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Speeches and Interviews
See the video recording (and slides) of Richard Stallman's TEDx talk in Geneva, Switzerland on April 7, 2014.
Most recordings of speeches and other FSF and GNU Project events are hosted on gnu.org, and accessible from the Audio & Video section.
Listed below in reverse chronological order are speeches and interviews for which full or partial transcriptions are available, and some of those hosted outside gnu.org. Except as otherwise stated, they were given by Richard Stallman. If you wish to contribute a transcription, please write to <webmasters@gnu.org>.
Speeches [Skip to Interviews]
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April 16, 2016 [in French]
Pour une société numérique libre [For a free digital society]
at the Médiathèque Aragon in Choisy-le-Roi, France -
August 3, 2013
Induction into the Internet Hall of Fame — Acceptance speech -
March 22, 2013 [in French]
Vers une société numérique libre [Towards a free digital society]
at the University of Poitiers, France -
November 16, 2012
Solutions to the Software Patent Problem
at the Locatelli Center, Santa Clara University -
October 19, 2011
A Free Digital Society - What Makes Digital Inclusion Good or Bad?
at Sciences Po Paris -
October 12, 2009
Copyright versus Community in the Age of Computer Networks
at the LIANZA conference in Christchurch, New Zealand -
October 8, 2009
The Danger of Software Patents
at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand -
July 15, 2008
Free Software and Education, six-minutes speech [in Spanish]
at the FKFT2008 Conference, Barcelona, SpainTranscriptions and subtitles in several languages.
Original video in Spanish (no subtitles)
Videos with embedded subtitles in Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Spanish -
September 24, 2007
Pavia Doctoral Address: Innovation Is Secondary When Freedom Is at Stake
at the University of Pavia, Italy -
April 3, 2007 [in French]
Logiciel libre : les droits de l'homme de l'utilisateur (Free software: the human rights of the user)
at Télécom Paris (ENST), France -
August 2006
Free Software and the West Bengal Government
in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) -
May 3, 2006
Free Software and Free Media (by Eben Moglen)
at the Jefferson Market Library in New York, for the Metropolitan NY Chapter of the Internet Society -
April 7, 2005
Goals and Philosophy of Free Software and the GNU Project
at the University of Pittsburghintroduction (no transcript of the speech)
audio -
October 14, 2004
The Dangers of Software Patents
at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australiadetailed synopsis by Patrick Jordan (no transcript of the speech)
audio -
June 11, 2004
GNU & The Free Software Foundation
an Engineering Tech Talk at Google -
February 23, 2004
Copyright Law and SCO (by Eben Moglen)
at Harvard -
February 17, 2004
Free Software
at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India -
July 16, 2003
Free Software and Sustainable Development
at the World Summit on the Information Society -
April 21, 2003
The Future of Jiyuna (Free) Software
at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Japanese Ministry of Economy -
March 25, 2002
Software Patents - Obstacles to Software Development
at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory -
January 30, 2002 [in French]
L'éthique du système GNU/Linux et de la communauté des logiciels libres, les tâches à accomplir et les risques à envisager [Ethics of the GNU/Linux system and the free software community, pending tasks, and foreseeable risks]
at Linux Expo 2002, CNIT de La Défense, Paris, France -
November 20, 2001 [in French]
Free Software and Government
at the French National Assembly -
July 17, 2001
The Danger of Software Patents
at Government Model Engineering College, Kerala, India -
May 29, 2001
Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation
at New York University -
April 19, 2001
Copyright and Globalization in the Age of Computer Networks
at MIT in the Communications Forum -
July 2000
Copyright versus Community in the Age of Computer Networks -
December 5, 1998
History and Philosophy of the GNU Project (by Georg Greve)
at the University of Paderborn, GermanyThe speech was given in German, and subsequently translated to English by the author.
