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 your state legislators to block construction of deportation prison-warehouses in your state.
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 Protect Vote by Mail. Tell Congress to act now! Demand the USPS Restore Real-Time Postmarks.
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 CBS to stop engaging in political censorship to fawn at magat officials.
More information: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/21/cbs-trump-anderson-cooper-stephen-colbert-paramount
Everyone: Tell the IEA: Ignore Chris Wright’s Threats, Follow the Science on Climate Change.
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 your congressional officials not to accept campaign funds from Palantir.
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 stop the deportation thug department from using Palantir's massive surveillance system to track and target immigrants.
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 CBS to stop yielding to magat bullying.
US citizens: call on Congress and the FCC to protect local news, by blocking the Nexstar-TEGNA merger.
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 congressional representatives to fight to impeach Bondi.
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 representatives and senators to take action to stop the next great recession!
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Here is what I used as my letter text. I hope it inspires you.
The wrecker's henchmen at the Securities and Exchange Commission are laying the groundwork to bring back one of the core financial products that led to millions of foreclosures during the 2008 crash — even as economic and climate conditions make its return all the more destabilizing. The SEC is intended to act as Wall Street’s top regulator, but they want to do the opposite of their job. Then the megabanks will "need" another big bailout, and Republicans will eagerly give them one. Please fight hard to prevent this big theft.
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 repeal qualified immunity for federal officers.
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 the Tennessee Valley Authority to keep its promise to retire coal plants.
US citizens: call on major news organizations to cover the bully's action on the Department of Justice as a system of lobbying, revolving-door influence, and regulatory capture — examining financial ties, past clients, and enforcement outcomes.
US citizens: Call on Congress to pass the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, to end qualified immunity for federal officers, including deportation thugs. This will give the victims of their violence a real chance of winning lawsuits about said violence.
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.
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.
The Greek right-wing government is prosecuting Yanis Varoufakis on the absurd charge that his description of using MDMA once constituted "promotion" of the drug.
Prosecution of political enemies on obviously absurd charges is a common tactic of fascist-minded governments, and it is no joke.
Many US colleges demand applicants run a nonfree program, Naviance, whose purpose is to collect data about them.
To that injustice, the program adds the annoyance of ads.
Some public school systems demand that students run this surveillance package for many years. But running it even once is an injustice.
Of course, many of those school systems demand that students run other nonfree programs. Each one is an injustice; each one deserves fighting back. One injustice doesn't become less evil merely because there are others.
*Yet another mid-talks attack jeopardizes chances of Iran taking Trump seriously.*
In 1941, Japan launched a mid-talks attack against the US — but it was mid-talks because of a screw-up. (The Japanese embassy was slow in translating the note that declared war, and when Washington learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the translation was still not finished.)
*The real winners of [the wrecker's] global tariff war: law firms, hedge funds and [bubble-blowing machine learning].
Businesses are vying for a refund, with nearly $175bn on the line, but customers are unlikely to benefit from reversal.*
*[Some] Caribbean countries pledge humanitarian support for Cuba amid rising tensions with US.*
Israel is using its attack on Iran as an excuse to starve Gaza completely.
A gambling site permits people to bet on question such as "Will Ayatollah Khamanei be out of power tomorrow".
People who have secret information, such as "we attack at dawn", are allowed to bet. That makes the bet a cheat.
While the bullshitter gives an array of bombastic excuses for attacking Iran, Henchman Hegseth treats the question of "why" as irrelevant.
When the US entered World War II, it published a series of short films collectively entitled, "Why We Fight." That responded to understanding that something as violent as war requires a moral justification, not merely an order. However, according to magats, "The ruler says so" is supposed to suffice.
The one reason that in my mind could have justified the attack is if the Iranian people had implored the US to defeat their cruel government. The bullshitter addresses Iranians, calling on them to rise up, so as to make people imagine they are doing so.
Many Iranians hate their government and for good reason, but it doesn't follow that they want a foreign enemy to attack their country.
Meanwhile, Hegseth and Vance says that they don't care whether Iranians overthrow their government or not, and that is not the aim of the attack. I hope Iranians do eliminate that religious repression, but if they do, the US won't deserve any credit for it.
Florida, the Banned Speech State.
Richard Stallman will speak on March 11 in Bern, Switzerland, for the Guild42 group, at Berner Fachhochschule, Brückenstrasse 73, 3005 Bern
Title: Free/Libre Software and Freedom, touching on how they relate to machine learning
An explanation of the issues of justice and injustice in distribution and running of software, and in use of computing services and dis-services, with discussion of how this relates to machine learning, including both Artificial Intelligence and Pretend Intelligence.
Location: Brückenstrasse 73, CH-3012 Bern, Room: Aula
Time: 17:30
As usual, the event will have around an hour of presentation and around an hour of Q&A.
US citizens: call on your state legislators to block construction of deportation prison-warehouses in your state.
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 Protect Vote by Mail. Tell Congress to act now! Demand the USPS Restore Real-Time Postmarks.
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 CBS to stop engaging in political censorship to fawn at magat officials.
More information: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/21/cbs-trump-anderson-cooper-stephen-colbert-paramount
Everyone: Tell the IEA: Ignore Chris Wright’s Threats, Follow the Science on Climate Change.
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 your congressional officials not to accept campaign funds from Palantir.
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 stop the deportation thug department from using Palantir's massive surveillance system to track and target immigrants.
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 CBS to stop yielding to magat bullying.
US citizens: call on Congress and the FCC to protect local news, by blocking the Nexstar-TEGNA merger.
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 congressional representatives to fight to impeach Bondi.
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 representatives and senators to take action to stop the next great recession!
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Here is what I used as my letter text. I hope it inspires you.
The wrecker's henchmen at the Securities and Exchange Commission are laying the groundwork to bring back one of the core financial products that led to millions of foreclosures during the 2008 crash — even as economic and climate conditions make its return all the more destabilizing. The SEC is intended to act as Wall Street’s top regulator, but they want to do the opposite of their job. Then the megabanks will "need" another big bailout, and Republicans will eagerly give them one. Please fight hard to prevent this big theft.
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.
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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2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,
2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are
permitted provided this notice is preserved.
Verbatim copying and redistribution of any of the photos in the
photos subdirectory is permitted under the
Creative
Commons Noderivs license version 3.0 or later. You can copy and
redistribute the photo of me playing music to
the butterfly under the
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Nocommercial license version 3.0 or later. Any other photos of
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