MicrophoneSoft?

THE concept of "Justice" and/or "Ethics" isn't universal; different cultures apply different cultural standards to arrive at what they consider to be objective notions of what's "right" and what's "wrong".

"More and more examiners at the EPO have learned (the hard way) over the past year or so that companies like Microsoft don't value their privacy."We can all (hopefully) agree on some basic rights however. Among them? Speech, privacy, access to justice (right to be heard) and so on...

Why those things are important values (which need to be guarded if not enshrined as human rights) is probably a story for some other day...

A lot of our readers are EPO employees (insiders told us that almost all EPO workers read this site, even if not on a daily basis), so it would be wrong to assume people read the site because they use and care for GNU/Linux -- or Free software, by extension.

So, it's probably worth explaining in simple terms the correlation or the connection between the Software Freedom Moment and "Justice" (however one defines it).

Justice can be loosely defined as an opportunity to have rules (or laws) obeyed. If the law or the rules are not properly enforced, or only selectively enforced (e.g. those who are rich and powerful are somehow exempted), that's an injustice. It means that people are mistreated based on their privilege (or lack thereof).

In the realms of Software Freedom (when we say "Free software" we refer to freedom, not price) we put people in control of their lives. As more aspects or facets of people's lives have gone "digital" it means that the systems running on devices should be controlled by users, nor vendors. Data transactions and code should be auditable as that's the only way to detect (or overcome) mischievous behaviour.

More and more examiners at the EPO have learned (the hard way) over the past year or so that companies like Microsoft don't value their privacy. The software imposed on them by António Campinos is very invasive spyware, installed at people's private homes. Benoît Battistelli and his "I.U." (Stasi) could only have dreamed of such breadth of data collection from employees. Who needs keyloggers to be covertly installed when Microsoft Teams does just that and who needs hidden cameras when Skype is exactly that (unless the camera is physically covered)?

Of course we welcome examiners to join our fight for Software Freedom, which extends to a fight for justice. We've tried hard to squash European software patents for nearly a decade and a half; having EPO insiders on our side would be beneficial to Europe as a whole and it's no secret that such patents hurt Free software the most (we can rarely afford court battles). To make the world a better place (more innovative and more just) we'll need to reject software monopolies, surveillance capitalists (people who 'monetise' spying and snitching), and clueless managers like Campinos, who illegally impose the use of spyware in people's private spaces. ⬆