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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.'"
Even worse than software patents, there is a new UN resolution going around that would give world governments more control over the internet. This is even worse, IMO, than software patents, which "only" threaten to drive software innovation to a virtual standstill: allowing governments to control the flow of information on the Internet could well destroy it, and the newfound freedom of expression and access to information we are currently taking for granted.
There are so many new threats to freedom on so many new fronts it's hard to even define what they all are, let alone what can be done about them.
He's following in the late great Grace Hopper's footsteps. Hopper wrote the world's first compiler (FLOW-MATIC), then co-wrote the world's second compiler (COBOL). She coined the word "computer bug"; the first computer bug was a moth that got fried in the circutry. In pursuit of her vision she risked her career in 1949 to join the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and provide businesses with computers. There she began yet another pioneering effort of UNIVAC I, the first large-scale electronic digital computer. To ease their task, Admiral Hopper encouraged programmers to collect and share common portions of programs. Even though these early shared libraries of code had to be copied by hand, they reduced errors, tedium, and duplication of effort. Stallman has some big footsteps to follow.
Free Martian Whores!
bought about the creation of the middle class, modern democracy, and the death of the feudal system and the aristocracy
Completely incorrect and bass-ackwards. Wikipedia on the printing press: "The rapid economic and socio-cultural development of late medieval society in Europe created favorable intellectual and technological conditions for Gutenberg's invention", not the other way around as you state. Gutenberg invented the press in 1439, nearly three hundred years before the industrial revolution.
Too bad your misunderstanding of history detracts so badly from the better points in your comment.
Free Martian Whores!
No, we need IP laws and the lack of them will bring innovation to a standstill.
You have it all wrong: for example James Watt brought the development of the steam machine to a standstill using his patents, and only after these patents expired, innovation could continue:
I don't think anybody would argue that point, but you seem to be ignoring the fact that they are not arguing for public interest. That is merely the lie that they are telling, while they argue what is in the best interest of a select few rich people.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Devil's advocate time!
The corporate good is the public good.
--Charles Wilson, then President of General Motors[emphasis mine]
This snippet is often misquoted "What's good for General Motors is good for the country." But the literal misquoting is probably accurately characterized as a paraphrase, because the idea is embedded there, and I think a lot of people take it seriously.
That's the political philosophy Freedom advocates are up against. "Software patents are good for software companies, and therefore good for the nation." While economic processes aren't generally zero-sum, stuff surrounding intellectual property issues are significantly closer to "win-lose" than other components of capitalism, especially in the fast-moving arenas of computer technology.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
It should be noted that the moth-bug event is not the origin of the term. The term dates back to 19th century at least, and the moth was (physically) logged as "the first actual bug", indicating they used this term and were amused by a bug caused by a bug. Grace Hopper, by the way, was in charge of the operation but was not involved in finding the moth as far as I could find.
TFA linked to the wrong article. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/232825,stallman-crashes-european-patent-session.aspx is the session Stallman "crashed", regarding software patents.
Stallman didn't crash the World Computer Congress presentation described in TFA's link http://www.itnews.com.au/News/233002,stallman-calls-for-end-to-war-on-sharing.aspx - he was giving the keynote! That's like saying Steve Jobs crashed the Apple Developers Conference presentation.
So THAT'S why moderate muslims don't denounce the crazies. I get it now thanks.
Are you serious?
Thousands of muslims leaders and millions of regular muslims have denounced the terrorists.
Hell, even the leader of the axis of evil, Ayatollah Khamenei, publicly condemned the 9-11 attacks.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Many of them do. Many of those that do are still demonized by Fox News - for instance, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said in describing his community center in Lower Manhattan that “We want to push back against the extremists", has worked with local Jewish leaders, and has been consistently advocating for peace between Islamic nations and the West throughout his career. It didn't help his cause.
I am officially gone from
It's good to hear about 9/11. Now, how many Muslims denounce death penalty for apostasy?
Pretty much all of them. - I mean have you ever asked a muslim what he thought about it?
Really, the only ones who do care are the fundos and the politicians who pander to them.
The koran has just two passages that deal with the issue and in each case the death penalty is only applicable to apostates who then commit treason.
Just in case you've forgotten, we still have the death penalty for treason in the US.
Hell, the only reason we still have the death penalty for anything in the US is because the politicians who pander to american fundos.
No other western country has the death penalty. Even Russia abolished it.
But if you have to have big names say it - lets start with Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi - Grand Mufti of the leading islamic university, Al-Azhar. If islam were anywhere near as monolithic as the catholic church then the grand mufti of Al-Azhar would be the closest thing islam has to a pope. And it wasn't something new that he brought with him when the took office in 1996 - the previous Grand Mufti al-Shaltut held to similar doctrine.
But I'm sure you've never even heard of them. So how about Daisy Khan and her husband Imam Feisal Rauf - the people building the Park51 mosque.
Or if you aren't satisfied with people who are famous among muslims or people who are famous among non-muslims, how about over a hundred regular muslims from all over the planet?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.