Richard Stallman in the UK This Week, Scheduled to Give Two Public Talks (London and Oxford)
Richard Stallman's personal site has just unveiled his next talks, as usual only days before they happen (probably to give the cancel mob too short a notice). Here are the details of his next two talks:
Talk in Oxford, England April 24
Free/Libre Software and Freedom in the Digital Society
Where: At the Lecture Theatre of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History When: Thursday, April 24, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM The event will be hosted by the Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society and the Oxford Blockchain Society.
We understand that the uses of computing can be unjust. Most do not realize that the mechanisms of computing can be unjust in other ways.
If a program that the users do not control does your computing, it controls your computing.
When servers that the users do not control do your computing, those servers control it.
So don't entrust your own computing to a program that isn't libre or a server whose operator isn't a loyal friend. For your own computing, insted of a server that might mistreat you, use free software on your own computer.
Talk in London, England April 22
Free/Libre software and computing freedom
Where: King's College, London
King's Building, Room K4U.12When: Tuesday, April 22, 11:00–13:00 Directions: Directions (pdf) Registration: Please email Mehran Hosseini. There are many threats to freedom in the digital society. They include nonfree software, massive surveillance, and censorship. Nonfree programs are often designed to restrict users, control users or manipulate users. The War on Sharing aims to stop users from sharing copies of published works. Computers for voting make election results untrustworthy.
Other threats come from use of web services, implemented by companies that can impose any conditions whatsoever. Finally, most internet activities (aside from those which existed before 2000) are precarious, dependent on permission from one company. All of these threats originate more or less in the use of nonfree software. That is why free software is the first battle in the liberation of the digital society.
The total capacity is 150. If you'd like to attend the talk, please email mehran.hosseini@kcl.ac.uk with your full name, email address, phone number, and affiliation.
Those talks do not cover the same topics.
When he was in Oxford a decade ago I recorded some videos with him. █