Slashdot Mirror
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. "
Word of Advice: DO NOT try this in your home country.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Is this really a news story? Someone without an appointment tries to seek a personal audience with a world leader and is denied? That's not anti-DRM, it's just common sense.
with a head of state. This was simply a stunt to gain exposure. I am all for supporting the proliferation of free software and the free software movement, but this will only marginalize the cause yet once again at the hands of RMS.
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
So Richard Stallman approached the French Prime Minister's delegation, and tried to force their way though to have a private word with him about DRM laws? ...
... That just isn't normal behaviour.
Even outside of politics that isn't acceptable behaviour. How would you feel if you ran a business and as you left the office the CEO of another company was trying to convince you to sell your shares to him, following you about and such?
Normal people make a meeting... Or if failing that they write the grievance down and hand deliver it. They don't make a run at the guy, and try and get it words and then act like a victim when it doesn't work.
Damn right the security pushed him back... He should have been asked to leave if he acts like that.
but he is the last person that should be representing the free software community to politicians. You need a clean cut person in a suit who is familiar with the politics of that nation. Why do think people hire lobbyists instead of appealing to politicians directly?
Then the problem may be that he was denied an appointment in the first place don't you think ?
For they are not just "someone" but 3 individuals quite involved into this DRM saga, thus having points and a petition to be discussed.
Bill Gates is received with all the honors by the President and RMS & Co can't even reach the prime minister or even some random official guy ?
Flamebait my ass. If making fun of the French is wrong, I don't want to be right.
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
On Friday 9th of June 2006 at 3.30pm, Richard Stallman 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. Richard Stallman and his friends were pushed back by the chief of security team.
...or we will taunt you a second time!
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I am an American, and I have to say to mr. Stallman:
Please wear a suit when trying to meet with foreign dignitaries.
And at least wear your hair back and trim your beard a little. You look like a hippy slob, and that was how you were received.
You do free software a disservice by appearing like don't you give a crap. You expect them to take you seriously looking like you don't take them seriously?
meh
You may not agree with Stallman's tactics, but the message this sends is clear: The people passing today's draconian intellectual property laws they are NOT representing the general public -- they are representing coporate interests.
Bill Gates is a citizen of the US, just like Stallman. Gates and Stallman take opposing viewpoints on the particular issue, and both are well known and intelligent individuals with strong arguments. However, only Gates was allowed to talk to the PM.
Stallman tried to get an audience with the PM, but was refused. It was only after the refusal that he tried to just "barge in", and there is *nothing wrong with this*. This kind of thing has happened throughout history -- a corrupt goverment has favored a certain group of people, and the unfavored group resorts to any tactics necessary to get themesleves heard.
Those of you who are criticizing Stallman, saying thing like "duh, I could have told you this would fail"... You're totally missing the point. Stallman also knew it would fail. Why else would he have a cameraman on hand ready to document the event. He's making a point, and it seems like a lot of people are missing it.
In a very real sense, Stallman represents the little guy, and Gates represents the corporate interests. In a very real sense, the goverments are NOT listening to the people. When the governments are only hearing one side of the story on DRM/copyright, it should be obvious that the laws are going to be heavily biased. And *this* is what is bad. Nobody from the opposite end of the spectrum is being listened to, and we are LOSING OUR RIGHTS.
Stallman is out there putting his ass on the line to show people this, and hopefully reach a larger audience than the few geeks on Slashdot who already know how bad everything has gotten. Before you get too critical of his methods, ask yourself what *you* have done to help turn the tide. Because sitting on your ass complaining about the shutdown of The Pirate Bay isn't accomplishing a damn thing.
the story was about a poorly designed French Power Module not working with alternating current
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
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.
I'd say it was because of RMS' bodily odor, but then I remembered that this was France we're talking about.
... not to receive RMS.. and not a question of planning, or appointment of whatever... Matignon was warned for a few weeks of his coming, and could have make him be received by any small office-counselor, as humiliating as it would have been, some "chargé de mission" or whatever. but instead decided to leave him 100m away from the place. That's exacly how was treated the free software position about DRM, internet-filtering dispositions, articles forcing DRM into any software, and so many other atrocities commited into the DADVSI law in the name of "protecting the authors". ... well the authors of Free Software were just unheard.
For the love of Pete... This has to be the most damaging form of protest ever. Folks! Wake up! This is counter-productive! France is voting for a new president and a new parliament next year. Why don't you go and make your case to Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozi? Why aren't you showing your petition to your MP? What are you trying to achieve by meeting a prime minister who has less than a year in office, and has 30% approval rate? You may think that there is nothing to life other than being anti-DRM and pro-OSS, but over 10% of the French population is unemployed, the suburbs were burning last fall and student protests were paralyzing the country a couple months ago. Have a bit of perspective here. The dude has to prioritize. He knows he ain't staying, and pissing you off is probably an acceptable trade-off to him building his legacy with the population at large. So please, please, please stop the whining and come back when you have a better game plan. Actions as such are your cause.
At first glance I mis-read the headline as "French PM unreceptive to PMS" and my first thought was he must not get along well with his wife. *chuckle*
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Letters were sent a few days ago to tell the day and hour of his coming
The arrogance of that is simply astounding. "I shall arrive, you shall se me." Pardon? It doesn't help that he insists on showing up looking like Robbie Coltrane on holiday and certainly not combined with that downright papal attitude. Newsflash, Richard, the rest of the world DOES expect to be treated with respect and that includes making appointments--in reasonable time--and showing up properly attired. Oh yes, you're an eccentric genius...yeah, and he's the Prime Minister of France. Wear a fucking suit and comb your goddamned hair, you lazy slob.
