The personal blog of Bradley M. Kuhn (aka bkuhn ), in which he covers issues related to Free, Libre and Open Source Software, software freedom, licensing, GPL, copyleft and various other computer science topics.
I posted the following on my Fediverse (via Mastodon) account . I'm reposting the whole seven posts here as written there, but I hope folks will take a look at that thread as folks are engaging in conversation over there that might be worth reading if what I have to say interests you. (The remainder of the post is the same that can be found in the Fediverse posts linked throughout.) I suppose…
[ The below is a cross-post of an article that I published on my blog at Software Freedom Conservancy . ] Our member project representatives and others who collaborate with SFC on projects know that I've been on part-time medical leave this year. As I recently announced publicly on the Fediverse , I was diagnosed in March 2025 with early-stage Type 2 Diabetes. I had no idea that that the diagnosis…
Big Tech seeks every advantage to convince users that computing is revolutionized by the latest fad. When the tipping point of Large Language Models ( LLMs ) was reached a few years ago, generative Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) systems quickly became that latest snake oil for sale on the carnival podium. There's so much to criticize about generative AI , but I focus now merely on the…
I am excited that Richard Fontana and I have announced the relaunch of copyleft-next . The copyleft-next project seeks to create a copyleft license for the next generation that is designed in public, by the community, using standard processes for FOSS development. If this interests you, please join the mailing list and follow the project on the fediverse (on its Mastodon instance) . I also wanted…
I ran in the “Affiliate district” in the 2025 election for Board of Directors of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) on a joint platform for OSI Reform with my colleague, Richard Fontana (who among other accomplishments, is currently Senior Commercial Counsel at IBM's Red Hat). After voting closed, we received a strange request demanding that we sign the OSI 's Board Agreement within 47…
Update 2025-07-06 I urge you to sign the petition asking OSI to release the 2025 election results — which Open Source Initiative continues to withhold . Update 2025-03-21 : During the 2025 Open Source Initiative I used my blog as a campaigning tool (for reasons discussed below ) before I knew how much interest there would ultimately be in the FOSS community about the 2025 OSI Board of…
Update 2025-03-21 : This blog post is extremely long (if you're reading this, you must already know I'm terribly long-winded). I was in the middle of consolidating it with other posts to make a final, single “wrap up” post of the OSI elections when, in the middle of doing that, I was told that Linux Weekly News (LWN) published an article written by Joe Brockmeier . As such,I've…
I accepted nomination as a candidate for an “Affiliate seat” in the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Board of Directors elections. I was nominated by the following four OSI Affiliates: The Matrix Foundation The Perl and Raku Foundation Software Freedom Conservancy (my employer) snowdrift.coop To my knowledge, I am the only Affiliate candidate, in the history of these OSI Board of Directors…
[ This is a crosspost from my professional blog at Software Freedom Conservancy ( SFC ) . I encourage you to use that copy of the post as the canonical linkage for this essay — I crossposted here merely for posterity and to reach a wider audience. ] This week, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) made their new Open Source Artificial Intelligence Definition (OSAID) official with its 1.0 release…
[ The below is a personal statement that I make on my own behalf. While my statement's release coincides with a release of an unrelated statement on similar topics made by my employer, Software Freedom Conservancy , and the Free Software Foundation Europe , please keep in mind that this statement is my own, personal opinion — written exclusively by me — and not necessarily the opinion…
[ This is a crosspost from my professional blog at Software Freedom Conservancy ( SFC ) . I encourage you to use that copy of the post as the canonical linkage for this essay — I crossposted here merely for posterity and to reach a wider audience. ] This article was originally published primarily as a response to IBM's Red Hat's change to no longer publish complete, corresponding source…
[ This is a crosspost from my professional blog at Software Freedom Conservancy ( SFC ) . I encourage you to use that copy of the post as the canonical linkage for this essay — I crossposted here merely for posterity and to reach a wider audience. ] Possible Opportunity for the Public To Hear Oral Arguments in Key GPL Enforcement Case In our previous update regarding our copyleft enforcement…
