Richard Stallman: Trending quotes (page 5)

“Odious ideas are not entitled to hide from criticism behind the human shield of their believers' feelings.”

Richard Stallman

"Sayings" at Richard Stallman's personal site (c. 2001)
2000s

Feeling , Idea

“It doesn't take special talents to reproduce — even plants can do it. On the other hand, contributing to a program like Emacs takes real skill. That is really something to be proud of. It helps more people, too.”

Richard Stallman

In response to the news that a colleague would not have as much time to devote to Emacs since the birth of his daughter, in Gmane (27 April 2005) http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/36460
2000s

People , Help

“Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software. It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would move to other bases of organization which are now used less often. There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business.”

Richard Stallman

1980s, GNU Manifesto (1985)

Money , Way , Business

“Snow is so beautiful, it doesn't have to be useful.”

Richard Stallman

Parliament Hill Speech, Ottawa, Canada, (2 June 2009)
2000s

Beauty

“Any time I connect to a website other than Wikipedia, it's through Tor.”

Richard Stallman

In a video interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkkDvKGcNSo around 38:20 (published on February 22, 2016)
2010s

Time

“If we are content with knowledge as a commodity, accessible only through a computerized bureaucracy, we can simply let companies provide it. But if we want to keep human knowledge open and freely available to humanity, we have to do the work to make it available that way. We have to write a free encyclopedia.”

Richard Stallman

"The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource" (1999) http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia.html
1990s

Way , Knowledge

“The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other strategies — such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into a fist fight, they will all finish late.
Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners in a fist fight.”

Richard Stallman

1980s, GNU Manifesto (1985)

Secret , Way , Fight , Forgetting

“There are tremendous actual differences in values. Some value systems, such as the ones that motivate "honor killings", deserve to be morally condemned and rejected. But there are many other variations in values within the bounds of decency.”

Richard Stallman

"The Zeitgeist Movement" (2009) https://stallman.org/articles/zeitgeist.html
2000s

Motivation

“'The main argument for the term "open source software" is that "free software" makes some people uneasy. That's true: talking about freedom, about ethical issues, about responsibilities as well as convenience, is asking people to think about things they might rather ignore. This can trigger discomfort, and some people may reject the idea for that. It does not follow that society would be better off if we stop talking about these things.”

Richard Stallman

1990s, Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source" (1998)

People , Idea , Thinking , Freedom

“Publishers and lawyers like to describe copyright as “intellectual property” — a term also applied to patents, trademarks, and other more obscure areas of law. These laws have so little in common, and differ so much, that it is ill-advised to generalize about them. It is best to talk specifically about “copyright,” or about “patents,” or about “trademarks.”
The term “intellectual property” carries a hidden assumption—that the way to think about all these disparate issues is based on an analogy with physical objects, and our conception of them as physical property.
When it comes to copying, this analogy disregards the crucial difference between material objects and information: information can be copied and shared almost effortlessly, while material objects can't be.
To avoid spreading unnecessary bias and confusion, it is best to adopt a firm policy not to speak or even think in terms of “intellectual property”.
The hypocrisy of calling these powers “rights” is starting to make the World “Intellectual Property” Organization embarrassed.”

Richard Stallman

Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing (1996)
1990s

World , Law , Way , Thinking

“Radical groups in the 1960s developed a reputation for factionalism: organizations split because of disagreements on details of strategy, and then treated each other as enemies. Or at least, such is the image people have of them, whether or not it was true.
The relationship between the Free Software movement and the Open Source movement is just the opposite of that picture. We disagree on the basic principles, but agree more or less on the practical recommendations. So we can and do work together on many specific projects. 'We don't think of the Open Source movement as an enemy. The enemy is proprietary software.”

Richard Stallman

1990s, Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source" (1998)

People , Thinking

“The term "free software" has an ambiguity problem: an unintended meaning, "Software you can get for zero price," fits the term just as well as the intended meaning, "software which gives the user certain freedoms."”

Richard Stallman

We address this problem by publishing a more precise definition of free software, but this is not a perfect solution; it cannot completely eliminate the problem. An unambiguously correct term would be better, if it didn't have other problems.
1990s, Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source" (1998)

Problem , Freedom

“The patent system was established to encourage inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented products.”

Richard Stallman

1980s, GNU Manifesto (1985)

Life , Art , Effort , Time

“Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.”

Richard Stallman

"O'Reilly Open Source Conference: Day 3" by Paul Weinstein, in Apache Week (26 July 2002) http://www.apacheweek.com/features/oscon2002
2000s

Thinking

“Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is, which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police state can force everyone to obey them. Consider a space station where air must be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill. And the TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are outrageous. It's better to support the air plant with a head tax and chuck the masks.
Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free.”

Richard Stallman

1980s, GNU Manifesto (1985)