Free As In Freedom

Come to FOSSY 2023! Show Notes: FOSSY 2023 will happen next week in Portland, OR, USA. Send feedback and comments on the cast to <[email protected]>. You can keep in touch with Free as in Freedom on our IRC channel, #faif on irc.freenode.net, and by following Conservancy on identi.ca and and Twitter. Free as in Freedom is produced by Dan Lynch of danlynch.org. Theme music written and performed by Mike Tarantino with Charlie Paxson on drums. The content of this audcast, and the accompanying show notes and music are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 4.0 license (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Karen and Bradley discuss two other DMCA exemptions filed by Software Freedom Conservancy during the 2020/2021 Triennial Rulemaking Process at the copyright office: one for wireless router firmwares and one for privacy research. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:39) Supporters of Conservancy can join this mailing list to hear and see live recordings of every show! Segment 1 (06:30) Conservancy filed a DMCA exemption request for wireless routers, and updated it with their long comment on the issue. NPR's Planet Money had a show that discussed how recycling plastic in the USA was somewhat of a large con game funded by the plastics industry. Both audio a transcript is available. (19:32, 20:44) Segment 2 (29:10) Bradley and Karen discuss the third exemption request that Conservancy filed, for research to find privacy flaws, and updated it with a long comment on the issue. Karen and Bradley noted that individuals can file reply comm

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. 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

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. 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 as

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. 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 in

Bradley and Karen enjoy and discuss Molly De Blanc's keynote at the first annual CopyleftConf, entitled The Margins of Software Freedom, followed by an exclusive interview with Molly! Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:37) Bradley mentioned (without the title) the film, When a Stranger Calls, which is indeed a real movie, not a TV movie, and was from the late 1970s — although Bradley saw it on TV sometime in the 1980s. (02:15) Segment 1 (04:11) A recording of Molly De Blanc's keynote at the first annual (2019) CopyleftConf, entitled entitled The Margins of Software Freedom. Slides for Molly's talk are available on her gitlab account. Segment 2 (20:11) Bradley and Karen talk about the keynote and set up the interview. Segment 3 (23:56) Extended interview with Molly from on site at CopyleftConf 2019! Segment 4 (34:06) Bradley and Karen discuss what ideas Molly's interview got them thinking about. Bradley wrote a blog p

Bradley and Karen discuss two additional permissions that can be used to “backport” the GPLv3 Termination provisions to GPLv2 — the Kernel Enforcement Statement Additional Permission, and the Red Hat Cooperation Commitment. A blog post on Conservancy's site summarizes the discussion on this show. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:35) Bradley mentioned irregardless is not actually a word, but it does appear to be slang, which dates back to 1795! (03:23) The additional permission system was codified as a formal part of GPLv3, but are generally more informal under GPLv2. (05:24) Karen explained what the Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement. (07:49) Karen mentioned that Daleks terminate! (08:51) Segment 1 (13:04) Bradley mentioned the inbound=outbound FOSS licensing contributor assent system (18:15) Segment 2 (26:10) Karen and Bradley discuss the term “non-defensive” and what

Bradley and Karen discuss the details of the completion of the lawsuit (which Conservancy supported) between Christoph Hellwig and VMware in Germany. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:37) Bradley mentioned the episode of Red Dwarf, White Hole, where the characters are speaking too slowly or two quickly due to time differentials. (01:30) Bradley explained that the Hellwig vs. VMware suit in Germany has concluded. (03:30) German is a civil law legal system. (05:15) Christoph Hellwig announced on his website that he has decided not to appeal. (07:18) Bradley did a technical analysis how much of Christoph's code appeared in the infringing VMware product. (07:50) Till Jaeger was Christoph's lawyer; Till was also the lawyer for Harald Welte's (currently defunct) gpl-violations.org project. (09:04) Segment 1 (09:26) “Trolling” refers to being a non-practicing entity. Patrick McHardy is specifically a practi

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. 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 mentione

Bradley and Karen interview their own producer, Dan Lynch, on site at Copyleft Conf 2019. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:46) Karen now teaches teaches a course at Columbia University. (03:40) In addition to being the producer of Free as in Freedom, Dan Lynch was the host of Rat Hole Radio, the co-host of Linux Outlaws, and currently co-hosts Hollywood Outlaws. (04:30) Segment 1 (5:19) Dan helps co-organize Oggcamp which is having its tenth-anniversary event on Saturday 19 October 2019. (08:00) Bradley mentioned the phrase from IT Crowd quote: Did you see that ludicrous display last night? (11:08) Dan talked about The Manchester Ship Canal. (13:16) Dan promoted Hollywood Outlaws where he and his co-host Fab talk about Bosch. (23:18) Dan promoted his own podcast about comics called Tales of the Unattested. (23:27) Dan Lynch has a personal website, which has his blog. (23:55) Bradley ref

In their final installment regarding their joint keynote at FOSDEM 2019, entitled: Can Anyone Live in Full Software Freedom Today?: Confessions of Activists Who Try But Fail to Avoid Proprietary Software, you listeners can hear the final product — a recording of the actual FOSDEM keynote. Afterwards, Karen and Bradley compare notes on what went wrong and what went right (but mostly what went wrong) during the talk. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:00:35) Bradley and Karen talk logistics of how the talk is embedded in the audio. Segment 1 (00:04:14) The audio in this segment taken directly from the video of Karen and Bradley's FOSDEM 2019 opening keynote, entitled Can Anyone Live in Full Software Freedom Today? Confessions of Activists Who Try But Fail to Avoid Proprietary Software, which was given . If you'd rather watch the video, you can do so via FSODEM's video site in either webm format or in mp4 format. Segment 2 (0

