Dates: 20 and 21 December 2017
Venue: Mascot Hotel, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
People in attendance: ~400
Panel Discussion
SFLC.in was a part of the closing session titled “Software Freedom – Challenges Ahead”. Panelists included:
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Prasanth Sugathan, Legal Director, SFLC.in
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Praveen Arimbrathodiyil, Pirate Party of India
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Benjamin Maco Hill, Assistant Professor in Communication, University of Washington
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Abhas Abhinav, Founder, DeepRoot Linux
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Juan Carlos Gentile, Founder & President , Hipatia.
The panel was moderated by Arun M, Programme Head, ICFOSS.
Prasanth Sugathan mentioned that the free software community forms the basis of the entire Internet freedom movement. He spoke about the need to have an ability to tinker with our devices and the effects of losing such a freedom. He mentioned that recent times have seen a gradual shift from the use of copyleft licences to permissive licences - including the harmful effect that this has on the free software movement, and the adoption of proprietary solutions by the government despite a national policy on preferring open source solutions. He also announced SFLC.in's upcoming Women In Tech project to ensure increased participation of women in technology-related fields.
SFLC.in’s Booth
Approximately 250 people visited our booth at the conference. We talked to the conference attendees about digital rights including rights of FOSS projects, our free legal support for FOSS projects, how FOSS projects can protect themselves, software patents, and our other projects to protect and promote internet freedoms and digital rights including internet shutdowns, net neutrality, freedom of speech and cyber security.
We conducted two quiz competitions in which about 40 students participated. We also conducted two raffles for students in which about 70-80 people participated. Prizes for the raffles and quiz competitions included a set of SFLC.in goodies for the winners.
23 people became digital defenders by joining SFLC.in.
