Signup for Richard Stallman Lecture:
Copyright vs Community
in the age of computer networks
Sponsored by:
Santa Clara University's
Computer and High Technology Law Journal,
Center for Science and Technology,
Intellectual Property Association, and
Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP
Please sign up if you plan to attend, as lunch will be provided.
Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing press. But the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it. The global corporations that profit from copyright are lobbying for draconian punishments, and to increase their copyright powers, while suppressing public access to technology. But if we seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of copyright--to promote progress, for the benefit of the public--then we must make changes in the other direction.
Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system (see www.gnu.org) in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small. The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today. Stallman has received the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s
Pioneer award, and the the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary doctorates.
Download: Detailed Description
When: January 31, 2008 at 11:45am
Where: Santa Clara University, Benson Center, Mission Room
See http://www.scu.edu/map for directions and location information.
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