On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Dan Armak wrote:
> On Tuesday 03 February 2004 22:17, Shlomi Fish wrote:
> > Well, I'm hazy on Government support of free software. For once, I am a
> > supporter of Laissez-Faire Capitalism (let's not start another flamewar on
> > this), and think a government has no place to intervene with the market.
> > (and open source is better off without government support). [...]
>
> I'd agree except for one thing. IMHO, one of the biggest current dangers to
> FOSS (worldwide) is existing and future laws (even if passed locally). Some
> random scenarios that spring to mind:
> - An SSSCA-class law
> - A widely used hardware DRM from MS with DMCA-like laws forbidding usage of
> other OSs on it
> - A software patent war leaving only a few major corporations being able to
> write and sell software without paying rent - esp. if European software
> patents are legalized
> - GPL being stricken down in a court (seems very unlikely)
>
> And a good defence against such scenarios, in addition of course to lobbying
> etc., is to have governments using FOSS. Because of that, I don't oppose laws
> requiring or recommending the use of FOSS.
I don't oppose recommending the use of open source software, but dislike
laws requiring them very much. What I do support are laws requiring the
government to use only software with open, documented formats and
protocols. Other than that, laws that mandate the use of open source
software stiffel competition and may actually reduce the quality of open
source software. I think many vendors can legitimately produce proprietary
software, and I will happily use it if the formats and protocols that it
uses are open and documented.
Thus, I have nothing against using Adobe Acrobat Reader, or pine, or qmail
or whatever, even though they are not open source. I can always switch to
something else (gv/xpdf, mutt or postfix/exim) later.
> Governments that pass them and use
> FOSS are far less likely to outlaw it later on. So, fighting fire with fire,
> simlpy because I don't trust my future government (not to mention other
> nations') not to pass such laws.
I don't support fire with fire. Irrationality should be faught with fully
rational actions. The ends never justify the means.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home Page: http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/
Writing a BitKeeper replacement is probably easier at this point than getting
its license changed.
Matt Mackall on OFTC.net #offtopic.
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