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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/computing-progress.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/computing-progress.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e50f707 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/computing-progress.html @@ -0,0 +1,171 @@ +<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 --> +<title>Computing ‘Progress’: Good and Bad +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> +<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/computing-progress.translist" --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> +<h2>Computing ‘progress’: good and bad</h2> + +<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/"><strong>Richard +Stallman</strong></a></p> + +<p><i> +The BBC invited me to write an article for their column series, The +Tech Lab, and this is what I sent them. (It refers to a couple of +other articles published in that series.) The BBC was ultimately unwilling +to publish it with a copying-permission notice, so I have published it +here.</i></p> + +<p> +Bradley Horowitz of Yahoo proposed here 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> + +<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> + +<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: Microsoft does it, Apple does it, Google +does it, even the 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.</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 +<a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html"><em>free</em></a> 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 select to use them—and since +all other users will prefer them, that will usually happen with no +effort on your part.</p> + +<p> +Charles Stross envisioned computers that permanently record everything +that we see and hear. 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.</p> + +<p> +Dave Winer's article suggested that Mr. Gates should send a copy of +Windows Vista to 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 Windows, and of MacOS and iPlayer for the same reason, and send +them to Alpha Centauri at the slowest possible speed. Or just erase +them.</p> +</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> +<div id="footer"> +<div class="unprintable"> + +<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a +href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a +href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other +corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a +href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> + +<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, + replace it with the translation of these two: + + We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality + translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. + Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard + to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> + <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> + + <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of + our web pages, see <a + href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations + README</a>. --> +Please see the <a +href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for +information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p> +</div> + +<p>Copyright © 2007, 2014 Richard M. Stallman</p> + +<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" +href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative +Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> + +<p class="unprintable">Updated: +<!-- timestamp start --> +$Date: 2014/04/12 12:39:58 $ +<!-- timestamp end --> +</p> +</div> +</div> +</body> +</html> |