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Articles: News | Software and Freedom
- Mr. Raj Kiran Talusani
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 Hyderabad, Oct 20, 2006: Richard M. Stallman, founder of the Free Software movement, spoke this evening at the
Tagore auditorium in Osmania University. He talked about 'Software and Freedom' to
an audience about 800 people consisting of professionals from the IT industry and
faculty and students from engineering colleges in and around Hyderabad. After
explained the concept of free software he emphasised its importance in education, its
place in the IT industry and its significance for a free society.
Mr.Stallman first introduced the audience to the concept of Free Software. Free
Software is about freedom and price. Mr.Stallman then explained the four fundamental
freedoms that users are entitled to in free software that proprietary software does allow.
Freedom 0: Freedom to use the software for any purpose
Freedom 1: Freedom to study the software and change it for any our needs
Freedom 2: Freedom to distribute the software to our friends or neighbours
Freedom 3: Freedom to distribute improved versions of the software
Mr.Stallman talked about laws like DCMA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and the
patent law in countries like USA that prohibit the development of several free software.
The situation in India is better because there are no software patents here. An ordinance
was introduced for software patenting but was later rejected in the parliament due to
popular opposition. Mr.Stallman gave a call to stand against those patents and laws that
hinder the development of free software.
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