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ZNet interviews Richard Stallman

ProgressiveCynic writes "ZNet has just published an interview with Richard Stallman. Much of the interview will be review for Slashdot folks, intended to introduce ZNet's audience to the free software movement, but many interesting bits remain including a discussion on the outlawing of free software, patents as applied to literature, and this quote: 'I'm a Liberal, in US terms (not Canadian terms). I'm against fascism.'"

25 of 586 comments (clear)

  1. Liberals by maggard · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those puzzled, RMS's Liberal comment is in reference to Canada's Liberal party.

    --
    I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
    1. Re:Liberals by LizardKing · · Score: 2, Informative

      For those puzzled, RMS's Liberal comment is in reference to Canada's Liberal party.

      Whoever transcribed the interview, or RMS himself if the interview was conducted via email, should have written "liberal" with a small "l". In political writing a capitalised word like Liberal indicates a party, while the lowercase form indicates a theory or dogma. For example, Conservative would imply the political party when speaking about UK politics, whereas conservative would imply the political theory. Exceptions include political theories such as Marxism, which are named after an individual and should of course be capitalised.

  2. Re:I've actually met him. by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think it's a fairly obvious troll
    The first result is from encyclopediadramatica.com
    http://www.google.com/search?q=RMS+has+a+phobia+of +water

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  3. Another podcast interview on prisonplanet too by cheekyboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Go to prisonplanet.com, its podcasts for 15th Dec has a interview with him too.

    Now yo'all stop voting for the 2 parties , vote independant, and no neo-cons any more.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    1. Re:Another podcast interview on prisonplanet too by node+3 · · Score: 2, Informative

      This line of thought is why the US is stuck electing Republicrats every election. The only wasted vote is one that isn't cast.

      No, the reason we are stuck electing "Republicrats" every election is that our system is at equilibrium only when there are two parties.

      Don't you think you deserve better than the best of the worst two? Aren't you all sick of electing one of two fratboys offered up each election?

      Yes, I am, but I have no other choice. The time for you Nader-ites to make a difference is before the election. Convince the Dems (your closest allies) to pick the most liberal candidate they can. Once the die is cast, once the public sees the choice is Dem A or Rep B, then all you can do is siphon votes from the only party that will give you even the slightest chance of getting your way.

      Look, I believe doors should work like on Star Trek. But if I pretend like doors work that way, I'll just smash my nose everywhere (except the grocery store, I suppose). An intelligent person would accept the fact that reality trumps ideology. If you want doors to work like on Star Trek, get out there and do something about it, but when you walk up to a door that's not automatic, treat it as such.

      Likewise, although I'd love a more democratic Presidential election system, I understand that reality is that it's a two-party game. If I want a liberal candidate, the time for me to act to change minds is every day. Right now, for example. But in the polls, my choice is Republican or Democrat.

      How do you expect a third party candidate to win an election if you don't change the attitudes of the people during the intervening years? If you go into the election knowing you're going to lose (and if you don't realize that, you are extremely delusional), then you must realize that you're going to siphon votes from the real candidate that is closest to your ideals. By demanding the perfect, you are sabotaging your best hope.

  4. Re:Good Article but... by a_n_d_e_r_s · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Fascism is associated with one or more of the following characteristics: a very high degree of nationalism, economic corporatism, and, after attaining political control of a country, a powerful, dictatorial state that views the nation as superior to the individuals or groups composing it."

    -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

    ""A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
    -- American Heritage Dictionary

    Even though there are no clear definition of Fascism there is definititly clear that corporatism - the merging of big business and the state - are part of Fascism.

    US today are leaning more and more towards fascism. Not many likes it - but its the sad truth.

    --
    Just saying it like it are.
  5. Re:Good Article but... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 3, Informative
    Fascism has little to nothing to do with business

    Fascism and corporatism are closely linked.
    Fascism is associated with one or more of the following characteristics: a very high degree of nationalism, economic corporatism, and, after attaining political control of a country, a powerful, dictatorial state that views the nation as superior to the individuals or groups composing it.
    So cut out all that drama queen eye rolling, and quit supporting Bush. He's a fascist.
    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  6. Re:Non-English speaker have a question by John+Nowak · · Score: 5, Informative

    This definition has some holes in it, but "liberal" in the US means left-leaning (more centralized government, welfare state, etc), whereas liberal in Canada and Europe and most other places means the same thing as "conservative" means in the US (or used to mean anyway), including smaller government, lower taxes, less government control, pro-business, etc. It is even confusing in the US, with the "Libertarian" party conforming to strict conservative ideas -- conservative in the classical-US sense, not the current big government, pro-war definition. I should also note that the "left" in the US is much more like the "center" or even "right" in many other countries.

