
Freedom in your computer and in the net [video] - Tsiolkovsky
http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/31c3_-_6123_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201412291130_-_freedom_in_your_computer_and_in_the_net_-_richard_stallman.html#video
======
adventureloop
I was in the room for this talk and despite the technical issues, it was a
very inspiring session.

------
blfr
I'm assuming that on speaker's request there won't be an hd mp4?

EDIT: Yes. He starts with that.

~~~
teamhappy
That is what it looks like when you choose an ideology over people.

// Feel free to comment if you disagree.

~~~
Intermernet
You haven't actually stated a position, but merely made an ambiguous
observation, so I can't disagree with it. You may want to parse your comment
again.

By the way, I think you're being DV'd for not adding substance to the
discussion. I'm now guilty of the same thing, so feel free to hit that upside-
down triangle :-)

~~~
teamhappy
My bad, I thought my position was clear.

To paraphrase Nick Fury: When Stallman says freedom, I kind of think he means
the other thing. Taking away one choice of video format is not freedom.
Telling people to upload photos of him only to specific websites is not
freedom. Telling people who own a specific device not to take pictures of him
at all is not freedom. Choosing a free software license that forces others to
release changes they make is not freedom. Forcing "freedom" onto people is not
freedom.

~~~
edwintorok
Its more about freedom of using rather than creating. You want to create
something that can be used by anyone without restrictions from patents, etc.
-- so necessarily that imposes limits on what you can create (in this case no
mp4).

I think you can look at GPL in a similar way: it is more about protecting the
user than the developer: it imposes restrictions on the developer that are
necesasry to ensure the freedom of the user(s).

~~~
teamhappy
> [...] so necessarily that imposes limits on what you can create (in this
> case no mp4).

This is a bad example. I guess you could just encode the video twice, no?

Your GPL example I like a lot though; I never heard that argument before. One
problem I have with it is that the line between users and developers can be a
little blurry, or, in my case doesn't exist at all. I'm also not sure why
you'd need the GPL license to ensure the users' freedom. Say OpenOffice is MIT
licensed. I'm a developer, I fork it and make changes that I don't publish
because I don't have to. How does that relate to your (the user's) freedom? I
can take OpenOffice away from you, or un-MIT-license it, or whatever.

~~~
jumpwah
The GPL, or copyleft, does not require you to release your changes. 10:31 in
the video: "And they can also offer it to the rest of the public, _if they
wish_."

It doesn't matter whether you're just using a program, or also hacking away at
it, being a developer/programmer means you're also using it, i.e. means you're
also a user of the program.

So _compared to users_ , developers don't lose anything, except for the fact
that they are not allowed to turn a program into an instrument of power over
other users. I don't know why you say ideology > people above. If anything,
copyleft really favours the people as the majority of people are not
programmers.

Even for programmers, copyleft has incentive for them to contribute since it's
a guarantee that their investment into the program will not be 'wasted', i.e.
used in proprietary software (if the programmer believes in the morality of
free software that is, obviously it can go both ways).

> "I'm also not sure why you'd need the GPL license to ensure the users'
> freedom."

If it's licensed under MIT, you can simply continue development under a
proprietary license at anytime (and typically you would stop distributing the
source, only distributing the binary). Eventually, the unmaintained MIT
licensed version will likely become useless (assuming it remains
unmaintained/no development), and because the latest version of the program is
proprietary, the user loses the freedom they once had when using this program.
The GPL essentially forbids this in order to prevent that from happening.

------
rscott
Firefox seems to have a privacy policy that, by default, does things that
aren't "free" \- locale checking, talking back to Mozilla, etc.

Is there another "free" browser that supports webm?

~~~
TD-Linux
Options -> Advanced -> Data Usage will get you most of the way there.

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jokoon
what was this claim about smartphones transmitting without battery, only using
the "secondary" battery that "can't be removed" around 19:30?

is that really possible ?

~~~
ekianjo
I was actually wondering about that too. Any source about this "secondary
battery" \- do they actually exist?

~~~
001sky
Some devices have them for sure, a small lithium cell that keeps a clock and
some settings in place for when you swap batteries. At least that's how my
camera works. I assume its egineered into other devices for similar reasons.

~~~
ekianjo
Yeah but do they have enough power to keep the phone connectivity alive and
transmit things ?

~~~
wlkr
Yes, they do. I would recommend having a look at this for a succinct overview.

[https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/65382/is-it-
pos...](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/65382/is-it-possible-for-
a-phone-to-be-transmitting-even-while-turned-off-and-the-batt/65455#65455)

~~~
tedunangst
> Then red dots for people who have turned their phone off and removed the
> main battery. Highly suspicious behaviour obviously. A Reaper or StingRay
> would then be dispatched to the red dot's location.

