Free As In Freedom

Bradley and Karen discuss types of copyleft generally and introduce the basics of license compatibility and -or-later clauses. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:38) This show discusses copyleft and basic issues of license compatibility (04:09) Karen mentioned an episode of the old Software Freedom Law Show, Episode 0x08, where Bradley and Karen discussed selecting a FLOSS license and what the various options are. (04:45) license compatibility 06:28 Bradley incorrectly said that the original Emacs license didn't have the word General in it. However, the other explanations appear to be correct. There's a useful history page that someone wrote about the history of GPL. It appears the non-general GNU copylefts existed from 1984-1988. (06:57) Karen noted that the Library GPL was renamed to the Lesser GPL which happened in 1999. (09:30) Bradley mentioned that when he and RMS worked on the GNU Classpath Exception, Bradley suggested it be called the

Bradley and Karen discuss non-commercial-only commons licenses, particularly the CC-By-NC license, and how they compare to Free Culture and Free Software licenses, and why some authors pick NC licenses instead of Free Culture/Software ones. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:36) Listeners seeking a show on how to select a Free Software license, differences between copyleft and non-copyleft, and how they interact with copyright are encouraged to listen to episode 0x08 of the old Software Freedom Law Show which covered these topics. Please write in again if that show doesn't cover your questions on the issue. (02:10) Bradley reminisced about the crass “Brian and O'Brien” show on Baltimore's B-104 Gary Huddles who was notorious locally in Baltimore because he was implicated in Maryland's version of the 1980s Savings and Loan scandals. (03:30) Karen mentioned that freedomdefined.org is the source for the Free Culture definition that defines what licenses are Free Culture licenses.

Bradley and Karen discuss a few corrections from previous shows, and then discuss misunderstandings about the GPL regarding “revocation” of the GPL. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:34) Bradley issued a correction regarding FaiF 0x06. Christopher Allan Webber mentioned that FSF sometimes accepts copyright assignments in cases where the entire code base is not assigned. (02:40) Karen issued a correction regarding FaiF 0x04 about women being hired to be at the party, but in fact that was not the case, despite being mentioned in this article. Karen's paper on Medical Devices was linked to from a ZD Net UK blog. (05:48) Bradley mentioned this Android bug regarding mis-sent SMS, which was widely covered in the press. Apparently the bug has been resolved upstream, somewhat disproving Bradley's point. (08:40) Segment 1 (12:19) Bradley is quoted in an article about revocation of the GPL (12:35). The story was originally covered on slashdot. (13:17) The WinMTR site now says: By

Bradley and Karen discuss the inclusion of ZFS GPLv2-or-later code inclusion into GNU GRUB. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:35) Bradley and Karen discussed the inclusion of ZFS code now included in GRUB, as the GRUB Project announced and was covered at LWN by Jonathan Corbet. It's not mandatory that GNU projects have assignment to the FSF. The GNU Maintainer's guide discuss the requirements when items are assigned to FSF. (14:40) FSF requires that the entire codebase be assigned once GNU project maintainers choose to assign copyrights. Conservancy's policy on copyright assignment differs here; Conservancy will accept partial copyright assignment. (16:07) Bradley mentioned the COBOL front end to GCC that is not in the main GCC codebase because it is not copyright assigned to FSF. (17:40) Bradley and Karen discussed the Squeak relicensing last call. (25:49) Bradley posted a comment to Corbet's article. (32:30) Final (45:45)

Bradley and Karen welcome special co-presenter and guest, Aaron Williamson, to discuss the OpenBSD email regarding purported FBI backdoors. In the main segment, they discuss the amicus brief filed by SFLC (where Aaron and Karen work) in the Global-Tech Appliances v. SEB USA Supreme Court case. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:37) Aaron brought up a message forwarded to the OpenBSD developers list by Theo de Raadt. This story has been covered widely online. (02:50) Aaron mentioned that Glyn Moody wrote a blog post about what issues about “Open Source” security this raises. (04:06) Bradley mentioned the gnuftp/Savannah site crack that occurred in 2003 and its security implications. Those seeking more information on this can read the slashdot coverage, Savannah forum posts, the CERT advisory and even the missing files still on the GNU FTP site. (05:21) Bradley again mentioned Thompson's hack which he loves to m

