Events

On April 13, Software Freedom Law Center and Columbia Law School invite counsel, developers, enterprise users and other members of the free and open source software (FOSS) communities to join us for a unique one-day conference exploring technical, legal and social questions concerning software governance in the near-term automotive future. Over the next five years, the automobile industry and all developed societies will be fundamentally altered by a new union of information and automotive technologies. Software embedded in vehicles and roadways, along with traffic and movement data collected “in the cloud,” will alter the basic infrastructural details of economic and individual life. Individual safety, public security, and all basic economic activity will depend on the functioning of software in automobiles. How that software is governed (how it is maintained, repaired, inspected; who may change it how, and with what accountability; how vehicle owners and users can exercise their rights in that software, and what their rights ought to be), will determine the real social consequences hidden behind phrases like “self-driving,” “connected cars,” and “robot revolution.” How can innovations in software engineering help us to improve reliability and serviceability of embedded automotive software? How can user innovation be maximized, allowing car owners to modify the operation of their vehicles, while preserving safety and allowing manufacturers to limit their liability? How can vehicles be upgraded in service without also creating dangers of malware injection and privacy invasion? Presenting real-world solutions under development that maximize openness while increasing the reliability of governance, this conference aims to offer cutting-edge thinking in the context of an automotive industry undergoing revolutionary transformation. Conference Program: Speakers: Eben Moglen, SFLC/CLS & Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical Ltd.: Automated Software Governance and Copyleft in Cars Daniel Patnaik, Audi: Security, TiVo-ization, and FOSS Licenses: an Industry View Nicholas McGuire, Open Source Automation Development Lab (OSADL e.G.), Safety Critical Linux Working Group: Systems Engineering and the Sins of Software Jeremiah Foster, Community Manager, GENIVI Alliance, Open Source Technologist, Luxoft: Industry Transformation: From Metal-Benders to Software Companies Alistair Adams, Qt: Automotive Adoption and Governance of FOSS: Qt’s Challenges and Experience Leilani H Gilpin, Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Self-Explanation and Self-Driving: How to Make Autonomous Vehicles Tell Us How They Work and possibly more to come. Our conference is free of charge. Lunch will be provided. To receive an invitation, email [email protected] This event will be recorded. CONTACT INFO: If you have any questions, please contact: Lauren Silva at [email protected], 212-854-0278--Or Mike Weholt at the Software Freedom Law Center [email protected], 212-461-1905. EVENT RSVP: [email protected]