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Stallman And Bero Interviewed
Juraj Bednar writes: "I have done two interviews: one with Bero from RedHat and one with Richard
Stallman, the GNU and FSF founder. I usually write in my native language, but since these interviews were done in English, I asked myself why not to share them" Readers may want to also visit Bero's shared-source.com, and bookmark it as a FUD antidote.
Richard Stallman: With free software, you are free to make a modified version and use it, and free to publish the modified version if you want to, but you are not required to publish it. That's you choice.
Freedom is the key. Intellectual property owners accuse those who copy the stuff they publish of stealing their property. They want to prosecute (persecute is a better term) those who do, fine them and/or put them in jail like common thieves.
My question is this, who's going to prosecute IP owners who steal my freedom?
Let's face it, if you can't put a fence around it, or chain it, or lock it up in some manner, it does not belong to you. It does not matter if it's music, writings, software, ideas, inventions, drawings or what have you. Once you release it, it becomes like the air that we breathe: it belongs to nobody and to everybody.
You say, "Well, I worked hard and I must get paid for my work." Right. Well there are a million things in society that you never paid a scent for and you enjoy them freely. Time for you give something back. "Well", you say "how am I gonna make a living?" Good question. It is one that you need to ask your governement.
They instituted the slavery system that you live and work in. Tell them it's no good. Tell them that everybody should be given a piece of the earth, an estate if you will, for you and your descendents. Ask them what they're going to do when AI and advanced technologies finally make human labor obsolete. How is the slave system going to work then? What will your worthless intellectual property going to support you then?
If you read the whole shared-source.com page there is a section on "if open source is so unsafe then hack this computer". It lists all of the software and version numbers the box is running.
It would be nice if a MS website where able to be that bold.
Ascii artist &
"There is very little similarity between our community and the Soviet system. Our emphasis is on freedom, decentralization, and voluntary cooperation, which are not things that the Soviet Bloc was known for. It is actually the proprietary software world that resembles the Soviet system. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html for more explanation of this. "
Hmmm... I think you have misunderstod something, mr Stallman.
Communism is all about freedom. Communism is about getting rid of ownership, so is Free software.
But to maintain this freedom the freedom must be enforced! This is what the sovjet union did, they insisted that people didn't own, otherwise people would be enslaved by the owners again. This is also what the Free software movement is all about.
It really depends on what you define as freedom, the western would saw it as freedom to be able to own and sell your proprietary (IP or otherwise), the sovjet block beleived that freedom is to be free from the enslavement owners impose on you.