"Don't you see?" Stallman said. "That's exactly why I'm
doing this. I want a signal victory. I want them to
make a choice between freedom and business as usual."
As the words "signal victory" echoed in my head, I felt
my attention wander momentarily to the passing foot
traffic on the sidewalk. Coming into the bar, I had
been pleased to notice that the location was less than
half a block away from the street corner memorialized
in the 1976 Ramones song, "53rd and 3rd," a song I
always enjoyed playing in my days as a musician. Like
the perpetually frustrated street hustler depicted in
that song, I could feel things falling apart as quickly
as they had come together. The irony was palpable.
After weeks of gleefully recording other people's
laments, I found myself in the position of trying to
pull off the rarest of feats: a Richard Stallman compromise.
When I continued hemming and hawing, pleading the
publisher's position and revealing my growing sympathy
for it, Stallman, like an animal smelling blood, attacked.
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