Free Software Foundation

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Free Software Foundation
AbbreviationFSF
FormationOctober 4, 1985;
39 years ago (1985-10-04) [1]
Founder Richard Stallman
Type 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Legal status501(c)(3)
PurposeComputer User Freedom (see Free software movement)
Headquarters Remote work [2]
Region served
Worldwide
MembershipIndividuals
President
 Geoffrey Knauth
Executive director
Zoë Kooyman [3]
Revenue$1,149,602 [4] (in 2020)
Expenses$1,809,358 [4] (in 2020)
Staff13 [5]
Website www.fsf.org

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman [6] on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ("share alike") terms, [7] such as with its own GNU General Public License. [8] The FSF was incorporated in Boston, [9] Massachusetts, United States, where it is also based. [10]

Contents

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 [11] and its employees and volunteers have mostly worked on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community[ which? ].

Consistent with its goals, the FSF aims to use only free software on its own computers. [12]

History

The Free Software Foundation was founded in 1985 as a non-profit corporation supporting free software development. It continued existing GNU projects such as the sale of manuals and tapes, and employed developers of the free software system. [13] Since then, it has continued these activities, as well as advocating for the free software movement. The FSF is also the steward of several free software licenses, meaning it publishes them and has the ability to make revisions as needed. [14]

The FSF holds the copyrights on many pieces of the GNU system, such as GNU Compiler Collection. As the holder of these copyrights, it has authority to enforce the copyleft requirements of the GNU General Public License (GPL) when copyright infringement occurs.

From 1991 until 2001, GPL enforcement was done informally, usually by Stallman himself, often with assistance from FSF's lawyer, Eben Moglen.[ citation needed ] Typically, GPL violations during this time were cleared up by short email exchanges between Stallman and the violator.[ citation needed ] In the interest of promoting copyleft assertiveness by software companies to the level that the FSF was already doing, in 2004 Harald Welte launched gpl-violations.org.

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. [15] [16] [17]

GPL enforcement and educational campaigns on GPL compliance was a major focus of the FSF's efforts during this period. [18] [19]

In March 2003, SCO filed suit against IBM 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 subpoenaed on November 5, 2003. [20] 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. [21] [22]

From 2003 to 2005, FSF held legal seminars to explain the GPL and the surrounding law. [23] 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. [22] [24] [25]

In 2007, the FSF published the third version of the GNU General Public License after significant outside input. [26] [27]

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. [28] In May 2009, Cisco and FSF reached settlement under which 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. [29]

In September 2019, Richard Stallman resigned as president of the FSF after pressure from journalists and members of the open source community in response to him making controversial comments in defense of Marvin Minsky on Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking scandal. [30] Nevertheless, Stallman remained head of the GNU Project and in 2021, he returned to the FSF board of directors. [31] [32] [33] [34]

Current and ongoing activities

The GNU Project

The original purpose of the FSF was to promote the ideals of free software. The organization envisaged 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." [35] [36]

The Free Software Directory

This is a list of software packages that have been verified as free software. Each package entry contains up to 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. The FSF has received a small amount of funding[ quantify ] from UNESCO for this project.

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 its Savannah website.

h-node

An abbreviation for "Hardware-Node", the h-node website lists hardware and device drivers that have been verified as compatible with free software. It is user-edited and volunteer supported with hardware entries tested by users before publication. [37] [38] [39]

Advocacy

FSF sponsors a number of campaigns against what it perceives as dangers to software freedom, including software patents, digital rights management (which the FSF and others [40] have re-termed "digital restrictions management", as part of its effort to highlight technologies that are "designed to take away and limit your rights", [41] ) and user interface copyright. Since 2012, Defective by Design is an FSF-initiated campaign against DRM. [42] It also has a campaign to promote Ogg+Vorbis, a free alternative to proprietary formats like AAC and MQA. FSF also sponsors free software projects it deems "high-priority".

