Slashdot Mirror
RMS & FSF Directors To Meet With FSF Members
Free Software Foundation writes "Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen, Bradley Kuhn, and the rest of the FSF leadership are hosting a rare FSF members meeting in Cambridge, MA on March 27, where they will tackle topics including, 'The Dangers of Software Patents', SCO, 'Free Software in a Global Economy', and 'The State of the Foundation'. FSF members will have ample opportunity to gripe, praise, dialog, network, and eat."
I think the most important matter would be discussing what the GPL is actually compatable with. There have been so many accusations lately of incompatablity (some of which conflict with that the GPL actually states) it's getting a bit out of hand.
anyone know the status of the FSF finances? it would be interesting to know.
the last i heard they had $750,000 in the account which is not too bad for a company that relies on external funding.
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
RMS will go down in history as the visionary that made free software and open systems the prevailing technological force for the rest of the century. This is assuming that corperate influences can be subdued long enough to continue the huge momentum we've acheived over the past decade or two.
I'm inclined to predict at 10:1 odds against that RMS will go down as the most influential person of the next century, kind of in the same way as gutenberg is known now. He wasn't known at all really when he was alive, but the study of history set him in his proper place.
The Dangers of Software Patents is an old one.
You can listen to it here if you're interested. I highly recommend all of stallman's stuff. They are at least as interesting as reading slashdot.
No, this is why the GPL is MORE free than BSD style licenses- because the changes made to them will remain free as well. Freedom that can be taken away at someone else's whim is not free.
But you're taking away someone's freedom by dictating how they use your software. How is something MORE free by forcing someone to not freely do what they want? Your definition of freedom is to, in essence, "force freedom" on someone else. You're using freedom as a loaded word meaning to restrict the use of the software in a way that you're only allowed to use it unless you restrict other people's use of it, and so forth.
Its like claiming we'd be more free if the government could take away our right to free speech or public assembly at will.
What a hair-brained analogy. You're talking about a government RESTRICTING what someone does--just like the GPL--when the BSD license lets you do whatever you want. The better analogy of yours would be the government forcing everybody to reveal something about their product, while a free government would let the people choose whether or not to reveal that something about their product.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I was at the last meeting and it was very interesting. Eben Moglen gave a talk about what's happening to the GPLv3 and how it is handled. David Turner talked about enforcing the GPL. The board of directors took audience questions, and most of the FSF employees gave short talks about what they're working on.
:-)
The FSF staff are so busy that they rarely have time to publicise the work they are doing - so this was a great opertunity to find out what's inside the greatest black box in the free software world
Developers have plently of summits, meetings, and conferences. Businesses have their tradeshows. FSF has an annual meeting to discuss freedom - how to create it, and how to legaly defend it. Well worth attending.
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
I wonder if they will discuss the dangers of free software being used in propietary and closed source applications like Mac is doing with OS X. If there is one thing we should have learned from the SCO debacle it is that the guy who acts like your friend today can have you in court tommorow.
I love how the "Free Software Foundation" Charges money for membership, even for poor College Students. So you can believe in free software, but not be a member unless you pay?
Does that bother anyone else?
Grass-roots web hosting.We are poor colleg