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
• Aaron Honeycutt
• Aaron M. Ucko (@ucko, Debian Developer)
• Adam Barber
• Adam Jackson (X.org, Fedora)
• Adil Sadik
• Adrian Cochrane
• Adrien "PulkoMandy" Destugues
• Akhil Indurti
• Alan Ball
• Alan Diggs (Schykle)
• Alan Pope
• Alexandre Dulaunoy (former FSF associate member #53)
• Alex Arslan (Julia contributor, former Julia community manager)
• Alex Desmond
• Alexis Danz
• Alexis Tyler
• Alex Murray
• Alfred Neumayer (UBports developer)
• Alison Dowdney (Kubernetes SIG Contributor Experience Chair)
• Allie sapphiclinguine M. (salmon_lib developer)
• Amelia Andersdotter (former Member of the European Parliament (Piratpartiet), hobby Arch and network scripting aficionado)
• Amos fasterthanlime Wenger
• Amye Scavarda Perrin
• Amy Null "queer"
• Amy Russell
• Amy Troschinetz
• Andrea Denisse Gómez-Martínez (Arch Linux, i3blocks maintainer)
• Andrea Wieland
• Andrej Shadura (Debian Developer)
• Andre Klapper (GNOME)
• Andrés Hernández "tonejito" (LIDSoL)
• Andres Salomon (Debian Developer)
• Andrew Pinski (GCC contributor)
• Andy Isaacson (@radii, founding member of Noisebridge)
• Angus Fletcher
• Aniol Marti (Debian Maintainer, Caliu President)
• Anis Tarafdar
• Anna Glasgall
• Anne Nicolas (Kernel Recipes organizer)
• Anthony Rabbito
• Anthony Shaw (Python Software Foundation Fellow, ASF Member)
• Antoine Beaupré AKA anarcat (Debian Developer, former FSF member)
• Ariadne Conill (Alpine Developer, pkgconf)
• Ariela Wenner
• Arne Brasseur
• Arthur Richards
• Artur Tamborski (former FSF member)
• Ashish Dixit
• Asta Halkjær From
• Asumu Takikawa
• Aubrey Fletcher
• Aura Vulcano
• Avery "stars" M-W
• Barret Rennie (Mozilla)
• Behdad Esfahbod (Former director / president, GNOME Foundation)
• Ben Cotton (Fedora Project contributor)
• Ben Evans
• Ben Hutchings (Debian Developer)
• Benjamin Kampmann
• Benjamin Torell (OBS Project)
• Ben Klemens
• Ben Lewis (Former GNU Octave contributor)
• Ben Rosengart
• Ben Werdmuller
• Bert Van de Poel
• Be Wilson (Mixxx maintainer)
• Bill Mulligan
• Björn Fahller
• Blair Vidakovich (vidak)
• Bob Killen (Kubernetes Steering Committee Member)
• Bram Hagens
• Brendan Hickey
• Brendan O'Leary
• Bret Moore
• Brett Sheffield (Librecast Project)
• Brian Ketelsen
• Brian Pepple (Former Fedora Engineering Steering Committee member)
• Brion Vibber (MediaWiki, Wikimedia Foundation)
• Britta Gustafson
• Bryan Meyers (Solus Technical Lead)
• Cadence Ember
• Cameron Tauxe
• Cara Esten Hurtle
• Carina C. Zona (CallbackWomen)
• Carlos Soriano Sanchez (Former GNOME Foundation director and Nautilus maintainer, GNOME GitLab admin)
• Carl Schwan (KDE)
• Carol Willing
• Casper Sørensen
• Chris Burgess
• Chris DiBona (Google LLC.)
