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BusinessWeek on Open Source and Copy Protection
prostoalex writes "An article starting with the words "Forget about Bill Gates, folks. The biggest enemy of free software may be Senator Ernest F. Hollings" historically had a little chance of being published in a recognized business publication. In this case, though, Business Week (no registration) runs a detailed but straightforward explanation of how the new copyright bills could threaten free software and open source movements."
Looks like Senator Hollings (Disney) triumphs in crushing free speech and criticism of his bill again!
Video Game cheats, hints a
All the MPAA's crusade against "piracy" is doing is crippling legitimate users of their "product". They're not stopping piracy at all (search on any popular filesharing service for "dvdrip"). But they do prevent there being a legitimate player for linux (LinDVD hasn't been released, has it?) such that someone who has *already* paid for an "approved" DVD drive (and thus paid the DVD-CCA tax on that) as well as (most probably) a bundled "approved" player app (without which the drive is basically useless for playing DVDs) has no choice in what OS they run, unless they want to become a "criminal".
Think of Joe. Joe is a linux user, and a movie fan. He sees a movie about every two weeks, and enjoys himself. He buys DVDs of the movies he likes. He's the model customer of the MPAA. Until he wants to play his DVDs, that is. See, Joe doesn't have a dedicated DVD player - he instead has a DVD drive for his computer, as it will also allow him to use DVD-ROM discs that hold a lot more data than normal CDs. He has a nice big monitor, and a surround sound system. Joe paid a bundle for this hardware. The MPAA says that since Joe doesn't run Windows, he shouldn't be able to play a DVD, regardless of the fact that he's already paid the DVD-CCA for an approved player. For Joe to use DVD player software capable of playing his legitimately purchased DVDs on his legitimately purchased hardware, on a legitimate free OS, he must use an illegal piece of software. Why? Because the MPAA says that Joe is a pirate. And pirates are bad, evil people that loot and pillage. THe MPAA says that Joe (who really only wants to watch his copy of "The Matrix") will willfully copy and distribute his legitimately purchased DVDs, simply because he isn't using a "blessed" OS.
The real "pirates", however, don't care whether they use "illegal" software to get their dvd-rips -- they already know that what they are doing is illegal, so who cares what they use?
Joe, however, is trying to be a "good" person -- he buys his stuff legitimately. He doesn't make copies (except for personal backup purposes as dictated by "fair use") - he encourages his friends to see movies he liked, and to buy DVDs of the movies they enjoyed.
What has Joe done wrong? Nothing - unless he wants to watch his DVDs. Then the MPAA would brand him a criminal - even though he's pretty much their ideal customer.