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In this edition, we interviewed AJ Jordon, the founder of gplenforced.org, a project for hosting easy to use badges for copyleft licenses. By using the badge, a project can share their values and the importance of copyleft enforcement with all their users.

What inspired the creation of the GPL enforced badge?

So basically Bradley Kuhn gave a talk at FOSDEM '17 about GPL enforcement and I was like, wow, it sucks how many companies and people think that enforcing the GPL is a bad idea. I mean, if you disagree with copyleft that's fine (though I personally would argue with that position), but then you should use a suitable license. Like MIT. The very idea that we shouldn't enforce the GPL just doesn't make sense to me because it suggests that the text of the license is watery and unimportant. I don't know about you, but when I say I want my programs to respect users' freedom, I mean it.

So GPL enforcement is important. It seemed to me that there are probably a lot of developers out there who want to support GPL enforcement but don't have a good way to voice that support. gplenforced.org is essentially a quick and dirty hack I wrote to make that dead-simple.

Tell us more about gplenforced.org

gplenforced.org is a small site I made that has exactly two purposes: host a badge suitable for embedding into a README file on GitLab or something, and provide some text with an easy and friendly explanation of GPL enforcement for that badge to link to.

Putting badges in READMEs has been pretty trendy for a while now — people add badges to indicate whether their test suite is passing, their dependencies are up-to-date, and what version is published in language package managers. gplenforced.org capitalizes on that trend to add the maintainer's beliefs about license enforcement, too.

How can projects make use of the GPL enforced badge?

It's super easy! All you have to do is add some Markdown to your README.md file (or some AsciiDoc, etc.). Then it will show up on your code hosting site and link to the website. That's it. Instructions are on gplenforced.orhg.

That's what makes this project work, I think: as I alluded to above, it's such an easy process there aren't really a whole lot of reasons not to do it as long as you support the message. It gives people a way to support GPL enforcement who otherwise wouldn't have time to do something more involved.

Are there plans to create badges for other copyleft licenses?

Absolutely (it's bug #3 in the issue tracker). The current plan is to add badges for the LGPL and AGPL only — this will allow us to keep the site 100% static, which makes it dead-simple to host.

Letting people use arbitrary badges would require making the site dynamic. So I might consider doing that if there's a need for it, but for right now the plan is to add badges on an ad hoc basis, as people want them. Not letting people use arbitrary badges also means that they couldn't make, say, an "MIT enforced" badge which maybe doesn't really make sense.

How can users or developers help out?

Send patches and encourage adoption! There's a small list of TODOs in the issue tracker that people can work on, and of course if anyone has ideas about how to improve the project, they're welcome to add to that list. I take issues and patches via email too.

What's the next big thing for gplenforced.org?

Adoption! In particular when I get around to adding the other licenses I plan to send patches to prominent GPL'd/LGPL'd/AGPL'd projects on GitLab and GitHub suggesting they add it. This project is about raising awareness — and the best way to do that is to spread it as far and wide as possible.

Enjoy this interview? Check out our previous entry in this series, featuring the MegaGlest Project

Participate in supporting the Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

A lot of great work is being done keeping the Directory up to date. But it must keep growing if it is to be a useful resource. This week we'll be working on adding new entries to the Directory, and reviewing packages that haven't been reviewed yet. We'll also be looking to launch a new project that could greatly increase the number of works in the Directory.

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly Directory Meeting pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the Free Software Directory. This recaps the work we accomplished at the Friday, May 19th, 2017 meeting.

This week the Directory meeting looked at education software. During the meeting, we had numerous pieces of software being offered up for inclusion. In addition, new software was added to the Directory, as well as some older entries getting an update. The meeting also spent some time exploring the relationship between software and educational institutions. The dialogue centered on how these educational institutions indoctrinate dependence on nonfree software and ways to shift this paradigm. AlKamoD returned this week and was getting ready to run tests to automate certain tasks, the results of this are anticipated.

If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).

To help you protect yourself, we host a list of Web-based email services which respect your rights better than the big services such as GMail and Yahoo Mail. With thousands of unique visitors per month, this page is an important resource for the free software community and beyond.

Though the FSF hosts the page, we do not perform the evaluations. For more than three years, a community member named Ryan White has carried on these duties on a volunteer basis. Ryan has done an outstanding job, but the volume of requests for evaluations of Webmail systems has recently outstripped the time he is able to commit.

Are you able to help Ryan evaluate Webmail services and maintain the page on fsf.org? You will need:

• Intermediate knowledge of JavaScript and Web development
• A working understanding of free software licensing
• A willingness to learn and analyze new issues
• Enough free time to generally respond to emails within one week
• The ability to write with correct grammar in English
• About 5 hours a month to devote to this project

This is a one-person, four-month volunteer commitment, after which you will meet with FSF staff to review your experience and let us know whether or not you'd like to continue working with Ryan to maintain the page.

If you'd like to help, please email campaigns@fsf.org with a paragraph explaining that you meet the requirements above. Unfortunately, we will only be able to pick one volunteer for this project, but if we don't pick you, we promise to help get you started with other projects.

The image is in the public domain, copied from https://openclipart.org/detail/139507/homer-postal-pigeon, originally uploaded by rones.

Participate in supporting the Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

There are many rituals and traditions associated with the spring season. One of these traditions is graduation. The theme this week gives a chance for all graduates to look back as we focus on education software. Improving the education category of the Directory could increase the chance that free software is introduced to students and helps support teachers.

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly Directory Meeting pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.