Michael Stutz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Maurizio DE CECCO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Michael Stutz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >
> > Yes, but you don't delete a name from the list of people worked
> > on a project, also if the project now have a different direction.
>
> You're right -- so if the project splits and some people make it do
> something you don't like, you can't control that. It works that way
> with open source software right now (Emacs/XEmacs).
And it is fine with software, up to me :->
> It's hard, even as tools like sdiff keep getting better, and make it
> easier to show the differences. I think that if you want to see the
> ideas of the original author, you will always have to refer to the
> original text.
This is the point; you read a newspaper article, and at the end you find
the notice:
(c) 2000 Author 1.
Based on a paper (c) 1999 Author 2
Based in turn on a paper (c) 1998 Author 3
Modification and originals are available at www.author1.com
Would you tend to think that Author 2 and 3 share the same ideas of
author 1 ?
Probably, unless there is some known evidence of the contrary; would
you look at the originals ? May be, but really a small fraction
of the people would.
Do you people with which you would never want to share the copyright
on a newspaper article, and then risk this kind of confusion ?
I know quite a lot (choose your preferred bad guy here).
> Specialization leads to extinction; I want this libre or
> free or open movement to evolve and become as generalized as possible,
> useable by as many people on as many kinds of works as possible, and
> not to become specialized and then extinct.
I agree (see my job :); consider anyway that the "Free" movement is not
a new idea at all; in music, for example, people exchanged melodies
for centuries; the copyright law is a very recent idea (1700), and was
actually invented to impose some kind of political control over the
invention of the press.
> Michael Abrash once put it so well: "Code is data." Computer software
> source code is data just like any other data;
Well, i would say "Code is data", but not "all the data is code"; GPL like
schemas born for code, and not necessarly are adeguate to other fields.
> Nothing different from a symphony or painting or a novel.
Have never broke a frendship because of the way your friend wrote
some code ? Probably never; did you ever broke a friendship
because of an answer to a mail, an article, or a political opinion ?
Somebody did.
Nobody that i know was killed because he wrote a piece of software;
people get killed by writing novels, and newspaper article.
You don't consider that in you get in a field of human activity that
is a lot more complex than software developement, expecially from the
human point of view; the kind of passions, of economical and political
interests and so on are completely different and work in completely different ways
from what we know in the software developement area.
So, freedom is good, but the software freedom don't necessarly apply
in the same way to the other fields; the concept of "derived" work
may have different implications in other fields.
> How do they work it out now, with free software? Do the European laws
> protect authors to stop use of their software works right now -- like,
> can you tell someone that you don't want someone to use your software
> program?
>
Software is not currently considered an artistic work,
so is not protected by the same laws; i.e. the software author
intellectual property is not reconized.
There is apparently a decision of the European Commission that
say that software *should* be considered as an artistic work
and that the intellectual property should be reconized.
As you can imagine, the software companies will not be very happy in this
case; this would means that you cannot assign the software copyright to your
company, and that you mantains control of what is done with it (and not your
company).
This would have an impact as strong as the GPL, i think :->
(also if in different directions).
Maurizio
--
Maurizio De Cecco
MandrakeSoft http://www.mandrakesoft.com/
