I want to share this interview with RMS

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arielenter

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Joined: 08/25/2010

Hi all:

I just wanted to share this video I found on youtube:

Richard Stallman: We're heading for a total disaster
http://youtu.be/uFMMXRoSxnA

It's an interview with RMS and I really like it a lot, but I'm sure there is thousands of good interviews out there. I really feel like RMS was very eloquent in that specific interview, I mean, I'm sure that it is something he has been working for so long, but it makes me wonder, what will happen once he is all gone? I mean I'm sure there is really good speakers out there when it comes to free software and maybe I just don't know their names, and the future of free software can not stand in the hands of one person, but I feel than losing him will be a great lost.

I feel he is one of the main people that has keep us in the right track, but maybe I'm wrong. Still, freedom is never easy, and we will have to keep strong and work hard even if he is around or not.

I feel like I have asked this question before but if some one could suggest a few other speakers I'll like to look for them and heard them. Thank you.

Jabjabs
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Joined: 07/05/2014

Oh yeah that is one of his great interviews, he is one of those people that you can bring up any subject and he will have a definite opinion on it even if that is just to say "I don't know" - it is better than making something up.

Also yes Freedom is not easy, it is very hard to obtain and maintain. In fact I'm currently writing an Essay on this topic at the very moment, essentially the reason we need Free software (the typical stuff - the intro), how I personally came to believe it is right thing to do and the third and biggest part the difficulties of sticking to it and the temptations of the old ways.

Even when he is not around there will always be others to carry the torch. For instance here is a talk from Bradley M Kuhn's on the GNU audio/video page (http://audio-video.gnu.org/audio/bradley-m-kuhn-software-freedom-and-the-gnu-generation-07-2002.ogg). This really put a nice new perspective on the same free software issues. There will always be others.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

The loss of RMS would be sad indeed.

Another great speaker is Eben Moglen.

Here's one of his talks:
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/08/audio-and-video-eben-moglens-talk-freedom-cloud-no/

There are tons more all over the internet such as:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Eben_Moglen

This one is probably one of my favorites. I love how he tells Tim O'Reilly off:
http://cachefly.oreilly.com/radar/oscon2007/OSCON_2007_Eben_Moglen.ogg

salparadise
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Joined: 09/08/2013

Interesting point of view expressed in that last link. I've not heard him speak before.
To my mind there's a minor problem with his point of view. He says that the behaviour of large software based Corporations is froth rather than substance and that to focus on that is to waste time.
It reminds me of one of Chomsky's talks where he says, when asked about the Boycott Israel Campaign (that seeks to force Israel economically to change its policy towards the Palestinians), that such campaigns are a waste of time and would probably, if anything, make things worse. He then cites the end of apartheid in South Africa as only having occurred when Governments began to put South Africa under sanctions. The point being avoided here is that it was individuals campaigning for an end to apartheid and individually boycotting South African products, that grew into a movement big enough to gain Government attention, that caused Governments to start applying real sanctions. Prior to individuals calling for an end to apartheid the British Government, nor the US Government for that matter, cared in the slightest about the plight of those on the rough end of apartheid. On the contrary, South Africa was subject to the British crown for some time; their legal system subject to the UK's. Much money was made in gold and diamonds and you can bet the British Establishment got a hefty slice of that cake.
So, to bring it back to the point in hand, there is a spreading consciousness about Corporate behaviour - tax evasion, little if any accountability before the law, perversion of the political and media systems, privacy and surveillance, etc, and were that to be derailed into a political debate about rights then those Corporations would get to carry on with less attention and that is to their benefit. Any political debate, if it doesn't end up as an intellectual knife fight, which is what it almost certainly would do, would lead to Charters and Bills of Rights, that won't have any legal force and would, even if they did, take decades to get through the court cases and the appeals and the waiting for the legislature to define certain concepts and the retrials and the final rulings, before any of us knew where we stood.
So I'm extremely suspicious of intellectuals who seem to me to be saying "look elsewhere, this is not the answer" when history shows that it is indeed the answer, or at least, the first step towards a good answer.
He's right to say there needs to be a political/moral debate but, to my mind, diverting attention away from the currently coalescing centers of information control and economic power is misdirection. And that makes my alarm bells ring.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

You should listen to his other stuff too, including his talk on decentralization. I'm sure it will quiet your bells. Fear not: Eben Moglen is solidly on our side.

salparadise
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Joined: 09/08/2013

I watched a series of 4 hour long films of Mr Moglen giving talks about Ed Snowden and NSA spying. Good stuff. He's quite strong in his condemnation of facebook and it's owners as well. I see what you mean now, the stance he took in the O'Reilly clip was very antagonistic and at odds with what he said elsewhere.

For anyone who's not seen them and is interested...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCUJn-5By14 - part 1, the links to 2,3 & 4 are on the page for part 1.

J.B. Nicholson-Owens
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Joined: 06/09/2014

I think http://snowdenandthefuture.info/ is the source site for that
material. I favor http://snowdenandthefuture.info/ over YouTube because
snowdenandthefuture.info doesn't require you to accept cookies,
encourage users to install Flash, accept non-free media formats, or be
tracked by Google. Also, http://snowdenandthefuture.info/ has
transcripts of the talks.

I encourage listeners to recall what the public knew about the NSA in
2007: we didn't have the benefit of Snowden's documents. We knew what
other NSA whistleblowers were saying and that certainly was enough to
take action, but Snowden's documents were concrete evidence of an
organized spying going on at a level beyond what most understood to
happen. I don't recall anyone publishing such details before Snowden.

I also encourage listeners to not let the style become the focus of
consideration but consider the substance of what is said. O'Reilly
shills for "open source" and unwilling to seriously engage in any
freedom talk (just as the open source movement was designed to do). It's
not that O'Reilly could only have done what he did without freedom talk,
these were choices he made; O'Reilly chose to favor developmental
methodology and not champion software freedom for its own sake.

salparadise
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Joined: 09/08/2013

I favor http://snowdenandthefuture.info/ over YouTube because
snowdenandthefuture.info doesn't require you to accept cookies,
encourage users to install Flash, accept non-free media formats, or be
tracked by Google.

Quite right too. Only I didn't accept any cookies, or install flash - I downloaded the films as webm files and watched them from the hard drive.
And as to being tracked by Google - their logs will show someone using Trisquel swung by, downloaded 4 films in an open format and then left. I've had the same IP address for the last 10+ years, as far as I know - there ain't no hiding to be had.

Jabjabs
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Joined: 07/05/2014

Also available in Ogg format, don't forget that. :D

bitbit
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Joined: 10/29/2012

arielenter, I second what you said.

thx for the speech links.

t3g
t3g
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Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

"Another great speaker is Eben Moglen."

Wow.Great talk. Thanks for sharing this.

- Zem