MESSAGE
| DATE | 2022-09-12 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] bigger Tents
|
uben Safir
President of NYLXS and Founder of NY Fair Use http://www.nylxs.com - We
are Do'ers. Free Software Classes from the Ground Up, and Volunters Join
NYLXS today and become a leader.
Getting a Bigger Tent: Free Software's End Game
On the morning of September 11th, 2001, in the middle of one of the
happiest time of my life, on the most beautiful morning that I can ever
remember, and while sitting in my sun lit office, I can remember as if
it happened this morning, the email on my GNU desktop was ringing and
ringing. I looked over and saw 117 messages in my in-box which normally
has nothing more than a dozen overnight posts, thinking that this is
weird. I opened my mail and saw a message subject, "Holly Cow - The
World Trade Center was just hit". I opened the message thinking, "not
again", and shaking my head.
The message said that all the TV stations are off the air. I turned on
my television capture card, and indeed, all the stations but Channel 2
was off the air. 4,5,7,9,11,13,21,25,31,41 and 45, where all gone. I
watched the North Tower burning on Channel 2, when the second plane hit
the south tower, while reading mail and corresponding with friends the
whole time. I remember my friend Billy Donahue writing that it's raining
paper in his neighborhood accorss the river in Brooklyn. So I put the
video on record, and ran out the door towards the disaster. When the
first tower collapsed, I was stunned, not by disbelief, but fuming with
more emotion than I could process. Anger, depression, confusion, and
frustration were all simultaneously competing for my attention. I just
wanted to be closer and to help, but all entry to Lower Manhattan from
Brooklyn was blocked off that morning. There was no way in until later.
The Towers were a great symbol of hope and pride. Those who never had
the experience of seeing them on a glassine like harbor, almost as if
they were floating on the water, glimmering sunlight, can never fully
appreciate the loss to our city on that day. Our heart and souls were
tied to the symbolism of the towers. Constantly exploited for their
imagery and thrill, New Yorkers had come to identify with the Towers in
a very personal way.
The civilization which would attack our city, and strike at the spirit
of New York, leaving dust and a fire ball, destroying without a trace
thousands of individuals, is an organization which strikes at New York's
great message for the world: Through Liberty and Freedom Springs Hope
and Opportunity. New York is a wide tent, which stretches out it's arms
to all, the womb of Freedom for people of all races and ethnic groups,
the worlds greatest symbol of Freedom.
Those who attacked us, attacked the foundation of freedom, and the
progress only possible through inclusion. They are exluders. We, as New
Yorkers, are includers, and we can never forget that.
Free Software, at it's best, is a tool of inclusion. Free Software is
the best hope for a future of enabled individuals, communities and
industry. Like all legitimate movements of freedom, Free Software faces
detractors with proclamations of efficency and effectiveness. But we
should all know that the only proven efficacy for societal growth and
prosperity, is a heavy dose of freedom.
226 years ago, on the soil of my home town, in Brooklyn, in August of
that summer of 1776, our city was called upon to stand up for the
budding freedom of the American Colonies, as the stage for the first and
largest battle of the American Revolution. As we mark this this summer I
can't help but recalling that through the cooperation, and spilled blood
of both our town and the French people, we eventually overcame the bleak
outlook after the defeat of that day, to bring forth to the world a
nation of peace, freedom, and tolerance. From that day forward, my home
town was became the home of multiples of peoples and nations, unlike any
place before or since.
It is my hope that today, Brooklyn and the City of New York, can again
find themselves as allies in the cause of freedom with this great nation
of France. Free Software is the only way of assuring a future of
prosperity, and security for all the peoples of the world. Only through
the freedom to associate, to come together and collaborate in solving
our problems can we hope to assure that these wonderful tools which we
use for our expression, our industry, and our education, continue to
remain as free as our press and our governments.
Our job as users, marketeers, promoters, and programmers of Free
Software, is to assure the creation of the widest possible tent. We
welcome all individuals to participate with Free Software. We welcome
them to code, and to use Free Software to enrich their lives. We hope
they can find in Free Software the freedom to express themselves and to
become fulfilled.
While it is central to the business plan of every proprietary closed
computing system to entangle the user, and to limit the use of digital
tools, for Free Software, the essential goal is the opposite. Our goal
to provide Free Software is for everyone. Our goal is to be empower the
individual through our software, regardless of peoples wealth,
background, or ethnicity. We offer everyone a stake in the future, a
future which promises to be filled with digital communications, and
increasing dependency on computers for our daily living. Digital devices
are the future for education, entertainment and all of our information
needs.
