[ Thanks to Jason
Greenwood for this link. ]
“Free software advocates protesting the decision to include
Microsoft Corp. at an open source and government conference showed
up in American Revolutionary War uniforms and passed out a few
flyers Monday but otherwise didn’t cause much of a ruckus.“The six protestors were at one point asked by a security
officer to leave the building on the campus of George Washington
University in Washington, but when they refused the officer didn’t
push the issue. The protesters, led by Ruben Safir, president of
New York Linux organization NYLXS, passed out a one-page flyer
headlined ‘Beware the false advocate!’“The flyer, complete with quotes from Revolutionary War leaders,
accused Tony Stanco, organizer of the conference Open
Standards/Open Source for National and Local eGovernment Programs
in the U.S. and EU, of selling out the ideals of the free software
movement. Safir and the others were protesting Stanco’s decision to
allow a Microsoft representative to speak about the company’s
shared source initiative here. Free software advocates see shared
source as an imitation of open source, available to few privileged
Microsoft customers…”