Maybe Alan needs to move to Taiwan or some place like that, where copyright laws are very lax.
Apologies to all my Taiwanese friends, but despite the fact that Taiwan and "places like that" have lax copyright laws, they are still not as free as the UK or the USA. Trading ten freedoms for the one freedom that gets you out from under the DMCA ain't a very good deal.
Libertarians? That's almost as absurd as saying we have to take the Net back from the communists.
Hear! Hear!
The internet is the closest thing we will probably ever get to a anarcho-capitalist society. And it works!
Everyone enters into this society with identical opportunities, with outcomes determined by merit, ability or persuasive ability, without regard to race, color, creed, or anything else like that. This society sparked and continues to fuel the Free Software revolution. This society has no borders, allowing us discourse with those in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, China and other authortarian states. This society allows entrepreneurial capitalism to coexist with collectivist projects.
This society has given us Slashdot and Kuro5hin, Freshmeat and Sourceforge, a free press that doesn't have to ask permission of Washington DC to broadcast. It has provided a home for GNU and BSD, EFF and SPI. Major universities have set up branches here.
Of course, utopia is never an option. We have our problems. We have spam, virii, and trolls that just won't go away. But this is a small price to pay for genuine liberty.
Who cares if there's a bunch of commercial fiefdoms here and there? They have no power over us. But I guess the author of this article doesn't like this freedom. He wants a king to rule over him. Fine. Let him have his tyrant. But keep your guns, cops and armies out of this cyberspace, because we're doing just fine without them.
Learn your history. Find out how the bottom 99% lived in ancient Babylonia, ancient Rome, medieval France, nineteenth century Russia, twentieth century USSR and present day Zimbabwe.
As the bottom 99% in the US, you've got it made! You can talk back to your employer and not be executed! You can strive to work your way up to that top 1% and not be imprisoned! You can actually make it to that 1% without regards to your heredity!
No, the situation today isn't perfect. Far from it. But it's a hell of a lot better than the previous 10,000 years...
You've got the situation backwards. 200 years ago business had much more influence over the lives of their employees than they do now, primarily through social mores and constraints. And government had much much less influence because it was small and not trusted.
I don't fear my employer, but I do fear my government. I don't fear that top 1% because they have no power over me, but I do fear my senator. I don't fear people who make more money than I, but I do fear the people who write the laws, control the cops and own the armies.
The teeth don't burn. The laser causes a very tiny but very hot spot on the tooth, so that it explodes away in a very tiny shower of dust. I had it done recently, and it's only slightly uncomfortable. It feels like a microscopic jackhammer chiselling away.
It already is portable. I had it done to me last tuesday. The unit was about the size of a tower PC, on rollers, and plugged into a regular power outlet.
Much of the pain, at least for me with my extremely sensitive teeth, is the intense vibration of the drill. If the drill is touching a nerve, then you're getting a root canal. Otherwise it's not. It just feels like it.
I went to the dentist two days ago and she used her brand new laser. It didn't hurt at all. It was slightly uncomfortable, as it felt like a microscopic woodpecker was tapping away at my tooth (that's what it sounded like too).
That scene has to be the scariest I've seen in any movie. No blood, no guts, no monsters. Just a dentist calmly performing a root canal on a nice healthy tooth with no anaesthesia.
It makes perfect sense if you look at it from the Slashdot perspective: everything Microsoft does is Evil, and free speech means anything I want it to mean.
All of your concerns are either A) already happening today, or B) not feasible either today or under this proposed reform.
First example: donating straight to the politician. Despite the fact that this is illegal, it is still being done. Since it is already illegal, no reform (other than assigning dedicated police officers to each and every candidate) is going to stop it.
Second example: you fear that corporations (and I assume unions) would give out employee bonuses which the employees would use to donate to the corporation's (or union's) candidate of choice. This is not being done today. Why? Because it would not work. Once my company gives me money, they no longer have the power to direct its spending. Since corporate boards inhabit social and economic strata distinct from their employees (ditto for union bosses and workers), the odds that the employees would contribute to the "desired" candidate is extremely low.