In this episode of Free as in Freedom, Karen and Bradley discuss in the first segment recent press coverage of sexist attitudes at Free Software conferences, and in the second segment, discuss the public filings related to the Novell sale. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:40) Karen and Bradley discuss an article called The Dark Side of Open Source Conference, which was covered some in the tech press, in press outside of technology. Deb Nicholson wrote a blog post about it, as did Valerie (the original article's author. (01:06) Bradley mentioned his blog post where he discussed issues of gender equality across all Computer Science, not just the Free Software community. (05:29) Karen mentioned Kirrily “Skud” Robert. (10:27) Segment 1 (32:18) There was an announcement that Novell will be sold (32:15) Karen mentioned that Andy Updegrove blogged twice on the subject (32:30) Karen talked about the 8K filing that Nov

Karen and Bradley discuss the debates regarding Apple's online store restrictions that make it impossible to distribute GPL'd software via Apple's store. Then, they discuss question the usefulness of the term “Open Core” Note: Bradley's audio was too low compared to Karen's on this episode. We're still sorting out our recording issues, and apologize for this. This is completely Bradley's fault: don't blame Producer Dan. :) Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:34) Karen mentioned first Brett's statement on the VLC mailing list, although that is toward the end of the story that was covered last month. (05:30) Bradley mentioned that the story started with FSF's enforcement regarding Apple's distribution of GNU Go in Apple's application store. (05:54) Don't confused GNU Go (the game) with Google Go (the programming language). Bradley pointed out that Google did assign some of its copyright on the language Go, for the GCC frontend for t

Karen and Bradley discuss Stormy Peters' departure from the GNOME Foundation, an issue of deep confusion regarding copyright licensing, and references to Spock in a recent court decision. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:35) Bradley confirmed the entire show is licensed CC-By-SA 3.0. (02:30) Stormy Peters is leaving the position of GNOME Foundation's Executive Director. (04:10) The GNOME Advisory Board is a group of for-profit and non-profit organizations that meet regularly to give advice to GNOME Foundation. (04:34) Stormy is going to a job at the Mozilla Foundation. (09:10) You don't have to be a developer to become a member of the GNOME Foundation. (09:57) Bradley mentioned that he did an FSF booth at COMDEX Chicago in early 2001 (which Bradley incorrectly called CES Chicago in the recording). (12:20) Segment 1 (15:43) A LiveJournal post introduced an interesting issue of copyright confusion. (16:30) Karen mentioned the

Bradley and Karen discuss the new license of their show, multi-platform Free Software projects and conferences Bradley attended this month. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:32) All recordings for the first 0x01 attempt had an annoying audio buzz. (01:18) The Free as in Freedom oggcast is now licensed CC-By-SA 3.0 Unported (03:10) Karl Fogel is Executive Director of Question Copyright. (03:35) Karen mentioned the Free Culture definition. (08:22) Larry Lessig presented to an FSF Members Meeting using Mac. (09:22) Bradley and Karen argued about whether or not OpenOffice.org and/or Firefox run better on non-GNU/Linux systems than on GNU/Linux. (18:00) Bradley and Karen argued about whether or not otherwise proprietary company control of Free Software causes problems by default. (21:10) Segment 1 (27:00) Lara Moy got Ubuntu running on her Mac hardware. (27:30) Bradley attended the jQuery Conference Boston 2010 (28:30) Bradley was at the Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit. (36:26) Send feedba

Bradley and Karen announced that the Software Freedom Law Show is over. Karen and Bradley announced a new show, called Free as in Freedom, that will not be affiliated with any specific organization (although Bradley and Karen keep all their various affiliations themselves. :). Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:28) Bradley mentioned OsamaK is not happy at Bradley and Karen for not having a new oggcast for a month. (00:45) Bradley no long works at the Software Freedom Law Center. He now works full time at the Software Freedom Conservancy. (02:00) Bradley thinks everything related to FLOSS should be called “Software Freedom”. (03:10) Karen and Bradley mention that many people in the software freedom world are involved in multiple organizations. (04:00) Karen is an officer and lawyer to Software Freedom Conservancy. (04:30) Conservancy provides non-profit infrastructure and services. (05:10) Conservancy helps software freedom projects focus on development, and aggregate projects into one pl