When FSFE accepts to enter into a fiduciary licence agreement with a
project, it does so to protect the legal situation of the project and
promote Free Software. FSFE's role is that of a legal guardian that
takes care of the legal needs of the project so the project itself can
focus on the technological side. While it will seek to help projects,
FSFE will not interfere with the project management, direction and
administration.
Freedom Task Force Licensing Policy
While it has preference for the GNU General Public License (GPL) and
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), FSFE will generally consider
working with projects that use GNU GPL compatible Free Software
licences, be they Copyleft or not. Upon request or when special
circumstances arise, FSFE may offer advice on matters of licensing or
project policy, but the final decision on such matters remains with
the project team. The only requirement on the part of FSFE is that
such decisions remain within the scope of Free Software licences that
are GNU GPL compatible.
FSFE, authorship and project administration
When FSFE accepts to become the fiduciary for a Free Software project,
it does not claim authorship or control over the project. The role of
the FSFE is purely to support the project in its legal standing, and
to allow the project to focus on other matters. The role of the
author or project administrator is largely unchanged, with the caveat
that the project should follow any policies related to licensing or
otherwise agreed at the time of signing the Fiduciary Licence
Agreement with FSFE.
FSFE as neutral third party for industry
Industry consortia at times consider it useful to have a third party
to assign their rights in joint projects to. In such cases, FSFE will
treat all consortium members the same way and will treat the
consortium similar to any other Free Software project, be it
commercial or not.