Seriously, the khakis and polo shirt may partially balance off the boxcar hobo facial hair for your normal everyday operations, but it doesn't show a proper degree of respect for the person you're trying to meet who happens to be an elected official. Remember the hooplah about the college girls' soccer team who met the President in nice sun dresses and flip-flops? Just a hint: you don't half look as good as those girls -- maybe less. Work harder at your appearance. They did you a favor by not letting you in the door. You'd have embarrassed yourself and us looking like that.
When you are a leader, delegate, or some other form of representative, you need to give the proper impression of the people you are representing. It may well be that F/OSS people are old hippies with too much facial hair and a beer gut, but you do them a grave disservice to paint them that way. By showing up with that list of 165,000 people, you have appointed yourself their representative, and you painted them with a bad brush from first glance. You need to be their best face. The impression of you is the impression of them.
You want respect (and that's what this is all about, right?), you need to:
"Yes, Mr Stallman, the Prime Minister would love to meet with you but I'm afraid he will be busy washing his hair that day."
A tactical mistake. Having met RMS, I suspect that hair-washing is something to which he does not attach particular importance.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
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
If anything, those who insist that people in positions of respect (managers, political officials, etc.) listen to them even if they dress in a slovenly way are the ones guilty of assuming superiority -- they think they are (or their message is) important enough to disregard the manners and cultural expectations of their audience. That is, simply put, snobbery of the worst kind -- it masquerades as egalitarianism.
You know why people are taken more seriously in a suit? Because it's our culture's accepted formal attire for business. If your audience is important enough, you will respect their culture. If their culture says "formal meetings involve suits", then you should wear a suit. Simple.
We already implicitly acknowledge this when it comes to other formalities like the exchange of business cards, shaking of hands, etc. For example, in Japan, one offers and accepts business cards with both hands, out of respect for the Japanese culture. In France, as in the US, one wears a suit to meet with those in positions of respect or power (politicians, management, etc.).
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
According to Wikipedia, he's GNU/53. And ego-mania aside, he's a moderately intelligent individual. So why the hell is he involved in a stupid stunt worthy of an adolescent who just discovered girls are nice and wants to impress them?
I can understand wanting to see a head of state. But what kind of self-centered lack-a-wit, KNOWING he doesn't have an appointment, having gotten ZERO feedback from the official's office, decides he's just gonna barge on in and get an audience? I mean COME ON! Use some common effin' sense!
Just my GNU/Cents.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
You do realize that the French system of government has changed several times since they gave us help during the Revolutionary War, right?
In fact, the France of that time period was ruled by a king, who gave us help during the Revolutionary war. Considering that the help didn't even come from a democracy representing the people of France of that time, exactly how much credit should we give their descendents today for that help?
I mean, let's take a slightly broader view of history, for just a moment.
During the Revolutionary War, England was ruled by a king, and its government oppressed Americans. Since then, its regime has changed. Now it's ruled by a democratic parliament, and its government and people are generally friendly towards Americans. Americans generally give the British people credit for their friendship.
During the Revolutionary War, France was ruled by a king, and its government helped Americans. Since then, its regime has changed. Now it's ruled by a democratic parliament, and its government and people are generally unfriendly to Americans. Americans generally give the French people credit for their unfriendship.
It's not that we've forgotten what the French did for us during the Revolutionary War. It's that we've also remembered what they've done for us lately.
By your logic, we should always hate the British for what they did during the Revolutionary war. And we should never forgive the Germans for Nazism and the Holocaust. And of course the Swedes will always be nothing more than big jerks, on account of the whole Viking thing.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
"Being true to yourself is the only source of respect here, conformity to someone else's standards,"
Yes and no. For starters, he is representing 165,000 people, so in addition to himself, he needs to be true to those 165,000 people. Second, politics is a job for salesmen/saleswomen. It is not enough to say to the PM "This is who we are, this is what we think, and this is a list of a huge number of voters who agree with us!" They have to sell the idea to the PM. And in this position, your previous point is partially true, if the PM doesn't think you look respectable, he won't respect you. You could have the greatest issue ever, with the whole country supporting you, but if you send someone who looks like a pressure washed street bum in to talk to the PM, your spokes person won't likely get a word in.
The PM of France probably gets thousands of requests similar to the ones that RMS sent in. Some undersecretary flips through them and determines who gets in. Will that person schedule some of the PM's limited time to 3 guys with a petition which would likely have little gain for the country, or schedule some time with the leader of an international software firm that employees thousands and provides software and services to a huge portion of the economy? It's a no brain-er.
To get philosophical about the whole deal, society is extremely discriminating. Everyone is, it is the norm. Some forms of discrimination are frowned on (race, sex, heritage, religion, etc...) but many more forms are not only acceptable, but expected. Appearance, money, affluence, education, clout, and profit potential are all acceptable things to judge someone on. If set upon by three individuals wearing nice suits appearing professional and politely requesting a moment of his time (30 seconds or less to spout off who they are, their voting block, and that they would like to arrange a meeting), he may go for it. If set upon by two college kids and a showered hippy asking for a moment of his time with papers and a huge role of paper, he's just going to blow them off.
They should hire a lobbyist to at least teach them the etiquette of the position so they can use the system to their advantage in stead of parading about like a bunch of college kids on a crusade.
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Umm, RMS's smug demeanor and obsessive behavior about things like naming conventions piss off a lot of people. Not sure if you've noticed, but he's generally not well liked on Slashdot. If he's not even well-liked here among his own constituency, well, doesn't bode well for his role as a figurehead, regardless of what you may think of his ideals.
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!
Slashdot: news from nerds.