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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.
The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of
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the GNU Project.
For the sake of separation, this site has always been
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If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See gpg.html for my real key.
Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.
Phone the White House at (202) 456-1111
(only Tues-Thur 11 to 3) to call for dropping the changes.
Write to Biden at
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Wash DC 20500
Please phone your congresscritter at (202) 224-3121 or write to Reps at US House of Representatives, Wash, DC 20515.
I urge you to vote in Democratic primaries for the progressive candidate, if there is one. And in the final election I urge you to vote for Democrats, unless a liberal independent had a good chance of winning.
The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.
I'm looking for people to![[America Means Civil Liberties / Patriotism Means Protecting
Them / www.aclu.org/safefree ]](flag_set_vectorized.png)
Discurso in Córdoba, Spain, en español, El software libre, libertad, y sociedad en el Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
† Esta conferencia ha sido cancelado.
Si Usted participa en el evento del cual mi conferencia habría hecho parte, y si querría atenderla, por favor dígales a los organizadores del evento que la cancelación lo ha puesto triste, y pídales tomarlo en cuenta. Saberlo los ayudará en el futuro.
Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.
It is exciting that SB 976 turns towards restricting recommendation algorithms. But these options should not be limited to minors — every user should have this choice. (Please do not refer to teenagers as "children"; that feeds the US tendency to treat them like children and retard their development.)
However, I suggest taking a step beyond just choosing to use or not use the platform's addiction system. Recommendation algorithms should be completely separated from platforms!
If you want to use a nontrivial recommendation algorithm, you should be able to choose it yourself and use it anonymously. You could send it the URLs you want it to base its choices on. These might be some of the pages you had visited, and perhaps pages you had not visited.
Then it should send you its recommendations. You could pass all, or just some, or none of those recommendations to the platform to look at them.
AB 1949 is admirable because it gives a small boost to privacy for users of all ages, not only for children. It isn't enough, though — users should also be guaranteed the right and possibility to access through the Tor network and to use aliases. And collection of a user's data by the state should require a warrant against the user.
The door plug that blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 airplane was missing four bolts meant to hold it in place. They were missing because Boeing maintenance removed them and did not put them back in again.
Some workers actually made the mistake, but they were working as part of a work system that Boeing management was responsible for setting up and running. That's where the real fault is.
I suggest passing a law to require aircraft manufacturing and repair companies to have a certain fraction of licensed commercial pilots on their boards. Perhaps 66%.
Private equity is gobbling up large parts of the US nursing home business. This puts patients in danger since private equity can amass lots of money, create an oligopoly, and get away with abuses.
The study suggests that "regulation may be needed." I will take a stronger stand and call for firm limits — perhaps even prohibiting private equity combinations from owning home nursing businesses.
I'v also proposed prohibiting private equity from buying up lots of rental housing.
It should be illegal for a store to charge different prices to customers depending on whether they identify themselves and/or hand over demanded personal data.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
Guangdong province in China is the latest place to be hit by formerly-unusual torrential rains.
Will this teach China that continuing to increase its greenhouse emissions would be deadly?
Due to global heating, *northern permafrost region [now] emits more greenhouse gases than it captures.*
This is an example of a positive feedback. Positive feedbacks, which we can't entirely predict, are what can destroy civilization.
Salafi Arabia is running a marketing campaign to pretend it is something other than repressive and sexist.
Yanis Varoufakis presents the text of the speech over which Germany banned his presence and even from presenting videos of his views. This puts political freedom in Germany under grave threat.
In the text he affirms his solidarity with all victims of atrocities, including Jews and Palestinians. I don't agree with every detail of his views, but rather than quibble, I say his heart is in the right place.
Zoom demands that users make accounts and identify themselves before they can participate in a call. This puts Zoom in position to block any conference in Germany in which Varoufakis tried to participate.
That is one of many reasons why Zoom is an injustice and we should denounce and reject it.
Some hospitals in abortion-forbidding states turn women away from emergency rooms so as not to get stuck choosing between the crime of saving them or the liability of letting them die.
The US government s trying to enforce the law that emergency rooms can't just send a patient away. Now the case has come to the Supreme Court, where right-wing fanatics may decide to kill women in the name of the sacredness of fetuses.
The new president of the World Bank wants funds to invest in decrbonization of poor countries.
This lending program would be a good idea, but the highest priorities for investments in decarbonization are:
But if we don't require these actions. decarbonization won't get off the ground.
*Salman Rushdie warns young people against forgetting value of free speech.*
How dangerous, how foolish, and what a shame: young people motivated by good causes think they can make the world better by tactics of bullying. It makes them kin to fascists, and once they eliminate freedom of speech, it is the fascists that take advantage.
Modi is building a cult of personality to manipulate the Indian public.
I urge Indians to think deeply and do what Dr Ambedkar would have done.
The US and Europe have put sanctions on two right-wing Israelis who are leaders of the movement to take Palestinians' land, and associated with pogroms against them.
I don't know how much good this will do, but at least it is an effort in the right direction.
The California thugs who killed Mario Gonzalez by holding him down for a long time face charges of manslaughter.
