Cha Gascon Inexplicable Software Angst

RMS in Calgary

I attended Richard Stallman's talk on "Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks" at the University of Calgary last Tuesday, February 3. Coming over from a job interview down south of the city I was a bit late so I had to stand at the back of the packed lecture hall. I found a seat halfway into the talk.

Richard Stallman or RMS, is the founder of GNU, and ultimately the Free Software Movement. He was also responsible for gcc, the compiler I've been using since... forever.

One thing that interest me is his stand on OPEN SOURCE != FREE SOFTWARE. While this is true when you get down to really understand the meaning of these two terms, people still get confused upfront when presented with these ideas. Since the lecture is basically a Law series lecture, terminologies such as intellectual property, piracy and software license among other things, have to be clearly defined.

While the law students and professors left after the talk, the geeks hung out with him and it was my opportunity to have a photo with him. I'm still starstruck. Teehee!