The next meeting will be on the evening of the 2nd of April.  James Vasile from the Software Freedom Law Center  will give a talk entitled "Replicating the Success of Free Software".  The Free Software movement has proven itself in every imaginable way. We have quality software on servers, desktops and in embedded systems. Free Software is used in homes, offices, retail and in manufacturing. Everywhere from back rooms to classrooms and boardrooms.  We've spawned new business models and changed the economics of old ones.  The challenges that are left will be met and soon.

Such has been the success of free software that we have spawned entire other movements. From Creative Commons to open hardware to open science, everybody wants to replicate Free Software's achievements in new media.  Even further, there are people fighting for values that, while beloved in the Free Software world, are not protected by the Free Software society. Values like privacy and data portability between web services.  Each of these attempts borrows from Free Software's history.  This talk looks at what is being taken, what is being left, and why.  It's an inquiry into the future, as we ask how to nurture these nascent movements.


James Vasile holds a Juris Doctor (JD) from Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the law review and a Stone Scholar. He also has a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Fordham University. He spent several years in the litigation department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore where he worked on a range of cases and dealt with a variety of new media issues. James has also contributed code and documentation to numerous FOSS software projects. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York.

Organised by ShefLUG and sponsored and venue provided by the South
Yorkshire branches of the British Computing Society and the
Institution of Engineering and Technology..


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