09.23.19
Gemini version available ♊︎Department of War and IBM Among Top Clients of Richard Stallman’s Alleged Ouster
Department of War (now known as Department of Defense)
Summary: Richard Stallman (RMS) is down but not out; if we pick up the pieces and chronicle the media campaign that led to his resignation we find a leaker to the media who chose a dishonest site funded by a close friend of Bill Gates
WE PROMISED OURSELVES to not touch this topic anymore, instead shelving all updates in Tux Machines, which has an almost-complete list of coverage about the RMS saga, in chronological order. As the names in the comments help show, my wife and I found nearly 100 unique blog posts and articles about it. Sometimes these were official statements, e.g. Stallman’s apology, call for his ousting, then his resignation, then further defamation (deliberate distortion of what he had actually said).
“As the names in the comments help show, my wife and I found nearly 100 unique blog posts and articles about it.”Like we said before, it’s better to move on and not dwell/obsess over it. It’s not going to help. There are minor points, however, that ought to made before we “move on”. These are points we did not make in the past. Our detailed list of coverage helps reveal the ‘anatomy’ of what some dubbed “witch hunt” or “lynch mob”. The whole thing started when a person connected to the Department of War (it renamed to Department of Defense after the Second World War) decided to work with the media to “remove Stallman”; the choice of media in itself was rather curious. We’ve been hearing this whisper/murmur campaign for a while, but it’s better to wait for actual proof. One reader told us that Vice had been sponsored by Rupert Murdoch; a quick fact-check reveals this to be correct. There’s also a link to IBM (days ago we explained why IBM is no friend of Software Freedom). We mentioned IBM in our previous post because of its controversial response — through Red Hat — to Stallman’s departure. It would be better if IBM/Red Hat had said nothing at all. They say Stallman would be wise to say nothing at all (about his deceased friend being accused posthumously), but the same can be said about IBM/Red Hat. The IBM/Red Hat statement has been blasted by a lot of people, especially for the ending sentence about diversity.
“Our detailed list of coverage helps reveal the ‘anatomy’ of what some dubbed “witch hunt” or “lynch mob”.”IBM is, in general, a dangerous company. It works closely with oppressive elements of the public sector, including police and military. It’s hardly a secret. IBM itself is a very aggressive company. IBM has not changed since buying Red Hat. Still a Blue Bully.
Zillow is the latest target of IBM’s patent extortion. It’s software patents again and IAM wrote about it a few days ago (behind paywall). IAM’s status has seemingly collapsed; it’s hardly mentioned by anybody any longer, but this one pick was interesting. Meanwhile we’ve learned that Iancu shows his real face again, just like the USPTO Director before his predecessor (he had come from IBM). Now that James Nurton (the Battistelli ‘softball questions’ guy) works for Watchtroll he’s citing a propaganda piece for Iancu — a piece from his former employer, Managing IP (another patent zealots’ site). It helps show a lot of what’s going wrong — something that IBM has long lobbied for, sometimes in guest articles at Watchtroll. IBM cannot possibly like RMS and his message. We saw high-profile Red Hat employees calling for action against RMS, but they piggybacked someone else’s call.
“Zillow the latest target of IBM’s patent extortion.”Anyway, about the removal of Stallman, we’re trying hard not to mention the person in question or risk being accused of ‘stalking’ (or something similar). Let’s just say that the person who called to “remove Stallman” and leaked correspondence to Murdoch-connected media (Vice is sponsored by Murdoch, Bill Gates’ friend) to achieve this by deliberate distortion of facts works for a weapons company that reportedly makes killer robots, according to some comments. These are no friends of software ethics. Stallman is a threat to their business model and their public image. The image above (source here) shows IBM listed. Marcel Ventosa added: “And the most vociferous twitter detractor claims to be the chief consultant at a company that lists the department of defense as one of its 5 trusted clients. Others can be seen to work for Microsoft or other rival organizations on their profiles. Software ethics or ethics period…”
One can see the screenshot there (we reproduced it above).
The person who demanded removing/removal of Stallman took the personal site offline. But the Internet Archive does not forget the projects. Robotics with connections to the military, IBM, and more…
“Now with RMS removed ‘they’ (the likes of IBM) just want/need to remove Torvalds and put in power ‘fresh blood’ that large corporations hold by the groin.”“I currently work as a mechanical engineer at XYZ Robotics, a robotic sorting and logistics startup that was born out of the MIT MCube Lab,” the person wrote. Apparently for aggressive purposes; these are not toys.
Days ago, for the second time in almost a fortnight, Stallman told me he would publish an article about his trip to Microsoft (or the reason for it). This has not happened yet. Perhaps there are other things preying on his mind at this time.
It’s going to be hard to replace Stallman because when Stallman does seemingly ‘extreme’ things (like always paying with cash) people say, “that’s Stallman being Stallman,” whereas an alternative would either use “smart” crap or be called “extreme” for doing exactly what RMS did. The status of RMS is key here. There’s only one RMS, one project founder of GNU. Now with RMS removed ‘they’ (the likes of IBM) just want/need to remove Torvalds and put in power ‘fresh blood’ that large corporations hold by the groin. █
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