Discussion May 2019

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

48 participants
33 discussions

Re: Matthias Kirschner, FSFE and Fraud in free software
by Simone Piccardi 24 May '19

24 May '19

Il 24/05/19 10:13, Daniel Pocock ha scritto: > > > Hi all, > > My name is not not "all". I don't know you, and I'm not interested in your quarrel with FSFE. I was subscribed by you to your mailing list (discussion(a)lists.fsfellowship.eu) without any consent. When I subscribed discussion(a)lists.fsfe.org I did by myself, giving them permission to send me email, I never give this permission to you or to discussion(a)lists.fsfellowship.eu list. So for me you are just a spammer. Anyway now I unsubcribed both and I don't want to hear nothing about you or FSFE. I did not received any email by Matthias Kirschner, perhaps because I'm not anymore subscribed to FSFE list. Instead I got this unsolicited mail from you, confirming your spammer attitude. So I don't know what are you talking about, and I don't want to know. I just know that you are sending me mail after I asked you to stop. I'm not interested and I don't want to talk to someone who shows total disrespect for other people's requests like you are doing now. So please remove my address from your undisclosed recipient list and stop bothering me. Bye. Simone Piccardi

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Re: Matthias Kirschner, FSFE and Fraud in free software
by Leena Simon 24 May '19

24 May '19

Can somebody please do something about this guy harrassing me/us with mails containing stupid ad homindem arguments and (frankly) conspiracy theorys? I filtered all FSFE-Lists in seperate folders. Why is this guy still making it to my inbox? It is really annoying. Greetings, Leena Am 24. Mai 2019 10:13:57 MESZ schrieb Daniel Pocock <daniel(a)pocock.pro>: > > >Hi all, > >Matthias Kirschner sent an email recently using the word Fraud. > >If any of you downloaded the mailing list data that FSFE made >available, >what you have done is much like browsing a list of your friend's >friends >on social media. Millions of people do that every day. > >Europe's stringent new privacy regulation, the GDPR, is for >enterprises. > FSFE e.V. is regulated under GDPR. You and I, as volunteers, are >private individuals and we are not subject to that regulation. > >We can talk to each other. > >In a free country, citizens communicating with each other are not >committing any crime. > >Please don't be afraid of Kirschner when he behaves like a toddler, >stamping his foot and throwing tantrums. > >In Nazi Germany and the GDR, fear reigned and people were discouraged >from talking to each other. Kirschner's email is a blatant attempt to >maintain a similar culture of fear. > >Kirschner appointed his staff and friends to be the only official >members of FSFE e.V. so he never has to face a real vote. Is a leader >who is appointing his employees to vote for him a real leader, or >simply >a coward? > >In the middle ages, feudal lords, like Kirschner, didn't put themself >up >for election either. They wanted to be president for life, like the >despotic dictators of impoverished countries. Every now and then, the >feudal lord would burn a witch or lock somebody in the stocks to keep >the community afraid. Can you see echoes of this in the way Kirschner >has treated a volunteer, your fellowship representative, for talking >about censorship? > >Kirschner has spent more than a year spreading defamation behind my >back. That is how he sought to undermine your decision to vote for me. >Now we have seen it in his public email. Some people asked me why I >kept this going: I didn't, I resigned in September 2018. Kirschner has >kept it going in numerous ways. > >For many years, the FSFE web site invited you to Join. But you were >never recorded as members. You never received invitations to the >annual >meeting. Was the "Join" button a Fraud organized by Kirschner? > >FSFE told you that you could vote for a representative. The President, >Matthias Kirschner, insisted on exercising control over communications >from the representative to the community, even secretly applying a >communications policy[1] to the representative. Is that real >representation? Or was that potentially an example of Kirschner's FSFE >making a Fraud? > >FSFE e.V. has been registered as a charitable organization for tax >purposes. However, FSFE's focus has changed dramatically from pursuing >what is best for society to getting what is best for the corporate >donors like Google. It is perfectly OK for businesses to set up lobby >groups: but it isn't OK for them to masquerade as charities and profit >from taxpayers and the work of unpaid volunteers. Herr Kirschner, >could the charitable registration be a Fraud? > >Kirschner claims that FSFE is transparent and makes reference to >Transparency International. Yet the published[2] accounts are the most >opaque set of accounts I've ever seen. Even Swiss banks reveal more. >Could the Transparency claim be a Fraud? > >Matthias Kirschner wrote a long email last week making many references >to legal counsel and law enforcement. There has been no communication >whatsoever from both legal counsel and law enforcement. Not one >lawyer's letter, not one inquiry from police. No SWAT teams and no >Panzer tanks crawling up the street. > >Authorized downloads of the mailing list are simply not a crime. > >Kirschner's email looks like the behaviour of somebody who is not a >police officer putting on a police uniform and pretending to be a >policeman. Matthias Kirschner, is your email itself the biggest Fraud? > >Regards, > >Daniel > > >1. https://fsfellowship.eu/assets/fsfe-communications-policy.pdf >2. https://fsfe.org/about/funds/2017.en.html > >-- >Former FSFE Fellowship Representative > >Debian Developer > >https://danielpocock.com

