Dr Richard Stallman, Founder and President of the Free Software Foundation, will be presenting on the subject Copyright vs Community at the University on Thursday 21 March as part of Bath Digital Festival.
Dr Stallman will set out how copyright was developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralised copying imposed by the printing press. He will argue that the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it.
Dr Stallman will show how the global corporations that profit from copyright are lobbying for draconian punishments, and to increase their copyright powers, while suppressing public access to technology.
He said: “If we seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of copyright – to promote progress, for the benefit of the public – then we must make changes in the other direction.”
Dr Richard Stallman describes himself as a software developer and a software freedom activist. He launched the Free Software Movement in 1983, and started the Free Software Foundation in 1985.
Since the mid-1990s Richard has spent most of his time in political advocacy for free software, and spreading the ethical ideas of the movement, as well as campaigning against both software patents and extensions of copyright laws.
In 1983 he announced the project to develop the GNU operating system, a Unix-like operating system meant to be entirely free software, and has been the project’s leader ever since.
Richard developed a number of widely used software components of GNU, including the original Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU symbolic debugger (gdb), GNU Emacs, and various other programs for the GNU operating system.
Richard pioneered the concept of copyleft, and is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.
The lecture is in the University’s East Building Lecture Theatre, starting at 6pm. The event is free to attend but spaces are limited so booking is required.
