Free software, free society: Richard Stallman at TEDxGeneva 2014

Author: TEDx Talks
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13m 40s Lenght
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It is the first TEDx talk of the founder of Free Software movement. Stallman, RMS for short, has changed the world with his vision of freedom for the digital age. He launched the GNU operating system, used with Linux as a component, and inspired the development of Creative Commons licences and Wikipedia project. In this talk, Stallman describes how nonfree programs give companies control of their users and what users can do in order to recover control over their computing. Licence: Creative Commons BY-SA-ND 3.0 CREDITS : Drawings under CC-BY-ND 3.0 created by Christian Nogareda (Kwis, Http://kwis.tumblr.com) & Valentin Pasquier (http://utopiqdream.deviantart.com) based on ideas of Richard Stallman, by himself & Ynternet.org foundation. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Comments

  1. Some speculation: The control struggle is the bedrock for the control of the rise of the androids. Will the future robot revolution be under corporate control or will people have the power to program their own androids. What happens now with software will decide what happens with the future hardware. Robots who only serve corporations? Scares the shit out of me.
  2. The sacrifices Richard refers to in 7:37 are the sacrifices software pirates are willing to break the law for. Piracy is freedom from limited access to information. Digital coup d'etat I'd think.
  3. This guy is the Buddha/Santa Clause of Tech awesome.
  4. white letters on yellow background. The guy is very good.
  5. Stallman's definition of freedom is a bunch of bullshit by the way. He says freedom is about not being under someone else's control. Look at the many lines of text in his GPL license. Now compare it against the BSD or MIT license. Under which license are the parties involved under less control? You shouldn't have to think too long and hard about that. Fundamentally freedom is being able to make a bad choice and living with the consequences. Freedom is being able to do something that Stallman believes is morally wrong without his will imposed upon you.
  6. that's why the libre in libre office 😶 didn't knew that until now
  7. How does Stallman go around the world to give talks? Who donates money for it? You or I don't. Not really. I don't think he would accept a donation from the government or from a company like Canonical. So how does he go to all these places to talk? It is not a trick question. I would very much like to know the answer. Who pays for him to diss basically everyone under the sun?
  8. Do i see windows at 1:28?
  9. Wow Richard this is best speech yet with out sound like a Crazy 😜 man. Love the slides. Freedom no drm and no pay to play and no spyware. You don't need to give up computers.
  10. Tue mich schwer mit Englisch, aber toll was hier geschieht!
  11. Nice One. Loved the Presentation
  12. Richard, Thanks for teaching us online freedom
  13. Richard Stallman is a complete nut! A genius obviously, but a nut nonetheless. I like how he takes advantage of every chance he gets to remind people that GNU is larger than Linux ( see 6:34 ).

    But no, Richard, a person has freedom as long as he or she has the ability to agree or not agree to something. All software is free/libre as long as users are allowed to say "no" to installing it. And the reason "the mainstream media don't talk about free software" is that the word "free" is ambiguous and f***ing confusing to the average listener. Free software is gratis software to most people. Finally, I would argue that the GPL isn't really "free" as Stallman puts it anyway because any programmer who wants to integrate GPL'd code into their own code is COMPELLED to relicense their own code under the GPL. That's not freedom. Use the MIT license instead.
  14. the best speech i have ever heard."live for others"
  15. I love Stallman's activism and and I respect his contribution to the software world, but I feel that he is a bit too hard on software companies. The massive profit margins of tech companies can be invested in the R&D of new, cheaper, faster technology. Would we have ultrabooks with 16 GB of RAM in 2016 if no one bought proprietary software? Definitely not. Personally, I use linux on all my computers because I can't stand MS Windows and OS X, but I see both sides of the coin. Like many things in life, the FOSS and proprietary software worlds are best when they can coexist and make up for the areas where the other lacks.
  16. The man.
  17. Nice
  18. Can I share it to Facebook now as it is already in youtube, I am just trying to respect Stallman's request but I am not sure :)
  19. Righteous cause indeed. But to be fully realized we must abolish capitalism and move on to higher mode of production.
  20. "Obviously, for suckers"
    LMAO