Free Software Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman
on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement
, a copyleft
-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software
. The FSF is incorporated in Massachusetts
, USA
.
From its founding until the mid-1990s, FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software
for the GNU Project
. Since the mid-1990s, the FSF's employees and volunteers have mostly worked on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community
.
Consistent with its goals, only free software
is used on FSF's computers.
system, such as GNU Compiler Collection
. As holder of these copyrights, it has the authority to enforce the copyleft
requirements of the GNU General Public License
(GPL) when copyright infringement
occurs on that software. While other copyright holders of other software systems adopted the GPL as their license, FSF was the only organization to regularly assert its copyright interests on software so licensed until Harald Welte
launched gpl-violations.org
in 2004.
From 1991 until 2001, GPL enforcement was done informally, usually by Stallman himself, often with assistance from FSF's lawyer, Eben Moglen
. Typically, GPL violations during this time were cleared up by short email exchanges between Stallman and the violator.
In late 2001, Bradley M. Kuhn
(then Executive Director), with the assistance of Moglen, David Turner, and Peter T. Brown
, formalized these efforts into FSF's GPL Compliance Labs. From 2002-2004, high profile GPL enforcement cases, such as those against Linksys
and OpenTV
, became frequent.
GPL enforcement and educational campaigns on GPL compliance was a major focus of the FSF's efforts during this period.
In December 2008 FSF filed a lawsuit against Cisco
for using GPL-licensed components shipped with Linksys
products. Cisco was notified of the licensing issue in 2003 but Cisco repeatedly disregarded its obligations under the GPL. In May 2009 FSF dropped the lawsuit when Cisco agreed to make a monetary donation to the FSF and appoint a Free Software Director to conduct continuous reviews of the company's license compliance practices.
From 2003 to 2005, FSF held legal seminars to explain the GPL and the law around it. Usually taught by Bradley M. Kuhn
and Daniel Ravicher
, these seminars offered CLE credit
and were the first effort to give formal legal education on the GPL.
: The original purpose of the FSF was to promote the ideals of free software. The organization developed the GNU
operating system as an example of this.
GNU licenses: The GNU General Public License
(GPL) is a widely used license for free software projects. The current version (version 3) was released in June 2007. The FSF has also published the GNU Lesser General Public License
(LGPL), the GNU Free Documentation License
(GFDL), and the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL).
GNU Press: The FSF's publishing department, responsible for "publishing affordable books on computer science using freely distributable licenses."
The Free Software Directory
: This is a listing of software packages that have been verified as free software. Each package entry contains 47 pieces of information such as the project's homepage, developers, programming language, etc. The goals are to provide a search engine for free software, and to provide a cross-reference for users to check if a package has been verified as being free software. FSF has received a small amount of funding from UNESCO
for this project. It is hoped that the directory can be translated into many languages in the future.
Maintaining the Free Software Definition : FSF maintains many of the documents that define the free software movement.
Project hosting: FSF hosts software development projects on their Savannah
website.
Political campaign
s : FSF sponsors a number of campaigns against what it perceives as dangers to software freedom, including software patent
s, digital rights management
(which the FSF has re-termed "digital restrictions management", as part of their effort to highlight their view that such technologies are "designed to take away and limit your rights,") and user interface copyright. Defective by Design
is an FSF-initiated campaign against DRM. They also have a campaign to promote Ogg
+Vorbis
, a free alternative to proprietary formats
like MP3
and AAC
. They also sponsor some free software projects that are deemed to be "high-priority".
Annual awards: "Award for the Advancement of Free Software" and "Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit"
The FSF maintains a list of "high priority projects" to which the Foundation claims that "there is a vital need to draw the free software community
's attention". The FSF considers these projects "important because computer users are continually being seduced into using non-free software, because there is no adequate free replacement."
Previous projects highlighted as needing work included the Free Java implementations
, GNU Classpath
, and GNU Compiler for Java, which ensure compatibility for the Java part of OpenOffice.org
, and the GNOME
desktop environment (see Java: Licensing).
