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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/rms-kol.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/rms-kol.html index fa95109..83499e1 100644 --- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/rms-kol.html +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/rms-kol.html @@ -1,14 +1,25 @@ <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> -<!-- Parent-Version: 1.90 --> -<title>Richard Stallman's speech in Kolkata (Calcutta), August 2006 +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> +<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> +<!--#set var="TAGS" value="speeches" --> +<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> +<title>Richard Stallman's Speech on Free Software and the West Bengal Government (2006) - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> - <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/rms-kol.translist" --> <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> - -<h2>Richard Stallman's speech in Kolkata (Calcutta), August 2006</h2> +<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> +<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> +<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> +<div class="article reduced-width"> +<h2>Speech on Free Software and the West Bengal Government</h2> + +<address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address> -<p>by <strong>Richard Stallman</strong></p> +<div class="infobox"> +<p>Transcript of a speech that was given in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) +in August, 2006.</p> +</div> +<hr class="thin" /> <p>There are a number of reasons why I'm not a communist. The first of them is that I'm not against the idea of private business, as long as @@ -18,8 +29,8 @@ society decently.</p> <p>Computing is a new area of human life. So we have to think about the human rights associated with this. What are the human rights -software users are entitled to? Four freedoms define Free Software. A -programme is Free Software for a user if:</p> +software users are entitled to? Four freedoms define free software. A +program is free software for a user if:</p> <ul> <li>Freedom 0: Run the software as you wish.</li> @@ -29,18 +40,18 @@ programme is Free Software for a user if:</p> versions.</li> </ul> -<p>With these 4 Freedoms, you can live an upright life with your +<p>With these four freedoms, you can live an upright life with your community. If you use nonfree, proprietary software, the developer has the power to decide what you can do. He can use that power over you. Like Microsoft. That game is evil. Nobody should play it. So it's not a question of beating Microsoft at its game. I set out to get away from that game.</p> -<p>Once GNU-Linux was ready in 1992, it began to catch on. It was +<p>Once GNU/Linux was ready in 1992, it began to catch on. It was reliable, powerful, cheap and flexible. Thousands and millions of -people began to use GNU-Linux. But the ideals of freedom began to be -forgotten though. In 1998, people stopped talking about Free -Software. Instead they said “open source”. That was a way +people began to use GNU/Linux. But the ideals of freedom began to be +forgotten though. In 1998, people stopped talking about free +software. Instead they said “open source.” That was a way of not saying “free” and not mentioning the ideas behind it. I don't disagree with that, but that's not what I am interested in. What I'm really interested in most of all is to teach people to @@ -60,9 +71,9 @@ a decision that says freedom matters and hence it must be promoted. Even if that's inconvenient. Freedom needs some sacrifices, some inconvenience, some price. But it's a small price to pay.</p> -<p>By globalisation, people usually mean globalisation of the power of +<p>By globalization, people usually mean globalization of the power of business. Business should not have political power. Otherwise -democracy becomes sick. And with globalisation of business power, this +democracy becomes sick. And with globalization of business power, this political power is enhanced. Free trade treaties are designed to attack democracy. For instance, it explicitly allows any business to sue government if a law makes its profit less than it has been. @@ -71,22 +82,22 @@ or environmental importance. Not all free trade treaties do this explicitly. They do it implicitly. Companies can threaten to move away elsewhere. And they do use this threat. <span class="gnun-split"></span>This actually happened some -years ago, with the EU software patents. The govt of Denmark was +years ago, with the EU software patents. The government of Denmark was threatened that if they did not support this the company would move the business elsewhere. This tiny threat was sufficient to blackmail -the govt of Denmark. If you allow a foreign mega-corporation to buy a +the government of Denmark. If you allow a foreign mega-corporation to buy a domestic corporation, you are allowing it to buy a weapon pointed against your country. The environment, public health, general -standards of living—are all important, and free trade treaties +standards of living, are all important, and free trade treaties should be abolished. They are harmful to freedom, health and the lives of people.</p> -<p>I do not accept the term “intellectual property”. The +<p>I do not accept the term “intellectual property.” The very term is biased and confusing. It talks about useful techniques -and works. It presumes they are “property”. It prejudges +and works. It presumes they are “property.” It prejudges such questions. There's also a more subtle problem. It lumps together all the diverse things and makes it look like you can talk about all -of them together. Copyright, patents, trade laws—are all very +of them together. Copyright, patents, trade laws, are all very different. It takes the greatest efforts of the best scholars to overcome the confusion caused by the term “intellectual property” and to discuss the details of these individual @@ -95,11 +106,11 @@ items. GATT</abbr> Treaty and the <abbr title="Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights">TRIPS</abbr>—actually it should be called Trade-related Impediments to Education and Science. Free trade -and enhancement of world trade harms democracy. When you globalise -something evil, it becomes a greater evil. And when you globalise +and enhancement of world trade harms democracy. When you globalize +something evil, it becomes a greater evil. And when you globalize something good, it becomes a greater good. Human knowledge and -cooperation are such “goods”. The Free Software Movement -is a part of that. It is the globalisation of one area of human +cooperation are such “goods.” The free software movement +is a part of that. It is the globalization of one area of human knowledge, namely software. Through global cooperation like this, you get freedom and independence for every region and every country.