Bonum Certa Men Certa

Liberty is Not a Moving Target

Statue of liberty



Summary: A tad philosophical take on what needs achieving and how

The absolute goalposts which define personal freedom never truly change; it's the obstructions on the way to the goal which keep moving away and showing up, so the struggle for freedom is eternal. Humans and animals are innately motivated by power -- the will to impose on others views/actions which they do not want to carry out. Slavery in the classical sense is of out of fashion in the modernised, supposedly civilised world, but new forms of slavery (notably wage slavery in the hands of lenders) filled its room. Despite distractions like imaginary outside enemies, people engage in a class battle to further restore balance in power and those who are least powerful are usually isolated geographically because -- as the famous saying goes -- out of sight, out of mind.



“Many things are interconnected and separating politics from technology is wishful thinking at best.”In 2010, many people rose up and spoke up. Rather than wave banners at a roadside people utilised the Internet, so once again those in power set up new barriers, which include censorship (e.g. blacklists), Net neutrality, bandwidth caps, domain seizures, battles against transparency, financial deprivation, and so on. And that's hardly scratching the surface of protectionist measures like copyrights and patents. Many things are interconnected and separating politics from technology is wishful thinking at best.

Freedom is relative and means of achieving freedom depend on what prevents its fulfillment/achievement. Instruments like patents may no longer exist within a few decades, but that does not mean that problems associated with creativity and knowledge-sharing will be solved. Just look at how drug bans change over the decades or centuries, sometimes to readjust and account for class factors.

In 2006 this site was established to tackle Novell and scope expanded to the extent where it touches many of the technological mechanisms for control and power (over the population at large). This hardly scratches the surface as personal freedom depends not only on the digital world. But that's why we're called "Techrights" and not just "Rights".

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 16/03/2026: Moscow Experiencing Cellphone Internet Outages, "Salman Rushdie Is Tired of Talking About Free Speech"
Links for the day
Debian is Dying for Some of the Same Reasons IBM's Fedora is Rapidly Dying
Prioritising CoC censorship, not communities
2026 Microsoft Layoff Rumours
Surely if we had properly-functioning media, then someone would investigate this rather than rely on official statements from Microsoft and WARN notices
 
