2023-04-17 15:54:12 +00:00
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---
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date: 2014-10-15T00:00:00-05:00
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title: "Respectful Software"
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2023-04-18 16:16:48 +00:00
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tags: [free-software, en_us, english, privacy, security, fedora-planet, philosophy, thoughts]
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2023-04-17 15:54:12 +00:00
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---
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**To what extent should Free Software respect its users?**
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The question, strange as it may sound, is not only valid but also
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becoming more and more important these days. If you think that the [four
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freedoms](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) are enough to
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guarantee that the Free Software will respect the user, you are probably
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being oversimplistic. The four freedoms **are** essential, but they are
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not sufficient. You need more. I need more. And this is why I think the
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Free Software movement should have been called the **Respectful
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Software** movement.
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I know I will probably hear that I am too radical. And I know I will
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hear it even from those who defend Free Software the way I do. But I
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need to express this feeling I have, even though I may be wrong about
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it.
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It all began as an innocent comment. I make lots of presentations and
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talks about Free Software, and, knowing that the word “Free” is
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ambiguous in English, I started joking that Richard Stallman should have
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named the movement “Respectful Software”, instead of “Free Software”. If
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you think about it just a little, you will see that “respect” is a word
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that brings different interpretations to different people, just as
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“free” does. It is a subjective word. However, at least it does not have
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the problem of referring to completely unrelated things such as “price”
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and “freedom”. Respect is respect, and everybody knows it. What can
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change (and often does) is *what* a person considers respectful or not.
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(*I am obviously not considering the possible ambiguity that may exist
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in another language with the word “respect”.*)
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So, back to the software world. I want you to imagine a Free Software.
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For example, let's consider one that is used to connect to so-called
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“social networks” like [GNU Social](http://gnu.io/social/) or
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[pump.io](http://pump.io/). I do not want to use a specific example
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here; I am more interested in the consequences of a certain decision.
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Which decision? Keep reading :-).
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Now, let's imagine that this Free Software is just beginning its life,
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probably in some code repository under the control of its developer(s),
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but most likely using some proprietary service like GitHub (which is an
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issue by itself). And probably the developer is thinking: “*Which social
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network should my software support first?*”. This is an extremely valid
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and important question, but sometimes the developer comes up with an
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answer that may not be satisfactory to its users. This is where the
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“respect” comes into play.
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In our case, this bad answer would be “Facebook”, “Twitter”, “Linkedin”,
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or any other unethical social network. However, those are exactly the
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easiest answers for many and many Free Software developers, either
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because those “vampiric” services are popular among users, or because
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the developer him/herself uses them!!
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By now, you should be able to see where I am getting at. My point, in a
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simple question, is: “**How far should we, Free Software developers,
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allow users to go and harm themselves *and* the community?**”. Yes, this
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is not just a matter of self-inflicted restrictions, as when the user
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chooses to use a non-free software to edit a text file, for example. It
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is, in most cases, a matter of harming **the community** too. (I have
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written a post related to this issue a while ago, called
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“[Privacy as a Collective Good]({filename}/2014-05-15-privacy-collective-good.md)”.)
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It should be easy to see that it does not matter if I am using Facebook
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through my shiny Free Software application on my computer or cellphone.
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What **really** matters is that, when doing so, you are basically
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supporting the use of those unethical social networks, to the point that
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perhaps some of your friends are also using them **because** of you.
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What does it matter if they are using Free Software to access them or
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not? Is the benefit offered by the Free Software big enough to eliminate
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(or even soften) the problems that exist when the user uses an unethical
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service like Linkedin?
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I wonder, though, what is the limit that we should obey. Where should we
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draw the line and say “I will not pass beyond this point”? Should we
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just “abandon” the users of those unethical services and social
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networks, while we lock ourselves in our not-very-safe world? After all,
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we **need** to communicate with them in order to bring them to our
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cause, but it is hard doing so without getting our hands dirty. But that
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is a discussion to another post, I believe.
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Meanwhile, I could give plenty of examples of existing Free Softwares
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that are doing a disservice to the community by allowing (and even
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**promoting**) unethical services or solutions for their users. They are
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**disrespecting** their users, sometimes exploiting the fact that many
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users are not fully aware of privacy issues that come as a “gift” when
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you use those services, without spending any kind of effort to **teach**
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the users. However, I do not want this post to become a flamewar, so I
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will not mention any software explicitly. I think it should be quite
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easy for the reader to find examples out there.
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Perhaps this post does not have a conclusion. I myself have not made my
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mind completely about the subject, though I am obviously leaning towards
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what most people would call the “radical” solution. But it is definitely
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not an easy topic to discuss, or to argument about. Nonetheless, we are
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closing our eyes to it, and we should not do so. The future of Free
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Software depends also on what kinds of services we promote, and what
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kinds of services we actually warn the users against. This is my
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definition of **respect**, and this is why I think we should develop
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Free **and** Respectful Software.
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