John Sullivan of the Free Software Foundation
Software Freedom Law Show episode 0x0E
Bradley and Karen interview John Sullivan, Manager of Operations at the Free Software Foundation about their various advocacy campaigns.
Running time: 00:35:54.Show Notes
Segment 0 (00:32)
- The FSF and Cisco settled their lawsuit, for which SFLC represented FSF. (01:19)
- Karen has participated for the last two years on the “Law of Software Contracts” ALI draft, which was adopted by the ALI this week. (03:20)
Segment 1 (05:51)
- We previously had as a guest Brett Smith of the FSF (on 0x02). (05:59)
- John Sullivan works on the campaigns as the Manager of Operations. (06:11)
- John listed various campaigns that FSF has done since the GPLv3 process:
- Defective by Design. (07:05)
- Play Ogg. (07:14)
- Badvista. (07:30)
- Libre Planet (07:56), which Karen noted was also a conference. (08:55)
- We discussed some of the parodies of the iPod commercials that were part of the Defective by Design Campaign. (12:45)
- The FSF helps support the RIAA expert Witness Fund. (15:20)
- We discussed John's essay, War on Sharing: Why the FSF Cares About RIAA Lawsuits. (16:40)
- We discussed issues where individuals don't understand that copying of some things is permitted. For example, this teacher took away GNU/Linux disks from a student, assuming distribution was prohibited.
- Karen noted a few legal points: works are covered by copyright for a limited period of time, and then fall into the “public domain”. (21:00) There is also a concept of “fair use” of works still under copyright. Further, the DMCA provides for criminal penalties if you circumvent technological anti-copying measures. (22:09)
- FSF filed a brief (PDF) in the SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum case. (25:51)
- The RIAA directly attacked and complained about the FSF brief, which is a rare occurrence. (27:30)
- FSF is hiring a campaigns manager and is looking for applications. (30:04)
- John encouraged people to look at the LibrePlanet Wiki. (30:33)
Segment 2 (31:07)
- Karen does volunteer work to help QuestionCopyright.org. (32:07)
- Karen participated in the EFF's Bootcamp, at which Corynne McSherry gave a speech on fair use. The EFF publishes materials specifically about fair use. (33:40)