Free Software Community A. Yu
The 2nd School Aff. to FDU
16 April 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 author's viewpoint
of using proprietary platforms to spread the ideas of Free Software.
Status of This Memo
This document is currently in the DRAFT status.
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. Action Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Technical Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6. FSF Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
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 coorporations, our methods of communicating with the
masses are ineffective.
In February 2022, the author decided to adjust his dogma, and
permitted limited usage of nonfree chat platforms to hopefully spread
our ideas to the general public. This was attempted by registering a
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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
plays 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. After sharing the invite link in the VF-
Technic Guild, some people joined, and we've partially converted two
users.
2. Justification
Two users is definitely few, but it sets a start and an example for
how freedom can be spread.
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 USERS command, and considering the fact that around 90% of these
people aren't ignorant, there isn't much we can do.
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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 in the author's
opinion 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.)
Nevertheless, 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.
An alternative protocol, Internet Delay Chat, is being developed.
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 program that requires nonfree environments to
bootstrap;
* To spread awareness of software freedom issues to users in nonfree
environments.
As almost all types of programming 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 allos 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.
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The latter is more interesting, as explained above our methods of
spreading awareness is limited.
3. Action Procedure
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) whenever possible.
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.
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.
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.
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5. Conclusion
Hi
6. FSF Considerations
Hi
7. Normative References
[IDC] Yu, A., "Internet Delay Chat", April 2022,
<https://git.andrewyu.org/internet-delay-chat>.
[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>.
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Many thanks to everyone in the Free Software community for the
freedom we have today.
Author's Address
Andrew Yu
The 2nd School Aff. to FDU
Email: andrew@andrewyu.org
URI: https://www.andrewyu.org/
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