Bonum Certa Men Certa

Bribing Free Software Institutions: A Primer

Blood-sucking sponsors rarely do any good to public interest groups

Flat mosquito



Summary: The corrupting influence of money (changing priorities inside public interest groups) cannot be discounted and ignored; as it turns out, some people are still studying what inside the FSF led to the expulsion (forced resignation) of its very own founder, who in effect lost his voice over some bogus 'scandal' one year ago

WE may not be among the most 'mainstream' of sites (a rather meaningless criterion in its own right). But at least we can say that: 1) we never ever compromised a source; 2) we never took corporate money; 3) we have a fantastic track record of accuracy (almost never had to amend/correct an article). We focus on issues we understand very well, e.g. EPO affairs, and we have clear goals. We revise the goals if the goalposts move (e.g. software patents in Europe being spun as "Hey Hi" for buzzwords' sake) and we never try to appease powerful corporations. If they're happy with what we write, then we might in fact be on the wrong route.



"...we never try to appease powerful corporations. If they're happy with what we write, then we might in fact be on the wrong route."The battle for credibility isn't easy. It took years for Richard Stallman to earn respect, attract many developers (to join the GNU Project), and then 'give birth' to his second 'baby', the FSF. His first-born (GNU) is still under his control, officially at least but maybe not technically (some GNU developers keep trying to silence and marginalise him).

We recently became aware of a discussion about the FSF's money supply. Redacted are all the names of those involved, as it does not really seem to matter who said what. It's the substance that matters. We only care about the underlying facts.

"I know nothing about bribery within the FSF," said one person. That basically alludes to allegations of corporate money ("sponsorship") changing priorities at the FSF.

"We recently became aware of a discussion about the FSF's money supply.""Your concept of bribery is probably a bit narrow," said the response. "This is not an insult, your concept of bribery is probably more or less what/how most people think. First of all, it probably doesn't consider favors as bribery. Nobody who talks about bribery really cares about the money itself, they care about the effects of bribery. If Microsoft accidentally dropped a million on the sidewalk, and the FSF found it and couldn't find anybody to claim it, and they were legally allowed to keep it -- and nothing changed, nobody would care. I wouldn't."

Please note that nobody is claiming that Microsoft gave money to the FSF. To the FSFE, however, Microsoft did give money and the FSFE spoke about that in public. Remember that FSFE is not FSF; they're not connected, albeit the names are similar.

"If company A pays organization B and organization B continues to bend further and further towards the well-established goals of company A and farther from the goals of organization B, that's the problem," said the person. "So the questions that lead people to pursue these concerns are: 1. Has the organization changed? 2. Has it changed in a way that does harm to the organization? 3. Does this harm also benefit any corporations/parties who stand against the organization? 4. Have those corporations/parties also given money to the organization? BONUS: 5. Does the corporation/party have a well-established history of making 1-4 happen via bribes?"

"Please note that nobody is claiming that Microsoft gave money to the FSF."Remember that this is a discussion about the FSF itself. There's a growing concern that a bunch of large donations have, in recent years, engineered the present outcome.

"It's sort of like looking at a smoking gun," said the person, along with "a body on the ground, and the person holding the gun while it still points at the body -- and trying to figure out if the person with the gun shot the person on the ground. Maybe it's a wild coincidence, but it makes a lot of sense to ask. This is a vast oversimplification, not only of the issues and concerns, but of the things we already know. But we have more than enough reason to ask. As to what to look for, we have the stuff that is already public."

Remember when the FSF received a very large and anonymous donation? "I've had suspicions as to the origin and the motives behind the huge donations a couple of years ago," said a person close to Richard Stallman (RMS), "but RMS assures me there's nothing fishy about them."

"Remember when the FSF received a very large and anonymous donation?"This is interesting. People who follow the FSF closely will know what donation (or donations) this is about. "Which means that someone assured him," said the reply to that. "It's a fallacy to assume he can't be manipulated. He's neither as smart or as dumb as he looks -- some people think he's a genius and they're right. Some people think he's an idiot and they're wrong. But that doesn't mean he can't be manipulated -- I don't think he could be corrupted, only fooled. If you want to understand what happened inside the organization, you will learn more looking at things that happened outside it (which are similar). That's not the only way, it's the easy way."

"All I know about corporate patrons is what's on the public web pages," said the person close to Richard Stallman.

At the moment is looks like this:

FSF



Notice that very large corporations are no longer listed, unlike previous years. Maybe the FSF no longer accepts their money or maybe they no longer wish to sponsor the FSF.

"That may be all that is necessary," said the sceptic about the money's source, as "Marcia Wilbur's infographic is relevant. It doesn't reveal much, as much as it summarizes and illustrates what we know."

Here's her infographic, which we reproduced here last month:

Where's My Refund?!



"My advice," said the sceptic, or "the best I can possibly give you -- is to pay more attention to what's happening in the world of free software and even "open source". Watching open source is like watching piranhas or lions attacking. It's not pretty, but you learn something. To be specific, you learn what sorts of tactics they're leaning on "right now"."

"Next week marks exactly one year since the Seattle Police Department (initially King County Sheriff’s Office) was asked for records on the arrest at Bill Gates' home (for pedophilia). That interestingly enough coincided (one day apart) with the media's attack on RMS."It then goes on a bit of a tangent: "On that note, in 2020 a lot of orgs seem to have pulled back. I doubt it's just because of pressure from activists, but it's possible. I think it's got more to do with the pattern of troop withdrawal in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. That pattern happens over and over again -- because of pressure from peace activists? No, it usually happens for P.R. and because the troops (resources) have done what they came to do, and now it's time to move to other things. So the best time to "watch" the money is from 2017-2019. Not that you should ignore the present, just that the present is less likely to yield the clues you're looking for."

There's a lot more in there. But the bottom line is, some people inside the FSF are eager to better understand the forces leveraged against software freedom and the role money may have played in that. No doubt, in our mind at least, what happened a year ago to RMS was part of a broader strategy which continues to this day. Owing to more and more leaks that we receive we're able to piece together pertinent bits that are factual, drawing conclusions and making comparisons that are defensible. Some people still say that the events of September 2019 were "free software 9/11". So in a sense we're now in the first anniversary of those events. Next week marks exactly one year since the Seattle Police Department (initially King County Sheriff’s Office) was asked for records on the arrest at Bill Gates' home (for pedophilia). That interestingly enough coincided (one day apart) with the media's attack on RMS. In other words, one day after Gates' MIT scandal (bribes trafficked via Epstein) led to demand for police records the media started attacking RMS, twisting his words to manufacture a false 'pedophilia' scandal at MIT (diverting the heat to RMS).

Recent Techrights' Posts

One Person's Take on Jef Spaleta, the New Fedora Project Leader
"With a little searching, I wonder what else may be found regarding Microsoft."
LLM Slop Has Virtually Killed unixmen.com and Many Other Sites
There's no longer any incentive to write real articles in there
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?
 
In Iraq, Windows 3.1 (Percent)
There's also zero
Links 06/04/2025: Flood, Cool Gemini Capsule, and Long Form
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2025: Science, Politics, and Pricier Goods
Links for the day
Sharp Declines for Microsoft Windows in Bangladesh (Pop. ~175,000,000), Big Gains for GNU/Linux
Microsoft Windows has been having a really hard time in poor countries
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
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 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