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from [Apple' China] App Store,
We could hardly expect Apple to defy government orders to stop distributing a certain program, whether those orders are backed by valid judgments or arbitrary commands. But why does that choice come down to Apple at all? For a simple reason:
Because Apple doesn't allow users to freely install application programs!
Apple is compelled to serve repressive governments in repressing Apple customers because Apple designs the software to give it unjust power over users in the first place.
We should not forget that the apps for WhatsApp and Threads (like those for Facebook and Instagram) are themselves nonfree and therefore freedom-trampling.
There was an air attack on Iraqi army auxiliaries that unofficially support Iran. At the moment it is hard to know whether the attack was done by Israel or by PISSI. The US probably knows but is not telling us.
If this was Netanyahu's doing, he is playing a dangerous game, and the US should demand he stop provoking Iran if he wants any help when Iran retaliates.
The Columbia and Barnard chapters of the American Association of University Professors have condemned the president of Columbia for repression of students protesting in support of Palestine.
They said, “We are shocked at her failure to mount any defense of the free inquiry central to the educational mission of a university in a democratic society and at her willingness to appease legislators seeking to interfere in university affairs.”
The president of Columbia has acted like a coward, and had better develop some courage soon.
"In favor of Palestine" includes a range of views — including some I agree with and others (for instance, calling for the elimination of Israel) that I oppose. People, including students, are entitled to the right to advocate any of those views, or other views different entirely, whether you agree with them or not, whether I agree with them or not. We depend on this freedom and we must defend it firmly.
Questioning the claim that trees communicate and plan.
To control transfer of nutrients is far simpler than consciousness. Trees can do fairly complex behaviors without anything like consciousness,
*54 Columbia Law School Faculty Condemn Administration for Mass Arrests and Suspensions.*
Politicians right and left are trying to censor political views, but censorship by the right wing has an easier time succeeding.
Louisiana State University is accused of selling oil companies the opportunity to influence research topics or even control research.
I have the impression that many other US universities do this, and even more in other countries.
Wales (part of the UK) has given local communities control over which streets to limit to 20 mph.
Many citizens had objected to the way the Welsh government set this up.
* insiders say UK water firms knowingly break sewage laws.*
If the government really wanted this to stop, it could stop them. Seeing as the UK government can make it a crime to protest in "annoying" ways, it could, it could clearly make it a crime, punished by imprisonment, to intentionally pollute the waters.
So why doesn't it? I speculate that it is a matter of values. Under plutocratist rule, letting the "investors" extract money they are supposedly entitle do takes priority.
Advertainment is taking over movie-making. Why spend money on product advertisements to accompany some sort of show if you can have the show based entirely on your product?
The article highlights a general tendency towards milking assets that are available rather than making anything new.
To describe the result, the article falls into the intellectual pitfall of the misleading term "intellectual property", which twists thinking about any of the disparate laws that have been crammed into it.
If you want to think clearly about copyright, for instance, shun the term "intellectual property" and say you are talking about "copyright". Don't bring patents into that discussion — they are totally different from copyright. Also don't bring in trademarks, or trade secrets, or publicity rights.
For this article's point, the term "licensing rentierism" would fit better and avoid that confusion.
The four factors of the apocalypse:
global heating, global hating,
global eating, global mating.
Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.
Non-oppressive Commercial E-books
Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.
Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.
I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.
Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.
India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.
Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.
Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.
Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.
Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.
Ireland - national ID card by stealth.
ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.
Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.
Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.
Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.
People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.
I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.
Disclosure: I am friends with the author.
Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.
I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles. As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle.
These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the GNU philosophy directory. You can also download copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition'.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Letter to an associate, 1849
Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to
more information. The current notes are
here. For all previous
notes, see this page.
See this page for information on efforts to maintain links in the political notes.
Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on their own page.
Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.
The Free Software Song, by Richard M. Stallman. You can listen to a performance of the song: Free Software Song performed by Thor Here is a variant of this song called "The Free Firmware Song".
A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.
Earth under attack from planet Koch.
On doxing, and how to spell it.
A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta
Española. 
Here I am wearing my "power tie".
Wine snobs get their comeuppance.
Here I am struggling to open a bottle of water.
My application to an join Marian Henley's ex-boyfriends list.
My funny poetry and song parodies.
My Puns in English (Little Leaguer, August 2019).
My Puns in Spanish (New pun: Apostasía April 2019)
My Puns in French (New pun: Microsoft à l'école July 2019)
My Puns in Italian (New pun: Quale pesce fa starnutire? New 10/2018)
My Puns in German (New 02/2016)
Linguistic Swifties (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.)
--Saint
IGNUcius-- The Church of Emacs will soon
be officially listed by at least one person as his religion for
census purposes.
There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's editorfather.
Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality…"
The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.
I found a funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s.
If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's an archive of this now-defunct comic strip.
Sleeping with Stallman at MIT.
ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.
No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)
Made for You (December 2012) (local copy) Esperanto translation
A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.
Avec des chapeaux French song parody.
My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.
Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights
A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.
On Hacking: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker".
Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor
I would like to thank:
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