Slashdot Mirror
Richard Stallman Talks On Copyright Vs. the People
holden writes "Richard M. Stallman recently gave a talk entitled Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks to the University of Waterloo Computer Science Club. The talk looks at the origin of copyright, and how it has evolved over time from something that originally served the benefit of the people to a tool used against them. In keeping with his wishes to use open formats, the talk and QA are available in ogg theora only."
It is simple - Stallman is a communist. His ideas for free software have nothing to do with freedom, but with the denial of the private property. Whereas the private property is in the foundations of the democracy.
I cannot and don't want to understand how someone can call something which brought about a revolution in communication, entertainment and productivity, affecting billions of people in a positive way, immoral. The idea that closed source software is immoral is closer to religion then philosophy. It is also insulting, idiotic and ignores the history of computers. Was it immoral for apple to release the mac and commodore to release the 64, both closed source? When my Dad brought home a tandy craptacular in 1978, was he exposing his 3 sons to immorality because it was also closed source? I just don't equate immorality with the rapid acceptance of PCs into homes around the world. Free software didn't do that, atari, commodore, apple, IBM and, yes, microsoft did that.
This latest rant from RMS sounds almosts exactly like what the Sony execs said when asked about the price of the PS3 before it launched. The sony fanboi comments at the time sound more than a little bit like yours. "You poor dumb ingrates just don't understand and lack the depth to appreciate the accomplishment."