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____/ The Ghost In The Machine on Friday 18 July 2008 18:37 : \____
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
> <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:33:42 +0000
> <1240058.FsmLz5orMg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>
>> BSA: Software piracy's 'tragic' impact on US society
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | The BSA-sponsored IDC study, available here (pdf), pinpointed eight US
>> | states in the report. It found significant variations from the national
>> | piracy figure of 20 per cent.
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/07/18/bsa_us_states_piracy/
>>
>> It's not "piracy" and it's clear who is paying for that
>> pro-RAND, anti-FOSS BS (see below for recent
>> BSA-IDC-Microsoft circuses all across the EU).
>
> I'm not even sure it's theft (provided the writer is
> properly identified in the credits of the borrowed work),
> though it might be unrealized sales revenue. Granted,
> someone -- I'd have to look up who but it's either one of
> the Founding Fathers or someone back in the 18th century,
> if not earlier -- proposed copyrights, the intent being
> to stop plagiarism, presumably; the general ideas include
> the ability to control distribution, an issue if one were
> to write something for the military (e.g., detailed plans
> for a rocket propulsive device [*], perhaps, after one
> retires from active service). Controlling distribution
> is a bit tough today, given things such as the Web,
> YouTube, and widespread media digitization.
>
> And of course there are issues if person A writes something
> and person B includes it in his work; "fair use" used
> to cover that though I'm not sure if it does anymore.
> (It was a lot easier before cut and paste, I suspect.)
>
> Admittedly, under ideal conditions FLOSS would track
> everyone's contributions and changes, giving proper credit,
> but even with a modern versioning tracking system such
> as CVS, Subversion, Clearcase, or VSS (not all of which
> are open source!), I frankly don't know if this will be
> 100% doable, and not everyone uses such a system. Also,
> I can spin a couple of scenarios about disputed fixes.
>
> [rest snipped for brevity]
>
> [*] the 18th century not having figured out how to make
> uranium-235 go kaboom yet.
The issue here is less to do with incentives but more to do with legislation
that's FOSS-hostile, by nature. RAND is a good example. Isn't that beyond the
remit of responsibility of the BSA?
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Linux: does exactly what it says on the tin
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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