State of affairs for AllStarLink, Hamvoip, the GPL and this subreddit From https://bit.ly/2x7kFcI
Cicero wrote in his Dialogue, De Oratore that “speech matters in those forms of government where consensus is achieved by reasoned persuasion rather than by autocratic decree, and where political decisions are submitted to the crucible of argument and counter‐argument in the public forum.”
It is unfortunate that someone felt the need to remove my post AllStarLink/Hamvoip GPL Tracker in what can only be characterized as a suppression of free speech and the truth and giving into the whims of tyrants who wish to suppress information unfavorable to them. While it is true that I did not fire the first shot in this online battle with John David McGough I did bring forth a very inconvenient truth for both him and those who support him within our community.
As has been very publicly demonstrated within this subreddit and elsewhere, a campaign of disinformation and deceit has been waged against the likes of myself and others who stand by and up for their freedoms as granted to us not only under the social contracts of the Internet but the Open Source movement and the GNU General Public License (and other open source licenses). The campaign of censorship and misinformation we have witnessed is anathema to the very principles of our hobby and the spark that attracts people to it in the first place: the love of learning, tinkering, socializing, and sharing with others. A campaign of threats, attacks, lies, and misinformation in a very dishonorable and despicable attempt by John David McGough to steal the legacy of the late Jim Dixon (WB6NIL) and take credit for more than what he has given and is due with regards to app_rpt.c and associated AllStarLink programs.
I am indeed saddened by the unabashed displays of greed, ranchor, and pettiness that we have witnessed during presentation of irrefutable facts by, myself and others, and the discourse that has followed.
My fellow hams and curious onlookers this exercise that I have partaken in is not about nor has it ever been about discrediting the contributions that all have made to the AllStarLink software. Be it contributions from credited sources, anonymous sources or even John David himself. For the only way in which our community grows, open source remains viable, and the legacy of the late Jim Dixon is honored is by everyone adhering to the social contract that grants us the freedoms to modify, use, and distribute in source and binary forms copyrighted works licensed by the GNU General Public License. Failure to abide by, or demand others abide by the license which has granted them the same freedoms you and I have, not only diminishes open source and our community, but it also makes us complicit in willingly surrendering the very rights that have been granted and guaranteed to us said license. The willful surrendering of our rights for a few shiny baubles does more harm or our community, open source and tarnishes the legacy of the late Jim Dixon than all the transgressions of the likes of John David and others like him.
I am also troubled when threats are made that result in a chilling affect on free speech especially when it presents what others would find an inconvenient truth. The English Philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote about the chilling effects and danger of limiting expression in what he called “the tyranny of the majority”.
“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that is is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” Mill argued that one can only come about truth through the collision of a true proposition with an erroneous one.
Free speech today is shaped not only by those in the media but also social media influences in the online world. As Mill put it this is “a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression .. it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself”. The tyranny becomes evident when prevailing opinions are challenged in an online forum such as this and uncomfortable questions are asked. The tools arrayed by such tyranny is very much the same social tyranny that Mills warned us against.
By allowing those who would use threats and intimidation tactics as weapons to silence facts and opinions they do like we, we give in to the whims of petty tyrants and embolden them to continue their unacceptable behaviour. Caving to the false bravado of tyrants who wish to silence others is surrendering our freedom of speech and expressions. It prevents the collision of an erroneous proposition with a true one in public for everyone to see and judge for themselves.
I for one do not wish to live in such a world. Do you?
Instead I shall choose to continue my exercise in presenting irrefutable facts and challenging John David McGough at every turn as he continues with his falsehoods.
I use all my fellow hams and curious onlookers to join me in out demands of John David McGough abide by the GNU GPL and social contracts of the Internet and Open Source movements and immeditaly release the source code in the Hamvoip distribution of app_rpt.c and associated AllStarlink programs, that said source code shall compile and be an exact binary match and/or retain full functionality of the versions distributed in the Hamvoip distributions. And that he publicly apologize for his actions, his transgressions against the late Jim Dixon, and others her and elsewhere that he has attacked, threatened, bullied, lied about and to. That he prostrate himself to the community and those he has attacked and ask for their forgiveness for his transgressions, then join forces with others and actively work to heal and grow our community and the AllStarLink software and platform as free for all ham radio operators to use, enjoy and modify.