January 14, 2021

0x6B: GPL Enforcement Investigation DMCA Exemption Request

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 is an 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 filed an exemption 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

0x6A: Live Show from SeaGL 2019

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

0x69: Microsoft's E-Book Platform and Other DRM Disasters

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

0x65: Linux Foundation's Community Bridge

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

0x5E: Conservancy's ContractPatch Initiative

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

0x5D: Conference Report, 1st Half of 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 keynote at LibrePlanet 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

0x59: Audio Killed the Video Star

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 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 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

0x57: Support Conservancy Now!

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