Software Freedom Conservancy

FOSS development, documentation, infrastructure, sustainability, & project support: During the tax year, SFC engaged 27 different software developers as independent contractors to improve the software in its Godot, Inkscape, phpMyAdmin, Reproducible Builds, and Selenium projects, as well as improving FOSS for SFC's own accounting infrastructure. All software source code was released freely to the public under licenses that encourage the public to use, share, modify, and reinstall it. These contractors also coordinated volunteer software developers to contribute further to the software projects. SFC staff also assisted volunteers in our projects on a daily basis with administration, coordination, legal and infrastructural tasks and costs (as listed at httpssfconservancyorgmembersservi... ). SFC made one grant for improvement of teaching materials for FOSS for undergraduates. SFC gave grants to two 501(c)(3) organizations: an initial grant to Open Collective Foundation (for the Homebrew project and Drupal New Jersey initative) and an initial grant to the Boost Foundation to continue SFC's Boost project. Finally, SFC regularly mentors leadership of projects both inside and outside our organization to improve their non-profit management skills.

License Compliance & Enforcement: Some FOSS is available under "copyleft" licenses, such as the General Public License (GPL). "Copylefts" are FOSS licenses that allow everyone to freely share, copy, modify, and (re)install modified versions of the software. "Copyleft" licenses require that everyone who receives the software has an equal right to engage in those activities. SFC identifies situations where distributors fail to meet those requirements. SFC then enforces the copyleft license & requires these distributors to provide the same rights to copy, share, modify and (re)install modified versions of the software to all those who receive the software distribution. Through this process, SFC ensures that the public has equal rights to use, improve, and study the software, & to experiment with their own modifications to software. Most importantly, the rights of consumers to repair the software on their devices is restored. Rarely, when absolutely necessary, SFC seeks remedy in the courts through litigation. During the tax year, SFC specifically pursued ongoing litigation against a specific maker of Linux-based televisions in California state court in which SFC seeks the complete, corresponding source for the copylefted components in the televisions to engage in SFC's right to software repair.

Outreachy and The Institute For Computing Research (ICR): In the tax year, we funded 132 interns via Outreachy - an initiative that encourages participation in FOSS for those who are subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they live. Outreachy interns improve FOSS and its documentation, and increase the diversity of the FOSS community while also learning valuable skills. ICR mentors and trains students in high school to do rigorous scientific research using FOSS. During this tax year, ICR had 27 internships. Both internship programs are paid programs which enable those from less privileged backgrounds to participate.

Facilitating and Participating in FOSS conferences: During the tax year, SFC planned, organized and/or ran three conferences, and prepared for two others to take place in the following year. Additionally, SFC coordinated and funded many other smaller "hackfest" events for its projects. Furthermore, SFC funded travel expenses for staff's and volunteers' attendance at more than 20 different third-party software conferences. These events allow volunteer FOSS contributors and SFC staff to (a) speak about their work to the public, (b) teach the public how to use and improve their software, (c) generally promote the use, adoption and improvement of FOSS, and (d) explain and explore the policy issues surrounding software freedom and software rights. Most FOSS conferences include opportunities for software developers to meet and rapidly work closely together to make improvements to the software and release those improvements immediately to the public. Finally, SFC staff also assisted in organizing the Legal & Policy DevRoom at FOSDEM, the largest annual FOSS conference in Europe.