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New Series: Inside the Free Software Foundation (FSF)

When you attack Free Speech to supposedly protect Free software (or FSF) you are protecting neither

Free Speech and Free software
Free Speech, Free software



Summary: In the interest and motivation of exposing the true nature of things, Techrights will turn its attention to internal affairs at the higher echelons of the FSF, founded more than three and a half decades ago in MIT (where Stallman launched the GNU Project, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and a lot more foundational Free software)

THIS past weekend we highlighted the importance of intervention of some kind. Based on a bunch of recent blog posts from their Board -- something that I noticed over at Diaspora -- things had gone sour and there's an effort to silence people to maintain the impression that everything is rosy. They might think that it's for the better good of Free software, but it is bad for free speech (or Free Speech) and the same thing is happening in Debian right now.



Many people will refuse to talk about this; they want to avoid becoming the next target or persecution, smears, cancellation and so on.

The series won't be about me or about us. We'll make sure it's factual and we invite sources with additional information of relevance to contact us discreetly. 6 years ago we dealt with secrecy at the European Patent Office (EPO), where staff representatives -- sometimes even judges -- were attacked and fellow examiners were threatened to prevent 'leakage' to the media.

"Transparency isn't so scary a thing when what you're up to isn't at all nefarious."Now, we don't encourage leaking anything. But as people now know (it's common knowledge), there's a degree of secrecy at Debian (secret mailing lists and whispering -- akin to secret agencies) and the FSF has a policy -- imposed on people at the top (Brad Kuhn spoke about it last year as he departed) -- preventing communication with media. This, in my view, is contrary to the values of the FSF. We need facts, not NDAs/embargoes/sanctions. Transparency isn't so scary a thing when what you're up to isn't at all nefarious.

We'll keep it polite and even cordial. We love GNU, we love the FSF, but some elements inside today's FSF aren't there for free speech and maybe not for software freedom, either.

Recent Techrights' Posts

It's Cheaper to Pay Bribes (and Produce Press Releases) Than to Pay Fines (After Lots of Negative Publicity)
Does the UK still have real sovereignty or do corporations from overseas purchase decisions and outcomes?
November 2023 Over With GNU/Linux at All-Time Highs According to statCounter
ChromeOS+GNU/Linux combined are about 7% of the "market"
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
UK Government Allowing Microsoft to Take Over Activision Blizzard Will Destroy Jobs
Over 30,000 fired this year? More?
New Report Provides Numerical Evidence That Google Hired Too Many People From Microsoft (and Became Malicious, Evil, Sociopathic)
"Some 12,018 former Microsoft employees currently work for the search and data giant"
Google: Keep Out, Don't Save Your Files, and Also Let Us Spy on Everything You Do
Do you still trust "clown" storage?
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 30, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, November 30, 2023
Links 01/12/2023: Many Suppressions in Hong Kong and Attempts to Legitimise Illegal and Unconstitutional Fake Patent 'Court' in EU (UPC)
Links for the day
Gemini Not Deflated Yet (Soon Turning 5!)
Gemini numbers still moving up, the protocol will turn five next summer
Links 30/11/2023: Belated End of Henry Kissinger and 'Popular Science' Shuts Online Magazine
Links for the day
Site Priorities and Upcoming Improvements
pages are served very fast
[Meme] One Person, Singular Pronoun
Abusing people into abusing the English language is very poor diplomacy
Ending Software Patents in Recent Years (Software Freedom Fighters MIA)
not a resolved issue
New Article From Richard Stallman Explains Why He Says He and She for Unknown Person (Not 'They')
"Nowadays I use gender-neutral singular pronouns for a person whose gender I don't know"
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 29, 2023
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 30/11/2023: Rushing Patent Cases With Shorter Trial Scheme (STS), Sanctions Not Working
Links for the day
Links 30/11/2023: Google Purging Many Accounts and Content (to Save Money), Finland Fully Seals Border With Russia
Links for the day
Lookout, It's Outlook
Outlook is all about the sharing!
Updated A Month Ago: Richard Stallman on Software Patents as Obstacles to Software Development
very recent update
The 'Smart' Attack on Power Grid Neutrality (or the Wet Dream of Tiered Pricing for Power, Essentially Punishing Poorer Households for Exercising Freedom Like Richer Households)
The dishonest marketing people tell us the age of disservice and discrimination is all about "smart" and "Hey Hi" (AI) as in algorithms akin to traffic-shaping in the context of network neutrality
Links 29/11/2023: VMware Layoffs and Too Many Microsofters Going Inside Google
Links for the day
Is BlueMail a Client of ZDNet Now?
Let's examine what BlueMail does to promote itself
Just What LINUX.COM Needed After Over a Month of Inactivity: SPAM SPAM SPAM (Linux Brand as a Spamfarm)
It's not even about Linux
Microsoft “Discriminated Based on Sexuality”
Relevant, as they love lecturing us on "diversity" and "inclusion"...
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 28, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 28, 2023