"amicus_curious" <a...@sti.net> writes: >That gives FOSS a bad name. Who wants to use stuff like that and risk >getting bitten by the looney tunes that think software is some kind of >religious experience?
There is a lot of truth in what you wrote, and it's not specific to free software. Enforcement of copyright (and patents) often gives the enforcer a bad name. As a contemorary example, consider how poorly many people view the RIAA because its component organizations continue to file numerous copyright- based lawsuits, thinking their coyprighted works are some sort of religious experience. Instead of giving RIAA the respect it deserves for providing so much good music, people are trying to evade it in unfair ways: http://www.p2pnet.net/story/605 As another example, consider the black eye that Microsoft got whan it tried to enforce its copyrights against a small company: http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html?tag=lh This is a quandary all copyright owners have to deal with it if they think their copyrighted works deserve to be respected as some sort of religious experience. If they pursue their rights too aggressively, people will criticize them. If they don't, people will misappropriate their software. It's a balancing act. It happens with patents, too. Microsoft wanted its many patents, earned in good faith, respected and not infringed. Instead of getting sympathy, all it got was criticism in return: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/open_source_microsofts_patent_fud_campaign.html -- Rahul http://rahul.rahul.net/ _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss