Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
blogs.computerworld.com
Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
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Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#2Good article. RMS has an honest take on Cuba.
Open source can lead to other freedoms - some good discussion of software freedom.
"DT: I've editorialized that U.S. companies should be allowed to compete in Cuba. What's your position on that?
RMS: I really don't care. From my point of view, business issues are minor in comparison with issues of human rights and general well-being. "
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#3From the article:
So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can."
Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment to have a laughs. But I have no clue from the article that this is humorous.
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#4From the article: So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can." Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment…
He certainly is serious. But as long as his ridiculous totalitarian/communist ideas only apply to software, he's mostly harmless.
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#5"One of the things we see when businesses have too much power is that they corrupt those watchdogs, and we see this in the U.S. all the time. The U.S. government has ceased to effectively monitor the market to make sure it works well. Instead, it is a tool in the hands of big business."
I think Stallman's views tend towards the extreme but I have to agree with this one.
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#6From the article: So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can." Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment…
He certainly is serious. But as long as his ridiculous totalitarian/communist ideas only apply to software, he's mostly harmless.
I think Stallman's $1M grant from the MacArthur Foundation has given him a rather skewed idea about how economics works for most people even in the US, let alone the rest of the world.
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#7"One of the things we see when businesses have too much power is that they corrupt those watchdogs, and we see this in the U.S. all the time. The U.S. government has ceased to effectively monitor the market to make sure it works well. Instead, it is a tool in the hands of big business." I think Stallman's views tend towards the extreme but I have to agree with this one.
> when businesses have too much power is that they corrupt those watchdogs
It's called Regulatory Capture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
It happens all the time. The vast majority of regulation ends up doing nothing more than giving the existing large competitors in a space a tool to keep out new entrants and smaller, scrappier competitors.
One of the reasons that the software industry is do dynamic is because it's not regulated.
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#8From the article: So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can." Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment…
If the cost of using Linux is less than the cost of using Windows, but the cost of ripping out existing Windows and re-training users is large enough to overwhelm the gain, then a population that uses neither but could learn Linux is at an advantage.
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#9From the article: So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can." Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment…
I thought it was a surprisingly good interview until I got to that bit. The unnecessary 4 Freedoms rant should have tipped me off I suppose.
Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba
#10Good article. RMS has an honest take on Cuba. Open source can lead to other freedoms - some good discussion of software freedom. "DT: I've editorialized that U.S. companies should be allowed to compete in Cuba. What's your position on that? RMS: I really don't care. From my point of view, business issues are minor in comparison with issues of human rights and general well-being. "
Depends on what he means by business issues.
A very good argument can be easily made that a fiat currency is a necessary but not sufficient element in modern well-being.
Prior to fiat currencies there was a fixed amount of gold, and every coin in your pocket was a coin out of someone else's pocket.
Imagine a fixed number of software copies, a gold based currency is a lot like DRM for money.
Further more you can easily argue that making health care part of employer compensation (as is common in the US) leads to less well-being then making it a separate (in Europe often nationalized) good.
Those are two business issues with a direct impact on general well-being, and that's just off the top of my head.