[ A version of this article was also posted on Software Freedom Conservancy's blog . ] Bad Early Court Decision for AGPLv3 Has Not Yet Been Appealed We at Software Freedom Conservancy proudly and vigilantly watch out for your rights under copyleft licenses such as the Affero GPLv3. Toward this goal, we have studied the Neo4j, Inc. v. PureThink, LLC ongoing case in the Northern District of…
[ This is a crosspost from my professional blog at Software Freedom Conservancy ( SFC ) . I encourage you to use that copy of the post as the canonical linkage for this essay — I crossposted here merely for posterity and to reach a wider audience. ] Our Motion to Remand in Vizio Lawsuit Shows How the Law Brings Software Freedom to All Users Yesterday afternoon, we filed a Motion for Remand…
[ This is a crosspost from my professional blog at Software Freedom Conservancy ( SFC ) . I encourage you to use that copy of the post as the canonical linkage for this essay — I crossposted here merely for posterity and to reach a wider audience. ] Two schools of thought about the purpose of copyleft have been at odds for some time. Simply put, the question is: are copyleft licenses…
[ This blog post was cross-posted from the blog at Software Freedom Conservancy where I work. ] I've been concerned this week about aggressive negative reaction (by some) to the formation of an additional organization to serve the Free and Open Source (FOSS) community. Thus it seems like a good moment to remind everyone why we all benefit when we welcome newcomer organizations in FOSS. I've been…
[ This blog post was also crossposted to my blog at Software Freedom Conservancy . I hope you will donate now before the challenge match period ends so that you can support work like this that I'm doing at my day job. ] I would not have imagined even two years ago that expansion of copyleft would become such an issue of interest in software freedom licensing. Historically and for good reason,…
Yesterday, I sent out a version of this blog post to Conservancy's donors as a fundraising email. As most people reading this already know, I work (remotely from the west coast) for a 501(c)(3) charity based in NY called Software Freedom Conservancy , which is funded primarily from individuals like you who donate $120/year (or more :) . My primary job and career since 1997 has been working for…
I ask that everyone give a thought to proposing at session at one (or both) of two great events on the Open Source and Free Software calendar: the FOSDEM Legal and Policy DevRoom and Copyleft Conf . Both CFPs close tomorrow ! I've been co-organizing the Legal and Policy DevRoom, along with my colleagues Tom Marble, Richard Fontana, and Karen Sandler for the last eight years. Copyleft Conf grew out…
Update in 2024 : You may have linked to this page because it's heavily quoted by a semi-anonymously published website called the “Stallman Report”. While the author of that document tried to contact me shortly before launching their site, I missed that email for a week or two. (I get a lot of email and as those of you who have emailed me know, my autoresponder indicates it's not the…
This post is co-authored with my colleague, Karen M. Sandler, and is crossposted from Software Freedom Conservancy's website . Various companies and trade associations have now launched their own tweak on answers to the question of “FOSS sustainability”. We commented in March on Linux Foundation's Community Bridge , and Bradley's talk at SCALE 2019 focused on this issue ( video ).…
We create, develop, document and collaborate as users of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) from around the globe, usually by working remotely on the Internet. However, human beings have many millennia of evolution that makes us predisposed to communicate most effectively via in-person interaction. We don't just rely on the content of communication, but its manner of expression, the body…
[ This blog post was co-written by me and Karen M. Sandler, with input from Deb Nicholson, for our Conservancy blog, and that its canonical location. I'm reposting here just for the convenience of those who are subscribed to my RSS feed but not get Conservancy's feed. ] Yesterday, the Linux Foundation (LF) launched a new service, called “Community Bridge” — an ambitious platform…
I woke up early this morning, and those of you live above 45° parallel north or so are used to the “I'm wide awake but it's still dark as night” feeling in the winter. I usually don't turn on the lights, wander into my office, and just bring my computer out of hibernate; that takes a bit as my 100% Free-Software-only computer is old and slow, so I usually go to make coffee while…
I have until now avoided making a public statement about my views on the various interrelated issues regarding the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines that came up over the last month. However, given increasing interest in our community on these issues, and the repeated inquiries that I received privately from major contributors in our community, I now must state my views publicly. I don't have much…
