[Alug Announce] RMS talking in London, 12 Feb

It looks as though I'll be there, as there's a possibly interesting (to me) conference in London that day. -- MJR

Reply-To: Alex Hudson home@alexhudson.com To: FSFE-UK fsfe-uk@gnu.org Subject: [Fsfe-uk] [Fwd: [Gllug] Talk by Richard Stallman in London, 12 Feb] For those unaware, QMUL = Queen Mary, University of London, in the East end.

I don't know if I'll be going yet - I'm going to try - if there are any fsfe-uk'ers going I might try harder ;) I know it's preaching to the converted, but hey.

Alex.

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	Tuesday, 12 February at 7pm
Skeel lecture theatre, the people's palace
	    QMUL Mile End Campus
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/travel/mileend.shtml

RICHARD STALLMAN, software hacker (in the "geek" sense), founder of the Free Software Foundation and of the GNU Project, and principal author of some of the most important GNU software, will briefly be in London in February. We are fortunate enough to have him come to Queen Mary, University of London, at short notice to give a public lecture on "Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks".

Stallman has a long-held belief that software should be free in the same way that mathematical knowledge has traditionally been free--this is manifested in the GNU General Public Licence (and friends) and "copyleft".

In order that we may gauge numbers, if you wish to attend the lecture please contact Sue White: suew/rms@dcs.qmul.ac.uk or 020 7882 5217.

Lecture Abstract:

 Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed
 to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing
 press.  But the copyright system does not fit well with computer
 networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it.

 The global corporations that profit from copyright are lobbying
 for draconian punishments, and to increase their copyright powers,
 while suppressing public access to technology.  But if we
 seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of
 copyright--to promote progress, for the benefit of the
 public--then what must be done is either to reduce copyright
 powers or effectively eliminate them, depending on the kind of
 work.  Governments must now protect the public's right to copy.

Background URLs about the GNU project, "GNU/Linux" and free software:

http://www.uk.gnu.org/ http://www.uk.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html http://www.uk.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

Richard Stallman's personal web page:

http://www.stallman.org/

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