• Chris Garaffa (Tech for the People)
• Chris Hoge
• Chris Johnson
• Chris Rose
• Chris Talib (Source! - a radio show on FLOSS, Le Reset - queer hackerspace)
• Christian Glombek (Fedora Project contributor)
• Christian Heimes (Python)
• Christian Hergert (GNOME)
• Christina Dunbar-Hester (Author of Hacking Diversity)
• Christine Hall (former OSI Board member)
• Christophe Noisel
• Christopher Allan Perry
• Christopher Davis (GNOME)
• Christopher Patti
• Christopher Schmidt
• Chris Wayne (Ubuntu)
• Clarissa Borges (GNOME Foundation member)
• classabbyamp
• Claudio Saavedra (former GNOME maintainer and GNOME Foundation member)
• Claudius Link
• Colin O'Brien
• Colin Seiler
• Colin Watson (Former Debian Technical Committee member)
• Connor Sheridan
• Conrad Lukawski
• CookieSource (Head of Administration RebornOS)
• Coraline Ada Ehmke (Founder, Organization for Ethical Source)
• Corentin "codl" Delcourt
• Courtney Thurston (former Spark distro dev)
• Craig Maloney
• Cyril Brulebois (Debian Developer)
• Dakota "Kai" Lyons (owner, Fivnex.co)
• Dan Arel (owner, ThinkPrivacy.ch)
• Dan Bornstein (@danfuzz)
• Dan "Fennix" Sim
• Daniel Feldroy (previously Daniel Roy Greenfeld)
• Daniel Murphy (@danhatesnumbers)
• Daniel Nazer
• Daniel Soskel
• Daniel Stone (freedesktop.org, Wayland)
• Dan Jacka
• Danny Bouimad
• Danny "Rushyo" Moules (Security researcher, EFF Member, Former Mozilla contributor)
• Dan 'pixelflow' Humphreys
• Dave Camp (Mozilla, Former GNOME Foundation)
• David Gilman
• David Glick (Plone contributor)
• David (gnuconsulting) Bishop
• David Grynnerup Pedersen
• David Jones (former FSF associate member)
• David Reid
• David Revoy (Pepper&Carrot)
• David Thompson (GNU Guile/Guix contributor, ex-FSF)
• David Turner (former GPL Compliance Engineer at FSF)
• D. Ben Knoble
• Dennis Schubert
• Devin Buhl
• Dillon Pentz (OBS Project Developer)
• Dimitri John Ledkov (Debian Developer, Ubuntu Core Developer, former member of the SPI Inc board of directors)
• Dirk Hohndel
• D. Joe Anderson
• Dmitry Borodaenko (Debian Developer, Former Fuel for OpenStack Project Technical Lead)
• Dmitry Porunov
• dmt
• Dominic Hayes (The Feren OS Developer)
• Donnie Barnes (former Red Hat employee #2)
• Dorothea Salo
• Dustin Mitchell (Engineer, Mozilla)
• Dylan Hardison (@dylan_hardison, Bugzilla Project)
• Eddie Kay
• Ed Marshall
• Efraim Flashner (GNU Guix contributor)
• Elen Eisendle
• Eliott Lavier
• Elizabeth Bell (Mozilla)
• Emilio Escobar (Ettercap Project)
• Emily Carlsen
• Emmanuele Bassi (GNOME Foundation)
• Enrico Zini (Debian Developer)
• Enum Cohrs
• Eric Hodel
• Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
• Erin Nova
• Erin Unterwaditzer
• Eriol Fox
• Ernest Mueller
• Esther Payne (Librecast Project)
• Evan Brown
• Ezekiel Hendrickson
• Fabio Di Peri
• Faith Jasmine Viola
• Faye Duxovni
• Federico Mena Quintero (GNOME)
• Federico Pontillo
• Félix 'felix91gr' Fischer
• Félix 'passcod' Saparelli
• Fernando Pérez (recipient of 2012 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software, IPython creator, Project Jupyter co-founder and co-director, NumFOCUS co-founder, 2i2c.org co-founder).
• Filipe Laíns (Arch Linux TU, PyPA maintainer)
• Fintan Horan
• Florian Neumann
• Frances Hocutt
• Frank S. Thomas
• Frédéric Harper (Director of Developer Relations at MeiliSearch)
• Fredrik Lindh
• Fridrich Strba
• Gabriela Rodriguez
• Gabriel Filion
• Gabriel Volpe (Practical FP in Scala)
• Gareth J. Greenaway (Salt Developer, SCALE Co-Founder and former chair person)
• Geir Magnusson Jr.
