Originally published February 23 2006
Open-source pioneer vies for free software for all
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Richard M. Stallman wants his vision of free software for everyone to become a reality. However, the founder of Linux and others strongly oppose his idea because it would take away the access they have to their innovations.
n 1991, open-source pioneer Richard M. Stallman warned that software patents -- then something of a novelty -- would create enormous havoc for industry.
Locking software behind patent walls, away from developers, would have a chilling effect on a nascent open-source movement, with its promise of sweeping innovation.
Now, Stallman again is stepping in again, this time with more than just a warning.
As founder of the Free Software Foundation, he's the father of the popular General Public License (GPL), which governs the use of a wide swath of free, collaborative software, including the Linux operating system.
As open-source software becomes more ubiquitous -- and thus more valuable to the broader consumer-electronics and information technology industries -- calls are growing for a recognized set of rules to govern the relationship between open-source and proprietary code.
While Stallman embarks on what could grow into a defensive nuclear arms race, others in the open-source community are using diplomacy to protect their turf and search for common ground.
The first order of business: Develop a catalog of existing code -- so-called prior art -- that can't be patented because it's already in use (see BW Online, 1/13/06, "A Code Catalog for Software Patents").
He wants to capitalize on the economy's growing addiction to open-source code as a means of forcing his social vision -- free software for everyone -- on information technology and consumer electronics writ large.
"In the world we're living in right now, no one can make small, cheap consumer electronics without our software," says Eben Moglen, general counsel of the Free Software Foundation and co-author of GPL3.
But Stallman shows no signs of budging.
And peaceful coexistence doesn't seem compatible with his utopian vision.
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