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{% block subtitle %}Officers - {% endblock %}

{% block submenuselection %}Officers{% endblock %}

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<h1>Officers</h1>

<p>The <a href="/about/board/">Board of Directors</a> of the Conservancy

elects its officers.  The current officers are:</p>

<h2>Bradley M. Kuhn - President</h2>

<p><a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley M. Kuhn</a> is the President and

href="http://fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation (FSF)</a>. Kuhn began his

work in the software freedom movement as a volunteer in 1992, when he became

an early adopter of the GNU/Linux operating system, and began contributing to

various FLOSS projects.  He worked during the 1990s as a system administrator

and software developer for various companies, and taught AP Computer Science

at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati.  Kuhn's non-profit career began in

2000, when he was hired by the FSF.  As FSF's Executive Director from

2001–2005, Kuhn led FSF's GPL enforcement, launched its Associate

Member program, and invented the <a

href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">Affero GPL</a>.  From

2005-2010, Kuhn worked as the Policy Analyst and Technology Director of the

Software Freedom Law Center.  Kuhn was the primary volunteer for Conservancy

from 2006–2010, and has been a full-time staffer since early 2011.

Kuhn holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Computer Science from <a

href="http://www.loyola.edu/academic/computerscience">Loyola University in

Maryland</a>, and an M.S. in Computer Science from the <a

href="http://www.cs.uc.edu/">University of Cincinnati</a>.  <a

href="http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn/articles/thesis/">Kuhn's Master's thesis</a>

discussed methods for dynamic interoperability of FLOSS programming

languages.  Kuhn received the <a

href="http://www.oscon.com/oscon2012/public/schedule/detail/25039">O'Reilly

Open Source Award in 2012</a>, in recognition for his lifelong policy work on

copyleft licensing.</p>

<h2>Mark Galassi - Vice-President and Board Chairperson</h2>

<p>Mark Galassi has been involved in the GNU project since 1984.  He

currently works as a researcher in the International, Space, and Response

division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he has worked on the

HETE-2 satellite, ISIS/Genie, the Raptor telescope, the Swift satellite,

and the muon tomography project.  In 1997, Mark took a couple of years off

from Los Alamos (where he was previously in the ISR division and the

Theoretical Astrophysics group) to work for Cygnus (now a part of Red Hat)

writing software and books for eCos, although he continued working on the

HETE-2 satellite (an astrophysical Gamma Ray Burst mission) part

time. Mark earned his BA in Physics at Reed College and a PhD from the

Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook. </p>

<h2>Martin Michlmayr - Treasurer</h2>

<p>Martin Michlmayr has been involved in various free and open source

software projects for well over 15 years.  He acted as the leader of the

Debian project for two years, served on the board of the Open Source

Initiative (OSI) for six years and currently serves on the board of

Software Freedom Conservancy.  Martin works for Hewlett Packard Enterprise

(HPE) as an Open Source Community Expert.  In this role, he facilitates

open source activities both internally within HPE as well as externally

within the broader open source community.  Martin earned a PhD from the

{% extends "base_about.html" %}

{% block subtitle %}Staff - {% endblock %}

{% block submenuselection %}Staff{% endblock %}

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<h1>Staff</h1>

<h2>Karen Sandler - Executive Director</h2>

<a id="karen"></a>

<p>Karen M. Sandler is Executive Director of Conservancy. She was previously

the Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation. In partnership with the GNOME

Foundation, Karen co-organizes the award winning Outreach Program for

Women. Prior to taking up this position, Karen was General Counsel of the

Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). She continues to do pro bono legal work

with SFLC, the GNOME Foundation and QuestionCopyright.Org. Before joining

SFLC, Karen worked as an associate in the corporate departments of Gibson,

Dunn & Crutcher LLP in New York and Clifford Chance in New York and

London. Karen received her law degree from Columbia Law School in 2000, where

she was a James Kent Scholar and co-founder of the Columbia Science and

Technology Law Review. Karen received her bachelor’s degree in engineering

from The Cooper Union. She is a recipient of an O'Reilly Open Source Award

and also co-host of the <a href="http://faif.us">&ldquo;Free as in

Freedom&rdquo; podcast</a>.</p>

<h2>Bradley M. Kuhn - President and Distinguished Technologist</h2>

<a id="bkuhn"></a>

<p><a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley M. Kuhn</a> is the President and

href="http://fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation (FSF)</a>. Kuhn began his

work in the software freedom movement as a volunteer in 1992, when he became

an early adopter of the GNU/Linux operating system, and began contributing to

various FLOSS projects.  He worked during the 1990s as a system administrator

and software developer for various companies, and taught AP Computer Science

at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati.  Kuhn's non-profit career began in

2000, when he was hired by the FSF.  As FSF's Executive Director from

2001–2005, Kuhn led FSF's GPL enforcement, launched its Associate

Member program, and invented the <a

href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">Affero GPL</a>.  From

2005-2010, Kuhn worked as the Policy Analyst and Technology Director of the

Software Freedom Law Center.  Kuhn was the primary volunteer for Conservancy

from 2006–2010, and has been a full-time staffer since early 2011.

