Richard Stallman (The creator of the GNU project) is coming to Virginia Tech to give a speech on Copyright vs Community. The speech will be on Tuesday, March 25th in Torgerson 2150 at 8:00pm.
Abstract:
Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing press. But the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it.
The global corporations that profit from copyright are lobbying for draconian punishments, and to increase their copyright powers, while suppressing public access to technology. But 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.
Bio:
Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system (see http://www.gnu.org/) in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small. The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today.
Stallman has received the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a Mac Arthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation¹s Pioneer award, and the the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well
as several honorary doctorates.