[pp.int.general] free software video streaming

[Richard Stallman]

Apparently you have misunderstood what I said.
You are attacking views that did not come from me.

    Be sure that the software running on the camera that films you is also
    free. You wouldn't want to be promoting such devices right?

I have no reason to think there is any problem with that camera.
Most cameras are not platforms for users to install software.
If they contain software, it might as well be a circuit.

But even if they used a camera that has a real problem of nonfree
installed software, distributing the video does not promote that
particular camera.  The camera is not a pertinent issue as regards HOW
to distribute the video.

    Even if it is shared through p2p, it is bound to pass routers running
    nonfree software.

To distribute the video in a way that specifically requires the router
to contain nonfree software would be a bad thing to do.  We won't do
that.

    By protesting against having your speech put on youtube, even though
    valiant, you might decrease freedom around the world.

Actions speak louder than words.  I must avoid pushing people to
do the things I urge them to refuse to do.

The analogy with Al Gore's movie is not a good analogy.  The two cases
are different in many ways.  Thus, that analogy is not relevant here.
Some day maybe I will write an article about this.

							  After all it is
    not the people that already run free software exclusively that we are
    trying to convince. It is the ones that do not.

That's true, but irrelevant to the issue.  The people we want to
convince are not limited to YouTube.  They can access a video
file on an ordinary web site, and view it.

Besides, it is easy to embed an Ogg file with HTML5.  PlayOgg.org
gives simple directions for installing an Ogg player on Windows or
MacOS.

I've been campaigning for free software for almost 30 years, and in
that time I have encountered these issues and thought about them.  My
real views address these issues.  What you're attacking is a straw
man.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call