My History

• In a CS PhD program at University of Cincinnati (1997-2000).

• Dropped out with a Master’s to do policy work for Free Software Foundation (on its Board these days).

• Worked at various non-profits.

• Now I run a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor non-profit, called Software Freedom Conservancy.

• I’m not a researcher; I’m a policy wonk & software freedom advocate.
  • No, I didn’t do a study to come to my policy conclusions.

A Brief Non-Profit Free Software History

• 1984-09-27: GNU Manifesto.

• RMS wrote in that GNU Manifesto:
  • “All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax”
  • “People with new ideas could distribute programs as [free software], asking for donations from satisfied users”

• A non-profit model for the community was planned from the start.

Some FSF History

• FSF is founded in 1984.

• Gets 501(c)(3) status in 1985.

• FSF’s first 12 years is mostly to employ developers!
  • 46% of FSF’s history.
  • Some of the key developers who now lead many of the largest Free Software projects.
  • (Source: GNU’s Bulletins 1986-1997)

The Rise of the Volunteers

• Most Free Software is written by volunteers …
  • … who are only such from the point of view of the projects.
• The volunteers are usually paid for by for-profits
  • Red Hat, Google, IBM, etc.

The Rise of “Open Source”

• Open Source, that thing most of you study, is just a business phenomena.

• It’s a concept specifically designed as an amoral alternative to software freedom politics.
  • see Evgeny Morozov’s article, The Meme Hustler

• For-profit companies always prefer the amoral.

• I’d love to see the areas of academics that relate most to software freedom engaged:
  • Political Science
  • Philosophy

For-Profit vs. Non-Profit

• For-profits act in interest in shareholders.

• 501(c)(3) non-profits act in interest of the public good.

• Software freedom is best when in public good.

• Non-profit orgs (NPOs) are best place for software freedom.

• NPOs can accept for-profit donations, but provide a firewall.

For-Profit-Employee “Volunteers”

• Most code written by for-profit employees.
  • 20% time is a boon to software freedom.
  • But codebases drift in directions of company’s needs.
• Some developers should be funded by non-profits,
  • to mitigate dangers of for-profit control.

It’s the duty of all Free Software developers to steal as much time as they can from their employers for software freedom.

What Can NPOs Do?

• Collect (USA-tax-deductible) donations for a project.
  • both individual and corporate.

• Distribute that money to advance project (and public good).

• Make sure project isn’t controlled by for-profit interests.

• Help leadership with non-technical decisions.

Why Do We Need Non-Profits?

• What’s wrong with for-profits?
  • that duty to shareholders gets in the way.
  • at best, business interest merely accelerates pace.
  • at worst, it distorts the community into trade-association thinking.

• Only non-profits can view community, sharing, helping, and learning as paramount.

• True control by for-profit companies will kill the gravy train.
  • No, I can’t prove that with data.
  • But ∃ plenty of anecdotes & …
  • … my 20 years of intuition, FWIW.

Quick Analogy

• Which, I admit, is perhaps a pathetically thin pretext to put a photo of my dogs in this presentation.

The Pet Industry

• For-profit companies abound …
  • pet food, veterinarian clinics, pet stores.
• Some have non-profit equivalents, but why?
  • pet stores historically biggest puppy mill purchasers.
  • non-profit shelters & rescues provide morally centered method for pet acquisition.

• For-profit companies adapt:
  • donate pet food to shelters.
  • host pet adoption events at pet stores.
• Puppy mills would be norm w/out NPOs.
  • & proprietary software exploitation’d be norm w/out healthy Free Software NPOs.

A Very Few Words On Licensing

• My actual GPL talk is Tuesday at 17:10 in Celestin C.

• But, given I’ve done more GPL enforcement than anyone on the planet …
  • I should probably say at least one thing about GPL compliance, which is:
• License compliance is trivial if you make nothing proprietary & do all you work upstream.
  • … which is the ethical & moral thing to do, anyway.
  • … so just do that & never worry about compliance problems again.

More Info / Talk License

• URLs / Social Networking / Email:
  • Conservancy: sfconservancy.org & @conservancy
  • Me: faif.us, ebb.org/bkuhn & @bkuhn (pump.io clients only)
  • Slides at: ebb.org/bkuhn/talks & gitorious.org/bkuhn/talks (source)
• Please donate: sfconservancy.org/donate/ or Conservancy’s projects’ sites.