FSF talked about education, copyright management, and free machine learning at FOSDEM 2025

Check the event page for the videos

Every year, one of the biggest free software events, FOSDEM, is organized by the free software community to promote widespread use of free software. The first weekend of February was filled with vibrant talks, presentations, and panels covering almost all imaginable topics related to free software. Outside of the official schedule, attendees participated in a ton of side meetings, planned and unplanned. During this special time in Brussels, one cannot avoid bumping into a free software activist.

Miriam Bastian speaking on free software teaching materials.

Free Software Foundation (FSF) staff members spoke on three topics

Miriam Bastian, the FSF's program manager, presented some of the FSF's teaching materials for high schools, explained how you can use them, and shared her experiences on how students usually respond to them, what questions they ask, and what topics interest them. The materials included videos, slides, a questionnaire, and handouts, all of which can be viewed on the LibrePlanet wiki. The talk sparked a discussion about the challenge to bring free software to schools and universities. There was consensus that free software is an ethical imperative in education. If you haven't done so yet, please sign and spread the FSF's petition calling on school administrators at all levels to drop requirements for students to use proprietary software to participate in a course, and to adopt a free software replacement for every nonfree program being used.

If you have any free software teaching materials, please feel free to upload them to the wiki so that others can use them as well. We are especially looking for workshop materials about things like: the command line; graphic design with free programs such as GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, or Krita; freedom-respecting video editing; and OpenStreetMap editing. The FSF is also always looking for teaching volunteers who are willing to talk to students at schools and universities in their area about free software.

The FSF also hosted a panel about managing copyrights in free software projects. The panelists included: James Bottomley (software engineer and Linux kernel developer); Andrea Corallo (co-maintainer of GNU Emacs); Ludovic Courtès (co-maintainer of Guile and Guix, and long-time GNU and free software contributor); Karen Sandler (an attorney and the executive director of the Software Freedom Conservancy); and Craig Topham (FSF, copyright and licensing associate). The panel was facilitated by the FSF's licensing and compliance manager, Krzysztof Siewicz, who guided an exchange of the panelists' experiences and opinions about managing copyrights while ensuring that maintainers can continue releasing their projects under a free license.

Additionally, the FSF's executive director, Zoë Kooyman, took part in a panel facilitated by Richard Fontana (Senior Commercial Counsel at Red Hat) with Julia Ferraioli (machine learning researcher); Ciarán O'Riordan (Senior Policy Advisor at Open Forum Europe); and Aeva Black (independent technology advisor and software security expert). Panelists exchanged their diverse perspectives on freedom in machine learning). Kooyman discussed with the other panelists what the source code equivalent is in machine learning applications and elaborated on the FSF's position on free (as in freedom) machine learning applications.

Executive Director Zoë Kooyman and Licensing and Compliance manager Krzysztof Siewicz presented the FSF's work on a statement of criteria for free machine learning applications

During another presentation at this year's FOSDEM, Kooyman, together with Siewicz, updated the audience at FOSDEM about the status of the FSF's work on a statement of criteria for free machine learning applications. They explained how this fits into the FSF's 40 years of work campaigning for software freedom, including defining and maintaining clarity about what makes free software.

Machine learning is increasingly used to complete software tasks and develop software. We have been observing attempts to present various machine learning applications as freedom-respecting, while they have actually been designed for the opposite result. Thus, the FSF is working diligently to provide a clear understanding of what machine learning is, how it is different from software, and what the resulting challenges are for software freedom. We are adopting an aspirational approach which sets high standards, insisting that users be given all they need to control their computing with machine learning. With regards to the most debated topic in this area of free software, the FSF's position is that a free (as in freedom) machine learning application should include training data. Not including this in the criteria would render it impossible to use, study, modify, and share machine learning applications to the fullest extent possible. The FSF is working to understand the issue, unbeholden to deadlines and other outside influences. Kooyman and Siewicz concluded the presentation with an invitation to contribute questions for its working group, open to everyone.

Craig Topham staffing the Free Software Foundation Europe table at FOSDEM 2025.

Copyright and Licensing Associate Craig Topham volunteered with the Free Software Foundation Europe

Craig Topham also volunteered to table with the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), the FSF's European sibling organization sharing our values in software freedom. One of Craig's favorite activities to participate in at conferences tabling (in a wildly bustling vendor space) at FOSDEM gave him the opportunity to meet dozens of people and share the message of free software. Unfortunately, shipping issues resulted in limited quantities of FSFE merchandise on location. Even with limited merchandise available, many people stopped by the FSFE table and picked up GNU head stickers faster than they could be put down! If you missed the chance to purchase their free software gear in Brussels, visit their online store! Craig thanks the FSFE for the opportunity, and enjoyed getting to know FSFE staff members and the intern.

We really enjoyed talking and learning from so many other free software activists, and are glad that we got to contribute to FOSDEM 2025. Our time in Brussels was a great reminder of how strong the free software community is and what we can accomplish when we work together.

"Miriam Bastian speaking at FOSDEM 2025." © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Zoë Kooyman. This image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

"Craig Topham volunteering with FSFE at FOSDEM 2025." © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Zoë Kooyman. This image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.