Melbourne: Free Software and the Law - Public Lecture 5 March 2012

Free Software Melbourne is hosting Brett Smith from the Free Software Foundation on 5 March 2012 at 6pm at Melbourne University.
Public lecture: Free Software and the Law

Free Software Melbourne

Brett Smith from the Free Software Foundation

Public lecture: Free Software and the Law

University of Melbourne, Theatre 1, ICT Building, Barry Street, Carlton (view map).

This talk will introduce free software, explain why it's important, and explore the many places where free software interacts with the law. Brett Smith will illustrate how copyright, licenses, patents, trade agreements, and other laws all play a role in deciding whether and how we can create, use, and share free software — and by extension, who controls our computers. Members of the public are welcome. No technical knowledge is required.

Brett Smith is visiting Melbourne to speak with government negotiators about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the impact on free software.

About Brett Smith

Brett is a GPL Ninja. He works in the Free Software Foundation's Licensing Compliance Lab, as license compliance engineer. Brett answers complex licensing questions from the public, writes widely read and timely posts for the FSF's blogs, codes up Python programs, and dashes across the country to give input to policy makers. Brett also ran the GPL version 3 drafting process.

Proprietary software companies love to talk about how they hire "ninjas." Well, free software has ninjas too!

This event is organised by Free Software Melbourne and generously hosted by the University of Melbourne's Department of Computing and Information Systems. For details, email Ben Sturmfels or phone (03) 9024 2467.

Register for this event

Please register by 10am on 5 March. We'll confirm your registration by email.