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Stallman Crashes Talk, Fights 'War On Sharing'
schliz writes "Free software activist Richard Stallman has called for the end of the 'war on sharing' at the World Computer Congress in Brisbane, Australia. He criticized surveillance, censorship, restrictive data formats, and software-as-a-service in a keynote presentation, and asserted that digital society had to be 'free' in order to be a benefit, and not an attack. Earlier in the conference, Stallman had briefly interrupted a European Patent Office presentation with a placard that said: 'Don't get caught in software patent thickets.' He told journalists that the Patent Office was 'here to campaign in favor of software patents in Australia,' arguing that 'there's no problem that requires a solution with anything like software patents.'"
Amazingly enough, the article describing Stallman's well-reasoned arguments for the need for free software, free sharing of information, and non-proprietary formats is helpfully on a page written in ASP.
I am officially gone from
Look at these people, like Richard Stallman, who want our economy to die! We must have software patents! And an ACTA equivalent, and a DMCA equivalent, and secret police, and blah blah blah.
when jesus overturned the money-changer's tables. Jesus? is that you?
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Ugh. People like you make me sick! The DMCA protects authors and their intellectual property that is in an infinite supply, and the ACTA, if it passes (hopefully it will), will accomplish this goal further and eliminate those evil pirates who dare steal profit that only exists in the future of an alternate dimension where the artist made more money!
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
What are you hiding? If you're not a dirty criminal, what have you got to lose? The government is nice enough to provide all kinds of other things for you, and can be trusted. Stop acting like a conspiracy theorist.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
I always prefer the extremists on my side to the extremists on the other side too.
To borrow a turn of phrase, the important thing is that you've found a way to feel superior to both.
"Please stop abusing the term "sharing"
You're not suggesting we call it "GNU/sharing" I hope?
A patent troll trying to interrupt an FSF convention would be going into the lion's den.
I don't think anyone from the FSF would object.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Was I the only one who hoped that his katana would be involved?
Sharing implies that you split something rather than duplicate it!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the matter.
"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" -- Kurt Vonnegut