Computing and Politics

[Walter Dnes]

  It's not often that I get to make almost identical posts to a
computing mailing list and a political mailing list the same day and
*AND* still be on topic in both lists.  So here goes...

  For background, read...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/166397_gambing26.html 

  Executive summary... The WTO (World Trade Organization) has ruled that
U.S. policy prohibiting online gambling violates its obligations under
international trade law.

  A couple of interesting quotes...

> But the Bush administration vowed to appeal the decision, and several
> members of Congress said they would rather have an international trade
> war or withdraw from future rounds of the World Trade Organization
> than have American social policy dictated from abroad.

  And one that we really should take note of...

> "It's appalling," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. "It cannot be
> allowed to stand that another nation can impose its values on the
> U.S. and make it a trade issue."

  The US is using trade as a weapon to push its policies down other
countries' throats.  I hope that Representative Goodlatte gets his way,
because he would set a precedent favouring Canada's independence.  For
the linux mailing list, the immediate concern is US insistence on
"software patents", and extending copyright on music and video to twice
its current length, and eventually enactment of Fritz-Hollings-like
legislation around the planet, which would effectively outlaw linux.
For the political mailing list, the above is but a small subset of what
the US will be demanding, whilst trying to "make it a trade issue".

  This is a golden opportunity for Canada to protect its interests.  We
should negotiate a quid-pro-quo with the US recognizing that their
national sovereignty trumps "trade issues" in return for affirming
similar rights for Canada.

Custom part for TLUG
====================

  Open Source in general, and linux in particular, are no longer just
a toy played with by a few geeks.  They are replacements for expensive
proprietary software.  And they are hurting the bottom line of some
American businesses by competing with them.  Just like the British
horse-and-buggy industry bought the "red flag law" in 1865, American
software businesses will use their political power to attempt to buy
legislation either outlawing, or at least greatly hindering open source.

  We can't have much effect on what happens in the US.  However, even
the the most isolationist American knows that if the rest of the world
goes Open Source, the US will become a technological backwater.  The
next "logical" step is to extend anti-Open-Source legislation to the
rest of the planet.  That's where we come in.  I urge all TLUG'ers to
get involved with whichever political party you support, and work to
insure that a couple of decades from now, you won't be wistfully longing
for "the good ole days" when you could legally run linux or whatever OS
you wanted to.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org>
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