Software Freedom Founder and Free Culture Innovator Richard M. Stallman (rms) Endorses Ben Kallos for City Council

New York, N.Y. – Richard Stallman, recognized around the world as the dean of the free software movement, has done something he’s never done before by endorsing a political candidate for New York City Council.  Stallman, commonly known as “rms” on the Internet, is getting behind Ben Kallos’ campaign for New York City Council, saying, in an endorsement posted to his personal website at stallman.org.

“Kallos has a record of pushing government to enter the Internet age in the right way, the way that respects people's freedom and increases the public's control over government,” endorsed Stallman.

Stallman, launched the project to develop the GNU operating system, which led to the creation of a variant GNU/Linux and the founding of the Free Software Foundation where he serves as President and volunteer.  Stallman also pioneered the concept of copyleft which he implemented as the main author of the GNUGeneral Public License the most widely used free software license.  

Stallman’s endorsement called attention to a recent blog post by City Council Candidate Ben Kallos entitled “Using Technology to Bring ‘Freedom’ to Government” in which Kallos applied the four software freedoms to our government and found it lacking.

“Much the same way a software code runs a computer, our legal code runs our government,” explains Kallos.  “When you review our government through the lens of the four freedoms put forth by the Free Software Foundation, substituting legal code for software code, it becomes clear that our ‘freedom’ in this country falls short.”

“Endorsing a candidate involves comparing that candidate with the others.  Kallos's opponents don't impress me,” said Stallman, “… in particular they show no commitment to freedom in technology.”

An excerpt from his endorsement posted on his personal website at stallman.org: 

I am pleased to endorse Benjamin Kallos for New York City Council. My main reason is that he has proposed a tax credit for developing free software.  That policy can help advance free software.

This isn't a one-off.  Kallos has a record of pushing government to enter the Internet age in the right way, the way that respects people's freedom and increases the public's control over government.

http://kallosforcouncil.com/blog/kallos/using-technology-bring-freedom-government

There are many other important political issues, and I like most of Kallos's positions.  They are designed to help New Yorkers in general. I did find one major issue of disagreement: he gives support to Israel's defense without denouncing the occupation of Palestine. However, since the New York City Council has no authority over US foreign policy, I can overlook that disagreement in this race. 

Endorsing a candidate involves comparing that candidate with the others.  Kallos's opponents don't impress me, and in particular they show no commitment to freedom in technology.

Kallos has positioned himself as New York City’s “tech candidate,” after a career of using the Internet to defend democracy and using democracy to defend the Internet.  

Kallos’ accomplishments that lead to this endorsement include:

·         Founding WikiLaw.org, now merged with JurisPedia.org, to provide a global shared law;

·         Working with Richard M. Stallman and Carl Malamud to draft the Free and Open Source Tax Credit while serving as Chief of Staff to Assembly Member Jonathan L. Bing;

·         Making the City and State Legislature transparent by putting voting records online for free at OpenLegisaltion.org whose code and development team went on to do the same thing nationally for Sun Light Foundation at OpenStates.org;

·         Launching a campaign dedicated to “freedom” with an online platform with more than 120 solutions on his GNU General Public Licensed Drupal site where members of the community can comment, vote and suggest their own solutions.

Kallos’ tech platform can be found on his campaign website at http://kallosforcouncil.com/solutions/technology.

 

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