"But it works. And it works because of
Richard's philosophy of design."
A former professional programmer, Moglen traces his pro
bono work with Stallman back to 1990 when Stallman
requested Moglen's legal assistance on a private
affair. Moglen, then working with encryption expert
Phillip Zimmerman during Zimmerman's legal battles with
the National Security Administration, says he was
honored by the request. "I told him I used Emacs every
day of my life, and it would take an awful lot of
lawyering on my part to pay off the debt."
Since then, Moglen, perhaps more than any other
individual, has had the best chance to observe the
crossover of Stallman's hacker philosophies into the
legal realm. Moglen says the difference between
Stallman's approach to legal code and software code are
largely the same. "I have to say, as a lawyer, the idea
that what you should do with a legal document is to
take out all the bugs doesn't make much sense," Moglen
says. "There is uncertainty in every legal process, and
what most lawyers want to do is to capture the benefits
of uncertainty for their client.
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