The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is an American non-profit organization that promotes free software and is committed to eliminating the restrictions on the copying, distribution, understanding and modification of computer programs. Many organizations are distributing all available free software. In contrast, the Free Software Foundation is committed to developing new free software and building these software into a coordinated system, which will completely eliminate the need to use proprietary software. It was established by richard stallman in June 1985. Its main task is to implement the GNU plan and develop more free, free and freely circulated software. From its establishment to the mid-1990s, the funds of the Free Software Foundation were mainly used to hire programmers to develop free software. There are too many companies and individuals writing free software from 1990, so the employees and volunteers of the Free Software Foundation mainly focus on the legal and structural issues of the free software movement. Recent work: GNU project: The earliest purpose of the Free Software Foundation is to promote the development of free software, but the Free Software Foundation also has the task of developing GNU operating system. ; Realization of GPL: The Free Software Foundation has the ability and resources to realize the GNU General Public License and other GNU licenses, but the Free Software Foundation is only responsible for its copyrighted software. Other software must be the responsibility of their own owners, because according to the law, the Free Software Foundation cannot be responsible for these other software. Every year, the Free Software Foundation comes into contact with about 50 violations of the GNU General Public License. The Free Software Foundation tries to make the other party abide by the GNU General Public License without going to court. GNU License: GNU General Public License is the most popular license in free software engineering. The current version (version 2) is published in 199 1, but the Free Software Foundation is working on version 3. The Free Software Foundation also issued GNU General Public License and GNU Free Document License. Copyright supervision: The Free Software Foundation owns the copyrights of most GNU software and some non-GNU free software. Every contributor of GNU software package must sign the copyright document, so that the Free Software Foundation can defend the software in the lawsuit. In addition, if you change the license, you don't have to ask for the consent of all contributors to the software. Free Software Directory: A free software directory is a list of all free software packages. Each software listed in it contains 47 pieces of information, such as project home page, programmer, programming language, etc. The purpose is to provide a search engine for free software and a tool for users to check whether a software package is free. The Free Software Foundation has obtained some funds from UNESCO for this purpose. The plan is that this catalogue can be translated into different languages in the future. Maintain the definition of free software: The Free Software Foundation maintains several documents that define the free software movement. Legal education: The Free Software Foundation held a seminar on legal issues of GNU General Public License and provided consulting services for lawyers. Project management: The Free Software Foundation provides project management services through its GNU Savannah page. Awards: The Free Software Foundation awards two awards each year: the Free Software Progress Award and the Social Welfare Project Free Software Award. Social Welfare Free Software Award June 5438+065438+1October 25th, 2002 The Free Software Foundation provides individuals with the possibility of becoming affiliated members of the Free Software Foundation. As of March 2005, it has more than 3,400 affiliated members. On March 5, 2003, it provided a company protection plan for commercial enterprises, and by April 2004, it had 45 company protections. Board members: Geoffery Knauth, senior programmer of SFA, lawrence lessig, Professor of Law at Stanford University, Ibn Moglin-Henry Puller, Professor of Law and Judicial History at Columbia University, -richard stallman, founder of CivicActions, -Gerald Sussman, founder of Free Software Foundation, and Professor of Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Generally, there are 65,438+00 employees working in Boston headquarters. Sister organization: 200 1, the European Free Software Foundation was established in Germany as the representative of the Free Software Foundation in Europe. In 2003, the Indian Free Software Foundation was established in Kerala. In 2005, there were rumors that there were plans to establish a free software foundation in Latin America.