On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 7:19 AM, Brian Butterworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I note that Stephen Fry has posted this, which seems to cover it quite > well.. > > 'I have opened myself to charges of the most monstrous hypocrisy by > championing open source and free software while simultaneously using > proprietary systems here and there, hither and yon. I hold my hand up to the > sin of being inconsistent – hypocrisy is going a bit far I think. > I am no purist or fanatic when it comes to computing, software and the > internet, or when it comes to anything, come to that: I like the idea of > open source and free software, but I can't honestly find it in my heart to > boycott any individual, company or consortium that patents its routines, > algorithms, codes or protocols and chooses to make money from of its > research, innovation and ingenuity. As in all things I'm a muddled, > hand-wringing liberal who believes in a mixed economy. > I don't think freedom is indivisible. I can contemplate regulation and > entrepreneurialism, cooperatives and corporations, open source and > proprietary systems all coexisting. In the end I like structures that are > human-shaped, not idea-shaped and humans are great heaps of inconsistency, > ambiguity and complexity. All I'm saying is that if you expect this to be a > kind of Open Source madrassah you will be disappointed.' > Which you can take also as an ad for http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/?p=61 >
Great, but absolutely nothing to do with DRM. The post is in reference to his newly launched site which unlike the old one will be set up in order to generate revenue. If we all paid Stephen Fry a license fee and he'd suddenly started publishing his Podgrammes in DRM'd WMA then it would be a relevant comparison. Similarly, if Channel 4 want to DRM all their media then it's entirely their choice because they don't have my money and they aren't funded by what amounts to a tax. If I was a Channel 4 shareholder I might raise the same issues of DRM at an AGM. On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 8:36 AM, Deirdre Harvey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Am I the only person in the world who finds Stephen Fry an unutterable bore? That's entirely likely. He joined Twitter last week BTW and has been posting some great tweets from Africa so far, including a few pics of Rhinos etc. http://twitter.com/stephenfry Cheers, Iain - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
