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<h1><img class="appeal-header" alt="Become a Conservancy Supporter!" src="/img/conservancy-supporter-header.png"/></h1>
<p>Software Freedom needs your help.</p>
The world today is powered increasingly by Free Software. But what many
people don't realize is how much support is needed to keep all of these
projects free and open. The work that we do every day ensures the success and
the continued freedom of the projects that the developers of our member
projects so tirelessly dedicate themselves to. Projects like Git, Samba,
projects dedicate themselves to. Projects like Git, Samba,
Wine, BusyBox, QEMU, Inkscape, Selenium, and dozens more
[FIXME Link to nascar pic]
<p>Below, we ask for you
<p>We are asking for you
to <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">join us and become a
Conservancy Support now</a>. However, this is more than our usual annual
fundraising appeal. After the events of 2015, we must substantially
increase our support now to continue the excellent work defending software
freedom for our member projects and the entire Open Source and Free
Software community. We need at least [750] of you to become regular,
annual Supporters just to continue our most basic of community services.
We need [2500] of you to become regular, annual Supporters now to continue
Conservancy Supporter</a> but this is more than our usual annual
fundraising appeal. As described in more detail below, after the events
of 2015, we must substantially increase our individual support to be able
to continue defending software freedom for our member projects and the
entire free and open source software community. We need at least [750]
of you to become annual Supporters just to continue our basic community services.
We need [2500] of you to become annual Supporters now to continue
our work enforcing copyleft licenses. If you don't become a Supporter now,
we began plans to wind down Conservancy's operations.</p>
we will be forced to radically restructure and wind down a substantial portion
of our operations.</p>
<h4>2015 successes</h4>
This year has brought a myriad of major successes for Software Freedom
Conservancy:
Software Freedom Conservancy has had a lot of major successes this year:
<ul>
<li>We brought four new projects under the protection of the
Conservancy: <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/jul/23/qemu-joins/">QEMU</a>,
the generic machine emulator and
virtualizer, <a href="https://www.bro.org/">The Bro Network Security
Monitor</a>, the Godot Game Engine[FIXME]
and <a href="http://outreachy.org">Outreachy</a>, a program dedicated to
helping people from underrepresented groups get involved in free and open
source software. We also worked with the Debian community to launch
the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/aug/17/debian/">Debian
@@ -99,58 +99,57 @@ the law suit</a> Christoph Hellwig has brought against VMware in Germany, the
first case on derivative works and the GPL.</li>
<li>We fought for
and <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/oct/27/DMCA-win/">successfully
earned an exemption from the Library of Congress in the DMCA review
process</a> to legally permit circumvention of encryption on Smart TVs,
ensuring that you are free to hack on the devices that you legally own. </li>
<li>We collaborated with the <a href="https://fsf.org/">Free Software
Foundation</a> to publish
the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">Principles
of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement</a> , establishing community norms for
enforcing the GPL in the public's interest[, and
already <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.kr.html">translated
enforcing the GPL in the public's interest, which have
already been <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.kr.html">translated
into Korean</a> [and Chinese].</li>
<li>Along with FSF, we
helped <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/jul/15/ubuntu-ip-policy/">Canonical,
Ltd. achieve compliance in its “Intellectual Property” Policy</a>, while
pointing out that the policy fails to address important software freedom
issues.</li>
<li>We conducted friendly discussions with companies out of compliance with
the GPL, seeking non-litigious resolutions.</li>
<li>We participated in the process
of <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/oct/14/FCC-comment/">telling
the FCC to fix its proposed rules</a> restricting third-party modification of
firmware in wireless devices.
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<li>We processed and paid 116 reimbursement requests individuals doing tireless work
around the globe advocating for their Open Source and Free Software
projects at conferences and other venues.</li>
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<li>We made 172 contractor payments to developers writing Open Source and
Free Software, which included various different internships and contract
<li>We made 172 contractor payments to developers writing free and open source
software, which included various different internships and contract
software development work.</li>
<li>We helped, coordinated, and financially insured volunteers our three of
our member projects organize large annual conferences, where thousands of
attendees learned about Open Source and Free Software projects of their
interest.</li>
<li>We helped, coordinated, and financially insured volunteers of three of
our member projects to organize large annual conferences, where thousands of
attendees learned about free and open source software.</li>
<li>We processed and paid 116 reimbursement requests individuals doing work
around the globe advocating for their free and open source software
<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</> and participated in many conferences more all over the world, and
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>
@@ -181,27 +180,29 @@ 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 law suit 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
almost impossible. While enforcement of the protections around free and open source
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. We do
reluctant to fund organizations that take on this enforcement task. 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