Stallman Crashes Talk, Fights 'War On Sharing' 309
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.'"
A bit of irony (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Predicted politician response in the coming days: (Score:5, Funny)
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.
that must have been just like (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Predicted politician response in the coming day (Score:4, Funny)
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!
Re:Worse Than Software Patents (Score:2, Funny)
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.
Re:I don't care what anyone says (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Re:Please stop abusing the term "sharing." (Score:1, Funny)
"Please stop abusing the term "sharing"
You're not suggesting we call it "GNU/sharing" I hope?
Re:I don't care what anyone says (Score:5, Funny)
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.
After reading the first three words of the title.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Please stop abusing the term "sharing." (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the matter.