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Re: Matthias Kirschner, FSFE and Fraud in free software
by Ion Savin 24 May '19

24 May '19

Daniel, please stop sending me any emails. Either through mailing lists I don't subscribe to or directly. -- Ion Savin On May 24, 2019 11:13:57 AM GMT+03:00, Daniel Pocock <daniel(a)pocock.pro> wrote: > > >Hi all, > >Matthias Kirschner sent an email recently using the word Fraud. > >If any of you downloaded the mailing list data that FSFE made >available, >what you have done is much like browsing a list of your friend's >friends >on social media. Millions of people do that every day. > >Europe's stringent new privacy regulation, the GDPR, is for >enterprises. > FSFE e.V. is regulated under GDPR. You and I, as volunteers, are >private individuals and we are not subject to that regulation. > >We can talk to each other. > >In a free country, citizens communicating with each other are not >committing any crime. > >Please don't be afraid of Kirschner when he behaves like a toddler, >stamping his foot and throwing tantrums. > >In Nazi Germany and the GDR, fear reigned and people were discouraged >from talking to each other. Kirschner's email is a blatant attempt to >maintain a similar culture of fear. > >Kirschner appointed his staff and friends to be the only official >members of FSFE e.V. so he never has to face a real vote. Is a leader >who is appointing his employees to vote for him a real leader, or >simply >a coward? > >In the middle ages, feudal lords, like Kirschner, didn't put themself >up >for election either. They wanted to be president for life, like the >despotic dictators of impoverished countries. Every now and then, the >feudal lord would burn a witch or lock somebody in the stocks to keep >the community afraid. Can you see echoes of this in the way Kirschner >has treated a volunteer, your fellowship representative, for talking >about censorship? > >Kirschner has spent more than a year spreading defamation behind my >back. That is how he sought to undermine your decision to vote for me. >Now we have seen it in his public email. Some people asked me why I >kept this going: I didn't, I resigned in September 2018. Kirschner has >kept it going in numerous ways. > >For many years, the FSFE web site invited you to Join. But you were >never recorded as members. You never received invitations to the >annual >meeting. Was the "Join" button a Fraud organized by Kirschner? > >FSFE told you that you could vote for a representative. The President, >Matthias Kirschner, insisted on exercising control over communications >from the representative to the community, even secretly applying a >communications policy[1] to the representative. Is that real >representation? Or was that potentially an example of Kirschner's FSFE >making a Fraud? > >FSFE e.V. has been registered as a charitable organization for tax >purposes. However, FSFE's focus has changed dramatically from pursuing >what is best for society to getting what is best for the corporate >donors like Google. It is perfectly OK for businesses to set up lobby >groups: but it isn't OK for them to masquerade as charities and profit >from taxpayers and the work of unpaid volunteers. Herr Kirschner, >could the charitable registration be a Fraud? > >Kirschner claims that FSFE is transparent and makes reference to >Transparency International. Yet the published[2] accounts are the most >opaque set of accounts I've ever seen. Even Swiss banks reveal more. >Could the Transparency claim be a Fraud? > >Matthias Kirschner wrote a long email last week making many references >to legal counsel and law enforcement. There has been no communication >whatsoever from both legal counsel and law enforcement. Not one >lawyer's letter, not one inquiry from police. No SWAT teams and no >Panzer tanks crawling up the street. > >Authorized downloads of the mailing list are simply not a crime. > >Kirschner's email looks like the behaviour of somebody who is not a >police officer putting on a police uniform and pretending to be a >policeman. Matthias Kirschner, is your email itself the biggest Fraud? > >Regards, > >Daniel > > >1. https://fsfellowship.eu/assets/fsfe-communications-policy.pdf >2. https://fsfe.org/about/funds/2017.en.html > >-- >Former FSFE Fellowship Representative > >Debian Developer > >https://danielpocock.com -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

