3 ms·
What if the FSF situation is a coup?
Note: I hope everyone understands this is meant as a thought experiment, not a conspiracy theory.
Quote from version 3 of the GPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html):
> If the Program specifies that a certain numbered version of the GNU General Public License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of the GNU General Public License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.
Quote from the anti RMS letter (https://rms-open-letter.github.io):
> we call for the entire Board of the FSF to step down
The latter was signed by a bunch of companies.
This reminds me of a story I heard about a communist party in a European country. At some point a vote was held in that party, with the subject: "Should we cancel the party?"
Surprisingly, the majority voted for canceling it. It turned out that more than 50% of the members were put there by the secret services for that exact purpose. I never verified the story, but what counts is that it sounds like it could happen in real life.
That leads to the question: Theoretically speaking, what would happen if companies got members inside of the FSF, got on the board, and decided to create a new version of the GPL with a super permissive licence?
I'm interested mainly in the legal aspects, but feel free to chime if you have an interesting different perspective.
- bhaak 6y agoYou mean like when the FSF weakened the GFDL so that Wikipedia could move off the GFDL? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License#Compatibility_with_Creative_Commons_licensing_terms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License...
- harryvederci 6y agoI wasn't aware that happened, thanks for sharing! I'll have to read up on it a bit, but at first glance it looks like a similar (albeit slightly less impactful/evil?) scenario, indeed.
- aengelfriet 6y agoAccording to the FSF bylaws (https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/fsf-amended-bylaws-current.pdf https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/fsf-amended-bylaws-current.pdf) the voting members can already remove the board of directors of the FSF at the annual meetings (article IV section 1). Legally there is no reason why they couldn't have engaged in this coup earlier. Of course, if they needed better optics then yes. However, only voting members can do so. Most people that think they are a "member" of the FSF are merely an "associated member" with no voting power. I don't think there is a list of voting members, but it's a small bunch (hinted at by https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/statement-re-election-richard-stallman-fsf-board https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/statement-re-election-...).
- okprod 6y agoThe FSF as an incorporated entity holds copyright on software and authority over the GPL. Individual board and voting members can't really do anything, especially with RMS and his supporters on the board. Also, I don't think the corporate/proprietary side feels threatened at all by the FSF; this would be a lot of work when it's much easier for the FSF to drive itself into irrelevance.