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Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada
From: aland_-at-_striker.ottawa.on.ca (Alan DeKok)
Date: 3 Feb 1999 11:18:08 -0500
References: <199902030644.BAA01193@onering.urth>
Kishna wrote: > In other words, every idea is obvious and every expression of it a > natural consequence under the right circumstances. We are indebted > to our history and culture and life experiences. I *strongly* disagree that 'every idea is obvious under the right circumstances'. I believe that history shows otherwise. There are too many historical examples of people NEEDING a solution to a problem, and only ONE person being able to discover that solution. (e.g. Newton, and many of the things he did.) However, some ideas *are* current state of the art, and one person should not have a hammer-lock on an idea just because he's the first past the post. (e.g. Bell & the telephone: he won the patent by *hours*) My partial solution: peer review of patents, not review by incompetent patent examiners. This method has worked for scientific papers and theories for hundreds of years. > Once you read an idea, it's in your head and you *will* use it > elsewhere - you can't help doing so. Freedom of thought and freedom > of expression (should) guarantee that you *may* use it. Copyright > and patent are therefore infringements of basic human rights. Wow, that's a pretty sweeping statement. I'd like to believe that history shows otherwise (e.g. the REASONS for inventing the concepts of copyright and patents) Copyrights and patents were invented to ENCOURAGE the free exchange of information. Don't confuse the current lawyer feeding frenzy with the original ideas. > Here's what RMS said in response to someone who promoted BSD licenses. It > seems quite practical rather than based on faith. I don't really disagree with what he's saying here. My problem is that every time I say "the GPL is not perfect", I get a bleating of: The GPL is Good! The GPL is Great! If we all used it Life would be neat! This doesn't help me. The GPL is NOT perfect, and does NOT apply to ALL situations. For this reason, I'd like to think of myself as a 'free software advocate', and not a 'GPL bigot'. RMS sez: > Copyleft says, "These freedoms are for everyone; if you want to > take them away from someone else, the answer is no." Aside from that, > it says yes. This is nice. It would be nice if everyone had these freedoms. But the comments I was complaining about made it clear that he did NOT want these freedoms to be given to people who disagreed with him. That was what I objected to, not the GPL. Alan DeKok.
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