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Hijacking attempt by Daniel Pocock
by Michael Kesper 16 May '19

16 May '19

Dear all, It seems that former fellowship representative Daniel Pocock has a) set up a mailing list discussion(a)lists.fsfellowship.eu b) subscribed all participants of this list (I guess) c) Sent an email asking people to unsubscribe from _this_ list Clearly, I did not give consent to b) nor c). I hereby ask FSFE officials to use all available legal tools against these eclatant DSGVO and privacy violations in order to protect its subscribers. Best wishes Michael

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Re: Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon
by Carmen Bianca Bakker 16 May '19

16 May '19

This article arrived in my mailbox this morning. It's a lovely read! Thank you to the author, and to Christine Prayon. Je mer, 2019-05-15 je 06:50 +0000, press(a)fsfe.org skribis: > = Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon = > > [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-02.en.html ] > > Yesterday, political satirist Christine Prayon was awarded the 10,000 > Euro Dieter Hildebrandt Prize of the City of Munich for demanding > political or decidedly socio-critical political satire. Prayon is > donating the prize money to the Free Software Foundation Europe. > > The jury states [1], among other things, that the award recipient Prayon > "[...] does not simply accuse - she unmasks, and we are her witnesses". > Prayon herself used her thank-you speech to put the finger on one of > Munich's sore spots: Prayon describes the former genius, progressive > process of making Munich independent of the providers of proprietary > software and letting the complete administration run on a free system. > Prayon then criticised the switch back to proprietary systems. > > The migration of workstations back to proprietary software will cost > Munich almost 50 million Euros over the next six years. A further 37 > million Euros will have to be invested in implementation projects. The > Free Software Foundation Europe already criticised the migration-project > in the past. The migration will not solve existing organisational IT > problems in the day-to-day administrative business. At the same time new > dependencies on manufacturers of proprietary software will arise and > license fees will be paid to the proprietary manufacturers instead of > using these funds in tax payers' best interest for the further > development of the software and the cooperation with other > administrations. The systems become less transparent and no longer > comprehensible for citizens. Further information on the migration plans > of the City of Munich can be found here [2]. > > Munich is thus turning against the trend: in other administrations, Free > Software is being used with overwhelming success. Since the French > government decided to start using more Free Software back in 2012, > between 0.6% and 5.4% more companies using Free Software have been > created in France every year; between 6.6% and 14% more people find > employment in the IT sector every year. In Barcelona, 70% of the budget > for the development of new software is used to create Free Software. > Contracts have so far been awarded to 3,000 companies, 60% of them SMEs, > mostly from the region. In collaborative projects, more and more cities > are working on common software solutions and jointly develop them, > saving costs and sharing risks. > > The Free Software Foundation Europe has launched the campaign "Public > Money? Public Code!" to convince other administrations to switch to Free > Software and support them in their migration. As part of the campaign, > we published the specialist publication "Public Money Public Code - > Modernising Public Infrastructure with Free Software". The brochure aims > to answer questions from decision-makers about the benefits of using and > developing Free Software for the public administration. > > More information about the campaign and its supporters can be found on > our campaign website at publiccode.eu [3], and the brochure can be found > here [4]. > > The Free Software Foundation Europe would like to take this opportunity > to thank Christine Prayon for her commitment to Free Software and her > generous donation. > > 1: https://www.muenchen.de/rathaus/Stadtverwaltung/Kulturreferat/Kulturfoerder… > 2: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-01.html > 3: https://publiccode.eu/ > 4: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure > > == About the Free Software Foundation Europe == > > Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to > control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our > lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than > restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use, > understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other > fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy. > > The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free > Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination. > It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software > adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and > provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software > in Europe. > > http://fsfe.org > _______________________________________________ > Press-release mailing list > Press-release(a)lists.fsfe.org > https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release > > This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct

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Nice success story about Free Software in schools
by Bjoern Schiessle 14 May '19

14 May '19

Hi, i just found this nice article which I would like to share with you: https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/kerala-schools-to-save… The region of Kerala in India migrates all their schools to Free Software. "More than Rs 3,000-crore savings, we feel the key advantage of going for free OS is the ability to study, share, edit and publish without restrictions. In the education sector, this dissemination value is more crucial than costs," says Anjali Krishnan, a school teacher who is receiving the necessary training. Cheers, Björn -- Björn Schießle Coordinator Germany Free Software Foundation Europe (https://fsfe.org) www: https://www.schiessle.org gnupg/pgp key: 0x0x2378A753E2BF04F6 fingerprint: 244F CEB0 CB09 9524 B21F B896 2378 A753 E2BF 04F6

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FSFE support for Pirate Party at EU Election on Free Software?
by Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) - lists 14 May '19

14 May '19

Hi all, i'm supporting Pirate Party (in Italy) for EU Election, i'm a strong free software advocate, and in the common european pirate party program (the same program in 9 EU states), there's a clear commitment on Free Software and the use/production of Free Software by Public Administration (100% in line with the campaign public code, public money). I would love to see FSFE to support that point of the program of PP publicly, calling for all free software communities across europe to support that trough their own communities. https://wiki.ppeu.net/doku.php?id=programme:ceep2019#free_software Is that something that has been considered? Fabio

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Further facts about data breach
by Matthias Kirschner 13 May '19

