Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Whose voice would do?

Author:Ravi Nanavati
Posted:8/28/2000; 6:39:50 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 8/28/2000
Msg #:20416 (In response to 20407)
Prev/Next:20415 / 20417

My impression is that speaking out against the GPL is not what Dave wanted, and looking back on the discussion I can see that it is ambiguous. I didn't think he wanted someone to speak out against the GPL in particular, but rather against a value system that demonizes "traditional" commercial software development to promote open-source software development. I, personally, do not see such sentiments in the GPL itself (hostility to commercial software licenses yes, but they are often worthy targets of scorn considering some of the clauses they contain: no reverse engineering, no resale, no returns, no uncleared benchmarks and on and on and on).

To the extent that such hostility is expressed by the GNU Project it is primarily found in the GNU Manifesto, not the GPL, and even there the central point is worth considering (even if it is incomplete):
"Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction."

Consider this rephrasing:
"Extracting money from media consumers by restricting the ways in which they can use a song or movie is destructive..."

This is exactly why many people are mad at the RIAA and MPAA. Their members are trying to extract money from their consumers by making it legally and technically more difficult for consumers to exercise their fair-use rights (no ripping a CD to mp3 for any reason [or at least no transcoding SDMI to mp3], no viewing a DVD you bought, no making copies to listen to in the car, no buying a movie in another country, no streaming music over the Internet to listen to at work, no plugging your DVD player into a TV/VCR, [can you tell I'm angry about it?])

I will also add that Linus, since he is a pragmatic open-source leader with an open mind, would be an important "vetter" of whatever message you want to convey. If Linus is an unacceptable messenger, or you cannot find a formulation of your message that he would agree with, then there is probably something fundamentally wrong with what you want to say, even if you if can't see it yourself. (OTOH, if you simply can't convince Linus your message is important enough I would not think that. He is an immensely busy man with many people making demands on his time and/or his platform. He seems to me to be very cautious and careful about who he lends them to.)

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