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From: |
Dora Scilipoti |
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Subject: |
www/server/staging rms-pavia-doctoral-address.html |
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Date: |
Sat, 11 Jun 2022 06:29:44 -0400 (EDT) |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Dora Scilipoti <dora> 22/06/11 06:29:44
Added files:
server/staging : rms-pavia-doctoral-address.html
Log message:
Add speech in Pavia, Italy.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/server/staging/rms-pavia-doctoral-address.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1
Patches:
Index: rms-pavia-doctoral-address.html
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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.97 -->
+<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html -->
+<!--#set var="TAGS" value="speeches" -->
+<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" -->
+<title>Pavia Doctoral Address: Innovation Is Secondary When Freedom Is
+at Stake - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" -->
+<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE-->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" -->
+<div class="article reduced-width">
+<h2>Pavia Doctoral Address: Innovation Is Secondary When Freedom Is at
+Stake</h2>
+
+<address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address>
+
+<div class="infobox">
+<p>On September 24th, 2007, Richard Stallman received an
+<i>honoris causa</i> doctorate in Computer Engineering from the <a
+href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111004234138/http://www.unipv.eu/on-line/Home/Ateneo/Organidigoverno/Rettore/articolo1229.html";>University
of Pavia</a>, Italy. Here is the speech that
+he gave at the ceremony, initially transcribed by Alessandro Rubini, with
+improvements by the GNU webmasters team.</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="thin" />
+
+<p>Innovation can create riches, and once in a while those riches can
+lead to general economic prosperity, especially if you don't have
+neo-liberal economics to impede the result.</p>
+
+<p>But innovation affects things much more important than riches or even
+economic prosperity. Democracy was an innovation, fascism was an
+innovation. Today, in Italy, we see the innovation of placing criminal
+charges against fishermen for saving people from drowning in the
+sea <a href="#Note1" id="Note1-rev">[1]</a>.
+Innovations can directly affect our freedom, which is more important than
+anything else. Innovation can affect social solidarity, for good or for
+ill.</p>
+
+<p>So when we consider technical progress in computers or in software,
+the most important question to ask is: “How does this affect our
+freedom? How does this affect our social solidarity?” Technically
+speaking, it's progress, but is it really progress in social and ethical
+terms, or is it the opposite?</p>
+
+<p>During my career in programming, as computers developed from something
+used by a few specialists and enthusiasts into something that most people
+use, there has been tremendous technical progress and it was accompanied by
+ghastly social and ethical regression. In fact, nearly everyone who uses
+computers began using them under a social system that can only be described
+as dictatorship.</p>
+
+<p>The developer of the program controls what it does. If you use it, the
+developer controls what you can do, and what you can't do. And controls
+what it does to you. So that the software that you think is yours, is not
+there to serve you. It is there to control you. Companies such as
+Microsoft and Apple designed their software specifically to restrict you.</p>
+
+<p>Windows Vista is primarily an advance in how to restrict the user, which
+is why we have the badvista.org campaign. And when this is over, outside
+the building I will offer you stickers from that campaign, if you wish to
+help teach people why they shouldn't downgrade to Vista.</p>
+
+<p>Apple designs software specifically to restrict the users. It's known
+as “Digital Restriction Management,” or DRM. We have helped
+protests against Apple just as we helped protests against Microsoft. See
+the site defectivebydesign.org for more information and for how to
+participate.</p>
+
+<p>Google designs software specifically to restrict the user. That's the
+nature of the Google Earth client: it is made the way it is specifically to
+restrict the people who use it. Obviously, it's not free software, because
+free software develops under the democratic control of its users. With the
+four freedoms: the freedom to run the program as you wish, to study the
+source code and change it so the program does what you wish, the freedom to
+distribute exact copies to others (which is the freedom to help your
+neighbor), and the freedom to distribute copies of your modified version
+(which is the freedom to contribute to your community)—with these
+four freedoms the users, individually and collectively, are in charge.</p>
+
+<p>And therefore free software cannot be designed to restrict the users.
