Bonum Certa Men Certa

Leak: FSFE and OSI Coordinate Rubbing Off Free Software by Saying “Open Source” is the Same (It's Not, Same False Argument From 20 Years Earlier)

Many men in table football



Summary: Three years ago the 20-year anniversary of an attack on Free software (which an OSI founder and high-profile boosters said was a plan to dethrone Richard Stallman) was secretly exploited by the FSFE in coordination with OSI leadership

TODAY we present an E-mail which exposes coordination between OSI/"Open Source" (and OSI President Simon Phipps) and the FSFE, undoing much of the work of the FSF while painting the FSF as unreasonable or even radical. We let the readers decide for themselves, but we're adding some thoughts of members of ours, who saw the E-mail prior to this publication.



This happened months after the trademark dispute (FSF demanding that FSFE stops misusing the "FSF" name). "For most practical purposes," Ryan explains, "Free and Open Source mean the same thing, but Open Source doesn't emphasize in making sure it stays available under the same terms. So any changes made under a proprietary license are simply useless to everyone else and lost forever if it gets discontinued. It can also be turned against the user in all sorts of horrible and twisted ways, like Apple did to create macOS and iOS."

“...call it Hegelian brainwashing, or hermetic mergers for purposes of deception, not limited to software licenses...”
      --Anonymous
"The FSF used to say if it's trivial," Ryan continues, "as in <150 lines of code, or implements something that is an open specification that we're trying to encourage adoption of, or there's already lots of proprietary implementations out there, sometimes a more permissive license does more good than harm."

Matthias Kirschner, who recently accepted money from Microsoft, sent the following message, alluding to the OSI's President at the time (Simon Phipps), showing how they coordinated statements on "Free Software and Open Source Software" (if they mean it, FSFE should just rename/rebrand as OSIE, or maybe replace the O with an M now that it's partly Microsoft funded... to became MSIE). Here's the E-mail in question, citing a blog post from Phipps, published 5 days after the FSF had sent a message concerning the FSFE's violation of the 2005 agreement:

Subject: Joint Statement about "Free Software and Open Source Software" Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2017 15:55:17 +0100 From: Matthias Kirschner <mk@fsfe.org> To: team@lists.fsfe.org

Hello all,

after a discussion on the legal network mailing list, which resulted in my blog post http://k7r.eu/2-percent-discussion-free-software-or-open-source-software/ and then in longer discussions on https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/2017-November/011994.html and individual follow-up, Simon Phipps and I had the idea to use the upcmming 20th anniversary of the term "Open Source" on 9 February 2018 for a joint statement.

We would clarify for newcomers that it is the same software. Encourage everybody to work with others although they might use another terminology. Show them that even organisations which use different terms can work together. Simon is positive that he gets support by others in OSI about that, and I thought that we will also agree on this, as it it will be mainly a repetition of our official statement: https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/basics/comparison.en.html (we might add some arguments from my blog post above + parts of Simon's articles: https://webmink.com/essays/causality/ https://meshedinsights.com/2017/06/07/free-vs-open/ ).

I would continue to discuss that idea with Simon Phipps so we could get such a statement ready in time, and get other organisations on board, too. I'll share any text drafts here before.

Best Regards, Matthias

-- Matthias Kirschner - President - Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 | (fsfe.org/join) Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) - Weblog (k7r.eu/blog.html) _______________________________________________ Team mailing list Team@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/team


The better informed Free software proponents will immediately understand what's going on here. They are, in effect, doing exactly the opposite of what the FSF would do. Under the guise of 'peace' of whatnot they sort of bury the original brand. No wonder not too long after that an FSF Board member (Ben) said that they need to further distance themselves from this "Open Source" lunacy, which was already opening up to proprietary software giants, including Microsoft.

As one person has just put it in IRC, "they do seem purposely trying to muddy the waters... call it Hegelian brainwashing, or hermetic mergers for purposes of deception, not limited to software licenses... I think it's used for many many many things..."

“Permissive licenses harm the Free Software Movement in general...”
      --Ryan
"Show them that even organisations which use different terms can work together" is the part he was alluding to. They're basically trying to paint the FSF as irrational, hostile zealots. When it is in fact the FSF that's under attack, along with the term Free (as in freedom) software. The person argues that "his [Kirschner's] "different terms" strikes me as disingenuous, i.e. trying to convince people [that] different terms are actually the same... people might think I'm too harsh, but to me, there's no other word except attempted brainwashing, also known as EEE of course..."

The merger is even broader than the above, as we shall show in a separate leak.

"Permissive licenses harm the Free Software Movement in general," Ryan notes, "although sometimes that harm is outweighed by the benefit of solving a bigger problem. If Microsoft swallows FLAC and Opus and AV1, more people will use it. That helps us if they grab it and use it. In general, just giving them software to pick over that would make Windows or Office or Azure work better sets us back."

“...whether you are pro or against something, when the waters are muddied it's difficult to even have a conversation... after things get warped.”
      --Anonymous
The move was explained as follows in IRC: "embrace a word, extend its meaning to what you want it to mean, extinguish the original definition, destroy by "merging" with something of [a] different meaning [...] it annoys me to no end, because whether you are pro or against something, when the waters are muddied it's difficult to even have a conversation... after things get warped. If successful, it means future people are both just attacking or praising straw men basically [and] it destroys any possible debate..."

Not only the OSI and the FSFE 'colluded' in this agenda, as future leaks will show. That helps explain why particular statements were made one year ago when media shifted attention from a Gates/Epstein MIT scandal to a bogus RMS/MIT scandal (over a misquoted/misinterpreted E-mail).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Taking a Moral Stand Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the Worst Offenders/Facilitators
Any other stance would sidle with moral depravity or moral hazard
France: Apple and Microsoft Down, GNU/Linux Up to New Record Levels
How will tariffs against France impact things in the coming months?
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: What Was Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
We hope to finish this whole lot within a week, then move on to election, lobbying etc.
 
Links 06/04/2025: Fake Reviews, Privatisation Heists, and "AI" as Smokescreen for Impoverishing Humans
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2025: Many New Acts of Repression and Elements of Financial Depression
Links for the day
In Qatar GNU/Linux Rose From Under 1% to Over 4% in Two Years (or Over 5% If Counting ChromeOS)
It's a big improvement compared to what we saw last year
LLM Scrapers Are a Nuisance, But They're Also a Reminder It's Time to Make Your Site Static
Perhaps the best protection is the ability to endure surges
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 05, 2025
Links 06/04/2025: Attacks on Education, Fake Patents, and Fake (Illegal) Patent Courts
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: Tariffs Backfiring, YouTuber Arrested, X/Twitter Set to be Fined
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Offline is For Everyone, Copyright Colonialism, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025