Re: [Fsfe-uk] Just a Minute

[Martin Keegan]

On 15 Apr 2002, Martin Coxall wrote:

> RMS made it quite clear that he thought these concerns are trivial in
> comparison to the multifarious government (and in particular) corporate
> threats which face our very freedom.
 
> My favorite RMS quote of the night: "There are more important issues
> than free software." 

I'd prefer to phrase it in terms of what happens to free software when its
supporters fail to see the threats to the wider environment they inhabit,
but I agree roughly with the idea.

Software patents, the DMCA/EUCD, DRM, the DPA, and most importantly of
all, the network effect, all threaten to make free software pointless or
unusable. Well may you be able to run your GNU/Linux system, but when it
only runs on illegal, out-of-date hardware and can't interoperate with
anything other than other free software systems. No internet, etc.

I think RMS has got to go and get out his new message more clearly,
otherwise the people who've been following him are going to march off a
cliff.

Mk