Cuba Loves Hippie Software

Newsmax ^ | 3/9/07 | Humberto Fontova

[slickeroo]

Cuba Loves Hippie Software

Humberto Fontova

Friday, March 9, 2007

Take in equal parts: lyrics from John Lennon's "Imagine," Steve Miller's "Fly Like An Eagle" and simmer.

Then add a pinch from "Age of Aquarius." Now you have the manifesto of The Free SoftWare Foundation, founded by software guru Richard Stallman, famous foe of commercial avarice and stalwart friend of freedom.

"Copyright laws violate basic morality," writes the shaggy MIT graduate. "People should be free to use software in ways that are socially useful. When a program has an owner, the users lose freedom to control part of their own lives."

"The issue is freedom," stresses Stallman. "Freedom for everyone who's using software, whether that person be a programmer or not. Free software — rree society — free as in freedom."

Stallman himself looks like a cross between Arlo Guthrie (circa Woodstock) and Wavy Gravy.

Stallman was the recent guest of honor of Cuba's Stalinist regime.

This year's International Conference on Communications and Technology was held in Havana on Feb. 14, and attended by 1,300 delegates from 58 nations. Stallman was a keynote speaker.

An intrepid bunch, these delegates. Much like those 2.4 million tourists who visit Cuba annualy, these delegates also somehow foiled the the fiendish "Yankee Blockade of Cuba!"

The official host of this conference was Ramiro Valdez, Cuba's spanking new minister of information and technology.

Everyone familiar with Cuban history (this naturally excludes all the MSM Cuba experts) know Ramiro Valdez as the Cuban regime's Lavrenti Beria, with a dash of Heinrich Himmler. This was a position he inherited when his chum Ernesto "Che" Guevara was promoted from Cuba's chief executioner to minister of the economy, where he murdered the Cuban economy as efficiently as he had murdered hundreds of defenseless Cuban men (and boys.)

You will search the hundreds of mainstream media stories on the Valdez appointment, and on his hosting of the conference, in utter vain for any mention of this gentleman's background.

Imagine the Nazis signing a peace accord" with Britain in 1941 and the regime surviving.

Imagine Heinrich Himmler then promoted to Germany's information minister and nary a mention of his background in the London Times or The New York Times. Heck, imagine J. Edgar Hoover appointed by Nixon as U.S. press secretay and his background ignored in all media pronouncements of the event.

Alas, regarding Cuba news in the mainstream media, we've come to expect different standards. The standards Alice found behind her Wonderland's looking glass seem rational in comparison.

Keynote speaker Richard Stallman was obviously tickled that a Stalinist regime had adopted his "Open Source Software" and worked the multinational audience of hipsters and geeks into a froth.

As usual, the mainstream media, the writers for John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Bill Maher, etc. found no material worthy of their bosses' smirky irony in the scene. Here's a man adamant about people having "the freedom to control every part of their lives" as guest of honor for a regime that mandates what its subjects, read, say, earn, and eat (both substance and amount), and where they live, travel, or work.

Here's a hippie-dippy spokesman for peace, love, and total freedom who regards copyright laws as intolerably oppresive smiling gratefully — while being introduced onto the podium by a secret police chief for a KGB and STASI-trained force who jailed and tortured more political prisoners as a percentage of population than Stalin's police under Lavrenti Beria, and who executed at a higher rate than Hitler's pre-war Gestapo under Heinrich Himmler.

Here's a fanatic for free information flow accepting accolades from a regime that jails the most journalist per capita on planet earth.

According to the Paris-based (not Miami — please note!) Reporters Without Borders, Cuba (a tiny nation of 11 million people) today holds 20 percent of the world's jailed journalists. Imagine Castroite repression with China's population! Cuban "Law 88," passed in February 1999, cranked up the repression several notches, mandating up to 20 years in prison for "providing information that could be useful to U.S. policy."

Imagine a similar law in the U.S. that jailed reporters for "providing information useful to Al-Qaida polcy!" Imagine the news: "An eerie silence enshrouds New York's near-empty newsrooms and editorial offices as long queues of fresh convicts shuffle into the nation's federal prisons . . ."

