David “Lefty” Schlesinger

David "Lefty" Schlesinger is a software-industry figure in the Free Software and Open Source community who, in this database, appears primarily as the documented target of a 2010 harassment and defamation campaign by Brandon Lozza (now Britney Lozza). He is recorded here as a person of interest because that 2010 campaign is the earliest documented instance of the recurring pattern this file tracks in Lozza.

Relationship to Brandon / Britney Lozza

2010: Target of Lozza’s Harassment and Defamation Campaign

In February 2010 Schlesinger published a blog post, “Criminal Harassment by Freedom-Lovers,” describing a sustained campaign against him by Brandon Lozza, who at the time posted on identi.ca as “@ender2070”, on Twitter as “@atlasdx”, and ran a blog at pwnage.ca.

Schlesinger’s account states that Lozza:

• contacted his manager, coworkers, his employer’s customers, and members of his family;
• claimed Schlesinger had fabricated his employment record at Apple;
• claimed Schlesinger had said that Richard Stallman (president of the Free Software Foundation) was “guilty of being a rapist”;
• forged fabricated comments in Schlesinger’s name on pwnage.ca, despite Schlesinger being listed on the site as a banned poster;
• emailed people at Schlesinger’s customers and at his own workplace asking whether they knew he had “called Richard Stallman a rapist”;
• represented himself to Schlesinger’s manager and publicly as a member of the press and a “journalist” (Schlesinger describes him as an hourly computer-repair technician);
• claimed on a since-deleted “@ender2070” Twitter account to have evidence that Schlesinger was a “drug abuser” and that he expected evidence “shortly” that Schlesinger was a “pedophile”, while, per Schlesinger, admitting in a private email that he had no such evidence.

Proof: Schlesinger’s blog post, February 2010 (archived)

• Note: This event aligns with Lozza’s documented employment gap of 2009-08 through 2010-10. The Lozza work-history analysis flags that gap as “the period where David Schlesinger and his family were targeted.”

Relevance to the General Theme (serial / ritual defamation)

The 2010 campaign against Schlesinger carries the same markers this database tracks in Britney Lozza’s later conduct:

• Fabricated criminal-sexual accusations as a weapon. The “pedophile” accusation against Schlesinger was pushed by both Lozza and sandAlfoan (Schlesinger, Phoronix post #479: “who’s alleged that I’m a pedophile, exactly? Aside from you and Brandon Lozza, I mean.”). The “rapist” smear, the claim that Schlesinger had called Richard Stallman a rapist, is of the same kind.
• Targeting a subject’s employer, customers, and family rather than the subject alone. Schlesinger describes outreach to his manager, coworkers, customers, and relatives, a pattern of widening the audience of the accusations to maximize reputational damage.
• Impersonation and forgery. Posing as press and forging comments in the target’s name.
• Recurrence. Schlesinger is the earliest documented target; the later record shows the same litigation-and-accusation pattern directed at employers (Northern Nerds, IT Weapons Inc.), the Ontario Provincial Police, Roy and Rianne Schestowitz (Techrights / Tux Machines), and SoylentNews / Jan Rinok.

Contested Counter-Claims

Material from opposing sides also alleges that Schlesinger was himself a perpetrator of stalking and harassment. These claims are recorded here as contested and are not independently verified in this file.

Victor T. Cypert / sandAlfoan

Victor T. Cypert claims that he and his family were stalked by David “Lefty” Schlesinger, in a post later quoted by sandAlfoan. The material is dated to circa 2010, the same window as Schlesinger’s account of being targeted by Lozza.

• Note: Per the Lozza file, there is recent effort to remove this content from the open web.

2011 “stonemirror” Allegations

In August 2011, in the comment thread of a blog post by Jillian C. York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a commenter using the name “Gaius Marvin” accused Schlesinger (whom the commenter identified by the handle “stonemirror”) of roughly eleven years of stalking and harassment, including posting stolen private photographs and telephoning the commenter’s elderly relatives, and claimed Richard Stallman had found the evidence credible. A reply posted under Schlesinger’s name responded to an offer to connect him with “other victims” with “Hey, I’d certainly like to.”

• Note: These allegations originate from a party in dispute with Schlesinger and are unverified.

Background and Public Record

• A 2010 biography describes Schlesinger as a roughly 35-year veteran of the computer industry, living in Santa Cruz, California, with prior time at Apple and Palm.
• At PalmSource (acquired by ACCESS in 2005 and renamed ACCESS Systems Americas) he directed the Core Technologies department, responsible for the kernel, drivers, and low-level middleware of the ACCESS Linux Platform. He then served as ACCESS’s Director of Open Source Technologies.
• Community roles included Chair of the Linux Foundation’s Mobile Linux Working Group; acting Chair of the Linux Phone Standards Forum’s Architectural Working Group; member of the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board; founding member of GNOME Mobile; founding board member of Open Media Now!; and administrator of the Hiker Project.
• He blogged at “Open Source to Go!” (opensourcetogo.blogspot.com), syndicated on Planet GNOME, and used the email lefty@access-company.com.

2009: Stallman “Emacs Virgins” Dispute

At GNOME’s Gran Canaria Desktop Summit in July 2009, Schlesinger, then a GNOME Foundation Advisory Board member, emailed Richard Stallman objecting to the “virgin of Emacs” segment of Stallman’s “Saint IGNUcius” routine as sexist and out of place at a technical conference, stating he had heard “well in excess of a hundred people” react with concern. Stallman replied that he did not believe he owed anyone an apology. Schlesinger published the exchange; the thread drew several hundred comments and resurfaced during Stallman’s 2019 resignation.

Notes

• Primary documented role in this file: target of the 2010 Lozza campaign.
• Both directions of accusation (Lozza against Schlesinger in 2010, and Cypert / the 2011 commenter against Schlesinger) trace to the same circa-2010 window and the same online circles.
• Online handles on record: “Lefty”, “stonemirror”.