Few presentations at conferences in the coming years will manage to combine the intellectual depth and delivery skills shown by Eben Moglen in this penetrating analysis of privacy and technology. Moglen poses an important question; namely, what will be the most successful intelligence organizations of the 21st century?

If you're fortunate enough to live near New York City, you can catch Eben Moglen at the NY Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-NY) on Friday, talking about "Freedom in the Cloud." Specifically, Moglen will be talking about the implications of "cloud computing" on software freedom, privacy, and security. Cloud computing does pose quite a few challenges for software freedom.

"...How we got here is quite a scary story. But nowhere near as scary as getting out again. Eben Moglen, a Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, warned you about privacy and the cloud before.

Eben Moglen gave a talk last week on ``Freedom In the Cloud: Software Freedom, Privacy, and Security for Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing''. If you are interested in the problem of network services, you need to watch this!

"I became a fan of Eben Moglen when I saw this quote from him: “We also live in a world in which the right to tinker is under some very substantial threat. This is said to be because movie and record companies must eat. I will concede that they must eat. Though, like me, they should eat less.” This logic could be applied across the board in society! Computerworld recently featured an interview with Eben Moglen..."

At the O'Reilly Open Source Convention today, Software Freedom Law Center director Eben Moglen threw down the gauntlet to O'Reilly founder and CEO Tim O'Reilly. Saying that O'Reilly had spent 10 years making money and building the O'Reilly name, Moglen invited O'Reilly to stop being "frivolous" and to join the conversation about software freedom.

Here are just some among many takes on a talk about software patents and the Bilski case, courtesy of Professor Eben Moglen
Paula Rooney: Moglen: Bilski decision set back patent reform for more than a decade

To orchestrate change you need someone who can balance vision with pragmatism. In Eben Moglen the proponents choreographing the software patents debate have such a leader.

"Reading Eben Moglen’s keynote address, “Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture,” I felt a bit like Richard Stallman while he worked to replace UNIX with GNU: reaching the same destination but apprehensive about the other guy’s route. Moglen, a law professor and founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, discusses free software v. the behemoths of software largely in moral terms..."