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  • Sources: 3
  • Relationships: 5
  • Research debt items: 3

Eben Moglen

Summary

Eben Moglen is a professor of law at Columbia Law School and founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, who served as general counsel to the Free Software Foundation and was heavily involved in drafting the GNU General Public License version 3.

Verified Facts

  • The official Columbia Law School faculty page identifies Moglen as Professor of Law with areas of study in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Legal History.1
  • The Columbia Data Science Institute profile states Moglen served as general counsel to the Free Software Foundation since 1994.2
  • Moglen was an FSF board member from 2000 to 2007.2
  • As FSF counsel, Moglen was charged with enforcing the GPL on behalf of the FSF and later became heavily involved in drafting GPL version 3.2
  • Moglen founded the Software Freedom Law Center in February 2005.2
  • He worked as a designer of advanced computer programming languages at IBM from 1979 to 1985.1
  • In 1991 he represented Philip Zimmermann, the developer of PGP, when Zimmermann was threatened with prosecution for distributing strong encryption as free software.1
  • Federal prosecutors closed the PGP criminal investigation without filing charges against Zimmermann in January 1996.3
  • Moglen received the EFF Pioneer Award in 2003.1

Expert Testimony and Public Advocacy

Moglen combines Columbia faculty credentials with decades of hands-on GPL enforcement and encryption-policy advocacy. He is frequently sought when litigation turns on copyleft obligations, free software distribution rights, or the legal history of civilian cryptography export controls.

Relevance to Lawsuits Involving Software and Internet Infrastructure

Moglen is particularly useful when a case involves:

  • GPL or copyleft license interpretation and enforcement
  • Free software distribution and patent-retaliation clauses
  • Historical encryption export controls (PGP/Zimmermann defense context)
  • Nonprofit legal structures for open source projects (SFLC model)

Relevance to Open Source and Software Companies

Moglen is one of the most significant legal figures in the free software and open source world. His work drafting GPL v3, enforcing the GPL, defending PGP encryption distribution, and founding SFLC to provide pro bono legal services to open source projects makes him a key resource for any software company navigating open source licensing or facing threats related to code distribution.

Relationships

Sources

  1. SRC-MOGLEN-COLUMBIA: Eben Moglen Columbia Law School Faculty Page.
  2. SRC-MOGLEN-DSI: Eben Moglen Columbia Data Science Institute Profile.
  3. SRC-ZIMMERMANN-INVESTIGATION-CLOSED: EPIC Alert — Charges Dropped Against Phil Zimmermann.

Research Debt

  • Document role in FreedomBox Foundation (founded 2011) with an official organizational source.
  • Add case-specific sources for notable GPL enforcement actions.
  • Cross-link SFLC intake process documented on ORG-SFLC.

Document metadata

  • Last verified: 2026-07-19

  1. SRC-MOGLEN-COLUMBIA — Eben Moglen Columbia Law School Faculty Page. Official source. ↩↩↩↩

  2. SRC-MOGLEN-DSI — Eben Moglen Columbia Data Science Institute Profile. Official institutional profile. ↩↩↩↩

  3. SRC-ZIMMERMANN-INVESTIGATION-CLOSED — EPIC Alert — Charges Dropped Against Phil Zimmermann. Secondary reporting of U.S. Attorney declination. ↩