The return of Richard Stallman to the Board of Directors of the Free Software Foundation caused a backlash from some organizations and developers. In particular, the human rights organization Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), whose director recently became the laureate of the award for his contribution to the development of free software, announced the severance of all relations with the Free Software Foundation and the curtailment of any activity that intersects with this organization, including refusing to provide SPO Fund to finance the work of a participant in the Outreachy program (the required $ 6500 SFC will allocate from its own funds).
The Open Source Initiative (OSI), an organization that checks licenses for Open Source criteria, has announced its refusal to participate in events in which Stallman will participate and the termination of cooperation with the Free Software Foundation until Stallman is removed from leadership of the organization.
It is noted that recently the community has been striving to provide an inclusive environment that welcomes all participants. According to OSI, building such an environment is impossible if the leading positions are occupied by those who adhere to a model of behavior that does not correspond to this goal. OSI believes that Stallman should not be in leadership positions in the free and open source communities. OSI is calling on the Free Software Foundation to remove Stallman from the organization and take action to repair the harm Stallman has caused in the past through his words and actions.
Additionally, an open letter was published, the signatories of which demand the resignation of the entire board of directors of the Free Software Foundation and the removal of Stallman from all leading positions, including the leadership of the GNU project. The rest of the council members are portrayed as having contributed to Stallman's influence over the years. Until the requirement is met, it is proposed to stop any support for the SPO Foundation and participation in its activities. The letter has already been signed by almost 700 people, including leaders of the GNOME Foundation, Software Freedom Conservancy and OSI, a former Debian project leader, a former director of the Apache Software Foundation, as well as some well-known developers such as Matthew Garrett.
It is alleged that in the past he demonstrated misbehavior, misogyny, a negative attitude towards transsexuals and ableism (not equal treatment of ordinary people and people with disabilities), which in the modern world is unacceptable for a community leader. The letter says that Stallman's antics have been tolerated enough by those around him, but that there is no longer a place for people like him in the open source and free software community, and his leadership can be perceived as the adoption of a harmful and dangerous ideology.
Note: It is overlooked that Stallman's main ideology is the creation of the free software movement, its principles and ideals. Stallman's opponents, on the other hand, refer to careless and frank random statements in the past, which were not previously perceived as they are today, were expressed not in public speeches, but in niche discussions, and after being brought to the public were often interpreted out of context (for example, Stallman did not justify Epstein's actions, but tried to protect Marvin Minsky, who at that time was no longer alive and was not able to defend himself; support for abortion was called ableism in the letter, and transphobia - the absence of a requirement to use a neologism pronoun invented by him for everyone). Stallman's supporters consider the ongoing actions to be bullying and an intent to split the community.
Addendum: The X.Org Foundation, Organization for Ethical Source, and Outreachy all joined in demanding Stallman's resignation and decided to cut ties with the Free Software Foundation. The Processing Foundation announced the termination of the use of the GPL license in protest. In turn, representatives of the Open Source Foundation assured the public that the Open Source Foundation and the organizers of the LibrePlanet conference were not made aware of Stallman's decision to return and learned about it during his speech.
Source: opennet.ru