• Geoffrey Thomas
• George Chriss
• Gerardo Torres
• Gerard Ryan
• Germán Poo-Caamaño (GNOME)
• Göktuğ Kayaalp
• Gordon Byrnes
• Gordon Haff (OSI Member)
• Graham Christensen (NixOS contributor)
• Graham Sutherland
• Greg Grossmeier
• Guilhem Moulin (Debian Developer)
• Gunnar Wolf (Debian Developer, member of the Debian Technical Committee)
• Gustavo Costa (Fedora Project contributor)
• Guy Templeton (Kubernetes SIG Autoscaling Chair)
• Halla Rempt (maintainer of Krita)
• Havoc Pennington (former GNOME Foundation)
• Hayden Barnes
• Hayden Seay
• Haze Booth
• Heiko Becker (Exherbo, KDE)
• Hein-Pieter van Braam-Stewart (FSF associate member since 2008)
• Hubert Figuière
• Ian Jackson (Former Debian Project Leader; former President, Software in the Public Interest; GNU Maintainer)
• Idan Gazit (Django project alumnus)
• Ignacio Torres Masdeu
• Ilya Kreymer
• Irina Rempt
• Isabela Bagueros
• Italo Vignoli (OSI Director, LibreItalia Honorary President)
• Jacob H. Haven
• Jacob Kaplan-Moss (Django co-creator; Founder, Django Software Foundation)
• Jacob Weisz
• Jade '0x0ade' Macho
• James Alexander
• James Cochran
• James Daly
• James Spivey
• James Troup
• Jane Manchun Wong
• Jan Lehnardt (Apache CouchDB PMC Chair)
• Jan Sprinz (UBports Foundation Board of Directors, Ubuntu Member)
• Jason C. McDonald (a.k.a. CodeMouse92) (MousePaw Media)
• Jason Crain (GNOME)
• Jean-Philippe DUFRAIGNE
• Jeff Forcier (aka bitprophet) (Python library maintainer, eg Fabric, Paramiko)
• Jeffrey Yoo Warren
• Jeff Warnica
• Jeremy Bingham
• Jeremy Carter
• Jerome Charaoui (Debian Developer, former FSF member)
• Jesse Clark
• Jesse Cooke
• Jesse Li
• Jesse Raleigh (Sr Security Researcher)
• Jesser Lemus
• Jill Rouleau (Ansible Maintainer / Steering Commitee member)
• João "Johnny" Ciocca (DCG5511)
• Joe Harley
• Joel Bethke (OBS Project)
• Johannes Löthberg (Arch Linux Developer)
• John D. Martin III
• John Hess
• Jona Azizaj (Fedora Project, Open Source Diversity)
• Jonathan McDowell
• Jordan Petridis (GNOME)
• Jordan Uggla
• Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso (GNU Octave maintainer (inactive))
• Jordin McEachern
• José Duarte
• Josh Levinger (OpenSourceActivism.tech)
• Josh Simmons (President of the Open Source Initiative)
• Joshua Ashton
• Joshua Peisach (Debian, Ubuntu, GNOME/Cinnamon Desktop)
• Joshua Strobl (Solus Experience Lead, Budgie Desktop Lead)
• Joshua Timberman
• Joy Scharmen
• Jules Penuchot (Paris-Saclay University)
• Julian Andres Klode
• Julien Rabier
• julien tayon
• Julien Voisin
• June Taylor
• Justin W. Flory (UNICEF, Fedora Project D&I Advisor)
• Karen Rustad Tölva (former OpenHatch and Students for Free Culture board member)
• Karsten Wade (CentOS Board member, former Fedora Board & Docs Lead, the Open Source Way)
• Katherine Flavel
• Kathleen Lu
• Kavi Laud
• Kayla Anne Cupples
• Kellegram
• Kevin Lannen
• Kevin O'Brien
• Khionu Sybiern
• Kimball Johnson (Former Chair FLOSS UK aka UKUUG)
• Krzysztof Sakrejda
• Kukuh Syafaat (GNOME, openSUSE)
• Kumar Anirudha
• Kunal Mehta (MediaWiki, Debian Developer, FSF associate member)
• Kyle Mitchell
