In this video Richard Stallman talks about surveillance and being controlled on the Internet.
Read more »Video: Richard Stallman - A Free Digital Society - What Makes Digital Inclusion Good or Bad?
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How Proprietary Software prevents Free Software innovation
There has been this argument in the community for a while that using some non-free software to further the Free Software advocacy might be a useful thing. As an example say you have a graphics card that there is no Free Software driver for. Then using a proprietary driver and therefore being able to use a mostly free software OS becomes justifiable.
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The Pragmatism of Free Software Idealism
In the beginning, the idea that software should be free was deemed unrealistic and laughable, and then unworkable. Now, for the most part, it is deemed acceptable and desirable – not just as a workable approach to writing software, but as a means of writing better software.
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Copyright assignment is killing the “free” in free software
How many contributions are being left out of CUPS because of this stupid copyright assignment? It looks to me that such software is doomed to remain crippled as long as companies like Apple are in charge of their maintenance.
There is free software. And there is free software by Apple. And Oracle. And Canonical.
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Antifeatures Talk
Benjamin Mako Hill gave a very insightful presentation at Linux Conf Australia 2010. Now the video and audio are available online. He talks about the "market segmentation" or price discrimination on vast number of hardware and software companies practice. About challenge-response protocols, drm, tivoization, monopolies and the role of free software.
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How shall the artists get paid?
One of the most common questions I get, and quite likely the most irrelevant, is “how shall the artists get paid?” in a scenario where the copyright monopoly is scaled back to sensible levels. But it makes no sense to ask that of a politician, for two primary and two secondary reasons.
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12 free software/open source books
Free software and open source community is very dedicated to sharing information, comparing and learning, then in this article I will recommend some readings of open books that you can download, read and if you want print freely.
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Kettling Wikileaks
Richard Stallman on Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), Wikileaks, LOIC and police action during London protests and state inaction in US foreign politics. This is a longer version of a story originally published on the Guardian.
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The most important work for freedom that this culture has seen in generations
The Free Software Foundation and Richard Stallman's work represents the most important work for freedom that this culture, the American culture, has seen in many many generations because it takes the ideas of freedom and it removes it from the ivory tower, and it removes it from lawyers, and places it in a community -- a technology community -- that is one of the most important communities definin
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The Death Of Mono Or How To Annoy Thousands With Four Words
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Software Licensing - Don't Complain If You Don't Like The License
Article about software licensing, and the right of the programmer and user to choose.
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Why Free Software Matters (2004)
Sean Cohen's piece on ownership of software and vendor lock-in and other important things.
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Peruvian Congressman's rebuttal to Microsoft FUD in 2002
A bill was proposed (and later in 2005 passed into law) that the Peruvian state was to only use free software. This incited the manager of Microsoft Peru to write a FUD laced letter to Dr Edgar David Villanueva Núñez, the man behind the bill 1609. Here's his rebuttal to that letter.
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Free Software Parable
“What’s in this food?”
“You’ll like it. Just eat it.”
“I want to know what’s in it.”
“That is none of your business. It’s healthy. Eat it.”
“Healthy? By whose standards?”
“Our standards. Trust us.”
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Proprietary Software Licensing Produces No New Value In Society
Bradley M. Kuhn's essay compares complex financial instruments, real estate, poker playing and proprietary licensing and their pros and cons to the society.
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