index.md

2021-03-23

Richard M. Stallman, frequently known as RMS, has been a dangerous force in the free software community for a long time. He has shown himself to be misogynist, ableist, and transphobic, among other serious accusations of impropriety. These sorts of beliefs have no place in the free software, digital rights, and tech communities. With his recent reinstatement to the Board of Directors of the Free Software Foundation, we call for the entire Board of the FSF to step down and for RMS to be removed from all leadership positions.

We, the undersigned, believe in the necessity of digital autonomy and the powerful role user freedom plays in protecting our fundamental human rights. In order to realize the promise of everything software freedom makes possible, there must be radical change within the community. We believe in a present and a future where all technology empowers – not oppresses – people. We know that this is only possible in a world where technology is built to pay respect to our rights at its most foundational levels. While these ideas have been popularized in some form by Richard M. Stallman, he does not speak for us. We do not condone his actions and opinions. We do not acknowledge his leadership or the leadership of the Free Software Foundation as it stands today.

There has been enough tolerance of RMS’s repugnant ideas and behavior. We cannot continue to let one person ruin the meaning of our work. Our communities have no space for people like Richard M. Stallman, and we will not continue suffering his behavior, giving him a leadership role, or otherwise holding him and his hurtful and dangerous ideology as acceptable.

We are calling for the removal of the entire Board of the Free Software Foundation. These are people who have enabled and empowered RMS for years. They demonstrate this again by permitting him to rejoin the FSF Board. It is time for RMS to step back from the free software, tech ethics, digital rights, and tech communities, for he cannot provide the leadership we need. We are also calling for Richard M. Stallman to be removed from all leadership positions, including the GNU Project.

We urge those in a position to do so to stop supporting the Free Software Foundation. Refuse to contribute to projects related to the FSF and RMS. Do not speak at or attend FSF events, or events that welcome RMS and his brand of intolerance. We ask for contributors to free software projects to take a stand against bigotry and hate within their projects. While doing these things, tell these communities and the FSF why.

We have detailed several public incidents of RMS's behavior. Some of us have our own stories about RMS and our interactions with him, things that are not captured in email threads or on video. We hope you will read what has been shared and consider the harm that he has done to our community and others.

To sign, please email digitalautonomy at riseup.net or submit a pull request.

Institutional affiliation is provided for identification purposes only and does not constitute institutional endorsement.

Signed,

• Molly de Blanc (Debian Project, GNOME Foundation)
• Nathan Freitas
• Matthew Garrett (Former member of the FSF board of directors)
• Shauna Gordon-McKeon
• Elana Hashman (Debian Technical Committee Member, Open Source Initiative Director, Kubernetes SIG Instrumentation Chair)
• Faidon Liambotis (Open Source Initiative Director)
• Katherine Maher
• Tom Marble (Software Freedom Conservancy, Evaluation Committee Chair)
• Neil McGovern (GNOME Foundation Executive Director, Former Debian Project Leader)
• Deb Nicholson (OSI General Manager, SeaGL Co-Founder)
• Nadya Peek
• Julia Reda
• Eric Schultz
• Joan Touzet (Apache CouchDB PMC, Former Apache Software Foundation Director)
• Luis Villa (Former Director of the Open Source Initiative and the GNOME Foundation; contributor to the GPL v3 drafting process)
• Stefano Zacchiroli (Former Debian Project Leader and Former Director of the Open Source Initiative)

