MIT doesn’t have quite the spirit it used to in regards to rebelious behaviour. Once upon a time, marking out the whole of the Harvard bridge in measures of a student didn’t ellicit much more than a chuckle.
These days, however, you can’t even hold up a sign protesting a speakers employer without being harrased. Which is what brought Richard Stallman to a speech being given down the hall at MIT to protest ATI’s proprietary software. Which he’s within his rights to do, so long as he’s not being a nuisance and interrupting the goings on.
But the organizer of the event didn’t agree with that. She went and called the police, who were fairly peeved at being brought out when there wasn’t actually any kind of an issue.
So when did MIT go from being a cutting edge technological school to one that will brook no discenting speech?
(and for the record, I don’t agree on everything with RMS, but he should certainly be able to raise his views if it doesn’t disrupt an event)
FSF - Protest against ATI nearly led to the arrest of RMS
