FSF Seminars Explaining the GPL in NYC January 20, 21

by Pamela Jones
Groklaw

January 02 2004

This might interest you. We all have debated and seen debated various interpretations of the GPL. This is your opportunity to get your questions answered authoritatively.

The Free Software Foundation is hosting a two-day seminar on the GPL, "Free Software Licensing and the GNU GPL" on January 20 and 21 at Columbia University Law School in New York City. The seminars will be co-led by Daniel Ravicher, Senior Counsel to FSF, and Bradley M. Kuhn, Executive Director of FSF. The seminar is designed for, as the FSF announcement puts it, "lawyers, software developers and managers who run (or have clients who run) software businesses that modify and/or redistribute software under terms of the GNU GPL or LGPL, or who wish to make use of existing GPL'd and LGPL'd software in their enterprise."

If your boss has questions about the GPL, maybe he'd like to go or will pay to send you or the company's attorney. Or, if you are the boss or an attorney and/or programmer and have questions you really want answered, this is the chance to learn exactly how the GPL works in detail. They will be covering the GPL section by section. Of course, as we have discovered on Groklaw, you don't have to be a lawyer to be interested in the law.

There is also a lunch series [ http://www.gnu.org/events/sco_without_fear.html ], "SCO Without Fear", during the lunch break both days, described as conversations with Eben Moglen, General Counsel to the FSF, discussing the case and the GPL, from 12:30 to 2 both days.

On January 20, the seminar will be the section-by-section explanation of the GPL, "Detailed Study and Analysis of GPL and LGPL". The following day, it will be "GPL Compliance Case Studies and Legal Ethics in Free Software Licensing," which will present the details of five different GPL compliance cases handled by FSF's GPL Compliance Laboratory. Details on the seminars can be found here [ http://www.fsf.org/licenses/NYC_Seminars_Jan2004.html ] and here [ http://www.fsf.org/licenses/200104_seminar.html ]. [Update 2008: the links no longer resolve, due to a reorganization of the FSF's website. However, you can read about the 2004 seminars in this press release [ http://www.gnu.org/press/2004-01-02-nyc-seminars.html ]. And here are the two missing pages -- first the detailed analysis of GPL and LGPL [ http://www.gnu.no/licenses/200104_seminar.html ] and the GPL compliance seminar [ http://www.gnu.no/licenses/210104_seminar.html ] from FSF Norway's site.]

The fee for the two-day "SCO Without Fear" lunch series is $250, or $150 for one day. Lunch is included. For those on a budget or those only interested in the SCO case and its relationship to the GPL, this is an option. People who have registered for the seminars at Columbia Law School, which costs $595 (for one day, $975 for the series, do not have to pay for the lunch series for the day(s) they are attending the seminar(s). FSF Associate Members and Corporate Patrons receive a 20% discount. Contact info is here [ http://www.gnu.org/events/nyc-2004-01.html ].

Yes, of course, I am crazy wild to go and learn. I just don't see how I can make it, so if you go, Groklaw would love to hear from you about your experience and what you learned.

12:25 PM EST