Richard M. Stallman works at MIT and was one of the first people to see the potential for computer software to be control what it’s users can do in a bad way. He started the GNU (GNU Not Unix) project in 1985 to create a free software operating system (free not only in price, but as in freedom) which would not limit a computer users freedom. That dream, to a better part, has been realised through the GNU/Linux operating system which exists under the GPL licence and which I use at home on my PC. A blog of his activities promoting GNU is here.