Annual awards

"Outstanding new Free Software contributor", "Award for the Advancement of Free Software" and "Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit"

LibrePlanet wiki

The LibrePlanet wiki organizes FSF members into regional groups in order to promote free software activism against digital restrictions management and other issues promoted by the FSF.

High priority projects

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is a distribution officially endorsed by the FSF. Parabola-openrc-lxde-2017.11.05-dual.iso.png
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is a distribution officially endorsed by the FSF.

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". [43] 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." [43]

As of 2021, high-priority tasks include reverse engineering proprietary firmware, reversible debugging in GNU Debugger; developing automatic transcription and video editing software, Coreboot, drivers for network routers, a free smartphone operating system and creating replacements for Skype and Siri. [43]

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). [44]

The effort has been criticized by Michael Larabel for either not instigating active development or for being slow at the work being done, even after certain projects were added to the list. [45] [46]

Endorsements

Operating systems

The FSF maintains a list of approved Linux operating systems that maintain free software by default: [47]

The project also maintains a list of operating systems that are not versions of the GNU system:

Discontinued operating systems

The following are previously endorsed operating systems that are no longer actively maintained:

Hardware endorsements (RYF)

Since 2012, the FSF maintains a "Respects Your Freedom" (RYF) hardware certification program. To be granted certification, a product must use 100% Free Software, allow user installation of modified software, be free of backdoors and conform with several other requirements. [48] [49]

Structure

Board

The FSF's board of directors includes professors at leading universities, senior engineers, and founders. Current board members are: [50]


Previous board members include:

Executive directors

Executive directors include:

Voting

The FSF Articles of Organization state that the board of directors are elected. [63]

The bylaws say who can vote for them. [64]

The board can grant powers to the Voting Membership. [65]

Employment

At any given time, there are usually around a dozen employees. [66] Most, but not all, worked at the FSF headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts until August 2024 when the FSF closed its offices [67] and switched to remote work. [68]

Membership

On November 25, 2002, the FSF launched the FSF Associate Membership program for individuals. [69] Bradley M. Kuhn (FSF executive director, 2001–2005) launched the program and also signed up as the first Associate Member [70]

Associate members are primarily an honorary and funding support role. [65] In 2023, associate members gained the ability to make board nominations, along with FSF staff and FSF voting members. There is also an annual meeting of FSF members, usually during lunch at LibrePlanet, in which feedback for FSF is solicited.

Eben Moglen and Dan Ravicher previously served individually as pro bono legal counsel to the FSF. After forming the Software Freedom Law Center, Eben Moglen continued to serve as the FSF's general counsel until 2016. [71]

Financial

Most of the FSF funding comes from patrons and members. [72] Revenue streams also come from free-software-related compliance labs, job postings, published works, and a web store. FSF offers speakers and seminars for pay, and all FSF projects accept donations.

Revenues fund free-software programs and campaigns, while cash is invested conservatively in socially responsible investing. The financial strategy is designed to maintain the Foundation's long-term future through economic stability.

The FSF is a tax-exempt organization and posts annual IRS Form 990 filings online. [73]

Postal address and headquarters

Through the years the FSF has had its postal address, and until August 31st 2024 when going all remote its physical headquarters, [2] at different locations in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, as indicated in the table below.

As the GNU GPL v2 included the FSF's postal address in one of the first lines of the introduction and the source code license notice template every change of address also caused updates to the license itself.

FSF postal address and headquarters
Start DateEnd DateAddressNotes
September 1st 2024 [74] [2] Current31 Milk St # 960789
Boston, MA 02196
USA		All remote headquarters. USPS postbox in Milk Street Lobby post office [75]
May 1st 2005 [76] [77] [78] August 31st 2024
(last open to the public on the 16th)		51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1301
USA		Physical headquarters with offices, meeting room, stock and shipping facilities and kitchen [78]
1995 [77] April 30th 200559 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA		Physical headquarters

Criticism

Position on DRM

Linus Torvalds has criticized FSF for using GPLv3 as a weapon in the fight against DRM. Torvalds argues that the issue of DRM and that of a software license should be treated as two separate issues. [79]

