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GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

libreboot.org

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Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#31

Post by torstenvl »

evasb wrote: post #28

Isn't Leah the person that sold ThinkPads on behalf of Libreboot, didn't send it, then put the blame on her mental issues? Then she abandoned the project and let the contributors take over, after some time she booted them with fake accusations, banned them from their IRC channel and took over the project. The contributors complained that she didn't even have the decency of contacting them, but she was adamant of taki…

I don't know about past actions. But my understanding is she didn't create "another GNU Boot," she made a GNU Boot release of Libreboot to allow them to rebase their fork off something that wasn't from 2021.

EDIT: To be clear, I'm not saying the C&D was wrong. Trademarks must be actively defended and I'm not offended that they did so. I just remain unconvinced that Leah Rowe was trying to create another GNU Boot project.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#32

Post by torstenvl »

slabity wrote: post #24

> I did this release for them Did I miss something? Over the past 7 years the Libreboot project has been extremely aggressive towards the FSF. Going so far as to say the GNU project shouldn't exist and throwing insults at individuals in the organization. The emphasis on the whole, "I did this release for them" honestly doesn't pass the sniff test and kind of feels like they're intentionally trying to create drama. Th…

No. The better question is, why didn't FSF contact Leah before trying to publish their own Libreboot releases at libreboot.at? Why did they try to impersonate Libreboot?

Whatever you may think of Leah publishing an unofficial GNU Boot release for them to rebase off of, she didn't try to impersonate them by buying a confusingly similar domain.

Compare her single reference to an "unofficial GNUBoot release" to this: https://libreboot.at/

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#33

Post by evasb »

torstenvl wrote: post #31
evasb wrote: post #28

Isn't Leah the person that sold ThinkPads on behalf of Libreboot, didn't send it, then put the blame on her mental issues? Then she abandoned the project and let the contributors take over, after some time she booted them with fake accusations, banned them from their IRC channel and took over the project. The contributors complained that she didn't even have the decency of contacting them, but she was adamant of taki…

I don't know about past actions. But my understanding is she didn't create "another GNU Boot," she made a GNU Boot release of Libreboot to allow them to rebase their fork off something that wasn't from 2021. EDIT: To be clear, I'm not saying the C&D was wrong. Trademarks must be actively defended and I'm not offended that they did so. I just remain unconvinced that Leah Rowe was trying to create another GNU Boot proj…

This is highly personal, and it is pretty sad that the GNU project name is being involved in this drama that doesn't have much to do with them.

They (GNU Boot) don't want her help, and I understand why they don't like her. The fact she is making more drama from it is more proof that she is not trustworthy.

EDIT: I was wrong

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#34

Post by ysavir »

Atotalnoob wrote: post #23
saghm wrote: post #9

Obviously we don't have the full context of prior communication, but the message screenshot is super passive aggressive ("just a little reminder you're not a maintainer" when obviously both parties are aware, "you're welcome to send us patches that we will review if we want to" very implying that the patches might just be ignored). It's possible the libreboot author also wasn't communicating professionally either, bu…

A maintainer shouldn't be directly sending a C&D, they'd likely have their lawyers do it. GNU will probably back pedal

But this isn't really a C&D letter. It's just a request to stop using their name. Feels like Rowe is assigning it the C&D label, probably since it makes things sound more dramatic, when it really isn't.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#35

Post by MilnerRoute »

DANmode wrote: post #5
chomp wrote: post #3

Libreboot is one of those projects I have a tough time following because there’s always some toes they are stepping on. I don’t understand why this project has so many people problems.

Sources to get the reader started? Seems like the type of project that, originating out of defending against user-hostility or user-negligence, would have some (possibly overly?) passionate people behind it.

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2017-01/msg00001...