Kuhn holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Computer Science from <a

href="http://www.loyola.edu/academic/computerscience">Loyola University in

Maryland</a>, and an M.S. in Computer Science from the <a

href="http://www.cs.uc.edu/">University of Cincinnati</a>.  <a

href="http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn/articles/thesis/">Kuhn's Master's thesis</a>

discussed methods for dynamic interoperability of FLOSS programming

languages.  Kuhn received the <a

href="http://www.oscon.com/oscon2012/public/schedule/detail/25039">O'Reilly

Open Source Award in 2012</a>, in recognition for his lifelong policy work on

copyleft licensing.</p>

<h2>Tony Sebro - General Counsel</h2>

<a id="tony"></a>

<p>Tony Sebro is a seasoned technology attorney with a broad base of

business and legal experience relating to technology, strategy, and

business development.  Before joining Conservancy, Tony was most recently

a Partner with the PCT Companies, a family of professional service firms.

Prior to that, he was Program Director, Technology & Intellectual

Property at IBM's Armonk, New York world headquarters, where he was

responsible for developing and executing licensing strategies in

partnership with IBM's Software Group.  In that role, Tony led

negotiations and structured deals with market leaders in the web

technology, e-commerce, retail, enterprise software, and financial

services sectors.  Tony also led various internal strategic initiatives,

including an effort to provide business leaders of key emerging market

opportunities with coordinated intellectual property development and

monetization strategies, as well as the revamping and supervision of IBM's

corporate-wide process for determining the value and availability of

patents for sale.  Prior to his tenure at IBM, Mr. Sebro practiced law in

the New York office of Kenyon & Kenyon, LLP, handling litigation and

licensing matters for clients in the medical, pharmaceutical and

mechanical technology areas.  Tony received his J.D. and his M.B.A. from

the University of Michigan.  He received his B.S. from the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology. Tony is a member of the New York bar and

registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Tony

<p>Linux copyright holders who wish to assign copyright to or sign an enforcement agreement with

Conservancy should

  contact <a href="mailto:linux-services@sfconservancy.org">&lt;linux-services@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>.

  In 2016,

  Conservancy <a href="/news/2016/nov/03/linux-compliance-agreements/">made

    public the template agreements used as part of this project</a>; both the

  <a href="/docs/blank_linux-enforcement-agreement.pdf">non-anonymous</a> and

  <a href="/docs/blank_anonymous-linux-enforcement-agreement.pdf">anonymous</a>

  versions are available.  However, please <strong>do not</strong> sign these

  unilaterally without contacting and discussing

  with <a href="mailto:linux-services@sfconservancy.org">&lt;linux-services@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>

  first.</p>

<h2>The Debian Copyright Aggregation Project</h2>

<p>In August 2015, <a href="/news/2015/aug/17/debian/">Conservancy announced the Debian Copyright Aggregation

Project</a>.  This project allows Debian contributors to assign copyrights to

Conservancy, or sign enforcement agreements allowing Conservancy to enforce

Free and Open Source (FOSS) licenses on their behalf.  Many Debian contributors

have chosen each of these options already, and more continue to join.</p>

<p>Debian contributors who wish to assign copyright to or sign an enforcement agreement with

Conservancy should contact <a href="mailto:debian-services@sfconservancy.org">&lt;debian-services@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>.</p>

<h2>Conservancy's Commitment to Copyleft License Compliance</h2>

<p>Conservancy is dedicated to encouraging all users of software to comply

  with Free Software licenses. Toward this goal, in its compliance efforts,

  Conservancy helps distributors of Free Software in a friendly spirit of

  cooperation and participation.  In this spirit, Conservancy has co-published,

  with the Free Software Foundation (FSF), <a href="/copyleft-compliance/principles.html">the principles that both organizations

  follow in their compliance efforts</a>.