• Lachlan Campbell
• Langlais Raphael
• Lars Wirzenius
• Laurin Schmidt
• Leandro A. F. Pereira
• Liam R. Howlett (kernel developer)
• Linus Parker
• Lionirdeadman
• Louis Jones
• Louis-Philippe Véronneau (Debian Developer)
• Luca Martinelli
• Lucas Bickel
• Lucas Nussbaum (Former Debian Project Leader)
• Ludvig Norgren Guldhag
• Luis Antonio Sánchez Romero
• Lukas Fittl
• Lukas Grossar
• Łukasz Langa (Python Software Foundation Fellow, Python 3.8 and 3.9 Release Manager)
• Luke Faraone (Debian FTP master, Ubuntu developer, former English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee member)
• Luna Duclos
• Lyre Calliope
• Madison makyo Scott-Clary
• Mairi Dulaney (Fedora Project contributor)
• Máirín Duffy (Fedora Project, former FSF HPP committee member, former LP speaker)
• Malleck Braun
• Mano Marks
• Manuel Genovés (GNOME)
• Margarita Manterola (Debian Developer, member of the Debian Technical Committee)
• Marius Gripsgard (UBports Foundation founder, Lead Developer and Board of Directors, Ubuntu Member)
• Mark Brown (Linux, Debian)
• Markus Unterwaditzer
• Martin Kühl
• Martin Splitt
• Martin Wimpress (Former FSF member)
• Mathieu Comandon (Lutris)
• Matt Beland
• Matteo Tammaccaro
• Matthew mattcen Cengia
• Matthew P. Del Buono
• Matthew Stone
• Matthew Vernon (Debian developer)
• Matthew Wilcox (Linux kernel hacker)
• Matthias Arnason
• Matthias Klumpp (Debian, freedesktop.org)
• Matthias Schiffer (OpenWrt committer)
• Matthieu Gallien (KDE)
• Matthilde A. Stella
• Matt Lee (Libre.fm, former member of the GNU Project)
• Mauro Lizaur (Former Debian Developer)
• Maxime Renusson (Telecom engineer, FLOSS user and advocate)
• Meadhbh Hamrick
• Micah E Scott
• Michael Bikovitsky
• Michael Downey (United Nations Foundation)
• Michael Hoffmann
• Michael Juarez
• Michael ovyerus Mitchell
• Michael Perron
• Michael Schechter
• Mike Linksvayer
• Mikel Johnson
• Mitchell Baker, on behalf of Mozilla.
• M. Oliver Ghingold
• Morgan-Christopher Brooks
• Morgan Fletcher
• Morgan indrora Gangwere
• Morgan Lemmer-Webber
• Morgan Thomas
• Morten Linderud (Arch Linux maintainer)
• Mx Craven
• Myriam Rita Schweingruber
• Myrle Krantz (ASF member)
• Naglis Lesčinskas
• Nathan Dyer (former FSF associate member)
• Nathan Handler (Ubuntu/Debian Developer, freenode Staff, SeaGL Program Committee Co-Chair)
• Nathaniel J. Smith
• Neal Gompa (Fedora Project contributor, Mageia Project Council Member, Mageia.Org Board Member, openSUSE Project Board Member, OpenMandriva contributor)
• Neil Watson (Former CFEngine Community Advisory Board Member)
• Nick Guenther
• Nick Ruest
• 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)
• Nicole Martinez
• Nikos Roussos (FSFE, GA member)
• Nils Adermann
• Nixon Enraght-Moony
• Noah/coolreader18 (RustPython maintainer)
• Noel Georgi
• Odhiambo Dormnic (@ayimdomnic)
• Ole Streicher (Debian Developer)
• Olivier Berger (FSF member, or associate member since 2002)
• Open Source Diversity Community
• Orhun Parmaksız (Arch Linux maintainer)
• Orion Montoya (former rms-assist, former FSF, GPLv3 drafting-process software developer)
