How do you really do GPL enforcement? (aka Bringing software right-to-repair to the masses)
333 | Fri 02 Aug 3 p.m.–3:45 p.m.
Presented by
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Denver Gingerich
https://ossguy.com/
Denver is a software right-to-repair and standards activist who is currently Director of Compliance at Software Freedom Conservancy, where he enforces software right-to-repair licenses such as the GPL, and is also a director of the worker co-operative that runs JMP.chat, a FOSS phone number (texting/calling) service. Denver writes free software in his spare time: his patches have been accepted into Wine, Linux, and wdiff. Denver received his BMath in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. He gives presentations about digital civil rights and how to ensure FOSS remains sustainable as a community and financially, having spoken at conferences such as FOSSY, CopyleftConf, LibrePlanet, LinuxCon North America, CopyCamp Toronto, FOSSLC's Summercamp, and the Open Video Conference.
Denver Gingerich
https://ossguy.com/
Abstract
Enforcing the General Public License (GPL) to bring real software freedom to people can be very challenging in practice, but many of the steps in the process are straight-forward. As the only organization enforcing the GPL for Linux, Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) receives a huge quantity of GPL violation reports, and needs to triage each one as the beginning of our process. The next step is called the "CCS check" (complete corresponding source check), a crucial but barely known activity that determines whether some candidate source code actually corresponds to the device/binaries that the candidate was provided for. We will discuss the CCS check in detail, providing examples and tips for doing your own checks.
Lastly, we'll cover the offer check, something everyone can do to help in SFC's efforts to bring real software right-to-repair to every device running Linux. Whether you want to check offers for source code, review a CCS candidate, or go even further with additional GPL enforcement work of your own, this talk will set you up for success.
Video
Enforcing the General Public License (GPL) to bring real software freedom to people can be very challenging in practice, but many of the steps in the process are straight-forward. As the only organization enforcing the GPL for Linux, Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) receives a huge quantity of GPL violation reports, and needs to triage each one as the beginning of our process. The next step is called the "CCS check" (complete corresponding source check), a crucial but barely known activity that determines whether some candidate source code actually corresponds to the device/binaries that the candidate was provided for. We will discuss the CCS check in detail, providing examples and tips for doing your own checks. Lastly, we'll cover the offer check, something everyone can do to help in SFC's efforts to bring real software right-to-repair to every device running Linux. Whether you want to check offers for source code, review a CCS candidate, or go even further with additional GPL enforcement work of your own, this talk will set you up for success.
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