The effort has been criticized for either not instigating active development or for there only being slow work being done, even after certain projects were added to the list.
is:
Previous board members include:
The FSF Board of Directors is elected by the Voting Membership, whose powers include at least this are outlined in the by-laws:
There are currently no known documents available that indicate the composition of the FSF's Voting Membership.
John Sullivan is the current FSF Executive Director. Previous members that occupied the position were Peter Brown (2005-2010) and Bradley Kuhn (2001-2005).
At any given time, there are usually around a dozen employees. Most, but not all, work at the FSF headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.
Eben Moglen
and Dan Ravicher previously served individually as pro bono
legal counsel to the FSF. Since the forming of the Software Freedom Law Center
, legal services to the FSF are provided by that organization.
On November 25, 2002, the FSF launched the FSF Associate Membership program for individuals. Bradley M. Kuhn
(FSF Executive Director, 2001–2005) launched the program and also signed up as the first Associate Member
Associate members hold a purely honorary and funding support role to the FSF.
alleging that IBM's contributions to various free software
, including FSF's GNU
, violated SCO's rights. While FSF was never a party to the lawsuit, FSF was subpoena
ed on November 5, 2003. During 2003 and 2004, FSF put substantial advocacy effort into responding to the lawsuit and quelling its negative impact on the adoption and promotion of free software.
accused the FSF of presenting factual errors on the front page of their PlayOgg campaign and accused the author of deliberately attempting to misinform.
Ed Bott stated that the FSF's reference to Microsoft being ordered to pay Alcatel-Lucent
$1.5 billion in a MP3 patent lawsuit was "an outright lie" because, although Microsoft was in fact found guilty and ordered to pay for infringing on their patent, the verdict was later reversed.
Ed Bott also criticized an alleged reference to software such as RealPlayer
, Windows Media Player
and iTunes
as being formats instead of software, claiming that it was FUD
. He also referred to the statement that those software titles spied on users as being "FUD in its purest form" and were "pretty serious accusation to make with no factual backup", in spite of widely reported privacy issues in RealPlayer, iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Linus Torvalds
has criticized FSF for using GPL3 as a weapon in their fight against DRM. Torvalds argues that the issue of DRM and that of a software license should be treated as two separate issues.
On June 16, 2010, Joe Brockmeier, a journalist at Linux Magazine
, criticized the campaigning practices of the FSF, calling their campaigns such as Defective by Design
, "negative" and "juvenile" and not being adequate for providing users with "credible alternatives" to proprietary software.
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement
Free software movement
The free software movement is a social and political movement with the goal of ensuring software users' four basic freedoms: the freedom to run their software, to study and change their software, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. The alternative terms "software libre", "open...
, a copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
. The FSF is incorporated in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
From its founding until the mid-1990s, FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
for the GNU Project
GNU Project
The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984...
. Since the mid-1990s, the FSF's employees and volunteers have mostly worked on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community
Free software community
The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...
.
Consistent with its goals, only free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
is used on FSF's computers.
GPL enforcement
The FSF holds the copyrights on many pieces of the GNUGNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
system, such as GNU Compiler Collection
GNU Compiler Collection
The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain...
. As holder of these copyrights, it has the authority to enforce the copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
requirements of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(GPL) when copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
occurs on that software. While other copyright holders of other software systems adopted the GPL as their license, FSF was the only organization to regularly assert its copyright interests on software so licensed until Harald Welte
Harald Welte
Harald Welte is a programmer resident in Berlin, Germany. Within the free software community, Welte is well known as a hacker of the Linux kernel and for his activities in enforcing the GNU General Public License , the license that governs the use of much of free software.Welte is also involved in...
launched gpl-violations.org
Gpl-violations.org
The gpl-violations.org is a not-for-profit project founded and led by Harald Welte in 2004. It works to make sure software licensed under the GNU General Public License is not used in ways prohibited by the license.-Goals:...
in 2004.
