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Re: [FSF] Your chance to get involved on the new campaign against Windo


From: Zerothis Baud
Subject: Re: [FSF] Your chance to get involved on the new campaign against Windows 7
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 20:05:46 -0700

This is an open letter published under the terms of the Creative
Commons Share Alike 1.0 Generic license (no attribution requirement).

If Microsoft wants to make an ass out of itself should we really stand
in its way? Rather, wouldn't it be better if people decided for
themselves what Microsoft is?

This strategy (so far) seems way too anti-Microsoft to be successful.
And in the grand scheme of things, Microsoft is very small. The
problem is proprietary software. Lets not lose site of the real enemy.
Ask your self these tough questions. Do you put Sun and Microsoft in
the same category and same level? Sun of course is responsible for
more OSS (but not necessarily Libre Software) than any other
for-profit company. Go ahead and contemplate your opinions of these
companies for a moment. Now suppose Microsoft started FSFing or OSSing
its intellectual properties, bought up other IPs to do that same with,
founded and donating to many FSF and OSS projects, and began offering
company resources and incentives to encourage it's employees to
participate in FSF and OSS projects, then suddenly Microsoft and Sun
were contributing equally to FSF and OSS. Now be honest, at any time
did you have to alter your opinion of Sun to make it equal to your
opinion of the theoretical New Microsoft? Or would you still not think
of the companies equally?

btw, I consider the cooperation between open source and proprietary
software, due to the current existence of proprietary software, to be
a lesser and temporary evil. I pray for future with %100 Libre
Software. Also, fell free to answer any of my questions or point out
my errors. I don't like being wrong so please correct me when
necessary.

We can't exactly declare war on Microsoft, but we can topple their
empire. There are perfectly clean, legal, and morally justified ways
to defeating an enemy without war. Segregation, apartheid, even the
British Empire, were toppled (mostly) by civil disobedience. In fact,
in the last 33 years, nonviolent resistance was a key force in
toppling 50 of 67 evil empires
<http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/game/index.php>. Sadly and
ironically, that game is proprietary and not available for any GNU
kernel (Linux), nor even Mac. If we do things right, there's no need
to even mention Windows or Microsoft. If we truly help people believe
that Libre software is virtuous, and that proprietary software is
sinful, they will know for themselves what to believe about Windows 7.
Don't convince, because if you can convince someone, they can be
convinced otherwise. Rather, help them to believe the truth.

Some practical advice:
For each of the sins (that may happen to correspond to Windows 7),
include at least one equal or greater corresponding and virtue of
Libre Software (and a link to 10,000 virtues if you got'em). If you
can't find a corresponding virtue, then implement one, or don't
mention the sin. Offering no better alternative to the sin only
benefits the enemy ("better the devil you know than the one you
don't", as the heathens say).
Be truthful. Express no anger. Accept and understand the anger of your
enemy and do not be provoked. Don't submit to their demands. Don't be
ruled by fear. Support your community that stands against your enemy.
Treat persecution of yourself in front of witnesses as a joyful gift.
Defend strangers and associates outside of your community from
persecution. Be polite. Stay on the issue, no name calling. Respect
your enemy but express no honor of them, other than truth; because
even the things they do right are tainted by their motives or methods.
Defend anyone, especially your enemy, should your fellows attack him
in any way that violates these tenants; both publicly and privately.

Some general strategies that may or may not apply:
Boycotts
Bribes by private citizens for influence, but never bribes to pervert justice.
Community consciousness raising (a note about getting attention, its
about Libre Software not the protesters, make sure the attention is
appropriately directed)
Community education
Diplomatic wrestling
General strikes
Hunger strikes
Information warfare (truth about both sides)
Leafletting
Legal wrestling
Lobbying
Picketing
Prayer (by individuals and concurrent groups)
Principled refusal of awards and honors
Protest art (visual/literary/performance/song/music/poetry/videos/games)
Sabotage of weapons and other tools of violence (in some countries,
companies can and do legally hire people to do violence over software
issues)
Underground railroads
Tax resistance
Vigiling

In selecting strategies remember the primary target. Windows 7,
Microsoft, and even proprietary software are secondary targets. The
hearts of the people is the primary target. If Microsoft were
dissolved tomorrow, they would buy other proprietary software. If all
companies using proprietary software were dissolved tomorrow, people
would create more proprietary software. Unless, the idea of
proprietary software were abhorrent to all.
Non-cooperation targets those who hold power close to their heart
Bribes targets those who hold self and money close to their heart.
Note that civil authorities are usually legally and morally forbidden
from giving or accepting bribes; so community members in positions of
authority should not be expected to participate in bribes against the
enemy. An example an acceptable bribes would be to compensate FSF
advocates that work for Microsoft yet express the truth.
Boycotts and bribes target those who hold money close to their heart
Raising community consciousness targets those who hold conscious close
to their heart.
Community education targets those who hold knowledge close to their heart
Diplomatic wrestling targets those who hold peace close to their heart
General strikes target those who hold a variety of things including
power and money close to their heart
Hunger strikes target those who hold people close to their heart
Leafletting and information warfare targets those who hold a variety
of things including truth, self, and intellect close to their heart
Legal wrestling does not target the heart. Use with caution.
Lobbying. Does not target the heart unless they hold self or money
close to their heart (in which case, this becomes bribery). Use with
caution.
Picketing draws attention so that another method may be used. Its
important that people believe they should not cross a picket line, as
forcing them not to cross has the precisely wrong effect.
Prayer targets the heart. Mostly the heart of the ones who pray. Play
blessings. Pray that the enemy be used to the full advantage of the
community. For instance, suppose Microsoft spoke the whole truth about
their motives. Only when the hardened hearts of the enemy are shown to
be clearly unaffected, pray curses.
Refusal of awards and honors draws attention so that another method
may be used.
Protest art, really *good* protest art, targets the heart.
Sabotage is only to defend against violence, not to do more violence.
Tax resistance does not target the heart. And it can land you in jail.
Use with caution.
Underground railroads target the heart when they defend and support
victims of the enemy
Vigiling draws attention so that another method may be used.

