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What if copyright didn't apply to binary executables?
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| So why’d they do it? Well, the short answer is because the copyright office
| listened to software publishers, and they wanted binaries protected by
| copyright so they could sell them that way. The only other alternatives were
| to rely on patents (which the patent office had rejected at the time, and
| which were not a very popular idea in the industry back then), and to simply
| rely on the obfuscation which comes naturally to binary code (which is not
| optimized for human readability).
|
| Consider what would’ve happened if binaries weren’t copyrightable. Then, a
| software company, which distributed binaries would have no copyright
| protection for what they sold. And, like manufacturers of household
| appliances, they would have no legal recourse against people reverse
| engineering their products and designing replacements for them. Nor could
| they bind people into “End User License Agreements” (EULAs), any more than
| people who sell hammers can. Proprietary source code, would of course, still
| be kept a closely-guarded secret, just as it is under the current scheme.
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http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/what_if_copyright_didnt_apply_binary_executables
The reporters put words like "open source" and "closed source" in RMS' mouth.
Recent:
British Government Violates Copyright
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| As much as I utterly despise the entire premise of Intellectual Monopoly,
| this is about violating the principles of a Free License, and if it's good
| enough for the British government to violate our civil rights in the name of
| Intellectual Monopoly, then it's good enough for the Free World to protect
| its "property" (in fact Freedom) too…
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http://slated.org/british_government_violates_copyright
Open sourcing can tackle software piracy
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| Adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) as an alternative to copyrighted
| products is seen as a promising solution to software piracy in developing
| countries like Kenya.
|
| [...]
|
| The Central Bank of India has saved over $1 million after it opted for open
| source software two years ago, according to the website of Redhat, an open
| source software developer.
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http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6718&Itemid=5847
US presidential candidate is a pirate
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| THE PRESUMED Republican US presidential candidate John McCain favours
| draconian copyright enforcement, except when his own election campaign uses
| other people's music.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/16/gop-presidential-candidate
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