User:Brian McNeil/Story preparation/Interview: Richard Stallman; 'gotta fight for the right to party'

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Lede [edit]

A freely-licensed portait of Richard Stallman
Image: Jin Wicked.

Richard Stallman is a polarising figure in today's world. Modern computers, the Internet, and freely available software owe more than a nod to his contributions; his stance on a freedom to 'tinker'—and to 'share'—continues to influence what people can do with their computers. He remains an activist, despite several prominent commercial computing figures condemning and disparaging his ideas and politics; Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, describing Stallman's GNU General Public License in 2001, called it a "cancer".

Stallman first nailed his ideological statement of principles to the corporate software church door in 1985. His GNU Manifesto led to the creation of the Free Software Foundation and the formulation of a political movement and principle commonly known as "copyleft"—a play on the near-ubiquitous term copyright. This was to influence Linus Torvald's work on the Linux kernel, acting as a principle that framed the terms of shared study and work therein. Today—in stark contrast to 1985—there are billions of computer users with network access. They get by without knowing why access to source code of programs they use can be important; they remain blissfully ignorant of the battle for software freedom behind so many services Internet Service Providers run and their most-used websites rely on.

Known near-universally in computing circles as RMS, Stallman agreed to give a free-form in-depth interview to Wikinews. Below are our questions and his responses, putting in context the choices any computer user faces today, and highlighting where one person took the baton from others and worked for public—not corporate—benefit. Beyond that, we raise current political issues where technology is a significant factor, challenging Stallman to reply according to his own personal moral and ethical code. Is software's original anti-establishment punk-rocker considered hip by the 'b3ta /b/tard' generation? Does he know what people who grew up with computers think is important? Does he agree with them or does he tell them to get off his lawn?

Q:s1 - Not that RMS; 'c'mon tell me who are you' [edit]

  • From RFC to GPL - the common thread.
  • Jon Postel - influence on IT development, possible 'hero', how principled?
  • Early hacker: password cracking, make the damn printer do what you want

Q:s2 - Free versus Open; the ideals 'slip-sliding away'? [edit]

  • Split into factions?, cause and consequence
  • Lack of recognition for ideological underpinnings
  • Pandering to commercial interests
  • What's wrong with the Open Source Software PR campaign?
  • GNUpedia (GNE) - against Nupedia, eventual support for Wikipedia. Compromise, climbdown, or best placed effort?
    • Which is closer to the 'ideal' sought with GNE? Citizendium, or Wikipedia?
    • Changing the license to help Wikipedia; more, or less, freedom?
  • [Humour]Replacing Stallman with a small shell script - the Virtual Richard Stallman.

Q:s3 - Technology and the surveillance state; not-so 'Private Investigations'? [edit]

The opening of Stallman's 'A Free Digital Society' talk given at HU220, October 9, 2009 in New Zealand.
•  Length: 16m39s
  • DARPA influence; prehistory: Flowers with BT - loss of knowledge from Enigma cracking; cutting-edge technology lost or abandoned?
  • Pro-public: PRZ & PGP It's private, it's nobody's business [PRZ on PGP]
    • Does RMS use encryption?
    • UK - RIPA; forced passphrase disclosure.
  • The Denmark web page blacklist.
  • The UK IWF blacklist, system exposed by Wikipedia's vandal-protection measures.
  • State and corporate use of computer tech. Data mining and intelligence gathering
  • INDECT: "not can we, but should we". Respectability of saying research has commercial value
    • Digital technology makes possible surveillance that "dictators of the past could only have dreamed of" [RMS - embedded video]
    • Mapping networks of contacts, tracking location of mobile phones.
    • Systems missing defined retention periods, clear due process to obtain access.
    • Broad monitoring of P2P + investigating watermarking (preventing leaks/identifying whistleblowers).
    • Ethical Board of INDECT - headed by senior PSNI officer.
      • Leeds Uni participant "universal access" expert (blind/disabled).
    • Polish Uni involvement - installing computers for data acquisition in "regular" appearing speed-cam box.
    • "Police lie to get evidence" [RMS - embedded video]

Q:s4 - 'Right here, Right now'; what's happening, what's important? [edit]

Related news [edit]

Sources [edit]

Wikipedia
Wikipedia has more about this subject:

External links [edit]

{{develop}} Category:Internet Category:Politics and conflicts Category:Culture and entertainment

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