From 1991 until 2001, GPL enforcement was done informally, usually by Stallman himself, often with assistance from FSF's lawyer, Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, whose client list includes numerous pro bono clients, such as the Free Software Foundation....
. Typically, GPL violations during this time were cleared up by short email exchanges between Stallman and the violator.
In late 2001, Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn is a free software activist from the United States.Kuhn is currently Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Until 2010 he was the FLOSS Community Liaison and Technology Director of the Software Freedom Law Center . He previously served as the Executive Director of...
(then Executive Director), with the assistance of Moglen, David Turner, and Peter T. Brown
Peter T. Brown
Peter T. Brown was the Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation from 2001 until early 2011. He began working for the organization as a controller, and was promoted to Executive Director in 2005 after the departure of Bradley Kuhn. He was replaced by William John Sullivan. He has since...
, formalized these efforts into FSF's GPL Compliance Labs. From 2002-2004, high profile GPL enforcement cases, such as those against Linksys
Linksys
Linksys by Cisco, commonly known as Linksys, is a brand of home and small office networking products now produced by Cisco Systems, though once a separate company founded in 1995 before being acquired by Cisco in 2003...
and OpenTV
OpenTV
OpenTV is an interactive television company founded in 1994. Its main business involves the sale of set-top-box operating systems and software. On March 28, 2010 OpenTV became a fully owned subsidiary of the NAGRA Kudelski Group and officially delisted from the NASDAQ, where it was previously...
, became frequent.
GPL enforcement and educational campaigns on GPL compliance was a major focus of the FSF's efforts during this period.
In December 2008 FSF filed a lawsuit against Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
for using GPL-licensed components shipped with Linksys
Linksys
Linksys by Cisco, commonly known as Linksys, is a brand of home and small office networking products now produced by Cisco Systems, though once a separate company founded in 1995 before being acquired by Cisco in 2003...
products. Cisco was notified of the licensing issue in 2003 but Cisco repeatedly disregarded its obligations under the GPL. In May 2009 FSF dropped the lawsuit when Cisco agreed to make a monetary donation to the FSF and appoint a Free Software Director to conduct continuous reviews of the company's license compliance practices.
From 2003 to 2005, FSF held legal seminars to explain the GPL and the law around it. Usually taught by Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn is a free software activist from the United States.Kuhn is currently Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Until 2010 he was the FLOSS Community Liaison and Technology Director of the Software Freedom Law Center . He previously served as the Executive Director of...
and Daniel Ravicher
Daniel Ravicher
Daniel "Dan" Ravicher serves as Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation .-External links:* *...
, these seminars offered CLE credit
Continuing Legal Education
Continuing legal education is professional education of lawyers that takes place after their initial admission to the bar. In many states in the United States, CLE participation is required of attorneys to maintain their license to practice law...
and were the first effort to give formal legal education on the GPL.
Current and ongoing activities
The GNU projectGNU Project
The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984...
: The original purpose of the FSF was to promote the ideals of free software. The organization developed the GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
operating system as an example of this.
GNU licenses: The GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(GPL) is a widely used license for free software projects. The current version (version 3) was released in June 2007. The FSF has also published the GNU Lesser General Public License
GNU Lesser General Public License
The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
(LGPL), the GNU Free Documentation License
GNU Free Documentation License
The GNU Free Documentation License is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights to copy, redistribute, and modify a work and requires all copies and...
(GFDL), and the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL).
GNU Press: The FSF's publishing department, responsible for "publishing affordable books on computer science using freely distributable licenses."
The Free Software Directory
Free Software Directory
The Free Software Directory is a project of the Free Software Foundation . It catalogs free software that runs under free operating systems - particularly GNU and Linux. The project was formerly co-run by UNESCO....
