Selon les informations dont je dispose, Linus Torvalds sera à Toulouse pour le colloque ``Droits de l'Homme et technologies de l'information et de la communication'' le 10 octobre 1998.
Quant à Richard Stallman, il sera l'un des orateur du congrès ``Infoethics'98'' organisé par l'UNESCO a Monaoco les 2 et 3 octobre. Le résumé de son intervention intitulée Free software and beyond:
The author speaks about the free software movement and its implications for computing literature and scholarship in the age of computer networks. The copyright system, though beneficial and painless when carefully applied to printing press technology, becomes obstructive and harsh when applied to computers and computer networks such as we have today. It is also inefficient, since it acts mainly to enrich media business, and only incidentally to promote art or science. The success of the free software movement points towards alternative social systems for the use of published works, ways of promoting publication that accord with the nature of digital information technology and allow the public full use of its benefits.
Noter que dans la traduction française de ce résumé, le terme ``free software'' a été traduit par ``logiciel gratuit'', ce qui semble tout à fait impropre.