Report from CFP, from the Netly News (fwd)

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 07:52:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Report from CFP, from the Netly News


*****

http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1754,00.html

The Netly News Network (http://netlynews.com/)
February 20, 1998

Vive la Conference
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)

       Richard Stallman is nothing if not determined. For over two
   decades this bristly MIT geek has championed an arcane cause: free
   computer programs. Stallman wants you to have the right to twiddle
   your software -- to be able to add features, rewrite it and, if you
   can figure out how, teach it get down and do the fandango. Last month
   Netscape endorsed Stallman's idea by deciding to open the lid to its
   software toolbox and encouraging any interested programmer to tinker
   with it.

       Yesterday Stallman won an award from the Electronic Frontier
   Foundation for his efforts, including writing the popular (and, of
   course, free) EMACS text editor. "I was trying to give people
   freedom," he said during the ceremony at the Computers, Freedom and
   Privacy (CFP) conference.

       Stallman is the type of fellow who frequents CFP, an annual event
   that brings together academics, government officials and Pilot-toting
   bitheads. Sparring is commonplace. Lawyers from the ACLU and the
   Center for Democracy and Technology shouted at each other yesterday
   morning when debating whether to cut deals on legislation in Congress.
   Former FTC commissioner Christine Varney said that the government
   should regulate corporations' privacy practices, and Solveig Singleton
   from the Cato Institute argued on a panel that the private sector
   should (not that I'm biased or anything). But the folks who trekked to
   Austin, Texas, this week generally share a common goal: preserving the
   unique culture of the Internet.

[...]