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Re: Open Source "Fundamentally American Concept"

__/ [ Rex Ballard ] on Friday 02 June 2006 18:17 \__

> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> Open source politics are 'American as apple pie'
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Eben Moglen, professor of law at Columbia Law School, says that open
>> | source is a fundamentally American concept, contrary to the view
>> | promoted by Microsoft and others
> 
> Actually, the concepts behind the GPL and the GNU Manefesto are very
> similar to those outlined in the Constitution of the United States.


Quite true. Interestingly, I never thought about this before.

 
> Keep in mind that when the GPL was first written, software could not be
> patented because it was viewed as simply an algorythm, which can't be
> patented.  But the explicit purpose of the patent and copyright law was
> to promote the free exchange of ideas and inventions.


Software cannot be patented in Europe, where sanity in the sense that
monopolies are discouraged, still prevails. I saw a headline earlier on,
which said that the FTSE and some European markets surged owing to weakening
job prospects in the States (MSFT down again, BTW). Don't get me wrong here.
I love the States and I have family there. I only wish to defend a certain
point of contention.


> Microsoft was one of the first companies to use the newly rewritten
> Copyright Act of 1976, which went into force in 1977 - the year
> Microsoft was formed as a company.  Microsoft however, used the
> licensing provisions in a manner explicitly contrary to the purposes
> and intents of the constitutional provisions for the copyright law.
> 
> 
>> | The politics of open source are not anti-business or anything to be
>> | ashamed of, but a return to America's inventive roots after a period
>> | dominated by innovation-stifling monopolies.
>> `----
> 
> It was Microsoft who chose the tactics of the KGB, seeking to forbid
> disclosure on penalty of censure and bankruptcy.


Maybe we should deport B&G to exile in Russia. Microsoft boast capitalising
on good programmers[1]. Some of the world's best are in Russia.


>> http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39272565,00.htm


[1] Not FUD, unethical/aggressive nature, briberies, lawyers, and connections
in with several governments, including presidents that harbour them to
encourage increased income from overseas (S/W export)

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz
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