FSFE becomes the legal guardian of the OpenSwarm Project
The OpenSwarm Project has become a signatory of the Fiduciary licence Agreement (FLA), a copyright assignment that allows FSFE to become the legal guardian of projects.
Anastasios Hatzis, the developer behind the OpenSwarm model-driven development platform for Python applications, lead the process of assigning copyright to FSFE. "My company - HATZIS Edelstahlbearbeitung GmbH - wanted to foster a development community around the OpenSwarm technology while also underwriting our commitment to Free Software," said Anastasios. "The FLA has provided us with an excellent way to ensure code coherency and a framework for long-term development."
The OpenSwarm Project will be protected by FSFE's Freedom Task Force (FTF). Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, explains "The Freedom Task Force is here to help strengthen the legal foundation of the Free Software eco-system. The Fiduciary licence Agreement is part of this. It provides a clear way for projects to consolidate their copyright. In the case of OpenSwarm, FSFE is acting a legal guardian for the project and ensuring that the developers can focus on maturing an exciting development platform."
"FSFE is committed to help increase the maturity of the Free Software community, including the legal maintainability of Free Software in the long-term," explains FSFE president Georg Greve. He adds: "The FTF has a specific part to play in this and we would like to thank Stichting NLnet for their support in its launch and initial activities. We hope other groups will also lend support."
Shane Coughlan summarises "the FTF mission to help educate individuals, projects and businesses in the advantages of Free Software licences, and to help the use of Free Software licences through fiduciary assignment and legal guardianship. The Bacula project was the first to avail of our fiduciary programme, and OpenSwarm underlines the continued developer interest in this service."
The Freedom Task Force can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org/ftf
The Freedom Task Force can be emailed at ftf@fsfeurope.org
About the OpenSwarm Project:
Development of OpenSwarm has been started at the HATZIS Edelstahlbearbeitung GmbH. HATZIS is a family-owned and med-sized steel-engineering company in Bavaria, Germany, which provides to more than 300 companies construction and production services for highest quality components made of stainless steel.
OpenSwarm is planned to be a holistic set of model-driven software development tools focused on the easy creation of powerful and business logic enriched applications in the field of Web- and data-centric solutions for industry, public sector and non-profit organisations. The generated software systems are implemented in Python and data is stored in PostgreSQL databases, so they can be hosted on almost any platform.
Further information: http://openswarm.sourceforge.net/
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and involved in many global activities. Access to software determines participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study, modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE.
Contact:
Free Software Foundation Europe Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57 Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66 UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7 Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
Shane Coughlan, FTF Co-ordinator, FSFE extension: 408
Joachim Jakobs, Media Relations, FSFE extension: 404 mobile: +49-179-6919565
Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
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