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Internet & Society: The Technologies and Politics of Control (Spring 2019)
Resource 1 . 3 . 3

“The GNU Manifesto” by Richard Stallman (1985).

John Bowers

Stallman, a father of the open-source software movement, describes the ethos behind his development of the free and open GNU operating system. As Barlow’s “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” calls for a radical rethinking of sovereignty in the internet age, so too does Stallman’s “GNU Manifesto” challenge the notion of property ownership in a digital world. Does Stallman’s rejection of code ownership seem feasible to you? Has it come to fruition over the last 30+ years?

“The GNU Manifesto” by Richard Stallman (1985).

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