Today, Cuba — a nation that in 1958 had more TVs and telephones per capita than any continental European country — has fewer Internet connections than Uganda, the lowest number in the hemisphere.

Reporters Without Borders (NOT the Cuban-American-National-Foundation — please note!) scoffs: "The (Cuban) authorities' chief reason for keeping citizens away from the Internet is to prevent them from being well-informed."

Ramiro Valdez claimed that his Cuban Internet crackdown (not that there's much to crack down on) was to prevent, "the diffusion of information promoting terrorism, racism, fraud, and . . . fascist ideologies."

A Freudian slip, I think this could be labeled. Valdez seemed to be reading from the Cuban regime's very resume.

Valdez referred to Internet technology as a "wild colt to be broken and tamed." Needless to say, nary a murmur of protest issued from the reverential attendees, including Stallman, much less the MSM. (Imagine the media hullabaloo if, say, Attorney General Gonzalez blurted something of the sort!)

A courageous Cuban human-rights activist and samizdat reporter named Guillermo Farinas recently sent an open letter to the regime requesting the same Internet rights for Cubans as enjoyed by every Latin-American citizen. (Chances are, he would have gladly settled for those enjoyed by the citizens of of Red China.)

Ex-secret police chief Valdez responded quickly and decisively.

His goon squads ambushed Farinas just last week. The mob's odds against the unarmed (but you knew that because he lives in Cuba) Farinas were typical for the gallant Castroites, about 20 to one. From the Bay of Pigs through the Escambray rebellion to Angola it's the same story of this sort of unrelenting bravery and chivalry.

These sadists — in the pay Charles Rangel's favorite Latin regime and directed by Richard Free as in "freedom!" Stallman's smiling host — bashed Farinas to the ground and pummeled him fearfully. A grisly picture of him just smuggled out of Cuba was posted on the blogs Uncommon Sense and Babalu.blog.

Stallman — if interested in the genuine rationale for his Cuban hosts enthusiasm for his "Open Source Software" — might take a look.

Humberto Fontova is the author of "Fidel; Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant," a Conservative Book Club "Main Selection."

[DreamsofPolycarp]

Open Source = Commieware

I knew it. Post 16 was designed especially for you.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Literature and software might have a valid interest in becoming public domain, but a company's logos and characters should remain part of that company, in perpetuity.

That sounds okay to me, but it goes far beyond trademarks and logos.

The explosive proliferation of "intellectual property" in the past thirty years benefits nobody other than lawyers.

All knowledge builds upon previous knowledge: "If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." --Isaac Newton

Minutiae patenting prevents other researchers from expanding on the ideas of others, which is how science works.

Pharmaceutical research is slowly but surely grinding to a halt because every new semi-discovery is now patented rather than published for others to build upon, resulting in primising ideas being abandoned because of patent-gridlock.

http://www.thebody.com/atn/411/innovation_patent.html

[antiRepublicrat]

"Copyright laws violate basic morality"

It's also what protects his own software. He relies on it quite strongly, and has used the courts to defend the copyrights of software under his license. What a loon.

Stallman would be a minor point in computer history if Linus Torvalds hadn't chosen his license for Linux.

[antiRepublicrat]

The author forgot "thief" in his description of Stallman.

What has he stolen?

[Slump Tester]

"And also makes it possible for people to create the programs that you are using but that`s another story."

I wouldn't diss Richard Stallman. He's been writing code since before computers used monitors.

A great book if you're interested is "Hackers" by Steven Levy.

[pnh102]

Open Source = Commieware

How insulting... unlike communism, open source software actually works.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

i beleive you're thinking of Peter Norton.

[Starwolf]

Stallman gets speakers fees, writes books, and writes software.

His viewpoint is that software should be free, but support, customization, etc are legitimate to charge for. It has proven to be a viable business model.

[Logophile]

Here's a man adamant about people having "the freedom to control every part of their lives" as guest of honor for a regime that mandates what its subjects, read, say, earn, and eat (both substance and amount), and where they live, travel, or work.

