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Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organization founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software 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 movement.

=Current work of FSF=

; The GNU Project : The original purpose of the FSF was to promote the ideals of free software but the organization was also charged with developing the GNU operating system.

; GPL Enforcement : FSF has the resources and the will to enforce the GNU General Public License and other GNU licenses, but only for software for which it owns the copyrights; GPL d software owned by others must be defended by its 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.

; 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 most 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 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 GNU Savannah website.

; Annual awards Award for the Advancement of Free Software and Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit

=Structure=

==Membership==

On November 25, 2002 the FSF launched the FSF Associate Membership program for individuals. In March 2005 they had over 3400 associate members. On March 5 2003 they launched a Corporate Patron program for commercial entities. As of April 2004, they have 45 corporate patrons.

==Organizational==

===Board of Directors===

  • Geoffery Knauth, Senior Software Engineer at SFA, Inc.
  • Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Stanford University
  • Eben Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University
  • Henri Poole, 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 Jay Sussman, Professor of Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    • ===Other positions===

  • Peter T. Brown: Executive Director (was GPL Compliance Manager and Controller until February 2005)
  • Eben Moglen: General Counsel
  • Dan Ravicher: Senior Counsel
  • : GPL Compliance Engineer
  • John Sullivan, Programs Administrator
  • Ted Teah, Free Software Directory maintainer
  • Joshua Ginsberg, Senior Systems Administrator
  • , Senior Systems Administrator
  • , Senior Systems Administrator (part-time)
  • Tony Wieczorek, Program Assistant

    • ===Former employees===

  • Jonathan Arcenaux, GNU hacker, GNU Emacs
  • James E. Blair, Senior Systems Administrator
  • Leslie Proctor Public Relations
  • Robert J. Chassell: Founding Director and Treasurer
  • Tim Ney CEO 1998-2001
  • Thomas Bushnell, BSG GNU Hacker, GNU Hurd
  • Roland McGrath GNU hacker, GNU Libc, Make, GNU Hurd
  • Ian Murdock GNU hacker
  • Leonard Tower GNU hacker
  • Mike Haertel GNU hacker, Diff, Grep
  • Pete TerMaat GNU hacker, GNU Debugger
  • 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, GNU Guile
  • Randy Smith GNU hacker, GDB
  • there was a Steve
  • Jonathan Watterson, digital-speech project organiser
  • Paul Fisher, Senior Systems Administrator
  • Peter Salus, Vice President
  • Tom Lord, GNU hacker, GNU arch, Sed, regular expression engine, GNU Oleo features
  • Janet Casey, Free Software Directory maintainer until August 2005

    • There are usually around 10 employees in the headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The office is managed by Peter Brown.

    ==Sister organisations==

    In 2001, Free Software Foundation Europe was founded in Germany to act as a hub for the Free Software organisations of Europe. In 2003, Free Software Foundation India was founded in Kerala. In 2005, it was announced that work is in progress to set up a Free Software Foundation Latin America.

    =Recognition=

  • for Open Source Computing [http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2002/janfeb/showcase/motionpictures.html]
  • Award of Distinction in the category of Digital Communities [http://www.aec.at/en/prix/updates/article.aspiNewsID=715&iTypeID=0] [http://www.fsf.org/news/digital-communities.html]

    • =External links=

    *[http://www.fsf.org The Free Software Foundation web site] *[http://www.fsf.org/about About the FSF] *[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html The Free Software Definition] *[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html Documents about the Free Software philosophy] *[http://member.fsf.org FSF Associate Membership Program] *[http://patron.fsf.org FSF Corporate Patronage Program] *[http://www.fsfeurope.org Free Software Foundation Europe web site] *[http://www.fsf.org.in The Free Software Foundation India web site] *[http://www.ifso.ie The Irish Free Software Organisation]
  • [http://alternativefreedom.blogspot.com/ Alternative Freedom Documentary featuring Richard Stallman]
    		•