Richard Stallman has his bag stolen in Argentina

[tiagosilva29]

As a conference curator and fellow argentinian, and due to the lack of any reports in English, I thought I?d share a brief summary of a very unfortunate occurrence: Richard Stallman, father of the FSF, had his bag containing his laptop, medicine, money and passport stolen after his talk at the University of Buenos Aires on Friday, June 8.

Despite his controversial views on a variety of topics, his evangelism work all over the world is a true inspiration for countless people. Almost a decade ago, as I was getting fully immersed in the world of Unix and programming, I sneaked out of school to watch the genius who created GCC, GDB, emacs deliver a compelling presentation in flawless spanish.

His presentation back then was followed by a ritual that was repeated yesterday: anyone in the audience could walk up to him, exchange a few words, get a sticker and a picture. Unfortunately, on this occasion someone decided to take advantage of the ruckus and take his bag.

Shortly after he realized his bag was gone, according to Partido Pirata, Stallman found himself in utter despair, cursing out loud. The report goes on to convey the truly heartbreaking image of a hopeless RMS sitting at the university staircase, crying.

As a result of this occurrence, he was forced to cancel his talk in Cordoba, and it?s still unknown how this will impact the rest of his speaking engagements throughout the world.

For the rest of us who also do fair amounts of traveling and speaking, more than ever is it important to emphasize that it is not just cyber-crime we should watch out for.

Source: http://www.devthough...d-in-argentina/

Give it back, Mephistopheles.

[The Laughing Man]

I always keep my passport and money on me at all times.

Crying over that tho, thats pretty sad. I've had worse happen, but to cry over it, geez man..

[ShMaunder]

Its bad that his bag was stolen. But it sounds like he needs to "man up" somewhat :D

Maybe he had data on his laptop that wasn't backed up ?

[ArialBlue]

The guy is not truly right in the head to begin with

[Yorak]

In other news, I pooped about 37.5 minutes ago. Oh, what's that, you don't care? Because I am not famous? Lol...

[nvllsvm]

Crying over that tho, thats pretty sad. I've had worse happen, but to cry over it, geez man..

Since his computer is essentially his life, I can understand his tears.

[sanctified Veteran]

Some of you clearly dont live traveling constantly, at least not like Stallman. There's a point where your entire life fits in a backpack.

[seafirex]

Another thing people don't realise, they said : As a result of this occurrence, he was forced to cancel his talk in Cordoba, and it?s still unknown how this will impact the rest of his speaking engagements throughout the world.

That means , so basically he had everything in there, his speech etc.... if he spent a large amount of time to write it and if he was going to be paid to present it, they just destroyed his work. With a basic act like that.

I think he does have the right to cry at this point. ( no money no way of getting out of the country he his in, or sleep somewhere, eat ).

[nowimnothing]

Perhaps someone took his "everything should be free and shared with everyone" talks a little too literally...

[ArialBlue]

Should have stored his speeches on the cloud IMO

[mudslag]

[Growled Member]

Oh well, it's happened to all of us sometimes.

[Rudy]

The guy is incredibly smart...to the point that he comes across as really weird and eccentric to the rest of the world

[Spencer R]

Stolen? No, his possessions just got made available to the general public in as open and free manner as possible.

[Rudy]

Stolen? No, his possessions just got made available to the general public in as open and free manner as possible.

:D

[Japlabot]

He probably does have it backed up, on an offsite hard drive back home because as he does not trust the Cloud or anyone other than himself to hold his data. That, or he refuses to touch anyone elses' computer out of principal that it might contain non-OSS software in the BIOS (He uses a special computer that is fully OSS right down to the hardware I heard). Travel insurance covers everything that is material. To put himself in a position where he needs to cancel his talk because of a laptop loss (which just as easily could have been hardware failure), he must not be as smart as everyone seems to think he is.

[rfirth]

Perhaps someone took his "everything should be free and shared with everyone" talks a little too literally...

Now he knows what it feels like to have his property stolen.

[rfirth]

if he spent a large amount of time to write it and if he was going to be paid to present it, they just destroyed his work. With a basic act like that.

I spend a large amount of time writing software and I'd like to be paid... piracy is also a basic act :p

[tiagosilva29]

Crying over that tho, thats pretty sad. I've had worse happen, but to cry over it, geez man..

In other news, I pooped about 37.5 minutes ago. Oh, what's that, you don't care? Because I am not famous? Lol...

I don't think you ever looked at the **** that is posted in this section. Then again, the helicopter accident from Paul Allen's yatch (neither Allen or Gates were involved) was frontpaged last year.

[articuno1au]

While I understand people saying he needs to harden up, if any of you have seen the guy talk, you'd understand why he reacted this way.

His entire life is in his work..

Poor ****** :(

[mudslag]

who the **** is this guy and why should we care?

[Steven P. Administrators]

Stolen? No, his possessions just got made available to the general public in as open and free manner as possible.

LOL! But seriously I always make sure my passport is on me or in a hotel safe :s

[Nick H. Supervisor]

who the **** is this guy and why should we care?

Richard Stallman.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

His entire life is in his work..

Then he should have taken greater measures to protect it, or have a backup (which I'd be pretty certain he MUST have, somewhere?).

[mudslag]

Richard Stallman.

Ok so he is someone I could care less about, got it.

In all fairness, I understand copyright laws can get out of hand but at the same time, I understand people have a right to do with what they please with their software that they worked hard for.