Revising HBR

[Richard Fontana]

This message attempts in part to comply with the Hindering
Backchannels Rule (https://git.copyleft.org/copyleft-next/hbr). I had
a telephonic conversation with Bradley M. Kühn last week in which
Bradley proposed that I take on the task of proposing revisions to
HBR. Bradley made a few general suggestions which I agreed with. I do
not yet have a substantive proposal but hope to have something soon.

The general desirability of revising HBR is fairly clear. The original
HBR (which was not thereafter modified significantly beyond the 2020
renaming) was a product of an earlier era, when the sociopolitical
situation surrounding FLOSS legal stuff was rather different from what
we have today. In particular, it seemed at one time that a distorted
take on the Chatham House Rule might be generally embraced in FLOSS
legal and policy circles, which never quite happened. You can also see
in the original HBR a sort of sneering contempt for mainstream
"normie" lawyer culture, which I guess was a bit immature in
retrospect even if it reflected sincere feeling and was not entirely
without justification. The "methodological" part of HBR proved to be
impractical and, frankly, unfair.

The part of HBR that remained most valid was the encouragement of
transparency and, indeed, hindering backchannels. I think the new HBR
should focus on a more practical version of that aspect.

Richard