Bradley and Karen have the last pre-talk installment of discussing the preparation for their joint keynote at FOSDEM 2019, entitled: Can Anyone Live in Full Software Freedom Today?: Confessions of Activists Who Try But Fail to Avoid Proprietary Software. This episode is the third of three episodes where Bradley and Karen record their preparation conversations for this keynote address. In this particular episode, they discuss the issue of letting others use proprietary software on your behalf, the problem of relying too much on that, and then finish up discussing with how they'll include this material into the final talk. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:34) Karen discussed the idea of a shabbos goy, and the analogy between that and allowing other people use proprietary on your behalf. (02:58) Bradley and Karen discussed that it is equally abhorrent to ask someone else to use proprietary software for you as it is to use yoursel

Bradley and Karen continue the process of preparing their joint keynote at FOSDEM 2019, entitled: Can Anyone Live in Full Software Freedom Today?: Confessions of Activists Who Try But Fail to Avoid Proprietary Software. This episode is the second of three episodes where Bradley and Karen record their preparation conversations for this keynote address. In this particular episode, they discuss the golden age in history when they used very little proprietary software, and then discuss the beginning of their personal Dark Ages of using some proprietary software. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:35) Bradley mentioned The Who's destruction of their instruments and his discomfort with it in relation to computers. (06:10) Bradley and Karen mentioned their long-time use of the HTC Dream (07:30) Bradley mentioned that he helped start the Replicant project, but his primary contribution was its name. (08:24) Segment 1 (12:34) Karen me

Bradley and Karen pull back the curtain and begin the process of preparing their joint keynote at FOSDEM 2019, entitled: Can Anyone Live in Full Software Freedom Today?: Confessions of Activists Who Try But Fail to Avoid Proprietary Software. This episode is the first of multiple episodes where Bradley and Karen record their preparation conversations for this keynote address. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:36) Bradley and Karen discuss the plan to do prep for their FOSDEM keynote “on air” as part of FaiF broadcasts. Segment 1 (07:13) Bradley read out the abstract from Bradley and Karen's keynote, Can Anyone Live in Full Software Freedom Today? Confessions of Activists Who Try But Fail to Avoid Proprietary Software at FOSDEM 2019. (circa 10:00) This started for Bradley with the HTC Dream, and Karen's struggle started with her heart device (10:42) Bradley and Karen discussed how they plan to organize their FOSDEM 2019 joint keynot

Bradley and Karen return, as promised, in 2018 (just barely)! They discuss the many non-FOSS and otherwise software-freedom-unfriendly licenses that have been promulgated in 2018. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:36) Bradley and Karen discuss ideas for what to do with the oggcast going forward. Segment 2 (07:49) Bradley mentioned the field of endeavor restriction in Open Source Defintion. (09:20) Bradley mentioned how badly Amazon treats its workers who pack boxes, which was widely reported this month (10:22). Bradley referenced that someone changed attempted to change a license on a project to prohibit use by USA border protection agents. This was the Lerna project, and Bradley wrote a blog post about it earlier this year. (12:14) Bradley mentioned the controversy about the new MongoDB license, the SS Public License, which Bradley also wrote a blog post about earlier this year (14:09) karen reports that many people at the Sustain OSS Confe

Bradley and Karen discuss Conservancy's ContractPatch Initiative that will help Free Software developers negotiate their agreements with employers. 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) Send feedback and comments on the cast to <[email protected]>. You can keep in touch with Free as in Freedom on our IRC channel, #faif on irc.freenode.net, and by following Conservancy

Bradley and Karen discuss Conservancy's conference trips and presentations during the first half of 2016. 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)

Bradley and Karen give a basic introduction of copyright licensing of Open Source and Free Software. Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:35) Bradley mentioned the phrase “fixed in a tangible medium” which appears in the USA copyright law. (03:10) Bradley mentioned the Sherman Antitrust act. (04:05) Bradley mentioned the card game Pit (04:15) Bradley jokingly quoted Mit Romney's famous gaffe, “Corporations are people, my friend.” (04:44) Bradley read Title 17, the USA Copyright act many times. (06:50) Bradley mentioned the court case, UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. v. Berkeley Software Design, Inc., which resulted in releasing the parts of BSD that could be Free Software. (12:27) Bradley mentioned the FSF's Free Software Definition (13:11) Bradley mentioned OSI's Open Source Definition (13:16) Apparently, the problem of categorization is called Categorization in Philosophy. (14:30) The issue of Open Source not being trademarked is discussed in this essay by

Bradley and Karen discuss the plan for restarting Free as in Freedom and plans for episodes to come. 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 of scheduling 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

Bradley and Karen discuss Conservancy's Debian Copyright Aggregation project. (Note: While it was released just after DebConf16, this episode was recorded well before DebConf16; the discussions about DebConf refer to DebConf15.) Show Notes: Segment 0 (00:38) Note: While it was released just after DebConf16, this episode was recorded well before DebConf16; the discussions about DebConf refer to DebConf15. Bradley mentioned his talk at DebConf. This was recorded before DebConf 16, so Bradley is talking about DebConf 15, which was summarized in this blog post and his keynote from DebConf15. A video of that talk is available. (02:00) Bradley mentioned this bug about the copyright notice on the Debian website (07:47) Ian Jackson asked about bequeathing copyright at Bradley's talk. (15:45) Send feedback and comments on the cast to <[email protected]>. You can keep in touch with Free as in Freedom on our IRC channel, #faif on irc.freenode.net, and