American software freedom activist Richard Stallman, credited with launching Wikipedia, is speaking at a conference at the University of Geneva on November 11.

Stallman is set to speak on “free software and your liberty” at the conference organized by the university’s computer science department and its theoretical physics faculty.

Since the 1980s the computer programmer, a graduate of Harvard, has been an outspoken advocate of the free software movement.

In 1983, he launched the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system and has been a promoter of Linux shareware programmes.

Sinec the 1990s he has campaigned against software patents and the excessive extension of copywright laws.

His talk starts next Thursday at 5 pm in Auditorium A300 of the University of Geneva’s Sciences II building.