  Also in collaboration with the FSF, Conservancy also sponsors

  the <a href="https://copyleft.org/guide/"><cite>Copyleft and the GNU

  General Public License:A Comprehensive Tutorial and Guide</cite></a>,

  which <a href="/news/2014/nov/07/copyleft-org/">formally

  launched in fall 2014</a>.  The Guide includes tutorial materials about

  copyleft and compliance with copyleft licenses,

  including <a href="https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidepa2.html"><cite>A

  Practical Guide to GPL Compliance</cite></a>.  The materials

  on <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a> have been developed and

  improved since 2002, and are themselves copylefted, and developed

  collaboratively in public.</p>

<p>However, the Guide is admittedly a large document, so for those who are

  interested in a short summary of describing how Conservancy handles GPL

  enforcement and compliance

  blog post outlining the compliance process</a> is likely the best source.</p>

<h2>Reporting GPL Violations To Us</h2>

<p>If you are aware of a license violation or compliance issue regarding

  Debian, Linux, or

  project</a> (&mdash; in particular BusyBox, Evergreen, Inkscape, Mercurial,

  Samba, Sugar Labs, or Wine),

  please <a href="mailto:compliance@sfconservancy.org">contact us by email at

    &lt;compliance@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>.</p>

<p>If you think you've found a GPL violation, we encourage you to

   read <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2009/11/08/gpl-enforcement.html">this

   personal blog post by our Distinguished Technologist, Bradley M. Kuhn</a>,

   about good practices in discovering and reporting GPL violations.  (We'd

   also like someone to convert the text of that blog post into a patch for

   <a href="http://compliance.guide">The Compliance Guide on

   copyleft.org</a>; submit it

   via <a href="https://k.copyleft.org/guide/">k.copyleft.org</a>.)</p>

<h2>Donate to Support This Work</h2>

<p>Finally, Conservancy welcomes <a href="#donate-box"

  class="donate-now">donations</a> in support of our GPL Compliance Projects,

  and we encourage you to become a <a href="/supporter/">an official

  Supporter of Software Freedom Conservancy</a>. </p>

</div>

{% endblock %}

{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}

{% block subtitle %}Copyleft Compliance Projects - {% endblock %}

{% block submenuselection %}VMwareCodeSimilarity{% endblock %}

{% block content %}

<h1 id="contribution-and-similarity-analysis-of-christoph-hellwigs-linux-code-as-found-in-vmware-esxi-5.5">Contribution and Similarity Analysis of Christoph Hellwig's Linux Code as found in VMware ESXi 5.5</h1>

<p>This analysis verifies by reproducible analysis a set of specific contributions that are clearly made by Christoph Hellwig to Linux, and shows how those contributions appear in the VMware ESXi 5.5 product.</p>

<h1 id="understanding-code-similarity-and-cloning">Understanding Code Similarity and &quot;Cloning&quot;</h1>

<p>Software is often modified in various ways; indeed, Linux developers form a community that encourages and enables modification by many parties. Given this development model, communities often find it valuable to determine when software source code moves from one place to another with only minor modifications. Various scientifically-vetted techniques can be used to identify &quot;clones&quot; -- a portion of code that is substantially similar to pre-existing source code. The specific area of academic research is called &quot;code cloning detection&quot; or &quot;code duplication detection&quot;. The area has been under active research since the mid-1990s <a href="#fn1" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref1"><sup>1</sup></a>. In 2002, Japanese researchers published a tool called CCFinder <a href="#fn2" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref2"><sup>2</sup></a>, which, in its updated incarnation (called CCFinderX), is widely used and referenced by academic researchers in the field <a href="#fn3" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref3"><sup>3</sup></a> and has specifically been used to explore reuses of code in GPL'd software such as Linux <a href="#fn4" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref4"><sup>4</sup></a>.</p>

<p>CCFinderX uses a token-based clone detection method and a suffix-tree matching algorithm; both techniques have been highly vetted and considered in the academic literature. The techniques are considered viable and useful in detecting clones. Many academic papers on the subject have been peer-reviewed and published, and nearly every newly published paper compares its new techniques of clone detection to the seminal results found by CCFinderX. For purposes of our analysis, we have therefore chosen to use CCFinderX. These results can be easily reproduced since CCFinderX is, itself, also Open Source software.</p>

<h1 id="establishing-a-baseline-of-the-ccfinderx-tool">Establishing A Baseline of the CCFinderX Tool</h1>