Someone at Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is Censoring the Birthday Greetings to Richard Stallman
Some people remember
The European Patent Office (EPO) Illegally Transitioning Into 'Gig' 'Economy' Equivalent (a Shop for Patent Monopolies in Europe)
for scabs aka SEALs
At Least Six EPO Strikes Next Month (Yes, Six!)
The pressure intensifies over time
Several MPs Blast Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for Inaction and Ineffective Action This Week
"Four MPs have written to the SRA"
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 14 Out of 200: The Abusive Cases of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft and His Litigation Buddy Garrett Did Cause "Serious Harm"
claims were de facto abandoned at the trial
Today's Discussions About How IBM Pushes Workers Out
The corporate media keeps trying - baselessly and in vain - to paint everything that happens with the "hey hi" brush
Linux Teck (linuxteck.com) and Ubuntu PIT (ubuntupit.com) Are Botspam
now they just keep experimenting by trashing their sites and reputation
Links 16/03/2026: Arctic Security and 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin'
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/03/2026: KN95 Skins and CSS Surprises
Links for the day
The Register MS is Again Femmewashing GAFAM (Which Makes Widows) in Exchange for Money
This is a moral issue because they betray or harm women and prop up authoritarian regimes
Gemini Links 16/03/2026: AB 1043, Lagrange Android Beta 47, and Poetry
Links for the day
"Slop-forking" or "Vibe-forking" as the New 'Noble' Plagiarism
New Cloudflare Slop Project?
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VII - Cult Mentality, Mobbing, Nepotism
Does the EPO actually believe in the law?
EPO Strike This Week
contact your national representatives about it
Gemini Links 15/03/2026: "Create Opportunities for Good Things to Happen", DOSbook, and Bitcoin Criticism
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 15, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, March 15, 2026
Pirate Praveen Arimbrathodiyil & Debian denouncing volunteers, hiding romances
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 15/03/2026: WB Games Montréal Undergoes Layoffs, "Swiss Reject Cuts to Public Broadcasting"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/03/2026: Messages in Bottles and Audio Streaming in Lagrange for Android
Links for the day
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 13 Out of 200: Abuse of Process to Make False Accusations of UKGDPR Violations
familiar barrister and same lawyers
Thrown Under the Microsoft Bus
Microsoft wants disposable contractors
Quitting IBM and "Rumors of an Upcoming RA [Mass Layoffs] in April 2026"
Blue layoffs or "RAs" were confirmed upfront by the CFO
GNU/Linux Distro Builders Barely Paid Enough to Pay Basic Bills, Chief of "Linux" Foundation (Not Even Using Linux!) Increases His Own Salary by Over 50% in 5 Years
Salaries or compensation correlate with the ability to exploit people, not to create things
What Puts the Brakes on GNU/Linux Adoption on Laptops and Desktops is Monopoly Control (or Monoculture) Over the Distros
Distros that adopt systemd are controlled by IBM and GAFAM
The "Zero-Sum" Fallacy
Fallacies like "zero-sum" - especially in the context of foreign affairs including war - are utterly ruinous
A Happy Birthday to Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman will turn 73
Jürgen Habermas is Dead, But the Politicised, Inherently Corrupt, Corporatised Court for Patents That He Inspired Is Not
In the news throughout the weekend
Mountains of Abuses of Process by Brett Wilson LLP on Behalf of Americans and Sometimes at the Expense of British Taxpayers
a virtual "limited liability"
linuxteck.com FUD by LLM Slop, ubuntupit.com Passes the Slop Baton
Unless they get back to doing long-form authentic articles, as opposed to slop, no good will come out of it
Links 15/03/2026: New Shortages, Lynx Populations Depletion
Links for the day
Sruthi Chandran & Debian Diversity, Favoritism, Hidden Conflicts of Interest
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
software in the public domain
Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
Links 15/03/2026: Slop "Bubble Driving Interest in Chip Alternatives" and Wildlife Erosion Reported
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 14, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, March 14, 2026
Layoffs in Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft's LinkedIn
There are silent layoffs at Microsoft this month
We Don't Depend on Google and Don't Care for Google
We have our own site search and we don't depend on Google to bring visits/visitors to us
Change of Address at the Hired Guns, Address Removed
Companies tend to alter their 'shell structure' in anticipation of major action
Facebook Layoffs Due to Enormous Debt, Nothing to Do With "Hey Hi" Slop
The lies about "hey hi" in relation to layoffs will only contribute to further public resentment towards: 1) the media and 2) all the slop.
The Good IBM Managers Have Flown Away, All That's Left is the Book-Cooking Loyalists
IBM is just cheating the SEC and shareholders. This seems to be the only thing IBM's management is nowadays good at.
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 12 Out of 200: Months Ahead of Serial Strangler From Microsoft Who Helped Double the Lawsuits (Funded by Third Parties) as 'Revenge' for Exposing Crimes
In 2024 I sat down and wrote about what had been done to me and to my wife
Crime Comes in Many Forms
apparently the SRA is OK with stranglers of women in America bullying the media in the UK
commandlinux.com, linuxteck.com, linuxiac.com, and linuxsecurity.com are Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Domain Name
once readers realise they read slop they immediately lose interest
Links 14/03/2026: Adoption of Slop Has Killed BuzzFeed, Russia Sees "Economic Gain From Iran War"
Links for the day
Patriotism is Conditional, If It's Unconditional, Then It's Like a Cult
My love for Software Freedom is only as strong as my love for Freedom of the Press
Links 14/03/2026: Mass Layoffs at Facebook ('Meta') and Sweeping Layoffs at Twitter (xAI), Social Control Media and Slop Are Only Debt
Links for the day
Wrong Time, Wrong Place (Digg)
Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian can relaunch Digg.com, but we doubt it'll work "this time for real!"
Universities Became Bad Places for Work
What happened to academia?
Reporting New and Suppressed Information is What Journalism is All About
In the domain of Free software, there are very few sites out there that offer exclusive coverage on community affairs and there are many gagging/censorship attempts
The Limits of Speech and the Rationale of Limitations
it seems to be part of an international trend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 13, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 13, 2026
Gemini Links 14/03/2026: Goodness, AD534 Multiplier Module, and Extroverts Online
Links for the day