley and Karen.
This show was released on Tuesday 31 March 2020; its
running time is 1:21:02.
Show Notes
Segment 0 (00:38)
Producer Dan speaks on mic to introduce that this is a live show.
Segment 1 (01:17)
●This is a live show from SeaGL 2019, a
community-organized FaiP
(02:15)
●Carol Smith from Microsoft asked about being a charity in the USA
under recent tax changes regarding tax deduction and, and asked about Conservancy's
annual fundraiser which had completed by the time this show
was released. (04:53)
●Deb took a photo during the show (07:30)
●A questioner asked about the so-called “ethical but-non-FOSS
licenses”. Bradley gave an answer that is supplemented well by
this blog post (10:15) and Karen mentioned at CopyleftConf
2020 there was a discussion about this. (15:15) The follow up question
was also related to these topics (15:44).
●Eric Hopper asked about how Conservancy decides when a project joins,
and what factors Conservancy considers in projects joining (18:14)
●A written questioner asked how to handle schools requiring proprietary
software as part of their coursework. (22:00)
●Michael Dexter asked about Karen's teaching at Columbia Law
School. (27:25)
●A written questioner asked about copyleft-next's
sunset clause. (29:22) Karen mentioned “Copyleft, All wrongs
reversed” as it appeared on n June 1976 on Tiny BASIC, which
inspired the term copyleft to mean what it does today. (30:45)
●Karen spoke about the issues of copyright and trademark regarding
Disney, that is supplemented by
this blog post. (32:52)
●Carol Smith asked what Karen and Bradley thought were Conservancy's
and/or FOSS' biggest achievements in the last decade. (35:20) Karen
mentioned Outreachy was a major
success. (37:08)
●A questioner asked about using the CASE Act to help in GPL
enforcement. Bradley discussed how it might ultimately introduce problems
similar to arbitration
clauses. (41:42) Since the podcast was recorded, the CASE Act has
also passed the Senate, but does not seem to have been signed by the
President. (47:30)
●Bradley noted that Mako Hill has pointed out that FOSS
has not been involved in lobbying enough. (48:10)
●A questioner in the audience asked about the Mozilla Corporation
structure would allow Mozilla to do lobbying for FOSS. (50:57) Karen
explained the Mozilla corporate legal structure (51:35).
●A questioner in the audience asked about Mako
Hill's keynote and how individuals can help further the cause of software
freedom. (54:53)
●Michael Dexter asked if software patents are still as much of a threat as
they once were. (1:01:30)
●Carol asked about the supreme court hearing the Oracle v. Google case
(1:09:04)
Tags: faif, Conservancy
November 12, 2019
Summary
Karen and Bradley discuss the end to Microsoft's e-book platform and
generally the dangers and disasters that Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM) cause for software users and developers.
This show was released on Tuesday 12 November 2019; its
running time is 00:46:57.
Show Notes
Karen and Bradley discuss the end to Microsoft's e-book platform and
generally the dangers and disasters that Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM) cause for software users and developers.
Segment 0 (00:35)
●Bradley mentioned that Microsoft ended
their e-book platform. He said this was “last month” but
we ended up releasing this show late, so it was in August 2019
(01:31).
●Bradley mentioned the analog hole. (09:50)
●Karen discussed the exception
process under DMCA, which Conservancy
participated in regarding “Smart” TVs. (12:30)
●Bradley mentioned this historical
burning of the Library of Alexandria as a Roman weapon, comparing it
to DRM. (15:07)
●Bradley talked about how Netflix
and Microsoft used Silverlight initially as the method of DRM, and
that Microsoft was a leader in the entertainment industry in providing DRM
(20:00)
Segment 1 (26:31)
●Bradley and Karen discuss how DRM and other lock-down of devices,
including medical devices, are creating problems in society generally.
