I’ve been thinking about this for a while now.
Richard Stallman has been practically synonymous with Free Software since its inception. And there are good reasons why. It was his idea, and it was his passion that made the movement what it is today.
I deeply believe in the mission of the Free Software movement. But more and more, it seems that in order to survive, the Free Software movement may need to distance itself from him.
Richard Stallman has said some really disturbingly reprehensible things on multiple occasions (one and two). (He has said he’s changed these opinions, but it seems to me the damage is done.)
He’s asked that people blame him and not the FSF for these statements, but it seems naive to me to expect that to be enough not to tarnish the FSF’s reputation in the eyes of most people.
And Richard Stallman isn’t the only problematic figure associated with the Free Software movement… Eben Moglen (founder, Direct-Council, and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center which is closely associated with the FSF) has been accused of much abusive and anti-LGBTQIA+ behavior over which the Free Software Foundation Europe and Software Freedom Concervancy have cut ties with the SFLC and Moglen (one and two).
Even aside from the public image problems, it seems like the FSF and SFLC have been holding back the Free Software movement strategically. Eben Moglan has long been adamant that the GPL shouldn’t be interpreted as a contract – only as a copyright license. What the SFC is doing now with the Visio lawsuit is only possible because the SFC had the courage to abandon that theory.
I sense there’s a rift in the Free Software movement. Especially given that the SFC and FSF Europe explicitly cutting ties with the SFLC and Moglen. And individual supporters of Free Software are going to have to decide which parties in this split are going to speak for and champion the cause of the community as a whole.
I imagine it’s pretty clear by this point that I favor the SFC in this split. I like what I’ve seen from the SFC in general. Not just the Visio lawsuit. But also the things I’ve heard said by SFC folks.
If the Free Software movement needs a single personality to be its face moving forward, I’d love for that face to be Bradley M. Kuhn, executive director of the SFC. He seems to have all of Stallman’s and Moglen’s assets (passion, dedication, an unwillingness to bend, and experience and knowledge of the legal aspects of Free Software enforcement) perhaps even more so than Stallman and Moglen do. And Kuhn excels in all the areas where Stallman and Moglen perhaps don’t so much (social consciousness, likeability, strategy.) I can’t say enough good things about Kuhn, really. (And his Wikipedia page doesn’t even have a “controversies” section.) (Also, please tell me there aren’t any skeletons in his closet.)
Even if the community does come to a consensus that the movement should distance itself from Stallman and Moglen, it’ll be difficult to achieve such a change in public perception and if it’s achieved, it may come at a cost. After all, Stallman is the first person everybody pictures when the FSF is mentioned. And acknowledging the problems with the Free Software movement’s “old brass” may damage the reputation of Free Software as a whole among those who might not differentiate between the parties in this split. But I feel it may be necessary for the future of the Free Software movement.
That’s my take, anyway. I’ll hop down off of my soap box, now. But I wanted to bring this up, hopefully let some folks whose ideals align with those of the Free Software movement about all this if they weren’t already aware, and maybe see what folks in general think about the future of the Free Software movement.
The problem with the fsf is way deeper than Stallman. I think Stallman can some good qualities but but him and the FSF need some new ways of thinking.
For instance, why is this community modded by me? You would of though that they would of monitored the state of Reddit and jumped on board Lemmy. Its things like these that show that the fsf is blind.
Another complaint I have is that they feel that you either use 100% proprietary software or 100% free software. The problem with this way of thinking is that it skips over trying to get ordinary people to make small changes. Its not practical to change in one day or one month for that matter. We need slow change by promoting privacy and software freedom though convenience.
I think the free software ecosystem is doing well but it has nothing to do with the FSF.
Promoting gradual change is something the FSF is now doing, thankfully.
It’s called the “freedom ladder” iirc it’s still in progress.
A little off topic but if you or someone you know at the fsf wants to do some sort of online event here such as a Q&A feel free to reach out. I am the moderator of this community so I would be happy to set something up.
I’m just an associate member, as in I pay membership dues. I’m not employed by the FSF. Sorry if I accidentally implied that anywhere.
That would be a pretty neat thing though. Unfortunately I’m not really well connected and am not in a position to help organise that.
You could try to contact staff at #fsf on Libera IRC
First of all, thanks for doing this. Some months ago when I searched for a community like this, I couldn’t find anything. I’m not sure that the FSF can do much more, though.
Richard Stallman still travels the world to give talks about Free Software in multiple languages. They have a conference called Libre Planet. I wish there were more of Richard’s talks on YouTube, but other than that I don’t know what else they could do that would matter.
It’s just very hard to reach people with such a complicated message. I think that’s why a lot more people have heard of the term Open Source than Free Software. Even on Lemmy most discussions are about “Open Source” and “Linux”. When I commented on some proprietary app being made for Lemmy saying that it was unethical, people downvoted me. They don’t understand when I say that users deserve rights and they think Free Software just means you want to get something for free (I don’t think it even has anything to do with the word “free”, btw - they often think the same way about “Open Source”).
It’s a very complicated topic to explain to an average person, even to developers (many Free Software projects have a Discord server or use other proprietary software). We still should try whenever we can, but this should really be taught at schools. I doubt the FSF can suddenly become much better at this, no matter what they do. If you think there is a gap, we could try to fill it ourselves (and maybe we should), but we probably aren’t gonna build a big audience either.
Also, I just remembered there were some talks about promoting Free Software in last Libre Planet: https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/questions-are-the-answer-how-to-have-deeper-conversations-with-anyone-about-free-software-philosophy/