• Aaron Carson
• Adam Barber
• Adrian Cochrane
• Adrien "PulkoMandy" Destugues
• Alan Ball
• Alan Diggs (Schykle)
• Alan Pope
• Amye Scavarda Perrin
• Amy Russell
• Amy Troschinetz
• Andrej Shadura
• Andy Isaacson (@radii, founding member of Noisebridge)
• Anne Nicolas (Kernel Recipes organizer)
• Anthony Shaw (Python Software Foundation Fellow, ASF Member)
• Antoine Beaupré AKA anarcat (Debian Developer, former FSF member)
• Ariadne Conill (Alpine Developer, pkgconf)
• Arne Brasseur
• Behdad Esfahbod (Former director / president, GNOME Foundation)
• Ben Cotton (Fedora Project contributor)
• Ben Hutchings (Debian Developer)
• Benjamin Kampmann
• Ben Lewis (Former GNU Octave contributor)
• Ben Werdmuller
• Bert Van de Poel
• Be Wilson (Mixxx maintainer)
• Bill Mulligan
• Brett Sheffield (Librecast Project)
• Brian Pepple (Former Fedora Engineering Steering Committee member)
• Brion Vibber (MediaWiki, Wikimedia Foundation)
• Britta Gustafson
• Cameron Tauxe
• Cara Esten Hurtle
• Carina C. Zona (CallbackWomen)
• Carl Schwan (KDE)
• Carlos O'Donell (GNU libc maintainer, GNU Assembly member)
• Chris DiBona (Google LLC.)
• Chris Hoge
• Chris Rose
• Christian Heimes (Python)
• Christina Dunbar-Hester (Author of Hacking Diversity)
• Christopher Allan Perry
• Christopher Davis (GNOME)
• Christopher Patti
• Christopher Schmidt
• Claudio Saavedra (former GNOME maintainer and GNOME Foundation member)
• Colin Watson (Former Debian Technical Committee member)
• Connor Sheridan
• Courtney Thurston (former Spark distro dev)
• Dan Arel (owner, ThinkPrivacy.ch)
• Daniel Nazer
• Daniel Soskel
• Daniel Stone (freedesktop.org, Wayland)
• David Reid
• David Thompson (GNU Guile/Guix contributor, ex-FSF)
• David Turner (former GPL Compliance Engineer at FSF)
• D. Joe Anderson
• Dmitry Porunov
• Dominic Hayes (The Feren OS Developer)
• Dorothea Salo
• Efraim Flashner (GNU Guix contributor)
• Emmanuele Bassi (GNOME Foundation)
• Enrico Zini (Debian Developer)
• Enum Cohrs
• Eriol Fox
• Esther Payne (Librecast Project)
• Evan Brown
• Federico Mena Quintero (GNOME)
• Federico Pontillo
• Filipe Laíns (Arch Linux TU, PyPA maintainer)
• Florian Neumann
• Fridrich Strba
• Geir Magnusson Jr.
• Geoffrey Thomas
• Greg Grossmeier
• Halla Rempt (maintainer of Krita)
• Hayden Seay
• Haze Booth
• Heiko Becker (Exherbo, KDE)
• Hein-Pieter van Braam-Stewart (FSF associate member since 2008)
• Hubert Figuière
• Ignacio Torres Masdeu
• Irina Rempt
• Jacob H. Haven
• Jacob Kaplan-Moss (Django co-creator; Founder, Django Software Foundation)
• Jacob Weisz
• James Cochran
• Jane Manchun Wong
• Jan Lehnardt (Apache CouchDB PMC Chair)
• Jason C. McDonald (a.k.a. CodeMouse92) (MousePaw Media)
• Jason Crain (GNOME)
• Jean-Philippe DUFRAIGNE
• Jeffrey Yoo Warren
• Jeff Warnica
• Jerome Charaoui (Debian Developer, former FSF member)
• Jesse Cooke
• Jesse Raleigh (Sr Security Researcher)
• Joe Harley
• Jonathan McDowell
• Jordan Petridis (GNOME)
• Jordan Uggla
• Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso (GNU Octave maintainer (inactive))
• Josh Levinger (OpenSourceActivism.tech)
• Josh Simmons (President of the Open Source Initiative)
• Joshua Peisach (Debian, Ubuntu, GNOME/Cinnamon Desktop)
• Joshua Timberman
• Joy Scharmen
• Jules Penuchot (Paris-Saclay University)
• Julian Andres Klode
• julien tayon
• Julien Voisin
• June Taylor
• Justin W. Flory (UNICEF, Fedora Project developer)
• Kevin O'Brien
• Kimball Johnson (Former Chair FLOSS UK aka UKUUG)
• Kyle Mitchell
• Lachlan Campbell
• Lars Wirzenius
• Linus Parker
• Lionirdeadman
• Louis Jones
• Lucas Bickel
• Luis Antonio Sánchez Romero
• Luna Duclos
• Mairi Dulaney (Fedora Project contributor)
• Máirín Duffy (Fedora Project, former FSF HPP committee member, former LP speaker)
• Malleck Braun
• Markus Unterwaditzer
• Martin Wimpress (Former FSF member)
• Matt Beland
• Matteo Tammmaccaro
• Matthew P. Del Buono
• Matthew Vernon (Debian developer)
• Matthew Wilcox (Linux kernel hacker)
• Matthieu Gallien (KDE)
• Matt Lee (Libre.fm, former member of the GNU Project)
• Micah E Scott
• Michael Downey (United Nations Foundation)
• Michael Schechter
• Mikel Johnson
• Morgan indrora Gangwere
• Morten Linderud (Arch Linux maintainer)
• Myriam Rita Schweingruber
• Myrle Krantz (ASF member)
• Naglis Lesčinskas
• Neil Watson (Former CFEngine Community Advisory Board Member)
• Nick Guenther
• Niclas Zeising (FreeBSD committer)
• Nicolai von Neudeck
• Nicolás Alvarez (KDE)
• Nicolas Dandrimont (Debian Developer, former FSF associate member)
• Nicolas Fella (KDE)
• Nicolas Schier (Debian maintainer)
• Nikos Roussos (FSFE, GA member)
• Nils Adermann
• Noel Georgi
• Olivier Berger (FSF member, or associate member since 2002)
• Orion Montoya (former rms-assist, former FSF, GPLv3 drafting-process software developer)
• Parker Higgins
• Paul Adams
• Peter Hunt
• Peter Van Eynde
• Phil Dibowitz
• Philippe Normand
• Richard Maw
• Rich Felker (musl libc)
• Roan Kattouw
• Robin Widegren
• Rob Vincent
• Rosanna Yuen (GNOME Foundation)
• Ryan Gonzalez
• Ryan Heywood
• Ryan Lahfa
• Sam Pavlovic
• Saptak S
• Sean McGinnis
• Sean O'Brien
• Shane Fagan
• Shelly Coen
• Síle Ekaterin Aman (APK Fission, Adélie Linux Core Team)
• Simeon Smith
• Simon Richter
• Soren L. Hansen
• Sriram Ramkrishna
• Steve McIntyre (Former Debian Project Leader)
• Steven DuBois
• Sydney Schreckengost
• Tanner Filip
• Thaddée Tyl
• TheEvilSkeleton
• Tianon Gravi
• Tierney Cyren (Node.js Community Committee Chairperson, Electron, OpenJS Foundation CPC)
• Tobias Klausmann
• Tollef Fog Heen (Former Debian Technical Committee member)
• Tom "spot" Callaway (Fedora Council member, former LP speaker)
• Tony Colston
• Trolli Schmittlauch
• Victor Hugo Soliz Kuncar
• Vincent Huang Jiahao
• William Theaker (Former FSF staff member)
• Xavier Tilley
• X.org Foundation Board of Directors (Lyude Paul, Eric Anholt, Mark Filion, Keith Packard, Daniel Vetter, Harry Wentland, Samuel Iglesias Gonsálvez)
• Yao Li (former FSF Monthly Student Associate Member)
• Yorik van Havre
• Yvan Sraka
• Zach van Rijn