German Linux Community Boycotting LinuxTag

em8chel writes "LinuxTag, Germany's major fair for Linux and Free Software, is facing a massive boycott from open source enthusiasts in the country this year. Although the event doesn't open for a week, the community is voicing their anger and disappointment on various forums about this year's LinuxTag running under the auspices of Wolfgang Schaeuble, the conservative Minister of Interior, whose positions on issues of interest to the community are controversial to say the very least. Due to online protests and calls for a boycott, the organizer of LinuxTag has released a statement (German version, serviceable Google translation), holding that the politician's policies and political views have nothing to do with supporting free software, adding that if the community boycotts LinuxTag, it's the open source software that will be hit the hardest, and that Schaeuble probably won't even notice."

Comments

Political albatross

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering Schäuble supported the invasion of Iraq by the United States, I can understand why many would not want to be associated with him. Then last month Schäuble said guilty until proven innocent is the way criminal jurisprudence should work. Sounds like this guy is kooky.

Re:Political albatross

[saibot834]

Many civil rights activists in Germany are alarmed because of his proposals to stop the assumption of innocence when there is a chance to prevent acts of terrorism [1]. Civil rights activist see him as an enemy of the German constitution, as he is a strong supporter of telecommunications data retention and overall surveillance.
His views on invasion of Iraq was quite "normal"; his party, the CDU was supporting it.

Re:Political albatross

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, let me try to give a more comprehensible translation of his first two sentences:

Assumption of innocence means we'd rather let ten guilty ones go unpunished than punish someone innocent. But this principle can not hold if one has to protect against a threat. (Gefahrenabwehr : this one's really tricky, cause it doesnt explicitly say so but it is commonly used only in a context when a person is physically endangered)

So he's actually saying that Assumption of Innocence is indeed of high value to him, but this principle just cannot apply in the context of terrorist threats. Whether he's right about this and the methods he proposed is open for debate but it would be way unfair to put him in a line with Gestapo or KGB methods.

Re:Political albatross

[getha]

"Die Unschuldsvermutung heißt im Kern, dass wir lieber zehn Schuldige nicht bestrafen, als einen Unschuldigen bestrafen. Der Grundsatz kann nicht für die Gefahrenabwehr gelten. Wäre es richtig zu sagen: Lieber lasse ich zehn Anschläge passieren, als dass ich jemanden, der vielleicht keinen Anschlag begehen will, daran zu hindern versuche? Nach meiner Auffassung wäre das falsch."

What he says is basically this:

The innocence principle means that we would rather let 10 guilty men free than punish 1 innocent man. However, this cannot be applied to terrorist activity.

Can you also say: rather 10 terrorist attacks unstopped, than stopping someone who perhaps doesn't want to commit a terrorist act? My belief is that this is false.

Well, I see where he's coming from with that quote. But the question is in how far are you willing to go to stop terrorist acts. In my personal opinion in most countries we have already gone too far, and have started venturing into 1984-esque territories.

And on-topic to the main post: if the boycot is broad enough I'll bet he does notice. But when in recent times have boycotts worked to get attention?

Boycott schmoycott

[Anonymous Coward]

Those with a stake in open source software will attend, the rest doesn't matter. Schaeuble won't even be there, so there is no chance for a confrontation, which is probably a good thing, because Wolfgang Schaeuble is a red rag to many technology-minded people in Germany. He's the one pushing for the storing of all connection metadata, putting fingerprints in RFID passports and lots more which limits freedom just by making people feel watched all the time. How they didn't consider that when they made him patron of the LinuxTag is beyond me, but a boycott is just not going to happen.

To give you an idea who this is

[Opportunist]

Wolfgang Schäuble had the "bright" idea to have the law enforcement in Germany develop a trojan and infect the computer of suspects (and he's pushing strongly to make the requirements to use it rather lenient), and is also one of the main pushers behind the recent law that connections via phone or internet have to be recorded (not the content, "only" the location of the participant (in case of cellphones), endpoints and so on, to identify who talked with whom, when and from where).

I can well understand why people wouldn't want to be in the same convention with him. Actually, I can't figure out why anyone would want to have him near, unless following the old saying "keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer".

Here a bit of background...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Minister of Interior has traditionally been the "Schirmherr" (a sort of prominent figurehead, it's mostly a symbolic role) of Linuxtag. However, the current Minister of Interior has been furthering some pretty crazy ideas and is considered by many to be a threat to constitutional freedoms. For example, he strongly advocates data retention and what he calls "online search and seizure" which basically amounts to government agents hacking into private computers without noticing the owner to look for material that is illegal per se or planning material for illegal operations. In addition he has mentioned in an interview that "innocent until proven guilty" should not apply in certain situations.

This is why a lot of people think that he shouldn't be in a figurehead position of Linuxtag since his values are opposed to what Linuxtag stands for (or should stand for).

It might have to do with the language

[Opportunist]

The German translation of casting a vote would be "Stimme abgeben". Which can be retranslated as "giving up your voice".