We have received inquiries about a recently-published “Joint Statement by Free Software Foundation Europe and Software Freedom Conservancy Regarding Eben Moglen and Software Freedom Law Center.”

Concerning matters in litigation SFLC speaks only through its legal filings. Former SFLC employees Karen Sandler and Bradley Kuhn have brought these same claims to the US Trademark Trial and Appeals Board, seeking an order to prohibit me from questioning them under oath in SFLC’s action to cancel a fraudulently-acquired trademark—depositions which they have now been avoiding for five years. Our recent filings contesting their motion are therefore all that we can say at present. The sworn statements of Kuhn, Sandler, and Kuhn’s psychotherapist also provide valuable context.

Background concerning FSFE’s involvement in this matter can be found in a Code of Conduct complaint I filed with FSFE in October 2020. FSFE never investigated my complaint. The present statement suggests a sudden interest in these events. One would think that the first order of business would be that long-delayed investigation. Our request for an independent investigator given the parties charged, which has been pending for three years, should now be honored.

It seems to have become fashionable in the US these days to call opposing counsel “DERANGED,” “rogue,” or “a thug.” I have been a lawyer, a legal historian, and a teacher and trainer of lawyers for nearly forty years; I know why this conduct is dangerous and unacceptable. But we are each personally responsible to the courts whose officers we are for maintaining the dignity of justice. This matter is in the court’s hands, put there by those who are now shouting at me in the street. Perhaps when the tribunal has ruled it will be appropriate to respond further.

Please email any comments on this entry to press@softwarefreedom.org.

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