Some requirements:
A Common frame of reference. People and companies need to understand
FSF. They need to truly understand how it works and benefits them. To
often they are presented with geek speak or vague utopia concepts that
do not relate to them. *Very important*: If people believe that
proprietary software has no bearing on conscience, spirit, soul,
morality, karma, etc., they will always weigh the practical advantages
and disadvantages and find situations where they see proprietary
software as the most advantageous. They must have faith, before you
can effect their heats. For instance, a person of Judeo-Christian
tradition needs to believe proprietary software is satanic for forcing
them to disobey God's command to lover their neighbor; and this  is
the same as with all beliefs that hold to reciprocity
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity>, including the
irreligist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_(evolution)>.

Provoking self-reflection. People and companies don't just need to be
shown their errors concerning their ideas of FSF, they need to believe
it. If they won't accept their errors, their's no point. Infiltrating
strongholds of disbelief is a good way to eventually, overrule the
established beliefs. I've meet OSS supporters who actually quit
Microsoft over it. They quit, instead of speaking the truth to their
fellows or gaining a position of authority to introduce FSF ideas into
the company.

Promote an open society. If truth cannot be freely spoken, resistance
will fail. Where ever *any* information is censored, altered, or
credible lies created... change it, or take the resistance elsewhere.
*This includes pro-FSF forums* that censor.

On 4/16/09, Matt Lee <campaigns@fsf.org> wrote:
> # Windows 7 Sins!
>
> Many of you have written to us asking what we are going to do about
> the impending nightmare that will be Windows 7.
>
> We wanted to let you know that we are starting work on our campaign
> against Windows 7 adoption -- but we need your help to develop the
> narrative to the campaign.
>
> Windows 7 represents something we're calling "Windows' 7 sins", which
> plays on the Seven Deadly Sins.
>
>        1. Lust
>        2. Gluttony
>        3. Greed
>        4. Sloth
>        5. Wrath
>        6. Envy
>        7. Pride
>
> We are looking for something different from our BadVista campaign. We
> are unlikely to be blessed with as many mistakes as Microsoft
> committed with Vista. Already, the narrative in the media for Windows
> 7 is, "It's better than Vista" -- so we need to focus on the bigger
> picture of why society should avoid Microsoft and switch to free
> software.
>
>   The campaign needs to explain, with clear historical examples, the
>   harm Microsoft has inflicted through the use of its proprietary
>   operating system, in seven distinct ways. Almost all of Microsoft's
>   past bad behavior links back to the fact that they use proprietary
>   software to keep people subjugated. We want to remind everyone why
>   avoiding Microsoft is in their self-interest, but also to explain
>   why they should switch to freedom. Each narrative should also make
>   clear the benefit that can be directly attributed to using free
>   software, and why continuing to use Windows XP or moving to Mac OS X
>   isn't sufficient.
>
> You can help by sending us a written submission that describes one
> harm that Microsoft has inflicted. Think of each submission as being a
> page on the windows7sins.org website. Each submission we end up using
> will win its author a plush GNU as thanks!
>
> Here are some examples you might like to write about:
>
> 1. Microsoft corrupted the computer standards organization ISO to push
>    through encumbered standards like Office OpenXML.
>
> 2. Microsoft is using software patents to try and tax the use of
>    GNU/Linux, first by corrupting Novell and more recently by suing
>    TomTom over its implementation of the FAT file system.
>
> 3. Microsoft attacked the OLPC and lobbied and bribed governments to
>    ask for Windows machines, to the detriment of the freedom of
>    children.
>
> And many more...
>
> ## Get involved!
>
> Send your submission to <campaigns@fsf.org> by April 30. Subsequently,
> we will post each winning submission to the LibrePlanet.org wiki and
> ask the wider community to work on improving each one.
>
> If you'd like to discuss the campaign and other ideas about how to
> oppose Windows 7, you can use the fsf.org associate member forum, or
> join the new FSF associate members discussion mailing list we've created.
>
>   * <http://www.fsf.org/associate/forum/>
>   * <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsf-members>
>
> If you're on IRC, you can drop by the FSF members channel,
> #fsf-members on irc.gnu.org (Freenode).
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
This is not an ad, it is a personal promise (and my standard signature).
Do you like viruses, spam, ads, spending lots of money on software
that doesn't work as expected, figuring out how to install programs,
licensing agreements, restrictions on how many computers you can
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to tech support people with unintelligible accents who put you on
hold, send you to some other techsupport number, and make you do the
same things over and over? Well, you don't have to like these things
anymore, they are obsolete. <ubuntu.com>, it'll cost you exactly $0
and there's no catch. I guarantee it, I'm quite serious, in fact,
here's _home_phone_number_ 1-707-725-6976 (24/6, I'm never home on
Sunday). I promise to help you install it and migrate (actually its
easy, many people do it without any help at all). Call me, I'll help
you with anything you need to know that I know how to help with. If I
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