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#36

Post by teddyh »

torstenvl wrote: post #31
evasb wrote: post #28

Isn't Leah the person that sold ThinkPads on behalf of Libreboot, didn't send it, then put the blame on her mental issues? Then she abandoned the project and let the contributors take over, after some time she booted them with fake accusations, banned them from their IRC channel and took over the project. The contributors complained that she didn't even have the decency of contacting them, but she was adamant of taki…

I don't know about past actions. But my understanding is she didn't create "another GNU Boot," she made a GNU Boot release of Libreboot to allow them to rebase their fork off something that wasn't from 2021. EDIT: To be clear, I'm not saying the C&D was wrong. Trademarks must be actively defended and I'm not offended that they did so. I just remain unconvinced that Leah Rowe was trying to create another GNU Boot proj…

If you look at the web page in question:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230719185342/https://libreboot...>

then you might agree that GNU Boot may have a point that the web page is (or was) using the name “GNU Boot” confusingly. Accordingly, they asked it to be changed, albeit somewhat confrontationally and brusquely.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#37

Post by wkat4242 »

artyom wrote: post #10
zeroCalories wrote: post #4

Haha, I can't deny that I love the catty drama that happens around the free software community. While I do wish people would get along better for the health of the project, I also suspect that these strong characters are why the movement hasn't been completedo taken over by corporate interests.

I'm 100% with you on that. Strong free software leadership (e.g. classic Torvalds), despite all its problems, is naturally anti-corporation. Anyone with a real job in a moderately Big Co. can tell you that.

Is it really though?

Look at the who's who of the Linux foundation and it's all the big tech lackeys deciding everything. Even very questionable companies like Huawei are highly represented. I don't call that anti-corporate.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#38

Post by wkat4242 »

PrimeMcFly wrote: post #19
DANmode wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, everyone, line up behind KDE and push !

He said cohesive, not 'kohesive'.

KDE is by far the better desktop, Gnome will never be great as long as they abhor choice. The "you're using it wrong" is too strong there.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#39

Post by whstl »

evasb wrote: post #29
whstl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the person who sent the C&D email allegedly tried to "take over" the Libreboot name (according to TFA) is also not a good look. I found this: https://libreboot.at > Who are we? Denis ‘GNUtoo’ Carikli and Adrien ‘neox’ Bourmault. We created this and maintain it. > take a stand for fully free software is to change URLs across the web from to , and to let people know that no other version of Libreboot is r…

[flagged]

I have no idea who those people are and their pasts, and have no horse in this race, but according to the https://libreboot.at website by Adrien Bourmault, Leah was the founder of the project.

According to this [1], the alleged takeover you mention not only didn't involve Adrien or Denis Carikli, it also happened in 2021, two years before the creation of https://libreboot.at, which seems to be from 2023, and GNU Boot, that succeeded libreboot.at [2]

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210331005023/https://libreboot... or https://www.andrewrobbins.info/libreboot.html if you want a third-party

[2] https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/libreboot-devel/2023-0...

Either way, it seems that if there was any problem around the usage of the GNU Boot name, it was solved by adding disclaimers galore: http://notgnuboot.vimuser.org/

To me the disclaimers above show enough good faith. Meanwhile https://libreboot.at continues up. I don't think we should be that harsh and accusatory to someone after they actually comply with the request of changing a page name and adding disclaimers.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#40

Post by evasb »

torstenvl wrote: post #32
slabity wrote: post #24

> I did this release for them Did I miss something? Over the past 7 years the Libreboot project has been extremely aggressive towards the FSF. Going so far as to say the GNU project shouldn't exist and throwing insults at individuals in the organization. The emphasis on the whole, "I did this release for them" honestly doesn't pass the sniff test and kind of feels like they're intentionally trying to create drama. Th…

No. The better question is, why didn't FSF contact Leah before trying to publish their own Libreboot releases at libreboot.at? Why did they try to impersonate Libreboot? Whatever you may think of Leah publishing an unofficial GNU Boot release for them to rebase off of, she didn't try to impersonate them by buying a confusingly similar domain. Compare her single reference to an "unofficial GNUBoot release" to this: ht…

[flagged]
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