Mamba wrote:
Yes, it indeed is very sad.

But this also is presenting a serious ethical, moral, and legal issue for the XOOPS Foundation Board of Directors: Herko, Marcan, and DavidI2.

First, let's set the baseline: Board of Directors of the XOOPS Foundation has the ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to look after the best interests of the XOOPS Project. Nothing different from a Board of Directors of any company. The mission of the Foundation is clear about it - it is to: "support the XOOPS Project and the XOOPS Community in any way it can." That's what Herko, Marcan, and DavidI2 committed to by becoming a member of the Board.

Now let's go through the timeline:

Sept. 13th: Marcan, while a member of the XOOPS Foundation, who is obligated to "support the XOOPS Project and the XOOPS Community in any way it can" creates ImpressCMS project, which is a fork of XOOPS, and thus a competitor of XOOPS:

a) he creates ImpressCMS project on SourceForge
b) he registers www.impresscms.org and www.impresscms.com, of which DNS address is then forwarded to his server INBOXHOSTING.COM

He is joined on this ImpressCMS project by Herko and David I2, while there are still members of the Board of Directors of the XOOPS Foundation and who supposed to look after XOOPS Interests!

All this is happening in a secretive manner. Outside, they present themselves as fully loyal XOOPS members, publishing on:

Oct. 10, 2007 XOOPS Manifesto

Nov. 14, 2007 New Community Initiatives

In the meantime they are actively recruiting XOOPS developers to join their efforts (current list as of Dec. 12 includes 20 developers.) All this while they are still members of the XOOPS Board of Directors.

Now, by ANY ethical, moral, and legal standard, this is a clear "breach of contract" and violation of their Board duties. One just CANNOT be in a good faith a member of the XOOPS Foundation with the mission to "support the XOOPS Project and the XOOPS Community in any way it can", and at the same time actively create a competing project and actively recruit developers from within the XOOPS Community for it.

Since The XOOPS Foundation / Stichting XOOPS is a legal entity under Dutch law, such behavior has clear legal consequences for the Members of the Board of Directors who are clearly acting in bad faith and with the intent to damage XOOPS - after all I don't think that anyone of them would believe that "Hey, if we create ImpressCSM, it will help XOOPS".

Therefore, I would like to formally request that:

a) Herko, Marcan, and DavidI2, have to IMMEDIATELY resign from the XOOPS Foundation, as they clearly violated the trust of the XOOPS Community and committed illegal and unethical activity.

b) Before they resign, the should appoint to the Foundation Board the current Project Leader, who is DJ. This will ensure continuity of the Board and fulfill the legal requirements of the XOOPS Foundation.

c) DJ and the Project Council will appoint additional members of the XOOPS community to the Board, so the Foundation can move forward with its tasks and objectives.

I truly hope that out of respect for the XOOPS community, Herko, Marcan, and DavidI2, will do the right thing and accept the consequences of their actions, which were clearly in violation of legal requirements of the XOOPS Foundation Board of Directors, and in violation of any ethical and moral standards that I know of, and resign from the XOOPS Foundation Board of Directors!

Come on guys - by creating ImpressCMS, a competing project for XOOPS, you've made your decision and crossed the legal, moral, and ethical line, so please be men about it, and resign from the XOOPS Foundation!