In a blog post, John Gilmore a digital rights advocate and co-founder of the EFF announced that he has been removed from any active role on the organization's board, but will remain a member.
John gilmore is one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Cypherpunk mailing list, and Cygnus Solutions. Created the alt hierarchy. On Usenet and is a major contributor to the GNU Project.
Cohn's Post it does not describe the nature or details of the dispute that led to Gilmore's departure. EFF does not appear to publish board minutes, nor to have posted its constitution or bylaws on its site (but advocates transparency), making it difficult to determine why Gilmore was charged or the situation that led to the decision.
“Since helping found EFF 31 years ago, John Gilmore has provided leadership and advice on many of the most important digital rights issues we advocate for today. But in recent years, we have not been able to agree on the best way to communicate and work together, and we have not been able to agree on a way forward with Gilmore in a governance role. That is why the EFF board recently made the difficult decision to vote to remove Gilmore from the board. «
“We are deeply grateful for the many years Gilmore has given EFF as a leader and advocate, and the board elected him to the role of Distinguished Board Member to move forward. "I am very proud of the impact EFF has had on maintaining and expanding individual rights and freedoms as the world has adapted to major technological changes," said Gilmore. "My departure will leave behind a strong board of directors and an even stronger staff that cares deeply about these issues." «
“John Gilmore co-founded EFF in 1990 along with John Perry Barlow, Steve Wozniak and Mitch Kapor, and provided significant financial support essential to the survival and growth of the organization over many years. Since then, Gilmore has worked closely with EFF staff, board, and attorneys on privacy, free speech, security, encryption, and more. «
“In the 1990s, Gilmore found government documents confirming the First Amendment problem with government export controls on encryption and helped launch the Bernstein v DOJ filing, which resulted in a court ruling that the software's source code it was protected, because it was considered a freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment and the government regulations that prevented its publication were unconstitutional. The ruling made it legal in 1999 for web browsers, websites, and software like PGP and Signal to use whatever encryption they choose. «
“Gilmore also led EFF's efforts to design and build DES Cracker, which was seen as a fundamental advance in the way we assess information security and the public policies that control its use. At that time, the Data Encryption Standard (DES) of the 1970s was embedded in ATMs and banking networks, as well as popular software around the world. US government officials have proclaimed DES to be safe, while they can secretly intercept it themselves. The EFF DES Cracker has publicly shown that DES is in fact so weak that it can be broken in a week with an investment of less than $ 350,000. This catalyzed the creation and adoption of the much stronger Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) International Scale, now widely used to protect information around the world. «
“One of Gilmore's most important contributions to EFF and the digital rights movement has been hiring key people for the organization, including former CEO Shari Steele, current CEO Cindy Cohn, and Senior Advisor and President Adams of Internet Rights Lee Tien. «
»The EFF has always appreciated and appreciated Gilmore's views, even when we disagree. It is no exaggeration to say that EFF would not exist without him. We look forward to continuing to benefit from your knowledge and institutional guidance in your new role as a distinguished Board member. ”
Even if you have left the board of directors, you will still have the opportunity to continue “trying to get people to think more about the society they are building”, but without being able to vote.
Source: https://www.eff.org/