The photo comes from wikimedia.org
"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
The photo comes from
wikimedia.org
"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.
The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of
the Free Software Foundation or
the GNU Project.
For the sake of separation, this site has always been
hosted elsewhere and managed separately.
It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.
If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See gpg.html for my real key.
Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.
The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.
I'm looking for people to
US citizens: call on Congress to pass Senator Warren's EXPERTS act, which would hinder lobbyists from serving as "experts" in government consultations.
The main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. If you message Congress, please spread the word!
US citizens: Condemn the persecutor's death threats against Democrats.
If you sign this petition going to House and Senate leaders, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the bill to make organizing protests a crime.
The main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. If you message Congress, please spread the word!
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and call on per to sign the discharge petition for the bill to restore the Medicaid funds that were cut by the Big Bad Bill.
If half of the House signs this discharge petition, it will have to be voted on.
The main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. If you message Congress, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Spotify to cease running recruiting ads for the bully's deportation thugs.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code—not trivial, but not hard.
If you send a letter, please spread the word!
In my letter I said that if Spotify stops using DRM, makes it possible to pay anonymously, and makes it possible to be a customer without running nonfree software, I could consider being one. Thus, I used this letter for two issues: the issue of supporting the deportation thugs and the issue of unjust software.
US citizens: call on Congress to stop threatened U.S. military attack against Venezuela, Mexico, and other countries in Latin America.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass a law to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
US citizens: call on the IRS commissioner to protect nonprofits from the bully's "National Security" Memo.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes — which is considerably more than they pay now.
The main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. If you message Congress, please spread the word!
I'm looking for a cartoonist who would like to draw cartoons for me once in a while. If you're interested, please write to rms, which refers to me, at the location gnu period org.
Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.
* Abandoned coalmines and oil and gas wells are now one of the biggest sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, new data shows, and little effort is being made to clean them up.*
I expect that the fossil fuel companies to divest themselves from old mines and wells in ways that will avoid liability for them — just as they sometimes disconnect themselves from responsibility for supporting former workers.
So I suggest making it a felony to implement a restructuring of business or assets in a way that is likely to result predictably in strand assets that carry financial responsibilities with no one capable of shouldering the responsibilities.
A pitifully weak attempt to solve a real problem: asking for a federal law that would permit victims of domestic abuse and stalking to demand that data brokers delete information about them.
Data, once collected, will be abused. The way to prevent that abuse is to facilitate refusing to hand it over in the first place.
Here is my proposal for protecting the specific people known to be in particular danger, and everyone else who could be harmed if individuals, businesses or governments use their personal data against them without a search warrant: require services to be available anonymously.
The selfish interest of those who keep trade secrets is rational but antisocial. In many cases the only harm it does is to hold back the general advance of technology. But sometimes it does really nasty things. For digital hardware and software, it often gives companies a way to subjugate their users. Regarding use of toxic chemicals, it endangers public health.
Why would legislators pass laws to "protect" companies instead of protecting the people they harm? I suspect it is partly because these companies are influential and the legislators seek their support, and partly because the legislators ask them for campaign funds.
But it is also partly the result of the mindset of "trickle down", which assumes that the only way to get more funds for the state is to let increase the size of the economy by letting companies have what they want. Unfortunately, what they want is often to be allowed to harm the public.
Most Democrats in Congress got corrupted this way in the 80s and 90s. (The exceptions are the progressive Democrats.) Now in the UK Starmer is guiding Labour into that sort of corruption.
Clearly our laws should say that any public need to know about the presence of toxic substances in a business facility overrides the desire to keep them secret.
Whether the owners are Chinese is a question that there is no need to ask, because the state should never give money to a business "to support it." Instead it should offer to lend money to the company for suitable repayment, or else buy equity at a fair price.
These two ways of supporting a company avoid giving the owners an opporunity to rip off the state -- which the company's owners are likely to try to do, if they can, regardless of which country they are from.
With a policy like this, it wouldn't matter which country the company's owners are from.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
Robert Reich: The ever-increasing concentration of US major media, in the hands of billionaires, plays into the hands of corrupt governments.
I agree with his recommendations, but they are limited to trying to prevent the appearance of the problem we already have. They are not applicable in our current situation, where the problem already exists and the task is to cure it.
I think we need to set up a new structure for news companies, one that prevents very rich individuals or corporations from gaining control over them. It should give them some advantages in getting income so that they can do without billionaires' money and thus avoid becoming opportunities for bias-for-sale.
*US, Russia and Saudi Arabia create axis of obstruction as Cop30 sputters out.*
The countries that want civilization to survive need to move on from trying to make deals with them, and unite to compel adherence to limits on the fossil fuel they can buy. This may have to include tariffs on the products of countries that fail to participate in those limits.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass Senator Warren's EXPERTS act, which would hinder lobbyists from serving as "experts" in government consultations.
The main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. If you message Congress, please spread the word!
US citizens: Condemn the persecutor's death threats against Democrats.
If you sign this petition going to House and Senate leaders, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the bill to make organizing protests a crime.
The main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. If you message Congress, please spread the word!
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and call on per to sign the discharge petition for the bill to restore the Medicaid funds that were cut by the Big Bad Bill.