[ A similar version was crossposted on Conservancy's blog . ] More than 15 years ago, Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) community activists successfully argued that licensing proliferation was a serious threat to the viability of FLOSS. We convinced companies to end the era of “vanity” licenses . Different charities — from the Open Source Initiative (OSI) to the Free…
[ A similar version was crossposted on Conservancy's blog . ] Folks lauded today that Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN)'s limited patent non-aggression pact , suggesting that perhaps it will bring peace in our time regarding Microsoft's historical patent aggression . While today's announcement is a step forward, we call on Microsoft to make this just the beginning of their…
[ A similar version of this blog post was cross-posted on Software Freedom Conservancy's blog . ] In recent weeks, I've been involved with a complex internal discussion by a major software freedom project about a desire to take a stance on social justice issues other than software freedom. In the discussion, many different people came forward with various issues that matter to them, including…
[ A similar version was crossposted on Conservancy's blog . ] Proprietary software has always been about a power relationship . Copyright and other legal systems give authors the power to decide what license to choose, and usually, they choose a license that favors themselves and takes rights and permissions away from others. The so-called “Commons Clause” purposely confuses and…
Yesterday, we lost an important member of the FLOSS community. Gervase Markham finally succumbed to his battle with cancer (specifically, metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma). I met Gerv in the early 2000s, after he'd already been diagnosed. He has always been very public about his illness. He was frank with all who knew him that his life expectancy was sadly well below average due to that…
Someone linked me to this blog by a boutique proprietary software company complaining about porting to GNU/Linux systems , in which David Power, co-founder of Hiri, says: Unfortunately, the fundamentalist FOSS mentality we encountered on Reddit is still alive and well. Some Linux blogs and Podcasts simply won’t give us the time of day. I just want to quickly share a few analogous quotes that show…
If you're one of the people in the software freedom community who is attending O'Reilly's Open Source Software Convention (OSCON) next week here in Portland, you may have seen debate about O'Reilly and Associates (ORA)'s surreptitious Code of Conduct change (and quick revocation thereof) to name “political affiliation” as a protected class. If you're going to OSCON or plan to go to an…
My friend, colleague, and boss, Karen Sandler, yesterday tweeted about one of the unfortunately sexist incidents that she's faced in her life. This incident is a culmination of sexist incidents that Karen and I have seen since we started working together. I describe below how these events entice me to be complicit in sexist incidents, which I do my best to actively resist. Ultimately, this isn't…
Earlier this year, in February, I wrote a blog post encouraging people to donate to where I work, Software Freedom Conservancy. I've not otherwise blogged too much this year. It's been a rough year for many reasons, and while I personally and Conservancy in general have accomplished some very important work this year, I'm reminded as always that more resources do make things easier. I understand…
It's fortunately more common now in Free Software communities today to properly value contributions from non-developers. Historically, though, contributions from developers were often overvalued and contributions from others grossly undervalued. One person trailblazed as (likely) the earliest non-developer contributor to software freedom. His name was Robert J. Chassell — called Bob by his…
[ This blog was crossposted on Software Freedom Conservancy's website . ] I am honored to be a co-author and editor-in-chief of the most comprehensive, detailed, and complete guide on matters related to compliance of copyleft software licenses such as the GPL. This book, Copyleft and the GNU General Public License: A Comprehensive Tutorial and Guide (which we often call the Copyleft Guide for…
I encourage all of you to either listen to or read the transcript of Terry Gross' Fresh Air interview with Joseph Turow about his discussion of his book “The Aisles Have Eyes: How Retailers Track Your Shopping, Strip Your Privacy, And Define Your Power”. Now, most of you who read my blog know the difference between proprietary and Free Software, and the difference between a network…
