Squeak and the Software Freedom Conservancy

>
> Hi--
>
>      I'm reposting, with the important addition of footnote [4], a
> section of a message I wrote recently in another thread ("The land of
> the Mice, a bedtime story"), for easier reference in the squeak-dev
> archives.
>
>      Thanks to Ken Causey on the Squeak IRC channel[1] for  
> suggesting this.
>
>
>      thanks again,
>
> -C
>
> ***
>
>     We are in the final stages of discussion with the Software Freedom
> Law Center[2] about Squeak joining as a member project of their  
> Software
> Freedom Conservancy[3]. By "final" I mean that we have a legal  
> agreement
> in front of us, we're discussing slight modifications to it, and we're
> about to sign it. After the board and the SFLC are happy with it, we
> will forward it to squeak-dev. We intend to sign it within a couple of
> weeks after that. I'm acting as the liaison between the board and the
> SFLC. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Ron Teitelbaum again
> for suggesting and advocating working with the SFLC.
>
>      If you are surprised that we've done this without enough public
> discussion (although we did mention it on squeak-dev at multiple  
> points
> in the past[4]), again please accept our apologies. We believe we are
> doing what you elected us to do.
>
>      Please do follow the SFLC and Conservancy links to remind  
> yourself
> why this will be a good arrangement. Basically, they will handle the
> legal stuff, including being able to accept tax-exempt donations on
> Squeak's behalf. Stay tuned for the minute details, most likely after
> the board meeting on 18 July, where we will have SFLC counsel as a  
> guest.
>
>      Yes, this is all taking much longer than any of us would like.  
> But
> it's happening! Zoom out a little bit and remember some of the things
> we've (finally) accomplished:
>
> -    The original Squeak release is now available to us under better
> license terms (that took a lot of personal cajoling on the part of
> myself and several others)
>
> -    We are very close to having written consent to new terms on  
> behalf
> of each subsequent contributor to Squeak.
>
> -    We are on the verge of allying the project with an organization
> that will make us legally viable.
>
>
>      thanks,
>
> -C
>
> [1] #squeak on irc.freenode.net. See http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/ 
> 5888
> [2] http://www.softwarefreedom.org
> [3] http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org
> [4] Ken points out that he can't find mention of our intent to join  
> the
>     Conservancy in the squeak-dev archives. I apologize for not
>     providing references; I won't make such a statement again without
>     supporting URLs. At any rate, I reiterate the apology in that
>     paragraph. :)  I'm also hoping that we can get through the process
>     of legal reification without the unproductive email storms of ages
>     past. :)
>
> --
> Craig Latta
> improvisational musical informaticist
> www.netjam.org
> Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]
>
>
>