"One of the things we see when businesses have too much power is that they corrupt those watchdogs, and we see this in the U.S. all the time. The U.S. government has ceased to effectively monitor the market to make sure it works well. Instead, it is a tool in the hands of big business."

I think Stallman's views tend towards the extreme but I have to agree with this one.

Good article. RMS has an honest take on Cuba. Open source can lead to other freedoms - some good discussion of software freedom.

"DT: I've editorialized that U.S. companies should be allowed to compete in Cuba. What's your position on that?

RMS: I really don't care. From my point of view, business issues are minor in comparison with issues of human rights and general well-being. "

From the article:

So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can."

Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment to have a laughs. But I have no clue from the article that this is humorous.

"Well, they were probably a bit surprised, because they never thought about these things in these terms. But now I'm in touch with somebody who has converted one youth club to use free software, and he's now talking with the people who run the other youth clubs in his region, trying to convert them. So something's finally getting done."

Notice the religious terminology. The Church of Emacs, eh.

edit: Is it possible to use bold here?

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