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French PM Unreceptive To RMS
An anonymous reader writes "Six month after the publication of very bad amendments to French DRM law proposal, Richard Stallman has been pushed back by the chief of security team of French Prime minister.
On Friday 9th of June 2006 at 3.30pm, Richard Stallman, president of Free Software Foundation, led a delegation composed by Frédéric Couchet (Free Software Foundation France) and Christophe Espern (EUCD.INFO initiative) to meet the French Prime minister in order to talk about the French DRM law proposal and to deliver the EUCD.INFO petition signed by more than 165,000 French residents. Richard Stallman and his friends were pushed back by the chief of security team. "
Im confused by this story. Firstly If someone turns up to see the Prime minister / President / Head Honcho of any country (or most organisations) without an invitation or appointment they are likely to be told "thanks, but no thanks". I don't really think that the "pushed away" part of this article, which appears to be the focus has any bearing on anything at all. (FTA: The delegation led by Richard Stallman was kindly but firmly pushed back by the chief of security team of French Prime minister saying : the decision not to receive Richard Stallman was mature considered .)
The French government seem to be split on issues relating to open source (Software patents and DRM etc.) but do seem to be discussing it in public and with some authority, putting France somewhere at the top of the list of countries doing something about the issues at hand. We don't know which way it will swing, but at least we know it will be discussed first. Oh and congratulations to the 165,000 French People and 1000 Organisations who signed the EUCD.INFO petition, your doing something and this story should have focused on you, not on getting the most interesting headline.
So their complaint is that the French PM's office wouldn't arrange a meeting with them, so they showed up at the door with a petition? And then they go on to try contrasting it with how the world's richest man (Gates) was received by the PM's office?
Give me a freakin' break.
Although Stallman has done a lot for free software, government officials probably don't know nor care who he is. I'm sure the French PM's schedule is CRAZY, and like any head of state they would NEVER allow a walk-in visitor. The behavior of the PM's office is predictable, and yet they decided to go anyway instead of finding some better method of getting their petition to the PM.
Stallman should focus on actually trying to improve the state of things instead of weak publicity stunts like this. He's an attention whore, plain and simple.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
here. Stallman spoke to the security guards on the street outside the office, was denied entry, then unrolled the (very long) petition of concerned citizens in the gutter as a symbolic gesture. He didn't rant and rave and try and push his way into some gilded office.
Then the problem may be that he was denied an appointment in the first place don't you think ?
Umm... No. I fully support anyone who chooses not to meet with RMS, for whatever reason they choose.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
No the US used to know how to win wars. Apprently that secret where forgotten in Korea.
And no the US has never faced a real war - the kind of war where your dont know if your family members are alive to dead, and you have to struggle everyday finding foods in boomed out cities. The French (indeed most of Europe) has had those no less than twice in the last 100 years. We have (or I believed we had) learned the cost of war - the true cost of war.
Freedom or George Bush
I'm all for supporting Stallman's motives, but his actions are a bit un-professional.
If the PM has not responded to your letters or request for an appt., what on earth makes one think simply walking to his office is going to give you access to such a high-ranking political figure?
That's like Michael Moore demanding to meet w/ Bush on the white house lawn and then wondering why they won't let him through the gates. *hello*
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
Yes, a certain element in America likes to have an opinion on France. But in a sense, this is good. It is easy to identify complete morons this way.
In point of fact, what Americans who have issues with France don't understand about themselves is they hate France not because they "surrender," but because in their contrarian nature as per American-directed foreign policy, France asserts itself in precisely the same way as the French would if the situation were reversed.
In the same way the French government doesn't just roll over every time the US government wants to play GI Joe somewhere in the world, the US does the same when it comes to the UN. If the situation were reversed and France was the so-called "superpower," the US government would act just as France does. This reality is so uncomfortable to modern Americans, that it is psychologically blocked out. One would think given the purported values system of the US that we would respect people who had enough stones to say, "No" when the US demanded something. Instead on one hand Americans criticize the French for standing up for themselves and their own interests, but praise certain other countries for rolling over like bitches whenever the US wants to go launch some dumb war.
There are those of us here in the US who experience distinct amusement when France opts out of some harebrained US scheme, and Americans get all wound up. The "freedom fries" incident is just further proof of the devolution of a distinct segment of American society; a decent into dumb simian weirdness; I'm looking for atavistic traits to start to appear so we can identify these people on sight.
