1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
|
---
title: Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software
date: 2022-07-26
---
## Abstract
Free Software is undoubtably a good thing for society. However, modern
computer users are stuck in the proprietary "ecosystem" for historical
reasons. This document describes the justification and best current
practices of using proprietary platforms to spread the ideas of Free
Software.
## Status of This Memo
This document describes the author's viewpoint. This does not represent
the ideas of the Free Software Foundation or any other entity.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
## Introduction
Readers of this memo probably understand the ideals of the Free Software
Movement, and avoid proprietary software when possible. However, as most
outsiders are unaware and are deeply buried inside the proprietary
dystopia created by mostly multibillion-dollar technology corporations,
our methods of communicating with the masses are ineffective.
In February 2022, the author decided to permit limited usage of nonfree
chat platforms to hopefully spread our ideas to the general public. This
was attempted by registering a Discord account, creating a Guild called
"Free Software Introductions", and setting up a basic Discord-to-IRC
relay to \#fsi on both irc.andrewyu.org (now irc.runxiyu.org) and
irc.libera.chat.
One of the communities that he knows about, the VF-Technic Minetest
community, primarily uses Discord as a means of communication by players
not in-game. As the users inside are Minetest players, a Free Software
voxel sandbox game, similar to but much more flexible and
freedom-respecting than Minecraft, it is believed that the users have
some contact with Free Software, although they might not understand the
freedom part of the issue, i.e. they might be thinking in terms of "open
source" instead, and do not understand the harms of nonfree JavaScript
and services like Discord. After sharing the invite link in the
VF-Technic Guild, some people joined, and we've partially converted two
users.
## Justification
There are numerous free replacements to proprietary services such as
Discord, such as Internet Relay Chat, the Extensible Messaging and
Presence Protocol, the Matrix protocol, and email. As Free Software
activists, we generally prefer these protocols over nonfree services.
This section explains the reasons to consider nonfree services and
protocols.
Generally, users on IRC and XMPP have a fair understanding of the Free
Software Movement, and it is quick and easy to inform them what we mean
by "free", "the four freedoms", and similar ideas. For users on the
Libera Chat IRC network, which by far has the most users of any network,
it is exceptionally easy to introduce a user into the \#fsf channel for
discussions with people supporting Free Software. Introducing ignorant
users on these protocols and platforms are a day-to-day simple task.
Furthermore, the amount of users we can reach on these protocols are
rather limiting. Libera has around forty thousand users according to the
\`LUSERS\` command, and considering the fact that around 90% of these
people aren't ignorant, there isn't much we can do.
Matrix users, in particular users of the matrix.org homeserver,
typically know but don't completely understand Free Software. Rather
than using Matrix IDs to identify users, the Matrix specification
specifies that third-party platform identities, such as email and
GitHub, are how users should be referenced both internally by servers
and shown to other users. This is obviously an increadibly foolish idea,
especially considering the use of centralized identity servers (similar
to X509 certificate authorities) for 3PIDs. These are our first targets,
but these should also be easy to get the idea across.
It is true that Libera Chat and similar IRC networks, though
multi-centered in a technical way (i.e. multiple IRC servers form an IRC
network), the network is politically centralized, controlled by one
entity, Libera. The Internet Relay Chat server-to-server protocol
implies that servers fully trust each other and are expected to not send
damaging commands, which in turn implies full trust between server
operators, no federation, and political centralization. The privacy
policy and network policy of Libera Chat are non-intrusive, therefore
the use of which is acceptable and is promoted by the FSF. (Obviously,
most methods of using IRC do not involve nonfree software.)
We currently find it hard to continue spreading basic knowledge among
the masses through free communication protocols.
Those that have never touched Free Software are often on giant
proprietary platforms, and take these as universal methods of
communication. Many people go months before checking their mailbox
(physical or electronic), refuse to use XMPP or IRC for its age.
