OSI Response to RMS’s Reappointment to the Board of the Free Software Foundation

Recent and related:

Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26535224 - March 2021 (814 comments)

Will OSI participate in any future events hosted on the MIT or Harvard campuses after these universities' complicity in helping Jeffrey Epstein avoid prosecution on federal racketeering charges for the sex-trafficking of minors was exposed by whistle-blowers?

Not sure why it would be appropriate to exclude Stallman from serving on the Board of the FSF while allowing Rafael Reif, for example, to remain president of MIT after sending a personally signed "thank-you note" to one of the most notorious alleged sex-traffickers and convicted child-rapists in US history:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2020/01/12/after-epstei...

Nor would it be any more appropriate to allow Mr. Seth Lloyd back onto the MIT campus either:

https://thetech.com/2021/02/25/mit-administration-epstein-op...

What are the allegations against Stallman regarding the aiding and abetting of sex-trafficking and/or child rape?

The FSF needs to harden up on this.

The OSI symbolizes the takeover of the free software movement by corporate interests.

Without Stallman, Moglen, and the GPL, the open web would not have come into being.

Stallman still has the surest instinct on how best to move forward.

This statement comes across as a pure power play by the corporate interests: “We won, and we’re not ceding any power back to GNU or the FSF. We will destroy you first.”

This is not about Stallman’s actions or private opinions, which were blown far out of proportion during the witch hunt in 2019, which was obviously driven by ulterior motives.

Wow. It's nice to know where OSI stands. I feel that their response shows that OSI is an ideological organization, which does not believe in giving people second chances, does not investigates the details of the allegations and does not take into account the individual circumstances. Richard Stallman contribution to the Open Source Movement is hard to underestimate. I am really impressed with the courage that it took for the Free Software Foundation to reinstate him. Also wow for the FSF.

I couldn't be more opposed to Stallman's radical views on software but I find his cancelling/silencing more disturbing than his words.

> Richard M. Stallman recently announced that he will be returning to the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), a statement that the FSF has not denied

He's listed on fsf.org as being on the board so I don't know why they'd deny it.

> If we do not speak out against this, our silence may be misinterpreted as support.

I can't think of a group that does less than the FSF except for maybe OSI. Besides Stallman never left being the head of GNU and did OSI say anything about that?

This is a nothing statement from and almost nothing group.

This sucks. All over a few comments people didn't like (from a person who comments on the news publicly online every single day for the past 20+? years) about the scandal regarding Epstein and Minsky.

Stallman thinks both men are criminals and serial rapists, and yet, still the OSI thinks he's dangerous because he made an off-topic comment about what "assault" really means (off-topic because it does not lessen the illegality or the seriousness of the crimes).