Bonum Certa Men Certa

What Free Software Organisations Can Learn From Australia's Rape Crisis

Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock

IN a few previous blogs, I've quoted the following clause from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics, to emphasize what is wrong with Codes of Conduct:

professionals should be forthright about any circumstances that might lead to either real or perceived conflicts of interest or otherwise tend to undermine the independence of their judgment.

The latest news from Australia is that the Attorney General is one of the suspects. A woman made an allegation of rape and then committed suicide. Both the federal and state police have declined to investigate the case. Many cases end this way, only approximately three percent are successfully prosecuted. He explains why he should not resign from his post on the basis of an accusation alone.

We see a similar trend in Australian football. Only very few players have been taken to trial.

For just about any other leadership figure his arguments may be acceptable. For the minister responsible for enforcing the law, there is a perceived conflict of interest.

It was less than two years ago that the High Court of Australia gave a verdict acquitting Cardinal George Pell of his conviction for abuse. It was probably the most widely publicised verdict in the history of Australian justice. If the allegations against the Attorney General ever proceed to trial, he may perceive himself facing the High Court at some time in the not too distant future. As Attorney General, he is also responsible for recommending the appointment of judges to the court.

High court justices: High Court of Australia, justices, Cardinal George Pell

There is a possibility that this man will be involved in choosing his judge. No other citizen would have this influence in the same situation.

This is where people may perceive a conflict of interest, or to put it bluntly, the average man on the street can smell a rat.

Australian Parliament House, dead rat

We have finally come full circle and we see a G20 country being run like a free software organization.

To say there is a perceived conflict of interest is not an accusation of wrongdoing. The trial may never happen. Nonetheless, this type of thing erodes confidence.

We've seen exactly the same thing in multiple free and open source software organizations. We see people publicly boasting about it. Ironically, one of the most hideous incidents occurred in the FOSDEM Legal and Policy issues dev-room. A speaker stood up and used cat pictures to ridicule other volunteers, including somebody volunteering at the very same event. In the same talk, the speaker admits making unilateral judgments about volunteers. She talks about making judgments in disputes where she was a party to the dispute.

Credible organizations seek independent and impartial assistance to mediate or advise in the situations described by de Blanc.

Molly de Blanc, cat behind bars, FOSDEM 2019, bullying, harassment, abuse, enforce, code of conduct

When people ask about romantic relationships or business relationships between decision-makers in large free-software organizations, these are questions about perceived conflicts of interest. These are not invasions of privacy nor are they accusations of actual wrongdoing. The perception or risk of wrongdoing is enough to justify those questions. That is exactly what Stephanie Taylor of Google was complaining about recently in the Outreachy and GSoC conflict of interest scandal. Taylor thought the relationship itself was justification to expel a student yet people stubbornly refuse to disclose their relationships in so many other situations.

Ironically, when Cardinal Pell arrived at the County Court for his sentencing in 2018, he was carrying a character reference from Australia's former Prime Minister, John Howard. Even if the allegations were false, the fact remains that of 8,000 cases of child abuse investigated in the recent Royal Commission, almost a third involved the Catholic Church. Many of these occurred on Pell's watch, while he was Arch-Bishop. It may have been prudent for the former Prime Minister to hold back the reference until the survivors receive answers.

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM: Many Thousands of Layoffs in 2025
If 2025 is expected to be the same, then perhaps about 20,000 IBM workers will no longer be there
Google: Your Only Option is Google YouTube (Coming Soon: Mandatory DRM and Attestation?)
Digital Restrictions (DRM) to follow? Only for "approved" (attestation) browsers?
The Munich-Based EPO is Still Using a Platform That Promotes the Far Right and Rehabilitates Nazism
Active Twitter account
How the EPO Pressures Staff Into Minting More Monopolies (Patents), Even Illegal Ones That Harm Europe and Ultimately Dismantle the Rule of Law
insights into the pressure examiners are under
LLM Slop Machines Are Not a Win for "Open Source" and If They Get Cheaper, It's Even Worse
If some program that claims to be "Open Source" pollutes the Web with fake articles (Microsoft SPAM and fake "Linux" articles), whose win is it?
 