●Karen noted that the role of for-profit companies is not to
safeguard the public interest. (41:10)
●Bradley mentioned you can turn
off DRM on the Google Play store for your book (as the
publisher). (43:04)
Tags: faif, microsoft, Conservancy
April 2, 2019
Summary
Bradley and Karen discuss and critique the new initiative by the Linux Foundation called
CommunityBridge. The podcast includes various analysis that expands
upon their
blog post about Linux Foundation's CommunityBridge.
This show was released on Tuesday 2 April 2019; its
running time is 00:47:17.
Show Notes
Segment 0 (00:36)
●Conservancy helped Free Software Foundation and GNOME Foundation begin
fiscal sponsorship work. (07:50)
●Conservancy has always been very coordinated with Software in the
Public Interest, which is a FOSS fiscal sponsor that predates Conservancy. (08:26)
●Conservancy helped NumFocus get started as a fiscal sponsor by providing
advice. (08:53)
●The above are all 501(c)(3) charities, but there are also 501(c)(6)
fiscal sponsors, such as Linux Foundation and Eclipse
Foundation. (10:00)
●Bradley mentioned that projects that are forks can end up in different
fiscal sponsors, such as Hudson
being in Eclipse Foundation, and Jenkins
being associated with a Linux Foundation sub-org. (10:30)
●Bradley mentioned that any project — be it SourceForge, GitHub, or
Community Bridge — that attempts to convince FOSS developers to use
proprietary software for their projects is immediately suspect
(12:00)
●Open Collective, a
for-profit company seeking to do fiscal sponsorship (but attempting to
release their code for it) is likely under the worst
“competitive” threat from this initiative. (19:50)
Segment 1 (21:23)
●Projects that use CommunityBridge are
required to act in the common business interest of the Linux Foundation
members. (27:30)
●Board of Directors seats at the Linux Foundation are for sale,
according to their by-laws. (28:50)
●Bradley advises that you should not put anything copylefted into
CommunityBridge — given Linux Foundation's position on copyleft and
citing the ArduPilot/DroneCode example. (29:50)
●CommunityBridge appears to
only allow governance based on the “benevolent dictator for life
model” (31:40), at least with regard to who controls the money
(34:30)
●Bradley mentioned the LWN
article about Community Bridge. (33:22)
Segment 2 (36:54)
●Karen mentioned that CommunityBridge also purports to address
diversity and security issues for FOSS projects. (37:00)
●Bradley mentioned the code hosted on k.sfconservancy.org and also the Reimbursenator
project that PSU students wrote. (42:00)
Segment 3 (42:44)
Bradley and Karen discuss (or, possibly don't) discuss what's coming up
on the next episode. Fact of the matter is that this announcement wasn't written yet when we recorded this episode and we weren't sure if 0x65 would be released before or after that announcement was released. We'll be discussing that topic on 0x66.
Tags: faif, licensing, Conservancy, Linux Foundation
November 1, 2016
Summary
Bradley and Karen discuss Conservancy's ContractPatch Initiative that
will help Free Software developers negotiate their agreements with employers.
This show was released on Tuesday 1 November 2016; its
running time is 00:50:29.
Show Notes
Segment 0 (00:38)
●Software Freedom Conservancy has two blog
posts
and a mailing
list to discuss the Contract Patch initiative (02:40).
●Bradley searched for the NPR story he mentioned but just couldn't find it,
but he did fine a
similar one covering terms of service agreements (08:30)
●Karen mentioned the the Outreachy
Project of Conservancy. (09:30)
●The Google
Map API ToS states that you have to pay for it after a certain amount of
usage (17:30)
●Bradley mentioned the book, What
Color Is Your Parachute? (24:30)
●The “put it in writing” commercials from AT&T and MCI. (46:44)
Tags: faif, commercial, Conservancy
September 21, 2016
Summary
Bradley and Karen discuss Conservancy's conference trips and
presentations during the first half of 2016.
This show was released on Wednesday 21 September 2016; its
running time is 00:53:28.
