---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 07:52:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh
To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Report from CFP, from the Netly News
*****
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1754,00.html
The Netly News Network (http://netlynews.com/)
February 20, 1998
Vive la Conference
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
Richard Stallman is nothing if not determined. For over two
decades this bristly MIT geek has championed an arcane cause: free
computer programs. Stallman wants you to have the right to twiddle
your software -- to be able to add features, rewrite it and, if you
can figure out how, teach it get down and do the fandango. Last month
Netscape endorsed Stallman's idea by deciding to open the lid to its
software toolbox and encouraging any interested programmer to tinker
with it.
Yesterday Stallman won an award from the Electronic Frontier
Foundation for his efforts, including writing the popular (and, of
course, free) EMACS text editor. "I was trying to give people
freedom," he said during the ceremony at the Computers, Freedom and
Privacy (CFP) conference.
Stallman is the type of fellow who frequents CFP, an annual event
that brings together academics, government officials and Pilot-toting
bitheads. Sparring is commonplace. Lawyers from the ACLU and the
Center for Democracy and Technology shouted at each other yesterday
morning when debating whether to cut deals on legislation in Congress.
Former FTC commissioner Christine Varney said that the government
should regulate corporations' privacy practices, and Solveig Singleton
from the Cato Institute argued on a panel that the private sector
should (not that I'm biased or anything). But the folks who trekked to
Austin, Texas, this week generally share a common goal: preserving the
unique culture of the Internet.
[...]
