Legal Commentary

Stallman - Cloud computing is a trap

By David Canton

The Guardian published an article entitled Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman coincidentally on the same day as my Free Press article from yesterday on the topic.

Stallman is quoted as bluntly saying: “It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign.”

“One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control,” he said. “It’s just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else’s web server, you’re defenceless. You’re putty in the hands of whoever developed that software.”

I admit to having some control and trust issues over the cloud.  To me it depends on what you are using it for, how mission critical it is, how sensitive the information is, who has it, and whether you can keep local copies. 

Full post as published by eLegal Canton on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).