Bonum Certa Men Certa

Nepotism and Conflicts of Interest in Free Software

Reprinted with permission from Debian Community News

AS the Mollamby affair has emerged, some people have rushed to defend the privacy of Chris Lamb and Molly de Blanc (Mollamby) or dismissed it as mere innuendo without understanding the ethical issues.



What is the difference between innuendo and public interest? Evidence.



Privacy is a valid consideration, but it is not the only one. We delayed publishing our own commentary about the subject while weighing the privacy implications against the ethical issues.



Let's consider some of the evidence backing up the facts about Mollamby. Parts of the evidence have been redacted for the privacy of third parties but the material presented here accurately reflects the situation.



This is the opening comment sent by a student applying for GSoC in 2018 (Fact 2):



Date: 14 March 2018



I am [redacted/student name], ... from [redacted/country]. I’m [redacted/relationship] of [redacted/full name]


The student clearly identified a conflict of interest, giving the name of the other party and the type of relationship. The other party had also sent a similar email:



Date: 12 March 2018



... there are some students who might be interested in [redacted/project]. Even my [redacted/relationship] has been ....


As they were honest and transparent from the outset, there is no question over their integrity and no need to discuss their identities.



This is the statement one volunteer made when agreeing to be a GSoC admin in 2018:



-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: Google Summer of Code 2018
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 08:41:49 +0100
From: Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro>
To: mollydb <deblanc@riseup.net>



On 22/01/18 02:25, mollydb wrote: > I mmissed this on the application before! We need 2-5 administrators for > the application. Who else wants to be one? >

You can use my name temporarily while looking for other people to help you in this role.

... [redacted/name of other community] ...

However, I can't officially commit to help with the duties of an administrator right now.

Regards,

Daniel


No volunteer is under any obligation to provide details of their personal life. This statement alone looks like it was made honestly and in good faith, that is what teamwork is all about.



A selection meeting was scheduled for 16 April 2018 and Pocock was the volunteer who reminded people about somebody having a conflict of interest (Fact 3). He was not a party to this conflict of interest. de Blanc both acknowledged and agreed with the way it was handled (Fact 6):



<pocock> yes, but [redacted] is not involved in the
  selection process because one candidate is [redacted]
<pocock> that could be one reason we are waiting
   until the last minute to confirm the selections
[redacted/other mentor acknowledgement]
<mollydb> nice responsibile decision making :)
<mollydb> thanks for being so consciencious


People had been reminded about it in a number of emails at each stage of the selection process, it wasn't sprung on people at the last minute. de Blanc had simply left the GSoC emails to other team members:



Date: 12 July 2018
From: Molly de Blanc <deblanc@riseup.net>



As an additional note, I generally check my email once a week. For anything immediate, -please- ping me on IRC as I'll be responsive there (and can know to dive into my email).


When alerts were sent about the conflict of interest in March and April, other team members were unaware that de Blanc wasn't reading them.



Technically, it was a special case that was not strictly covered by Google's official rules. Given the huge effort volunteers make interacting with students, nobody had made the extra effort to seek Google clarification.



Now let's look at the complaint that Stephanie Taylor from Google sent to Debian on 13 July 2018 (yes, that was Friday the 13th):



Subject: Concerns around Debian GSoC students and conflict of interest
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2018 08:23:36 +0200
From: Stephanie Taylor <sttaylor@google.com>
To: [redacted/private gmail addresses of all Debian GSoC admins]



Hello Debian Org Admins,

It has come to our attention that [redacted/position in Debian], [redacted/full name], is the [redacted/relationship] of [redacted/name], ...

This is incredibly disturbing as the Debian folks have been valued members of the GSoC community for many years and this threatens the integrity of the program.


Taylor is complaining about conflicts of interest in Debian, this confirms Fact 7.



Who would investigate Taylor's complaint? Chris Lamb and Molly de Blanc. Mollamby.



Subject: Re: Concerns around Debian GSoC students and conflict of interest
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2018 14:49:50 +0200
From: Molly de Blanc
To: Daniel Pocock



Just as a quick heads up, I'll be talking with the DPL later today to get on the same page -- I know he also contacted Stephanie off-channel.

If you'd like to ping me on IRC, I can try to be online and accessible (today turned into quite a busy day for me) at a time that works for you.

Cheers, Molly


Notice that de Blanc does not mention her conflict of interest (romantic relationship with the DPL, Chris Lamb) in that email. Lamb never mentioned it either. Neither of them recused themselves (Fact 8). Pocock was travelling that weekend and couldn't make time to join a hastily organized meeting. As boyfriend and girlfriend, Lamb and de Blanc, Mollamby, had a meeting without the rest of the Debian GSoC admin team. When the boyfriend is also the leader of the project and when the girlfriend's conduct is in question, is it any surprise that another volunteer is blamed and the girlfriend takes over the team?



That email is the smoking gun: two people at the very top of the free software ecosystem (Debian and OSI) using a volunteer as a scapegoat for a communication breakdown that one of them had been party to.



This farce is further compounded by the fact the original complaint was about conflicts of interest.



Mollamby hid their own conflict of interest while investigating a conflict of interest.

Is this a new style of disruptive leadership? Or is it simply good old fashioned cronyism?



Even this hidden conflict of interest may not be enough to justify discussing the relationship publicly. However, they have meted out severe punishments on numerous other volunteers. de Blanc even went to FOSDEM and gave a talk boasting about demoting somebody and putting volunteers behind bars. If these people want to take on leadership positions and preach about harming other volunteers they also need to accept that their own conduct will come under public scrutiny. It is clearly not possible to talk about the way they both concealed and benefitted from a conflict of interest without also making their relationship a public matter. In this situation, the ethical transgressions heavily outweigh the concerns about their privacy.



What's more, Pocock announced his resignation from the Debian GSoC team in August 2018, if people had not behaved immaturely after that, it is unlikely any of these facts would be under public scrutiny right now.



In a non-apology email sent by the new DPL Sam Hartman, Debian confirms there were conflicts of interest and that Debian is completely unprepared for these situations:



I regret that we didn’t have better tools for dealing with conflict
of interest and hope we will develop those tools going forward.



...

The conflict of interest issue had no easy answer... There was not a clear conflict of interest policy. Sometimes in situations like that you don’t have good options.


The GNOME community have also done an excellent job of reducing this complicated situation into a concise query to their own leadership. From the GNOME Foundation mailing list:



Nobody appears to be asking about Molly.



People are asking about you (Neil McGovern). You and Lamb both come from this Debian Cambridge grouping. You are the Executive Director.

How long did you know that your new hire was also your friend Lamby's girlfriend?

Please respond transparently, we would all like to see this cleaned up so there will be no discomfort or embarrassment at GUADEC.


It is interesting to see that a student applying to GSoC appears to be demonstrating more integrity than the leader of the Debian Project and the OSI board president combined.



OSI Board at Microsoft

Conflict of interest? OSI board meeting, Spring 2018, Microsoft, San Francisco

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
 
Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
It's also burning the planet
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025