@@ -143,100 +143,99 @@ firmware in wireless devices.
projects at conferences and other venues.</li>
<li>We gave keynotes
at <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/aug/17/debian/">DebConf</a>, <a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/event/identity_crisis/">FOSDEM</a>, <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/jul/14/FISL16/">FISL</>, <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/31/libreplanet/">LibrePlanet</a>, <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/sep/30/linaro-keynote/">Linaro
Connect</a>, and participated in many conferences more all over the world; we also
shared our expertise in initiatives
like <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a>. We participated in
interviews and <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/">blogposts</a>, and
Bradley and Karen published episodes of <a href="http://faif.us/">Free as in
Freedom</a>, dedicated to discussing the important issues in software
freedom.</li>
</ul>
<p>And we did <strong>all of this</strong> with <strong>only three full time employees</strong>.</p>
<p>We are focused on the most important ethical issues in software
freedom. We work tirelessly and don't shy away from difficult issues.</p>
<p>We're a unique organization — a staunch defender of copyleft (for Linux,
Debian and many of our member projects), a source of education and champions
of diversity for the community via Outreachy and other programs, and are the
legal home to over 30 member projects that are essential to developing free
software.</p>
<p>We undertake these critical programs because they are essential to the
future of technology. We do them because they are right. <b>But we cannot do
them without you</b>. If we do not meet our fundraising goals, we will be
forced to radically restructure.</p>
<p>Our fiscal sponsorship model is not financially self-sustaining by itself: we cannot
afford even one staff member and basic overhead with the revenue we take in
from our projects. In order to effectively continue to serve our member
projects, we need [750] Supporters. If you use or care about
our <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member projects</a>,
which include some of the most widely used free software, you can help them
all by <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">signing up as a
Supporter today</a>.</p>
<h4>Fighting for the GPL</h4>
<p>Many consider our GPL compliance and enforcement controversial. We don't
think it is: we stand up for
the GPL at the request of the Linux kernel community, the Debian community,
and our member projects. Most recently, that has resulted in our funding
of the <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">suit
against VMware</a>, which is the first lawsuit on derivative works and the
GPL. While this work is extremely important to the continued long-term
success of software freedom and copyleft, it makes fundraising from companies
very difficult. While enforcement of the protections around free and open source
software is in the long term interest of the industry, many companies are
reluctant to fund organizations that take on this enforcement task. Some companies
success of software freedom and copyleft not to mention in the long term
interest of the industry as a whole, it makes fundraising from companies
very difficult. Some companies
have withdrawn from funding us and some have even successfully pressured
conferences to cancel or prevent talks on our enforcement work. We do
this work because we think that it is good for everyone in the long run,
because we know it is the right thing to do, and because we know that we are
in the best position to do it. But that's not enough — you have to think it's
right too and <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">show us by
becoming a Supporter now</a>.</p>
<h4>It's up to you</h4>
<p>We have raised enough money to continue the VMware case, but our overall
enforcement work needs additional support to be able to continue. As we
state in
the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">Principles
of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement</a>, we cannot prioritize profit in
these actions without compromising on the end goals of that work which is to
help companies become free and open source software users and contributors.
<p>Moreover, we have lost committed general funding from companies explicitly
because of our enforcement work. Continuing this work without individual
support is no longer possible.</p>
<p>As a result, we need [2500] Supporters in order to maintain the staff and
resources in the organization to properly undertake enforcement. We hope you
will <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">sign up a Supporter</a>
to help us achieve this. If we don't reach our goal, we will have no choice
but to hibernate enforcement until we have the resources to pick it up
properly at some point in the future.</p>
<p>If you care about the
GPL, <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">help us meet our goal</a>
so we can stand up for the GPL together.</p>
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