Show Notes
Segment 0 (00:38)
●Bradley attended and spoke at FOSDEM 2016 and LinuxConf Australia 2016
(03:10)
●Bradley and Karen co-coordinated the FOSDEM 2016 Legal and Policy
Issues DevRoom (04:43)
●Tom Marble did an interview-format
discussion with Richard M. Stallman at FOSDEM 2016 (04:55)
●Bradley gave two talks at FOSDEM 2016,
Copyleft For the Next Decade: A Comprehensive Plan for the GPL
and A
Beautiful Build: Releasing Linux Source Correctly (06:40)
●Richard
Fontana gave a talk at FOSDEM 2016 entitled Open source
foundations: threat or menace? (08:15)
●The Doge
take on FOSDEM 2016 Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom was Much
politics. Many peoples.
(11:00)
●There was a Conservancy Supporter event at the Novotel
Grand Place in Brussels at FOSDEM 2016. (14:00)
●Bradley gave a talk at
LCA 2016. (15:20)
●Karen gave
the closing keynoteatLibrePlanet 2016, entitled
Companies, free software, and you . (16:54)
●Karen Sandler gave a talk
at the Linux Foundation's Embedded Linux Conference 2016 entitled
Tales of Enforcement (27:00)
●Karen gave a talk at
at
the Postgres Conference in New York. (34:26)
●Bradley and Karen were both on a panels at OSCON. (35:00)
●Bradley and Karen flipped burgers (vegan ones and otherwise) at the OSCON 2016 party. (39:30)
●Bradley gave a keynote at OSS
2016. (45:05)
●Bradley spoke at two user groups in Norway as well. He hasn't made
the blog post he mentioned yet, but plans to. (45:50)
●Karen mentioned Episode 0x4A which
discussed the OpenStack CLA debate. (50:50)
Tags: faif, OSCON, conferences, FOSDEM, Conservancy
August 18, 2016
Summary
Bradley and Karen discuss the plan for restarting Free as in
Freedom and plans for episodes to come.
This show was released on Thursday 18 August 2016; its
running time is 00:26:59.
Show Notes
Segment 0 (00:36)
●Bradley said in the before time
— in the long long ago
,
which is a reference to the South Park
parody of the ST:TOS episode, Miri (01:30)
●Bradley mentioned when Karen
Sandler left the GNOME Foundation and took over
Bradley's old job as Executive Director of Conservancy. (02:20)
●Karen mentioned that Bradley used to
be Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, a position now held
by John Sullivan. (03:25)
●Dan blogged
about his illness, details ofscheduling surgery, which he occurred
successfully. (10:28)
●Karen mentioned the Conservancy Supporter program
discussed in detail on Episode 0x57. (12:40)
●Bradley mentioned the short
lived Jon Masters Linux Kernel Mailing List Summary
Podcast. (14:45)
●Karen and Bradley discussed Video Killed the
Radio Star by the Buggles, and Bradley attempted to mention this version which he
likes better. (17:36)
●Bradley mentioned
Kantian Ethics (20:05)
●Bradley mentioned the Portlanda skit, Rent it Out from
S04E02 (20:24)
●Karen mentioned WellDeserved: A
Marketplace for Privilege (20:38)
Tags: faif, Conservancy
November 24, 2015
Summary
Free as in Freedom host Christopher Allan Webber interviews
Karen Sandler and Bradley Kuhn about their work on copyleft and at
Software Freedom Conservancy. You
can become a Supporter
of this work!
This show was released on Tuesday 24 November 2015; its
running time is 00:26:10.
Show Notes
●Bradley mentioned Cygnus
Solutions, ultimately acquired by Red Hat, which was an early
for-profit supporter of copylefted projects.
●Bradley and Karen discussed the VMware
lawsuit.
●Chris Webber
wrote this blog post in response to a Shane Curcuru, who is VP of Brand
Management at the Apache Software Foundation, anti-copyleft talk at OSCON
2015. Shane's talk is consistent with Apache
Software Foundation's historical and recent
anti-copyleft positions (12:23)
Tags: faif, licensing, copyleft, Conservancy
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0x6B: GPL Enforcement Investigation DMCA Exemption Request