The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Richard Stallman[7] on October 4, 1985.[8] The organization supports the free software movement, with its preference for software being distributed under copyleft ("share alike") terms,[9] such as with its own GNU General Public License.[10] The FSF was incorporated in Boston[11] where it is also based.[12]
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[13] and its employees and volunteers have mostly worked on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community. Consistent with its goals, the FSF aims to use only free software on its own computers.[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.[15] The FSF is also the steward of several free software licenses, meaning it publishes them and has the ability to make revisions as needed.[16]
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.[17] Since then, it has continued these activities, as well as advocating for the free software movement.[18] From 1991 until 2001, General Public License (GPL) enforcement was done informally, usually by Stallman himself, often with assistance from FSF's lawyer, Eben Moglen.[19] Typically, GPL violations during this time were cleared up without much publicity.[20] 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. In the interest of promoting copyleft assertiveness by software companies to the level that the FSF was already doing, supporters like Harald Welte launched gpl-violations.org in 2004.
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 Affero General Public License (AGPL), and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
GNU Press
The FSF's publishing department, responsible for "publishing affordable books on computer science using freely distributable licenses."[42][43]
The Free Software Directory
High priority projects
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".[50] 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."[50]
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.[50]
Previous projects highlighted as needing work included the
Endorsements
Operating systems
The FSF maintains a list of approved Linux operating systems that maintain free software by default:[54] The project also maintains a list of operating systems that are not versions of the GNU system:
- Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre
- dyne:bolic
- GNU Guix System
- Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre
- Parabola GNU/Linux-libre
- PureOS
- Trisquel
- Ututo
- LibreCMC
- ProteanOS
Structure
Board
The FSF's board of directors includes professors at leading universities, senior engineers, and founders. Current board members are:[57]
Previous board members include:
- Geoffrey Knauth, senior software engineer at SFA, Inc. (served since October 23, 1997)
- Christina Haralanova, founding member of the Free Software Association, Bulgaria. Board member of Koumbit, member of FACIL – for the adoption of free software in Quebec (FACiL, pour l'appropriation collective de l'informatique libre)
- Gerald Jay Sussman, professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (served since inception)
- Henry Poole, founder of CivicActions, a government digital services firm (served since December 12, 2002)
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.[89]
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 failing to provide users with "credible alternatives" to proprietary software.[90] 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."[91]
Recognition
Key players and industries that have made honorific mention and awards include:
- 2001: GNU Project received the USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award for "the ubiquity, breadth, and quality of its freely available redistributable and modifiable software, which has enabled a generation of research and commercial development".[100]
- 2005: Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in the category of "Digital Communities"[102]
See also
- Foundations promoting Free Software movement:
- Free Software Foundation Europe
- Free Software Foundation Latin America
- Free Software Foundation of India
External links
References
- Corporations Division Entity Summary for ID Number: 042888848 Secretary of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, retrieved October 4, 2014^
- Join us in saying goodbye to our beloved office on August 16! — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software www.fsf.org, Free Software Foundation, August 5, 2024, retrieved September 1, 2024^
- FSF confirms Ian Kelling as its new president