Re: GPLv3 comedy unfolding -- "In Search Of GPL Version 3: The Long Road To Nowhere"

[Alexander Terekhov]

Alan Curry wrote:

[... rms ... rms ... rms ...]

Hey Alan, would you please comment on the following opinion from 
Humberto Fontova (feel free to comment on related "side node" below
as well):

<sidenote
source=http://www.frontpagemag.com/GoPostal/commentdetail.asp?ID=27342&commentID=824270>

Date:  3/14/2007 1:09:42 PM 
Name:  DarrenR114 
Subject:  Richard Stallman is a hypocrite 
Comment:  Take a look at his "big" contribution to Free Software, the
"General Public License", or GPL for short.

At the very top it has a copyright statement. If he was so
anti-copyright, then he would have assigned the license text to the
public domain.

Mr. Stallman is only in favor of software freedom when he is the one
controlling the software.

But please, don't connect Stallman with "Open Source Software". He won't
even discuss the merits of "Open Source Software" because it's not the
same thing as "Free Software" (note the capitalisation.) 

Free Software != free software. The FSF and Stallman put too many
restrictions on Free Software for it to be considered free. Stallman is
just a freeloader trying to hijack the free software movement that was
started in 1961 by re-writing history in his own image of "Free
Software", portraying himself as some sort of "father of free software". 

</sidenote>

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27342

<quote>

Castro Loves Hippie Software  
By Humberto Fontova
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 13, 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--Free Society--Free as in Freedom."

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

Mr 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 February 14th, 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, 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 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, eat (both
substance and amount), where they live, travel or work. 

Here’s a hippie-dippy spokesman for peace, love and total freedom who
regards copyright laws as intolerably oppressive 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 (not Miami! Please note!) based Reporters Without
Borders, Cuba (a tiny nation of 11 million people) today holds 20 per
cent 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 US policy."

Imagine a similar law in the U.S. that jailed reporters for "providing
information useful to Al Quaeda 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 they call this. Valdez seemed to be reading
from the Cuban regime's very resume'.

Valdez refered 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 Mr 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 twenty 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 Mr Richard 
"Free as in Freedom!” Stallman’s smiling host-- bashed mr 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.

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

Click Here to support Frontpagemag.com.


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

</quote>

regards,
alexander.