The only problem with this is that they are already using these products. If I have a copy of some GPLed program, the original creator of the software can't come and say, "oh by the way, that software now has a new license, you owe my $1,000 dollars." Once you license a piece of software to someone in a certain way, you can't go back and change that license. This would be the same as Microsoft saying - "if you've ever used one of our products, you can only use our products." They've now modified the licensing scheme. And that just sucks.
..but personally, I could never support a court injunction preventing a company from shipping their product. Isn't this a little like Dmitri being arrested for the "innovation" that he did? I think that the day that we allow the government to keep a perfectly safe product from shipping is the day that we have finally undermined all our principles of capitalism and the free market.
The only problem with that is that in the findings of fact, it was found that Microsoft had abused their monopoly position. While it is not illegal to be a monopoly. It is illegal to abuse that power. The time that it takes for a court case to go from findings, to sentance, through all the appeals is just too long. If Microsoft is allowed to continue business as normal until the appeal process is over, any punishment given will be worthless. The punishment will fit the situation as it exists now, and will not be appropriate for the new sitution.
It's not that they want equal integration with windows. No one is saying "unbundle everything." What we want is the ability to choose to remove an app altogether, or to replace it with something else. Maybe I'm on a non-networked computer with limited drive space, and I see no need to have IE installed - I should be able to uninstall it. Or maybe I wrote my own "Super Calculator of Massive Computing Power" and want to remove the default calculator because it's mere presence belittles the wonderful code I wrote.
If it refers strictly to public schools, then private institutions (and the home, for homeschoolers) might be the only place where a kid can really be free to learn. This, to me, is ironic and more than a little sad.
I expect two things to happen if bills like this pass:
Homeschooling will become a lot more popular.
Homeschooling will therefore eventually become illegal, since it's important to the corporations and government that kids be properly indoctrinated.
From my reading this seems to apply to any educational computer, IANAL though. So my thought is - let this law pass, then everyone can homeschool someone. Hell, tell them I'm homeschooling my self. At this point any unauthorized use of my box becomes a felony - any SPAM I recieve can now be prosecuted for affecting my box. Port scans - 10 years in jail, propigating a virus - 10 years is jail. Sounds good to me;)
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The only problem with this is that they are already using these products. If I have a copy of some GPLed program, the original creator of the software can't come and say, "oh by the way, that software now has a new license, you owe my $1,000 dollars." Once you license a piece of software to someone in a certain way, you can't go back and change that license. This would be the same as Microsoft saying - "if you've ever used one of our products, you can only use our products." They've now modified the licensing scheme. And that just sucks.
..but personally, I could never support a court injunction preventing a company from shipping their product. Isn't this a little like Dmitri being arrested for the "innovation" that he did? I think that the day that we allow the government to keep a perfectly safe product from shipping is the day that we have finally undermined all our principles of capitalism and the free market.
The only problem with that is that in the findings of fact, it was found that Microsoft had abused their monopoly position. While it is not illegal to be a monopoly. It is illegal to abuse that power. The time that it takes for a court case to go from findings, to sentance, through all the appeals is just too long. If Microsoft is allowed to continue business as normal until the appeal process is over, any punishment given will be worthless. The punishment will fit the situation as it exists now, and will not be appropriate for the new sitution.
It's not that they want equal integration with windows. No one is saying "unbundle everything." What we want is the ability to choose to remove an app altogether, or to replace it with something else. Maybe I'm on a non-networked computer with limited drive space, and I see no need to have IE installed - I should be able to uninstall it. Or maybe I wrote my own "Super Calculator of Massive Computing Power" and want to remove the default calculator because it's mere presence belittles the wonderful code I wrote.
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If it refers strictly to public schools, then private institutions (and the home, for homeschoolers) might be the only place where a kid can really be free to learn. This, to me, is ironic and more than a little sad.
;)
I expect two things to happen if bills like this pass:
Homeschooling will become a lot more popular.
Homeschooling will therefore eventually become illegal, since it's important to the corporations and government that kids be properly indoctrinated.
From my reading this seems to apply to any educational computer, IANAL though. So my thought is - let this law pass, then everyone can homeschool someone. Hell, tell them I'm homeschooling my self. At this point any unauthorized use of my box becomes a felony - any SPAM I recieve can now be prosecuted for affecting my box. Port scans - 10 years in jail, propigating a virus - 10 years is jail. Sounds good to me
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