Re: Should we take steps to reduce russian access to Free Software?

[Aaron Wolf]

There has been a lot of overreacting to a minor post here.

I will readily agree that I was simply wrong when *I* (personally, I 
represent no organization here) suggested that the FSF could make a 
statement about war. There's a degree to which the org can say some 
things, but indeed it is a mission-driven organization that should not 
take sides in unrelated political debates.

That said, Devin didn't take sides in any sense or say anything 
inappropriate on behalf of the FSF. The only intention of his message 
was to say essentially, "FSF will comply with any legal requirements 
imposed on it" without even suggesting that any legal requirements are 
applicable at this time. The idea that Devin's message meant anything 
other thing this is pure misunderstanding.

The gist of my original personal message was simply to assert the main 
idea which I still believe: that free software organizations and 
developers can state opinions independently of legal and licensing 
terms. In other words, while I was clarifying that software freedoms do 
not and shall not discriminate among uses and users, that does not in 
itself block anyone from expressing requests and opinions about uses and 
users.

In other words, I can very well say that I don't like a particular use 
or user of some software without that taking away the freedoms of that 
user. Similarly, FSF could potentially say that a particular corporation 
is overall acting in opposition to software freedom and that FSF takes 
the position of asking that corporation to forgo all use of free 
software. I'm not saying FSF *should* make such a statement. I'm just 
saying that FSF *may* make such a statement without it having any effect 
on the actual freedoms of that corporation to use free software.

In short: political opinions are independent of software freedoms. 
Political opinions may be expressed appropriately (which is typically 
*inappropriate* for FSF if the opinion is unrelated to the mission). And 
Devin didn't even express any opinion about anything. He only expressed 
that FSF is paying attention to sanctions in order to determine whether 
any legal restrictions affect FSF, and if so, FSF will comply will the law.

Aaron

On 2022-02-28 22:09, Jean Louis wrote:
> I have asked on this list the FSF representative to list references of 
> sanctions that apply to FSF. None so far has been shown.
>
> So which sanction exactly is relevant to FSF? That they are not allowed to give 
> Putin the membership card?
>
>
>
> On March 1, 2022 4:37:37 AM UTC, Valentino Giudice 
> <valentino.giudice96@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > makes me sad, seeing how FSF rushes to be "politically correct" in
> > the
> > > world run by propaganda machines.
> >
> > "Politically correct" for doing what, exactly? Literally complying
> > with sanctions?
> > Don't they legally have to do that?
> >
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>
>
> Jean
>
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