Does Stallman suffer from cognitive dissonance? Or is he just a phony?

[SJSAMPLE]

But true knowlege is reflected in patents, not copyrights or trademarks. This is why patent law is relatively simple when it comes to expiration dates.

How much slower would pharmaceutical research (or any research, for that matter) be if the proponents (ney, INVESTORS) of that research were not able to financially capitalize upon those ideas?

Nobody is suffering because Winnie the Poo is not in the public domain. However, when "Ricky Rat" is litigated because he infringes upon "Mickey Mouse", then we run into a situation where ideas are stymied and nobody can ever, EVER draw a picture of a mouse in pants ;)

[Logophile]

There is room for both free software and paid software. But don't force everyone else to give away their labor for free just because you don't value their work, Stallman.

A reasonable point of view. If people wishes to contribute their labor to free software, more power to them. (I frequently use software from the FSF.) At the same time, there is nothing immoral about private property, be it tangible property or intellectual property.

[SJSAMPLE]

How does he feel about others copying his books, plagiarizing his speeches, et al?

Personally, if an individual or company wants to join the movement and contribute their efforts (software, ideas, literature), they should be free to do so.

However, it's been long held that America's greatness came about quickly, and eclipsed all other nations, BECAUSE of our strict adherence to property rights and more explicitly, the DOCUMENTATION of property rights (deeds, patents, copyrights, trademarks, et al).

IIRC, these ideas won an economist the Nobel Prize (small praise, these days) for that very assertion.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

How much slower would pharmaceutical research (or any research, for that matter) be if the proponents (ney, INVESTORS) of that research were not able to financially capitalize upon those ideas?

Yes, but companies patent gene sequences without knowing anything about what they do or how to use them, other than they want to charge other people who may want to use them.

The real problem is that you can patent a ham sandwich these days. The more frivolous patents the better for lawyers specializing in patent barratry.

[SJSAMPLE]

I used to think so, but our resident patent attorney on FR has convinced me otherwise. Patents were loose in the 1990s but have tightened up significantly.

I don't understand how you can patent something that exists naturally (gene sequences). Perhaps they patented the sequencing technology or gene sequences that they actually spliced themselves?

IIRC, you have to prove a practical application/working model before you can patent.

[Screamname]

Yes but what he is saying is making programs free that people paid a lot of time and money to create. If programs were free would we have programs like Photoshop so we can paste John Kerrys head on a poodle body? Maybe so, but it wouldn`t be as good. If I spent tons of money and years in college to learn how to program, I`ll be damed if I work for free once I graduated. What he`s asking is insane. All getting rid of copyrights does is lose investors and drive away top talent. Money is not evil, making money is not evil, making money supports people so they can concentrate on new ideas, new inventions with more energy rather than spending all their time hunting for food.

[Kenny Bunk]

Stallman is merely typical of the totalitarian wannabes who infest IT departments. "Open Software your arse." this is merely the old "free razor ... expensive blades" marketing ploy.

Of course, Castro and Valdez appeal to the nerds. They do everything their way, just the way nerds would like to.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I don't understand how you can patent something that exists naturally (gene sequences). Perhaps they patented the sequencing technology or gene sequences that they actually spliced themselves?

"YOU, or someone you love, may die because of a gene patent that should never have been granted in the first place. Sound far-fetched? Unfortunately, it’s only too real."

-- Michael Chrichton (New York Times, February 13, 2007)

Patenting Life

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If programs were free would we have programs like Photoshop so we can paste John Kerrys head on a poodle body?

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

[vpintheak]

Sounds just like the idiots I went to college with.

[SJSAMPLE]

Thanks.
I've been a Crichton fan since I read "The Andromeda Strain" at age ten. He has an amazing grasp of the politics of science and the resulting failures.

I now recall the patent/genome hubub of the early 1990s but hadn't followed it much.

I can't understand how something that's discovered can be patented. Patent the process that's used to discover it? Definitely. But something that already exists should not be patented. It existed before the discovering process and would have existed without that process.