Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 11:05:16
Not partnering with trillion-dollar, people-farming, human-rights-eroding, and democracy-destroying surveillance capitalists like Meta should be the lowest of low bars when it comes to organisations that purport to work on ethical technology but, clearly, even that bar is just too fucking high for some.
#SocialWebFoundation #SWF #fediverse #mastodon #pixelfed #vivaldi #writeAs #iftas #ghost #mammoth #meta #automattic #medium #flipboard #fordFoundation #fastly #institutionalCorruption #BigTech
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 11:15:53
@aral Even more directly projects that claim to work on privacy missions cannot resist littering their Cloudflared website with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other garbage antithetical to their mission.
I can understand to some extent them having a presence in those shitty walled gardens for outreach to those misled audiences, but when they proactively link into those shitholes from their public-facing website, it’s obviously quite disgusting.
RMS gives good guidance in this scenario:
https://stallman.org/facebook-presence.html
The links should go one-way: from the walled-garden to the free world.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 11:18:18
@aral they’re only too eager to help Meta do a bit of the ol’ reputation laundering, I guess
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 13:02:50
Every time Meta is discussed with me, I try to bring up their track record:
etc etc.
Their amoral and dangerous behaviour has to be the starting point for any discussion on working with them. Are people comfortable working with a company cited in reports on multiple separate massacres and genocides? A company that knew in advance people might get killed and said they would still carry on regardless?
Force Meta supporters/collaborators to look at the elephant in the room, don't let them turn their eyes away.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 13:41:22
@FediThing @paintedsky Here’s another, very recent one, for your list:
https://newrepublic.com/post/185306/project-2025-dustin-carmack-meta
#Meta #Project2025 #farRight #fascism #SocialWebFoundation #SWF #mastodon #pixelfed #etc #theCompanyYouKeep
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 11:35:39
The problem that #SocialWebFoundation are not addressing https://hamishcampbell.com/opening-a-space-to-build-alternatives-omn/ is about change and challenge, the #NGO path they take is missing this, they do it on purpose to keep a seat at the table, which could be useful, but rarely turn out to be.
This can be fixed by https://hamishcampbell.com/tag/openprocess/ I understand this is a VERY UNCOMFORTABLE path for everyone, but it will work if backed up by https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=activism what do you think we can do to start this conversation?
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 13:44:39
There seems to be an attitude that once a common good develops to a certain point, it should be handed over to for-profits to exploit, that it must not continue as a common good.
I don't understand why so many people just go along with this without questioning it.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 14:19:36
@FediThing @hamishcampbell @aral
This is an inversion of the constitutional American principle that inventors should have exclusive rights to their useful inventions only for limited times. After that, anyone can use those inventions. That's why patents expire. A patent insures an inventor's exclusive rights. But, to get a patent, the inventor has to completely explain how to duplicate the invention, and the patent is a public document.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 15:06:35
Yeah, that used to be a great system!
But between Disney extending the protection period and software patents reducing the descriptions to vague nonsense, it has long since become a corporate cudgel.
smh
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 16:21:34
@doctorambient @FediThing @hamishcampbell @aral
Disney has pushed to extend copyright duration, not patents. Their extension is absurd, imho, but patents still expire in 20 years (mostly).
Software patents are a complicated mess. In most cases, software "inventions" wouldn't have much value after 20 years anyway. But pure software being subject to patents is a result of (again, imho) a misinterpretation of Diamond v. Diehr.
But, yeah... it ain't what the framers had in mind anymore.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 16:31:51
You are totally right! That was a complaint about copyright. I haven't slept well in the last week so I'm totally out of it. Sorry about that!! I promise that I'm usually not this sloppy. 🤪
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 18:48:33
@doctorambient @FediThing @hamishcampbell @aral
Not to worry. It is an equally legitimate gripe.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 19:20:35
@Professor_Stevens @FediThing @hamishcampbell the ActivityPub spec is patent-free. We had to forego any patent rights when we made the spec. Then, the hundreds of members of W3C, from companies to universities to governments, reviewed it and said they did not have, or would not enforce, patents on the protocol or its approaches. One nice thing about implementing a standard from an official standards group is that it's as clean as you can get for patents.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 22:44:54
@evan @Professor_Stevens @FediThing
A post to widen the conversation a bit https://hamishcampbell.com/where-do-you-see-the-opportunity-for-these-dialogues/
The process of the #W3C is good in part, but it's a small part of the social and cultural whole native path we need to push and celebrate, and as meany people point out defend.
Föderation EN Sa 28.09.2024 12:46:57
@aral it's an attempt at a power grab Aral, even Meta aside, it is an illegitimate attempt to take over the cultural and technological aspects of decentralised social communication. Only makes sense that they're partnering up with a bully to fund their mission. Read their founder's bio on Fedi, he thinks he owns ActivityPub, unchallenged by even the author or co-editors, W3C, etc and now he wants to set the tone for the Social Web and Fediverse.
