first-hackers-conference-1984.html (8458B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.97--> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="gnu-history" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>Richard Stallman at the First Hackers Conference in 1984 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/gnu/po/first-hackers-conference-1984.translist" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/gnu/gnu-breadcrumb.html" --> 11 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 12 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 13 <div class="article reduced-width"> 14 <h2>Richard Stallman at the First Hackers Conference in 1984</h2> 15 <div class="thin"></div> 16 17 <p>The first Hackers Conference was held in Sausalito, California, in 18 November 1984. The makers of the documentary <cite>Hackers: Wizards of 19 the Electronic Age</cite> interviewed Richard Stallman at the event. 20 They included only parts of the interviews in the film, but made some 21 other footage available. Stallman's statements at the conference went 22 beyond what he had written in the <a 23 href="/gnu/initial-announcement.html">initial announcement of GNU</a>.</p> 24 25 <p>It was at this conference that Richard Stallman first publicly and 26 explicitly stated the idea that <em>all software should be free</em>, 27 and makes it clear that “free” refers to freedom, not price, 28 by saying that software should be <em>freely</em> accessible to 29 everyone. This was probably the first time he made that distinction to 30 the public.</p> 31 32 <p>Stallman continues by explaining why it is wrong to agree to accept a 33 program on condition of not sharing it with others. So what can one 34 say about a business based on developing nonfree software and luring 35 others into accepting that condition? Such things are bad for society 36 and shouldn't be done at all. (In later years he used stronger 37 condemnation.)</p> 38 39 <p>Here are the things he said:</p> 40 41 <blockquote> 42 <p><i>“My project is to make all software free.”</i></p> 43 </blockquote> 44 45 <blockquote> 46 <p><i>“Imagine if you bought a house and the basement was locked 47 and only the original building contractor had the key. If you needed 48 to make any change, repair anything, you'd have to go to him, and if 49 he was too busy doing something else he'd tell you to get lost and 50 you'd be stuck. You are at that person's mercy and you become 51 downtrodden and resigned. That's what happens when the blueprints to a 52 computer program are kept secret by the organization that sells it. 53 That's the usual way things are done.”</i> 54 <a href="//audio-video.gnu.org/video/rms-at-first-hackers-conference-1984.webm"> 55 Video</a></p> 56 </blockquote> 57 58 <blockquote> 59 <p><i>“If I'm offered a chance to use a piece of software 60 provided I would agree not to share it with anyone, I feel that it 61 would be wrong, it would spiritually <a href="#Note1" id="Note1-rev">[1]</a> 62 hurt me to agree. So I don't want them investing in software that's owned. 63 And I don't believe that anything is justified to encourage them to invest in 64 software that's owned. I think the really great software has been done by 65 hackers who were doing it because they loved it, because it was playful 66 cleverness, and that will continue in any case. I think there are 67 alternative ways of arranging for some amount of money to go into 68 paying salaries of people, paying them to spend their time writing 69 programs. If people want certain kinds of programs to be written, they 70 can come up with other forms of organization—I can suggest a 71 few—but the important thing is there are lots of alternative 72 ways of doing things. This one has been chosen because it gets the 73 people investing in software companies the most profits of any of the 74 available ways.”</i> 75 <a 76 href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161107235202/https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/at-the-first-hackers-conference-in-1984-richard-stallman-news-footage/146485179">Video</a></p> 77 </blockquote> 78 79 <blockquote> 80 <p><i>“I don't think it's a social imperative to give them the 81 most possible profit. I think the social imperative is that 82 information that's developed should be accessible to everyone as freely 83 as possible. If we look at the principle underlying—the incentive 84 principle, give people incentives to do the things you wish to 85 encourage—and then we say, ‘what are we giving people 86 incentives for?’ we see that we are not giving them any 87 incentives to do the things that benefit society most. If a person has 88 a choice, he can write a program and then encourage everyone to use it 89 in any way that's good for him or he can write the program and then 90 market it hoarding the plans, telling people they are not allowed to 91 share it with their neighbors, being very obnoxious and obstructive. 92 We see he has an incentive to be obnoxious and obstructive, he doesn't 93 have an incentive to cooperate. I think that's sick, I think that's a 94 bad social organization, because we are encouraging most what's not 95 good for us.”</i> 96 <a 97 href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161108001731/https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/at-the-first-hackers-conference-in-1984-richard-stallman-news-footage/146484701">Video</a></p> 98 </blockquote> 99 100 <hr class="thin" /> 101 102 <h3 class="footnote">Footnote</h3> 103 104 <p> <a href="#Note1-rev" id="Note1">[1]</a> 105 Subsequently Stallman decided to stop using the word “spiritually,” 106 so that people would not think he meant to refer to anything supernatural.</p> 107 108 </div> 109 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 110 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 111 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 112 <div class="unprintable"> 113 114 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 115 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 116 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 117 the FSF. 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