: This is a listing of software packages that have been verified as free software. Each package entry contains 47 pieces of information such as the project's homepage, developers, programming language, etc. The goals are to provide a search engine for free software, and to provide a cross-reference for users to check if a package has been verified as being free software. FSF has received a small amount of funding from UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
for this project. It is hoped that the directory can be translated into many languages in the future.
Maintaining the Free Software Definition : FSF maintains many of the documents that define the free software movement.
Project hosting: FSF hosts software development projects on their Savannah
GNU Savannah
GNU Savannah is a project of the Free Software Foundation initiated by Loïc Dachary, which serves as a collaborative software development management system for Free Software projects. Savannah currently offers CVS, GNU arch, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, mailing list, web hosting, file...
website.
Political campaign
Political campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...
s : FSF sponsors a number of campaigns against what it perceives as dangers to software freedom, including software patent
Software patent
Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program".In 2005, the European Patent Office...
s, digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
(which the FSF has re-termed "digital restrictions management", as part of their effort to highlight their view that such technologies are "designed to take away and limit your rights,") and user interface copyright. Defective by Design
Defective by Design
Defective by Design is an anti-digital rights management initiative by the Free Software Foundation. DRM technology, dubbed "digital restrictions management" by opponents, restricts users’ ability to freely use their purchased movies, music, literature, software, and hardware in ways they are...
is an FSF-initiated campaign against DRM. They also have a campaign to promote Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
+Vorbis
Vorbis
Vorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...
, a free alternative to proprietary formats
Proprietary formats
A proprietary format is a file format where the mode of presentation of its data is the intellectual property of an individual or organization which asserts ownership over the format. In contrast, a free format is a format that is either not recognized as intellectual property, or has had all...
like MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
and AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
. They also sponsor some free software projects that are deemed to be "high-priority".
Annual awards: "Award for the Advancement of Free Software" and "Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit"
High priority projects
Free software community
The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...
's attention". The FSF considers these projects "important because computer users are continually being seduced into using non-free software, because there is no adequate free replacement."
Previous projects highlighted as needing work included the Free Java implementations
Free Java implementations
Free Java implementations are software projects that implement Oracle's Java technologies and are distributed under free software licences, thus making them free software...
, GNU Classpath
GNU Classpath
GNU Classpath is a project aiming to create a free software implementation of the standard class library for the Java programming language. Despite the massive size of the library to be created, the majority of the task is already done, including Swing, CORBA, and other major parts. The Classpath...
, and GNU Compiler for Java, which ensure compatibility for the Java part of OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
, and the GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
desktop environment (see Java: Licensing).
The effort has been criticized for either not instigating active development or for there only being slow work being done, even after certain projects were added to the list.
Recognition
- 1999: Linus TorvaldsLinus TorvaldsLinus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...
for Open Source Computing - 2005: Prix Ars ElectronicaPrix Ars ElectronicaThe Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...
Award of Distinction in the category of "Digital Communities"
Structure
The FSF's board of directorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
is:
- Hal AbelsonHal AbelsonHarold Abelson is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, a fellow of the IEEE, and is a founding director of both Creative Commons and the Free Software Foundation....
, Founding member, Professor of Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(served from inception until March 5, 1998, and rejoined circa 2005) - Geoffery KnauthGeoffery KnauthGeoffrey S. Knauth is on the board of directors of Free Software Foundation and teaches Computer Science at Lycoming College . He contributed to the GNU Objective-C Collection library and has a degree in Economics from Harvard University.-External links:*...
, Senior Software Engineer at SFA, Inc. (served since October 23, 1997) - Henry Poole, Founder of CivicActions, a grassroots campaign technology consulting firm. (served since December 12, 2002)
- Richard StallmanRichard StallmanRichard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
, Founding President, launched the GNU projectGNU ProjectThe GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984...
