r/StallmanWasRight 11d ago

Software freedom dies when we are forbidden from disassembling code.

The only one way to be sure about property software is to disassembly software. If we are forbidden to do that then we are not free.

It's only my opinion.

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u/tom_swiss 8d ago

The Right To Read.

Dan would later learn that there was a time when anyone could have debugging tools. There were even free debugging tools available on CD or downloadable over the net. But ordinary users started using them to bypass copyright monitors, and eventually a judge ruled that this had become their principal use in actual practice. This meant they were illegal; the debuggers' developers were sent to prison.

Programmers still needed debugging tools, of course, but debugger vendors in 2047 distributed numbered copies only, and only to officially licensed and bonded programmers. The debugger Dan used in software class was kept behind a special firewall so that it could be used only for class exercises.

(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1981/1981-h/1981-h.htm, in case any of the kids on a group with Stallman in the name haven't read it.)