• Parker Higgins
• Patrick Engelman
• Paul Adams
• Paul Cutler (former GNOME Foundation)
• Paul Fisher (Former FSF employee and union representative)
• Paul McLanahan (Engineer at Mozilla)
• Paul Woolcock
• Peter Hazenberg (Peetz0r)
• Peter Hunt
• Peter Jones (Fedora developer)
• Peter Van Eynde
• Petrohs
• Phil Dibowitz
• Philippe Normand
• Pierre Marijon
• Pierre Ozoux (@pierreozoux)
• Pranav Teegavarapu
• Rachel Domagalski
• Rafael Silva
• Rami Chowdhury
• rany
• Reed Loden
• Rémi Verschelde (Godot Engine, Mageia)
• Richard Maw
• Richard Mehlinger
• Richard Schneeman
• Rich Felker (musl libc)
• Roan Kattouw
• Robert Barat
• Robin Widegren
• Rob Vincent
• Rosanna Yuen (GNOME Foundation)
• Ruben Schade
• Ryan Finnie (Finnix founder; Debian; Ubuntu)
• Ryan Gannon
• Ryan Gonzalez
• Ryan Heywood
• Ryan Lahfa
• Sajid Ali
• Sambhav Saggi
• Sam Hartman (Former Debian Project Leader)
• Sam Hocevar (Former Debian Project Leader)
• Sam Muirhead
• Sam Pavlovic
• Sam Phillips
• Sam Pritchard
• Santiago Torres-Arias (Arch Linux, Purdue University, in-toto)
• Saptak S
• Sarah Connor
• Sasi Olin (openSUSE Member, former openSUSE Board member)
• Satvik Sharma
• Scott Walters
• Sean McGinnis
• Sean O'Brien
• Sebastian Dröge (GStreamer, GNOME, Debian)
• Sebastian Ramacher (Debian Developer)
• Seth McCombs
• Shane Fagan
• Shelly Coen
• Shiz (former Alpine Linux developer)
• Síle Ekaterin Aman (APK Fission, Adélie Linux Core Team)
• Simeon Smith
• Simon Phipps (Former OSI President)
• Simon Richter
• Simon Wistow
• Skylar Alexandra Bleed
• Solly Ross (Kubernetes KubeBuilder maintainer)
• Soren L. Hansen
• Sriram Ramkrishna
• Starchy Grant (EFF, signing in personal capacity)
• Stefan Crain
• Stephen A. Goss
• Steve Langasek (former Debian Technical Committee member; Ubuntu Technical Board member)
• Steve McIntyre (Former Debian Project Leader)
• Steven DuBois
• Sydney Schreckengost
• Tab Atkins-Bittner (@tabatkins, active W3C/TC39/WHATWG editor)
• Tamás Szelei
• Tamreen Khan
• tanmatsu
• Tanner Filip
• Taowa (Debian Developer, former LP keynote panelist)
• Thaddée Tyl
• TheEvilSkeleton
• Thomas Wouters (former GNU contributor)
• Thom Chiovoloni
• Tianon Gravi
• Tierney Cyren (Node.js Community Committee Chairperson, Electron, OpenJS Foundation CPC)
• Tim D. Smith (Mozilla; former member, Homebrew PLC)
• Tim Pierce (former GNU Guile contributor)
• Tobias Fella (KDE)
• Tobias Klausmann
• Tollef Fog Heen (Former Debian Technical Committee member)
• Tom "spot" Callaway (Fedora Council member, former LP speaker)
• Tony Colston
• Tony Richards
• tre murillo
• Trevor Thalacker
• Trolli Schmittlauch
• Victor Hugo Soliz Kuncar
• Victoria "tdfischer" Fierce (Former KDE Multimedia and Phonon-GStreamer maintainer)
• Vincent Huang Jiahao
• Vincent Wong
• Vipul Gupta
• Vivia Nikolaidou (GStreamer)
• Wendy Bolm (Chief Operations Officer, CommitChange)
• Will Barton
• Will Hawkins
• William Theaker (Former FSF staff member)
• Wolthera van Hövell (Krita/KDE)
• 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 Klippenstein (aka @zach-klippenstein, Square)
• Zach van Rijn
• Zvi Gilboa