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May 11, 2024

Mr. Stallman delivers this speech to a group of eager faculty members and law students at the University of Calgary's Merv Leitch School of Law on February 3, 2009.

After a brief introduction to Free Software and the aims of the Free Software Movement, Mr. Stallman dives into his main topic, beginning with a short lecture on "Intellectual Property" (mostly having to do with why you shouldn't use that term), followed by the history and development of copyright law, before finally getting into the meat of his talk on why copyright law, as it is currently written, is obsolete and harmful to society.

LEARN MORE:
"What Is Free Software?": https://gnuguru.wordpress.com/free-software/
"What Is the GNU Operating System": https://gnuguru.wordpress.com/2024/04/10/what-is-the-gnu-operating-system/
"Top 5 Reasons You Should Replace Windows & macOS with GNU": https://gnuguru.wordpress.com/2024/04/12/top-5-reasons-you-should-replace-windows-and-mac-os-x-with-gnu/
"Call Me GNU: The GNU/Linux Naming Debate, Revisited": https://gnuguru.wordpress.com/2024/04/15/call-me-gnu-the-gnu-linux-naming-debate-revisited/
"The Free Software Foundation’s Role in Promoting Software Freedom": https://gnuguru.wordpress.com/2024/04/17/the-free-software-foundations-role-in-promoting-software-freedom/

By: Richard Stallman
Event: Annual Merv Leitch Lecture at the Faculty of Law
Date: February 3, 2009
Location: University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Language: English
Duration: 1h 14min

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 (CC BY-ND 3.0)

May 11, 2024

59 2:35:50

May 07, 2024

The Free Software Movement--Richard Stallman Speech

Most software users ask basic questions concerning convenience about the software they use. Questions like: Is it reliable? Is it secure? Does it perform well? How much does it cost? These are all important questions, but the most important question, that few users ever ask is: "Does it respect my freedom?"

Mr. Stallman goes into this subject and others. For instance, he expands on the topic of why the pursuit of software freedom is necessarily a communal event and not an individual one, requiring a movement to succeed.

He also talks about why "Open Source" software isn't necessarily freedom-respecting, but more importantly how the term was coined to lead people away from the concept of freedom-respecting software, and much more.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: January 22, 2009
Location: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus, New York, NY
Language: English
Duration: 2h 35min

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 (CC BY-ND 3.0)

May 07, 2024

74 53:59

May 04, 2024

The Role of Free Knowledge and Free Software in Education and Research--Richard Stallman Speech

Mr. Stallman starts by explaining what Free Software is and then delves into the deeper question about software that the Free Software movement is concerned with: "How could it affect the social solidarity of my community?"

By: Richard Stallman
Date: December 16, 2008
Location: Christ University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Language: English
Duration: 54min

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 (CC BY-ND 3.0)

May 04, 2024

58 31:48

Apr 30, 2024

Pizza Party for the FSF and Friends

Wanna learn how real geeks get down?

Watch as Richard Stallman and his fellow party animals rock a beautiful summer afternoon waxing philosophic about Free Software, freedom, and whatever else pops up in August of 2008 at the FSF pizza party held in the beautiful city of San Francisco.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: August 5, 2008
Location: San Francisco, CA
Language: English
Duration: 32min

Apr 30, 2024

246 1:52:30

Apr 27, 2024

The Danger of Software Patents--Richard Stallman Speech

Mr. Stallman was invited to speak at the Free University in Belgium by the Institution of Engineering and Technology on the topic of software patents.

He starts by explaining why the term "Intellectual Property" is bogus and its precepts constituting a pseudo-concept. For the simple reason that hardare patents, software patents, copyrights, and trademarks are all far too different to be lumped into one concept. He claims that there isn't one true statement that anyone can make that applies to all of them.

It's all downhill from there. Fascinating talk.

