2024-08-03, 11:20–11:50 (Asia/Taipei), RB105
Recent years have seen an overall increase in "proprietarization" of previously FLOSS software, especially from VC-funded startups. But also the IBM/Red Hat situation shows how too much corporate control over free software projects can lead to a decrease in software freedom even in systems previously thought to be very resilient. This talk will go into an analysis of the IBM/Red Hat developments, what systemic issues are at play, and how the community can build more resilient systems in the future.
As a former advocate and, yes, I admit, "fanboy" of the "Red Hat model", recent developments regarding user rights of Red Hat subscription customers are very troublesome. For a long time, Red Hat served as the "lighthouse" on how to balance community-oriented, copyleft software development and release, with a corporate business model. Recently, it seems the now IBM-controlled Red Hat is going down a strong road on making it harder and harder for customers to exercise their rights to the point where it is now called out as "actively unfriendly to community-oriented Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)" by prominent software freedom advocates (Cit: https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/ ).
This talk will however not focus on license compliance and legal issues, but try to paint a broader picture of the psychological and sociological issues at play of "community members turned employees" and the slow erosion of freedom that can occur in these setups.
Finally, it is the goal of this session to highlight some take-aways and propose ideas of how to make community projects more resilient against corporate take-over.
Simon Hornbachner has been working for 15 years in the Free and Open Source Software space, both as a volunteer for organsizations such as the Free Software Foundation Europe, as well as in a professional capacity setting up corporate Open Source Policy Offices, giving developer trainings, and creating and implementing cybersecurity operations programs around Free and Open Source Software.
Recently, he started his own business, offering consulting services in the area of strategy, governance and cybersecurity around Free and Open Source software.