[OFFTOPIC] Re: Richard Stallman answer to me

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Jun 7, 2011, at 12:43 PM, Stan Goodman wrote:
>
> That is a very brief list of some of the things that go over Mr
> Stallman's head. I think they amount to gross hypocrisy. Giving him a
> pass for his hypocrisy is also hypocritical.


Stan (and others),

This is Israel, and he is allowed to be a hypocrite, believe things  
that are wrong, state things that are wrong and not participate in  
actions that are wrong, whether he believes they are wrong, or you do.

What he should not do, and IMHO can not do is to wrap the FSF message  
around them. If he posts as RMS, or Dick Stallman, or Rich Stallman,  
or even Richard Stallman, Phd, it's his privledge, but the moment he  
posts as "Dr Richard Stallman, President, Free Software Foundation" he  
has spoken for the FSF, and now the FSF is part of the BDS movement.

While this may gain him a little "street cred" with some people, there  
are many who don't support the BDS movement, and this now gives us an  
unpleasant choice. Support the FSF and support BDS, or not.

Shachar mentioned boycotting the FSF (actually I think he said GNU)  
but I will leave it to you to decide exactly what "not supporting the  
FSF" means.

In case you don't know what I am talking about:

<http://www.bdsmovement.net/>

This, BTW is why I dislike the GPL, it has some baggage attached,  
which now includes BDS. I much prefer BSD's "do what you want, but  
don't do it here"* license.


Geoff.

* Actually a quote from Bruce Springsteen, who is NOT Jewish although  
many people think he is.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM
Making your enemy reliant on software you support is the best revenge.