Copyright vs. Public ====================

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. Following the speech is a demonstration on [Waisenhausplatz]( http://www.digitale-nachhaltigkeit.ch/2010/02/richard-stallman/) at 1 pm.

**Time and place:** Thursday, 11 February 2010, 10 o'clock am, in the Aula (room 210) in the university main building, **Website:** [Stallman on patents]( http://choose.s-i.ch/events/2010-stallman)

Biography ---------

Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system (see [www.gnu.org](http://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 Takeda Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary doctorates.

This event is cosponsored by [CHOOSE](http://choose.s-i.ch/) Swiss Group for Object-Oriented Systems and Environment and [/ch/open]( http://www.ch-open.ch/), sponsor for open and free systems.