The mass murderers who attacked my city, a city of immigrants,
tolerance, and fruitful co-existence, these murderers are believers in
ethnic purity and religious autocracy. They attack us out of fear of our
open door, of our tolerance, and of our freedom. In the same vein, those
who use software to exploit people, to manipulate them , and to limit
our potential as a civilization, these are individuals who wish to
autocratically decide what we can read, what we can listen to and how we
share. They abuse their copyright monopolies and are attempting to
prevent the private ownership of computers and software. They strike
with ferocity at Free Software. They intend to undermine our freedom and
our open markets. They jail us for reverse engineering our systems,
alter formats to limit our access to their systems, spread lies about
the benefits of our products, and then they wrap the entire process in
the flag, claiming that they are the righteous victims. These copyright
monopoly tyrants claim that they are threatened, and weak. They cry that
they need government protection from the public with wiretapping, forced
contacts, and police action. And we as a free people are standing here
together, shoulder to shoulder, to say that we are not going to take it
anymore.
It's the responsibility of every Free Software user, and every Free
Software developer to encourage individual empowerment by demanding a
free platforms for our communication infrastructure. We must reach out
to the disenfranchised, those of us who, through circumstance are left
out of the main stream economy, or who are marginalized by racism, or
national origin. We should reach out to those who have not had the
opportunity to fulfill their true potential. Individuals and nations
which live in poverty and disease, and the children in our cities, and
around the world, can only be guaranteed the opportunity to improve
their lives and their legacy if they can live in freedom. Proprietary
software models can never provide for us the freedom necessary for self
empowerment. And government policies, such as the American Digital
Millennium Copy Right act, can only be used to further exploit all of
us, especially the poor. It prevents free trade and fair competition. It
limits economic growth and it is stifling creativity. All non-free
software systems prevent participation by all, reserving the benefits of
development and publication to a few undeserving software firms, movie
produces and music distributors, at the expense of our economy and
political freedom.
Nearly every economist worth of their title will admit that the driving
force behind economic growth is not through corporate giants. It is
small and medium size businesses which drive the economy. Individual in
their local areas employ more people and generate more wealth, than Ford
or Sony. These hard working and creative people produce the goods and
services which drive our free economy. How can we expect the budding
graphic artists, book seller, and industrialists to develop our future
economy without providing the opportunity to create and exploit new
technologies in their communities. In fact, all the major industries of
today originated as small businesses at great risk to the individual
businessmen. Our car industry sprang forth from creative experimentation
in barns across the West. Our airline industry developed from
adventurous mechanics who learned from each others failures and
successes. Our media giants sprang from small time movie produces and
radio broadcasters. And each of these success stories underline the need
for education, shared experience, and free competition.
Isaac Newton correctly observed that his insights and brilliance was
only possible because of the knowledge learned by his colleagues and
predecessors. Mankind's unique ability to create is actually grounded in
our ability to adapt new applications onto existing ideas. Shakespeare,
by the standards that todays media mongrols would have us to believe, is
a theif. He lifted ideas and stories from Marlow and writers before him.
And yet, Shakespeare is clearly unique, and simply reused the material
around him for form new creations. Jazz music, and rap similarly reuse
material.
We stand here today at the infancy of the digital communications
revolution. Can we have any doubt that in the future nearly all music,
literature and works of non-fiction will by available mostly through
digital means? Under these conditions, can there be any doubt that our
ability to reuse the cultural materials all around us will be badly
impaired if we continue to be dependent on software models designed to
exploit us? How severely impaired will our means of creating new
material be? How suppressed will be our economic growth? Econocmic
growth is dependent on invention and creativity. We must protect our
freedom to innovate. We must protect the rights of others to utilize our
innovations. We must protect the rights of others to improve on our
innovations.
There exists, within the ranks of the computer industry, people who feel
that their advanced education or experience, entitles them to an
exclusive part of the future digital economy. This idea is especially
prevalent within the Unix world. Running big iron on large systems
continues to be a focus of these users. They are sharp with their
tongues in defending their perceived territory within IT. So poor is the
reputation of these individuals in the larger business world, that
Microsoft targets them when speaking to IT managers. They have a
marketing campaign promising to help you to get rid of Unix and those
expensive and obnoxious Unix professionals. Failure on the part of Unix
companies to market and enjoin the common user is one of the major
reasons for Microsoft's success. As bad a Microsoft's products have been
at entangling the users, opening security holes, and forcing upgrades on
businesses, the Unix vendors, with superior infrastructure, have refused
to even compete. This philosophy of computing controlled from on high is
a business failure. Every time proprietary systems make generally
available a programming architecture, may that be HTML, Javascript, or
even VBA, users swell from the rank and file to exploit these
technologies to generate new ideas and businesses.
So while we must assure freedom, we must assure freedom for as many
people as possible. In New York, we developed a new kind of GNU/Linux
organization. As a reflection of our city, we are determined to create
as big a tent as possible for everyone. Our goal is Free Computing and
Digital communications for all. On the beach front of the digital
revolution, we need to forge new advanced positions in elementary school
education, in the university system, in business, publishing, in the
arts and in the home. We have used a number of tools at our disposal to
attempt to push this agenda forward.
First, we have tapped our local community of Free Software developers to
give their time on a volunteer basic to make inexpensive classes
available to the public. In addition we have started a marketing
campaign targeting the public school system in an effort to place Free
Software into schools to give young children a change to learn how to
program and to use the Free Software tools needed for arts and music.
Thirdly, we are are lobbying our congressional leaders, by going door to
door with petitions and buttons, lobbying for the needed Fair Use
protections of personal property and communications media. And finally,
we have an effort underway to fill in the gaps for small business in
regards to providing complete solutions for their business needs.
This has been very hard work. But our members have worked very hard to
bring all these programs to life. Our organization might very well be
the most active local Free Software organization in existence. When the
recession which followed the destruction of the World Trade Center in
NYC began to grip our region on the heels of the economic blow of the
Dot com bust of the previous year, things got tough. But NYLXS responded
by being tougher. Today we are seeding fertile ground for which will
lead the local, national, and global economy to even higher ground than
even the boom boom days of the late 1990's. But to do this, we must be
committed to broad freedom, and we must be prepared to work hard.
The choice is laid out before us. We can continue as we have, and hope
that things turn out well, not just for Free Software developers, but
also the general public, or we can start to redouble our efforts and
work harder. Freedom to create, communicate and develop are a
fundamental human needs. It is the foundation for tolerance, mutual
inclusion and political freedom. No one knows better than the French
know the cost of preserving this freedom, as this nation was the battle
ground for freedom for much of the last century. And it is probable that
no land has had more blood spilt on it for this goal. Free Software is
not even asking for the ultimate sacrifice of generations past to assure
freedom, but only requires you to act in your own self interest with the
pen and keyboard. Join us in New York in forging this new world, a world
of freedom and tolerance and mutual respect.
NYLXS, the New York Linux Scene, has a tradition of political action in
the defense of free software and digital property rights. Since its
inception, shortly after the terrorist attack on New York City, NYLXS
has come to recognize that, like any other industry, we need to have
effective representation in the halls of Congress and within the
executive branch of government. To this end, NYLXS has supported New
Yorkers for Fair Use and has taken independent political action, such as
local lobbying, to lay the foundation for a secure future. What we've
learned from our efforts is that those who wish to work with free
software in the future need some basic education in the political
process and the issues that threaten our ability to work with free
software and our overall freedom as citizens.
Recently, we've made several calls to hire a professional lobbying body
in Washington DC. Lobbies can be useful for promoting an organization's
political agenda, but in our case, it seems prudent to get our ducks in
order at home first--before we waste valuable resources in Washington.
People come to the Free Software movement for a variety of reasons.
Except for the most politically active members among us, the main reason
is an attraction to the soundness of the technology and the freedom to
access the computer systems we use. Another compelling reason is the
economic incentives it can provide disenfranchised individuals as well
as large businesses. It's a testimony to our current freedoms that we
come to free software without a second thought to the underlining
principles that allow for the existence of such systems. In our work
promoting free software, we've been surprised how often, even in our own
circles, there exists huge resistance to anything political or the least
bit distasteful. As a population, we have learned to be skeptical of
politicians and stubbornly apolitical.
The reality of our current political situation is far more dangerous
than most people are willing to admit. In our work, we've learned it's
not possible to keep a narrow focus on only free software issues. We
also must deal with the nature of digital communications and its
relationship with the public. Specifically, NYLXS has found that the
efforts of the Copyright Monopoly Industry to restrict the use of
digital systems to protect their normal business interests has broad
political implications. As our society is rapidly moving into the
digital age, this is no doubt the first battle. The basic foundation of
our future democratic freedoms is being built now. Yet, the general
public is asleep at the wheel. At this point, one of the best things
proponents of free software can do is raise the profile of the issue
with the public. Fortunately for us, we are taking on the media industry
and, if we do things correctly, we can simply ride Jack Valenti's
coattails.