Another Slew of Fake Articles About 'Linux' and 'Security' From Brittany Day at linuxsecurity.com (Spamfarm/Slopfarm)
linuxsecurity.com is basically a pariah and parasite. It lessens the incentive to write real articles about "Linux" by generating fake ones to outrank the originals.
Links 30/01/2025: Microsoft Wants Convicted Felon to Give Fentanylware (TikTok) to It (After Making a Phonecall Asking for That in 2019), "Moving Away From Google's Ecosystem"
Links for the day
Jack M. Germain (LinuxInsider) Seems to Have Turned to LLM Slop, Graphics Slop, and B2B SPAM
LinuxInsider is barely active anymore
Links 30/01/2025: Amazon Layoffs and DeepSeek Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/01/2025: Chaos Reigns, E-mail, Searching
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Mastodon Was Always Biased (Just Like Twitter After Abandoning Chronological and Neutral Timelines in Order to Become More Like Facebook)
So bury-brigading and click-farming control what people see
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Falls to Only 0.4% of the Total in Geminispace
Geminispace does not need to outsource trust
Links 29/01/2025: Dismantling Public Health in the US, Air Busan Plane Up in Flames (South Korea's Air Disasters Streak)
Links for the day
Announcements and Administrivia
This week we're going out for two days in a row to celebrate an achievement that's very respectable
Gemini Links 29/01/2025: Japan, GTD, and More
Links for the day
Sir, Yes, Sir. The Life of EPO Patent Examiners.
If working for the EPO makes it harder to sleep at night, take action
Links 29/01/2025: Data Privacy Day and Growing Tensions in Europe
Links for the day
Nazi Twitter (aka "X") Became a Troll Site That Lets People Buy a Blue Tick While Its Boss Actively Promotes Neonazi Politicians
the intellectual level of people who infest the Web through "Twitter" or "X"
This is Why They're So Afraid of Richard Stallman (He Tells People the Correct History)
Then they post about it to Microsoft's LinkedIn
Richard Stallman Speech in Bengaluru, "Silicon Valley of India"
62 years have passed since his "young nerd" days and he's still at it
Claim: Facebook Deletes Posts of IBM Red Hat Critics
As always, follow the money (advertisers)
Links 29/01/2025: Climate Crisis and "It’s time for the Xbox to fade away" (Microsoft Lose)
Links for the day
Links 29/01/2025: Buying Groceries During a Trade War, Political 'Retro'
Links for the day
More Illegal Patents at the EPO, Legality of Granted European Patents No Longer Matters to the Office
breaking the law for profit
Network Improvements Tomorrow
"Network maintenance" down in London
Sharing is Caring (But Advocating Copyleft Makes You a "Target")
GPLv3 does not close all the loopholes which the "Affero" helps close
Articles About Free Speech at Facebook
'Facebook vs Linux' story is now receiving a lot more media coverage
We Were Right About stallmansupport.org Making an Error by Joining Social Control Media. mastodon.social Suspends stallmansupport.org.
From what we can guess, accounts can be banned by some oversensitive admin or a mob of users ("bury brigades")
"Latest Technology News" in BetaNews Still LLM Slop and SPAM Composed by LLMs (It's Basically a Spamfarm Disguised as a News Site)
Only a fool would visit BetaNews in search of actual news
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, January 28, 2025
The EPO's Corruption, If It Remains Untackled, Helps the Far Right and Enemies of European Unity/Solidarity
Do not negotiate with evil
The Web, Including Wikipedia, Gets Filled With Lies About Bill Gates, Added by Bill Gates and His PR Team
Of course Wikipedia is funded by Gates
Facebook Banning Linux Sites (or People Who Link to Linux Sites) is Another Symptom of the Web's Demise
The state of media on the Web is really bad; Social Control Media amplifies the badness, as Facebook serves to show
Gemini Links 29/01/2025: Neovim Telescope and Writing Less
Links for the day
Links 28/01/2025: Chaffbot as Commodity Fad, New Import Restrictions in Thailand
Links for the day
Links 28/01/2025: "Against Social [Control] Media", "Smart" Buses' Ticketing System Cracked
Links for the day
[Video] Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS) in India, Talking About Proprietary Software's Dangers Only Yesterday
WebM file
Gemini Links 28/01/2025: Thinking About Not Much, Computing Fatigue, the Curse of JavaScript
Links for the day
"SuccessFactors" (SAP) Stunts at the EPO Used to Break Laws and Constitutions, Staff Tricked Into Harming Themselves
Ongoing corruption and lawlessness became the norm; Europe's second-largest institution (EPO) along with the largest institution (EU) has its very own Minsk
The GNU Manifesto Turns 40 in a Few Weeks
The FSF turns 40 later this year, too
Continued Support and Momentum at the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"This helps protect our community."
Another Talk by Richard Stallman Tomorrow, This Time in Bengaluru
This means that in January 2025 he is giving at least 5 public talks
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 27, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, January 27, 2025