The Software Freedom Conservancy Blog.

Everyone is asking the wrong questions about TikTok

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 21:54:01 -0500

Whoever owns ByteDance, the fundamental problem remains the same: users never really know what data is collected about them, and they don't know how the software manipulates that data when deciding what they are shown next. The problem can only be solved if users can learn, verify, and understand how that software works.

2024 End-of-Year Fundraiser Succeeds: over $480k to support software freedom

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 19:31:40 -0500

We thank both donors who offered this historic $204,877 match & those who gave to help exceed the challenge

In late November, SFC, with the help of a group of generous individuals who pledged match gifts large and small, posted a huge challenge to our donors. We were so thankful for the donors who came together to offer others a match challenge of $204,877 — which was substantially larger than any of our match challenges in history.

Karen Sandler interviews Cory Doctorow

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 17:51:06 -0500

Our Executive Director Karen Sandler recently sat down with Cory Doctorow to talk about software right to repair, the utility and history of DMCA exemptions, and some of the differences between the way laws take effect in different places around the world. Doctorow is widely known for his speculative fiction touching on issues of technology, activism, and post-scarcity economics. We were so excited for this conversation, many on SFC staff are fans and had a great time preparing for the conversation.

Embroidery and resilient software freedom in 2025

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 18:55:31 -0500

CC-BY-NA 4.0 Sage Sharp

I spent most of 2024 recovering from a spine injury after a car accident. I’d love to share my new insight into free software accessibility, and how both free software and embroidery helped me build resiliency. I’ve been working on a special embroidery that I’ll send to a donor who gives to Software Freedom Conservancy on January 8. We hope if you are able to give you’ll consider donating!

Kuleana and software freedom for the future

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:00:25 -0500

Pono and Meredith in Hawai'i - CC-BY-NA 4.0 Pono Takamori

During the holiday season I really want to share with you some thoughts on why software freedom is so important to me. Please donate during our fundraiser (and have you donation doubled from our matchers!). Also please see the note at the bottom about 2 Q&A sessions we’ll be having on December 27th and 30th!

Matcher interview with Emily Dunham - 2024 Fundraiser

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 23:43:54 -0500

CC-BY-NA 4.0 Emily Dunham

Next up in our matcher interview series is Emily Dunham (edunham). Having been involved in free software for almost 20 years, her work has spanned all kinds of places from working at Mozilla with the Rust community to being a developer advocate and now being at Okta. Thanks to Emily for the incredible interview!

https://nextcloud.sfconservancy.org/apps/files_sharing/publicpreview/AoR8pjSPdgxE4ei?file=/&fileId=41492&x=1920&y=1080&a=true&etag=4ab5952012b2fac3692047a35db7b2a0

Linux banned Russian contributors. Does my FOSS project need to worry about U.S. Sanctions?

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 14:22:09 -0500

Since the Linux project removed in October a number of entries from the MAINTAINERS ﬁle, all of whom were putatively Russian, we've been receiving questions about U.S. sanctions against Russia and what, if anything, we should do about them. As I explain below, our position is that such drastic action, though defensible, is unnecessary.

What would compel the Linux project to take action against speciﬁcally Russian contributors—and is it a good enough reason such that other FOSS project should follow suit? The Linux project has access to the lawyers of the Linux Foundation, after all. Unfortunately, the Linux project's initial announcement said only that the removals were due to various compliance requirements. The announcement added that the Russian contributors can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided. But it didn't say what sort of documentation would be required. Linus Torvalds added a little clarity when he said that "sanctions" were the cause.

2024 Fundraising matcher interview with Patrick Masson

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 16:29:39 -0500

CC-BY-NA 4.0 Patrick Masson

We're so happy to feature our incredible matchers this year! Thanks to all of them for contributing to our largest match goal yet. Today we're talking with Patrick Masson, Executive Director of the Apereo Foundation.

OpenWrt One: manufacturing software freedom

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:54:05 -0500

Software cannot run without hardware. To have software freedom, we need hardware to run our software. Sadly, the vast majority of hardware is not built with software freedom in mind. Too often, we are beholden to the big hardware companies that sell us our laptops, phones, routers, TVs and other devices. Few manufacturers today build devices with user modifiability and longevity in mind. And it's getting worse. Hardware is becoming more and more locked down, making the need for devices that will work in our interests more and more acute.

Software Freedom Conservancy announced on Friday, in conjuction with our OpenWrt member project, that the first router designed from the ground up by the OpenWrt community is now shipping. OpenWrt developers and SFC staff have been coordinating over the past year to design and produce a hardware device that showcases the best of what OpenWrt has to offer. From the upstream-first approach, to the up-front source code availability, no stone was left unturned in ensuring the device would give people flexibility and control over the software (and hardware) that runs their network.

An interview with Anna e só

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 14:16:29 -0500

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, and I am so grateful for all of the amazing people worldwide who are working together towards software freedom.

I am excited to share with you this video where I recently sat down with Anna e só, one of our intrepid Outreachy organizers. Anna is one of the voices I'm most excited to hear from, especially about the most important issues concerning our digital freedoms.

In the interview, we got so excited talking about Anna's experiences and thoughts that we didn't even get to topics related to diversity and inclusion. We'll have to do it again! I'm sure you'll understand from watching this discussion why I'm so thankful to work with Anna!