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Comment by xtracto | Hacker News Reader

I maintain a small list of content killed by DRM on reddit at r/drmgraveyard . I get some kind of Schadenfreude when reading these types of news. DRM sucks, and I believe society should be enforcing waaaay stronger rules to prevent companies from sticking the "SELL" or "BUY" terms to the crap they currently offer for digital content.

I bought a copy of Dungeon Keeper back in the day when it came out (bough it physically in the store) and I still can play it 25 years later. That is a product SOLD, unlike most of current crap (kudos to GOG and websites that sell .EPUBs)

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This comment, and maybe an adjacent thread that mentioned Richard Stallman, have inspired me to coin the word Stallmanfreude: the mixed feeling one has when Stallman is again proven right.

I have no concept of what this feeling might be, because I feel nothing "mixed" about Stallamn's rightness. He simply is right.

Sad that we can't have nice things and that human lifetime has been wasted on building schemes like DRM; vindicated and maybe a little smug that you knew it was coming and most people don't think about it until it's too late; hopeful that maybe this time it will spur some change for the better.

If we separate Richard Stallman the human (with questionable hygiene habits and sexist/abusive behavior) from the ideas and writing of Richard Stallman the staunch free software philosopher and ideologue, I think we’d find that his philosophy has been strong, his thoughts and writings prescient, and his predictions coming true (as if mocking) in a largely comatose and helpless world.

I have learned that every human has (or has had) disgusting and unethical behaviors of different kinds (not that his behavior is to be excused). And with that background, I believe the world would be better off appreciating having Stallman’s work over the decades, rather than ignoring it altogether because of his personal actions and shortcomings.

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