I have applied for an official ICT position at school, making it clear in my application my views on free software. Hopefully I will be able to do something from there.

Why should RMS not be lecturing to the non-techies? Well, I don’t think theres any particular reason why he shouldn’t, its just does he have the time? At the cmoment he spends all of his time going around the world giving talks. Although some of those people might be non-techies, most aren’t, since most of the people who go will be people who of heard of them.

Also, it is worth remembering that the Free Software Foundation is a charity, not a political party. True, political leaders do speak to the general public, but only because the general public knows about them to listen to them. We need to first raise awarness of who he and his cause are. How is he supposed to get his message to the public anyway? He does not have time to visit places like our school (for enrichment) and the mainstream media aren’t interested in covering him!

Yes, freedom is about choice. If governments do anything to kill propeitary software, it should just be to simply make copyright not apply to software (in fact, orginally, it didn’t). However, this is not going to happen, so I don’t think its worth discussing. I think it would be prefectly okay to make free software (or increased use of it) mandatory in schools (as has happened in Brazil). THe governemnt is the one who is paying for costs in public schools, so it is them who ca\n make the choice. But, this isn’t going to happen in the UK any time soon anyway. It will be much easier to work on an individual school level, because you do have a point in that each school’s individual needs are different.

As for changing copyright law, this is in no way easy. In fact, unless the the law worldwide changes at the same time, making copyright law not apply to software could actually be detrimental to free software (”copyleft” free software relies on copyright to prevent propreitary companies stealing the code and making it propreitary). Although I kind of understand what you’re saying, there are other laws that are much more important to change - such as those concerning patents and DRM (the two things that really do get in the way of free software).

As for your last point, true, inconvenience for digital freedom will never look as spectacular as the sacrifices of the people you mention. Change may happen relatively slowly, but it is happening, and will continue to happen, perhaps faster than you may think. Many south american and european (yes, european, try telling me they have not got much power) governments use quite a lot of free software. In fact only recently, plans to put linux in schools for *52 million* brazillain kids was announced. Thats almost as much as the population of the UK!

Like you say, we do need to talk to a wider audience, and I know that. Its not easy to take such a technical cause to the masses, although this is what I want to do. A lot of free software people are not the most socially communicative people, as I’m sure you can imagine. We need more people who understand both the importance of the four freedoms, and how to communicate best with ordinary people………. people like you Alice.

Ben I also understand your point for inconvince for freedom, but what the whole world knows about sacrafice.Is Martin Luther King’s sacrafice, The Pankhurst women’s sacrafice, but the freedom software sacrafice will never weigh up to that, and without a massive sacrafice that everyone can relate too like the examples i gave. Change will be slow coming and thats what you’ve got to have in mind.
I’m sorry to be pesimistic, i do think you are going to make a difference but i think with this cause you should think about the maxium you can do and the freedom software communitycan do .Then go on to thinking about the wider population and how to speak to them.

Yes, I did question what you gained, I’m glad you found it interesting. I personally did find it inspiring, but I am the technical type of person he is aiming at. Like I was saying to Alice, rms’s audience is the techies and not the masses. Bringing the message to the masses is for other people (such as myself).

So indeed, how do we spread the word better? As you say, most people aren’t willing to accept much inconvenience (but I am which was what the blog post was mainly about). However, there are a few things I would like to point out:

1) Some people are willing to accept inconvenience. Human rights acitivists will go to great lenghts to fight for freedom. Therefore, it would be a great thing to find a way to bring the digital freedom message to them. In fact, I have already thought about this on a page on the ADFA wiki. Feel free to add your thoughts concerning this on the talk page there.

2) Doing your bit for freedom nowadays need not be so much of an inconvenience. In fact, some people are switching to apps like Firefox or even Linux, just because they are better! In a way, this is a good thing, but in a way it is not, because these people do not know the messsage of freedom behind these apps. Even in a world where everyone used Linux, propreitary software could still do its evil deeds. So, the most important thing is that people know about the fight for Digital Freedom, although that is not all there is too it. Going totally free does incurr a great amount of inonvenience (even I have not done it yet), but this is not necassary to support the free software movement. Even just switching to firefox *for ethical reasons* can be a great (although minor) contribution to the cause.

3) There is not really any such thing as the “free software community”. A lot of the community based around free software do not care so much about the ethics. This includes the open source group and the people who support linux for its technical merits. Although some of the efforts of these other groups benefit the free software movement (by increasing free software usage), they are not so eager to spread the message of the four freedoms. Thus, there is no real co-ordinated work to spread the FSF’s message. Atm, it is up to individuals, such as myself, to find a way to further the cause that works for them.

Not sure if that all made sense, but hey, eloquence and passion don’t often go together. Anyway, my main point is that there isn’t enough being done to bring the word to the masses. This is what I want to do. I would be very greatful if you could help me find the best way to convey the message to people.

http://jagadees.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/do-we-need-to-call-gnu-os-as-gnulinux/

And if you do, you actually voluntarily contract away some of your rights.

The only way coercion enters the game here is government enforcement of the copyright license you accepted, but something akin to that might exist even in a free market where there is no government - if you continue using something contracted in a particular way, yet you break the contract, you can be disputed and fined in a given court.

Cheers