Bradley M. Kuhn
Encyclopedia
Bradley M. Kuhn is a free software
activist from the United States
.
Kuhn is currently Executive Director
of the Software Freedom Conservancy
. Until 2010 he was the FLOSS Community Liaison and Technology Director of the Software Freedom Law Center
(SFLC). He previously served as the Executive Director of Free Software Foundation
(FSF) from 2001 until March 2005. He was elected to the FSF's board of directors in March 2010.
He is best known for his efforts in GPL enforcement, both at FSF and SFLC, as the creator of FSF's license list, and as the original author of the Affero clause of the AGPL. He has long been a proponent for non-profit structures for FLOSS development, and leads efforts in this direction through the Software Freedom Conservancy.
, followed by Loyola College in Maryland
, graduating in May 1995 with a summa cum laude Bachelor of Science
in Computer Science
.
Kuhn attended graduate school in Computer Science
at the University of Cincinnati
. His graduate adviser was John Franco. Kuhn received a USENIX
student grant scholarship for his thesis work., which focused on dynamic interoperability of free software
languages, using a port of Perl
to the Java Virtual Machine
as an example. Larry Wall
served on Kuhn's thesis committee. Kuhn's thesis showed various problems regarding the use of stack-based virtual machine
s for Perl, and this discovery became part of the justification for the launch of the Parrot project
.
Kuhn was an active participant in the Perl6 RFC Process, and headed the perl6-licensing committee during the process. He authored all RFCs submitted to the process on licensing.
Kuhn taught AP
Computer Science
at Walnut Hills High School for the 1998-1999 academic year, using a GNU/Linux-based lab built by the students themselves.
Kuhn volunteered for the Free Software Foundation
throughout graduate school, and was hired part time as Richard Stallman
's assistant in January 2000. Kuhn is seen posting to lists in his professional capacity around this time. During his early employment at the FSF, Kuhn suggested the creation of and maintained the FSF license list page, and argued against license proliferation
.
Kuhn was also an early and active member of the Cincinnati Linux User Group during this period, serving on its Board of Directors in 1998 and giving numerous presentations.
in March 2001. Kuhn launched FSF's Associate Membership campaign, formalized its GNU General Public License
(GPL) enforcement efforts into the GPL Compliance Labs, led FSF's response to the SCO lawsuit, authored the Affero clause of the AGPL, and taught numerous CLE
classes for lawyers on the GPL
.
Kuhn left the FSF in March 2005 to join the founding team of the Software Freedom Law Center
with Eben Moglen
and Daniel Ravicher
, and subsequently established the Software Freedom Conservancy
in April 2006.
At both the FSF and SFLC, Kuhn has been involved with all the major efforts in the United States to enforce the GPL
. At SFLC, he assisted Eben Moglen
, Richard Stallman
, and Richard Fontana
in the drafting of the GPLv3, and managed the production of the software system for the GPLv3 Comment Process, called stet
. He advocated strongly for inclusion of the Affero clause in GPLv3, and then assisted with the production of the AGPLv3 after the decision to move the clause to its own license.
Until 2010 Kuhn was FLOSS Community Liaison and Technical Director of the Software Freedom Law Center
, and as president of an affiliated organization, the Software Freedom Conservancy
. In October, 2010 he became the Conservancy's first Executive Director.
Since October, 2010 Kuhn has co-hosted, with SFLC General Counsel Karen M. Sandler, the Free as in Freedom podcast, which covers legal, policy, and other issues in the FLOSS world. For two years previously Kuhn and Sandler had co-hosted a similar podcast titled the Software Freedom Law Show.
player and played professionally on a part-time basis from 2002-2007. Since January 2008, he has been a contributor to PokerSource, a GPL'd online poker system written and maintained by Loïc Dachary
.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
activist from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Kuhn is currently Executive Director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
of the Software Freedom Conservancy
Software Freedom Conservancy
The Software Freedom Conservancy is an organization that provides a non-profit home and infrastructure for free/open source software projects. The conservancy was established in 2006. As of June 2011, the conservancy had 26 member projects, including Boost, BusyBox, Git, Inkscape, jQuery, Samba,...
. Until 2010 he was the FLOSS Community Liaison and Technology Director of the Software Freedom Law Center
Software Freedom Law Center
The Software Freedom Law Center is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as Chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by...
(SFLC). He previously served as the Executive Director of Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
(FSF) from 2001 until March 2005. He was elected to the FSF's board of directors in March 2010.
He is best known for his efforts in GPL enforcement, both at FSF and SFLC, as the creator of FSF's license list, and as the original author of the Affero clause of the AGPL. He has long been a proponent for non-profit structures for FLOSS development, and leads efforts in this direction through the Software Freedom Conservancy.
Academia and early career
Kuhn attended Loyola BlakefieldLoyola Blakefield
Loyola Blakefield is a Catholic, college preparatory school established by the Society of Jesus, to educate men for others. The ideal Loyola graduate is a man of integrity who, because he strives "to find God in all things," is open to growth, dedicated to academic excellence, religious, committed...
, followed by Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola University Maryland is a Roman Catholic, Jesuit private university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early and eight other members of the Society of Jesus in 1852, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges...
, graduating in May 1995 with a summa cum laude Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
.
