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How We Talk About Free Software Legal Tools

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How We Talk About Free Software Legal Tools
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611
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CC Attribution 2.0 Belgium:
You are free to use, adapt and copy, distribute and transmit the work or content in adapted or unchanged form for any legal purpose as long as the work is attributed to the author in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
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Production Year2017

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Abstract
Companies are using more free software than ever, but often with little or nounderstanding of the licenses or the community norms that are part of thepackage. When it comes to talking about free software legal tools, we need tocontrol the message. This talk will offer ideas on how we should craft anddeliver our message around the adoption of free software legal tools. Companies are using more free software than ever, but often with little or nounderstanding of the licenses or the community norms that are part of thepackage. When it comes to talking about free software legal tools, we need tocontrol the message. If we let other entities fill in the gaps in our outreachstrategy, a lot of context and nuance will be lost. A poor or incompletemessage hinders our ability to gain more widespread acceptance of freesoftware tools and practices. Suing collaborators or consciously working to erode well-established communitynorms for short term gain has no place in the world the free softwarecommunity is trying to build. Massive, globally useful, customizable softwareprojects aren't merely a side effect of publicly available repositories,they're a product of intentionally cooperative communities with rules andlegal safeguards. The FOSS community's message must be, "If you don't respectour legal tools, then you aren't a free or open source software company." Policy isn't made by coders. Official government policy is made by judges andlegislators and company policy is made by engaging with business and legalteams. We need to foster better understanding of our tools and norms amongstpolicy makers. This talk will offer ideas on how we should craft and deliverour message around the adoption of free software legal tools.