There are a lot of problems in our society, and particularly in the USA, right now, and plenty of charities who need our support. The reason I continue to focus my work on software freedom is simply because there are so few focused on the moral and ethical issues of computing. Open Source has reached its pinnacle as an industry fad, and with it, a watered-down message: “having some of the…
[ This blog was crossposted on Software Freedom Conservancy's website . ] As I mentioned in an earlier blog post , I had the privilege of attending Embedded Linux Conference Europe (ELC EU) and the OpenWrt Summit in Berlin, Germany earlier this month. I gave a talk (for which the video is available below) at the OpenWrt Summit. I also had the opportunity to host the first of many conference…
[ This blog was crossposted on Software Freedom Conservancy's website . ] Last month, Conservancy made a public commitment to attend Linux-related events to get feedback from developers about our work generally, and Conservancy's GPL Compliance Program for Linux Developers specifically. As always, even before that, we were regularly submitting talks to nearly any event with Linux in its name. As a…
There are plenty of mailing list threads to read, and I don't actually recommend the one that I'm talking about. I think it went on too long, was far too “ad hominem” rather than real policy. Somewhere beneath the surface there was a policy discussion being shouted down; if you look close, you can find find it underneath. As he always does, Jon Corbet did an excellent job finding the…
Last Friday, I gave the first keynote at GUADEC 2016. I was delighted for the invitation from the GNOME Foundation to deliver this talk, which I entitled Confessions of a command line geek: why I don’t use GNOME but everyone else should . The Chaos Computer Club assisted the GUADEC organizers in recording the talks , so you can see here a great recording of my talk here (and also, the slides ).…
The time has come that I must speak out against the inappropriate rhetoric used by those who (ostensibly) advocate for FLOSS usage in automotive applications. There was a catalyst that convinced me to finally speak up. I heard a talk today from a company representative of a software supplier for the automotive industry. He said during his talk: putting GPLv3 software in cars will kill people and…
[ This blog was crossposted on Software Freedom Conservancy's website . ] Monday 1 February 2016 was the longest day of my life, but I don't mean that in the canonical, figurative, and usually negative sense of that phrase. I mean it literally and in a positive way. I woke up that morning Amsterdam in the Netherlands — having the previous night taken a evening train from Brussels, Belgium…
I've posted in the past about the Oracle vs. Google case. I'm for the moment sticking to my habit of only commenting when there is a clear court decision. Having been through litigation as the 30(b)(6) witness for Conservancy, I'm used to court testimony and why it often doesn't really matter in the long run. So much gets said by both parties in a court case that it's somewhat pointless to begin…
I'm finally configuring Kodi properly to watch over-the-air channels using this this USB ATSC / DVB-T tuner card from Thinkpenguin . I hate taking time away, even on the weekends, from the urgent Conservancy matters but I've been doing by-hand recordings using VLC for my wife when she's at work, and I just need to present a good solution to my home to showcase software freedom here. So, I…
[ This blog was crossposted on Software Freedom Conservancy's website . ] On last Thursday, Christoph Hellwig and his legal counsel attended a hearing in Hellwig's VMware case that Conservancy currently funds. Harald Welte, world famous for his GPL enforcement work in the early 2000s, also attended as an observer and wrote an excellent summary . I'd like to highlight a few parts of his summary, in…
I've been making the following social observation frequently in my talks and presentations for the last two years. While I suppose it's rather forward of me to do so, I've decide to name this principle: Kuhn's Paradox For some time now, this paradoxical principle appears to hold: each day , more lines of freely licensed code exist than ever before in human history; yet, it also becomes…
[ This blog was crossposted on Software Freedom Conservancy's website . ] I've had the pleasure and the privilege, for the last 20 years, to be either a volunteer or employee of the two most important organizations for the advance of software freedom and users' rights to copy, share, modify and redistribute software. In 1996, I began volunteering for the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and worked…
I have probably spent more time dealing with the implications and real-world scenarios of copyleft in the embedded device space than anyone. I'm one of a very few people charged with the task of enforcing the GPL for Linux, and it's been well-known for a decade that GPL violations on Linux occur most often in embedded devices such as mobile hand-held computers (aka “phones”) and other…