— Published on Jun 24, 2026 08:34 AM

Hello and thank you for being involved with free software. We need people who understand our philosophy now more than ever.

My name is Krzysztof Siewicz (Kris) and I am the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) licensing and compliance manager. Together with Craig Topham, the FSF's copyright and licensing associate, and a dedicated team of volunteers, we run the FSF's Licensing and Compliance Lab. I want to talk a bit about our recent accomplishments and our plans for the future, for which we rely on the support of free software supporters like you.

In addition to our usual work in defending the GNU General Public License (GPL) and computer user freedom, a lot of our recent focus has been on machine learning. We are closely watching as people seek to use machine learning models in freedom, including by drafting their own licenses, and how they are integrating machine learning in their free software development. We receive a lot of questions about the future of software freedom. Some of our work in machine learning includes contributing to the FSF's Free/Libre Machine Learning Bundle Definition working group, which is finalizing final publication details and drafting a policy for accepting LLM-generated code in the GNU Project.

Here are some highlights of The Lab's work for software freedom over the past few months:

• GPL compliance: One of the principles guiding our work with GPL violators is confidentiality, so I will reveal only that we are in touch with several distributors and our persistence has resulted in some source code candidates being published, but we still need to ensure these are complete and accompanied with full installation information. Apart from working with identified violators of FSF-copyrighted software, we continue to review GPL violation reports we receive on a daily basis and educate violation reporters on how to collect evidence, contact copyright holders, and instruct them to work with their lawyers to obtain the source code, as is the right of users. We have processed an average of thirteen license violation reports a month for the last six months.

• GPL stewardship: We continue to collect reports about confusing uses of the GPL. We then work together with those who modify the GPL with confusing additional terms and ensure it is clear for the users that they can rely on the freedoms granted in the license. One big category of such confusing modifications consists of terms that seek attribution. Author attribution is one of the pillars of free software development, but requiring attribution should not be used to restrict user freedom. So, we gathered existing information about license requirements and intent and published guidance about GPL-compliant reasonable notices and author attributions. We also continue to work directly with projects that seek to modify the GPL with additional terms in a GPL-compliant way.

• Helping the GNU Project: The FSF is here to serve the whole free software community and all software users, and we are particularly happy to report that we provide practical help to developers and maintainers of GNU packages. We have responded to a number of questions relating to different GNU packages, including assisting a new package being accepted to GNU. My colleague, Craig Topham, is busy as usual with handling copyright assignments, and we are proud to announce that our assignment templates have recently been updated to make it clear they work properly under German law and in similar jurisdictions. Thank you Till Jaeger for helping us with that pro bono!

• Inviting volunteers to help review licenses: To make it easier for volunteers to help us with the backlogged license review process, as well as to make the process an educational opportunity for the community, we have launched a wiki for preliminary license research on the LibrePlanet licensing volunteers portal.

• Answering licensing questions: With the help of our outstanding licensing volunteers, we continue to explain how the GNU licenses are intended to apply, on average about twenty-two (often complex) questions a month. This is an area of our work that strongly depends on external support because we offer it gratis to all free software developers.

• Re-licensing and compatibility: One question that often comes into licensing@fsf.org, for example, is about combining programs under different licenses. We are happy to have collaborated with Yoni Rabkin, our long-term volunteer and outstanding free software licensing expert, on releasing an adjusted and updated version of Yoni's article "Relicensing versus Compatibility".

• Reviewing licenses: We receive a lot of questions from people who find a license on a program they want to use and cannot tell if it is free and compatible with licenses of other programs they want to combine it with. While our limited resources are often strained when reviewing licenses, we have recently examined some that we find to be particularly important or confuse the free software community, such as the Source First License v1.1 and RAILs.

• Preventing license proliferation: We also receive questions from people who draft their own new licenses. We strongly advise them to reconsider due to the problem of license proliferation. We also help educate them that license drafting is a difficult exercise that must involve a lawyer and good understanding of the issue that the license is intended to address. We show them how an existing free software license can be used to address the issue. For people who try to use one of the GPLs as the basis of their own license and persist in doing so, we make sure they follow our terms.

• Onboarding new licensing volunteers: We always welcome help in our work and strive to make licensing volunteering an educational opportunity. Becoming a licensing volunteer includes passing the GPL Quiz, orientation in the tools we use, mastering the GPL FAQ and rationale, and signing a confidentiality agreement. Newcomers are always welcome and receive guidance from FSF staff and more experienced volunteers, so there are benefits involved, but the greater number of questions answered in a timely manner is of course the ultimate gain for the whole free software community. Melanie Carmen Punz, an experienced legal advisor and mediator from Austria, has recently joined the team. Her help has already been instrumental, not only with licensing questions, but also with our GPL stewardship and compliance work. Thank you Melanie, and thank you for your support that makes it possible for us to work with more volunteers.

We know not everyone is in a position to give, but if you can, support our efforts by joining the FSF as an associate member. A major way the Lab is able to continue our work is through donations from supporters like you. An associate membership is a great show of support we can rely on. The FSF does not compromise when it comes to defending your freedom. Without the continued commitment of people like you, the progress we have made is in danger, and software freedom could be reduced to a mere wish instead of today's reality. Please help us continue to protect software freedom and increase its global support. Every membership this summer will help us towards our goal of 175 new members. Associate members will also be able to enjoy all the member benefits which include merchandise discounts, a 16GB bootable membership card, and use of our associate member videoconferencing server.

When you commit to user freedom, you aren't only committing to free software: you're committing to a free society for everyone. Together, we have the power to protect software freedom.