You can't compare the actions of any individual to those of the communist state. Once you start putting guns behind your words, the game changes completely. If RMS believes that the GNOME foundation should be one that promotes exclusively free software, that's a perfectly valid belief. Calling his idea censorship is like saying that the NAACP is censoring the KKK because they don't publicize their meetings. RMS was simply saying that GNOME should only post about relevant software, for his values of relavant. You can disagree with his idea of relevance, but don't say that it is invalid to have any view at all.
Honestly, this isn't specific to Microsoft. Just about all of the big companies (Intel, IBM, Motorola, Lucent, Cisco, Sun, etc..) do something like this. High tech companies will do anything to get good people. The company that I interned for offered me $3K just to come back as an intern for the next summer. It would have been $5K if I was going to be a senior.
This is kind of backwards logic. The only reason the GPL needs to exist is _because_ of copyright. If copyright didn't exist, we wouldn't need to worry about someone taking a free work and making proprietary, becuase proprietary works would have no protection under the law. I'm not saying this would neccesarily be a good thing, but you can't justify copyright by saying it's neccessary for the GPL. That's like saying criminals are good, becuase without them we wouldn't need police.
Capitalism like that in the Industrial Revolution was bad.. but forcing workers to give away their commodity is AGAINST freedom
Where do people get the idea that Stallman (or anyone else who agrees with Free Software) is forcing anyone to do anything? He (and again anyone who uses the GPL) is merely controlling how people use their work. Stallman is saying freedom is important to him, and doesn't say anything about anyone else (This is at least my interpretation of the GPL and its ideals, I hope I'm not misrepresenting Stallman). If you don't agree with Free Software, don't use it. If defending freedom is important to you, do. It's that simple.
I'm not sure whether I agree with this guy suing or not, cuz the site is slashdotted so I haven't read the comments about him. But the point of the defamation laws is to prevent abuse of the first amendment. Do you think it would be OK if I posted on my high-traffic website that you were a child molestor? The reason that this is tortious is becuase you have no chance to defend yourself. If I say something that is completely unfounded by the facts, and it irrevocably damages your character (what if you were denied a job becuase of this), you definitely have the right to sue.
Anyways, how do you even define a lifeform? News websites say they require water, but that lacks imagination and strikes me as a statement to please masses. If I remember my 9th grade science correctly a lifeform is defined as a collection of matter that consumes, grows, reproduces, eliminates waste and dies. Though I suppose each of those verbs are open to interpretation, it's a fairly straight forward definition.
Why is this a good thing?? It's shit like this that's gonna make the stock market die. I mean.. I like VA and everything.. but there a computer reseller.. what's so special about that? Any one who buys at that price is insane..
By that logic, it is alright for m$ to use it's market position to destroy all the competition.
There's a fault in your premise here. In a world where every one did concentrate on their own needs.. and bothered to think for themselves once in a while, M$ would have never happened. The only way someone can make money on inferior products is when the people who buy refuse to question what it is they're purchasing.
Though you are right in your point about murder. I failed to mention one key point. The only moral system is one in which individuals serve their own needs through voluntary exchange with others. Which is exactly what capitalism is designed to do.
Capitalism is, at best, amoral; This is what kills will take down this country. Capitalism is the only moral system in existance. It works on the principle of everyone producing, and getting what they deserve for what they produce. Some one mentioned the guilt complex for IT managers.. Why is this? What is so wrong about making lots money for work that people have a great demand for. The electronic digital computer and by extension, the Internet, is the most import achievement in the last 500 years. Someone else said that the Internet will eventually be something very plain, and equated it to a mailbox.. I think they're right.. but it should be equated to a wheel, or to fire. We are the best and brightest of this country, and we are doing very important work. We shouldn't be ashamed of getting what we deserve for it.
And why is it so important to "serve society?" Think of this: If every person in the world concetrated only on serving the needs of himself, what would "society" have left to do? We wouldn't need welfare, or any kind of social programs of that sort becuase everyone would be responsible for themselves.
The Egghead "There are no contradictions. Check your premises"
You're not supposed to switch to it, it's _pre-alpha_ software. This means it probably doesn't even work the first try. Did you try IE5 in the pre-alpha stages? In my opinion this mozilla release was better than the IE5 early _betas_..