<p>CCFinderX offers many statistics for clone detection. After expert analysis, we concluded that most relevant to this situation is the &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; between the existing code and the new code. To establish a baseline, we considered two different comparisons of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). First, we compared the Linux kernel, Version 4.5.2, to the FreeBSD kernel, Version 10.3.0. This comparison was inspired by the similar 2002 study <a href="#fn5" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref5"><sup>5</sup></a> of these two large C programs. The hypothesis remained that CCFinderX would encounter a low but significant percentage of code similarity, since the FreeBSD and Linux projects collaborate on some subprojects and willingly share code under the 3-Clause BSD license for those parts. (These collaborations are public and well-documented.)</p>

<p>The experiment confirmed the hypothesis. We found that a 3.68% &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; when comparing code from Linux to the FreeBSD kernel.</p>

<p>Next, we compared the source code of the Linux Kernel 4.5.2 to the LLVM+Clang system, version 3.8.0. These two projects are each a large program that are not known to actively share code. There may be some very minimal similarity simply due to chance, but something much lower than the 3.68% found between Linux and FreeBSD's kernel.</p>

<p>Indeed, when the same test is run to compare Linux to the LLVM+Clang system, the &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; was 0.075%.</p>

<h1 id="general-comparison-of-linux-kernel-to-vmware-sources">General Comparison of Linux Kernel to VMware sources</h1>

<p>With the baseline established, we now begin relevant comparisons. First, we compare the Linux kernel version 2.6.34 to the sources <a href="https://k.sfconservancy.org/vmkdrivers">released by VMware in their (partial) source release</a>. The &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; between Linux 2.6.34 and VMware's partial source release is 20.72%. There is little question that much of VMware's kernel has come from Linux.</p>

<h1 id="methodology-of-showing-hellwigs-contributions-in-vmware-esxi-5.5-sources">Methodology Of Showing Hellwig's Contributions in VMware ESXi 5.5 Sources</h1>

<p>The following describes a methodology to show Hellwig's contributions to Linux, and how they compare to code found in VMware ESXi 5.5.</p>

<h2 id="extracting-hellwigs-contributions-from-linux-historical-repository">Extracting Hellwig's Contributions From Linux Historical Repository</h2>

<p>Excellent records exist of contributions made to Linux from 2002-02-04 through present date. From 2002-02-04 through 2005-04-03, Bitkeeper was used to store revision control history of Linux. Each improvement contributed to Linux has information regarding who placed the contribution in Linux, and a comment field in which the contributor can credit others, such as by noting that the contribution actually came from someone else.</p>

<p>I extracted from the historical Linux tree the identifying number of all commits that are either made with Hellwig in the official Author field, or where the person in the Author field left notes clearly indicating that the contribution was done by Hellwig. For the latter, the following regular expression search against the log file was used:</p>

<pre><code>(Submitted\s+by|original\s+patch|patch\s+(from|by)|originally\s+(from|by)).*Hellwig</code></pre>

<p>Specifically, I used <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx">a script</a> to extract a list of commit ids from the <a href="git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tglx/history.git">historical Linux repository</a>. This method found 1,012 separate occasions of contribution by Hellwig from 2002-02-04 through 2005-04-03.</p>

<p>After finding these separate occasions of contribution, I then extracted the source code lines that Hellwig added or changed in each contribution in this repository. I did so by carefully cross-referencing the commits that Hellwig performed with the output of <code>git blame</code>. I specifically <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/extract-code-added-in-commits.plx">wrote a script</a> to carefully extracted only lines that Hellwig changed or added in that repository, and placed only those contributions identifiable as Hellwig's into new files whose named matched the original filenames. This created a corpus of code that can be verifiable as added or changed by Hellwig and no one else.</p>

<p>Here are the specific commands I ran:</p>

<pre><code>$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tglx/history.git linux-historical

$ ./commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx `pwd`/linux-historical/.git Hellwig '(Submitted\s+by|originals+patch|patch\s+from|originally\s+by).*' > hellwig-historical.ids

$ ./extract-code-added-in-commits.plx --repository=`pwd`/linux-historical --output-dir=`pwd`/hellwig-historical --central-commit e7e173af42dbf37b1d946f9ee00219cb3b2bea6a --progress --blame-opts=-M --blame-opts=-C < ./hellwig-historical.ids

$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git linux-current

$ ./commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx `pwd`/linux-current/.git Hellwig '(Submitted\s+by|original\s+patch|patch\s+(from|by)|originally\s+(from|by)).*' > ./hellwig-current.ids

$ ./extract-code-added-in-commits.plx --progress --repository=`pwd`/linux-current --output-dir=`pwd`/hellwig-through-2.6.34 --fork-limit=14 --blame-opts=-M  --blame-opts=-M --blame-opts=-C --blame-opts=-C --central-commit e40152ee1e1c7a63f4777791863215e3faa37a86   &lt; hellwig-current.ids </code></pre>

