The photo comes from wikimedia.org
"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
The photo comes from
wikimedia.org
"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.
The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of
the Free Software Foundation or
the GNU Project.
For the sake of separation, this site has always been
hosted elsewhere and managed separately.
I am thinking of making another trip to Europe during February - April. If you would like to invite me to speak during that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "feb-apr" as the subject.
If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See gpg.html for my real key.
Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.
The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.
I'm looking for people to
US citizens: call on Attorney General Bondi to drop the charges against Georgia Fort and Don Lemon now.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on Congress to end Big Tech tax breaks.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on your state's Secretary of State: No deportation thugs at our polls.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate why the IRS gave taxpayers' personal data to the Department of Hatred and Sadism.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on media to stop supporting the bully's false picture which denies the cruelty of sending deportation thugs, and soldiers, to occupy American cities.
US citizens: call on local and state officials to stop cooperating with the deportation thugs.
US citizens: call on the Social Security Administration not to let the deportation thugs weaponize Social Security.
US citizens: call on Congress to block the corrupter from getting government money for his bogus board of peace.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Support Rashida Tlaib's Defund the Oligarchs, Fund Our Communities resolution.
US citizens: call on the Florida Senate to end state funding for Alligator Alcatraz.
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate the deportation thugs' 400 arrests ruled by courts to be illegal, and their defiance of court orders to free the people arrested.
US citizens: call on Tell Congress: Investigate DOGE's Misuse of voters' private Social Security records.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate the corrupter in chief's $1.4 billion profit from the presidency.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on Congress to protect the Arctic by stopping reckless oil exploration there.
Exploration for fossil fuel should be pretty much stopped entirely because we can't extract it without destroying ourselves; but this threat to the Arctic is an additional reason.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: Demand insurance commissioners stop hiding insurance industry report data from the public.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on Congress and everyone else with influence to defend the recognition that global heating endangers the the world and specifically the US.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on Congress to stop the deportation thugs from from terrorizing children.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: Tell the EPA to protect clean water from corporate greed: reject proposed weakening in local approval for development that can affect water supply.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Tell your governor, no tax breaks for Big Tech data centers.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Here's the text of the letter I sent.
I’m writing as your constituent, and as recipient of two awards from the ACM for programs I have shared with the public in freedom, to urge you to reject efforts in our state to provide Big Tech with tax breaks to build data centers. I’m concerned about the harms that data centers can do locally, including siphoning our water, using up our land, creating noise and light pollution, and hiking our electric bills. I’m also concerned that providing tax breaks to giant Big Tech corporations will deprive our schools and local budgets of their already insufficient funds. I'm also concerned that these data centers will mostly operate Pretend Intelligence (PI) -- software that *tries to* imitate what an intelligent entity would say, but without really understanding the words it plays with. The use of these digital dis-services does society harm. We should never allow business to play one state against another by making states compete to offer them the biggest tax break, because that perverse competition harms *all* the states for the benefit of business owners. So please reject efforts to give Big Tech (or *any* business) specific tax breaks to operate in our state. The states should form a union and bargain collectively with these businesses. The states could call their union the United States of America. Wouldn't that be a good thing to have?
US citizens: Call on the media to report loud and clear on the amazingly unusual refusals by grand juries to indict people accused of bogus political "crimes".
US citizens: call on state officials to protect your state from the spread of measles.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
I'm looking for a cartoonist who would like to draw cartoons for me once in a while. If you're interested, please write to rms, which refers to me, at the location gnu period org.
Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.
* Abandoned coalmines and oil and gas wells are now one of the biggest sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, new data shows, and little effort is being made to clean them up.*
I expect that the fossil fuel companies to divest themselves from old mines and wells in ways that will avoid liability for them — just as they sometimes disconnect themselves from responsibility for supporting former workers.
So I suggest making it a felony to implement a restructuring of business or assets in a way that is likely to result predictably in strand assets that carry financial responsibilities with no one capable of shouldering the responsibilities.
A pitifully weak attempt to solve a real problem: asking for a federal law that would permit victims of domestic abuse and stalking to demand that data brokers delete information about them.
Data, once collected, will be abused. The way to prevent that abuse is to facilitate refusing to hand it over in the first place.
Here is my proposal for protecting the specific people known to be in particular danger, and everyone else who could be harmed if individuals, businesses or governments use their personal data against them without a search warrant: require services to be available anonymously.
The selfish interest of those who keep trade secrets is rational but antisocial. In many cases the only harm it does is to hold back the general advance of technology. But sometimes it does really nasty things. For digital hardware and software, it often gives companies a way to subjugate their users. Regarding use of toxic chemicals, it endangers public health.
Why would legislators pass laws to "protect" companies instead of protecting the people they harm? I suspect it is partly because these companies are influential and the legislators seek their support, and partly because the legislators ask them for campaign funds.
But it is also partly the result of the mindset of "trickle down", which assumes that the only way to get more funds for the state is to let increase the size of the economy by letting companies have what they want. Unfortunately, what they want is often to be allowed to harm the public.
Most Democrats in Congress got corrupted this way in the 80s and 90s. (The exceptions are the progressive Democrats.) Now in the UK Starmer is guiding Labour into that sort of corruption.
Clearly our laws should say that any public need to know about the presence of toxic substances in a business facility overrides the desire to keep them secret.
Whether the owners are Chinese is a question that there is no need to ask, because the state should never give money to a business "to support it." Instead it should offer to lend money to the company for suitable repayment, or else buy equity at a fair price.
These two ways of supporting a company avoid giving the owners an opporunity to rip off the state -- which the company's owners are likely to try to do, if they can, regardless of which country they are from.
