‘Copyrights would put ideas to sleep’

NEW DELHI: "Its GNU-Linux not Linux. And please don't associate me and
GNU with open source," hurled Richard Stallman, founder of the free
software movement. The GNU (GNU Not Unix) project came up when by 1983 almost
all software became propriety. According to Stallman, the freedom that is
attained from free software is not associated with the 'price' aspect but rather
the 'freedom' which the users would have in using the software in whichever way
they prefer. The necessary condition therefore became an access to the source
code of a program. And so it is considered that only 'proprietary' stood on the
way of free software, which Stallman intends to make obsolete.

And now for running free software, a free operating system is needed.
Therefore Stallman in his GNU-project built an OS compatible to Unix,
incorporating its design features. By end of 80s, almost all components and
features of the system were written, except for the kernel. Therefore later
combining Linux, a free kernel, a Linux based GNU system was developed. Red Hat
is a Linux based GNU system. The GNU project continues to provide a whole
spectrum of free software to people around the world besides free OS.

Again Stallman does not want to be associated with Open Source, although the
underlying purpose of Free Software and Open Source are the same. The Open
Source's basic idea is in being able to read, improve, adapt and fix on existing
programs to produce technologically better software. And so is the idea behind
Stallman's 'Free Software' movement but only to incorporate the 'social' aspects
to a community. According to Stallman, software that is not free is ethically
incorrect.

Speaking on 'Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks',
Stallman feels that copyright systems don't fit in the computer age as they
suppress human access to technology. 'Copy' rights dated back to as early as
1500, when writers or authors asked permission from their rulers to do so. In
the age of the printing press 'copyrights' became necessary only for censorship.

Later in England 'copyrights' acted as incentives to writers and were made
compulsory by the government to encourage authorship. And Stallman feels in the
age of technology, 'copyright' is acting as a bulwark to people's authorship and
thwarting evolutionary or progressive ideas. It is 'copyright' which is claiming
more power on public, imposed by publishers and record companies. Stallman feels
that no country should impose 'copyright' statures, comparing the penalty of
copyright violations by governments like the US to the harsh punishments of the
Soviet regime.

Some of which are considered felony, asking for information (of anyone known
to be using such pirated version), and collective responsibility, conscripting
ISP's on what their customers' post and so on. According to Stallman,
"Works that has an underlying purpose can claim copyrights, like essays,
memoirs and scientific works whose interpretation could be misinterpreted.
Copyrighting works of entertainment like music make no sense, because modified
versions of them would only lend to aesthetic values. But the acts of copyrights
has to be reduced, as much as possible, for works must be credited, but at the
same time people must be given freedom to re-publish and modify on existing
versions. It is said that even Shakespeare had got his plots from other books
and scripts."

Stallman ended on the note, "If I cannot share, I am not taking or
buying, and I don't care how good the software is. Propriety software is a
social problem." Any person or organization must be given the chance to use
it, the manner in which he likes, for any kind of job. Called 'copyleft' one
must not impose any restriction to the access of the re-distributed copies of
the software. Free software also has the elements of commerce. They can with the
'freedom' intended, be used for commercial benefits of the community as a whole.