On a side note. Did you know that GNU system software runs on 100s of millions of machines worldwide? Everything from the smallest embedded devices to smart phones to personal computers to the servers that form the backbone of the Internet to supercomputers.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: February 22, 2011
Location: Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium
Language: English
Duration: 1h 52min

Apr 27, 2024

106 1:04:06

Apr 25, 2024

Free Software in Ethics and in Practice--Richard Stallman Speech

Mr. Stallman opines, that we're encouraged to judge things in only the most superficial ways. It's, as they say, good for business to do so, and the software business is no exception. Most people judge software on how convenient it is to acquire and use. Occasionally, they might take an interest in it's feature set, or how stable and/or secure it is, but they never ask the most important question of all, "Does this software respect my freedom?" Does it allow me to use my devices in the manner that I see fit without snooping or other invasions of my privacy and civil rights?

In this talk, given at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmod, VA on March 7, 2008, Mr. Stallman asks those questions and many more--and gives a lot of answers while making the argument that we absolutely must use Free Software if we're going to have a free society.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: March 27, 2008
Location: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Language: English
Duration: 1h 4min

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 (CC BY-ND 3.0)

Apr 25, 2024

72 1:41:59

Apr 23, 2024

In this video, recorded on May 7, 2007 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, at the University of Toronto, Richard Stallman talks about the deleterious affects of copyright and software patents on communities.

After giving a brief introduction to Free Software; what it is; it's history; etc. he talks a little about the GNU operating system, before diving into his main topic of the problems with copyright law. He starts with a brief history of copying and copyright law and then jumps into the subject of copyright.

He ends the talk with a bit about software patents and the harm they cause society.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: May 7, 2007
Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Language: English
Duration: 1h 41min

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 (CC BY-ND 3.0)

Apr 23, 2024

79 28:39

Apr 20, 2024

Introduction to the Ideas of Free Software--Richard Stallman Speech

What is Free Software? In a nutshell, it's software that respects the users' freedom.

Proprietary software does not do this and is thus unethical. Further, it is designed to keep users divided and helpless. This creates a moral dilemma: "to share or not to share".

If you want to have full control over your devices, you must use Free Software.

In this video, recorded in Boston, MA on January 1, 2007, Mr. Richard Stallman talks about the four freedoms and what they mean in practical terms.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: January 1, 2007
Location: Recorded in Boston, MA
Language: English with subtitles in several languages
Duration: 29min

Apr 20, 2024

79 1:03:14

Apr 18, 2024

The Free Software Movement and the Development of the GNU Operating System--Richard Stallman Speech

This video was recorded on December 2, 2005 for the DebConfII-ES which took place in Guadalajara, Spain on the weekend of December 16-18 2005

Did you know that proprietary software is part of an anti-social scheme cooked-up by mega-corporations to keep users divided and helpless?

Well, you should. RMS goes into detail on that and a lot more.

In the first half of this video he talks about why he created the Free Software Movement, before moving on (in the second half) to talk about the early history of the GNU Operating System and some of the early design choices he made. Some of his talking points are:

* The four freedoms and why they're essential
* How proprietary software companies keep us all hostage, not only to malicious software like backdoors, but also to their incompetence.
* How hardware makers misuse Free Software to keep us helpless
* and much more.

By: Richard Stallman
Event: DebConfII-ES, Guadalajara, Spain, December 16-18, 2005?
Date: December 2, 2005
Location: Recorded in Indonesia?
Language: English
Duration: 1h 3min

Copyright © 2005 Richard Stallman
License: Verbatim copying and distribution of the entire speech recording are permitted provided this notice is preserved.

Apr 18, 2024

61 40:20

Apr 16, 2024

Free Software and Education--Richard Stallman Speech from September 2005 in Taipei City, Taiwan

This speech on Free Software and education by Richard Stallman took place in Taipei City, Taiwan in September of 2005. It is in the form of an interview, where he is asked questions and an interpreter repeats in Chinese, so, although it is 40 minutes long, Mr. Stallman's part is finished roughly at the 16:15 mark.

After talking a little about the early history of the GNU project and some of the reasons he started it and the complementary Free Software Movement, like the fact that he thought it would be more effective for him to start developing an operating system rather than try to change laws about proprietary software, because he was already an accomplished systems developer and had little experience in politics. He also tells the story of how the kernel, Linux, became a part of the GNU operating system. Then he talks a little about how users lost sight of the importance of freedom and focused more on the fact that the GNU operating was technically superior to the proprietary systems being offered by large multi-national corporations, before launching into the topic of how Free Software fits into the education ecosystem.

