IBM has bought off the entire pack of free software noisemakers. This includes Eben Moglen, Richard Stallman, the Software Freedom Law Center and the Free Software Foundation.
Consider this. Have you heard Stallman, Moglen, FSF or SFLC make a peep about IBM’s software-patent-related lawsuits against Amazon and PSI? Have you ever seen even a mention of these cases in the sidebar on Groklaw? Or even in comment strings?
The FSF folks claim to hate software patents. And they never miss a chance to protest about even the tiniest things. These are people who take to the streets in yellow jumpsuits over DRM in Microsoft products.
So ask yourself this: Why does IBM get a free ride?
The deal as it’s been described to me goes like this. IBM takes on SCO at great expense and presents this as a contribution to the community. They’re fighting a case that FSF and Moglen couldn’t afford to tackle. OSDL puts money into Moglen’s law center and into Groklaw. In return they get a free pass.
Please, before you write to me, go write to Stallman and Moglen and PJ and ask them why they’ve never criticized IBM over its use of software patents.
Moreover, take notice of the way these mouthpieces leap in to fight IBM’s battles. eg, Novell makes a deal with Microsoft; IBM is furious and feels betrayed, since it put all that money into Novell a few years ago; and suddenly the entire FSF apparatus swings into action. Moglen and Stallman rewrite the GPLv3 to screw Novell. Propaganda PJ starts attacking Novell on her blog.
The danger for IBM is that it’s risky business getting in bed with bomb-tossing loonies. In fact there are hints lately that IBM isn’t exactly thrilled about Stallman and his GPLv3 drafts. See this item on Barbara Darrow’s must-read “Unblog.”
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1 response so far ↓
GNU/Skeptical // April 4, 2007 at 8:41 am |
There is a huge difference here. Moglen and Stallman actually exist, and I even had the unpleasant experience of meeting Stallman personally.
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