With a policy like this, it wouldn't matter which country the company's owners are from.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
US citizens: call on Attorney General Bondi to drop the charges against Georgia Fort and Don Lemon now.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on Congress to end Big Tech tax breaks.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on your state's Secretary of State: No deportation thugs at our polls.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate why the IRS gave taxpayers' personal data to the Department of Hatred and Sadism.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on media to stop supporting the bully's false picture which denies the cruelty of sending deportation thugs, and soldiers, to occupy American cities.
US citizens: call on local and state officials to stop cooperating with the deportation thugs.
US citizens: call on the Social Security Administration not to let the deportation thugs weaponize Social Security.
US citizens: call on Congress to block the corrupter from getting government money for his bogus board of peace.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
The bully's henchmen have demanded, from various states, databases with a lot of information about each registered voter, and sued some states that would not hand them over. A judge decided one suit in favor of Michigan's refusal.
Federal thugs raided a race track with a warrant to arrest its owner for illegal gambling — but they violently seized and tied up all the spectators (including children) and wouldn't even let them go to toilet.
Now they are trying to sue over this outrageous conduct, but need to have recourse to a rather obscure legal argument to make it possible.
Google can hand over video footage from Pest surveillance cameras on subpoena even after it tells the "owner" it has "deleted" that footage.
States should prohibit remote transmission of "security" camera footage, so that anyone who wants to obtain it has to go to the camera and extract it physically.
The bully continues to defend the racist video that portrayed Obama and his wife as apes. Worse than that, the video spread election disinformation lies that are aimed at undermining future elections.
The head of government of New South Wales banned a protest on behalf of Palestinians on the occasion of a visit by the President of Israel. Thugs attacked would-be protesters, who accused them of crimes. Now he is trying to prevent those accusations from being investigated.
All around the world we see efforts to equate the protesting of Israel's war crimes with antisemitism. That is so evidently absurd that I don't understand why anyone takes it seriously.
Amazon and Walmart are heavily subsidized in the US by SNAP — their staff are paid so little they need food aid.
Other companies that frequently appear at the top of the state lists include McDonald’s, DoorDash, Uber, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General.
We need to increase the minimum wage.
Democrats in the Senate blocked the rest of the deportation thugs' funding with a filibuster. They demand putting some specific limits on the deportation thug department's ability to get away with violence.
I agree with these demands, and I agree with the position that the thugs should also have some of their funds taken away and given to poor people.
Bondi told Congress that the Ministry of Justice has a secret list of "domestic terrorist organizations", but did not answer when asked whether the Ministry of Love would try to kill them without a trial.
*The Guardian view on Israel and the West Bank: the other relentless assault upon Palestinians.*
It looks like the FBI is investigating Extinction Rebellion NYC.
Extinction Rebellion is (or perhaps was) an effort to defend the world against threats of devastation. The making of such threats has a resemblance to terrorism. But I have a feeling that the FBI has not been directed to investigate those threats and help Extinction Rebellion defend civilization from them. More plausibly it is following the wrecker's Orwellian practice of labeling nonviolent protest as "domestic terrorism".
In 2021, China banned fishing entirely in the Yangtze River. Since then, the quantity of fish in the river has doubled.
The government formerly headed by President Maduro is allowing more political freedom now that Maduro is gone.
We cannot take for granted that this will restore the political freedom that President Chavez respected, and the persecutor cares no more about freedom for Venezuelans than he does about freedom for Americans. Nonetheless, if the result of his intervention turns out to be freedom in Venezuela, I will rejoice at that result.
The four factors of the apocalypse:
global heating, global hating,
global eating, global mating.
Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.
Non-oppressive Commercial E-books
Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.
Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.
I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.
Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.
India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.
Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.
Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.
Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.
Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.
Ireland - national ID card by stealth.
ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.
Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.
Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.
Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.
People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.
I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.
Disclosure: I am friends with the author.
Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.
I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles. As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle.
These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the GNU philosophy directory. You can also download copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Letter to an associate, 1849
Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to
more information. The current notes are
here. For all previous
notes, see this page.
See this page for information on efforts to maintain links in the political notes.
Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on their own page.
Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.
The Free Software Song, by Richard M. Stallman. You can listen to a performance of the song: Free Software Song performed by Thor Here is a variant of this song called "The Free Firmware Song".
Earth under attack from planet Koch.On doxing, and how to spell it.
A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta
Española. 
Here I am wearing my "power tie".
Wine snobs get their comeuppance.
Here I am struggling to open a bottle of water.
My application to an join Marian Henley's ex-boyfriends list.
My funny poetry and song parodies.
A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.
The text to a filk song, Johnny v. N., by Paul Rubin.
My Puns in English (Little Leaguer, August 2019).
My Puns in Spanish (New pun: Apostasía April 2019)
My Puns in French (New pun: Microsoft à l'école July 2019)
My Puns in Italian (New pun: Quale pesce fa starnutire? New 10/2018)
My Puns in German (New 02/2016)
Linguistic Swifties (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.)
--Saint
IGNUcius-- The Church of Emacs will soon
be officially listed by at least one person as his religion for
census purposes.
There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's editorfather.
Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality…"
The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.
I found a funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s.
If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's an archive of this now-defunct comic strip.
Sleeping with Stallman at MIT.
ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.
No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)
Made for You (December 2012) (local copy) Esperanto translation
A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.
Avec des chapeaux French song parody.
My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.
Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights
A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.
On Hacking: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker".
Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor
I would like to thank:
Please send comments on these web pages to rms at gnu period org.
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Richard Stallman
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