+To design to restrict the user is only possible when there is a dictator,
+when someone has power to control what the program will do and what it
+won't do. When the users have the control, when they can control their own
+computing, then nobody has the kind of power that would enable him to
+impose malicious features to restrict users or spy on users or attack
+users. If you use MacOS or Windows Vista, you are completely at the mercy
+of that system's developer. Those developers have the power to forcibly
+change your software in any way they like, whenever the machine is
+connected to the network. The user no longer has even the chance to say
+yes or no. The system is one big backdoor.</p>
+
+<p>But with Free Software, <em>you</em> are in charge of what the computer
+will do. So it will serve you, instead of subjugating you. The question
+of free software is therefore <em>not</em> a technical question, it's an
+ethical, social and political question. It's a question of the human
+rights that the users of software ought to have.</p>
+
+<p>Proprietary software developers say, “no rights, we are in
+control, we should be in control, we demand total power over what your
+computer does; we will implement certain features and let you use them, but
+meanwhile we may spy on you as you use them and we can take them away at
+any time.” But free software developers respect your freedom, and
+this is the ethical obligation of every software developer: to respect the
+freedom of the users of that software. Making proprietary user-subjugating
+software sometimes is profitable, but it is never ethical, and it should
+never happen.</p>
+
+<p>But it will be up to you to make that be true. I, alone, can say these
+things, but I, alone, cannot make them reality. We must all work together
+to establish freedom and democracy for the users of software. And this
+freedom and democracy is now essential to enjoy freedom and democracy in
+other aspects of life. Right now, some of the biggest Internet service
+providers in the United States are carrying out political censorship of
+email. A major organization called <cite>truthout</cite>, whose website
+you may have seen, truthout.org, is being blocked from sending mail to
+their subscribers by Yahoo and Hotmail and WebTV. And they have done this
+for more than a week, despite the complaints from many of the users of
+those companies. Apparently they think they have gone beyond the point
+where they have to care what anyone says about them.</p>
+
+<p>All the forms of freedom that we hold dear are transformed when we carry
+out the relevant activities through computers. We must <em>re</em>-found
+these freedoms in such a way that we can depend on them while we use
+digital technology. An essential part of this re-foundation is insisting
+that the software we use be under our control.</p>
+
+<p>Not everyone wants to be a programmer, not everyone will learn
+personally how to study the source code and change it. But, in a world
+where your software is free you can, if you feel it necessary, hire someone
+else to change it for you. You can persuade your cousin programmer to
+change it for you if you say it's really important. You can join together
+with other users and pool your funds to hire a programmer. And the simple
+fact that there are millions of programmers who can study and change the
+software will mean that if the software is malicious, almost certainly
+somebody else, who has the requisite skills, will find that and correct it,
+and you will get the corrected version without any special effort of your
+own. So we all benefit, programmers and non-programmers alike, from the
+freedoms that free software grants to us. The freedom to cooperate and the
+freedom to control our own lives personally. They go together because both
+of them are the opposite of being under the power of the dictatorial
+software developer that unilaterally make decisions that nobody else can
+change.</p>
+
+<p>Free software has a special connection with universities—and
+indeed all schools of all levels— because free software supports
+education, proprietary software forbids education. There is no
+compatibility between education and proprietary software, not at the
+ethical level.</p>
+
+<p>The source code and the methods of free software are part of human
+knowledge. The mission of every school is to disseminate human knowledge.
+Proprietary software is not part of human knowledge. It's secret,
+restricted knowledge which schools are not allowed to disseminate. Schools
+that recognize this exclude proprietary software from their grounds. And
+this is what every school should do. Not only to save money, which is an
+obvious advantage that will appeal immediately to many school
+administrators, but for ethical reasons as well. For instance, why do many
+proprietary software developers offer discounts, or even gratis copies of
+their nonfree software to schools and students?</p>
+
+<p>I'm told that Microsoft offered a discount to those who wish to accept
+the shiny new chains of Windows Vista to the employees of this university.