  7. Re:Free as in Freedom by John+Nowak · · Score: 4, Informative

    "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

  8. Re:How does he stay alive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    He draws a $32000/year salary from the FSF. Traveling expenses are typically paid for by the conferenses he speaks at.

  9. Re:Free as in Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    RMS on Chomsky:
    "I don't have as complete and overall philosophy as he does. I agree with some of the things he says. I've seen things that he said that I didn't agree with. But certainly what he says about the engineering of consent seems valid. Recently Chomsky gave a speech about what it means to oppose terrorism which I was very impressed by, because he essentially said that we should put an end to terrorism, and that includes the terrorism against the US but also the terrorism committed by the US... and I agree." --Richard Stallman, November 2001
    http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky
    http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/rms-zer0111/index.en. html

  10. GNU vs. Marx by tetromino · · Score: 3, Informative

    Free Software and Marx have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Marx was a social critic who (correctly) surmised that the workers of his day were unfairly exploited, but then used voodoo economics and bad Hegelism to go off on a wild apocalyptic-cult trajectory.

    By contrast, Free Software is not a cult, and it is not a "scientific" view of history. It is simply a proposition that one of the inalienable rights of Homo sapiens -- along with the right to free speech, free press, and democratic elections -- is the right to freely use one's computer. (Granted, computer use is not in the usual list, but if Locke, Rousseau, and Jefferson had computers, I am sure they would have put Free Software in the rights of man.)

    Marxism belongs to the general category of apocalyptic cults (like belief in rapture and the singularity).

    Free Software belongs to the general category of campaigns for a specific rights (like womens' suffrage and the civil rights movement).

  11. Re:Good Article but... by a_n_d_e_r_s · · Score: 2, Informative

    My definition is more the original meaning. What you are talking about are neo-corporatism which is alive and kicking in Netherlands and my own country Sweden.

    ""neo-corporatism" refers to social arrangements dominated by tri-partite bargaining between unions, the private sector (capital), and government. Such bargaining is oriented toward (a) dividing the productivity gains created in the economy "fairly" among the social partners and (b) gaining wage restraint in recessionary or inflationary periods."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism

    For example Sweden has no minimun wage. Instead the unions and the corporations have agreements as what they see as reasonable wages for labor. As soon as one employee are part
    of the unions in a corporation they have to abide by those agreements for all employees. The different egreement in the different business sectors thus controls the minimum wage within that sector.

    What I am talking about is corporatism when the goverment are so dependent on certain business that they give them large input in how the legislation is done - basically witout letting the opposing side have any input in the matter.

    --
    Just saying it like it are.
  12. Re:Good Article but... by node+3 · · Score: 5, Informative
    The US and other countries today are not fascist nor resemble anything like a fascist nation. Does big business run the country? Yes. Do politicians suck up to it? Yes. Is this a good thing? NO! But its NOT fascism. To call it such is at the least a bit ignorant.

    Absolutely false. What you've described is, in fact, the definition of Fascism.
    "Fascism should more properly be called Corporatism, because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
    -- Benito Mussolini


    Although the term "Fascism" is commonly met with revulsion, the ideals of Fascism are alive and well. In fact, there are people who openly support Fascism, whether they accept the title of Fascist or not.
    "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
    -- Sinclair Lewis (1935)


    Vice President Henry A. Wallace warned quite often of the dangers of Fascism in America.
    "With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."
    -- US Vice President Henry A. Wallace


    He also defined it in the classical, Mussolini sense:

    "If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort."

    -- US Vice President Henry A. Wallace, "The Danger of American Fascism," New York Times, 1944.
  13. Help ZNet - register by efuzzyone · · Score: 2, Informative

    After reading the article I am really worried about software patents and treacherous computing. Please help ZNet migrate to free software by registering and showing your support at the following link. http://znet.2y.net/zbb/index.php

    --
    Creativity uninhibited www.kreeti.com
    1. Re:Help ZNet - register by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Informative

      That BBS doesn't appear to be linked to znet apart from in content.
      Could you please supply or create a direct link from the http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm website for everyones convenience.

      Privacy aware folks should tread carefully before registering information to an unknown source.
      (But you all knew that of course...)

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Help ZNet - register by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Informative

      My apologies,
      The link supplied by the parent poster is infact linked within the original ZNet website.

      In the top 3 lines of description, the bottom one is:

      ZNet is exploring the possibility of using free software. To help, visit New ZNet and introduce yourself.

      With the link specified.
      (Very difficult to spot on first glance though)

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  14. Re:How does he stay alive? by spectecjr · · Score: 3, Informative

    As in who pays for RMS' living and traveling expenses? Donations to the FSF? Someone with insight please comment. I think in many ways RMS is brilliant, but how has he paid his bills promoting FOSS for the last 20+ odd years?

