Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
82 lines (70 loc) · 5.23 KB

index.md

File metadata and controls

82 lines (70 loc) · 5.23 KB
Raw

2021-03-23

Richard M. Stallman, frequently known as RMS, has been a dangerous force in the free software community for a long time. He has shown himself to be misogynist, ableist, and transphobic, among other serious accusations of impropriety. These sorts of beliefs have no place in the free software, digital rights, and tech communities. With his recent reinstatement to the Board of Directors of the Free Software Foundation, we call for the entire Board of the FSF to step down and for RMS to be removed from all leadership positions.

We, the undersigned, believe in the necessity of digital autonomy and the powerful role user freedom plays in protecting our fundamental human rights. In order to realize the promise of everything software freedom makes possible, there must be radical change within the community. We believe in a present and a future where all technology empowers – not oppresses – people. We know that this is only possible in a world where technology is built to pay respect to our rights at its most foundational levels. While these ideas have been popularized in some form by Richard M. Stallman, he does not speak for us. We do not condone his actions and opinions. We do not acknowledge his leadership or the leadership of the Free Software Foundation as it stands today.

There has been enough tolerance of RMS’s repugnant ideas and behavior. We cannot continue to let one person ruin the meaning of our work. Our communities have no space for people like Richard M. Stallman, and we will not continue suffering his behavior, giving him a leadership role, or otherwise holding him and his hurtful and dangerous ideology as acceptable.

We are calling for the removal of the entire Board of the Free Software Foundation. These are people who have enabled and empowered RMS for years. They demonstrate this again by permitting him to rejoin the FSF Board. It is time for RMS to step back from the free software, tech ethics, digital rights, and tech communities, for he cannot provide the leadership we need. We are also calling for Richard M. Stallman to be removed from all leadership positions, including the GNU Project.

We urge those in a position to do so to stop supporting the Free Software Foundation. Refuse to contribute to projects related to the FSF and RMS. Do not speak at or attend FSF events, or events that welcome RMS and his brand of intolerance. We ask for contributors to free software projects to take a stand against bigotry and hate within their projects. While doing these things, tell these communities and the FSF why.

We have detailed several public incidents of RMS's behavior. Some of us have our own stories about RMS and our interactions with him, things that are not captured in email threads or on video. We hope you will read what has been shared and consider the harm that he has done to our community and others.

To sign, please email digitalautonomy at riseup.net or submit a pull request.

Signed,

  • Molly de Blanc (Debian Project, GNOME Foundation)
  • Nathan Freitas
  • Matthew Garrett (Former member of the FSF board of directors)
  • Shauna Gordon-McKeon
  • Elana Hashman (Debian Technical Committee Member, Open Source Initiative Director, Kubernetes SIG Instrumentation Chair)
  • Faidon Liambotis (Open Source Initiative Director)
  • Katherine Maher
  • Tom Marble (Software Freedom Conservancy, Evaluation Committee Chair)
  • Neil McGovern (GNOME Foundation Executive Director, Former Debian Project Leader)
  • Deb Nicholson (OSI General Manager, SeaGL Co-Founder)
  • Nadya Peek
  • Julia Reda
  • Eric Schultz
  • Joan Touzet (Apache CouchDB PMC, Former Apache Software Foundation Director)
  • Luis Villa (Former Director of the Open Source Initiative and the GNOME Foundation; contributor to the GPL v3 drafting process)
  • Stefano Zacchiroli (Former Debian Project Leader and Former Director of the Open Source Initiative)
  • Josh Simmons (President of the Open Source Initiative)
  • Ryan Lahfa
  • Geoffrey Thomas
  • Matt Lee (Libre.fm, former member of the GNU Project)
  • Steve McIntyre (Former Debian Project Leader)
  • Parker Higgins
  • Noel Georgi
  • Hayden Seay
  • Lucas Bickel
  • Colin Watson (Former Debian Technical Committee member)
  • Xavier Tilley
  • David Thompson (GNU Guile/Guix contributor, ex-FSF)
  • Jesse Cooke
  • Andrej Shadura
  • Rosanna Yuen (GNOME Foundation)
  • Steven DuBois
  • Lars Wirzenius
  • Christopher Schmidt
  • Amy Troschinetz
  • Antoine Beaupré AKA anarcat (Debian Developer, former FSF member)
  • Emmanuele Bassi (GNOME Foundation)
  • Daniel Soskel
  • Tony Colston
  • Neil Watson (Former CFEngine Community Advisory Board Member)
  • Chris DiBona (Google LLC.)
  • David Turner (former GPL Compliance Engineer at FSF)
  • Ignacio Torres Masdeu
  • Dan Arel (owner, ThinkPrivacy.ch)
  • William Theaker (Former FSF staff member)
  • D. Joe Anderson
  • Ben Werdmuller
  • Christian Heimes (Python)
  • Jacob Weisz
  • Peter Van Eynde
  • Jerome Charaoui (Debian Developer, former FSF member)
  • Daniel Stone (freedesktop.org, Wayland)
  • Sydney Schreckengost
  • Jonathan McDowell
  • Markus Unterwaditzer
  • Joy Scharmen
  • Peter Hunt
  • Enum Cohrs
  • Federico Mena Quintero (GNOME)