[FYI] (Fwd) FC: SpyTV, interactive television, and lessons about fre

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Mon, 19 Mar 2001 15:41:50 -0500
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: SpyTV, interactive television, and lessons about free software
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


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Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 22:42:35 -0700 (MST)
From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: politech@politechbot.com
Subject: Interactive TV and its lessons about free and non-free
software

Please take a look at www.spyinteractive.com.
It explains how interactive TV can be turned to
unsavory ends by the developers of the system.

This problem creates a paradox for personal-data-protection laws,
because Interactive TV can be used to manipulate you even if the
information it gathers about you is never sent out of your house.

A lesson can be drawn from this which I think the site itself does not
draw: that any non-free program that you allow into your life, if it
is in a position to receive complex instructions from the Internet, is
a potential agent to manipulate or interfere with you, and cannot be
trusted.  Hence free software is not just important for programmers.
It is the only way non-programmers can have software they can trust.


See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ for more about the philosophy
of the Free Software Movement.




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