Kuhn attended graduate school in Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
. His graduate adviser was John Franco. Kuhn received a USENIX
USENIX
-External links:* *...
student grant scholarship for his thesis work., which focused on dynamic interoperability of free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
languages, using a port of Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
to the Java Virtual Machine
Java Virtual Machine
A Java virtual machine is a virtual machine capable of executing Java bytecode. It is the code execution component of the Java software platform. Sun Microsystems stated that there are over 4.5 billion JVM-enabled devices.-Overview:...
as an example. Larry Wall
Larry Wall
Larry Wall is a programmer and author, most widely known for his creation of the Perl programming language in 1987.-Education:Wall earned his bachelor's degree from Seattle Pacific University in 1976....
served on Kuhn's thesis committee. Kuhn's thesis showed various problems regarding the use of stack-based virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
s for Perl, and this discovery became part of the justification for the launch of the Parrot project
Parrot virtual machine
Parrot is a register-based process virtual machine designed to run dynamic languages efficiently. It uses just-in-time compilation for speed to reduce the interpretation overhead. It is currently possible to compile Parrot assembly language and PIR to Parrot bytecode and execute it...
.
Kuhn was an active participant in the Perl6 RFC Process, and headed the perl6-licensing committee during the process. He authored all RFCs submitted to the process on licensing.
Kuhn taught AP
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at Walnut Hills High School for the 1998-1999 academic year, using a GNU/Linux-based lab built by the students themselves.
Kuhn volunteered for the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
throughout graduate school, and was hired part time as Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
's assistant in January 2000. Kuhn is seen posting to lists in his professional capacity around this time. During his early employment at the FSF, Kuhn suggested the creation of and maintained the FSF license list page, and argued against license proliferation
License proliferation
License proliferation refers to the problems created when additional software licenses are written for software packages. License proliferation affects the free software community. Often when a software developer would like to merge portions of different software programs they are unable to do so...
.
Kuhn was also an early and active member of the Cincinnati Linux User Group during this period, serving on its Board of Directors in 1998 and giving numerous presentations.
Non-profit career
Bradley Kuhn's computer science career briefly involved proprietary software development after high school. His sour experience in this area was one of his motivations for sticking with a career in non-profit work. Since graduate school, Kuhn has worked only for non-profits. He was hired full-time to work at the FSF in late 2000, and was promoted to Executive DirectorExecutive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
in March 2001. Kuhn launched FSF's Associate Membership campaign, formalized its GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(GPL) enforcement efforts into the GPL Compliance Labs, led FSF's response to the SCO lawsuit, authored the Affero clause of the AGPL, and taught numerous CLE
Continuing Legal Education
Continuing legal education is professional education of lawyers that takes place after their initial admission to the bar. In many states in the United States, CLE participation is required of attorneys to maintain their license to practice law...
classes for lawyers on the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
Kuhn left the FSF in March 2005 to join the founding team of the Software Freedom Law Center
Software Freedom Law Center
The Software Freedom Law Center is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as Chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by...
with Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, whose client list includes numerous pro bono clients, such as the Free Software Foundation....
and Daniel Ravicher
Daniel Ravicher
Daniel "Dan" Ravicher serves as Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation .-External links:* *...
, and subsequently established the Software Freedom Conservancy
Software Freedom Conservancy
The Software Freedom Conservancy is an organization that provides a non-profit home and infrastructure for free/open source software projects. The conservancy was established in 2006. As of June 2011, the conservancy had 26 member projects, including Boost, BusyBox, Git, Inkscape, jQuery, Samba,...
in April 2006.
At both the FSF and SFLC, Kuhn has been involved with all the major efforts in the United States to enforce the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
. At SFLC, he assisted Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, whose client list includes numerous pro bono clients, such as the Free Software Foundation....
, Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
, and Richard Fontana
Richard Fontana
Richard Fontana is a free software and open source lawyer in the United States. Fontana served as legal counsel at the Software Freedom Law Center from December 5, 2005 until February 2008...
in the drafting of the GPLv3, and managed the production of the software system for the GPLv3 Comment Process, called stet
Stet (software)
stet is a free software package for gathering comments about a text document via a webpage.-History:The initial version was developed from late 2005 until mid-2006 by the Software Freedom Law Center as a service to its client, the Free Software Foundation...
. He advocated strongly for inclusion of the Affero clause in GPLv3, and then assisted with the production of the AGPLv3 after the decision to move the clause to its own license.
Until 2010 Kuhn was FLOSS Community Liaison and Technical Director of the Software Freedom Law Center
Software Freedom Law Center
The Software Freedom Law Center is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as Chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by...
, and as president of an affiliated organization, the Software Freedom Conservancy
Software Freedom Conservancy
The Software Freedom Conservancy is an organization that provides a non-profit home and infrastructure for free/open source software projects. The conservancy was established in 2006. As of June 2011, the conservancy had 26 member projects, including Boost, BusyBox, Git, Inkscape, jQuery, Samba,...
. In October, 2010 he became the Conservancy's first Executive Director.
Since October, 2010 Kuhn has co-hosted, with SFLC General Counsel Karen M. Sandler, the Free as in Freedom podcast, which covers legal, policy, and other issues in the FLOSS world. For two years previously Kuhn and Sandler had co-hosted a similar podcast titled the Software Freedom Law Show.
Poker
Kuhn is an avid pokerPoker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
player and played professionally on a part-time basis from 2002-2007. Since January 2008, he has been a contributor to PokerSource, a GPL'd online poker system written and maintained by Loïc Dachary
Loïc Dachary
Loïc Dachary has been a free software developer and activist in France since 1987. Dachary currently contributes to Free Software projects and acts as president of the Free Software Foundation in France. He is a speaker for the GNU Project and the April association.- Career :Dachary started as a...
.