software, and defending free software with practical initiatives.

  Conservancy accomplishes these goals with various initiatives, including

  defending and upholding the rights of software users and consumers under

<h2 id="brief-history-of-user-focused-gpl-enforcement">Brief History of

  User-Focused GPL Enforcement</h2>

  project) and Harald Welte (major contributor to Linux’s netfilter

  subsystem) — to enforce the

  GPL. <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/about/staff/#bkuhn">Bradley

  Hacker-in-Residence, led and coordinated that coalition (when he was

  process of GPL enforcement, compelled Linksys to release an

  almost-GPL-compliant source release for the

  WRT54G. A <a href="https://openwrt.org/about/history">group of volunteers

  every major wireless router product.  Now, more than 15 years later, the

  to ensure that consumers have and deserve rights to install modified

  firmwares on their devices and that such hobbyist improvements are no

  threat to spectrum regulation.</p>

  and Conservancy has committed to long-term assistance to this project.</p>

  (such as dealing

  with <a href="https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/sqm">the

  dreaded “bufferbloat” bugs</a>). This interplay between the hobbyist

  modify the software on their devices, the hobbyist community

  shrinks. Without intervention to ensure companies respect the hobbyist

  community, hobbyists are limited by the oft-arbitrary manufacturer-imposed

  from this disaster; we seek to help other embedded electronic subindustries

  avoid that fate. The authors of GPL’d software chose that license so its

  source is usable and readily available to hobbyists. It is our duty, as

  activists for the software freedom of hobbyists, to ensure these legally

  mandated rights are never curtailed.</p>

  enforcement can be found

  in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4lCMx-EI1s">Kuhn’s talk

<p>Conservancy has had substantial success in leveraging more device freedom

  in other subindustries through GPL compliance. In 2009, Conservancy, with

  co-Plaintiff Erik Andersen, sued fourteen defendants in federal court under

  cases. Most notably, the GPL-compliant source release obtained in the

  lawsuit for certain Samsung televisions provided the basis for

  the <a href="https://www.samygo.tv/">SamyGo project</a> — an alternative

  his <a href="https://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org

    project</a>. Harald successfully sued many companies (mostly in the

  wireless router industry) in Germany to achieve compliance and yield source

<h2 id="importance-of-linux-enforcement-specifically">Importance of Linux Enforcement Specifically</h2>

  collection</a>.</p>

<p>There is one overarching irony to this growing dystopia: nearly all these

  notably, Linux. While Linux-based systems do allow proprietary user-space

  utilities routinely used in embedded systems, such as Conservancy’s BusyBox

  project, are under that license (or similar copyleft licenses such as the

  LGPL). These licenses require device makers to provide complete,

  that source code must also include “the scripts used to control compilation

  and installation of the executable”. In short, the consumers must receive

  all the source code and the ability to modify, recompile and reinstall that

  possible. We work to preserve (or, more often, restore) that software

  freedom for consumers of other types of electronic devices.</p>

  predatory behavior perpetuated by the manufacturers of these devices by

  modifying and replacing the software. Hobbyists can aid their community by

  providing these alternatives. People with no technical background already

  network performance and allay privacy concerns. Furthermore, older

  equipment is often saved from planned obsolescence by alternative

  solutions. E-recyclers

  like <a href="https://www.freegeek.org/">Freegeek</a> do this regularly for

  desktop and laptop machines with GNU/Linux distributions like Debian, and

  other types of electronic products. However, without the complete,

  installation, the fundamental purpose of copyleft is frustrated. Consumers,

  hobbyists, non-profit e-recyclers and the general public are left without

  the necessary tools they need and deserve, and which the license promises

<h3 id="alternative-firmware-project">Alternative Firmware Project</h3>

  important component. While we’ve long hoped that volunteers, as they did

  enforcement efforts and build alternative firmware projects, history shows

  us that the creation of such projects is not guaranteed and exceedingly

  rare.</p>