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<h1 id="software-freedom-conservancy-proposal-for-gpl-enforcement-grant">History and Future Strategy</h1>
<h1 id="strategic-gpl-enforcement-initiative">The Strategic GPL Enforcement Initiative</h1>
<p>As existing donors and supporters know, the Software Freedom Conservancy
is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity registered in New York, and Conservancy
helps people take control of their computing by growing the software
freedom movement, supporting community-driven alternatives to proprietary
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
copyleft licenses, such as the GPL.</p>
<h2 id="brief-history-of-user-focused-gpl-enforcement">Brief History of
User-Focused GPL Enforcement</h2>
<p>The spring of 2003 was a watershed moment for software freedom on
electronic devices. 802.11 wireless technology had finally reached the
mainstream, and wireless routers for home use had flooded the market
earlier in the year. By June
2003, <a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/03/06/08/1749217/is-linksys-violating-the-GPL">the
general public knew that Linksys (a division of Cisco) was violating the
GPL</a> on their WRT54G model wireless routers. Hobbyists discovered
(rather easily) that Linux and BusyBox were included in the router, but
Linksys and Cisco had failed to provide source code or any offer for source
code to its customers.</p>