Scary but probably true. Was Stallman right all along?

[TransformX]

http://www.osnews.com/story/25469/Richard_Stallman_Was_Right_All_Along

[dZeus]

I read the article, but how does FOSS connect to oppressive regimes?

Why would regimes need to bother with what is on your phone or computer, when they can draft laws to legally (or illegally) tap communications you perform with them, or make laws that require you to give up encryption keys to private data you carry with you? Using FOSS doesn't prevent any of that, imo.

FOSS is, to a limited degree, about companies dropping support on their products and leaving the customer in the cold, as well as forcing them to contribute to improve source code.

[TransformX]

"As a member of the Walkman generation, I have made peace with the fact that I will require a hearing aid long before I die, and of course, it won't be a hearing aid, it will be a computer I put in my body," Doctorow explains, "So when I get into a car - a computer I put my body into - with my hearing aid - a computer I put inside my body - I want to know that these technologies are not designed to keep secrets from me, and to prevent me from terminating processes on them that work against my interests."

And this is really the gist of it all. With computers taking care of things like hearing, driving, and more, we really can't afford to be locked out of them. We need to be able to peek inside of them and see what they're doing, to ensure we're not being monitored, filtered, or whatever. Only a short while ago I would've declared this as pure paranoia - but with all that's been going on recently, it's no longer paranoia. It's reality."

It sits frighteningly well with:

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. ~ Albert Einstein.

In other words, perception is reality and if and when you allow someone to alter your immediate/sensual perception (think augmented reality), you want to know about it, you want to be able to 'snap out' of that imposed reality. As if it wasn't enough that governments and corporates control the media, they're after you immediate input now.