Digrevo

University of Minnesota.Controversial software freedom activist to speak at U of M on Oct. 21. 10/6/2008


Most of the computing foundation on the web is is built on the GNU General Public License and other free software license like BSD and Apache. The Free Software Movement is rooted in a 'copyleft' concept.

"The Free Software Movement and the GNU/Linux Operating System," he will discuss the Free Software Movement, which campaigns for the freedom of computer users to cooperate and control their own computing activities."


The copyleft concept is pioneered by leading free software advocate Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project. 'Copyleft' is "the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions." Simply put, it's a method for making programs free.

The video above shows just a handful of software made available because of the free software license.

An innovator creating a product and keeping the idea all to themselves vs involving the masses and getting other creative minds involved in the process can only promote the quality and effectiveness of that product. Without these other free innovators we would all be at the mercy of software giants, which would only give them more power than they have now. Even the biggest of companies, such as Microsoft and Google, benefit from the GNU and other free software license.