[Discussioni] Freedom task force

[Francesco Potorti`]

È del 13 novembre, ma mi pare che non fosse passata:

 <http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000159.html>

FSFE Launching Freedom Task Force, Co-operating with gpl-violations.org

     FTF to educate programmers and corporations on how to avoid
     licensing problems, as well as enforce Free Software licences

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) announced today the launch
of the Freedom Task Force, [1] thanks to a grant of EUR 30.000 from
Stichting NLnet.  The organisation, working closely with Harald Welte
of gpl-violations.org [2], seeks to help programmers properly set up
and organise projects legally, as well as educate companies to
understand how the GPL works.  As needed, the purpose of the group
will also include enforcement in the case of licence violations.  FTF
is located in FSFE's offices in Zurich, Switzerland.

"Free Software itself has become commercial mainstream, but knowledge
about Free Software and in particular its licences is often lagging
behind," explains Georg Greve, FSFE's president. "With large companies
like SUN embracing Free Software at the heart of their business, the
software ecosystem is transforming in ways that underline the
requirement for services like the FTF."

FTF will include experts with technical and legal backgrounds as well
as volunteers, working together to provide organised and co-ordinated
responses to individual cases where there may be misunderstandings
about what a licence requires or a violation of its terms.  FSFE has
hired Mr. Shane Coughlan to serve as FTF Co-ordinator.

Shane Coughlan on the other tasks of the FTF: "We seek to give
commercial and non-commercial Free Software developers the maximum
support possible with our fiduciary activities. By helping them bundle
their legal interests, we are able to safeguard the legal status of a
project while it can focus on technological and managerial issues. For
projects that FSFE has accepted into its fiduciary program, FSFE will
also be in a position to defend their interests in the eventuality of
licence violation."

Harald Welte, the first person who enforced the GNU GPL in court, will
be working closely with the FTF: "My gpl-violations.org work has shown
how much the community needs a more focussed approach to deal with
these violations. While there was good contact with FSFE in the past,
we will now be working closely together, sharing our information and
resources to best protect the rights of Free Software developers."

"We have as a primary goal to help corporations to adhere to the
licences from the onset, rather than to have to enforce violations
later," explains Mr. Coughlan.  "We encourage those responsible for
compliance for their company to contact us, so we can work together to
avoid licence compliance problems, rather than having to later solve
problems that could have been avoided in the first place."

Stichting NLnet [3] Chairman Teus Hagen expressed pleasure at the
launch of FTF: "We are very happy to support the launch of the FTF
because in our view this is a timely and necessary step to consolidate
Free Software. We ourselves at times felt the need for a reliable
partner to handle these issues, and in our experience the FSFE is such
a partner. We hope that many others will contribute to and support
this effort, and see the FTF as an important step in the maturing of
Free Software."

[1] [11]http://fsfeurope.org/ftf
[2] [12]http://gpl-violations.org
[3] [13]http://www.nlnet.nl