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
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
|
Free Software Community A. Yu
RFD 1 The 2nd School Aff. to FDU
5 July 2022
Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software
Request for Discussions: 1
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.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Current Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Technical Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. FSF Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
9. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. 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.
Yu Informational [Page 1]
RFD 1 Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software July 2022
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 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.
2. Justification
There are numerous free replacements to proprietary services such as
Discord, such as Internet Relay Chat, the Extensible Messaging and
Presense 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.
Yu Informational [Page 2]
RFD 1 Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software July 2022
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.[RMSGP] 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.
Yu Informational [Page 3]
RFD 1 Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software July 2022
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.
3. 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 oppurtunities 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 inefficent 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,
which is then one-way-puppeted to Libera. The relay system is sort-
of messed up, but it's working. Inviting new users to it via
https://discord.gg/7CYp7ntww7 (https://discord.gg/7CYp7ntww7) is
good, but as the author has made his own sacrifice already, there
exists no need for other existing Free Software activists to join and
use it instead of IRC.
Yu Informational [Page 4]
RFD 1 Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software July 2022
4. Technical Limitations
The old and centralized nature of IRC, the insane 3PID recommendation
of Matrix, the bad routing and efficency of XMPP, and the lack of
documentation on PSYC, has led us to develop a new protocol, Internet
Delay Chat[IDC], 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.
5. Reputation
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 RFD should suffice.
6. 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 neccessity for momentarily
sacrificing our own principle for the greater good while minimizing
the harms of such pragmatic usage of nonfree software.
7. FSF Considerations
It is RECOMMENDED that the FSF understands the use of nonfree
software in these situations and acknowledge its pragmatic use.
8. Normative References
[RMSGP] Stallman, R., "Is It Ever a Good Thing to Use a Nonfree
Program?", September 2013, <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/
is-ever-good-use-nonfree-program.en.html>.
9. Informative References
[IDC] Yu, A., "Internet Delay Chat", July 2022,
<https://git.andrewyu.org/internet-delay-chat>.
Acknowledgements
iShareFreedom's absolute standpoint in #fsf that we can spread
awareness effectively through free methods exclusively has led to
this RFD.
Yu Informational [Page 5]
RFD 1 Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software July 2022
Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this document by
supplying ideas, correcting typos or spreading the word, including
but not limited to DiffieHellman, Leah Rowe, Noisytoot and
fluxionary.
Author's Address
Andrew Yu
The 2nd School Aff. to FDU
Email: andrew@andrewyu.org
URI: https://www.andrewyu.org/
Yu Informational [Page 6]
|