04.24.21
Gemini version available ♊︎OIN’s Deb Nicholson: We Don’t Solve Any Real Issues, Just Like OSI (Where Nicholson is Now Interim General Manager)
Summary: Before working at OSI, whose sole accomplishment so far is an attack on the FSF, she worked for IBM (et al) front group OIN and SFC, which is another attack group that raises money from Microsoft and then attacks the FSF
“WHY on Earth are you picking on Nicholson???”
One might actually say a foolish thing like this, conveniently ignoring the fact that — putting aside irrelevant gender aspects — Nicholson worked for SFC while SFC was attacking Richard Stallman, lobbying and pressing for his removal. At the same time she brought Microsoft money to the SFC for two years in a row, then moved to the flailing OSI, where only months later she and her colleagues started a campaign of defamation against Stallman and an extended campaign to undermine the FSF (using ‘guilt’ by association tactics).
“At the same time she brought Microsoft money to the SFC for two years in a row, then moved to the flailing OSI, where only months later she and her colleagues started a campaign of defamation against Stallman and an extended campaign to undermine the FSF (using ‘guilt’ by association tactics).”The hate letter’s perpetrators actually plotted to redefine Free software and make proprietary software seem "OK" only 1.5 months before they found an excuse to start a vicious attack, helped by media that’s funded by proprietary software giants.
Looking back, there’s a track record of bad deeds. Nicholson’s bosses at SFC — like herself — were given an award a month ago. Can’t they recognise the self-harm they’re doing? De Raadt, Miguel de Icaza, Garrett, Nicholson, Kuhn…
What on Earth is going on and who stands to benefit?
Prior to the stints at the SFC and OSI there was a stint at the Open Invention Network (OIN).
“They clearly do nothing to tackle software patents or patent trolls and they mostly protect monopolies, just like OSI ‘minionry’ does these days.”The totally useless OIN, which we’ve criticised for quite some time (the short story is, they seek to undermine true patent reform and distract from opponents of software patents, instead working to legitimise such patents), is no good. GNU developers we’ve spoken to are saying the same. Some GNU/Linux developers who are threatened by patent trolls also receive no help from OIN. We did a series about this last month.
In the following video, which is rather old by now, we have an almost open (or frank) admission that OIN is of no real use to software developers. It’s for monopolies that cross-licence.
To quote from the video: “You wouldn’t be able to sue IBM for it…”
They clearly do nothing to tackle software patents or patent trolls and they mostly protect monopolies, just like OSI ‘minionry’ does these days. The portion below (Fair Use) is 4:00-5:20 from the full video.
Notice how the questions aren’t even being answered (or not properly anyway) until pressed further and further. Roblimo died years ago and I still feel deep sadness over it (I shed tears, too), as he was always nice to me and wanted to hear my side of the story, especially on things which truly mattered (he also put me in the radio 14 years ago when he worked for Slashdot and we debated OOXML). █
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