, author of the GNU General Public LicenseGNU General Public LicenseThe GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(served as President since inception) - Gerald Jay SussmanGerald Jay SussmanGerald Jay Sussman is the Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He received his S.B. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from MIT in 1968 and 1973 respectively. He has been involved in artificial intelligence research at MIT since 1964...
, Professor of Computer ScienceComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(served since inception) - Benjamin Mako HillBenjamin Mako HillBenjamin Mako Hill is a Debian hacker, intellectual property researcher, activist and author. He is a contributor and free software developer as part of the Debian and Ubuntu projects as well as the author of two best-selling technical books on the subject, Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible and The...
, graduate student at the MIT Media LabMIT Media LabThe MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
. (served since July 25, 2007) - Bradley Kuhn, Executive Director of the Software Freedom ConservancySoftware Freedom ConservancyThe Software Freedom Conservancy is an organization that provides a non-profit home and infrastructure for free/open source software projects. The conservancy was established in 2006. As of June 2011, the conservancy had 26 member projects, including Boost, BusyBox, Git, Inkscape, jQuery, Samba,...
and FSF's former Executive Director (served since March 25, 2010)
Previous board members include:
- Lawrence LessigLawrence LessigLawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
, Professor of Law at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(served since March 28, 2004 until 2008) - Robert J. ChassellRobert J. ChassellRobert Chassell was one of the founding directors of Free Software Foundation in 1985. While on the Board of Directors, Chassell was also the treasurer for FSF. He left the FSF to become a full-time speaker on free software topics....
, Founding Treasurer, as well as a Founding Director (served from inception until June 3, 1997) - Len Tower Jr.Leonard H. Tower Jr.Leonard "Len" H. Tower Jr. is a free software activist and one of the founding board members of the Free Software Foundation,where he contributed to the initial releases of gcc and GNU diff. He left the Free Software Foundation in 1997....
, Founding member, served until September 2, 1997 - Miguel de IcazaMiguel de IcazaMiguel de Icaza is a Mexican free software programmer, best known for starting the GNOME and Mono projects.-Early years:Miguel de Icaza was born in Mexico City and studied at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México but never received a degree. He came from a family of scientists in which his...
(served from August 1999 until February 25, 2002.) - Eben MoglenEben MoglenEben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, whose client list includes numerous pro bono clients, such as the Free Software Foundation....
(served from July 28, 2000 until 2007)
The FSF Board of Directors is elected by the Voting Membership, whose powers include at least this are outlined in the by-laws:
There are currently no known documents available that indicate the composition of the FSF's Voting Membership.
John Sullivan is the current FSF Executive Director. Previous members that occupied the position were Peter Brown (2005-2010) and Bradley Kuhn (2001-2005).
At any given time, there are usually around a dozen employees. Most, but not all, work at the FSF headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.
Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, whose client list includes numerous pro bono clients, such as the Free Software Foundation....
and Dan Ravicher previously served individually as pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
legal counsel to the FSF. Since the forming of the Software Freedom Law Center
Software Freedom Law Center
The Software Freedom Law Center is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as Chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by...
, legal services to the FSF are provided by that organization.
On November 25, 2002, the FSF launched the FSF Associate Membership program for individuals. Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn is a free software activist from the United States.Kuhn is currently Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Until 2010 he was the FLOSS Community Liaison and Technology Director of the Software Freedom Law Center . He previously served as the Executive Director of...
(FSF Executive Director, 2001–2005) launched the program and also signed up as the first Associate Member
Associate members hold a purely honorary and funding support role to the FSF.
SCO lawsuit
In March 2003, SCO filed suit against IBMSCO v. IBM
SCO v. IBM is a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court of Utah. The SCO Group asserted that there are legal uncertainties regarding the use of the Linux operating system due to alleged violations of IBM's Unix licenses in the development of Linux code at IBM.-Summary:On March 6, 2003,...
alleging that IBM's contributions to various free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
, including FSF's GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
, violated SCO's rights. While FSF was never a party to the lawsuit, FSF was subpoena
Subpoena
A subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
ed on November 5, 2003. During 2003 and 2004, FSF put substantial advocacy effort into responding to the lawsuit and quelling its negative impact on the adoption and promotion of free software.
