Come on, cut the guy some slack. It was a telephone interview; he didn't _write_ anything at all. Few people have the ability to speak in formal essay style on the fly in real time and at great length. After a certain point, even a sentence or two gets muffed.
That's a very shallow analysis of the situation, and one that Lars addressed directly and powerfully in his interview.
First, the tape copying example you use is not the same threat (or perceived threat) to Lars et al. as is the copying of music in a digital fashion. Tapes aren't worth copying after the 5th generation or so, meaning that you're limited to about 62 friends being able to get a copy of the tape at all, let alone a good copy. And those friends aren't really able to give copies of these tapes to other people, once again because of analog degradation.
But secondly, and probably more importantly, the internet is a distribution medium _far_ more powerful and quick than you and your buddies dubbing a few tapes. You aren't limited to the number of buddies you have, you aren't limited to speed of transportation (e.g. when's the next time one of your friends is hopping a flight to X random city on another continent? and does he remember to bring the tape?), etc.
Please don't interpret this posting as to say that I don't think that there's an issue worth exploring in great detail with this whole Metallica / Napster legal battle. I just think that your example of buddies copying tapes being "more or less the same" as Napster in terms of being an effective distribution network is very weak.
Regardless of what other (lucid, thoughtful) postings have stated, here's an idea: distribute your source in a self-extracting executable archive. There ya go.
This information is in lines with what RMS said in reply to a question asked of him at the "Alternative: Linux" conference in Montreal in early November.
RMS said that the FSF will only defend copyright when it is the FSF that holds copyright on a piece of software. He said that the FSF won't automatically defend any piece of GPL-ed software just because it's GPL-ed. He wasn't worried that this would create problems, too, in the case of a GPL copyright holder doing a poor job defending that copyright in court and having the copyright "struck down" or some such. Apparently, according to RMS, copyright decisions regarding a license on one product aren't transferable to another product.
Congratulations. You just described Toronto. *sigh* Though to be fair, it's more like 100F but 100% humidity for 3 weeks straight. And you'll get 3 such heat waves between June and September.
Ontario has the crappiest weather on Earth. As I understand Russian diplomats in Ottawa say: "Summers like Nigeria, winters like Siberia."
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Come on, cut the guy some slack. It was a telephone interview; he didn't _write_ anything at all. Few people have the ability to speak in formal essay style on the fly in real time and at great length. After a certain point, even a sentence or two gets muffed.
That's a very shallow analysis of the situation, and one that Lars addressed directly and powerfully in his interview.
First, the tape copying example you use is not the same threat (or perceived threat) to Lars et al. as is the copying of music in a digital fashion. Tapes aren't worth copying after the 5th generation or so, meaning that you're limited to about 62 friends being able to get a copy of the tape at all, let alone a good copy. And those friends aren't really able to give copies of these tapes to other people, once again because of analog degradation.
But secondly, and probably more importantly, the internet is a distribution medium _far_ more powerful and quick than you and your buddies dubbing a few tapes. You aren't limited to the number of buddies you have, you aren't limited to speed of transportation (e.g. when's the next time one of your friends is hopping a flight to X random city on another continent? and does he remember to bring the tape?), etc.
Please don't interpret this posting as to say that I don't think that there's an issue worth exploring in great detail with this whole Metallica / Napster legal battle. I just think that your example of buddies copying tapes being "more or less the same" as Napster in terms of being an effective distribution network is very weak.
Regardless of what other (lucid, thoughtful) postings have stated, here's an idea: distribute your source in a self-extracting executable archive. There ya go.
This information is in lines with what RMS said in reply to a question asked of him at the "Alternative: Linux" conference in Montreal in early November.
RMS said that the FSF will only defend copyright when it is the FSF that holds copyright on a piece of software. He said that the FSF won't automatically defend any piece of GPL-ed software just because it's GPL-ed. He wasn't worried that this would create problems, too, in the case of a GPL copyright holder doing a poor job defending that copyright in court and having the copyright "struck down" or some such. Apparently, according to RMS, copyright decisions regarding a license on one product aren't transferable to another product.
> 103 for five weeks straight in 90% humidity
Congratulations. You just described Toronto. *sigh* Though to be fair, it's more like 100F but 100% humidity for 3 weeks straight. And you'll get 3 such heat waves between June and September.
Ontario has the crappiest weather on Earth. As I understand Russian diplomats in Ottawa say: "Summers like Nigeria, winters like Siberia."
Cheers,
Richard