[sllug-members]: [sllug-members] new article by Richard Stallman

[Christian Horne]

no it's fine to make as many copies as you want of software you bought
and put them on your own computers. it's not okay to share them with
people without the author's conent though.

On 5/20/09, Richard Esplin <richard at esplins.org> wrote:
> The key point is that once you have given me the software, you have
> relinquished all natural rights to tell me what to do with it. Instead, if
> you want to control what I do with it, you have to rely on an artificial
> legal system to create and enforce your idea of "rights".
>
> In some cases society might benefit from creating a system of rights to
> govern
> intangible property. But I think you miss the point if you are calling
> someone an idiot for questioning your ability to control the private affairs
> of those who receive your software. Especially in a world where every use of
> your software consists of multiple acts of copying, and your original copy
> is
> in no way diminished by these repeated instances.
>
> I guess it shouldn't surprise me that people want to structure the legal
> system in whatever way will give them the most power and money. I still find
> it sad how quickly people will surrender their own rights just to have a
> theoretical ability to control others. If present trends continue, we will
> suffer more from these encroachments on our freedom as our society gets more
> technological.
>
> Instead of just dismissing someone like Stallman (or Lessig, or many
> others),
> it is worth thinking about how their motivation: their philosophy is meant
> to
> protect you rather than to exploit you. A very different motivation than
> most
> businesses and politicians, indeed. I am glad that someone has the courage
> to
> be on the other side of the exploitation spectrum.
>
> Richard
>
>
> On Tuesday 19 May 2009 19:54:05 Christian Horne <blendmaster1024 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> now that's what I hate. someone (linus) gives out his software for
>> free (freedom and free lunch)
>> and then someone says "since you wrote software without giving it to a
>> company, we claim it as ours."
>> I think behavior like that is what got RMS started... but now he is
>> just the same thing on the other side of the spectrum:
>> "you wrote software, you can't say what I do with it."
>> idiot...
> <snip>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> See http://www.sllug.org/ for latest SLLUG news, information, links.
> Join SLLUG and other UT LUG members on irc.FreeNode.net channel #Utah
> sllug-members at sllug.org
> http://www.sllug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sllug-members
>


-- 
the blendmaster