Computing and Politics

[Paul DiRezze]

This might be of interest:

http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/maine-speech.html

At 12:50 AM 29/03/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>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>
>Email users are divided into two classes;
>1) Those who have effective spam-blocking
>2) Those who wish they did
>--
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--
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