Slashdot Mirror
Software Firms Lobby for Stronger Copyright Laws
Spy Handler writes "According to an article on CNN, the Business Software Alliance went before the Congress yesterday and lobbied for stronger copyright protection. Their key point: Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should be required to reveal the names of customers who may be distributing illegal wares on peer-to-peer networks. I guess they feel that the DMCA is too lax for them to be allowed to carry out RIAA-style raids on college students."
And yet, even though linux if free as in beer and free as in speech, I STILL PAY $ FOR MY OFFICIAL COPY for convenience and time saving. Imagine that.
I am willing to pay for software or music but...once I buy it, it is MINE to use however and wherever the f*ck I want. If I own 3 computers, then I OWN the software I bought and I OWN the computers. I WILL install said software that I OWN on all the computers I OWN. I will NOT pay for the same friggin bits again and again just so some BS corporate/leech can make money that isn't owed or deserved. Keep making a worthwhile product and selling it but get out of my way of using it when I friggin buy it. Software is NOT the same as a printed book, or a car, or a piece (of shit) designer clothes. It is ephemeral and infinitely reproducible at virtually no cost whatsoever.
The day (not holding my breath) we have molecular replicators, then cars, clothes, wrenches, etc, become as "valuable" as software bits. That wont stop companies that should cease to exist from trying to survive regardless of reality on the ground. Tough titties. REAL Reality trumps DESIRED reality every time. Adapt or die.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.