<p>Note: e40152ee1e1c7a63f4777791863215e3faa37a86 is the 2.6.34 version created by Linus Torvalds <script type="text/javascript">

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</script><noscript>&#116;&#x6f;&#114;&#118;&#x61;&#108;&#100;&#x73;&#32;&#x61;&#116;&#32;&#108;&#x69;&#110;&#x75;&#120;&#x2d;&#102;&#x6f;&#x75;&#110;&#100;&#x61;&#116;&#x69;&#x6f;&#110;&#32;&#100;&#x6f;&#116;&#32;&#x6f;&#114;&#x67;</noscript> on 2010-05-16 14:17:36 -0700, with Git commit comment: &quot;Linus 2.6.34&quot;.</p>

<h2 id="comparing-hellwigs-contributions-from-linux-historical-repository-to-vmware-sources">Comparing Hellwig's Contributions From Linux Historical Repository to VMware Sources</h2>

<p>I then used this corpus as input to CCFinderX (similar to the other CCFinderX comparisons explained earlier). Specifically, this CCFinderX comparison compared all known Hellwig-contributed material from the historical Linux repository to the partial VMware source release. CCFinderX found a ratio of similarity of 0.0900% between Hellwig's code and the source code in VMware's (partial) source release. CCFinderX specifically identified 12 distinct locations where substantial sections of code contributed by Hellwig appeared in VMware's code.</p>

<p>Most notably, substantial portions of the the following core SCSI functions were found by this search technique: <code>__scsi_device_lookup</code> and <code>__scsi_get_command</code>, <code>mpt_get_product_name</code>, <code>scsi_proc_host_rm</code>, <code>mega_enum_raid_scsi</code>, <code>mega_m_to_n</code>, <code>mega_prepare_passthru</code>, <code>proc_scsi_show</code>, and <code>__down_read_trylock</code>.</p>

<h2 id="extracting-hellwigs-contributions-from-modern-linux-repository">Extracting Hellwig's Contributions From Modern Linux Repository</h2>

<p>Beginning on 2005-04-16, Linux began using the new Git system to store revision history. This history can be analyzed in a similar fashion as was done for the historical repository.</p>

<p>In this case, I picked a specific revision to center the analysis, the Linux 2.6.34 release from 2010-05-16. For the period from 2005-04-16 through 2010-05-16, I extracted from the modern Linux tree the identifying number of all commits that are either made with Hellwig in the official Author field, or where the person in the Author field left notes clearly indicating that the contribution was done by Hellwig. For the latter, the following regular expression search against the log file was used (as before):</p>

<pre><code>(Submitted\s+by|original\s+patch|patch\s+(from|by)|originally\s+(from|by)).*Hellwig</code></pre>

<p>Specifically, I used the <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx">same script as before</a> to now extract a list of commit ids from the <a href="git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git">modern Linux repository</a>. This method found 2,595 separate occasions of contribution by Hellwig from 2005-04-16 through 2010-05-16.</p>

<p>As before, after finding these separate occasions of contribution, I then extracted the source code lines that Hellwig added or changed in each contribution in this repository. I did so by carefully cross-referencing the commits that Hellwig performed with the output of <code>git blame</code>. I specifically <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/extract-code-added-in-commits.plx">used the same script as before</a> to carefully extracted only lines that Hellwig changed or added in that repository, and placed only those contributions identifiable as Hellwig's into new files whose named matched the original filenames. This created a corpus of code that can be verifiable as added or changed by Hellwig and no one else.</p>

<h2 id="comparing-hellwigs-contributions-from-modern-linux-repository-to-vmware-sources">Comparing Hellwig's Contributions From Modern Linux Repository to VMware Sources</h2>

<p>I then used this corpus as input to CCFinderX again. Specifically, this CCFinderX comparison compared all known Hellwig-contributed material from the modern Linux repository to the partial VMware source release. CCFinderX found a ratio of similarity of 0.1615% between Hellwig's code and the source code in VMware's (partial) source release was contributed by Hellwig. CCFinderX specifically identified 23 distinct locations where substantial sections of code contributed by Hellwig appeared. These 23 locations are found in the following 19 functions: <code>mptsas_init</code>, <code>mptsas_get_linkerrors</code>, <code>megasas_build_and_issue_cmd</code>, <code>cciss_getgeo</code>, <code>mptsas_get_bay_identifier</code>, <code>phy_to_ioc</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_enclosure_pg0</code>, <code>SendIocInit</code>, <code>mptsas_parse_device_info</code>, <code>csmisas_sas_device_pg0</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_io_unit_pg0</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_io_unit_pg1</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_expander_pg1</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_enclosure_pg0</code>, <code>aac_handle_aif</code>, <code>mptsas_get_bay_identifier</code>, <code>mpt_host_page_alloc</code>, <code>mptsas_probe_one_phy</code>.</p>

