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History Society, Ramjas College + Sarai/ CSDS

invite you to a talk

" Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks"

by RICHARD STALLMAN, Founder, Free Software Foundation

on Friday, November 8, 2002

The talk will be followed by a discussion.

Venue: Auditorium, Ramjas College Time: 11.30 AM

"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."

RICHARD STALLMAN is "the founder of the GNU Project, launched in 1984 to develop the free operating system GNU (an acronym for "GNU's Not Unix''), and thereby give computer users the freedom that most of them have lost. GNU is free software: everyone is free to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small."

Stallman has also founded the related Free Software Foundation (FSF) and is outspoken about his belief that all software should be free. In his view � proprietary software, for which corporations charge a fee, is wrong from a moral or ethical standpoint.

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