But the first step toward political action and the defense of free
software doesn't fall on Richard Stallman, the EFF or OSI. No lobby can
represent us effectively until those who use free software actually get
their representatives to work for our interests. It's really that
simple. The US government is made up of three branches, and we have only
one nationally elected official. After this, we have 435 elected
officials in the House of Representatives. These locally elected
officials round out to a representation of less than 700,000 people per
representative, although in practice representatives in populous states
normally represent more people. In addition, we have 100 US Senators,
who also are elected on the local level. We also have a large number of
elected officials on the state and local level who have a large swath of
guaranteed powers, including control of education programs and local
communication network policies. To sum up this civics lesson, almost all
politics in the USE are local matters. Our political system is designed
to keep political power at home, not inside the Washington DC beltway.
Members of Congress and local officials respond most to issues that
effect the people back home. Your job as part of the Free Software
community is to raise the issues in your home districts. Without the
threat of political awareness in their backyard, members of Congress are
free to cut whatever deals they want in DC. If the public is apathetic
at home, businesses and business lobbies have the overwhelming
advantage. First, they are well funded because they are businesses.
Second, they control the press, and members of Congress need the press.
Finally, they can make large political contributions our movement can't
match. But it's important to realize that despite all these advantages,
the Copyright Industry does not represent any major grassroots
constituency. As such, they are paper tigers that can be defeated easily
if an organization is prepared to do the work needed to influence
national policy.
The first step toward getting things done is to get your own house in
order. Politicize your local computer groups. Don't flinch from making
the political imperatives of protecting the fundamental rights needed
for free software's survival a top priority of your user group's
mission. If you're not prepared to accept the challenge of protecting
the basic freedoms needed to ensure the future of free software,
uninhibited by wiretapping and censorship, then you need to step aside.
There are plenty of Radio Controlled Model Airplane groups around for
you to exercise your interest in technology. Free software is serious
business, and we need people committed to the general principles of
freedom in the digital age.
What makes free software important is not that we can tinker with it
like a hobby horse, although this activity is one that we hope to
protect. Free software is the bellwether for our basic political freedom
in the digital age. As such, every users group meeting should include an
update on important political events. Every technical presentation needs
to begin with an explanation as to why it's significant that the project
was developed using free software. People who complain that you're
over-politicizing need to be challenged. They need to be told, flat out
and without excuses, that we act in a political fashion because our
existence is being threatened by government policy, including the 1998
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which can end all free software
tomorrow.
The next step is to get your organization involved with the political
process. This will upset a great many people, because people
inexperienced with the political process fail to understand its raucous
nature. Public discourse often can be contentious and confrontational,
and most people don't like to be in that situation. A great deal of
money and political rights are at stake with these discussions. Be
prepared to be forceful in your points and to be challenged thoroughly
by your political opponents. Your object is to win, and your opponent's
object is to win. You have right on your side, but they have good
arguments and issues on their side as well. Be ready to defend your
rights articulately and forcefully, and don't expect them to pull out
the chair for you.
Finally, back up your efforts at discourse with political action. At
least once a month, your organization should plan a community-wide
activity designed to enhance the profile of fair use and digital rights
issues with the public. Expand your constituency at these affairs by
including librarians, educators, government officials and industrial
leaders. Reach out to local religious leaders, churches and community
groups, and make the needed presentations to these constituencies. Knock
on doors and give out pamphlets in business districts. Even monthly
activities can have a large impact. And don't forget to involve the
local press. Find the names and addresses of the editorial staffs. Meet
with local beat reporters and do interviews. Alert them to your planned
actions. Contact the public to act for a specific action or purpose. Ask
them to write their local representatives on the issue of fair use. Tell
them you want to protect libraries in the digital age from unfair rights
abuses by industry and the government. Try to commit them on the spot.
Have literature and buttons ready, and make sure there is contact
information in the literature.
Finally, don't forget the elections. This year your representative is up
for election. Tell them they need to support freedom for digital
communications, or you're going to vote against them. You want their
support, and this is not negotiable.
During the Libre Software Meeting in Bordeaux, France last month,
exciting technical meetings and separate political meetings were held.
They offered high quality presentations on a number of important
technical subjects. Unfortunately, the two tracts were far too
separated. Technical meetings drew in IT students and professionals from
all over Europe, but these people simply skipped the legal and political
discussions. We gave away the store and failed to charge admission. If
we are going to continue to provide high quality technical discussions
at little or no charge, it's our duty to make sure that every eager
beaver understands the basic political causes that make these
technologies available. They need to know that the very discussion of
these issues may be considered a felony in the future. If we're spending
100,000s of Euros or dollars to make these presentations, there has to
be a pay off for the movement.
Without this level of support from the home district, it's not sensible
to hire lobbyists in Washington. If we are determined to be ineffective
at the ballot box and we can't outspend our opponents, then politicians
will ignore the representatives lobbying for us in Washington.
Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet here. We must do the work at
home. Not only is free software free as in freedom and not free as in
beer, this kind of freedom is not cheap.
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