Software Freedom Conservancy @conservancy@mastodon.technology

Supporting Conservancy is an investment in the future of #FOSS. Help us help more member projects, offer more services, and keep advocating for the issues that affect us all. Become a Supporter today! https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/

Have a home battery system? We'd love to hear from you! We're keen to know if hobbyists have tried to use their software freedom and right to repair to modify and improve home battery system controllers or gateways. Reply here or email us: compliance@sfconservancy.org

We've reached our largest match to date! $159,191 will be matched, and we've already raised $16,540 on top of that!
Thank you so much to the individuals who contributed and put your hard earned money towards supporting software freedom.
https://sfconservancy.org/news/2022/jan/06/2021-fundraiser-matched/

We talked with our one of our board members @keynote2k about why he donates to @conservancy, what he's excited for coming up in the next year, and how he's seen us grow since he was our second employee 🤩 https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/jan/03/matcher-interview-tony-sebro/

Our work upholding consumers' rights to source
code for #copyleft works never pauses;we filed the next motion in our lawsuit against #Vizio. The twists & turns of litigation provides excellent insight into how companies try to deny your rights https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/dec/28/vizio-update-1/ #GPL #LGPL

Our first donor interview is up with @markgalassi We talked about how free software fits into academia, what got him interested in FOSS and where he sees @conservancy in the software freedom movement.
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/dec/27/matcher-interview-mark-galassi/

Your support helps fund our advocacy, supports our projects and provides for our current lawsuit against Vizio: https://sfconservancy.org/vizio

Hope you had a great holiday weekend. Our fundraising is making great progress and we have less than $49,050 left to raise before January 15th! If you are in the US check if your employer will match a donation.
https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/

Folks have been asking our
Executive Director, Karen Sandler, an Policy Fellow, Bradley M. Kuhn, their opinion of #FacesOfOpenSource selling #NFTArt based on photos of them (and other #FOSS contributors). They wrote a critique of the move & discuss better options for funding FOSS-related work:
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/dec/23/nft-faces-of-open-source/

#NFT

We're making great progress on our fundraiser and have less than $64,000 left to match. There are plenty of ways to donate, and if you are in the US, don't forget about end of year employer matching!
https://sfconservancy.org/donate/

Happy Holidays from everyone at Software Freedom Conservancy! We hope the holiday season is bringing cheer!

We just passed the halfway point of our fundraiser 🥳 🎉 🎊
We are so happy to be funded by individuals and be able to represent all voices in the software freedom movement.
Please consider helping us reach our goal by becoming a sustainer https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/

(5/5) Assuring that project governance remains transparent, respects software freedom, & never kowtows to corporate interests of big tech requires care, resilience & constant vigilance. Can you contribute to sustain *our* work? https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/

(4/5) … Our Reproducible Builds project operates on the forefront of the “software supply chain” — having created the best known tools for reproducibility of software builds. We sustained funding for 2 full-time & 2 part-time developers during 2021 to continue this essential work.
Our phpMyAdmin project has been going strong for more than 20 years! We fund 3 developers regularly in 2021 & we've funded 8 different developers since 2006 to maintain the software. That's long-term FOSS sustainability!
…

(3/5) … Our Outreachy & Institute for Computing in Research projects had two groups of interns, providing opportunities for over 150 people to contribute to FOSS projects! We are finding, mentoring and training the next generation of FOSS maintainers!

Our Godot project had 2 huge releases this year. With large changes to GUI and usability, funding 8 full-time and 2 part-time developers that we distributed this year not only sustained the Godot project, but helped it thrive and grow.

…

(2/5) … That's right: we've paid over US$1.5 million in each of 2020 & 2021 directly to developers for software development work on FOSS! We've handled funding of over US$3million in direct #FOSS project funding during the pandemic! Some highlights follow — they're a few things among the US$1,515,403 of direct project funding that's already occurred in 2021: …

(1/5) We've raised, administered, and/or facilitated US$1.7 million for our member projects this year. This fact deserves attention at a time when folks are talking extensively about the importance of funding FOSS maintainers. Funding essential #FOSS software development is a big part of what we do! …

We're about a third of the way to our fundraising goal this year! Know a few friends who care about ethical tech? Let them know about our work. You can find a summary of our work and year in review here:

https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/

(4/4) “… Conservancy is an efficient org—w/ 6 employees we fight for your rights under #GPL,help dozens of member projects w/their fiscal requirements & promote diversity and inclusion initiatives in free software. But we also need your help now” — @ossguy@identi.ca

(3/4) “… Conservancy is the only organization enforcing #GPL for #Linux. I was happy to return from my parental leave just as we launched our lawsuit against #Vizio — a perennial GPL violator. Lawsuits like this (and the follow-on work after lawsuits conclude to make good use of the code we receive) are a key way for us to retake control of our devices, allowing us to repair and improve them as we like …

(2/4) “… I try to to make [that code] build, or determine whether it corresponds to the recompiled code in the products [these companies] ship to people…I was on parental leave during some of 2021. Having a child made software freedom a more urgent cause for me. Will my child be able to control technology they use? I don't have the answers to that [& similar] questions. But what @conservancy does improve [these things] …