Much love to Dear Reader Derek for sending us this statement that Peter Brown of the Free Software Foundation sent out to freetard mailing lists this morning:

“Obviously the community of freedom is deeply saddened and disappointed by Sun’s decision to join Microsoft and sell un-free Windows software. In the recent past Sun has worked closely with the Free Software Foundation and the free community to help develop the specifications for the GPLv3. We’ve been hopeful that Sun would endorse the GPLv3 and adopt it for Sun products including Java and Solaris. Clearly now Sun has decided to move in a different direction and has declared itself to be an enemy of freedom. We think this is a wrong decision and one that will prove disastrous for Sun. To show our displeasure the Free Software Foundation has revoked the Lifetime Achievement Award which we had intended to present to Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz during our Software Freedom Day festivities in Boston on 15 September 2007.

“We urge all friends of software freedom to boycott Sun products including all applications that use the Java programming language. We furthermore urge members and friends to encourage their employers to remove all Sun equipment from their data centers and to replace that equipment with products that do not restrict freedom. Additionally, the Software Freedom Law Center has begun an investigation into certain allegations of malfeasance by Sun. If these are found to be true, SFLC and FSF will pursue remedies to these violations up to and including legal action to bring Sun into compliance. More information is available on our Web site, www.fsf.org. Thank you.”