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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c15309 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html @@ -0,0 +1,275 @@ +<!-- 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. + --> + + + <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 href="#FOOT50" name="DOCF50"> + (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 href="#FOOT51" name="DOCF51"> + (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 href="#FOOT52" name="DOCF52"> + (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 href="#DOCF50" name="FOOT50"> + (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 href="#DOCF51" name="FOOT51"> + (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 href="#DOCF52" name="FOOT52"> + (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> + </hr> + </div> + <hr size="2"/> + |