13 May '19

Dear all, The FSFE values your privacy and deeply regrets the incident that occurred on 2 May 2019 that resulted in the unauthorized use of your information, and the ensuing events that transpired. We apologise for the delay in our response, but we wished to conduct an investigation to accurately determine how and what exactly happened. Resulting from our investigation, here is are summaries of what took place as we understand it. **TL;DR: In brief, your email addresses were used by a third party to create another mailing list, unaffiliated with and without the consent and prior knowledge of the FSFE, on the web infrastructure of another company. Shortly afterwards, the third party then ran automation scripts to unsubscribe all members of the FSFE's list, which resulted in you receiving emails requesting your confirmation to unsubscribe from the FSFE's lists. The FSFE has informed the relevant Federal authorities in Germany of this breach, and we are in contact with legal counsel to explore our options to ensure that our communities are protected.** To get into greater detail, the FSFE operates a number of mailing lists using the subdomain "lists.fsfe.org", as you are aware. Among these lists are discussion(a)lists.fsfe.org (the "FSFE Discussion List") and fsfe-de(a)lists.fsfe.org. Both these lists shall hereinafter be referred to collectively as the "FSFE Lists". On or before 2 May 2019, Daniel Pocock and/or Ready Technology (UK) Limited obtained approximately 800 email addresses from the FSFE Lists, either from the FSFE website or through other means, without the consent of the FSFE or of the individual subscribers of the FSFE Lists. It is our understanding that Pocock and/or Ready Technology (UK) Limited was able to obtain these email addresses because they were subscribed to the mailing list and therefore had access to view the register. Up until 2 May 2019, subscribers of the FSFE Lists were able to view a register of the emails subscribed to these mailing lists, on the FSFE website. These registers are password protected, and therefore not available for the general public at large to access. We have since set the register of subscriber emails on our mailing lists to be only viewable by the list administrators. Pocock and/or Ready Technology (UK) Limited then set up a mailing list called discussion(a)lists.fsfellowship.eu (the "Unaffiliated List"), using the email addresses obtained from the FSFE Lists with neither the consent nor knowledge of the FSFE or of the individual subscribers of the FSFE Lists. The Unaffiliated List is not affiliated with the FSFE in any way. Pocock then sent an unsolicited mass email on 2 May 2019 to the Unaffiliated List under the subject line “[Discussion] censorship in FSFE, Debian, Mozilla and other communities” (https://lists.fsfellowship.eu/pipermail/discussion/2019-May/000000.html). It included the statement "If you wish to unsubscribe, please visit here”, which linked to the management interface for the FSFE Discussion List. The statement was vague enough to mislead a number of people into thinking that clicking on such link would allow them to unsubscribe from the Unaffiliated List. This email did not contain any information on how to unsubscribe from the Unaffiliated List. Information on how to unsubscribe from the Unaffiliated List was provided in a later email sent by Pocock on the same day, under the subject line “[Discussion] unsubscribing and transparency” (https://lists.fsfellowship.eu/pipermail/discussion/2019-May/000016.html), together with the unsubscribe information for the FSFE Discussion List. Further, the email contained the statement: “if you have technical problems unsubscribing, please ask on IRC or simply email system-hackers at lists.fsfe.org and we'll work it out behind the scenes as professionals." This statement misrepresented Pocock and/or Ready Technology (UK) Limited to be an official representative(s) of the FSFE. Mailing list software commonly injects so called list management headers into e-mails sent through the list. Among other things, these headers can provide a way to unsubscribe from the mailing list. The e-mails sent on 2 May 2019 contained the relevant list management headers, but the unsubscribe interface indicated in the headers was not functioning for all subscribers correctly. Additionally, unsubscribe requests for all members of the FSFE Discussion List were automatically generated on two separate occasions: on 2 May 2019 and 5 May 2019 (one of them proven to be from Pocock), regardless of whether or not they had requested to be unsubscribed from the FSFE Discussion List. This resulted in members receiving emails requesting them to confirm their unsubscribe request from the FSFE Discussion List. We have gathered enough evidence to be confident that these are the events that transpired, and also to identify the parties involved in the breach. Accordingly, we have banned all relevant email addresses from the FSFE web infrastructure. We have also reached out to Pocock last week informing him of our understanding of these events and the consequences, in order to give him an opportunity to comment on or clarify any of the points made above. As of the sending of this email, we have not received word from him. The FSFE has been in contact with legal counsel to understand our options and the steps that we will take to ensure the protection of our communities and its data. We have reached out specifically to the relevant German Data Protection Authorities to inform them of the data breach, and to receive any advice that they may provide on this matter. We ask you for your patience and understanding, and once again, we apologise for any problems that the events of the past weeks may have caused you. We will keep you updated as the situation develops, and want to assure you that the FSFE remains dedicated to our mission to promote and further the development of Free Software. Best Regards, Matthias -- Matthias Kirschner - President - Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 |(fsfe.org/support) Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) Weblog k7r.eu/blog.html

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FOSS Compliance Job Opportunity
by Karsten.Reincke＠telekom.de 13 May '19

13 May '19

Dear Fellows; I want to point out to a job opportunity at T-Mobile Austria which is focused to the topic FOSS License Compliance: https://t-mobile.jobs/karriere-at/jobs/at/127403/Senior-Open-Source-Advisor… . I think this sounds very interesting. Feel free to distribute this information to whom you ever want. With best regards Karsten Reincke --- Deutsche Telekom AG Karsten Reincke, PMP - Senior Expert Key Projects / Telekom Open Source Committee T&I / S&TI-ISC [ Strategic & Technology Innovation - Infrastructure Cloud ] T-Online-Allee 1, 64295 Darmstadt, Germany +49 06151 5837594 (Phone) +49 151 11701485 (Mobile) E-Mail: karsten.reincke(a)telekom.de<mailto:karsten.reincke@telekom.de> www.telekom.com<http://www.telekom.com/> Life is for sharing. You can find the obligatory information on http://www.telekom.com/compulsory-statement<http://www.telekom.com/compulsory-statement>

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Re: FSFE potentially major data breach, missed opportunities
by Markus Reichelt 11 May '19

11 May '19

* Daniel Pocock <daniel(a)pocock.pro> wrote: > Dear Fellows, indeed. > Many of you expressed frustration that an organization like FSFE > was distributing your email addresses to other members. Not all of > you were warned about that when you joined the mailing list. son ... to put it mildly: in all these years fsfe never annoyed me like you did with your stunt mailinglist. i did not sign up. you did. i tell you to stop. please, tell us again, why you did sign up folks just cos you got the data to do so. again, i tell you to stop. stop.

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Discussion May 2019