You know, as an American I get sick of having to listen to how horrible we are every ten seconds on the net, and I get sick of getting lumped in with a certain ugly element now dominant in our culture. I can understand how French people get sick of hearing this "surrender" shit every five minutes (and I'm sure modern Germans get tired of watching people try to wind them up about a certain period in their past).
Making blanket nationalistic statements against a whole people may be satisfying for a moment, but it can also be dispiriting to those of us in these countries who on one hand acknowledge the excesses of our own governments and cultures, and are kind of stuck with the situation, and get lumped in with the loudest and most obnoxious of our fellow citizens.
And while I acknowledge this growing cloud of Dumb hanging over the United States, I also refuse to accept that that cloud of Dumb exclusively defines us as a people. I refuse to look at the most ugly and obnoxious people in our country, who have in recent years been ascendant and have controlled the debate, and allow others to point to them and say, "That, there, is what the United States is." Because I am here too, as are many people who are disgusted. Our time will come, too.
Believe me, as much as it may annoy you to read tired, worn, cliche, unoriginal, trite comments about France, keep in mind that there are many reasonably intelligent people who have to live here next door to the people who make these idiotic comments on a daily basis. Their aggressive stupidity is not limited to the France-bashing. The France bashing is a symptom of a deeper problem, and these people vote.
I'd apologize for the freedom fries crap except, the people who did that don't represent me. They may claim to and people may recognize them as such but they are, to me, a distinctly alien crowd of people who have nothing to do with me, my interests, or my personal ideas of what the United States is supposed to be about (not that I even grant that the common criticisms of the US are all entirely valid, though many of them are).
Besides, we all know the reality about war - Americans have for several decades now truly enjoyed war...so long as it happens far away and doesn't impact them. I guarantee that as soon as war *inconveniences* the average American by, say, oh, happening on US soil, we'll
A couple of Points:
Your quite right Stallman knew this was going to fail. But the real issue is something you neglected to point out is, that DRM is not about copying songs and video.
This is a much bigger issue than that.
It has to do with education, who gets knowledge, who can pay for knowledge and those that can't are screwed.
This goes for anything science or technology related.
Throughout history corrupt regimes and governments have known all too well that citizens that can read or write, or are empowered to discover or reorganize information without dogma are "disruptive" to the state as a whole.
Whether you like it or not, Universities, school systems etc are not setup by what one accomplishes or contributes. They are setup for those who want to play "the game" so to speak. Don't play the "game" and your out. This is painfully obvious if you are in a computer science department and are doing research. If someone doesn't like your ideas, your out.
See it happen to my prof personally and the process is disgusting because it ties everything to money and corporate contributors and very little of it has to do with any real science.
What Stallman is really advocating is that information and technology should be available for all, free for all and there should be no barriers constructed artifically or legislated by governments.
Since most of his arguments revolve around software this makes sense because software is what directs computers to share or not share information. As the world becomes fully networked, obviously there is going to be a huge divide if something isn't done about it soon.
The little guy here as you should point out is every Slashdot reader.
I also believe you made a interesting point about governments listening. If it hasn't hit everyone in the head by now, governments ARE listening quite well to thier citizens. But these citizens are not individuals, they are corporations.
I do not even believe governments such as those in the US for example even listen to citizens as defined as "voter" anymore.
Which brings me to a rather not so nice future painting. The entire globe is one huge computer network. If you don't work for a corporation, you can't learn. Can't learn, can't get a job. Can't get a job, your even lower than the guy working for the corporation so you get substandard or next to no healthcare, your kids can't go to college because it is too expensive. (i.e. every public university will be corporate owned in about 20-30 years anyway at the rate its going. Form a buget perspective anyway.) Furthermore, if you are caught making copies of information say about "Calculas" or "American History" DRM books you can instantly be imprisoned for hard labor with no trial.
Sounds absolutely rediculous if it wasn't for the fact that it has already happened.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
If they sent it via email, perhaps, but it would be automated. If they expected a formal response on letterhead, no, two weeks is not enough time for a full turn-around. These sorts of things, barring great urgency of national signficance, are scheduled MONTHS ahead of time, not weeks.
I mean, come on, people schedule theater tickets and dinner with greater advance notice.
Balanced, intelligent, and timely commentary on a subject which normaly just brings out the trolls and the most ignorant and vulgar element in slashdot. I have now well and truely seen everything and can die in peace!
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