Eben Moglen

« For purposes of background, it might be helpful for readers who don’t follow the Free World’s activities closely to point out that Richard Stallman’s 1999 article, “The Universal Encyclopedia and Free Learning Resource,” is one of the founding documents of the Wikipedia movement, that Richard and Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales (along with others in our movement) have been working towards common goals for more than twenty years now, seeking to bring about a whole range of social changes that – whether they are about free software, or free culture, or free communications — have a single overall goal: to make both technology and law function in the interest of sharing, to prevent so-called “ownership” from excluding people from knowledge and culture because they cannot afford to pay.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “every revolution begins in one man’s mind.” The revolution that uses the technology of networked communication to override the legal and economic barriers that prevent human minds from learning began in Mr. Stallman’s mind. Ask yourself this question: “How many of the Einsteins who ever lived were allowed to learn physics?” Changing the answer to that question for this and future generations is the cause to which Jimmy and Richard and I and many others have dedicated our lives.

Eben Moglen
Professor of Law,
Columbia University
Founding Director,
Software Freedom Law Center »

— Eben Moglen