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Stallman Selling Autographs
UltimaGuy writes "Sports stars, musicians, and other celebrities have been charging for autographs for years, but who would have thought Richard Stallman would be doing the same? Is this just for fun, or a clever, highly effective protest? Hackers, geeks and nerds gathered together at the 7th FISL - Internacional Free Software Forum, in Porto Alegre (Brazil) last week, were astounded when they got word that Richard Stallman, the founding father of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the GPL, was charging R$ 10 (about US$ 3) for an autograph and R$ 5 (less than US$ 2) to get his picture taken by free software enthusiasts at the event floor."
This is a little past 1987, but I remember QIC-20 tapes back in the day were pretty pricey - one would be a substantial fraction of the $150 quoted. I don't think, however, that a reel of 9 track (particularly one of the small reels) was that much. It was a pretty mature technology by that point and there isn't much to it apart from the reel and tape.
Of course, that doesn't mean that RMS still isn't a tool for selling autographs. He could be forgiven if all of the money was going to be donated back to the FSF, but unless TFA says so (I didn't bother to look), it probably means he's going to pocket it.
I guess communism doesn't pay well enough. :)