Slashdot Mirror
France Hostile To Open Source Software?
AdamWeeden writes "According to the Free Software Foundation of France the French Department of Culture is telling free (as in speech) software providers that 'You will be required to change your licenses ... You shall stop publishing free software,' and warn they are ready 'to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code.'" From the post: "It appears that publishing Free Software giving access to culture is about to become a counterfeiting criminal offence. Will SACEM sue France Télécom R&D research labs for having published Maay and Solipsis (P2P pieces of software used to exchange data)? Up to this point, the rather technical debate surrounding the issues addressed by DADVSI bill (copyright and neighbouring rights in the information society) makes one ask: Just how much control do the Big Players in the field of culture want to seize? It now looks like years of quibbling have put an end to compromises." More information on the DADVSI bill is available at Infos-du-net.com. They've come a long way since last year.
There is a reason God made matches and jerrycans. These SACEM buildings must burn! Fire is the only language that French politicians understand!
You know, evil can be evil without it's source being the source of ALL evil.
When Americans realize that a country can be mostly evil without being totally evil, the game will end and we'll have to find another chubby kid to make fun of.
It's been a long time.
Sadly, regular slashdot readers get the impression that the US is the heart of all that is evil and the UN/EU is a bastion of justice and peace.
Nope, I just see lots of whining American conservatives who think that foreign countries and institutions exist purely for their amusement, but who treat their own blitheringly stupid and obnoxious administration with totalitarian degrees of reverence. Objectively, America gets criticised on Slashdot far less than the EU and the UN, who get bashed every single time they're mentioned. It's just that people like you get hysterical when there's any criticism of America. No-one is suggesting that the US is the source of "all evil". That's the sort of dumb simplistic view you find on the American right, but inverted ("everyone who isn't the US is the source of all evil").
Freedom is not increased by mere diminuation of government. Anarchy is freedom for the strong and slavery for the weak.