There is now a real possibility that Debian is going to withdraw the debian.community attacks from WIPO.
Some of the decision makers are waking up to the realities of legal action. During his election campaign for Debian Project Leader, Jonathan Carter wrote:
I has hoping we could just give a lawyer a lot of money and they could deal with it
Would he be so foolish if it was his own money?
It turns out that it is not just a whole lot of money at stake. When you involve lawyers, everybody's dirty laundry has to come out. Serious people quit and new people will be reluctant to replace them. Carter has demonstrated with his own words, above, that he did not calculate the real cost of this extreme act of bullying. Therefore, the only act of leadership remaining for this Debian Project Leader is to apologize and resign or prove that some other party, like Google, blackmailed him to do this.
Carter has the option to withdraw the claim from WIPO. Some lawyers would provide very strong reasons to do so. If Carter withdraws the claim then that is an admission of both failure and cowardice and he must simultaneously resign.
Chris Lamb attacked the privacy of my family at a very painful time. He violated a holiday season. Lucy Wayland died a death that may have been avoidable in a healthier organization. Chris Lamb's complete resignation from Debian would be a helpful act of leadership that will encourage future Debian Project Leaders to live up to that particular title.
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