Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Corporate 'Cancel Culture' Industry — Part III: Non-Technical People Trying to Ruin the Lives of the Geeks

Video download link | md5sum 2a0e0a8564e17efb26b9f0cccd911048 Against Code Quality and Community Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Series parts:



Summary: Corporate takeover (over the code produced by volunteers who like to code and are good at it) should be a cause for concern to communities composed of altruistic people who share; to the people who see everything as "assets" and "IP" we're just temporarily-valuable resources to be discarded like "slaves" or "serfs"

THE other week I was contacted by someone who had been a cause for concern and then decided to do this series, of which we've done two parts of [1, 2].



"The recent investigation started because Intel exercises too much control over the Linux Foundation, protecting its turf using money..."Today's third part deals with the example that started this whole debate. Towards later parts we'll explain the phenomenon in general. It was explained 1.5 years ago in the "peak code" series by Dr. Andy Farnell [1, 2, 3]. The gist of his series was, we're being robbed by corporations. We must always be apprehensive regrading motivations, as we recently saw in the case of Red Bait. They used an army for volunteers for about 2 decades (Fedora) and now they're putting paywalls on the code. There have been other examples lately of either walled gardens or paywalls. It's rather "trendy" right now...

To put it in very simple terms that everybody can understand, they get people to work for free for "everyone's sake". And then all of a sudden it's not for everyone and you need to buy a subscription even just to access your own contributions, which you gave for free. Academic/scholarly publishers can be a lot like this.

The recent investigation started because Intel exercises too much control over the Linux Foundation, protecting its turf using money; it is "the Intel vs ARM thing is what I've talked about before," psydroid told me. "Linux ran better on x86 chips for a long time because Intel spent a lot of money on optimising it for x86, not because ARM and other chips weren't capable" and "it's not just Linux, it's the whole stack... the thing to understand is that x86 is different from everything else."

It's not unlike OSDL, which predates the Linux Foundation despite this gross distortion in Wikipedia. Intel was a cofounder.

"Some time has passed (nearly a fortnight already) and not a single article on this matter showed up anywhere."Another person argued people out there still misunderstand the Linux Foundation, or LF for short, because of the misleading name. They should not read anything into the name of the LF. It exists to represent the interests of the members in Linux development rather than to promote and advance Linux in society and industry.

Some time has passed (nearly a fortnight already) and not a single article on this matter showed up anywhere. In the next part I'll explain why I refused to participate in any of this. Someone with an axe to grind merits caution, not cooperation.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Sonny Piers Finally Spills the Beans on GNOME Cover-up, Points Finger at Robert McQueen, Misusing "Defamation" to Silence Critics of Wrongdoing
Robert McQueen, who is extremely connected to Garrett (they share digital nests)
Techrights Was Months Ahead of "XBox" News (Mass Layoffs)
Next: end of XBox as a console
More Commentary on June 2026 IBM Layoffs and Why They Happen
It sounds a lot like what happened to the EPO
The Cyber Show: Remember That Code is Art
The article is very long, very profound, and speaks of "the next installation"
Only Days After Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's Azure There Are Headlines About Much-Expected XBox Layoffs
XBox as a console is basically dead or "fast-dying"
 
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: FTP and Gopher, Cluster Outage Postmortem After Cleaning by Wife
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Transcending Partisan Rivalry in the National Interest
Up until now, Campinos has generally been regarded as a Portuguese "asset" on the international stage
Gratitude to Whistleblowers or Sources of Techrights
Whistleblowers are what makes journalism work
Links 12/06/2026: "NearlyFreeSpeech" No More, Openwashing by Google (DiffusionGemma)
Links for the day
Today There's a Massive EPO Strike (Like Every Friday), Workers Explain Further Cuts Despite the EPO Making More Income by Granting Illegal Patents (or Invalid Patents Illegally)
"Recent exchange with the Administration on the implications of the SAP on the Education and Childcare Allowance"
Communicating With Freedom - Part IV - Quibble Now in quibble.chat, Open for Contributions Via Codeberg
Today we continue the series about Quibble
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Importance of Having "Pals from the Palacete"
for his reappointment bid to succeed, Campinos will need to be able to rely on the support of both the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the President of the European Council, António Costa
Cyber Show on How Updates or Upgrades Break Workflows, Even in Free Software
"We did a big upgrade on the AV production pipeline"
Discussions About IBM Layoffs in June, Including by RTO and PIPs
mass layoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: Decks and Work Essay
Links for the day
"Rolling Strikes" Continue at the European Patent Office, the Administrative Council Needs to Take Action Against Crooked Office Management
This coming weekend we'll talk about some of the other issues and concerns expressed by the union
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 11, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, June 11, 2026
Links 11/06/2026: Disputes Over Copyright Infringement, Failure to Meet Climate Goals, "ChatGPT Caught Recommending “Products” That Are Just Scams"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/06/2026: Programmable Systems and Slop "is Coming for Your Serifs"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 103 Out of 200: Telling People What They Know and Don't Know About Death Threats They Receive
patronising letters sent on behalf of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
IBM Genies in the Bottle
for ordinary people working who at at IBM, it's not hard to see that IBM is floundering
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Links 11/06/2026: LF Openwashing of Slop and "Azerbaijan Bans TikTok and Other Social Media Apps in School"
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre (in Portugal) Falls Apart…
Luís Montenegro became embroiled in a conflict-of-interest controversy
IBM Lost About 18% of Its "Market Value" This Month
In IBM's case, a lot of the latest "pump" was Arvind's "quantum" hype/fantasy
Gemini Links 10/06/2026: Signal to Noise, Cancer, and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Links 10/06/2026: More Microsoft Layoffs, Sweden to "Ban Mobile Phones in Schools"
Links for the day
Communities and "Prosumers."
today's meetup will be about community
Gemini and Gopher Links 10/06/2026: Roasting, Changes, and Harms of Slop
Links for the day
Microsoft Azure Shrinking With More Mass Layoffs
"Reports suggest the layoffs will impact close to 200 out of 400 workers, who are set to cease employment at Azure on July 6"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 09, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 09, 2026