    In 1990, he was awarded a $240,000 fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
    In 2001, he won an $268k Takeda Award for Techno-Entrepreneurial Achievement for Social/Economic Well-Being.

    He ain't exactly hurting for cash. That's just the awards he has won. He makes most of his cash from speeches and personal appearances.

    Which is cool, you know, if you're a superstar and can make money that way. But most programmers aren't, and can't.

    --
    Coming soon - pyrogyra
  15. Re:Non-English speaker have a question by smallpaul · · Score: 2, Informative

    This definition has some holes in it, but "liberal" in the US means left-leaning (more centralized government, welfare state, etc), whereas liberal in Canada and Europe and most other places means the same thing as "conservative" means in the US (or used to mean anyway), including smaller government, lower taxes, less government control, pro-business, etc.

    That isn't true of Canada. There are several kinds of Liberals in Canada. Big-L Liberals are members of the Liberal party, as Big-R Republicans are members of the American Republican party. This party has a progressive ideology but tends to govern in a centrist manner, similar to Britain's Labour or America's Democrats ("an end to welfare as we know it", "don't ask, don't tell", etc.). Small-L liberal could mean one of several things in Canada, just as it does in the US:

    • social liberals, who are in favour of reducing governmental envolvement in personal choices like marriage, drug use, etc.
    • Progressive liberals, who are in favour of using government finances to "free" people from poverty.
    • Classic liberals, who would reduce government control in general (now more often called Libertarians or neoliberals).

    I do not believe that the classic liberal sense of the term is particularly prevalent in Europe and I know it is not in Canada. In Canada, Liberal means "a political party willing to adopt any ideology that will allow it to stay in power."

  16. Re:Non-English speaker have a question by gedhrel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Your definition of "European liberal" does not describe those parties and groups in Europe who identify themselves as "liberal". Quite the opposite.

    The main difference is that in the US, "liberal" appears to be a perjorative term :-)

  17. Re:What does he do for a living? by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the wiki article (I know its not gospel, but its reasonable..):

    Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time as a political campaigner, advocating free software and campaigning against software idea patents and expansions of copyright law. The time that he still devotes to programming is spent on GNU Emacs. He supports himself by being paid for around half of the speeches he gives.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  18. Re:Can you tell he's a programmer? by CloakedMirror · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not sure how serious you are trying to be here, but the reason for starting with 0 (zero) in our arrays has nothing to do with the number of combinations of single digits. When we supply an array element designator what we are really doing is supplying the offset from the starting point of the array; hence the first item in the array is at offset zero, the second item is at offset one, etc. It has nothing to do with the "count" of items in the array, except that the last element will always be designated as one less than the size of the array.

    Disclaimer: Some of these concepts may not be true in the programming language you use. If that is the case then it is because the authors of the language have hidden that detail from you.

    --
    Evolutionary thinking will move you down the road, revolutionary thinking will put you on a new road!
  19. Re:What does he do for a living? by sconeu · · Score: 2, Informative

    I believe he also won a MacArthur foundation "genius" grant. That probably defrayed some of his expenses for a while.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  20. Re:What does he do for a living? by daviddennis · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't think zmag would like his positions on certain issues. Beneath the veneer of talking about the tyrant Bush, he supports free enterprise and freedom of exchange. You can even see that in his interview: Instead of asking for a government program to develop software, he went and did it himself. You can see that he appreciates the freedom he had to do this, even at great personal cost. I do not think he would be happy under a Communist tyranny.

    But in terms of his idealism, I'm afraid you're right. And that's why I mentioned in my original message that his idealism was a little scary. It seemed to defy condiions on the ground. I can respect his idealism while still saying that alas, it's not workable for most people.

    I stand by my statement that it's really crummy this is the case. They were building a little utopia up there at the AI lab, where users from outside could get in via the ArpaNet and play around with the same computers the big guys did. It worked amazingly well while it lasted, but subsequent events make it all too clear it was not scalable past a community where everyone knew each other :-(.

    It didn't hurt that ITS (the Incompatible Timesharing System, which was used at the AI Lab at the time) was very hard to learn. People keen to learn it tended to be relatively benign, which is why they were able to maintain open public access for a time. As an example, you would log in by using u - dhdu would log me in, and you could log out with u. Control-O deleted files, Control-R printed them, and so on.

    If you knew the secret, you could type lock and at the _ prompt, 5down to take the whole system down in five minutes. No way that could survive in the modern era.

    D

  21. Re:Can you tell he's a programmer? by rsborg · · Score: 2, Informative
    I'm sorry, but as a loyal, God-fearing American I refuse to use any number invented by them A-Rabs.

    Don't worry; it wasn't invented by them, yet another set of brown people that Americans generally confuse with Arabs (and consequently irrationally hate).

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