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November 10, 1998 [in French]
Logiciel libre [Free software]
at Paris 8 University, France -
October 30, 1986
The hacker community and the early days of the free software movement
at the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm, Sweden
Interviews [Skip to Speeches]
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September 2018
Talking to the Mailman
conducted by Rob Lucas(published in the New Left Review, issue 113)
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March 18, 2014
Freedom, Malware & Cannibalism
conducted by Justin Hall at the Internet Archive in San Franciscointroduction (no transcript of the interview)
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November 12, 2012
Interview on Hacker Public Radio
conducted by pokeyintroduction and comments (no transcript of the interview)
audio -
May 2012
Richard Stallman: A Legend of Informatics
conducted by Theodoros Papatheodorou for OUGH!(originally published in Greek, in two parts: Part I, Part II)
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May 14, 2012
The US is democratic in form, but its democracy is so sick that it hardly functions
conducted by Mehdi for Liberté Info -
January 19, 2012
Richard Stallman Interviewed The Day After SOPA/PIPA Global ProtestsIncludes comments by Stallman about the SOPA and PIPA copyright bills and the protests, which the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation joined.
video (does not include the interviewer's introduction)
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November 4, 2010
The Law of Success 2.0: An Interview with Richard Stallman
conducted by Haegwan Kim -
September 28, 2010
Richard Stallman and the Free Software Movement
conducted by Greg Adamson for Green Left -
October 2009
RMS on Radio NZ - October 2009
conducted by Kim Hill for Radio New ZealandMain topics: surveillance, “war on terrorism,” free trade treaties, DRM, supporting artists, and more.
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April 13, 2009
Stallman Discusses Free Software and GPLv3
conducted by Federico Biacuzzi for O’Reilly MediaAs well as a wide-ranging discussion of developments in free software licensing, the interview covers issues including the history and current activities of the FSF, the spread of DMCA-like laws around the world, software patents and the need for free device drivers.
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September 28, 2008
Free Software Movement: From Genesis to the GNU GPL version 2 (v.1.8)
conducted by Bill Xu for Zeuux(also published in Chinese)
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August 9, 2008
RMS on Radio NZ - August 2008
conducted by Kim Hill for Radio New ZealandIt covers various topics: free software, the dawn of the free software movement, the fallacy of the term “intellectual property,” Google's services and New Zealand's copyright laws.
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July 7, 2008
Join the FSF to Eliminate DRM (v.1.5)
conducted by Bill Xu for Zeuux(also published in Chinese)
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April 13, 2008
Questions Please on Free Software
interview of Richard Stallman and others by Jonathan Robertsintroduction (no transcript of the interview)
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December 01, 2005
Free Software as a Social Movement
conducted by Justin Podur for Countercurrents -
September 22, 2005
The GNU GPL Is Here to Stay
conducted by Federico Biancuzzi for ONLamp.com -
March 31, 2005
Stallman on the State of GNU/Linux
conducted by Timothy R. Butler for Open for Business -
January 4, 2005
Interview for KernelTrap
conducted by Jeremy AndrewsIt covers topics such as Stallman's background as a programmer, the founding of the GNU Project and the FSF and Stallman's transition to activism, the naming controversies, the Hurd, Emacs, whether free software affects unemployment and low wages, some new technologies, and more.
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December 10, 2004 [in French]
Richard « GNU » Stallman précise son point de vue sur les brevets logiciels [Richard “GNU” Stallman clarifies his views on software patents]
conducted by Ariane Beky for NetEconomie -
May 27, 2004
Free Software, Free Society!
at the Edinburgh University Informatics ColloquiumMost of the questions are about the relationship between the free software movement and other social movements, and the different values of the “open source” campaign.
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April 27, 2004 [in Spanish]
La única manera de ser libre es rechazar los programas propietarios [The only way to be free is to refuse proprietary software]
conducted by Pablo Romero -
August 13, 2003
GNU Questions: RMS on SCO, Distributions, DRM
conducted by Timothy R. Butler for Open for Business -
April 22, 2003 [in Italian]
Perché l'open source non è tutto [Why Open Source is not all]
conducted by Antonio Volpon for Mytech -
2002
The Hacker Community and Ethics
conducted by Tere Vadén(also published in Finnish)
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May 2001
Free Software and Business
conducted by Louis Suarez-Potts -
July 1986
Development of the GNU System
conducted by David Betz and Jon Edwards for BYTE -
November 9-11, 1984
Richard Stallman at the First Hackers Conference
in Sausalito, CaliforniaShort excerpts of Richard Stallman speaking and interviewed. It was at this conference that Stallman first publicly and explicitly stated the idea that all software should be free, and the ethical principles that set the foundations of the free software movement
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