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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/find-your-free-software-footing-with-the-fsf-licensing-and-compliance-lab

Dear Ruben Safir,

As a computer user, your first step towards software freedom does
not need to begin with a law degree or with knowledge of free
software licensing. It can simply begin with the desire to use a
computer program in the way you envision. Taking a moment to
understand the meaning of free software is making the first step
into a much larger world, and provides you with an opportunity to
find your place in the free software movement. Here at the FSF
Licensing & Compliance Lab, we labor enthusiastically to get
the word out, protect the foundations on which free software is
built, and provide resources to empower those wishing to
participate.

First steps

Like proud parents witnessing their child's effort to join the
ranks of bipedals, the Licensing and Compliance Lab welcomes many
newcomers to the free software community when they participate in
our weekly hosted Free Software Directory meetings. Here,
newcomers get to understand free software better through the
examination of programs for entry into the Free Software
Directory, they evaluate programs and determine if a program
is free software or not. This evaluation turns into a skill, and
much like walking, it is an expertise that can last a lifetime.

The Directory, which provides access to over 16,000 vetted free
software programs, is one of the best tools that we have for
introducing people to free software, and working on it is a great
way to start contributing. Not only is it used as a teaching
utility in determining a program's licensing but the process
often brings forth possible improvements which are submitted to
upstream projects to improve their licensing metadata -- we've
helped identify proprietary bits that were inadvertently included
that could then be removed by the maintainers, and we've
suggested improvements to the formatting and placement of
licensing information to make it clear that the program is free
and under which license it's actually distributed.

Over the last year, we've worked with new volunteers to become
active in learning about vetting programs which has made the
meetings more fun, robust, and productive. Every Friday at noon
Eastern, we work via IRC in #fsf on Libera.Chat with volunteers
on improving the Directory and adding new programs to it.

First steps to walking

From the initial wobbly ambulations to the skittering foot stomps
of a newly minted world explorer, neophytes to free software find
in the FSF pages a plethora of information to help them continue
developing their free software knowledge and skill. To this end,
the Licensing and Compliance Lab provides resources on free
software licensing like the GNU General Public License FAQ,
and we answer direct questions from the community about how free
licenses work and interact with other licenses. In 2021, the
Licensing and Compliance Lab, thanks to the help of our five
licensing volunteers, answered well over 400 licensing questions.

An important companion piece to the GPL FAQ we also published, is
our list of various licenses and comments about them. This
lists provides a valuable resource for determining license
compatibility, especially with our widely used GNU General Public
License (GPL). Besides helping newcomers get started, these
materials are vital in establishing consensus among seasoned
practitioners as to how free software licenses work and interact
together -- this in turn helps the entire world of free software,
from large companies to individual developers, work together with
less friction and with outcomes that get us closer to a world
where respect for computer user and developer freedom is the
norm.

Walking to running

We begin to move faster. Once there is a general understanding of
how the GPL works, the burgeoning free software activist is
naturally inclined to find their place on the front lines. If a
person has written their own program, it is essential and helpful
to the community to free that program by choosing a free
software license for it. For programmers wishing to aid
specifically in the development of the GNU Project, the Lab
published a contributor FAQ and a rationale for why the
FSF uses copyright assignment to keep the GNU Project legally
secure.

Running the path to freedom is not without its obstacles. When
users come to learn about their rights under free software
licenses, they still must remain vigilant to ensure that those
rights are respected. There is a constant danger of companies
distributing free software in a way that denies users their
rights over that code so that it ends up restricting users.

The FSF works to protect software freedom through the Principles of
Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement on GNU Project packages
where the FSF has been entrusted with copyright. Users frequently
discover that an increasing amount of the software they use is
actually free software, but that it's locked within proprietary
packages and devices unjustly. We take reports from users of
violations on GNU Project packages, and we work with violators to
help bring back those users' rights -- including taking formal
legal action when necessary.

Running to Usain Bolt

Tighten your laces. We are really moving now! Once someone has
spent some serious time getting to understand the different
licenses and their workings, they come to understand that
licenses are not the only thing to focus on. There are many
other aspects that influence the state of free software
worldwide, and one that law professionals keep an eye on is the
danger of software patents. Over the summer, FSF intern Panos
Alevropoulos updated our End Software Patents sites, which
are invaluable resources in informing people to help hasten the
demise of the insidious software idea patent.

Although the threats to freedom that come from software patents
have been around for a while, new threats can sometimes appear as
well. This summer, Microsoft's GitHub announced a new service
known as Copilot, a service which uses machine learning to help
suggest code snippets to developers as they write software. We
already know that Copilot as it stands is unacceptable and
unjust. It requires running software that is nonfree, and Copilot
is Service as a Software Substitute.

We needed to go deeper into other kinds of relevant issues like
potential license compliance questions, and copyrightability of
the output. In an FSF first to accelerate the discovery of
answers, the License and Compliance Lab put out a call for white
papers from the free software community to explore the legal
and ethical implications of such a service. The call was
answered. Several papers have been selected, and we will publish
them soon, so stay tuned. We look forward to the conversations
they will create.

Support these steps

With the mechanics of free software licensing stowed amongst the
many tools of a modern day software freedom fighter, it is time
to get moving together to defeat threats to software freedom. Can
you join this effort as an FSF associate member? You can start for as little as $10 per
month ($5 for students), or $120 per year. Your membership will
help the Licensing and Compliance Lab to continue to provide
opportunities for activists to do so by offering resources, and
by empowering programmers to make use of the GNU GPL and other
free software licenses.

The more members we can count, the better we can defend
everyone's freedoms against the largest companies and governments
on the planet, and this starts with achieving our fall goal of
500 new members before December 31. Plus, associate members
can select a special gift during this fundraiser, and enjoy all
the member benefits, which include merchandise discounts, a
16GB bootable membership card, and use of our videoconferencing
server.

Every journey begins with that first step. The FSF Licensing and
Compliance Lab can help users along that path -- while also
clearing the way ahead for them -- but we need everyone's help if
we're going to get all users to join the parade. Will you help us
make that possible?

In freedom,

Craig Topham,

Copyright & Licensing Associate

PS. Want to be updated directly when the Licensing and Compliance
Lab? Join our licensing updates mailing list and share it
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