<h2 id="changed-and-added-lines-create-an-incomplete-picture">Changed And Added Lines Create an Incomplete Picture</h2>

<p>In <a href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/sites/main/files/publications/estimatinglinux.html"><em>Estimating the Total Cost of a Linux Distribution</em></a>, McPherson, Proffitt, and Hale-Evans write:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Anyone who is familiar with kernel development, for instance, realizes that the highest man-power cost in its development is when code is deleted and modified. The amount of effort that goes into deleting and changing code, not just adding to it, is not reflected in the values associated with this estimate. Because in a collaborative development model, code is developed and then changed and deleted, the true value is far greater than the existing code base. Just think about the process: when a few lines of code are added to the kernel, for instance, many more have to be modified to be compatible with that change. The work that goes into understanding the dependencies and outcomes and then changing that code is not well represented in this study.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Therefore, the process described herein, which ignores lines that are <em>deleted</em> (thus streamlining and improving code), also ignores a fundamental tenant of software development. Namely, making code smaller, more expressive, and more concise yields better-designed and more easily maintainable software. While the process herein <em>can</em> produce a clear list of code whose known introduction is directly attributable to Hellwig, the analysis produced by this process does not do justice to the full weight of the contributions made by Hellwig, since removed code is outright ignored in this process.</p>

{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}

{% block subtitle %}Copyleft Compliance Projects - {% endblock %}

{% block submenuselection %}VMwareLawsuitAppeal{% endblock %}

{% block content %}

<h2>The time has come to stand up for the GPL.</h2>

<p><em>In March 2015, Conservancy <a href="/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">announced Christoph Hellwig's

    lawsuit against VMware in Germany</a>.  In July 2016,

    we <a href="/news/2016/aug/09/vmware-appeal/">announced that Christoph

    would appeal the lower court's ruling</a>.</p>

    Support Conservancy's and Christoph's efforts in this area

    supporter</a> or <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donating via

    the link on the right</a>.</em></p>

<p>We were told to ask nicely and repeatedly, so we did.</p>

<p>We asked allies to help us make contact in friendly and professional

  ways.</p>

<p>Everyone asked us to give companies as many chances as possible and as

  much help as possible to comply with copyleft, so we did.</p>

<p>We've worked for years to help VMware comply with the GPL, but they

refuse. Negotiations broke down for the last time when they insisted on an 

NDA just to discuss settlement terms!</p>

<p>Christoph is among the most active developers of Linux.  As of Feburary 

19, 2015, Christoph has contributed 279,653 lines of code to the Linux kernel, 

and ranks 20th among the 1,340 developers involved in the latest 3.19 kernel 

release.  Christoph also

ranks 4th among those who have reviewed third-party source code, tirelessly

corrected and commented on other developers' contributions.  Christoph

licenses his code to the public under the terms of the GPL for practical and

ideological reasons.  VMware, a company with net revenue of over $1 billion

and over 14,000 employees, ignored Christoph's choice.  They took Christoph's

code from Linux and modified it to work with their own kernel without releasing

source code of the resulting complete work.  This is precisely the kind of

activity Christoph and other kernel developers seek to prevent by choosing

the GPL.  The GPL was written to prevent this specific scenario!</p>

<h3>This is a matter of principle.</h3>

<p>Free and open source software is everywhere and in everything; yet our

  software freedom is constantly eroded.</p>

<p>We want companies to incorporate our software into new products, but there

are a few simple rules.  Copylefted free software is so prevalent because

there's no way a company can compete without using a significant amount of

free software to bring products to market in reasonable time. They get so

much benefit from our work.  Allowing the whole community to review, use,

improve and work with the code seems very little to ask in return.  Copyleft

also ensures competitors cannot undercut those who contribute.  Without active enforcement, the GPL is

effectively no different from a non-copyleft license.</p>

<p>What point is there for companies to make sure that they're compliant if

there are no consequences when the GPL is violated? Many will continue to

ignore the rules without enforcement.  We know that there are so many

companies that willingly comply and embrace GPL as part of their business.

