The Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop (also known as the
LLW) is organized every year by the FSFE to allow legal experts
to discuss legal issues and best practices surrounding Free
Software licences. This event has become the world’s foremost
gathering of lawyers, technologists, and thought leaders on Free
Software legal and licensing topics. With up to three days of
talks in an informal and confidential atmosphere, the Workshop
advances the state of the art of knowledge on topics ranging from
license compliance to patent management, from project governance
to corporate responsibility and even further to the cutting edge
issues themselves.
Participation in the LLW provides legal professionals not only
the opportunity to share knowledge and updates on the topics they
are working on, but also a chance to meet and get acquainted with
each other. These two aspects, combined, foster better license
compliance by spreading best practices. The conference also
provides a forum for different professionals to better understand
each other, thus reducing the overall friction in the sector.
Participation in the LLW is open to all Legal Network members.
Invitations might be extended to non-members. If you think you
might qualify, please send an e-mail directly to the Legal
Coordinator, or to our contact address.
The Free Software
Legal & Licensing Workshop convened once again, this time in Essen,
bringing together over 100 legal and compliance
professionals, technologists, and policy experts from across the globe.
The 2025 edition delved into the evolving
legal landscapes impacting Free Software, with a particular focus on
Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity.
For the second year in a row, the Swedish city of Gothenburg hosted an
edition of the Free Software Legal & Licensing Workshop (LLW), the
annual conference for Legal Network members. The 2024 edition brought
new faces and great discussions and presentations on current legal and
licensing issues related to technological developments such as AI.
In this issue, you can read about the EU project NGI Zero, LLW, the
FOSS-North conference, and the struggle of Lithuanian students to avoid
using proprietary 2FA. Don't miss our new SFP episode on Device
Neutrality; deepen your knowledge with two interesting articles; enjoy
the latest ‘Ada & Zangemann’ readings; and discover two YH4F projects.
The Swedish city of Gothenburg hosted the 2023 edition of the Free
Software Legal & Licensing Workshop (LLW), the annual conference for
the Legal Network community. It was great to see so many old and new
faces in person after two years online, and to learn, share and network
about the legal and licensing issues facing current technology
developments.
From July 7 to 9, the FSFE will run its annual community meeting in conjunction with the Libre Software Meeting in Strasbourg, France. On the weekend of July 7 + 8, we are very excited to run a track, set up with speakers of our community and friends to cover several burning topics regarding Free Software. Our track covers business topics like marketing for Free Software and funding Free Software projects as well as policy topics from tinkering in Brussels to success factors for Free Software implementations in public services as well as contemporary important issues regarding diversity in Free Software, software freedom in the cloud, and many more. You can find an overview of our topics on the dedicated wiki page.