diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'examples/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | examples/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html | 193 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 193 deletions
diff --git a/examples/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html b/examples/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html deleted file mode 100644 index fc5d68e6..00000000 --- a/examples/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,193 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/loose.dtd"> -<html><!-- This is the second edition of Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman. - -Free Software Foundation - -51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor - -Boston, MA 02110-1335 -Copyright C 2002, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. -Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire book are permitted -worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is -preserved. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations -of this book from the original English into another language provided -the translation has been approved by the Free Software Foundation and -the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all -copies. - -ISBN 978-0-9831592-0-9 -Cover design by Rob Myers. - -Cover photograph by Peter Hinely. - --><!-- Created on February 18, 2016 by texi2html 1.82 -texi2html was written by: - Lionel Cons <Lionel.Cons@cern.ch> (original author) - Karl Berry <karl@freefriends.org> - Olaf Bachmann <obachman@mathematik.uni-kl.de> - and many others. -Maintained by: Many creative people. -Send bugs and suggestions to <texi2html-bug@nongnu.org> ---><head><title>Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.: 40. Computing “Progress”: Good and Bad</title><meta name="description" content="This is the second edition of Richard Stallman's collection of essays."><meta name="keywords" content="Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.: 40. Computing “Progress”: Good and Bad"><meta name="resource-type" content="document"><meta name="distribution" content="global"><meta name="Generator" content="texi2html 1.82"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><style type="text/css"> -<!-- -a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} -blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} -pre.display {font-family: serif} -pre.format {font-family: serif} -pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} -pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} -pre.smalldisplay {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} -pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} -pre.smallformat {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} -pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} -span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal;} -span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal;} -ul.toc {list-style: none} ---> -</style><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../web-common/style.css"></head><body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000" class="article"> - -<a name="Computing-Progress"></a> -<header><div id="logo"><a href="/"><img src="../gnu.svg" height="100" width="100"></a></div><h1 class="book-title">Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.</h1></header><section id="main"><a name="Computing-_0060_0060Progress_0027_0027_003a-Good-and-Bad"></a> -<h1 class="chapter"> 40. Computing “Progress”: Good and Bad </h1> - -<a name="index-Horowitz_002c-Bradley"></a> -<a name="index-UK"></a> -<a name="index-Big-Brother"></a> -<a name="index-New-Labour"></a> -<a name="index-China"></a> -<a name="index-Yahoo"></a> -<a name="index-proprietary-software_002c-spying-on-users-2"></a> -<p>Bradley Horowitz of -Yahoo proposed here<a name="DOCF50" href="#FOOT50">(50)</a> that every object in -our world have a unique number so that your cell phone could record -everything you do—even which cans you picked up while in the -supermarket. -</p> -<p>If the phone is like today’s phones, it will use proprietary software: -software controlled by the companies that developed it, not by its -users. Those companies will ensure that your phone makes the -information it collects about you available to the phone company’s -database (let’s call it Big Brother) and probably to other -companies. -</p> -<p>In the UK of the future, as New Labour would have it, those companies -will surely turn this information over to the police. If your phone -reports you bought a wooden stick and a piece of poster board, the -phone company’s system will deduce that you may be planning a protest, -and report you automatically to the police so they can accuse you of -“terrorism.” -</p> -<p>In the UK, it is literally an offense to be suspect—more precisely, -to possess any object in circumstances that create a “reasonable -suspicion” that you might use it in certain criminal ways. Your -phone will give the police plenty of opportunities to suspect you so -they can charge you with having been suspected by them. Similar -things will happen in China, where Yahoo has already given the -government all the information it needed to imprison a dissident; it -subsequently asked for our understanding on the excuse that it was -“just following orders.” -</p> -<a name="index-cell-phones-_0028see-also-both-OpenMoko-and-Apple_0029-1"></a> -<p>Horowitz would like cell phones to tag information automatically, -based on knowing when you participate in an event or meeting. That -means the phone company will also know precisely whom you meet. That -information will also be interesting to governments, such as those of -the UK and China, that cut corners on human rights. -</p> -<p>I do not much like Horowitz’s vision of total surveillance. Rather, I -envision a world in which our computers never collect, or release, any -information about us except when we want them to. -</p> -<a name="index-DRM_002c-call-it-_0060_0060Digital-Restrictions-Management_0027_0027-6"></a> -<p>Nonfree software does other nasty things besides spying; it often -implements digital handcuffs—features designed to restrict the users -(also called DRM, for Digital Restrictions Management). These features -control how you can access, copy, or move the files in your own -computer. -</p> -<p>DRM is a common practice: -<a name="index-DRM_002c-and-Microsoft"></a> -Microsoft does it, -<a name="index-DRM_002c-and-Apple"></a> -Apple does it, -<a name="index-DRM_002c-and-Google"></a> -Google -does it, even the -<a name="index-DRM_002c-and-BBC-iPlayer"></a> -<a name="index-iPlayer_002c-BBC-_0028see-also-DRM_0029"></a> -BBC’s iPlayer does it. Many governments, taking the -side of these companies against the public, have made it illegal to -tell others how to escape from the digital handcuffs. As a result, -competition does nothing to check the practice: no matter how many -proprietary alternatives you might have to choose from, they will all -handcuff you just the same. If the computer knows where you are -located, it can make DRM even worse: there are companies that would -like to restrict what you can access based on your present location. -<a name="index-DRM_002c-call-it-_0060_0060Digital-Restrictions-Management_0027_0027-7"></a> -</p> -<p>My vision of the world is different. I would like to see a world in -which all the software in our computers — in our desktop PCs, our -laptops, our handhelds, our phones — is under our control and -respects our freedom. In other words, a world where all software is -<em>free</em> software. -</p> -<p>Free software, freedom-respecting software, means that every user of -the program is free to get the program’s source code and change the -program to do what she wants, and also free to give away or sell -copies, either exact or modified. This means the users are in -control. With the users in control of the software, nobody has power -to impose nasty features on others. -</p> -<p>Even if you don’t exercise this control yourself, you are part of a -society where others do. If you are not a programmer, other users of -the program are. They will probably find and remove any nasty -features, which might spy on or restrict you, and publish safe -versions. You will have only to elect to use them—and since -all other users will prefer them, that will usually happen with no -effort on your part. -</p> -<a name="index-Stross_002c-Charles"></a> -<p>Charles Stross envisioned computers that permanently record everything -that we see and hear.<a name="DOCF51" href="#FOOT51">(51)</a> Those records could be very useful, as long as -Big Brother doesn’t see and hear all of them. Today’s cell phones are -already capable of listening to their users without informing them, at -the request of the police, the phone company, or anyone that knows the -requisite commands. As long as phones use nonfree software, -controlled by its developers and not by the users, we must expect this -to get worse. Only free software enables computer-using citizens to -resist totalitarian surveillance. -<a name="index-cell-phones-_0028see-also-both-OpenMoko-and-Apple_0029-2"></a> -</p> -<a name="index-Winer_002c-Dave"></a> -<p>Dave Winer’s article<a name="DOCF52" href="#FOOT52">(52)</a> suggested that Mr. -<a name="index-Gates_002c-Bill"></a> -Gates should send a copy of -<a name="index-Windows_002c-Vista-2"></a> -<a name="index-Vista_002c-Windows-_0028see-also-both-Windows-and-DRM_0029-3"></a> -Windows Vista to -<a name="index-Alpha-Centauri"></a> -Alpha Centauri. I understand the feeling, but -sending just one won’t solve our problem here on Earth. Windows is -designed to spy on users and restrict them. We should collect all the -copies of -<a name="index-DRM_002c-and-Windows"></a> -Windows, and of -<a name="index-DRM_002c-and-MacOS"></a> -<a name="index-MacOS-_0028see-also-DRM_0029-1"></a> -MacOS and -<a name="index-DRM_002c-and-BBC-iPlayer-1"></a> -<a name="index-iPlayer_002c-BBC-_0028see-also-DRM_0029-1"></a> -iPlayer for the same reason, and send -them to Alpha Centauri at the slowest possible speed. Or just erase -them. -<a name="index-Big-Brother-1"></a> -<a name="index-proprietary-software_002c-spying-on-users-3"></a> -</p><div class="footnote"> -<hr><h3>Footnotes</h3> -<h3><a name="FOOT50" href="#DOCF50">(50)</a></h3> -<p>Bradley Horowitz, “The Tech Lab: Bradley Horowitz,” <cite>BBC News,</cite> 29 June 2007, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6252716.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6252716.stm</a>. -</p><h3><a name="FOOT51" href="#DOCF51">(51)</a></h3> -<p>Charles Stross, “The Tech Lab: Charles Stross,” <cite>BBC News,</cite> 10 July 2007, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6287126.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6287126.stm</a>. -</p><h3><a name="FOOT52" href="#DOCF52">(52)</a></h3> -<p>Dave Winer, “The Tech Lab: Dave Winer,” <cite>BBC News,</cite> 14 June 2007, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6748103.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6748103.stm</a>. -</p></div> -<hr size="2"></section></body></html> |