  learned much about this work in our first seven years of

  operation, and we're prepared to apply what we've learned to solve

  this problem not just for ourselves, but for anyone who seeks a

  solution that both respects software freedom and handles non-profit

  accounting for all sorts of NPOs, including fiscal sponsors.  General NPO

  accounting is just a “base case” of fiscal sponsorship (i.e.,

  an NPO is just a fiscal sponsor for one and only one specific project),

  and Conservancy therefore believes a solution that handles fiscal sponsors

  will also handle the simpler case as well.</p>

<h3>Why Conservancy Must Fund This Work</h3>

<p>As it stands, nearly all Open Source and Free Software NPOs either use

  proprietary software, or fully outsource their bookkeeping and accounting

  to third-parties.  Those that don't do so (such as Conservancy and the Free

  Software Foundation) have long complained that existing Free Software in

  this area is inadequate, and have been forced to develop customized,

  one-off solutions in-house to make the systems work.</p>

<p>It's highly unlikely that the for-profit sector will adapt existing Free

  Software accounting systems to meet the differing needs of NPOs (let alone

  the more complex needs of fiscal sponsors; based on

  advice from our auditors and other fiscal sponsors, Conservancy understands that <em>no existing

  solution &mdash; proprietary or Free &mdash; meets the requirements of fiscal sponsorship accounting</em>).  Fiscal sponsors like

  Conservancy must track a separate set of books for every project, keeping

  in mind that a project may leave at any time for another NPO and need to take

  their books with them.  Yet, the books of the entire organization are the

  aggregate of the books of all these projects, and internally, they need to

  be presented as a single set of books for those purposes.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, even if an organization is not a fiscal sponsor, non-profit

  accounting is <em>just different</em> than for-profit accounting, particularly in

  the USA.  For example, for-profit-oriented systems often make problematic

  assumptions about the workflow of accounting tasks (often because NPOs

  rely primarily on donations, rather than fee-for-service or widget-selling

  income).  Also, non-profit income is categorized differently than

  for-profit income, and the reporting requirements vary wildly from their

  for-profit equivalents.</p>

<p>Conservancy's existing system is working adequately, but requires daily

  the relatively more expensive time of a highly technical person to do the

  job of bookkeeping.  Also, the system cannot easily be adapted in its

  current form for another NPO, unless they also have a

  skilled technical employee to act as bookkeeper.  This project aims to build

  on what Conservancy has learned and produce a non-profit accounting system

  that corrects these flaws.</p>

<p>Finally, Conservancy's mission (as stated

1023 with the USA IRS</a>) includes producing Open Source and Free Software.

Thus, this project is a great way to pursue Conservancy's mission and address a

specific need that so many NPOs (including us) have.  If no one steps up to create Free Software to replace the widely used

proprietary software, NPOs in aggregate will pay <em>much more</em> money for

proprietary licensing than Conservancy will ever spend in developing a

replacement. Please <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donate

generously</a> to help us do it!</p>

<a id="quotes"></a>

<h3>Statements of Support For This Project from Others</h3>

<p><q>As a national fiscal sponsor with over 3,000 arts and cultural projects

under our umbrella, Fractured Atlas is ecstatic about this effort's

potential. After 15 years wrestling with Quickbooks and other inadequate

options, the idea of an open source tool designed specifically for this niche

of the field is beyond welcome. We wholeheartedly support the Conservancy's

work on this front and look forward to seeing where it leads.</q> &mdash;

<a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/bios/staff/1/Adam%20Forest_Huttler">Adam

  Huttler</a>, Chief Executive Officer, <a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org">Fractured Atlas</a></p>

<p><q><a href="http://QuestionCopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a> is

just one of many organizations that would benefit from a Free Software

accounting system that is usable by non-technical people.  We

enthusiastically support the Conservancy's campaign to create one, and look

forward to using the result.</q>

&mdash; <a href="http://questioncopyright.org/speakers/karl_fogel">Karl

Fogel</a>, Executive Director,

  <a href="http://QuestionCopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a></p>

<p><q>Software in the Public Interest is a fiscal sponsor for 44 free and open

source projects. We share many of the accounting needs and challenges of

the Conservancy and are excited to collaborate on a Free Software

solution to these needs and challenges.</q>

&mdash; Michael Schultheiss, Treasurer, <a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software

    in the Public Interest</a></p>

<p><q>Open Source accounting software specifically tailored for non-profits

    will fill a pretty large need.</q>

    &mdash; <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/calabrese">Thad Calabrese</a>,

    Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Financial Management

    at <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/">NYU Wagner</a>, and co-author

    of <cite>Financial Management for Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit

