On Wed, 2009-04-22 at 01:49 -0700, Michael Robinson wrote: > On Wed, 2009-04-22 at 00:26 -0700, m0gely wrote: > > Michael Robinson wrote: > > > > > Microsoft has abandoned the dos/Windows 3.x combo, Windows 95 all > > > versions, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows NT all versions, > > > Windows 2000, and Windows Millenium. > > snip > > > > > The government could step in... <snip> > > I've heard this argument before and I'm not buying it. The government > which recognizes copyright could step in and retroactively change the > rules.
Such changes would subject most governments to charges of hypocrisy. It would be compared to retroactive expropriation. It would also undercut the US position in bi- and multi-lateral trade negotiations. To be effective, such a position would have be taken by at least a great number of governments, and probably by some sort of UN or WTO agreement. And while an ideal goal, that's not going to happen in a world where most governments are at least heavily influenced by the backers of DMCA and similar laws. In fact, despite the continuing success of open source, the world is moving somewhat towards additional regulation. W/r/t pirateware, P2P sites are under legal attack. Boards where information about P2P pirate sites are shared are also being changed and/or closed. Yes, DVD Jon had a successful defense, but anything that touches DeCSS is toxic in a lot of places. Sure, I'd like to see DeCSS in main repos, housed on US servers, but that ain't happening anytime soon. While there are exceptions, open source is having success where the source code is originally (organically?) licensed as open source. Thanks, Mike _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
