____/ Erik Jan on Wednesday 28 November 2007 19:56 : \____
> Roy Schestowitz had de volgende lumineuze gedachte op 28-11-07 12:30:
>
>>
>> Proprietary software is from dark ages
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | So proprietary software means that we are in the dark ages and open
>> | source software means that we are in a mature democratic world. In
>> | fact, Eric Raymond has advocated a similar argument in his essay
>> | titled "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". Whether you want to live in
>> | the dark ages or in a democratic society, is your choice.
>> `----
>>
>>
http://www.krishworld.com/blog/open-source/proprietary-software-is-from-dark-ages/
>
> Dear Roy,
>
> I have read somewhere that during the "Dark Age", first half of the
> medieval millenium, and in fact during the whole of the millenium, the
> great innovations in agriculture and technology, were fully "open
> source" as we call it now. Innovations went from monastery to monastery
> and each was free to innovate and spread its innovations. European
> civilizations is built upon a millennium of open source and free use of
> other people's ideas.
The World Wide Web is probably the most recent (and notable) example of
innovation which relied on standards and openness. Imagine yourself a Web
where you need to pay $500 just to enter and then exchange nothing but Word
documents in it. There are attempts to subvert the Web at the moment (net
neutrality based by FUD about Internet capacity and 'proprietarisation', e.g.
Sharepoint, Silverlight (XAML), REST). Essentially, access to the Web is now
being commercialised (oWned).
> "Intellectual Property", patents, are symptoms of a more capitalistic
> era, the one after the Middle Ages.
"Intellectual Property" does not exist. Trademarks (like... for example, your
name is "Erik Jan") is one thing, but "Erik Jan owns the idea of one-click
shopping" is another. They try to toss everything in one mixed bag and create
confusion that politicians fall for. Things like plagiarism fall under the
same category (umbrella) as 'daring' to use Microsoft's ownership
of "emoticons".
See:
What Does "IP" Really Mean?
,----[ Quote ]
| For readers of Linux Journal, "IP" almost certainly refers to the Internet
| Protocol, part of the TCP/IP suite that underpins the Internet. But to most
| people, if it means anything, "IP" refers to something known as "intellectual
| property". This widespread recognition is rather curious,
| because "intellectual property" does not exist.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1005736
Before you know it, people will be called "pirateds* (like those people with
eye patches) if they use a program that exchanges arbitrary files with music
that _has not yet been *formally* licensed_.
> "Dark ages" has just become an invective without any reference to
> (historical) reality.
On a social level, there's probably another sign of the middle ages returning,
but there's rebellion, which sadly enough appears in the form of global
terrorism. Imagine a world where /knowledge/ was shared (commodity) and
services/skills were used to make profit. That's probably what computing used
to be like, based on what I've read -- haring code versus selling blobs
(encapsulated knowledge) for outrageous amounts of money that many cannot
afford. The analogy here are pharmaceutical, whose secrets and greed cost the
lives of people.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | X-No-Archive: No. Stand behind what you say
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Cpu(s): 25.5%us, 4.1%sy, 1.0%ni, 65.2%id, 4.0%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.1%si, 0.0%st
http://iuron.com - semantic engine to gather information
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