Bonum Certa Men Certa

Liberty is Not a Moving Target

Statue of liberty



Summary: A tad philosophical take on what needs achieving and how

The absolute goalposts which define personal freedom never truly change; it's the obstructions on the way to the goal which keep moving away and showing up, so the struggle for freedom is eternal. Humans and animals are innately motivated by power -- the will to impose on others views/actions which they do not want to carry out. Slavery in the classical sense is of out of fashion in the modernised, supposedly civilised world, but new forms of slavery (notably wage slavery in the hands of lenders) filled its room. Despite distractions like imaginary outside enemies, people engage in a class battle to further restore balance in power and those who are least powerful are usually isolated geographically because -- as the famous saying goes -- out of sight, out of mind.



“Many things are interconnected and separating politics from technology is wishful thinking at best.”In 2010, many people rose up and spoke up. Rather than wave banners at a roadside people utilised the Internet, so once again those in power set up new barriers, which include censorship (e.g. blacklists), Net neutrality, bandwidth caps, domain seizures, battles against transparency, financial deprivation, and so on. And that's hardly scratching the surface of protectionist measures like copyrights and patents. Many things are interconnected and separating politics from technology is wishful thinking at best.

Freedom is relative and means of achieving freedom depend on what prevents its fulfillment/achievement. Instruments like patents may no longer exist within a few decades, but that does not mean that problems associated with creativity and knowledge-sharing will be solved. Just look at how drug bans change over the decades or centuries, sometimes to readjust and account for class factors.

In 2006 this site was established to tackle Novell and scope expanded to the extent where it touches many of the technological mechanisms for control and power (over the population at large). This hardly scratches the surface as personal freedom depends not only on the digital world. But that's why we're called "Techrights" and not just "Rights".

Recent Techrights' Posts

Linux.com Made Its First 'Article' in Over and Month, It Was 10 Words in Total, and It's Not About Linux
play some 'webapp' and maybe get some digital 'certificate' for a meme like 'clown computing'
The FSF Ought to Protest Against UEFI 'Secure Boot' (Like It Used To)
libreplanet-discuss stuff
GNU/Linux Reaches 6.5% in Canada (Including ChromeOS), Based on statCounter
Not many news sites are left to cover this, let alone advocate for GNU/Linux
The Only Thing the So-called 'Hey Hi Revolution' Gave Microsoft is More Debt
Microsoft bailouts
FUD Alert: 2024 is Not 2011 and Ebury is Not "Linux"
We've seen Microsofers (actual Microsoft employees) putting in a lot of effort to shift the heat to Linux
 
Ex-Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier Did Not Retire, He Just Left IBM/Red Hat a Month Ago (Ahead of Layoff Speculations)
Rather than retire he took a similar position at another company
[Meme] Never Appease the Occupiers
Freedom requires truth. Free speech emancipates.
Thorny Issues, Violent Response
They say protests (or strikes) that do not disrupt anything are simply not effective. The same can be said about reporting.
GNU/Linux in Malaysia: From 0.2 Percent to 6+ Percent
That's like 30-fold increase in relative share
Liberty in Liberia? Windows Falls Below 10% and Below iOS
This is clearly a problem for Microsoft
Techrights Congratulates Raspberry Pi (With Caution and Reservations)
Raspberry Pi will "make or break" based on the decisions made in its boardroom
OSI Makes a Killing for Bill Gates and Microsoft (Plagiarism and GPL Violations Whitewashed and Openwashed)
meme and more
People Who Defend Richard Stallman's Right to Deliver Talks About His Work Are Subjected to Online Abuse and Censorship
Stallman video removed
GNU/Linux Grows in Denmark, But Much of That is ChromeOS, Which Means No Freedom
Google never designs operating systems with freedom in mind
Links 16/05/2024: Vehicles Lasting Fewer Years, Habitat Fragmentation Concerns
Links for the day
Links 16/05/2024: Orangutans as Political Props, VMware Calls Proprietary 'Free'
Links for the day
TechTarget (and Computer Weekly et al): We Target 'Audiences' to Sell Your Products (Using Fake Articles and Surveillance)
It is a deeply rogue industry that's killing legitimate journalism by drowning out the signal (real journalism) with sponsored fodder
Links 15/05/2024: XBox Trouble, Slovakia PM Shot 5 Times
Links for the day
Windows in Times of Conflict
In pictures
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 15, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Gemini Links 15/05/2024: 50 Years of Text Games
Links for the day
Ebury is Not "Linux", That's Just the Media Shifting Attention (Microsoft in the Hot Seat for Total Breach Right Now)
Seems like it may be a Trojan
Links 15/05/2024: Growing Tensions Between East and West, Anticlimax in Chatbot Space
Links for the day
[Video] 'Late Stage Capitalism': Microsoft as an Elaborate Ponzi Scheme (Faking 'Demand' While Portraying the Fraud as an Act of Generosity and Demanding Bailouts)
Being able to express or explain the facts isn't easy because of the buzzwords
Richard Stallman Talk 'Delayed'
"Repousé à une date ultérieur. Du au congé, il n'était pas possible de l'organiser bien dans le temps disponible."
Links 15/05/2024: Toll on Climate Change, Physical Assaults on Politicians
Links for the day
[Meme] Free Society Requires Free Press
The Assange decision is now less than a week away (after several delays and demand for shallow 'assurances')
CyberShow Goes "Live"
The CyberShow has a similar worldview (on technology and ethics) to ours
Latest Status of Site Archives (Static Pages)
article listings are reaching a near-final form
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 14, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Today's Talk by Richard Stallman Going Ahead as Planned
That talk will be in French