[ox-en] stallman interview..
- From: Graham Seaman <graham seul.org>
- Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 09:58:13 -0500 (EST)
http://www.lavanguardia.es/web/2[PHONE NUMBER REMOVED].html
(spanish) - nothing totally new, but here's a little extract:
(re MJ Ray's last list message: I've translated 'libre' as 'free'
and 'gratuito' as 'free-of-cost' or 'no-cost')
Q. What does 'free software' mean?
A. The 4 freedoms. 0 is to be able to use the program, 1 to study it
and modify it to fit your needs, 2 to help your neighbour by giving him
copies, and 4 is to take part in creating the universal language of
cyberspace by puvblishing an improved, and of course, free-of-cost version
for everybody's benefit.
Q. And nobody makes a profit?
A. No. Humanity gains. The recipe proposed by big capital and the big
corporations is purchased, proprietary software. Going back to cooking
recipes: if they hadn't circulated freely in Spain you would not now have
a shared art of cookery. Imagine if they put you in prison for copying a
recipe. It would be a scandal, but it's exactly what they've done with
computer programs.
Q. But if there are no patents, if there's no financial reward for the
innovator and his rights aren't protected, who would bother to innovate?
A. Its a lie!!! This theory is untrue.
Q. Alright, alright... don't get angry...
A. If this theory were true, it would mean that us humans do nothing in
our life unless its for an immediate economic benefit...
Q. And isn't that how it is?
A. Don't be stupid - of course that isn't how it is! What happens is that
some short-sighted economists and the big firms want us to create a life
were we are only driven by economic rewards because that's exactly how
they live, and if we all think that's normal, we'd end up accepting their
brute-like egoism as something natural and even necessary.
Q. But without profits, there's no economy.
A. That's what they want us to believe. So if a petrol-tanker sinks
because it dind't have the necessary security, that's normal because the
firm was seeking it's legitimate profits, and the rest of us have to put
up with it.
Q. Everything has a balance.
A. We ourselves are an empirical proof that humans aren't only driven
by personal economic benefits: the free software movement. Haven't
hundreds of prgrammers collaborated without excpecting anything in
exchange, for the pleasure of co-operating to create a free and no-cost
operating system used by 20 millions and beating commercial software
in efficiency and security? Aren't we human?
Q. And you make innovations without charging?
A. Yes, and we have all sorts: text processors, image processing software,
multimedia, mathematical software, and GNU/Linux. All free and no-cost.
Egoism doesn't drive history, cooperation does.
Q. And what drives you?
A. I think a lot more things make the world go round than money, and I've
spent more than 20 years showing it with my own life.
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/