On Friday 20 June 2003 08:36 pm, JoeHill wrote: > Of course the GPL is not the "be all and end all". Nothing is. But it is > a model for a new way of looking at software as a public resource rather > than a commodity to be bought and sold. If information is allowed to > become a commodity in the truest sense of the word, then the internet > and information technology will become nothing more than better TV sets > with more invasive marketing and egregious manipulation. >
Agreed! The other real concern is that I have a problem with a government, any government delving into something like the GPL. I've seen too many times where in this country (US) the best laid plans of lawmakers goes wildly wrong and what was once a good idea turns into a horrible monster of a mistake. This is most likely not the case with this instance, but my concerns are still there. I too don't want to see information become a commodity, but I get concerned that any time the government gets involved that that's exactly what they turn it into. A scenario I can see (and again, I don't expect this in this case, its just a, perhaps paranoid, scenario.) is the government uses software under the GPL and then decides that it can't, for whatever reason it sees fit, allow the source to be released and subsequently deems it illegal and things get decidedly worse from that point. Granted, a very bad case, but considering what I've seen various governments do already, I wouldn't put it past anyone of a number of governments, including the US from doing something like that. OK, so I'm a little paranoid, but with good reason, I think! :) Tom Williams
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