+Why would they do such a thing? Is it because they wish to contribute to
+education? Obviously not. Rather, Microsoft and other similar companies
+wish to convert the university into an instrument for imposing the
+dependency on the user-subjugating software on society as a whole. They
+figured that if they get their software into schools, then students will
+learn to use it, and become dependent on it. They will develop a
+dependency. And thus after they graduate you can be sure that Microsoft
+and these other companies would no longer offer them discounted copies.
+And especially, the companies that these former students go to work for,
+will not be offered discounted copies. So, the software developers push on
+the schools, then push on arresting society and push it deep into a pit.
+This is not something schools should do. This is the opposite of the
+mission of the school, which is to build a strong, capable, independent and
+free society. Schools should teach their students to be citizens of a
+strong, capable, independent and free society. And this means teaching
+them to use free software, not proprietary software. So none of the
+classes in this university should teach proprietary software.</p>
+
+<p>For those who will be great programmers, there is another reason why
+their schools must teach and use free software. Because when they get to
+the age of 13 or so, they are fascinated with software and they want to
+learn everything about how their computer and their system are functioning.
+So they will ask the teacher, “How does this work?,” and if
+this is proprietary software, the teacher has to say, “I'm sorry,
+it's a secret, you can't find out.” So there is no room for
+education. But if it's free software, the teacher can explain the basic
+subject and then say, “Here is the source code, read this and you'll
+understand everything.” And those programmers will read the whole
+source code because they are fascinated, and this way they will learn
+something very important: how to write software well. They don't need to
+be taught how to program, because for them programming is obvious, but
+writing good code is a different story. You have to learn that by reading
+lots of code and writing lots of code. Only free software provides that
+opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a particular reason, for the sake of education in good
+citizenship. You see, schools must teach not just facts, not just skills,
+but above all the spirit of good will, the habit of helping your neighbor.
+So every class, at every level should have this rule: “Students, if
+you bring software to class, you may not keep it for yourself, you must
+share copies with the rest of the class.”</p>
+
+<p>However, the school has to practice its own role, it has to set a good
+example. So every school should bring only free software to class, and set
+an example with its software of the practice of disseminating human
+knowledge while building a strong, capable, independent and free society.
+And encouraging the spirit of good will, of helping other people. Every
+school must migrate to free software, and I call on you, those of you who
+are faculty, or staff, or students of this university, to work together to
+bring about the migration of this university to free software, completely
+to free software, within a few years. It <em>can</em> be done in a few
+years; it requires taking a substantial step each year. Other universities
+are doing this or have done it, you can do it too. You only have to reject
+social inertia as a valid reason for going deeper and deeper into the
+pit.</p>
+
+<p>For those of you who are interested, after we leave this hall and this
+ceremony, outside I will have various things from the Free Software
+Foundation that you might be interested in. And you can support the Free
+Software Foundation by going to fsf.org and become an associate member.
+For more information about the free software movement and the GNU operating
+system, and for where to find the entirely free distributions of the
+GNU/Linux operating system please look at gnu.org.</p>
+
+<p>Thank you.</p>
+<div class="column-limit"></div>
+
+<h3 class="footnote">Footnote</h3>
+
+<p> <a href="#Note1-rev" id="Note1">[1]</a>
+Shortly before Stallman's award ceremony, some Tunisian fishermen who had
+rescued shipwrecked migrants at sea were <a
+href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210115214946/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45439513";>
+arrested in Italy</a> on charges of facilitating illegal immigration.</p>
+</div>
+
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer" role="contentinfo">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org";><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are
+also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken
+links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
+to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org";><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+ replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+ We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
+ translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
+ Please send your comments and general suggestions in this
+ regard to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org";>
+ <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p>
+
+ <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of
+ our web pages, see <a
+ href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+ README</a>. -->
+
+Please see the
+<a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing
+translations of this article.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+ files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+ be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this
+ without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+ Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
+ document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
+ document was modified, or published.
+
+ If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+ Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
+ years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
+ year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
+ being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+
+ There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+ Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+<p>Copyright © 2007 Richard Stallman</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/";>Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2022/06/11 10:29:44 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
+</body>
+</html>
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