Defective by Design campaign

On June 16, 2010, Joe Brockmeier, a journalist at Linux Magazine , criticized the Defective by Design campaign by the FSF as "negative" and "juvenile" and not being adequate for providing users with "credible alternatives" to proprietary software. [80] FSF responded to this criticism by saying "that there is a fundamental difference between speaking out against policies or actions and smear campaigns", and "that if one is taking an ethical position, it is justified, and often necessary, to not only speak about the benefits of freedom but against acts of dispossession and disenfranchisement." [81]

GNU LibreDWG license controversy

In 2009, a license update of LibDWG/LibreDWG to version 3 of the GNU GPL made it impossible for the free software projects LibreCAD and FreeCAD to use LibreDWG legally. [82] Many projects voiced their unhappiness about the GPLv3 license selection for LibreDWG, such as FreeCAD, LibreCAD, Assimp, and Blender. [83] Some suggested the selection of a license with a broader license compatibility, for instance the MIT, BSD, or LGPL 2.1. [83] A request went to the FSF to relicense GNU LibreDWG as GPLv2, which was rejected in 2012. [84]

The libDWG has stalled since 2011 for various reasons, including license issues. [85]

Accusations against Richard Stallman

Stallman resigned from the board in 2019 after making controversial comments about one of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, but rejoined the board 18 months later. [86] Several prominent organizations and individuals who develop free software objected to the decision, citing past writings on Stallman's blog which they considered antithetical to promoting a diverse community. [87] [88] As a result of Stallman's reinstatement, prominent members of the Free Software Foundation quit in protest and Red Hat announced that it would stop funding and supporting the Free Software Foundation. [87] [89]

Recognition

Key players and industries that have made honorific mention and awards include:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The FSF annual filings with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for 1998 and 1999 show that De Icaza was not on the board on 1998-11-01 and was as of 1999-11-01, so he clearly joined sometime between those dates. Those documents further indicate that the 1999 annual meeting occurred in August; usually, new directors are elected at annual meetings.
  2. ↑ The FSF annual filings with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for 1999 and 2000 show that Moglen was not on the board on November 1, 1999, and was as of November 1, 2000, so he clearly joined sometime between those dates. Those documents further indicate that the 2000 annual meeting occurred on July 28, 2000; usually, new directors are elected at annual meetings.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free software</span> Software licensed to be freely used, modified and distributed

Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.

The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU</span> Free software collection

GNU is an extensive collection of free software, which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popularly known as Linux. Most of GNU is licensed under the GNU Project's own General Public License (GPL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Project</span> Free software project

The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collaboratively developing and publishing software that gives everyone the rights to freely run the software, copy and distribute it, study it, and modify it. GNU software grants these rights in its license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eben Moglen</span> American law professor and free software advocate

Eben Moglen is an American legal scholar who is professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FSF Free Software Awards</span>

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) grants two annual awards. Since 1998, FSF has granted the award for Advancement of Free Software and since 2005, also the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

The Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is a free and open-source software license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Files licensed under the CDDL can be combined with files licensed under other licenses, whether open source or proprietary. In 2005 the Open Source Initiative approved the license. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) considers it a free software license, but one which is incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Software Freedom Law Center</span> Pro bono legal organization for developers

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) 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 Open Source Development Labs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradley M. Kuhn</span> American free software activist

Bradley M. Kuhn is a free software activist from the United States.

Alternative terms for free software, such as open source, FOSS, and FLOSS, have been a controversial issue among free and open-source software users from the late 1990s onwards. These terms share almost identical licence criteria and development practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Stallman</span> American free software activist and GNU Project founder (born 1953)

Richard Matthew Stallman, also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to use, study, distribute, and modify that software. Software which ensures these freedoms is termed free software. Stallman launched the GNU Project, founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in October 1985, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, and wrote all versions of the GNU General Public License.

