The team that maintained the FreeNode IRC network, popular among open and free software developers, stopped maintaining the project and founded a new IRC network libera.chat, designed to take the place of FreeNode. It is noted that the old network, which uses the freenode.[org|net|com] domains, has come under the control of dubious individuals whose credibility is in question. The CentOS and Sourcehut projects have already announced the move of their IRC channels to the libera.chat network, and the KDE developers are also discussing the transition.
In 2017, the FreeNode Ltd holding was sold to Private Internet Access (PIA), which received domain names and some other assets. The terms of the deal were not disclosed to the FreeNode team. Andrew Lee became the actual owner of the FreeNode domains. All servers and infrastructure elements remained in the hands of volunteers and sponsors who provided server capacity to run the network. The network was maintained and managed by a team of volunteers. Andrew Lee's company only owned the domains and had no connection with the IRC network itself.
Andrew Lee initially assured the FreeNode team that his company would not interfere with the network, but a few weeks ago the situation changed and changes began to occur in the network, for which the FreeNode team never received an explanation. For example, a page announcing an optimization of the governance structure was removed, advertisements were posted for Shells, a company co-founded by Andrew Lee, and work began to gain operational control of the infrastructure and the entire network, including user data.
According to the team of volunteers, Andrew Lee decided that owning the domains gave him the right to full control of the Freenode network itself and the community, hired separate staff and tried to get the rights to administer the network transferred to him. The activity of transferring the infrastructure under the management of a commercial company created the threat of user data falling into the hands of third parties, about which the old Freenode team has no information. To maintain the independence of the project, a new IRC network Libera.Chat was organized, supervised by a non-profit organization in Sweden and not allowing control to pass 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 leader of the project, posted on the site a mention of the Shells company, which provides financing to maintain the network in the amount of 3 thousand dollars a month. After this, Kristel was bullied and resigned as leader, who took over from Tomo (Tomaw) and, without a transition process or transfer of authority, blocked Kristel's access to the infrastructure. Andrew Lee proposed reforming governance and making the network more decentralized to eliminate dependence on individuals, but during the negotiations he agreed that there was no need to change anything in the management and trajectory of the project until a full discussion. Instead of continuing the discussion, Tomo began his behind-the-scenes games and changed the site, after which the conflict escalated and Andrew Lee brought in lawyers.
Source: opennet.ru