A week before Software Freedom Conservancy had announced the CopyleftConf 2020. The conference is going to take place on 3 February 2020, Monday, in Brussels, Belgium.
The first edition of CopyleftConf took place in February 2019. One can have a look at the videos here The organizers do plan it after Fosdem.
This is a unique conference that assembles the copyleft community around the globe.
There will be a comprehensive and thorough discussion of various topics. Which includes daily beginner level to expert level issues, stuff related to copyright licensing, challenges faced by the programmers to license their code under copyleft licenses. The developers, strategists, enforcement organizations, scholars, and critics take part in the conference.
One of the primary aim of the conference is having an extensive discussion on the “obstacles facing copyleft and the future of copyleft as a strategy to advance and defend software freedom for users and developers around the world.” This is a dream come true conference for all the Copyleft followers and believers.
The call for proposal is open. And it will be open till 3rd November 2019, midnight AOE. They are welcoming talks for the duration of 20 minutes + 5 minutes QA, or if you want to speak for the whole 25 minutes, that is also welcome.
The organizers are also welcoming proposals for an hour-long discussion. The facilitators will introduce the topic in the first 5 to 10 minutes. They are free to decide on the format. People are asked to submit a proposal in groups or pairs. The organizers are interested in having people having different perspectives, viewpoints on the subject, being the facilitators of the discussion.
At the end of the discussion, there should be some functional ideas for "better use and increased adoption of copylefted software. "
People are asked to submit proposals on and around the topics mentioned above. Some of the example fields and issues being:
- Governance concerns for large copyleft projects;
- Social and/or technical compliance strategies;
- How copyleft fits in with other efforts to build ethical technology;
- Is it possible or desirable to include ethical considerations beyond software freedom into FOSS licenses?
- Copyleft and enforcement in different jurisdictions;
- Affero GPL and other copyleft considerations in the era of network-based service software;
- Publicly funded copyleft; i.e. municipal, library, public school or government;
- License compatibility, what's new, what's old, and what challenges remain?
- Copyleft abuse, how should the community respond?
- The (general) future of copyleft;
- any other topic (which is not on the list) that relates to copyleft.
If one is unsure about the proposal being good enough for the conference, can ask for help.
The organizers are available in the #conservancy IRC channel on freenode, mail them, or twitter is another option.
I very much want to be there and take part in the conference but not sure if geographical distance will allow me to do it or not. But surely will be attending the conference through the live recording (hopefully the organizers will have it this year as well).
If you are a complete beginner and want to know about Copyleft, I urge you to be a part of this conference. Please do not be intimidated by the names of people attending it. They are the most helpful and friendly human beings you will ever find (quoting this from my personal experience). And now, when you have the time and chance to know "what is Copyleft?", from the best, then why not :).
Therefore book your dates for the conference and see you there.