Tivoization is the practice of designing hardware that incorporates software under the terms of a copyleft software license like the GNU General Public License, but uses hardware restrictions or digital rights management (DRM) to prevent users from running modified versions of the software on that hardware. Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) coined the term in reference to TiVo's use of GNU GPL licensed software on the TiVo brand digital video recorders (DVR), which actively block modified software by design. Stallman believes this practice denies users some of the freedom that the GNU GPL was designed to protect. The FSF refers to tivoized hardware as "proprietary tyrants".

This comparison only covers software licenses which have a linked Wikipedia article for details and which are approved by at least one of the following expert groups: the Free Software Foundation, the Open Source Initiative, the Debian Project and the Fedora Project. For a list of licenses not specifically intended for software, see List of free-content licences.

License compatibility is a legal framework that allows for pieces of software with different software licenses to be distributed together. The need for such a framework arises because the different licenses can contain contradictory requirements, rendering it impossible to legally combine source code from separately-licensed software in order to create and publish a new program. Proprietary licenses are generally program-specific and incompatible; authors must negotiate to combine code. Copyleft licenses are commonly deliberately incompatible with proprietary licenses, in order to prevent copyleft software from being re-licensed under a proprietary license, turning it into proprietary software. Many copyleft licenses explicitly allow relicensing under some other copyleft licenses. Permissive licenses are compatible with everything, including proprietary licenses; there is thus no guarantee that all derived works will remain under a permissive license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Affero General Public License</span> Free software license based on the AGPLv1 and GPLv3

The GNU Affero General Public License is a free, copyleft license published by the Free Software Foundation in November 2007, and based on the GNU GPL version 3 and the Affero General Public License (non-GNU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free-software license</span> License allowing software modification and redistribution

A free-software license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software. These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holder of a piece of software can remove these restrictions by accompanying the software with a software license which grants the recipient these rights. Software using such a license is free software as conferred by the copyright holder. Free-software licenses are applied to software in source code and also binary object-code form, as the copyright law recognizes both forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU General Public License</span> Series of free software licenses

The GNU General Public Licenses are a series of widely used free software licenses, or copyleft licenses, that guarantee end users the freedoms to run, study, share, and/or modify the software. The GPL was the first copyleft license available for general use. It was originally written by Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), for the GNU Project. The license grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. The licenses in the GPL series are all copyleft licenses, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms. It is more restrictive than the Lesser General Public License, and even further distinct from the more widely-used permissive software licenses such as BSD, MIT, and Apache.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Free Documentation License</span> Copyleft license primarily for free software documentation

The GNU Free Documentation License is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) 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 derivatives to be available under the same license. Copies may also be sold commercially, but, if produced in larger quantities, the original document or source code must be made available to the work's recipient.

GNU LibreDWG is a software library programmed in C to manage DWG computer files, native proprietary format of computer-aided design software AutoCAD. It aims to be a free software replacement for the OpenDWG libraries. The project is managed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

Software relicensing is applied in open-source software development when software licenses of software modules are incompatible and are required to be compatible for a greater combined work. Licenses applied to software as copyrightable works, in source code as binary form, can contain contradictory clauses. These requirements can make it impossible to combine source code or content of several software works to create a new combined one.