I mean, hell, the upper crust just got done pilfering the life savings and retirement of the entire middle class, and yet no signficant reform or change has taken place
Funny, I am middle class and I have lost none of my life savings and retirement. I don't think I'm an exception.
There are a few bad eggs in every group. Some idiots in the middle class decided to ignore all rules of investing and got their fingers burnt. But they don't constitute the "entire middle class." Some crooks in the upper class decided to defraud their shareholders and got caught. But those few crooks do not constitute the entire upper crust.
You've got a chip on your shoulder so large that you can't see the real danger to our society. That danger is the politicians, who will use any excuse to grab more power for themselves. Your call for reform is the excuse they will use to further enslave the people.
Although it is true that once one user gets it there is a _risk_ of it becoming free beer, it is not necessarily the case.
Can you name one Free Software project in common use that cannot be obtained for zero price? Can you name any non-custom application that is not free beer? Any word processors, spread sheets, games, or MUAs that are not free beer? There's hundreds of text editors that are Free Software. How many are not free beer?
Free Software means that distribution has no barrier to entry, so that the price of distribution will plummit to zero. Service and support will still be viable revenue generators, especially for the creator of the software, but revenue for distributing the software will be zero.
Okay, fine. I now restrict access to my software by preventing redistribution. To get my software you must get it from me.
What you say? That's not Free Software anymore! Why not? The only way I can restrict access to my software is to restrict its distribution, so if I can't restrict its distribution, then I can't restrict access to it.
The minute it gets one user, Free Software becomes free beer, because you cannot restrict that user from giving it away. As long as I can get libfoo-3.5.7 from someone somewhere without having to pay for it, it's free beer.
For those of you still confused because RMS has told you to think otherwise, consider the following analogy: Air. If I start selling air for $20 a liter, air is still free as in beer.
There is a difference between my labor and my creative works. I want to be paid for my labors, dammit! But the software I write is a different matter. Should I take my software off of my website and demand payment before the recipients can access it? Should I mandate that downstream distributors send me royalty checks?
Scenario One: I create my software on my own spare time as a hobby. Why should I now charge for it?
Scenario Two: Company A pays me $10,000 to write their database. I have been paid for my labor. Should I now charge them for the finished software? If not, then why should I charge anyone else for it?
The consulting might not be free. The support might not be free. The service might not be free. The hardware might not be free. But the software is free.
It's my copy, so who are you to tell me what I can or cannot do with it? What has the world come to when people are offended by the sensibilities of others?
Also, you ever notice that now directors insert all the naughty bits into the 'Deleted Scenes' section of the DVD
Yeah, like that deleted "Hide the Horn of Gondor" scene in the Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson couldn't put that in the movie and keep the PG13 rating, but it's essential to understanding Pippin's motives in the later scenes.
Your idea will kill off Free Software faster than Microsoft could ever hope to. Free Software is free beer. Anyone who thinks otherwise has never distributed any. There is no way in hell my own software would be free as in speech if it were not also free as in beer. Once I start demanding payment for it, I might as well use a proprietary license.
The failure of Linux is tied more to the proliferation of assholes shouting "cheap fucks" than it is to its lack of price.
Making Free Software developers liable for damages is a truly scary thing. But warranties, even mandatory, for Free Software is a nothingburger.
I will gladly refund the full purchase price for my software to any disatisfied parties. Duh! The purchase price was zero!
Commercial distributions should also have no qualms about including a warranty. It has nothing to do with the number of packages. It has everything to do with the purchase price.
I'm wondering what today's $3000 PCs would have cost in 1993.
Article Executive Summary: "Due to Linux Goodness, a fresh apple tastes better than that orange that's been sitting in the back of your fridge since 1993."
Slashdot Mirror
I always fear the crimelord more than the henchmen and the stoolies.
Maybe Alan needs to move to Taiwan or some place like that, where copyright laws are very lax.
Apologies to all my Taiwanese friends, but despite the fact that Taiwan and "places like that" have lax copyright laws, they are still not as free as the UK or the USA. Trading ten freedoms for the one freedom that gets you out from under the DMCA ain't a very good deal.
Libertarians? That's almost as absurd as saying we have to take the Net back from the communists.
Hear! Hear!
The internet is the closest thing we will probably ever get to a anarcho-capitalist society. And it works!
Everyone enters into this society with identical opportunities, with outcomes determined by merit, ability or persuasive ability, without regard to race, color, creed, or anything else like that. This society sparked and continues to fuel the Free Software revolution. This society has no borders, allowing us discourse with those in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, China and other authortarian states. This society allows entrepreneurial capitalism to coexist with collectivist projects.
This society has given us Slashdot and Kuro5hin, Freshmeat and Sourceforge, a free press that doesn't have to ask permission of Washington DC to broadcast. It has provided a home for GNU and BSD, EFF and SPI. Major universities have set up branches here.
Of course, utopia is never an option. We have our problems. We have spam, virii, and trolls that just won't go away. But this is a small price to pay for genuine liberty.
Who cares if there's a bunch of commercial fiefdoms here and there? They have no power over us. But I guess the author of this article doesn't like this freedom. He wants a king to rule over him. Fine. Let him have his tyrant. But keep your guns, cops and armies out of this cyberspace, because we're doing just fine without them.
Learn your history. Find out how the bottom 99% lived in ancient Babylonia, ancient Rome, medieval France, nineteenth century Russia, twentieth century USSR and present day Zimbabwe.
As the bottom 99% in the US, you've got it made! You can talk back to your employer and not be executed! You can strive to work your way up to that top 1% and not be imprisoned! You can actually make it to that 1% without regards to your heredity!
No, the situation today isn't perfect. Far from it. But it's a hell of a lot better than the previous 10,000 years...
You've got the situation backwards. 200 years ago business had much more influence over the lives of their employees than they do now, primarily through social mores and constraints. And government had much much less influence because it was small and not trusted.
I don't fear my employer, but I do fear my government. I don't fear that top 1% because they have no power over me, but I do fear my senator. I don't fear people who make more money than I, but I do fear the people who write the laws, control the cops and own the armies.
The teeth don't burn. The laser causes a very tiny but very hot spot on the tooth, so that it explodes away in a very tiny shower of dust. I had it done recently, and it's only slightly uncomfortable. It feels like a microscopic jackhammer chiselling away.
It already is portable. I had it done to me last tuesday. The unit was about the size of a tower PC, on rollers, and plugged into a regular power outlet.
Much of the pain, at least for me with my extremely sensitive teeth, is the intense vibration of the drill. If the drill is touching a nerve, then you're getting a root canal. Otherwise it's not. It just feels like it.
I went to the dentist two days ago and she used her brand new laser. It didn't hurt at all. It was slightly uncomfortable, as it felt like a microscopic woodpecker was tapping away at my tooth (that's what it sounded like too).
That scene has to be the scariest I've seen in any movie. No blood, no guts, no monsters. Just a dentist calmly performing a root canal on a nice healthy tooth with no anaesthesia.
It makes perfect sense if you look at it from the Slashdot perspective: everything Microsoft does is Evil, and free speech means anything I want it to mean.
All of your concerns are either A) already happening today, or B) not feasible either today or under this proposed reform.
First example: donating straight to the politician. Despite the fact that this is illegal, it is still being done. Since it is already illegal, no reform (other than assigning dedicated police officers to each and every candidate) is going to stop it.
Second example: you fear that corporations (and I assume unions) would give out employee bonuses which the employees would use to donate to the corporation's (or union's) candidate of choice. This is not being done today. Why? Because it would not work. Once my company gives me money, they no longer have the power to direct its spending. Since corporate boards inhabit social and economic strata distinct from their employees (ditto for union bosses and workers), the odds that the employees would contribute to the "desired" candidate is extremely low.
I mean, hell, the upper crust just got done pilfering the life savings and retirement of the entire middle class, and yet no signficant reform or change has taken place
Funny, I am middle class and I have lost none of my life savings and retirement. I don't think I'm an exception.
