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Comment by IvyMike | Hacker News Reader

It annoys me how willing he is to push the externalities of his decisions onto other people. ("I won't carry a cell phone, but fortunately everyone else does and I can just mooch off of them"). It's like that friend who won't own a car but sure as hell will mooch a ride.

This reminds me of a story my friend told me. Back in the early 90's(?) my friend had his lunch eaten by RMS, several times. I don't think it was malicious--it was more like if RMS was hungry, would just be happy that someone was kind enough to leave him something to eat in the AI lab fridge.

It was kind of considered an honor--after all, what were you going to do, complain, get him angry, and delay the release of Hurd?

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It is not a problem if his friends don't object to borrowing him a phone, nor is it Stallman's responsibility to carry a phone so that his friends don't even have to not object.

If someone doesn't like him asking for a phone or lunch or whatever, then I assume it would be up to that someone to reject his request. It's not like Stallman goes around grabbing people's phones or lunches without asking first.

I've been reflecting on this, and I guess my annoyance is that I actually strongly agree with RMS that cell phones have us in a self-imposed virtual surveillance state. But in the end, the devil's deal of owning the phone is one I can't refuse, so I make the choice to bear that burden.

BTW, on second reading, the lunch story came off harsher in my telling than I intended--it was really supposed to be a story of one of his cute eccentricities--"this dude doesn't think like your average person". Which is probably why he's able to contribute so much more to society than the average person. I would totally make lunch for RMS every day, given the opportunity. If he would only tell us what his favorite food was.

Let me put forth another analogy from 'Surely You are Joking Mr Feynman':

Lets say you believe killing someone is evil. Then would you think it is OK to ask some else to kill someone for you ?

There is a reason people may not object to Stallman's request. Whatever that reason is it helps promote the surveillence mechanism that Stallman believes to be cellphones.

But Stallman does not believe that making a phone call is evil. Nor does he believe that choosing to allow yourself to be tracked is evil. He objects to being tracked himself. If someone else has already chosen to be tracked, he might think that they made a poor decision, but it's their decision to make. There's nothing wrong with then asking them to use your phone.

This is nothing like asking someone to kill for you. Killing is always wrong. Trading your freedom for being tracked for the ability to make phone calls on the move is a personal decision. Now, he would probably prefer that people not have to make that decision; that phones ran all free software, with no locked hardware that you can't get access to, so you could control your own phone and determine when it did or didn't broadcast. But that doesn't make it wrong for someone else to make a different decision than he did.

"It costs a great deal of money to keep Gandhi living in poverty," one of his followers said affectionately.

Huh. I thought he had a free-libre cell phone at some point.

Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash, and power it down when not in use, I thought. Like drug dealers do.

Still surveillable, but no more than any borrowed phone.

his priorities are more to do with freedom then they are to do with tracking. I don't think he would use those phones because those phones do not have their source available.

"I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices." - RMS

Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash

you can not do it in many countries like Spain where you have to provide your ID (because of terrorism).

Same as Australia.

Hm, curious. In Germany (and Austria, wherefrom I got my N9), it is perfectly fine to buy a phone. What you cannot do (legally) is buy a SIM card without ID – however, most shops just require you to fill in some form and don’t bother checking any form of ID.

In Germany there is a "swapping" service[1] for SIM cards where you can send your prepaid SIM and will get a random SIM that another person sent in. And in Austria you can purchase both phones and (prepaid) SIMs without any ID or form to fill out.

1: http://www.daten-speicherung.de/index.php/kartentausch/

I discovered a couple of years ago (when my phone, er, met with a nasty firmware accident) that you cannot buy a phone in the UK over the counter without also buying a Pay-As-You-Go SIM with a traceable means of payment (ie. card). They simply refused to sell the phone to me unless I forked over £10 for a SIM I didn't want. Apparently the French are to blame for this little piece of legislation.

I politely told them that the only reason I was in their shop was because it was an emergency, and I hoped that they enjoyed their future career packing boxes for internet retail, at least until they were replaced by robots. Harsh, but I never said I was a nice person.

> but I never said I was a nice person

No, apparently you're a dick.

This is not the case in all situations, I think you were just unlucky with the policy of that company.

Last phone I bought was paid for in cash, no questions asked. It wasn't from one of the large phone retailers, but not from anywhere dodgy, either [edit: it was from the Internet café here http://goo.gl/maps/DkMa2].

The SIM card was also purchased in cash from a newsagent without having to provide any identifying details.

I wasn't even going out of my way to avoid being traced - like you, I just needed a phone in an emergency, as my screen had broken on the old one.

Some cellphones can be wiretapped even when powered off.

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html

Fair enough.

> Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery;

Someone like RMS would be comfortable pulling out a battery, I expect.

There are landline phones too, you know. Stallman was a hacker since before people were carrying cell phones everywhere, I'm sure he'd manage.

I know many people who do not own a car. Somehow, the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car? forever doomed to walk and always only walk? Given the city where I live, only about 10-20% of people I know has a car. That would make it kind of depressing if we dictated their lives in the way described.

Thats just don't make any sense. The fridge thing do, but after the first sentence in your comment I have a small distrust regarding if you are giving the whole context here. Maybe the fridge is used for shared purchases of drinks/food/snacks that everyone could take when needed. How did other people use the fridge, and what was the initial purpose when the fridge was bought?

> the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car?

Nope, that was not the argument.

> I have a small distrust

Ha. At best this is a friend-of-a-friend story from 20 years ago, posted on the internet. If there's any consequence to you trusting this story, I'd highly recommend against it.

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