His thesis is that schools must use Free Software and he gives four reasons why that's imperative. He also talks about how large companies giving gratis copies of their software to schools is like drug dealers offering schools free drugs to give to the kids. It's just a way of hooking students on their inferior software. He also talks a little about his experience as an employee of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab and how the fact that they had their own "in-house" Free Software operating system and how that influenced him.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: September 2005
Location: Sina.com, Taipei City, Taiwan
Language: English
Duration: 40min

Apr 16, 2024

105 2:12:54

Apr 13, 2024

What Is Free Software? - Richard Stallman Speech from May 27, 2005 in Taiwan

Richard Stallman talk on Free Software given before an audience in Hsinchu City, Taiwan on May 27, 2005.

Mr. Stallman talks for about 1:40:00 (before opening the floor to questions) on many of his favorite topics, including:
* Why the freedom to share is imperative.
* How sharing proprietary software is the less of two evils. The other being not sharing it, or, as he puts it: the only thing worse than an unauthorized copy is an authorized copy.
* Why you have the right to use your devices the way you choose.
* How Big Business and Big Government us proprietary software to snoop, spy, and otherwise invade your privacy. For instance, did you know that when you run a search query for a file on your hard drive, window report the search string back to Microsoft?
* Spyware is everywhere in proprietary software from Microsoft, Apple, and Google.
* How they use back doors to make changes to your machine.
* Why DRM is so damaging to freedom.
* How the software marketplace works and Free Software's role
* And much more.

By: Richard Stallman
Date: May 27, 2005
Location: National Center for High Performance Computing, Hsinchu City, Taiwan
Language: English
Duration: 2h 12min

Apr 13, 2024

77 32:03

Apr 06, 2024

What Should it Mean to Promote Free Software? - Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman's pre-recorded speech for the 2003 Free Software event in Curitiba, Brazil on what it should mean to promote free software.

Mr. Stallman wanted to continue doing what he had always done at the MIT Artificial Intelligence lab: share software. He talks about the importance of this concept and compares it to cooks sharing recipes. Could you imaging being called a pirate for sharing a favorite family recipe and being threatened with prison time? He then points out how proprietary software is fundamentally divisive and anti-social.

He goes on to discuss the early days of the GNU Project and the Free Software movement, including:
* Why he chose UNIX as the development model and how the OS came to be called GNU
* The early development of the original kernel, Mach and the Hurd, as well as how Linux came to be a part of the system
* The importance of freedom over technical proficiency & popularity
* Licensing issues
* The early Free Software community
* Why schools must use Free Software
* And much more

By: Richard Stallman
Event: Free Software event in Curitiba, Brazil
Date: November 5, 2003
Language: English
Duration: 32min

Apr 06, 2024

47 55:33

Apr 05, 2024

LibertyBits 2018 Conference: Richard Stallman on Computing, Freedom, and Privacy

Richard Stallman's speech at the 2018 LibertyBits Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, recorded on April 24, 2018.

Mr. Stallman gives his usual passionate plea that we should all use free software. He enumerates the reasons why by talking about the "four freedoms" of free software and how they protect us from the depredations of corporations, governments, and other bad actors.

He gives lots of examples of past and ongoing offenses such as: controlling--up to, through, and including sabotaging--the machines we own; preventing us from installing the software that we want to use; preventing us from using the software that we purchase in the way that we choose; spying and snooping on us; reporting what it finds to other corporations and state agencies; etc.

The bottom line: end user agreements are fundamentally anti-social, because they are designed to prevent us from sharing with our friends and co-workers, and proprietary software is essentially a form of malware that should be avoided at all costs.

He also talks about things like why most "Linux" distributions are actually not free; why the term "open source" was coined in 1998; the JavaScript trap; how software as a service harms your freedom; and wraps-up with the many ways you can help to contribute to a healthy free software ecosystem.

Apr 05, 2024

Created 1 month, 1 week ago.

13 videos

Category Science & Technology

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