FLA - FTF - FSFE

FTF: Fiduciary Licence Policy

FSFE as a Legal Guardian

When FSFE accepts to enter into a fiduciary licence agreement with a project, it does so to protect the legal situation of the project and promote Free Software. FSFE's role is that of a legal guardian that takes care of the legal needs of the project so the project itself can focus on the technological side. While it will seek to help projects, FSFE will not interfere with the project management, direction and administration.

Freedom Task Force Licensing Policy

While it has preference for the GNU General Public License (GPL) and GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), FSFE will generally consider working with projects that use GNU GPL compatible Free Software licences, be they Copyleft or not. Upon request or when special circumstances arise, FSFE may offer advice on matters of licensing or project policy, but the final decision on such matters remains with the project team. The only requirement on the part of FSFE is that such decisions remain within the scope of Free Software licences that are GNU GPL compatible.

FSFE, authorship and project administration

When FSFE accepts to become the fiduciary for a Free Software project, it does not claim authorship or control over the project. The role of the FSFE is purely to support the project in its legal standing, and to allow the project to focus on other matters. The role of the author or project administrator is largely unchanged, with the caveat that the project should follow any policies related to licensing or otherwise agreed at the time of signing the Fiduciary Licence Agreement with FSFE.

FSFE as neutral third party for industry

Industry consortia at times consider it useful to have a third party to assign their rights in joint projects to. In such cases, FSFE will treat all consortium members the same way and will treat the consortium similar to any other Free Software project, be it commercial or not.