Alrighty. So the NSA dispatches a reaper every time somebody drops their droid
phone and the battery pops out?

~~~
jokoon
maybe they reamplify the signal using nearest phones

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aselzer
It's nice of them that his video is a webm, while the others are mp4s. E.g.
try inspecting the <video> on this one:
[http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/31c3_-_6430_-_de_-_...](http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/31c3_-_6430_-_de_-
_saal_2_-_201412291130_-_nsa_points_of_presence_in_at_-
_erich_moechel.html#video&t=8)

~~~
teamhappy
All talks are available in WebM. Try inspecting the download button.

~~~
aselzer
When clicking on the download button on his video, there is only a webm video
and an opus sound file.

For all the other talks there are also mp4 videos and mp3 audio files.

------
javajosh
I waited a while to post this, because I wanted to see if anyone felt the
same. It seems I'm alone - which is both interesting and a little scary!

To me it seems to me like Stallman has become a professional complainer about
how programs are made and distributed, and critically, his position is
weakened by _not being a working practitioner_.

I'd be ashamed at fumbling with the presentation software; here you are making
a case for free software, and end up making a really good case against it
(does anyone want to use software that befuddles an expert programmer?) I also
feel that it reflects poorly on Stallman himself that he immediately throws up
his hands and says "I don't know how to do this" instead of carefully
examining the situation. (Of course, there's also a case to be made that that
was a very mature and wise move.)

Here's the real problem. Take the market of custom software for small
business. Can this be done in a free software model? I think yes, but only if
you could get clients to agree to a) pay for custom software development, and
b) give all of that custom development away to their competitors. One can
imagine the ultimate SaaS platform (including perfect freedom to self-host,
etc), open source, all modifications (hosted and otherwise) dutifully shared.
Question: would such a thing be good or evil?

P.S. Out of curiosity, since he doesn't seem to program anymore, and I can't
see how complaining could pay well, does anyone know how he actually pays the
bills?

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
No you are not alone, but since people often simply just downvote instead of
discussing dissenting views, which takes more time, there is a risk to express
minority opinions in certain threads, as it will drain your precious karma.

To half-answer your question: RMS once got 150,000 shares of VA Linux which
were worth millions at some time, but I have no idea if he ever sold them
before they became worhtless. He lives mainly from his speaking engagements
nowadays.

And in case you will ever want to have him speak at your event, this what you
are signing up for:
[https://groups.google.com/a/mysociety.org/forum/#!msg/mysoci...](https://groups.google.com/a/mysociety.org/forum/#!msg/mysociety-
community/zkyZpOXjgoQ/_8xyXSxv9zYJ)

That line from War Games, you are going to need it: "Remember you told me to
tell you when you were acting rudely and insensitively? Remember that? You're
doing it right now."

~~~
javajosh
Thanks for the link; it doesn't help my impression of him, but I wouldn't use
it for an ad hominem either. Being _weird and demanding_ doesn't necessarily
correlate with being _wrong_. "Not being able to do stuff" does, though.

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
Yes, he got shit done - this is huge, and trumps most other arguments you
might make. Still I wonder about an alternate reality where the OSS movement
had a leader that was less of a nut-job.

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happyscrappy
Is there a transcript somewhere?

~~~
a3n
A common question. And I didn't watch, because I usually don't want to sit
through an entire linear presentation.

Is there a tool somewhere that you can make your own transcripts from the
audio? Bonus if it generates periodic snapshots from the video. Bonus if you
can give it timestamps that you explicitly want snapshotted.

EDIT: Bonus if you can select a section of text that didn't come over well in
transcription, and play that section of audio, or that section of AV.

If this doesn't exist, there has to be someone sitting here right now on a
Saturday morning, thinking "Hell yeah, I can do that!"

~~~
_asummers
It's pretty much voice transcription. Ask the Dragon Naturally Speaking guys
or Google or Apple or any of the number of people in that space. Even cell
carriers doing visual voice mail are faced with the same underlying problem.

------
noinsight
His talk starts pretty interesting but by the end he gets pretty repetitive,
he repeats the same things multiple times.

Haven't seen/heard him speak before so I was sort of surprised he's an old man
with an old man voice. He actually sounds like a pretty nice/agreeable guy
though, which is an impression I haven't gotten from his online writings.

Some of his arguments are really valid but most average people wouldn't be
convinced since the nefarious aspects of computing haven't personally hit them
(and might never do, but that doesn't make the points any less valid).

~~~
userbinator
_Haven 't seen/heard him speak before so I was sort of surprised he's an old
man with an old man voice_

He's 61; I'd consider that "old".

~~~
wglb
Careful there, buster.

~~~
kordless
I use 'buster' occasionally, but I also consider it a dated term. I'm guessing
you are older than my almost 50. :)

~~~
wglb
Good catch. And that is why I chose the word.

~~~
kordless
Clever whippersnapper, I am.

