[Disclaimer: I'm a Microsoft Student Ambassador - but for god's sake, do realize that I think on my own. If Microsoft is interested in paying me money to write anti-Stallman, pro-MSN Search blog posts,they know where to send the check:-)]
A couple of days ago, I finally had the opportunity to do something I had wanted to do - meet Stallman (or RMS or St.Ignucius). Unfortunately, that didn't materialize but I got to do the next best thing instead - listen to him talk.
Some folks at the local LUG (www.chennailug.org) had managed to get RMS to come and do a talk at IIT Madras.The actual content of the talk is very,very similar to http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/stallman-mec-india.html. I thought I'd fill in the missing details - or rather, the 'experience'.
Not wanting to be late and get locked out , Vivek and I went to the place pretty early only to find that 15-20 people had turned even earlier. Soon, the place started getting crowded. What was amazing was the demographic of the crowd. Every (well..almost every) single person who walked in the door was a male, about 20-23,had spent the previous night with a computer rather than a girl,with hair that hadn't seen scissors for a long time and a t-shirt and jeans both desperately in need of a washing machine. Of course, the fact that Vivek and I also totally fit that description is besides the point :-) What was amazing was the number of women..or the lack thereof. At one point, a solitary girl walked in and received applause from the rest of the crowd. In the end, I think there were less than 5 girls in the entire audience.
What was also amazing was the IQ level of the people there - the average IQ inside that room must have been around 150. I saw quite a few familiar faces - people like IIT Madras' Arvind Thiagarajan were there too.Within 30 minutes, it was standing room only - and people started squatting on the steps and finding pretty any much spot they could.
Some technicians started setting up the LCD projector and hooked up a computer to it. The computer booted up..into Windows 98! This sent a ripple around the crowd. Vivek got ready with his camera - a picture of RMS with Windows 98 behind him was an opportunity of a lifetime! Sadly, that wasn't to be- the computer and the projector were put away in a corner.
RMS strode in 15 minutes late and walked right up to the podium. "Since I'm already late, I won't let them waste time by introducing me...", he said.As for the content of the talk itself, it was standard fare (see the link). In the first part of the talk, RMS took really long pauses and kept touching his forehead. For a few minutes, I was convinced that he was going to faint on stage. However, later on, he really got into his stride.
RMS has to be one of the best elocutionists I've ever seen. He talks in slow, measured, deliberate tones. There's no chance of you not understanding what he's saying. He obviously has a lot of experience with talking -and it shows through. What also shows through is the strength of his convictions- this is someone who really believes in what he says.
Surprisingly, he barely spoke about free software. He referred to it more than once, saying that free software was a different thing - and that software patents have to be fought by both free and proprietary software developers. What was admirable was that he never tried to push free software throughout the talk, even refusing to take questions on it afterwards. He said "Talking about free software would mean that I'm pursuing my own private agenda". In a way, I wish he had spoken about free software - as I totally agree with him on software patents but disagree with him on free software. I would have loved the opportunity to continue some of my mail discussions with him in person but unfortunately, that didn't happen.
He didn't miss an opportunity to poke fun at Microsoft though, talking of Microsoft's spam related patenting attempts. "I knew there was something fishy the moment Gates started hyping it up", he said. RMS is funny - but not in a vulgar, obvious way (like yours truly sometimes). This is obviously a very intelligent person. In fact, if I had been Bill Gates in the audience, I would have been really, really scared.
I was also surprised by how different RMS actually is from what I had heard of him. He seemed soft, gentle and...calm. In fact, he looked like a gentle grandfather or uncle- even waving to the crowd before leaving. A far cry from the crackpot he's made out to be in some Microsoft circles.
After about 90 minutes, Stallman took questions, asking people to write them down, blaming his hearing problem. The first question below is mine - the others I've chronicled as I felt that they were notable at that time. These quotes aren't verbatim- just a recollection from memory.
Me>>What do you think of defensive patents? If I start a company today and have this brilliant new idea, I could choose not to patent my idea. However, this means that I run the risk of getting sued by someone who could patent my idea in the future
RMS>>Just publish your idea. Put it out into the public somehow- and using that,you could defend yourself in court. However, most companies use patents for cross-licensing- and here, patenting your idea can't help. For IBM would have 10s of thousands of patents, and you won't be able to cross-license much with your meager 4-5 patents. Also, you're running your company today - what about the person who runs your company 5 years from now? Can you guarantee that they'll use it only for defense. In fact, if you're ever getting into any sort of agreement involving patents, make sure you have it spelt out in your contract that patents can be used for only defensive purposes.
Question>> What about Sun releasing so many patents to the open source community?
RMS>> (Pauses) Sun has released..nothing! (RMS then went on to talk about how, in his opinion, Sun's release of patents is useless)
Question>> As an Indian citizen, how do I prevent software patents?
RMS>> (Very long pause) I don't know
(Audience laughs).
Try talking to your members of parliament
(Audience explodes with laughter..RMS is kind of confused as to why everyone is laughing. He doesn't know Indian MPs :-) )
Question>> What if companies don't expand into India, citing lack of patents as a reason?
RMS>> F*ck 'em! (Thunderous laughter + applause)
Soon, he took a look at the clock and wound up. I rushed down to see whether I could talk to him but he just seemed to disappear into thin air. Oh well..some other day, perhaps.
I wanted to post a picture of RMS along with this post as Vivek had taken quite a few pictures(around 10) of RMS with his digital camera during the talk.But, back home, he was shocked to find that *not one* of the photographs had come out well. Every single photo was either fuzzy or shaky or something else. In contrast, every other photo he had taken that day had come out well.
When I asked him why, he said " They say you can never take photos of the devil".
Oh well..couldn't resist :-)