Later that evening,
during a dinner conversation in which a programmer
mentions his affinity for "open source" programs,
Stallman, between bites, upbraids his tablemate: "You
mean free software. That's the proper way to refer to it."
During the question-and-answer session, Stallman admits
to playing the pedagogue at times. "There are many
people who say, `Well, first let's invite people to
join the community, and then let's teach them about
freedom.' And that could be a reasonable strategy, but
what we have is almost everybody's inviting people to
join the community, and hardly anybody's teaching them
about freedom once they come in."
The result, Stallman says, is something akin to a
third-world city. People move in, hoping to strike it
rich or at the very least to take part in a vibrant,
open culture, and yet those who hold the true power
keep evolving new tricks and strategies-i.e., software
patents-to keep the masses out. "You have millions of
people moving in and building shantytowns, but nobody's
working on step two: getting them out of those
shantytowns.
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