</p> @@ -116,12 +127,12 @@ its grip firmly on everyone else. Govts and schools are in their grip. They know how to do this. They know how to buy govt support. But what's the govt buying? Dependency, not development. Only Free Software constitutes development. It enables any activity to be fully -under the control of the people doing it. Free Software is appropriate +under the control of the people doing it. Free software is appropriate technology. Proprietary software is not appropriate for any use.</p> -<p>The West Bengal govt has an opportunity to adopt a policy of firm +<p>The West Bengal government has an opportunity to adopt a policy of firm leadership in this regard. This will give a boost to human resource -development. Free Software respects people's freedom. Govt has an +development. Free software respects people's freedom. Government has an influence on the future of society. Choosing which software to teach students: if you teach them Windows, they will be Windows users. For something else, they need to learn, and make the effort to learn @@ -133,13 +144,13 @@ gratis. Afterwards it's not gratis, either for them or their employers. This is a way to impose their power on the rest of society and its future. Schools have a mission to society. This mission requires teaching students to live in freedom, teaching skills to make -it easy to live in freedom. This means using Free Software.</p> +it easy to live in freedom. This means using free software.</p> -<p>Free Software is good for computer science education, to maximise +<p>Free software is good for computer science education, to maximise the potential of natural programmers. It gives students the opportunity to really learn. It's good for the natural programmers. If you have proprietary software, the teacher says “I don't -know”, “You are not allowed to know, it's a secret.” +know. You are not allowed to know, it's a secret.” So the alternative is to give him the source codes and let him read it all. They will then learn to be really good programmers. <span class="gnun-split"></span>But the most @@ -147,31 +158,32 @@ crucial reason is for the sake of moral education. Teaching them to be good corporations and benevolent, helpful citizens. This has to be taught. School has to teach by example. If you bring software to class, you must share this with other kids. Or don't bring it. Schools -must follow their own rule, by bringing Free Software to class. -Schools should use 100% Free Software. No proprietary software should +must follow their own rule, by bringing free software to class. +Schools should use 100% free software. No proprietary software should be used in schools. Public agencies, after a migration period, should -use Free Software. All software development must run on Free Software -platforms. And if it's released to the public, it must be Free -Software. (Free: as in free speech, not free beer.)</p> - -<p>One easy and useful way to put Free Software in schools—is to -participate in the “1 Laptop per Child” programme. India -recently pulled out of this programme, I'm told. I'm told the Indian -govt is making lots of laws to make multinational corporations +use free software. All software development must run on free software +platforms. And if it's released to the public, it must be free +software. (Free: as in free speech, not free beer.)</p> + +<p>One easy and useful way to put free software in schools—is to +participate in the “One Laptop per Child” program. India +recently pulled out of this program, I'm told. I'm told the Indian +governmentt is making lots of laws to make multinational corporations happy. Maybe this was to make Microsoft happy. Even if India is not, -West Bengal can participate in the 1 Laptop per child programme. I can +West Bengal can participate in the One Laptop per child program. I can put them in touch with the people developing that machine.</p> -<p>The Govt of India is considering a vicious new copyright law, +<p>The Government of India is considering a vicious new copyright law, imitating US law, in favour of large businesses, and against its citizens. The only emergency I can see that requires this being rushed through is catastrophic shortfall in the dream profits of some businesses! Foreigners should not have political power. In my case, I don't.</p> +</div> </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> -<div id="footer"> +<div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> <div class="unprintable"> <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to @@ -182,20 +194,20 @@ 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: - +/media/Gnu-local/www/philosophy/google-engineering-talk.html 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 + <p>For information on coordinating and contributing 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 +README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> </div> @@ -216,7 +228,7 @@ of this article.</p> There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> -<p>Copyright © 2006, 2019 Richard Stallman</p> +<p>Copyright © 2006, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative @@ -226,10 +238,10 @@ Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> <p class="unprintable">Updated: <!-- timestamp start --> -$Date: 2019/12/30 11:28:30 $ +$Date: 2021/09/14 16:25:47 $ <!-- timestamp end --> </p> </div> -</div> +</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> </body> </html> |