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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."
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.
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.
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".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
There's no point being politically active if the target of your activism probably won't even notice. May as well just put up with it and get on with your life.
Wrong.
Anyone with money invested in the event will notice, and I'm sure the backlash from the grass roots users will convince them they should rethink their associations in future. seeing they are the people with the money, they are the only people who can make the Minister notice.
Figures in power are directly unreachable to the common man, but we can impact on them indirectly.
From the linux community to the interior minister:
Nuts!
There are some people I don't want as friends.
I can understand where this security-craze he's in comes from. Maybe I'd react similar if I was nearly shot. He's terrified. He sees terrorists and assassins everywhere, and he wants to protect himself and his country from them. It makes sense. And actually I do even feel pity for him.
Usually, though, such people seek professional help, not a political career. When you look at his recent decisions and law suggestions, it doesn't border anymore on paranoia, it's way beyond that border.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I went ahead and read about this guy and his party. My first thought was "hey, he doesn't seem to bad".
My second thought was, "Oh wait, I'm in America, I've been desensitized."
That's just a politician who wants to generate PR by attending an event that contains lots of buzzwords ("this Linux thingy and these computers and technology, that's trendy, let's attend"). But he doesn't own the LinuxTag. By staging a boycott, the German OSS crowd gives him a de facto ownership of the event.
Fantasy: http://ferrisfantasy.blogspot.com/
How would you like it to hear stuff like:
This surveillance camera and its motion detector was brought to you by Linux!
Or BigBrother 2007, it can't be evil, it's all open source!
I don't want this fucker (Schäuble) to be associated with anything FOSS.
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
That sounds like exactly the reason Schaeuble is a bad sponsor for the event. And exactly what people of conscience do, that corporations don't - one of the crucial differences between Linux and other OS'es, like OSX and Windows.
And it sounds like it's LinuxTag which should notice their community rebelling, not their pet Minister who doesn't care at all about either of them.
--
make install -not war
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).
If you don't like his policies, just vote next time.
What for? His predecessor from the other side of the political spectrum, Otto Schily, was just as bad as Wolfgang Schaeuble.
In theory, you're right, but in the prevalent climate of fear since 9/11 and the massive shift away from civil rights towards security, monitoring, using confessions extracted through torture by foreign governments, ethnic profiling ("Rasterfahndung")... there ain't much you can do about it anyway. The only party in Germany that's quite skeptical of all this was the FDP (they had a minister who resigned over this when they were still in power; though it was before 9/11), but even they finally caved in to the security doctrine and are just paying dishonest lip service w.r.t. civil rights.
So voting yes, but there's no real political alternative to pick from. Boycotting LinuxTag is the only way for some people to show that they disapprove of all this. It's not LinuxTag's fault however, just an unfortunate mishap and PR fiasco.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Sadly too many people think that all there is to a representative democracy is to vote once every four years and then the government can do whatever it likes without any repecussions.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
That could possibly be acceptable if police hackers would need a proper warrant, the number of infilitrations was very low, the general public would get to know about these numbers and last but not least the observed subject would be informed afterwards. Experience with telephone wiretapping in Germany tells us that none of these democratic requirements are taken seriously.
Additionally, there are reserveations against the software that would be used as it is sure to open security holes for other malware.
This is basically what Wolfgang Schaeuble stands for among the German linux community and I can absolutely understand that many fellow nerds do not want to support a LinuxTag in any way that is somehow associated with Schaeuble. I for one don't welcome our new trojan dropping overlord.
On se Internetz nobody noes your German.