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<h3 id="REUSE">The REUSE Initiative</h3>
<p>The FSFE aims to support developers by helping them understand the legal implications of reusing a given piece of Free Software, and how to comply with these legal requirements by adding copyright and license information. To achieve this, the FSFE has embarked on our <a href="https://reuse.software">REUSE Initiative</a>, which introduces a set of best practices for license information in ways not only humans can read, but computers as well, helping to automate licensing. These guidelines have been in place since December 2017.</p>
<p>The FSFE aims to support developers by helping them understand the legal implications of reusing a given piece of Free Software, and how to comply with these legal requirements by adding copyright and license information. To achieve this, the FSFE has embarked on our <a href="https://reuse.software">REUSE Initiative</a>, which introduces a set of best practices for license information in ways that not only humans can read, but computers as well, helping to automate licensing. These guidelines have been in place since December 2017, and FSFE is proud to have contributed them under CC-0 licensing terms to the OpenChain Curriculum, a project that helps companies understand best practices supporting their compliance efforts.</p>
<p>In September, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano published a study that was funded by the FSFE in order for us to better understand the impact of the REUSE Initiative, and how it could be improved upon. Researchers analyzed a set of GitHub projects and the extent to which they respect REUSE guidelines, discovering that compliance is currently lackluster. While this can be attributed to the relatively recent availability of our guidelines, the study also found them overly complex. Accordingly, the next step by the REUSE Initiative to provide support to developers in their efforts to include license information will be to further simplify the guidelines and to provide additional tools for developers, which can include, for example, the so-called <a href="https://github.com/idm-suedtirol/reuse">“flight rules” developed by IDM-Südtirol</a>. The FSFE is eager to work with partners from industry and research to improve these guidelines in order to see increased compliance in the future, and greatly appreciates all feedback that can help us make this a reality.</p>
<p>In September, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano published a study analyzing a fixed data-set of GitHub projects, and the extent to which these projects respect our REUSE Initiative guidelines, concluding that compliance with our guidelines is low. While low compliance can be attributed to the relatively recent availability of our guidelines, the study also found them overly complex, as they suggest a variety of options rather than a single simple method of compliance. Many of the recommendations in the guidelines are also worded to suggest that they are optional, which adds to the complexity for developers trying to understand and comply with the legal requirements of their repositories.</p>
<p>The study has also made suggestions for alternatives and/or improvements for some of our main guidelines, which includes the proposal to use the so-called <a href="https://github.com/idm-suedtirol/reuse">“flight rules” developed by IDM-Südtirol</a>. The FSFE takes these criticisms to heart and works to improve on these guidelines in order to see greater compliance in the future, and greatly appreciate all feedback that can help us make this a reality.</p>
<div id="picture"><img src="/picturebase/miscellaneous/2018-screenshot-investigate-europe2.png" /><footer id="picture"><p>The FSFE helped <a href="https://www.investigate-europe.eu">Investigate Europe</a>, an independent journalistic team, to better understand concepts and benefits of Free Software and brought them in contact with experts from our network for their research for the TV documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duaYLW7LQvg">"Microsoft-Software: Safe for Europe?".</a></p></footer></div>