The Free Software Foundation is an American donor supported charity founded in 1985 and based in Boston, MA, USA. The FSF has a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users. The http://www.fsfeurope.org/ Free Software Foundation Europe was launched in 2001 and supports all European aspects of Free Software; especially the GNU Project. They actively support the development of Free Software and use of GNU-based Operating Systems such as GNU/Linux. Also, they provide an assistance centre for politicians, lawyers and journalists in order to secure the legal, political and social future of Free Software.

We think that these organisations provide a legal and philosophical framework to users of free software.