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Posted in Europe, Free/Libre Software, FSF, Microsoft at 12:48 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
15 years ago this was unthinkable; and Microsoft has not changed (except its entryism strategy)
People and firms that supported FSFE a year after the current President had joined
Summary: The corrosive impact of Microsoft money and why the FSFE wasn’t supposed to take it; supporting members would likely disapprove because Microsoft stands for the very things they sought to put an end to
WE RECENTLY wrote about the problematic payment from Microsoft to Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), which was founded 19 years ago, 5 years before the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC). The FSF-Relationship-Framework (2005) document is shown below, as it appeared sort of publicly on the Free Software Fellowship‘s mailing list.
=> problematic | Microsoft to Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) | ↺ founded 19 years ago | ↺ Software Freedom Conservancy | Free Software Fellowship
To quote: “These things will never be done by any FSF: [...] Formally ally itself with an organization or person that develops or distributes non-free software or non-free software documentation.”
“The biggest fact is the memorandum,” told us a reader, “which has never been published.”
The reader saw it in the above mailing list. “Notice it is not a legal document,” the reader said, and “it doesn’t have the usual clauses that would allow FSF to terminate the agreement and protect their trademark. Maybe FSF was just naive, we can’t be sure. This document seriously dilutes the value of the FSF brand.”
“Months after SFC took money from Microsoft the SFC’s Web site called for the resignation/removal of RMS.”As we noted before, after RMS was ‘ousted’ (from the FSF’s Board, which he left after pressure) the FSF 'lifted its kimono' like the Linux Foundation had done, hoping to attract sponsors for LibrePlanet, which was eventually canceled due to the pandemic and became just a webstream (like many other cancelled events, still in denial about their cancellation in order to save face, calling webstreams “virtual events” or something ridiculous along those lines).
=> 'lifted its kimono' | ↺ Linux Foundation
“Unfortunately,” our reader concludes, “anybody holding this document could go and create an FSF today.”
And then take money from Microsoft…
Marked in/as bold below is one of several relevant bits:
$Id: FSF-Relationship-Framework.txt 2221 2005-09-02 08:21:16Z greve $
Written by Lisa M. Goldstein, opus@gnu.org,
and Richard M. Stallman, rms@gnu.org
A Relationship Framework for FSFs.
This a draft framework for the relationship between the FSF sister
organizations in various parts of the world. It says which activities
are to be carried out which FSFs, either individually or working
together.
FSF-NA refers to the original Free Software Foundation with
headquarters in Boston. A "major FSF" refers to an FSF that covers a
region which is a whole continent or contains a large fraction of the
population of the continent it is in. The hope is that the number of
major FSFs will be limited.
A. The following activities will be carried out initially by the
FSF-NA after consultation with the other FSFs. We intend, in the
future, after we have gained experience working together, to develop a
system wherein these decisions are approved jointly by a specific list
of several major FSFs.
the criteria for free software, the development of licenses,
and the criteria for choosing the license to use for a program.
technologies, new legal issues, etc, which globally impact the Free
Software movement or our licenses, and publish position papers to
state these positions.
(Translation of licenses requires special care and we will have to
approach this cautiously.)
B. The following activities will be carried out by one particular FSF
initially, and may be extended to individual other major FSFs if need
arises:
with the GPL.
(when the developers do not keep the copyright).
themselves.
C. The following activities are to be carried out by every FSF:
packages.
software and manuals, to meet its region's special cultural and
linguistic needs.
official positions for local events and new local laws that may
have impact on the Free Software movement or its licenses.
local governments.
5a. Study possible local threats to software freedom and possible
countermeasures.
other free software projects.
free software activities.
other products to raise funds to pay for local staff and local
events. FSFs will resell their products to each other at cost for
redistribution in other countries by sister groups.
Software positions and events.
and technical questions.
for software that it holds copyright on.
the GPL and its sister licenses for the software they hold the
copyright on.
assignments and other legal papers for other FSFs.
education in use of GNU and other free software.
of non-free software.
and other activities that benefit the free software cause.
19a. Keep its board of directors in contact with the boards of
other FSFs, and keep its executives in contact with the
executives of other FSFs.
D. These things will never be done by any FSF:
documentation.
software documentation.
or distributes non-free software or non-free software
documentation.
If FSFE is willing to take money from Microsoft — as SFC did last year and this year (in effect selling Microsoft a keynote speech in a conference about something Microsoft viciously attacks) — who next? What next? Days ago they spoke about their accomplishment in Munich. Will they still ‘disparage’ Microsoft (sponsor) by speaking about what Microsoft did to GNU/Linux in Munich? Months after SFC took money from Microsoft the SFC’s Web site called for the resignation/removal of RMS. Guess what the FSFE said in its press release when RMS stepped down (and before).
=> SFC did last year and this year | in effect selling Microsoft a keynote speech in a conference about something Microsoft viciously attacks | what Microsoft did to GNU/Linux in Munich
Imagine giving a portion of your salary for several years to support the same FSFE (or SFC) that treats the very founder of Free software like that. While taking money from Microsoft… █
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