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Use Open Source? Then You're a Pirate!
superapecommando writes "There's a fantastic little story in the Guardian today that says a US lobby group is trying to get the US government to consider open source as the equivalent to piracy. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), an umbrella group for American publishing, software, film, television and music associations, has asked the US Trade Representative (USTR) to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil, and India for its 'Special 301 watchlist' because they encourage the use of open source software. A Special 301, according to Guardian's Bobbie Johnson is: 'a report that examines the "adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights" around the planet — effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism. It often gets wheeled out as a form of trading pressure — often around pharmaceuticals and counterfeited goods — to try and force governments to change their behaviors.'"
that kind of shit gets perpetrated. now, pause for a moment and think, did you EVER read or heard ANYthing like that happening in any other country around the world ? mind that, there are 250+ countries. did ANYone, leave aside 'lobby organizations' or any kind of organization, anywhere around the world, dared even say such bullshit ?
no. but it happened in america. its not just saying either, they are trying to pressurize their government. itis little different than going up saying 'this free people business is blasphemy, it undermines adequacy and effectiveness of noble's rights' back in 18th century.
this has gone beyond the point where wall street scammed entire world. corporations and private interests are now trying to rip people off their freedoms without any shame or any hesitation, and getting away with it. this is an appalling indicator of how bad an environment corporatism and unregulated capitalism can create. at this rate, we will wish that we remained in feudal system. at least in that system the lord was obliged to feed the serfs.
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You'll all be jobless and destitute soon enough,Obamunism is just getting started. Between that and FOSSUNISM, YOUR ALL FUCKING DOOMED SINCE YOUR GONNA WRITE YOURSELVES OUT OF JOB BUTT MONKEYS!
This thinking is typical of the myopia Capitalism inflicts on it's adherents and apologists, the inability to distinguish between "use value" and "exchange
value". Capitalism is all about turning use values for example, air and water, into marketable goods for which money will be exchanged. To do this capitalists must, by limiting production through technical or legal means, create an artificial scarcity . Developers who "give away" their creations through Open Source licenses are guilty of the gravest heresy and must be burned at the stake. For further reference see any of the introductory works of Karl
Marx or Thorsten Veblen.
Like Health Insurance, which the in the US Congress want to make required with major fines if you don't have it? Unless, of course, you're an illegal alien and so effectively beyond the law's ability to punish.
As this could effect MANY big players in unexpected ways.
Company's like Amazon will be effected due to the Kindle reader uses open source software ( http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10266319-16.html )
Apple would be pretty much killed on sight since all there products run on either OSX or a modified version which is programmed from UNIX ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osx ) (which is open sourced) and the open source Mach Kernel from BSD ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_kernel ).
While it is not in the US, the London Stock Exchange runs on the open source program MillenniumIT system ( http://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/10/06/1742203/London-Stock-Exchange-Rejects-NET-For-Open-Source )
Last I knew, Linksys routers run on Linux ( http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2005/12/the_l_in_linksys_wrt54gl_stands_for_linux.html )
Microsoft could also be effected due to their new deal with Amazon with issues towards the patents involved in said deal ( http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/02/23/1231255/Microsoft-Amazon-Ink-Kindle-and-Linux-Patent-Deal )
Then there is every Android phone since Android is made from Linux ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system) ).
At thats pretty much the tip of the iceberg. Many company's and products run on different versions of OSS, which all would be effected with this. And as you can see, this list of company's effected aren't just a small group of no names, but the big players like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Verizon, Linksys...
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
This activity smells highly of Microsoft's tactics. Do we really want Microsoft's business goals affecting our foreign policy?
FOSS is not compatible with Capitalism. Capitalism is not offering to perform a service that people could do for themselves. Capitalism is controlling the tools and making people pay a tribute that they might enjoy the privilege of serving themselves.
People who create and release FOSS are dictators. They do not dictate by holding a gun to your head. They dictate in a way that is most insidious and much more difficult to resist. They dictate by giving you gifts that they wish you to use, because the use of those gifts modifies your behavior in ways that they desire. All you can do to fight them is drop the gift on the ground and impoverish yourself in the process.
To make an analogy, if a man has two sons, and he gives one son his plow, and the other his sword, he dictates their fate by his choice of gift.
A man who will work for your money, he is a tool, not a person. He is malleable. He'll do any damned thing you ask. By contrast, trying to do the same thing with someone like Richard Stallman is like trying to bully Gandhi.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
If open source is a bad gift for you, then feel free to drop it. I choose to accept it.
On the contrary. I consider the very concept of private property to be fundamentally evil. To support private property is to think of a pile of plastic and steel as though it were a part of your self, and to think of your fellow man as though he were part of the oncoming storm. I WANT people who think that way to be powerless and helpless to affect the world in even the slightest way. That's why I support giving gifts to everyone EXCEPT the capitalists.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Software consumers have been *winning* by having to pay less, at the expense of software creators *losing* by earning less, even if their product is superior to the OSS version. There is no free ride, someone has to pay. Creators earn less every time consumers pay less. Don't worry, at some point economics will catch up, and you'll be paying less, as well as earning less. So, in the long run (decades), you may end up losing. Because, with OSS type schemes, there will be fewer rich people in the world. That in turn will lower the average income of workers/businesses.
OSS is creating a form of slavery where individuals work only for the benefit of society, not themselves. The society then shares a few scraps of food equally among all people, so that high-output producers earn the same as stupid, lazy bums -- communism!. It's a govt conspiracy again, trying to push communism all around the world.
You see, in a capitalistic society, the middle class and the upper-middle class own a large amount of wealth. And the govt hates anyone but itself consuming a lot of the planet's resources. So by promoting OSS, and destroying copyrights and patents, it destroys and steals the wealth of these upper-middle class and middle class producers. I'm justified in calling it stealing, because OSS has yet to produce truly original products. They simply copy (steal) ideas from the paid products and give it away for free.