Comdex -- digital rights debate

Tuesday lunchtime's debate on "intellectual property rights" at Comdex put Richard Stallman (founder of the free software movement) and John Perry Barlow (Electronic Frontier Foundation) on stage against some unfortunate representives of the entertainment businesses. It seemed to be a lively and entertaining debate, spoiled by mediocre presentation. To be specific, from where I was sitting, speakers were largely inaudible for much of the time. At least Infoworld's reporter heard enough to file a story, here. Stallman was in fine form, saying it was "tyrannical to try to stop people making copies and only a police state can stop you." He added: "I would like to see the record industry abolished." Stallman is best known for starting the development of what is now known as Linux (long before Linus Torvalds came along) and for devising the GPL, a software license that could have been designed to abolish the commercial software industry.