Software Freedom Law Center

Eben Moglen, Chairman

Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University Law School. Professor Moglen has represented many of the world's leading free software developers. Professor Moglen earned his PhD in History and law degree at Yale University during what he sometimes calls his “long, dark period” in New Haven. After law school he clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld of the United States District Court in New York City and to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He has taught at Columbia Law School – and has held visiting appointments at Harvard University, Tel Aviv University and the University of Virginia – since 1987. In 2003 he was given the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award for efforts on behalf of freedom in the electronic society. Professor Moglen is admitted to practice in the State of New York and before the United States Supreme Court. He is also a director of the Software Freedom Conservancy.

Philippe Aigrain, Director

Mr. Aigrain is the Founder and CEO of Sopinspace, Society for Public Information Spaces, a company that develops free software and provides services for the public debate of policy issues. Trained as a mathematician and computer scientist, he researched technology for empowering people to access and analyze photographs, video, and music. Before founding Sopinspace, he was head of the "Software technology and society" sector within the European Commission Information Society general directorate where he was in charge of actions related to FOSS. Alongside his professional activities, he is active within international coalitions for the reform of norms and agencies that deal with intellectual rights. In addition to his technical papers, Mr. Aigrain has published a number of texts on the sociology of information exchanges and the political philosophy of intellectual rights.

Diane M. Peters, Director

Legal counsel to the Mozilla Corporation and the Mozilla Foundation, a non profit public benefit corporation dedicated to preserving innovation and openness on the internet through the development of open source software, including the Firefox web browser. Prior to working with Mozilla, Ms. Peters served as General Counsel to Open Source Development Labs, a non profit trade association supporting development of the Linux kernel and adoption of the Gnu/Linux operating system. Ms. Peters earned a B.A. in political science from Grinnell College in 1986, and a J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 1989, where she served as an executive editor of the Washington University Law Quarterly. After law school, Ms. Peters clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago.

Mark Webbink, Director

Mark Webbink served at Red Hat, the premiere Linux and open source vendor, as its first general counsel beginning in 2000. In 2004, he became Red Hat's deputy general counsel for intellectual property, a position he served in until his retirement in August 2007. During his tenure with Red Hat, Webbink wrote and spoke extensively on the subjects of open source software, software patents, and patent reform. Webbink is a Senior Lecturing Fellow with the Duke University School of Law and consults with open source companies on their business strategies. He holds a BA from Purdue University as well as a Master of Public Administration and J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Daniel J. Weitzner, Director

Director of the World Wide Web Consortium's (“W3C”) Technology and Society activities where he is responsible for development of technology standards that enable the web to address social, legal, and public policy concerns such as privacy, free speech, security, protection of minors, authentication, intellectual property and identification. Mr. Weitzner holds an appointment as Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and teaches Internet public policy at MIT. Prior to joining the W3C, Mr. Weitzner was co-founder and Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a leading Internet civil liberties organization in Washington, DC. He was also Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Mr. Weitzner has a degree in law from Buffalo Law School, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Swarthmore College.

Eben Moglen, Director-Counsel

See above under Directors.

Daniel B. Ravicher, Legal Director

Mr. Ravicher is Legal Director of the Software Freedom Law Center. Prior to joining the founding team at SFLC, Mr. Ravicher was associated with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP, and Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, LLP, all in New York, and served the Honorable Randall R. Rader, Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.. Mr. Ravicher received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the Franklin O. Blechman Scholar for his class, a Mortimer Caplin Public Service Award recipient and Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology, and his bachelors degree in materials science magna cum laude with University Honors from the University of South Florida. Mr. Ravicher has published numerous legal articles and given dozens of presentations regarding Free and Open Source Software legal issues and is an Adjunct Professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is admitted to practice before the State of New York, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He is also a director of the Software Freedom Conservancy.

Bradley M. Kuhn, FLOSS Community Liaison, Policy Analyst and Technology Director

Bradley M. Kuhn began his work in the Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) Movement as a volunteer in 1992, when he became an early adopter of the popular GNU/Linux operating system, and began contributing to various Free Software projects. He worked during the 1990s as a system administrator and software development consultant for Westinghouse, Lucent Technologies, and numerous small companies. He also taught Advanced Placement Computer Science (using only Free Software) at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati. In January 2000, he was hired by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). From 2001 until 2005, he served as FSF's Executive Director, where he led FSF's GPL enforcement efforts, launched the Associate Member program, and authored the Affero GPL. In 2005, he left FSF to join the founding team of SFLC. Kuhn holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Computer Science from Loyola College in Maryland, and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati. His Master's thesis discussed methods for dynamic interoperability of Free Software languages. He is also a director and president of the Software Freedom Conservancy, and a member of the autonomo.us committee, which studies issues of software freedom as they relate to software as a service.

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Karen M. Sandler, Counsel

Karen M. Sandler comes to the SFLC after working as an associate in the corporate departments of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in New York and Clifford Chance in New York and London. Sandler received her law degree from Columbia Law School in 2000, where she was a James Kent Scholar and co-founder of the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review. Sandler received her bachelor's degree in engineering from The Cooper Union. She is admitted to practice in the State of New York. She is also an officer of the Software Freedom Conservancy.

Michael A. Spiegel, Counsel

Michael A. Spiegel is a patent attorney specializing in computer software, hardware, and internet technologies. He has worked at several intellectual property boutique firms in New York City and has also served in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a patent examiner. He received his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was an associate editor of the Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. Michael received his bachelors degree in computer engineering from Columbia University. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York and in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

James Vasile, Counsel

James Vasile holds a Juris Doctor (JD) from Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the law review and a Stone Scholar. He also has a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Fordham University. He spent several years in the litigation department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he worked on a range of cases and dealt with a variety of new media issues. Vasile has also contributed code and documentation to numerous FOSS software projects. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York.

Aaron Williamson, Counsel

Aaron Williamson joined SFLC as legal counsel in 2007, after spending his second law school summer at the firm as an intern in 2006. He received his J.D. from NYU Law, where he co-founded the InfoLaw student group and worked as an Executive Editor on the Journal of Legislation and Public Policy. He studied computer science as an undergraduate at Taylor University. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York.

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Ian Sullivan, Executive Secretary

Ian Sullivan joined SFLC in 2005 after working as a paralegal. He received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Columbia College and has a strong interest in free software as an educational tool.