There are a few bad eggs in every group. Some idiots in the middle class decided to ignore all rules of investing and got their fingers burnt. But they don't constitute the "entire middle class." Some crooks in the upper class decided to defraud their shareholders and got caught. But those few crooks do not constitute the entire upper crust.
You've got a chip on your shoulder so large that you can't see the real danger to our society. That danger is the politicians, who will use any excuse to grab more power for themselves. Your call for reform is the excuse they will use to further enslave the people.
Although it is true that once one user gets it there is a _risk_ of it becoming free beer, it is not necessarily the case.
Can you name one Free Software project in common use that cannot be obtained for zero price? Can you name any non-custom application that is not free beer? Any word processors, spread sheets, games, or MUAs that are not free beer? There's hundreds of text editors that are Free Software. How many are not free beer?
Free Software means that distribution has no barrier to entry, so that the price of distribution will plummit to zero. Service and support will still be viable revenue generators, especially for the creator of the software, but revenue for distributing the software will be zero.
You can restrict access to Free Software.
Okay, fine. I now restrict access to my software by preventing redistribution. To get my software you must get it from me.
What you say? That's not Free Software anymore! Why not? The only way I can restrict access to my software is to restrict its distribution, so if I can't restrict its distribution, then I can't restrict access to it.
The minute it gets one user, Free Software becomes free beer, because you cannot restrict that user from giving it away. As long as I can get libfoo-3.5.7 from someone somewhere without having to pay for it, it's free beer.
For those of you still confused because RMS has told you to think otherwise, consider the following analogy: Air. If I start selling air for $20 a liter, air is still free as in beer.
"Sam all wrong about Boromir. Really very nice man. Invited me to go for a walk with him tonight and said he would let me blow his Horn of Gondor. Can't wait.".
There is a difference between my labor and my creative works. I want to be paid for my labors, dammit! But the software I write is a different matter. Should I take my software off of my website and demand payment before the recipients can access it? Should I mandate that downstream distributors send me royalty checks?
Scenario One: I create my software on my own spare time as a hobby. Why should I now charge for it?
Scenario Two: Company A pays me $10,000 to write their database. I have been paid for my labor. Should I now charge them for the finished software? If not, then why should I charge anyone else for it?
The consulting might not be free. The support might not be free. The service might not be free. The hardware might not be free. But the software is free.
It's my copy, so who are you to tell me what I can or cannot do with it? What has the world come to when people are offended by the sensibilities of others?
Also, you ever notice that now directors insert all the naughty bits into the 'Deleted Scenes' section of the DVD
Yeah, like that deleted "Hide the Horn of Gondor" scene in the Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson couldn't put that in the movie and keep the PG13 rating, but it's essential to understanding Pippin's motives in the later scenes.
Your idea will kill off Free Software faster than Microsoft could ever hope to. Free Software is free beer. Anyone who thinks otherwise has never distributed any. There is no way in hell my own software would be free as in speech if it were not also free as in beer. Once I start demanding payment for it, I might as well use a proprietary license.
The failure of Linux is tied more to the proliferation of assholes shouting "cheap fucks" than it is to its lack of price.
Making Free Software developers liable for damages is a truly scary thing. But warranties, even mandatory, for Free Software is a nothingburger.
I will gladly refund the full purchase price for my software to any disatisfied parties. Duh! The purchase price was zero!
Commercial distributions should also have no qualms about including a warranty. It has nothing to do with the number of packages. It has everything to do with the purchase price.
Last year, about 75 telecommunications students participated in a pilot program to go paperless.
Considering that telecommunications majors can't read or write anyway...
I'm wondering what today's $3000 PCs would have cost in 1993.
Article Executive Summary: "Due to Linux Goodness, a fresh apple tastes better than that orange that's been sitting in the back of your fridge since 1993."
I mean, gcc gets by fine with a rather non-descript name.
You also have to consider that gcc is the only option on most non-Windows systems. GNU could rename it "FUA" and people would still use it.
They still do. That some Slashdot editor thinks live CDs are amazing new things does not negate the fact that live CDs have been around for years.
Yup. I don't know how I could ever live without it.