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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html deleted file mode 100644 index 9c15309..0000000 --- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_40.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,275 +0,0 @@ -<!-- 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"/> - |