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Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organisation founded in 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project.From its founding until the mid-1990s FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software. Since the mid- to late 1990s there are now many companies and individuals writing free software, so FSF's employees and volunteers mostly work on legal and structural issues for the free software community.
1 Current work of FSF
- GPL Enforcement
- FSF have the resources and the will to enforce the GPL and other GNU licenses, but only for software for which it owns the copyrights; GPL'd software owned by others must be defended by their owners, since the FSF has no legal standing to enforce the GPL for them. FSF handles around 50 GPL violations per year and tries to bring the other party into compliance without involving the courts. As of January 2004, no one has yet taken FSF to court over a copyright dispute.
- GNU Licenses
- The GNU GPL is the most widely used license for Free Software projects. The current version (version 2) was released in 1991 but FSF are working on a version 3. FSF have also published the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
- Guardian of copyrights
- FSF holds the copyrights to all GNU software and some non-GNU Free Software. They require copyright assignment papers from each contributor to GNU packages so that they can defend the software in court if a dispute arises, and so that if there is a need to change the license of a work, it can be done without having to contact all contributors that have ever worked on the software.
- The Free Software Directory
- This is a listing of software packages which 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 in to many languages in the future.
- Maintaining the Free Software Definition
- FSF maintain many of the documents that define the Free Software movement
- Legal Education
- FSF hold seminars about legal aspects of using the GPL, and offers a consultancy service for lawyers.
- Project Hosting
- FSF provide project hosting via their Savannah website.
- FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software
- An annual award.
2 Structure
2.1 Membership
On November 25, 2002 the FSF launched the FSF Associate Membership program for individuals. In April 2004 they had over 2044 associate members. On March 5 2003 they launched a Corporate Patron program for commercial entities. As of April 2004, they have 45 corporate patrons.
2.2 Organizational
FSF has a board of directors with six members:
- Geoffery Knauth , Senior Software Engineer at SFA, Inc.
- Lawrence LessigLawrence Lessig (born June 3, 1961) is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of its Center for Internet and Society. Prior to joining Stanford he taught at the Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago Law School. Although considere, Professor of Law at Stanford University
- Eben MoglenEben Moglen is a professor of law and history of law at Columbia University, and serves pro bono as General Counsel for Free Software Foundation. He is noteworthy for co-writing the GNU licenses with Richard Stallman. The most famous of these licenses is, Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and coauthor of the GNU GPL, Versions 1 and 2
- Henri PooleHenri Poole is a political campaign technologist and founder/director of CivicActions, co-founder of the AdvoKit project, serves on the Board of the Free Software Foundation and Affero, Inc. In 2002, Affero published the Affero General Public License (AGP, Founder of CivicActions, a grassroots campaign technology consulting firm.
- Richard Stallman, Founder of FSF and the GNU Project, former maintainer of various GNU software, and coauthor of the GNU GPL, Versions 1 and 2
- Gerald SussmanGerald Jay Sussman is the Matsushita Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT). He received the S. and the Ph. degrees in mathematics from the MIT in 1968 and 1973, respectively. He has been involved in artifici, Professor of Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Other positions held:
- Richard Stallman: President
- Bradley Kuhn : Executive Director
- Eben MoglenEben Moglen is a professor of law and history of law at Columbia University, and serves pro bono as General Counsel for Free Software Foundation. He is noteworthy for co-writing the GNU licenses with Richard Stallman. The most famous of these licenses is: General Counsel
- Dan RavicherDan Ravicher serves as "Senior Counsel" to Free Software Foundation. See also PubPat External links http://lwn. net/Articles/62202/ http://www.: Senior Counsel
- Peter Brown: Financial Controller
- : GPL Compliance Engineer
- Janet Casey, Free Software Directory maintainer
- John Sullivan, programs administrator
- Ted Teah, Copyright Assignments clerk
- Jim Blair, System Administrator
Previous employees:
- Leslie Proctor Public Relations
- Robert J. ChassellRobert (aka "Bob") Chassell was one of the founding directors of Free Software Foundation (FSF) 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. Chass: Founding Director and Treasurer
- Tim Ney CEO 1998-2001
- Thomas Bushnell GNU hacker, GNU Hurd
- Roland McGrath GNU hacker, GNU Libc , Make, GNU Hurd
- Leonard Tower GNU hacker
- Mike Haertel GNU hacker, diff, grep
- Pete TerMaat GNU hacker, GDB
- Phil Nelson GNU hacker
- Jay Fenlason GNU hacker, sed
- Brian Fox GNU hacker, Bash
- Noboyuki Hikichi GNU hacker
- Paul Rubin GNU hacker, cpp
- Ariel Rios GNU hacker, Guile
- Randy Smith GNU hacker, GDB
- there was a "Steve"
- Jonathan Watterson (he organised the digital-speech project)
- Lisa "Opus" Goldstein : Manager of GNU Press
There are usually around 10 employees in the headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The office is managed by Bradley Kuhn.
