John Sullivan of the Free Software Foundation
Software Freedom Law Show episode 0x0E
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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)