    Organizations, 4th Edition</cite>.</p>

<p><q>The Open Source Initiative has shared the experiences of Software

     Freedom Conservancy in navigating the financial management needs of

     non-profit organisations and shares their concern. We have many NPOs as

     members and we welcome this useful initiative by Conservancy.</q>

<p><a href="/donate">Even More Ways to Donate</a></p>

<!-- Flattr end -->

</td></tr></table>

</div>

<div class="content-with-donate-sidebar">

  <h1><img class="appeal-header" alt="Become a Conservancy Supporter!" src="/img/conservancy-supporter-header.png"/></h1>

<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is an essential organization to free and

open source software. We are the home of over

<a href="/members/current/">30 projects</a> like 

<a href="http://git-scm.org">Git</a>,

<a href="http://inkscape.org">Inkscape</a>, <a href="http://samba.org">Samba</a>,

<a href="http://winehq.org">Wine</a>, <a href="http://www.seleniumhq.org/">Selenium</a>, the <a href="/copyleft-compliance/">GPL Compliance Project for Linux

Developers</a>, <a href="http://pypy.org">PyPy</a> and

<a href="http://sugarlabs.org/">Sugar Labs</a> just to name a few. Conservancy is a "fiscal sponsor plus",

providing everything that our projects need in a nonprofit. We help our

projects defend their trademarks, manage their assets, handle donations,

improve their community management, manage risk and assist them with all

legal needs they may have. While we do receive a portion of the revenue

donated to our projects, we keep that number low enough that it doesn't

even pay for a single staff member. <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">Help us</a> show that you care about

community-focused free software and help us be able to continue our

charitable work. Donating to Conservancy is a great non-technical way to

contribute to the cause.</p>

<img alt="*** The Conservancy T-Shirt that Supporters Receive ***" class="appeal" src="/img/conservancy-t-shirt.jpg"/>

<p>For the first time, we're launching a Supporter

program. For <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">an annual donation of $120</a>, you can

download an official Supporter card and receive a Conservancy t-shirt<a id="return-footnote-shirts-when"></a>. If

this is out of reach, please donate at whatever level you can - it makes a

big difference to us to know that you <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">support us</a>, and a little goes a long

way.</p>

<p>In addition to supporting our projects,

<ul>

<li>we share our expertise across communities. We speak at many

conferences, and publish materials to increase understanding about the

organizational, community and legal issues around free and open source

software. We advocate for free and open source software and provide

education around that mission.  We form partnerships across our

communities to work more effectively.  Check out <a 

href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a>

or sign up to join the <a 

tax exempt working group</a>.</li>

<li>we seek to solve problems for the public through free and open 

source

software.  We've launched a <a href="https://npoacct.sfconservancy.org/">

nonprofits accounting project</a> to help all

nonprofits (in free software and in other fields) avoid paying millions

of dollars in licensing fees for subpar accounting software.</li>

<li>as part of Conservancy's partnership in the program, we support Karen as

  a co-organizer of the Free and Open Source Software Outreach Program.</li>

<li>we encourage and support our employees to do volunteer work in the

    community.  For example, Bradley and Karen together host an oggcast

    called <cite><a href="http://faif.us">Free as in Freedom</a></cite> which

    discusses important legal and policy issues in open source and free

    software.</li></ul>

<img class="appeal-footer" alt="*" src="/img/conservancy-supporter-heart.png"/>

<p>As an organization, we try to do everything transparently; even 

our

<a 

href="https://gitorious.org/conservancy/policies/source/master:">

internal policies</a> are published and available for scrutiny.</p>

<p>Please <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">join our Supporter program</a> and spread software freedom!</p>

<br clear="left"/>

<div class="supporter-type-selector">

<hr/>

  <strong>Become a Supporter Now:</strong>  <a id="annualSelector" href="#annual">Annual</a> | <a id="monthlySelector" href="#monthly">Monthly</a></div>

<div id="annual" class="supporter-type-selection">

<h3>Join as an Annual Supporter</h3>

<a id="annual"></a>

<form id="annual" class="supporter-form" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" name="supporter">

<div class="supporter-form-inputs">

            <input type="hidden" name="return" value="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/thank-you.html" />

            <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick" />

            <input type="hidden" name="business" value="supporter@sfconservancy.org" />

            <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Conservancy Supporter, Annual" />

            <input id="no_shipping" type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="0" />

  <label for="amount"><strong>Amount:</strong> $</label>

  <input id="amount" type="text" name="amount" size="7" minimum="120" value="120" />

  <span id="error" class="form-error-show">$120 is a minimum for Conservancy

  Supporters.  <a href="/donate">Donate smaller amounts here</a>.</span><br/>