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  46. ↑ Larabel, Michael (April 22, 2012). "Many FSF Priority Projects Still Not Progressing". Phoronix. Archived from the original on March 19, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2014. Most of the projects are basically not going anywhere. Many of them at the time were not really advancing in their goals, haven't had releases in a while, or coding hasn't even started. It's been more than a half-year and still there's no significant work towards clearing many of projects from the FSF list.
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  48. ↑ Noyes, Katherine (October 11, 2012). "New FSF logo highlights hardware that 'Respects Your Freedom'". PCWorld. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  49. ↑ Josh Gay (January 27, 2012). "Respects Your Freedom hardware certification requirements". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  50. ↑ "Staff and Board — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software". www.fsf.org. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  51. ↑ "Alexandre Oliva joins Free Software Foundation board of directors". Free Software Foundation. August 28, 2019. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
  52. 1 2 3 The first GNU's Bulletin ( "GNU's Bulletin, Volume 1, No.1". Free Software Foundation. February 1986. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2007.), indicates this list of people as round[ing] out FSF's board of directors.
  53. ↑ The FSF annual filings with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for 2002 ( "2002 Annual Report for Free Software Foundation, Inc" (PDF). The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. December 17, 2002. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 25, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2007.) show that De Icaza has left the board. Changes to board composition are usually made at the annual meeting; which occurred on February 25, 2002.
  54. ↑ "Matthew Garrett joins Free Software Foundation board of directors". Free Software Foundation. October 16, 2014. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  55. ↑ "Bradley Kuhn Joins the FSF Board". March 25, 2010. Archived from the original on March 29, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  56. ↑ "On Recent Controversial Events - Bradley M. Kuhn ( Brad ) ( bkuhn )". ebb.org. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
  57. ↑ Moglen announced his intention to resign in his blog ( Moglen, Eben (April 23, 2007). "And Now ... Life After GPLv3". Archived from the original on July 2, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2007.). The resignation likely occurred at the 2007 annual meeting of the directors; the exact date of that meeting is unknown.
  58. ↑ "Kat Walsh joins FSF board of directors". fsf.org. Free Software Foundation, Inc. March 21, 2015. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  59. ↑ "Kat (@mindspillage@mastodon.social)". Mastodon. March 25, 2021. Archived from the original on July 30, 2022. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  60. ↑ "Ingénieur de Recherche 2ème classe". Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  61. ↑ "Geoffrey Knauth elected Free Software Foundation president; Odile Bénassy joins the board". Free Software Foundation. August 5, 2020. Archived from the original on June 7, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  62. ↑ Kooyman, Zoë. "My appointment as the FSF's new executive director". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  63. ↑
    Article II, Sec. 1 - Number, Election and Qualification: The present members of the corporation shall constitute the voting members. Thereafter the voting members annually at its annual meeting shall fix the number of voting members and shall elect the number of voting members so fixed. At any special or regular meeting, the voting members then in office may increase the number of voting members and elect new voting members to complete the number so fixed; or they may decrease the number of voting members, but only to eliminate vacancies caused by the death, resignation, removal or disqualification of one or more voting members.
    — Amended By-laws, Nov. 25, 2002, Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  64. ↑
    In addition to the right to elect Directors as provided in the bylaws and such other powers and rights as may be vested in them by law, these Articles of Organization or the bylaws, the Voting Members shall have such other powers and rights as the Directors may designate.
    — Amended By-laws, Nov. 25, 2002, Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  65. 1 2 "Amended Bylaws". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on January 24, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
  66. ↑ "Meet the staff of the Free Software Foundation". Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  67. ↑ "Join us in saying goodbye to our beloved office on August 16!".
  68. ↑ "Certificate of Change of Principal Office" (PDF). The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. May 26, 2005. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 26, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  69. ↑ The site member.fsf.org first appears in the Internet Archive in December 2002, and that site lists the date of the launch as 25 November 2002. "FSF Membership Page". The Internet Archive. Archived from the original on December 20, 2002.
  70. ↑ Kuhn has an FSF-generated member link that identifies him as the first member on his web page. "Homepage of Bradley M. Kuhn". Bradley M. Kuhn. January 5, 2008. Archived from the original on December 26, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2008.
