I enjoyed the story, but something bothers me (just a little bit). I don't like his attempts at sensationalizing the event:
> The protesters were surprised, I think, that my subject was interesting
to them. At one point they all applauded spontaneously when I described
a feature of the system.
Rob Pike is a renown scientist, at the time working on Plan9 , the most exciting project of the moment. He tried to portray the protesters as mindless sheep blindly following rms, where indeed they were smart people genuinely against the idea of software patents. After all, this is MIT we're talking about, is anyone surprised that these guys actually showed interest in Rob's talk?
I know that if I were there, I would've definitely put up a protest sign, while still being thrilled to attend the talk.
Rob Pike is one of my software architects idols. but he is a AT&T/google ambassador.
and a public figure. this is a good propaganda piece. it's interesting, but you can't ignore the semiotics of how it makes stallman looks pathetic (no eye contact) and the events all turn out to play right to the good side (a more pragmatic analysis would say that 100% of the audience were people already intending to attend anyway and they just decide to do so carrying signs).
all that said, i believe having both sides is healthy. and i'm not against patents. i learn a lot about reading them. my only 3 grips with the patent system are 1) patents have more legalese than technical details 2) patents last damn too long 3) because of #1 they give out patents for too generic stuff.
"it makes stallman looks pathetic (no eye contact)"
I used to hang around the FSF/Media Labs frequently as a teenager in the early to mid 1990s (the era this story is from) and met rms several times and this description didn't seem out of place to me at all.
rms is many things, some of them quite admirable, but he is also one of the most socially awkward penguins you could ever meet.
Don't doubt at all. Just tried to pick up one example from the text on each comment i made... That one wasn't the most fortunate i agree. But the comments aim to encompass the text as a whole
all that said, i believe having both sides is healthy. and i'm not against patents. i learn a lot about reading them. my only 3 grips with the patent system are 1) patents have more legalese than technical details 2) patents last damn too long 3) because of #1 they give out patents for too generic stuff.
Have you ever read Against Intellectual Monopoly? It's a fascinating account against patent and copyright in general.
I learned that the patent and copyright of today are totally not unique to our time. It doesn't matter if you do software or steam engine. Patent trolls exist in both era, and people who we think as heroes, aren't.
> The protesters were surprised, I think, that my subject was interesting to them. At one point they all applauded spontaneously when I described a feature of the system.
Rob Pike is a renown scientist, at the time working on Plan9 , the most exciting project of the moment. He tried to portray the protesters as mindless sheep blindly following rms, where indeed they were smart people genuinely against the idea of software patents. After all, this is MIT we're talking about, is anyone surprised that these guys actually showed interest in Rob's talk?
I know that if I were there, I would've definitely put up a protest sign, while still being thrilled to attend the talk.