There is a transcript of a talk and a QA session Stallman did in Tokyo recently on GPLv3 here. Quite clear and illuminating thinking, once again. Well worth a read. Here is a highlight:
Treacherous Computing is an instance of a very dangerous phenomenon, namely a conspiracy of companies to restrict the public – to restrict the public’s access to technology. Such conspiracies ought to be a crime. The executives of those companies should be tried, and if convicted, sent to prison for conspiring to restrict the public’s access to technology. However, that sort of policy would have required leaders that believe in government of the people, by the people, for the people. What we have today is government of the people, by the flunkies, for the corporations.
For from trying to protect us from such conspiracies, our governments today show how undemocratic they are by supporting the companies against us, supporting the conspiracies against us. Laws that prohibit circumvention of these conspiracies essentially deputise the conspiracies as police men, giving them power over the citizens. Every government that supports such a law shows that it is on the side of publishers, on the side of Hollywood, on the side of the record companies, against its own citizens. It has become an arm of occupation.
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