Bonum Certa Men Certa

Openwashing Report: Monopoly is Open

Weekly openwashing report



Summary: We're supposed to be feeling joyous and victorious because -- good news, everybody! -- even all the technology giants are nowadays claiming to have 'opened up'

THE plague of openwashing has spread to every corner of the proprietary software world. Just about every proprietary software company, provided it's large enough, has invested in creating a false image of it being "open". It's about perception, as they know that this is all that matters. They can get a bunch of puff pieces published for them, hitting the right keywords to construct a fictional version of reality. There are other slants similar to it, including diversity, greenwashing, social responsibility and so on. But here in Techrights we shall focus on openwashing and name some of the worst offenders every weekend. We might even start doing it on a daily basis, depending on volume of material, urgency, and time available.



When we started researching this past week's news we wrongly assumed that one concise article would be sufficient or that one single installment would contain everything. But one article isn't enough; it would be absolutely huge, so we've decided make that at least 6 upcoming parts of the Openwashing Report. In fact, we might soon render it a daily feature, not weekly. We wish such a series wasn’t necessary or even possible, but too many incidents/instances are found and it's very clearly a fast-growing problem. It's a pandemic/epidemic. It's 2019 and we can't believe we're sketching actual, well-supported (slam-dunk evidence) articles about how truly malicious proprietary software is being framed (and advertised) as "Open Source". This oughtn't be happening, but virtually nobody enforces labels such as "Open Source"; so who's or what's to stop abuse/misuse of it? Nothing.

"We wish such a series wasn’t necessary or even possible, but too many incidents/instances are found and it's very clearly a fast-growing problem."The noise is everywhere, outweighing the signal by nearly a whole order of magnitude. You search the Web for "Open Source" news and you get stuff like "Which Open Source Software is Better for You," (published days ago) which on the surface (headline) sounds promising. This is not "Open Source" however (at all). It's nothing but a ramp for malicious proprietary software that follows you around (location surveillance). This isn't the exception. So Microsoft and Google blobs on one's phones are "Open Source"? Seriously?

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned that Platform9 is not "Linux" or "Open Source" as shallow 'news' sites like to claim. Here comes another one of those puff pieces about fund-raising. Check what this company offers. It's clearly misfiled. It's one of those "cloud" things (spying).

"So Microsoft and Google blobs on one's phones are "Open Source"? Seriously?"Over at Toolbox the other day we saw this article about an "Open-Source Partnership". What is it exactly? Ten tech giants that do mass surveillance for the US government and China's CCP gang up for openwashing and painting of their spying as "security" and "confidential". Thanks, Linux Foundation, for this practical joke. Here they go again...

Over a week later media in South Africa is still producing puff pieces about it ("Ten tech giants join forces to beef up data security").

We're very sorry for being cynical, but...

Companies that spy on people the most (or build the spies' infrastructure) use the PR services of the Foundation to paint themselves "Confidential", "Consortium" and other marketing nonsense (even "Open-Source" and "Security"). How about Channel Futures with many of these buzzwords in one single headline?

How about this one from the Foundation-connected SDxCentral? IBM does lots of surveillance -- some exceptionally notorious (see their work for NYPD) -- but the media connected to the IBM-funded Foundation frames it as "quantum-safe" and "crypto" and "confidential" etc. (like the NSA calls itself "security"; it's in the acronym!) and we hardly find that amusing. Even the term "open source" is used. "IBM will begin offering quantum-safe cryptography services on its public cloud beginning next year in a move toward bolstering the security of data and privacy from fault-tolerant quantum computers," it said.

"Companies that spy on people the most (or build the spies' infrastructure) use the PR services of the Foundation to paint themselves "Confidential", "Consortium" and other marketing nonsense (even "Open-Source" and "Security")."So surveillance is privacy.

"Cloud" is open.

And "cryptography" means "only IBM will read it" (or so one hopes; IBM has partners in the public and private sector).

Analytics India Magazine went ahead with this hilarious report entitled "How Tech Giants Are Advocating Open Source Software As Vehicle Of Change" (Obama also promised "Change").

Well...

"Open Source isn't exactly true to history and its "champions" exercise lots of openwashing -- nothing like whatever the Free software movement originally envisioned.""Tech Giants Are Advocating" people producing code for them, free of charge, for these "Tech Giants" to then 'borrow' this code for openwashing purposes, calling imperialistic spying companies "community".

The article isn't better than its headline. It starts with: "Open-sourced projects branched out from the free-software movement which began in the late 80s."

It's incredible revisionism to state that "the free-software movement [...] began in the late 80s." This is false. If it didn't start in the early 80s, then it started decades beforehand when sharing of code was commonplace; it was the default. But OK, we get it. Open Source isn't exactly true to history and its "champions" exercise lots of openwashing -- nothing like whatever the Free software movement originally envisioned.

