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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."
Publishing used to be much cheaper than it is now. Tsvetaeva and Whitman, just to name two poets of yore, had the first printings of their poetry done at their own expense, since the price was low. If the common man say a profit in reproducing something, he could easily undertake it.
Ogg what? Jesus there's a gopher link on that page I can't open either.
I'm not saying I'd download the talk if it were mpg or something (although I could, with ease) but it seems to me anybody that wants to get their message out might on a serious basis might want to investigate a little thing we used to call "text".
Need Mercedes parts ?
Keep in mind that he's communist only in the sense that he believes there is (or ought to be) no such thing as private property. In their heyday, Communist Party-controlled states abolished private property by taking ownership of everything*, which is probably something even RMS wouldn't support.
Then again, he's never been in a position that Mao or Lenin had.
* Yeah, I know, that's an incredibly naive and simplistic view of history. I didn't feel like opening up Wikipedia and reading for the next two hours.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
Right clicking doesn't get you a printed CD inside a nice smelling jewel case though, and government control of printing presses was mostly relinquished by the middle of the twentieth century. Printers (the contraptions, that is) these days are much more nefarious; they print yellow dots on your paper to identify you.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
Stallman's fanaticism is nowhere more perfectly reflected than in his release of the audio in only .ogg format. While legally .ogg is open, what is easier to play? .Ogg or .mp3? If the goal is to allow information to spread - then why not simply allow both formats?
To make a point Stallman seems to be compromising what should be the aims of his own movement - free flow of information and open access.
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.