SFP#56: Policy and EU: All about the DNA

And why did you stick around with free software? Do you think it's something very important for society? Or this is now a very obvious question, and you have to answer it yes, I know.

[laughs]

But why do you think it's that case?

Yeah, I think that that is the case because basically right now, software is deeply involved in all the aspects of our life.

Right now, we cannot think about anything without thinking about devices, and then devices also run software, and software basically as a part of our daily life, and also it's important that we control the software, that it's part of our daily life.

And sometimes we're not really used to thinking these ways because we think that software works this way, and we just have to accept it, while in, on, on the other hand, we should have the power to control the software that is basically around us our daily life.

And until discovering the four freedoms of free software, I had no idea that we could and we should have much more power in controlling the technology that we use every day.

So that's why I think that being able to control the technology is basically a fundamental work and a fundamental right for everything else that also it's important to control our rights in the sphere of migration, our rights in the sphere of, I don't know, workers' rights.

Anyways, so technology is so involved in all our aspects of our daily life that it's really believed that it's a fundamental kind of fight that we have to pursue in order to live in a democratic society in the end of, at the end of the day.

I like that.

Since you are also using free software, do you have a different experience of how you are able to choose which kind of software you are using or how it looks like in the end?

I can give you an example because in the past year and a half, I've also been working a lot on another file that is called the Digital Markets Act that tries to give back control also to users in term of choosing what you can do with your mobile devices, and I think that's something that I think that people should get used to do again.

So choosing what you wanna use in your daily life, also when it comes to technology, and not only think that it's always been like this, that's the only option I have, and that's not true.

And that's also why I really love free software because it really gives you the power to choose what you can do and what you wanna do and what you don't wanna do with your devices.

And the DMA is, is a law that basically allows alternative, for example, app stores, and many people are not used to think that they can choose their own app stores or they should be able to.

So that's also why I really believe that point of choice is extremely important in this, in this regard.

I believe that as well.

I had just had a smile because you care so much about the work that you do that it intersects also with your philosophical kind of views, and I really, really like that.

This is really amazing.

I would love to do a full episode just on [laughs] the FSFE staff and volunteers' philosophal, philosophical Point of views on free software, I think that would be quite nice.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, everything is political, everything can be philosophical, right? So [laughs]

Yeah, but today, sadly, is not the day that we are doing that, even so I really would like to do that.