Later this week we'll show more examples to that effect -- surveillance in particular -- implicating Facebook, VMware, IBM, Microsoft, Google and the rest of our 'favourite' Open Source 'champions' ("Open source champion Microsoft" is what Brian Fagioli's headline said about Microsoft a few days ago).

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Next Talk of Richard Stallman (Father of GNU/Linux and the GPL) Advertised in the Media 3 Days in Advance
He spoke in Italy earlier this year and also did some interviews
Free Software as a Culture of Resistance
Free software as a movement accomplished a lot in 40+ years
The Microsofter Who Kept Sending Threatening Post and E-mail to My Wife Has Been Joking He'd Work on Code for "Sexual Favours"
For one thing, for software professionals (like for landlords), this is outright illegal and you'd get arrested for it, and moreover it's no joking matter because there are many real victims of such sexual exploitation
 
Growing Recognition Out There That Courts Must Abandon Microsoft or Have No Perception of Authority, Autonomy, Independence, Fairness, and More
Imagine making a complaint about Microsoft to an agency that uses Microsoft
Sometimes Legal Action is Imperative (Even if Recovering the Cost of the Litigation Itself is Infeasible)
Sirius got sued, but the company has no money (large piles of debt)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 23, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 23, 2025
Simpler is Better
Gemini Protocol turns 6 in exactly 4 weeks
Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli, Brittany Day, and Other Plagiarists Who Rip Off Real Writers and Target Themes Around "Linux"
Fagioli also prompted chatbots for some words diarrhoea
Links 23/05/2025: Microsoft Openwashing at ZDNet, Signal Does It Wrong (DRM, Back Doors Still Intact)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/05/2025: Clutter in Modern Interfaces and Dealing With DRM-Free Music
Links for the day
Links 23/05/2025: Tax Audits of Hong Kong's Independent as ‘Intimidation Tactics,’ Why "Regulating X Isn’t Censorship"
Links for the day
TecAdmin Took a Break From Linux to Push SPAM
This happened hours ago, and it seems to have been posted directly by the site's "Admin" (Rahul)
We Seem to Have Abandoned Science and Replaced Sound Policy With Private Patent Shareholders and College Dropouts Like Bill Epsteingate
Because of what they did there are now many people out there who reject all vaccines
Links 23/05/2025: Violent Attacks on the Press, VMware Price Hikes, Vista 11 Considered Unsuitable for Any Confidentiality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/05/2025: Balkan Tourism, UK Polls, Reticulum and Meshtastic
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 22, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 22, 2025
Back to Basics, Folks, "AI" (Plagiarism) is Symptom of a Dying Industry Looking for Whatever Prey It Can Devour
lousy/sloppy imitations
Liam Proven's Thoughts on "AI" Being a Scam No Different From Religions, Alternative Medicine, and More
"Is there anywhere outside of retrocomputing that doesn't have AI in it?"
Many IBM Layoffs, Centred Around Expert Labs US in Atlanta (Offer of "Relocation" Where No Such Option Exists)
So Techrights was assessing comments/gossip online and it was right about the Thursday cull
Slopwatch: Slopfarms That 'Hallucinate' (Yield Falsehoods) Cited as Credible Sources and Microsoft Media Gaslighting Everybody
Part of the problem is, Google News
More Media Coverage and Photos From Richard Stallman's Presentation in Liberec (Czech Republic)
Here are some photos
The Microsofter Who Kept Sending Threatening Post and E-mail to My Wife Has Been Spooking Women for at Least Two Decades
censorship was the ultimate goal
Links 22/05/2025: Openwashing, Dumping Microsoft's Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub), and New Climate Disasters
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Next Public Talk is in Milan, Italy Next Week
Happy hacking
Gemini Links 22/05/2025: Crimson Pro Font and CGI in Bash
Links for the day
IBM Goes to India, Fires People in the United States (Under the Guise of "Relocation" or Similar), Accusation of Bribery in the Company
LLM slop sites (some are pure slopfarms) from India say the IBM layoffs result in hiring "AI" (the "I" stands for India)
Why We'll Continue Covering EPO Abuses (Other Patent Offices as Well, as the Need Arises) for Many Years to Come
We're basically becoming Russia
Links 22/05/2025: TikTok Laying Off Again, Microsoft-Backed Builder.ai Set for Bankruptcy, Scam Altman Uses 'Funny Money' to 'Buy' (Hire) Company
Links for the day
These Feet Are Made for Walking
Humans are apparently so very clever that they decided to form a "progressive" consensus: feet no more
The Evolution of Microsoft's War on GNU/Linux
13 sins
OFTC Has Just Culled About a Third of Its Online Users
It's not the first time they purge or force offline many people/bots
My New Desk Arrangement (and More Breaks From the Keyboard)
all in all yesterday I devoted 4-5 hours to redoing and shuffling stuff
Central Staff Committee of the EPO Opposes Abuses Against EPO Staff, Challenging SuccessFactors Stunts
Europe became institutionally colonised
Gemini Links 22/05/2025: "Conspirituality" and Visiting One's Old University
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 21, 2025