Tom Callaway

This panel will offer a well-rounded discussion on various ways to incorporate free software into university curricula and scholarly projects, as well as ways to promote further engagement between scholars and the free software community. The panel will explore how free software fits into both computer science programs, such as the Free and Open Source Software and Free Culture Minors at RIT, and into digital humanities projects. What are the barriers to free software in academia? How does terminology cloud the issue? How do we promote the ethics of "free as in freedom" when the draw to many academics is "free as in beer"? How do free software and free culture interact in digital humanities and humanitarian projects?

Other people: Morgan Lemmer-Webber Stephen Jacobs D. Joe Anderson

As Free Software becomes more widespread in technology solutions across all industries, there is demand for workers who not only have experience with Free Software tools, but also for those who can help organizations to become involved in those communities. Companies are increasingly looking to take the leap from consumer to contributor, but they are often unsure how to actually proceed. I will discuss the idea of exposing students to the ideas and tools that Free Software depends on, with the explicit goal of enabling students to build a technology portfolio that helps them to stand out and teaches them how to work collaboratively and transparently. There are some success stories to tell, but I hope that this talk will inspire other educators to incorporate Free Software concepts into their standard curriculum.

Tom Callaway, the Fedora Legal chair, will talk about the past, present, and future of licensing and legal issues in the Fedora community. Tom is not a lawyer, nor does he play one on TV, but he does consult with lawyers, and occasionally, go drinking with them. Bring your questions, and he'll do his best to answer them. I am not a lawyer, so nothing in my presentation should be (or could be) construed as legal advice.

Fedora, as the evolution of Red Hat Linux, is one of the oldest and most well known Linux distributions in existence today. For more than 10 years, I have been the Fedora Legal representative who investigates licenses, negotiates with lawyers, advises our community, and does everything in my power to not have to tell people "no" without a very good reasoning.

In my presentation, I'll discuss the past, present, and future of licensing and legal issues in the Fedora community (and beyond). I'm also happy to take questions from the FOSDEM audience as to why Fedora does what it does (or doesn't do what it doesn't do).

I am not a lawyer, so nothing in my presentation should be (or could be) construed as legal advice. I am however, a well informed hacker, and the editor/maintainer of possibly the largest list of FOSS licenses in existence.

Five of our speakers from the Legal and Policy Issues devroom have agreed to participate in a governance best practices roundtable. These practices may touch on contribution policy, review boards, policy manuals, licensing tools, trademark guidelines, etc.

Questions will be asked of the panelists to start the roundtable and the audience will also be encouraged to participate in order to have more interaction with the panelists. Karen Sandler will be the moderator.

Other people: Stefano Zacchiroli Karen Sandler Christopher Webber Eileen Evans Chris Aniszczyk

h264, MPEG LA and patents.

Recently, Cisco released a software component for H264 video support under the BSD license. This would normally be considered Free Software, except for the fact that this standard is considered to be patented (where software patents apply). They are covering the MPEG LA licensing fees, but only for pre-built binaries, not for the corresponding source. I will discuss this issue, and why the resulting software is not only non-free, but does not solve any issues for distributors with a focus on Freedom (such as Fedora).