  71. ↑ Sullivan, John (October 27, 2016). "FSF announces change in general counsel". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on May 8, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  72. ↑ Stallman, Richard. "About the GNU Project". Gnu Project. FSF. Archived from the original on April 24, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  73. ↑ "FSF Financial Information". Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2022.
  74. ↑ Richard Stallman (August 31, 2024). "FSF office adddress update" . Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  75. ↑ "MILK STREET - USPS". United States Postal Service. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  76. ↑ Matt Lee (February 12, 2005). "FSF will be moving". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  77. 1 2 Matt Lee (February 15, 2005). "FSF Responds to LinuxWorld in Boston". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  78. 1 2 Matt Lee (December 28, 2010). "Virtually tour our previous office at 51 Franklin Street". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  79. ↑ patrick_g. "Linus Torvalds: the anniversary interview of the 20 years of the kernel". LinuxFr.org. Archived from the original on October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  80. ↑ "The Party of Gno". Archived from the original on June 20, 2010. Retrieved June 22, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  81. ↑ Hill, Benjamin Mako (November 28, 2011). "In defense of negativity". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on September 17, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  82. ↑ Larabel, Michael (January 24, 2013). "FSF Wastes Away Another "High Priority" Project". Phoronix. Archived from the original on November 9, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2013. Both LibreCAD and FreeCAD both want to use LibreDWG and have patches available for supporting the DWG file format library, but can't integrate them. The programs have dependencies on the popular GPLv2 license while the Free Software Foundation will only let LibreDWG be licensed for GPLv3 use, not GPLv2.
  83. 1 2 Prokoudine, Alexandre (January 26, 2012). "What's up with DWG adoption in free software?". libregraphicsworld.org. Archived from the original on November 9, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2013. [Assimp's Alexander Gessler:] "Personally, I'm extremely unhappy with their [LibreDWG's — LGW] GPL licensing. It prohibits its use in Assimp and for many other applications as well. I don't like dogmatic ideologies, and freeing software by force (as GPL/GNU does) is something I dislike in particular. It's fine for applications, because it doesn't hurt at this point, but, in my opinion, not for libraries that are designed to be used as freely as possible." [Blender's Toni Roosendaal:] "Blender is also still "GPLv2 or later". For the time being we stick to that, moving to GPL 3 has no evident benefits I know of. My advice for LibreDWG: if you make a library, choosing a widely compatible license (MIT, BSD, or LGPL) is a very positive choice."
  84. ↑ Prokoudine, Alexandre (December 27, 2012). "LibreDWG drama: the end or the new beginning?". libregraphicsworld.org. Archived from the original on November 9, 2016. Retrieved August 23, 2013. [...]the unfortunate situation with support for DWG files in free CAD software via LibreDWG. We feel, by now it ought to be closed. We have the final answer from FSF. [...] "We are not going to change the license."
  85. ↑ Prokoudine, Alexandre (January 26, 2012). "What's up with DWG adoption in free software?". libregraphicsworld.org. Archived from the original on November 9, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2013. GPLv3 license. It doesn't work for end-user software, because they tend to use 3rd party components under different licenses that impose restrictions. FSF who are sole copyright holders of LibreDWG objected to relicensing. With regards to FreeCAD project and Yorik van Havre, its contributor, Richard Stallman stated:" You should not change the license of your library. Rather, it is best to make it clear to him what the conditions are." [...] Personally, I'm extremely unhappy with their [LibreDWG's — LGW] GPL licensing. It prohibits its use in Assimp and for many other applications as well. I don't like dogmatic ideologies, and freeing software by force (as GPL/GNU does) is something I dislike in particular. It's fine for applications, because it doesn't hurt at this point, but, in my opinion, not for libraries that are designed to be used as freely as possible.
  86. ↑ Brodkin, Jon (March 22, 2021). "Richard Stallman returns to FSF 18 months after controversial rape comments". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on March 23, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  87. 1 2 Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. "Free Software Foundation leaders and supporters desert sinking ship". ZDNet. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  88. ↑ Brodkin, Jon (March 23, 2021). "Free software advocates seek removal of Richard Stallman and entire FSF board". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on April 2, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  89. ↑ Salter, Jim (March 29, 2021). "Red Hat withdraws from the Free Software Foundation after Stallman's return". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  90. ↑ "USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award ("The Flame")". USENIX. Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
  91. ↑ Free Software Foundation (2005). "FSF honored with Prix Ars Electronica award". News Releases. Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on October 11, 2006. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
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