The team responsible for maintaining the FreeNode IRC network, popular among open-source and free software developers, has ceased support for the project and founded a new IRC network, libera.chat, aimed at taking FreeNode's place. It has been noted that the old network, using the domains freenode.[org|net|com], has come under the control of dubious individuals, raising concerns about trust. Projects like CentOS and Sourcehut have already announced their migration to the libera.chat network, with discussions about the transition also taking place among KDE developers.
In 2017, the FreeNode Ltd holding was sold to Private Internet Access (PIA), which acquired domain names and some other assets. The terms of the deal were not disclosed to the FreeNode team. The actual owner of the FreeNode domains became Andrew Lee. All servers and infrastructure elements remained in the hands of volunteers and sponsors providing server capacity for the network's operation. The network was maintained and managed by a team of volunteers. Andrew Lee's company only owned the domains and was not directly involved with the IRC network itself.
Initially, Andrew Lee assured the FreeNode team that his company would not interfere with the network's operations, but a few weeks ago, the situation changed and alterations began occurring within the network, regarding which the FreeNode team received no clarifications. For instance, a page announcing the optimization of the management structure was removed, advertisements for Shells, co-founded by Andrew Lee, were posted, and efforts to gain operational control over the infrastructure and the entire network, including user data, commenced.
According to the team of volunteers, Andrew Lee believed that owning the domains granted him the right to fully control the Freenode network and the community, hired separate staff, and attempted to gain transfer of administrative rights for the network. The activity aimed at transferring the infrastructure under the control of a commercial company created a risk of user data falling into the hands of third parties, of whom the old Freenode team has no knowledge. To preserve the independence of the project, a new IRC network, Libera.Chat, was established, overseen by a non-profit organization in Sweden that does not allow management to fall into the hands of commercial companies.
Andrew Lee disagrees with this interpretation of events and points out that the problems began after Christel, the former project leader, mentioned the company Shells on the website, which provides funding to maintain the network at a rate of $3,000 per month. After that, Christel was subjected to harassment and stepped down as leader, a position taken over by Tomaw, who blocked Christel's access to the infrastructure without a transitional process or transfer of authority. Andrew Lee proposed to reform the management and make the network more decentralized to eliminate dependence on individuals, but during negotiations, he agreed that nothing should be changed in management and the project's development trajectory until a comprehensive discussion took place. Instead of continuing the discussion, Tomaw began his behind-the-scenes maneuvers and altered the website, after which the conflict escalated, and Andrew Lee enlisted lawyers.
Source: opennet.ru
