Harmonize or Resist? A Global Survey of Strategies for Software
Schedule

Presented by:

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Deb Nicholson

Deb Nicholson is a free software policy expert and a passionate community advocate. She is the Community Outreach Director for the Open Invention Network, the world's largest patent non-aggression community which serves Linux, GNU, Android and other key FOSS projects. She’s won the O’Reilly Open Source Award for her work with GNU MediaGoblin and OpenHatch. She is a founding organizer of the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference, an annual event dedicated to surfacing new voices and welcoming new people to the free software community. She also serves on the Software Freedom Conservancy's Evaluation Committee, which acts as a curator for it's new member projects. She lives with her husband and her lucky black cat in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

REPLACEMENT Please note that this talk replaces Humane Management for Imperfect Humans

There's a lot of pressure from the US (and some of it's allies) to "harmonize" with American ideas about patents and copyrights. The response by different nations has been wildly different -- some have chosen to play along while others have chosen to resist. What makes sense for one country won't make sense for another and it's all in the details. This talk examines existing legal patterns, the state of local economies and varying trade relationships in an effort to survey what kinds of resistance are possible or effective.

There's a lot of pressure from the US (and some of it's allies) to "harmonize" with American ideas about patents and copyrights. The response by different nations has been wildly different -- some have chosen to play along while others have chosen to resist. What makes sense for one country won't make sense for another and it's all in the details. This talk examines existing legal patterns, the state of local economies and varying trade relationships in an effort to survey what kinds of resistance are possible or effective.

These issues have implications for not only free software activists, but for anyone who is concerned about local sovereignty and freedom of expression. Laws are written for the powerful to help them maintain their power, and resistance is always difficult. But what if we could share not only our code, but our strategies for passing laws, rearranging policy and carving out a safe place for free software and free culture to flourish?

This is a top level survey of the global state of software patents and copyright law. Both local and global policies affect our ability to build things that are needful or locally useful, even when they aren't profitable. Local innovation is our best chance to solve many of our local problems, so let's get to it!

Date:
2018 April 28 - 03:45
Duration:
45 min
Room:
CC-114
Conference:
LinuxFest Northwest 2018
Language:
Track:
Humans
Difficulty:
Easy

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