Slashdot Mirror
Open Source As Legal Time Bomb
Hwyman writes "TechWorld is reporting on the latest attack on open-source software by the Microsoft-backed Alexis de Toqueville Institution (ADTI). Many here will remember ADTI's previous assertion that Linux Torvald was NOT the true father of the Linux kernel. Taking the stance that OSS is in conflict with IP law, ADTI president Kenneth Brown states, 'After a brief glance at much open source software development, it becomes readily apparent that a number of open source practices directly conflict with best practices associated with protecting intellectual property.' With references like 'open sores software,' it's easy to believe that ADTI might be somewhat biased."
James Earl Jones: Tux... I AM your father.
Tux: Noooooooo!
Umm... I would agree that Linux Torvald didn't create Linux, but Linus Torvalds did.
So the proposed solution is to sue the pants off of anyone involved with open source and take their money. Open source developers have a great defense against this: they have no money.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
I doubt if anyone takes these people seriously.
If anyone does, well, they're just not too bright to start with.
While they may be biased, and slant their findings, the concept of 'a problem' is valid.
Even if nothing ever comes to light from IP/patent problems, it can ( and is ) keeping some companies away from adoption of anything open source out of fear of lawsuits.
Remember, even if you win, the fight can easily cost you enough to put you out of business..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Linus Torvald..
Linus Torvalds
If the AdTI were in any way objective, I would welcome their criticism. But, having seen their lies many, many times over the past couple of years, I know that it is hopeless. It is one thing to leverage criticism, but someone whose sole interest is to see the demise of Linux is not someone I am going to allow to influence -any- of my corporate decisions.
Let's see what happened in the last few days:
What's next? SCO will publish another inane series of press releases on its latest strategic re-deployment?
It's FUD, people. Nothing new here. Move along. Film at 11, and could the last person out of the building please shut down the lights? Thanks.
Sheeesh. They should have figured it out by now. What do they teach MBAs these days anyway?
Seriously, though, this is another attempt by a really worried company to smear the competition. A clue for Microsoft: it did not work for IBM. It won't work for you.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Don't go to a brothel if you want to buy broth
Unfortunately there is a point here. The non-traceability of the Open Source process leaves any given product open to contamination from copyrighted/patented IP. Most projects don't have tight checking of who did what, and they definitely don't know where the contributor got the input. That is an invitation for trouble. Worse, a project could have an "IP bomb" placed inside it by an agent of a less than scrupulous SCO, er... proprietary company that wants to stir up trouble later.
On the good side, it is a problem that is easily fixed. Traceability of the code base back to the contributor can be implemented, but it means some sort of centralized repository AND use of good tracking tools. IMO, no major distribution, and definitely no kernel, should leave the foundry without knowing who touched it.
Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
Our next report will reflect on offer new insights on orbital mechanics based on the unprecidented rotations obsrved in Mr. de Tocqueville's grave.
Give someone a computer, some time, and some programming skills, and they can empower themselves for FREE - that is, without compensating anyone else that somehow manages to lay claim to what they've created. They can also decide to empower others by sharing what the've created. How can any law sanely deny someone what seems to me, to be such a fundamental freedom?
Posting this on Slashdot is just feeding the ADTI troll. Effective advocacy isn't about dealing with every troll lobbed your way. If these guys really had a legal time bomb they'd use it as a basis litigate. It isn't as though people today ever really show restraint when they think they have a cause (however dodgy) that will stand up in court.
"best practices associated with protecting intellectual property"
Like frivolous patents, astroturf, monopoly lobbying, and, most important, funding the AdTI. Yep, Linux and most "open source" projects don't do any of that stuff.
--
make install -not war
Maybe I'm being a pedant (and it wouldn't be the first time), but how are we to trust the judgment of ADTI on the topic of licensing and IP when they aren't even aware of the difference between copyleft and public domain?
Public domain is pretty clearly defined under current IP laws, and just about the only thing it has in common with open source, free software, copyleft, etc. is the fact that all generally permit anyone to look and touch. In fact, public domain refers to who owns it and only implies the license terms (to the best of my understanding, it's basically "the public owns this and, as the owner, the public can do whatever they want with it"). Copyleft does not release ownership of IP to the public.
Then again, that's probably exactly what these clowns want the public to think it does...
Why play their game? Closed source by it's nature is competitive. Why does everyone feel a burning need to prove that linux is superior. Don't play these games.
Lets not fight, use and develop linux, and leave the fools to use inferior closed source products.
It's a travesty that this name is used by these nafarious folks at ADTI. The real Tocqueville was a philosopher and lover of freedom:
l le
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocquevi
Truely ashame that they should damage his name.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
Because most law makers are interested in controlling power. People can't just go around haphazardly GIVING empowerment. And if they have something worthy, then someone wants to control it by whatever ridiculous means they can think of.
Rhetoric is a dangerous weapon and we should be cautious. If they say it often enough, people really will begin to believe it despite it being completely preposterous.
No, it's a bit worse than that. If you're named after Alexis de Tocqueville, and you're in favor of "civil liberties, political equality, and economic freedom and opportunity", but you're against open source, you must be...
Misnamed. And lying about what you stand for.
It's more like someone who claims to be speaking for the Democrats talking about how the unions are damaging businesses...
What bothers me is that I actually spent five irrecoverable minutes reading the trash spewed by this so-called think tank. If Ken Brown is representative of the type of intellectual talent found in the typical "think tank" it's no wonder the world is in trouble from listening to those folks. I suspect that, given enough money, Mr. Brown would be able to "prove" that he's his own father; which, frankly, is the only way that I can figure out for him to have come into being.
Just my $.02,
Ron
Impeach Barack Obama for violating the Constitutional requirement to be a "natural born" citizen to hold the office of P
If Alexis de Toquevill were alive and realized what these shitheads were doing in his name, he'd probably barf out his heart.
Here's a quote from the real Alexis de Toqueville about the tendencies of American's to help each other out:
"I must say that I have seen Americans make great and real sacrifices to the public welfare; and I have noticed a hundred instances in which they hardly ever failed to lend faithful support to one another."
Sounds pretty different from the message of these bought-off scumbags.
If I were to win the lottery then just to amuse my Slashdot friends I promise to commission a study by the Alexis de Toqueville Institute which finds that small hairy dwarves who live in the sewer actually invented Linux. I will have Ken Brown include in the bibliography the ingredients label on a can of Lima beans as well as a second ADTI report which finds that the Law of Gravity is on a collision course with intellectual "property" law, and I will pay him extra if he agrees to entitle the report "The Secret Incestual Goat Fetish of My Immediate Family". How much do you think he will do it for, about 5 or 10 grand?
"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly... it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
Joseph Goebbels - Nazi Minister of Propaganda
Stupidity is an equal opportunity striker.
Fellow slashdotter Bill Dog
True. Example: Inslaw's PROMIS. -kgj
-kgj