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Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

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Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#21

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

varispeed wrote: post #9

I wish FSF also started caring about the developers. Free software was and is a great idea, but unintended consequence is that it also facilitates exploitation of software developers by big corporations who from the perspective of FSF are just users as regular people. This means they make billions off of a software who someone built in their rented flat, living a modest life, sometimes struggling with bills, meanwhil…

Exactly this. Free software has helped shift the economic power from programming experts to business people. Who cares if you are a top-class compiler expert. Compilers are a commodity anyway. You are better off if you are young, and photogenic and can start a social media app that monetizes people privacy.

In addition, things have shifted to cloud, which favors bin corporations even more, and data and code is not even accessible, even theoretically, for the user.

Of course big business is a fan of free software, it enables them to get for basically free, a lot of infrastructure code.

Lawyers and Doctors must absolutely hold programmers in derision for undermining their own economic power.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#22

Post by bigtones »

hYKdTfpa wrote: post #3

The attacks on him were dubious at best.

Are they.... here is a direct quote from him on a pro-pedophilia political party in 2006 that many that people took offence with:

“I am sceptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

https://thenextweb.com/dd/2019/09/13/free-software-icon-rich...

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#23

Post by toiletfuneral »

capableweb wrote: post #10
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #8

I think it is strange that, on the one hand, the tech world has been advocating for the rights of neurodivergent people – society should accept that people on the autism spectrum are different and that’s OK. But at the same time RMS has been attacked for some statements very probably stemming from his autism that, while they may seem a bit shocking and at odds with the mainstream, were not illegal or intentionally of…

> intentionally offensive I think this is spot on, because people stopped caring about someone's intention before judging them. Maybe people got so good at lying about their intention, that we don't believe them when they say "it wasn't my intention" when someone says something bad. The end result is the same, it doesn't matter what your intention was, you say something bad, you deserve bad back.

Yeah thats me, I don't care about 'intent' as much as 'outcome'

All the well meaning in the world doesn't mean shit if you're creating hostility or demeaning others (that is not commentary on RMS, just in general)

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#24

Post by dempseye »

JohnHaugeland wrote: post #14
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, maybe it was "hard to interact with him" only if one was unwilling to accept his difference?

Please stop. He argued that pedophilia was okay.

Where did he say that?

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#25

Post by mrob »

varispeed wrote: post #9

I wish FSF also started caring about the developers. Free software was and is a great idea, but unintended consequence is that it also facilitates exploitation of software developers by big corporations who from the perspective of FSF are just users as regular people. This means they make billions off of a software who someone built in their rented flat, living a modest life, sometimes struggling with bills, meanwhil…

The goal of the FSF is "to promote computer user freedom". By "freedom" they mean the four freedoms of the Free Software definition:

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Your proposal contradicts freedom 0, so the FSF cannot support it without abandoning their mission. To do so is both undesirable and unnecessary, because the alleged "exploitation of software developers" is in most cases just people doing what those developers permitted when they chose to use a permissive license. The correct solution is encouraging developers to choose more suitable Free Software licenses, and the FSF already does this by advocating copyleft licenses in most circumstances. The AGPL especially has strong protections for the four freedoms, which makes it very difficult to "exploit" developers who use it.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#26

Post by indymike »

varispeed wrote: post #9

I wish FSF also started caring about the developers. Free software was and is a great idea, but unintended consequence is that it also facilitates exploitation of software developers by big corporations who from the perspective of FSF are just users as regular people. This means they make billions off of a software who someone built in their rented flat, living a modest life, sometimes struggling with bills, meanwhil…

A royalty system is almost in direct opposition to what the FSF has accomplished. In fact, the entire body of work that the FSF has done has been to ensure that users of software have the same rights as developers of that software. As far as execs with jets, starving developers, etc... well, the music industry and book industry have royalties and last I looked, the execs did better than most practicing musicians and authors.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#27

Post by colechristensen »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #8

I think it is strange that, on the one hand, the tech world has been advocating for the rights of neurodivergent people – society should accept that people on the autism spectrum are different and that’s OK. But at the same time RMS has been attacked for some statements very probably stemming from his autism that, while they may seem a bit shocking and at odds with the mainstream, were not illegal or intentionally of…

I do not. Being unusual does not free you from the burdens of being a decent person, especially while in a public leadership position, especially when your violations are a repeated trend over a very long period.

With the right diagnostic criteria just about everybody who is an asshole could be diagnosed with some mental disorder or another and that is more or less the present state of psychology, that kind of reasoning is asking for a consequence free society.

The kind of person RMS has shown himself to be, regardless of diagnosis, disqualifies him from being a public figure and leader.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#28

Post by Traster »

prepend wrote: post #4

Sometimes I worry that we truly are devolving and things are getting worse. I think “eventually people will wise up and focus on what’s important” but then even crazier stuff keeps happening. This is a positive sign that maybe we can figure out how to eventually get it right and it won’t just be a circular firing squad getting smaller and smaller over time.

I just want to chime in to say, either defend Stallman or don’t. Don’t do this silly moral panic “I worry about society” thing. Address the issues, don’t make gross generalisations.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#29

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

henriquez wrote: post #20
ruined wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

plenty of autistic people manage to be decent. making excuses like this simply dodges responsibility and assigns bad credit to millions of autistic people who don't deserve it, and amounts to concern trolling.

Your statement is analogous to saying “all autistic people are the same” which is itself very offensive.

To me, the only thing implied by the above comment is that "all autistic people are capable of being decent to other people." That doesn't seem offensive, although it may be incorrect (I simply do not know).

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#30

Post by gruez »

varispeed wrote: post #9

I wish FSF also started caring about the developers. Free software was and is a great idea, but unintended consequence is that it also facilitates exploitation of software developers by big corporations who from the perspective of FSF are just users as regular people. This means they make billions off of a software who someone built in their rented flat, living a modest life, sometimes struggling with bills, meanwhil…

>FSF should start lobbying for royalty system for developers, so that big corporations using free software should have to pay % of revenue to all contributors of open source software they are using.

Nobody's forcing them to license out their software for free. The reason why they do so is simple: they know they won't be able to make a buck off of it if it was commercial (even with the individuals/small company exemption you mentioned), and that stringent terms will only harm adoption of their project. See for instance companies unwilling to touch GPL licensed software, for instance.

From the corporation/executive's view, why would they bother adopting a piece of software that has a royalty system, especially when there are alternatives? For instance, other projects that are permissively licensed, writing it themselves, or paying for a proprietary/commercial version.

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