Criticism
On May 2, 2010, Ed Bott, author of 25 books on Microsoft Windows and Office, on ZDNetZDNet
ZDNet is a business technology news website published by CBS Interactive, along with TechRepublic and SmartPlanet. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991 as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication owned by CNET...
accused the FSF of presenting factual errors on the front page of their PlayOgg campaign and accused the author of deliberately attempting to misinform.
Ed Bott stated that the FSF's reference to Microsoft being ordered to pay Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
$1.5 billion in a MP3 patent lawsuit was "an outright lie" because, although Microsoft was in fact found guilty and ordered to pay for infringing on their patent, the verdict was later reversed.
Ed Bott also criticized an alleged reference to software such as RealPlayer
RealPlayer
RealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
, Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
and iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
as being formats instead of software, claiming that it was FUD
Fear, uncertainty and doubt
Fear, uncertainty and doubt, frequently abbreviated as FUD, is a tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda....
. He also referred to the statement that those software titles spied on users as being "FUD in its purest form" and were "pretty serious accusation to make with no factual backup", in spite of widely reported privacy issues in RealPlayer, iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...
has criticized FSF for using GPL3 as a weapon in their fight against DRM. Torvalds argues that the issue of DRM and that of a software license should be treated as two separate issues.
On June 16, 2010, Joe Brockmeier, a journalist at Linux Magazine
Linux Magazine
Linux Magazine is a European professional journal. It addresses itself to readers who work professionally with operating systems based around the Linux kernel. Linux Magazine is published by Linux New Media AG and was born after the great success of Linux-Magazin...
, criticized the campaigning practices of the FSF, calling their campaigns such as Defective by Design
Defective by Design
Defective by Design is an anti-digital rights management initiative by the Free Software Foundation. DRM technology, dubbed "digital restrictions management" by opponents, restricts users’ ability to freely use their purchased movies, music, literature, software, and hardware in ways they are...
, "negative" and "juvenile" and not being adequate for providing users with "credible alternatives" to proprietary software.
See also
- BadVistaBadVistaBadVista was a campaign by the Free Software Foundation to oppose adoption of Microsoft Windows Vista and promote free software alternatives. A follow-up to the Defective by Design campaign against digital rights management technologies, it aimed to encourage the media to make free software part of...
- Defective by DesignDefective by DesignDefective by Design is an anti-digital rights management initiative by the Free Software Foundation. DRM technology, dubbed "digital restrictions management" by opponents, restricts users’ ability to freely use their purchased movies, music, literature, software, and hardware in ways they are...
- Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
- Free Software Foundation EuropeFree Software Foundation EuropeThe Free Software Foundation Europe was founded in 2001 as an official European sister organization of the U.S.-based Free Software Foundation to take care of all aspects of free software in Europe. FSF and FSFE are financially and legally separate entities.FSFE believes that access to and...
- Free Software Foundation India
- Free Software Foundation Latin AmericaFree Software Foundation Latin AmericaFree Software Foundation Latin America is the Latin American sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation. It is the fourth sister organisation of FSF, after Free Software Foundation Europe and Free Software Foundation India...
- League for Programming FreedomLeague for Programming FreedomLeague for Programming Freedom was founded in 1989 by Richard Stallman to unite free software developers as well as developers of proprietary software to fight against software patents and the extension of the scope of copyright...
- GNU/Linux distributions supported by the FSF
- Software Freedom Law CenterSoftware Freedom Law CenterThe Software Freedom Law Center is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as Chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by...
- Hardware restrictionsHardware restrictionsHardware restrictions refers to restrictions in any device that places technical restrictions on what content can run/play on said device or what users can do with certain content. Hardware restrictions can be used with software DRM and digital signatures...