OSI celebrating IBM-dominated GNOME's capitulation by licensing at zero cost (while letting the troll carry on suing and blackmailing other companies, using dubious software patents it received from Microsoft's patent troll, Intellectual Ventures)

THE OSI is no champion of software freedom. Heck, even the people who founded the OSI are no longer there and a list of sponsors says a lot about who runs the OSI (people from Facebook, Google, IBM and so on). Microsoft too is increasing its role inside the OSI, as we last noted earlier this week.

"They're basically legitimising software patents instead of squashing them, if not in bulk than at least individually."The GNOME Foundation's settlement wasn't a bad thing per se, but it's hardly the best outcome (unless you're IBM) and it might not be worth celebrating, as we explained before. They're basically legitimising software patents instead of squashing them, if not in bulk than at least individually. Earlier today the OSI redefined "freedom" when it spoke of "freedom from suit for the open source software world for over 100 patents." (Signed by the OSI's Board of Directors)

"All these people care about is money and power, not ethics (even if they speak of "ethical" licences, wherein ethical means excluding and discriminating). The art of double-speak..."That's basically like licensing over 100 patents of a nasty patent troll (which we've been writing about for years; there's also a Microsoft connection).

So what does OSI stand for in 2020?

The OSI has also just advertised (again) "State of the Source Summit" and about a quarter if not a third of this announcement is about "Code of Conduct"; expect speakers to be employees of companies that help bomb countries, spy on billions of people and so on. But yes, it's all about ethics and tolerance, right? Keep dreaming. All these people care about is money and power, not ethics (even if they speak of "ethical" licences, wherein ethical means excluding and discriminating). The art of double-speak...

"Open Source" is dead; in 2020 it's just a fancy marketing buzzword of proprietary software giants. See what happened to the Linux Foundation... "Open Source" and openwashing have become the same thing.

All those people who donated to support the defence might have been bamboozled somewhat. According to press reports, the legal representatives for the GNOME Foundation came forth and did it pro bono. So where did all that money go? ⬆