As part of the FOSS Sustainability grant awarded to F-Droid by the Open Technology Fund (OTF) earlier this year, we’ve taken on the task of developing clear, community-aligned policies and legal strategies for handling take-down requests, government demands for user data, and compliance with emerging content moderation laws, such as the EU´s Digital Services Act, the UK´s Online Safety Act, and Utah´s App Store Accountability Act.

Our first step in this process is to build a solid understanding of the current legal landscape affecting F-Droid. We’re actively cataloguing the legal challenges the project has encountered over time, identifying recurring patterns and responses. In parallel, we’re conducting interviews with legal experts, long-time F-Droid contributors, and representatives from mature FOSS organizations to learn from their approaches and build upon the knowledge already out there.

The goal of this work is to create informed, transparent, and community-driven policies that not only support the sustainability of F-Droid, but also help protect contributors and users in an increasingly complex legal environment.

We’ve had enthusiastic responses from many FOSS projects and legal experts—but there are still a few key organizations where we’re trying to connect with the right people. That’s where you come in.

If you have insights to share on any of the following topics—handling take-down requests, government data requests, or navigating new content moderation laws—we’d love to hear from you. We’re also looking for introductions to contacts at the following organizations:

• Mozilla
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
• Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC)
• Apache Software Foundation
• Software Freedom Conservancy

If you know someone at any of these organizations who may be willing to speak with us—or can point us to the right person internally—please reach out.

You can follow our progress and contribute to the discussion via our GitLab. Feedback, questions, and ideas are always welcome at team at f-droid.org.

Together, we can help strengthen the legal foundations of FOSS and ensure our projects remain resilient for years to come!