This sounds like Richard Stallman's rider where he tells you not to buy him a parrot (https://groups.google.com/a/mysociety.org/forum/#!msg/mysociety-community/zkyZpOXjgoQ/_8xyXSxv9zYJ): it's there because someone once did that, and that was a Mistake.
I have to say that if I were hosting Stallman, I'd be more worried about convincing him it's NOT okay to pick things off his feet and eat them during his talk.
I would also introduce him as "Open Source pioneer Richard Stallman, here to talk about his contributions to Linux. We're also streaming this talk live on our Youtube channel!" because I find him insufferable and would like him to explode. But that's a different issue.
Richard Stallman is very good example of the applied Overton Window at work: you almost certainly don't agree with almost anything he says, but it's good to have him around, as a plausible viewpoint that's the other side of yours than the usual "sell the Internet as a walled garden as a cheap and nasty box in WalMart" views you normally hear.
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Date: 2016-03-31 05:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2016-03-31 09:09 pm (UTC)ETA: more appropriate userpic.
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