Computing and Politics

[Walter Dnes]

On Sun, Mar 28, 2004 at 06:13:47AM -0500, Paul King wrote

> Also, Walter, I am not clear on how Linux can be outlawed by free
> trade or any other legislation. Please explain.

  The weapon of attack is "Intellectual Property" (IP for short).
Ignore SCO, it didn't work. IP involves two prongs, namely...

  1) patents/copyright themselves (with "software patents" being the
     worst).  Linus Torvalds was quoted recently as saying that his
     worst fear for linux today is software patents.  With the US PTO
     granting stupid patents for anything and everything, it won't be
     long before some stupid patent is granted for something that is an
     integral part of linux, and cannot be written out of linux.  Of
     course, the US will insist that software patents issued in the US
     be respected around the world.

  2) "IP protection" is the real potential linux-killer.  The US has a
     history of demanding that the rest of the planet "harmonize" their
     legislation with with American legislation, e.g. the DMCA.  Consider
     how much money Jon Johansen had to spend defending himself after US
     businesses pressured the US government to pressure the Norwegian
     government to prosecute Jon.  The DMCA is only the tip of the
     iceberg, with the SSSCA (renamed to CBDTPA) being the final goal.
     Read the pdf file at...
     http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020321_s2048_cbdtpa_bill.pdf
     for some truly mind-boggling legislation.  It would *FORCE* DRM
     (Digital Rights Management) tech into all consumer computer
     hardware and software.  Oh yeah, are you aware that Microsoft has
     patents on just about everything to do with DRM?  It's patent
     #6,330,670.  Warning; humoungous URL follows...

> http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6330670'.WKU.&OS=PN/6330670&RS=PN/6330670

  This would effectively outlaw linux if it doesn't have Microsoft DRM,
or require that each copy result in a royalty payment to Bill Gates.  As
with other stuff, you can rest assured that the US would *DEMAND* that
other countries "harmonize" their legislation with that of the US.

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