If half of the House signs this discharge petition, it will have to be voted on.
The main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. If you message Congress, please spread the word!
The billionaire owner of CNN is offering the corrupter a deal including firing TV presenters that the corrupter doesn't like.
The root cause of this is the enormous media consolidation of the last few decades. To counteract that tendency calls for splitting up the media megacorps into many smaller pieces.
Indonesia is very vulnerable to global heating damage. Meanwhile, it is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases. Somehow officials fail to put those two together and draw the rational conclusion.
The UK government plans to eliminate trial by jury for many criminal cases.
This will make it easier to enforce repressive laws to nullify human rights, such as the law that makes it a crime to hold a sign saying "Palestine Action".
It is important to make trials happen sooner. It is important to prosecute more accusations of rape. What effect the absence of a jury would have on convictions, I don't know.
Spain has neglected to teach young people about the crimes and repression of the dictator, Franco. Right-wing extremists now wish they could resurrect him.
The FBI wants to develop facial recognition drones.
If we wish to avoid total repression, we must either make it a crime to posses or operate such a thing, or put strictly enforced limits on their use. However, the bully won't enforce any human rights protection strictly enough to protect human rights.
See gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy for more about issues like this.
Australia pushed the US to give it part of the busines of manufacturing F-35 fighter planes. But the US decision to sell some of those planes to Crown Prince Bone Saw means that Australia would be complicit in supporting his creuel and repressive regime.
Making parts of F-35 planes for the US may become equally bad, if the current US regime establishes total repression.
On ex-Twitter it is now possible to see which country an account operates from. Users observe that many users that present as true-blue American magats are based outside the US.
They may not be Americans at all. Or perhaps they are Americans operating from exile - but why do that if you support the regime?
Perhaps because Putin recruited them?
An Australian living in Thailand published criticism of Malaysia's regulations, and accusing the regulator of abuse of power. Thailand is now prosecuting him for "criminal libel" on behalf of Malaysia.
This is a form of international repression, but even when it is not international, "criminal libel" prosecution is an injustice.
Robert Reich: Magats accuse universities of supposed anti-semitism to compel them to repress protests against Israel's atrocities and eliminate freedom to criticize Israel, but look the other way when their supporters turn out to be real anti-semites.
Rising sea level will cause flooding of thousands of shoreside sites that handle toxic waste.
With all the things that will be causing danger and damage in the 2070s, I doubt that the US (or any other country) will have the funds to move or clean up these facilities. I think many will simply be abandoned and their hazardous contents released into the ocean.
Posting on Reddit requires running nonfree JavaScript code. By using old.reddit.com you can read existing postings, but there is no way to post without running nonfree code.
Many countries in Europe, and Australia, have rejected the bully's capitulation plan for Ukraine.
I hope those presenting an alternative "peace plan" have verified that Ukraine will accept it, before arguing for it.
The bully's surrender plan for Ukraine is obviously unjust, a reward to a dictator that wants to conquer more territory. This article describes additional secondary aspects that would make Ukraine a sitting duck if Putin ever wants to conquer the rest of it.
*How Universities Used Counterterror Intelligence-Sharing Hubs to Surveil [student activists for Palestinians' rights].*
The four factors of the apocalypse:
global heating, global hating,
global eating, global mating.
Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.
Non-oppressive Commercial E-books
Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.
Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.
I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.
Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.
India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.
Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.
Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.
Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.
Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.
Ireland - national ID card by stealth.
ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.
Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.
Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.
Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.
People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.
I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.
Disclosure: I am friends with the author.
Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.
I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles. As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle.
These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the GNU philosophy directory. You can also download copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Letter to an associate, 1849
Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to
more information. The current notes are
here. For all previous
notes, see this page.
See this page for information on efforts to maintain links in the political notes.
Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on their own page.
Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.
The Free Software Song, by Richard M. Stallman. You can listen to a performance of the song: Free Software Song performed by Thor Here is a variant of this song called "The Free Firmware Song".
Earth under attack from planet Koch.On doxing, and how to spell it.
A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta
Española. 
Here I am wearing my "power tie".
Wine snobs get their comeuppance.
Here I am struggling to open a bottle of water.
My application to an join Marian Henley's ex-boyfriends list.
My funny poetry and song parodies.
A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.
The text to a filk song, Johnny v. N., by Paul Rubin.
My Puns in English (Little Leaguer, August 2019).
My Puns in Spanish (New pun: Apostasía April 2019)
My Puns in French (New pun: Microsoft à l'école July 2019)
My Puns in Italian (New pun: Quale pesce fa starnutire? New 10/2018)
My Puns in German (New 02/2016)
Linguistic Swifties (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.)
--Saint
IGNUcius-- The Church of Emacs will soon
be officially listed by at least one person as his religion for
census purposes.
There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's editorfather.
Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality…"
The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.
I found a funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s.
If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's an archive of this now-defunct comic strip.
Sleeping with Stallman at MIT.
ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.
No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)
Made for You (December 2012) (local copy) Esperanto translation
A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.
Avec des chapeaux French song parody.
My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.
Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights
A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.
On Hacking: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker".
Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor
I would like to thank:
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