Slashdot Mirror
You can't compare the actions of any individual to those of the communist state. Once you start putting guns behind your words, the game changes completely. If RMS believes that the GNOME foundation should be one that promotes exclusively free software, that's a perfectly valid belief. Calling his idea censorship is like saying that the NAACP is censoring the KKK because they don't publicize their meetings. RMS was simply saying that GNOME should only post about relevant software, for his values of relavant. You can disagree with his idea of relevance, but don't say that it is invalid to have any view at all.
Honestly, this isn't specific to Microsoft. Just about all of the big companies (Intel, IBM, Motorola, Lucent, Cisco, Sun, etc..) do something like this. High tech companies will do anything to get good people. The company that I interned for offered me $3K just to come back as an intern for the next summer. It would have been $5K if I was going to be a senior.
This is kind of backwards logic. The only reason the GPL needs to exist is _because_ of copyright. If copyright didn't exist, we wouldn't need to worry about someone taking a free work and making proprietary, becuase proprietary works would have no protection under the law. I'm not saying this would neccesarily be a good thing, but you can't justify copyright by saying it's neccessary for the GPL. That's like saying criminals are good, becuase without them we wouldn't need police.
--Matt
Maybe I just have a sicker (read: juvenile) sense of humor than most, but doesn't MassMultiples.com sound just a little too much like a Pr0n site?
Where do people get the idea that Stallman (or anyone else who agrees with Free Software) is forcing anyone to do anything? He (and again anyone who uses the GPL) is merely controlling how people use their work. Stallman is saying freedom is important to him, and doesn't say anything about anyone else (This is at least my interpretation of the GPL and its ideals, I hope I'm not misrepresenting Stallman). If you don't agree with Free Software, don't use it. If defending freedom is important to you, do. It's that simple.
I'm not sure whether I agree with this guy suing or not, cuz the site is slashdotted so I haven't read the comments about him. But the point of the defamation laws is to prevent abuse of the first amendment. Do you think it would be OK if I posted on my high-traffic website that you were a child molestor? The reason that this is tortious is becuase you have no chance to defend yourself. If I say something that is completely unfounded by the facts, and it irrevocably damages your character (what if you were denied a job becuase of this), you definitely have the right to sue.
-Matt
Anyways, how do you even define a lifeform? News websites say they require water, but that lacks imagination and strikes me as a statement to please masses.
If I remember my 9th grade science correctly a lifeform is defined as a collection of matter that consumes, grows, reproduces, eliminates waste and dies. Though I suppose each of those verbs are open to interpretation, it's a fairly straight forward definition.
No, they'd probably trade away all their decent players to the Europan team.
Why is this a good thing?? It's shit like this that's gonna make the stock market die. I mean.. I like VA and everything.. but there a computer reseller.. what's so special about that? Any one who buys at that price is insane..
There's a fault in your premise here. In a world where every one did concentrate on their own needs.. and bothered to think for themselves once in a while, M$ would have never happened. The only way someone can make money on inferior products is when the people who buy refuse to question what it is they're purchasing.
Though you are right in your point about murder. I failed to mention one key point. The only moral system is one in which individuals serve their own needs through voluntary exchange with others. Which is exactly what capitalism is designed to do.
Capitalism is, at best, amoral;
This is what kills will take down this country. Capitalism is the only moral system in existance. It works on the principle of everyone producing, and getting what they deserve for what they produce. Some one mentioned the guilt complex for IT managers.. Why is this? What is so wrong about making lots money for work that people have a great demand for. The electronic digital computer and by extension, the Internet, is the most import achievement in the last 500 years. Someone else said that the Internet will eventually be something very plain, and equated it to a mailbox.. I think they're right.. but it should be equated to a wheel, or to fire. We are the best and brightest of this country, and we are doing very important work. We shouldn't be ashamed of getting what we deserve for it.
And why is it so important to "serve society?" Think of this: If every person in the world concetrated only on serving the needs of himself, what would "society" have left to do? We wouldn't need welfare, or any kind of social programs of that sort becuase everyone would be responsible for themselves.
The Egghead
"There are no contradictions. Check your premises"
You're not supposed to switch to it, it's _pre-alpha_ software. This means it probably doesn't even work the first try. Did you try IE5 in the pre-alpha stages? In my opinion this mozilla release was better than the IE5 early _betas_..
--Matt