MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-02-11 |
| FROM | Richard Stallman
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Re: eGovOS conference in D.C.; I'm not attending that
|
A good advocate, like a good chess player, thinks several moves ahead.
I won't criticize people for planning ahead, but advocacy is not much
like chess, and I think your statement is too strong.
My experience says we have no reason to be afraid of the countermoves
that you warn us about, that the worst-case outcome you described is
not really likely, and that we should not let it deter us from pushing
back against half-hearted advocacy sopping up the energy for real
advocacy in our community.
Think of the conference as being a neutral
academic event that happens to hear mostly from advocates of
free/open-source software.
I will think of it that way if it behaves fully like one.
Universities don't do pure advocacy events.
Yes they do. For instance, universities frequently have people from
Microsoft come and give speeches, and they don't as a rule invite a
free software advocate to give another speech right after. No free
software advocate followed Mundie onto the podium at NYU, and nobody
said it was unfair to let a Microsoft executive give a speech without
one. It looks like this is a double standard.
Stanco's first event at GWU was an advocacy event. Someone put
pressure on people in the university to hush up the free software
advocacy. Perhaps that was Microsoft.
____________________________
New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
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