There is one special case where using some nonfree software, and even
urging others to use it, can be a positive thing. That's when the use of
the nonfree software aims directly at putting an end to the use of that
very same nonfree software. The author believes that the following fall
within this scope:
- Developing a free project that requires nonfree environments to
bootstrap.
- To spread awareness of software freedom issues to users in nonfree
environments.
As almost all types of development can be done on most types of BSD and
GNU operating systems, the author hasn't found any software that fit
this category. Extending the interpretation allows for using nonfree
software's behavior as a reference in Free Software development, though
an arguable programming practice, may help the community to progress by
understanding common features that users of nonfree services use.
The latter is more interesting, as explained above our methods of
spreading awareness is limited. Conservative usage of nonfree platforms
may bring us more users, and chances for more of the general public to
be enlightened.
## Current Practices
Activists **MUST NOT** list such nonfree services in "Contact
Information" pages on their website or similar sources, unless followed
by a explanation that the purpose of the nonfree platform is to
introduce users thereof onto free protocols and to eventually
exterminate the nonfree platform. Whenever these references to nonfree
platforms appear, the author **MUST** present free methods of
communication. Activists **SHOULD** pragmatically use as many of the
popular free protocols as possible, to ensure that opportunities of
introductions are not lost. In cases involving competition between free
and nonfree protocols and platforms, ethical concerns (i.e. enabling
talking to a new user on any ethical platform) **MUST** take precedence
over technical concerns (such as disliking the XMPP protocol for its
inefficient use of XML).
Communities for introducing users to Free Software on nonfree platforms
**MUST** be bridged to a free protocol in some obvious way, in order to
minimize the usage of nonfree platforms even for the purpose of
communicating ideology to new users and allow members of the Free
Software community refusing to use nonfree platforms in any way to
participate. Usages of nonfree platforms, besides part of the
user-introduction process that must happen on the nonfree platform,
**SHOULD** be avoided. Free clients, if available, **SHOULD** be used,
although many times usage is technically cumbersome.
When both (all) sides of the communication are happy using a free
protocol, proprietary platforms **MUST NOT** be used.
During communications with users of nonfree platforms, activists
**SHOULD** ask them what features of the nonfree platforms are
attractive to the user, besides having more users. This allows the
community to take usage by the general population into account when
developing new software or specifications.
For example, the author created a Discord Guild called Free Software
Introductions, which is one-way-puppeted to \#fsi on irc.andrewyu.org
(currently dormant), which is then one-way-puppeted to Libera. The relay
system is sort-of messed up, but it's working. Inviting new users to
such Guilds (https://discord.gg/7CYp7ntww7) when perse refuses to or is
ignorant on how to use IRC helps conveying our ideas to users, but as
the author has made their own "sacrifice" already, there exists less of
a need for other existing Free Software activists to join and use it
instead of free protocols.
## Technical Limitations
The old and centralized nature of IRC, the insane 3PID recommendation of
Matrix, the bad routing and efficiency of XMPP, and the lack of
documentation on PSYC, has led us to develop a new protocol, Internet
Delay Chat, which aims to be free, modern (i.e. support for channel
groups and shared permission sets, non-text data with MIME types), sane
(i.e. TCP, UDP and SCTP-based, instead of HTTP POST APIs) and simple.
Outsiders may point at these actions as cringeworthy because we are
depending on things we are against to achieve our goals. In this
situation, showing them this article should suffice.
## Conclusion
The Free Software Community is constantly evolving; the majority of
computer users haven't heard of us. While we improve our software, it is
important that our ideology and philosophy is sent out of our internal
circle. This demonstrates the necessity for momentarily sacrificing our
own principle for the greater good while minimizing the harms of such
pragmatic usage of nonfree software.
## Informative Links
- [Richard Stallman on this
issue](https://gnu.org/philosophy/is-ever-good-use-nonfree-program.en.html)
<!-- -->
- [Home](./)
- Runxi Yu
- <a href="./pubdom.html" rel="license">Public Domain</a>
|
