Re: GPL V3 and Linux

[Bernd Petrovitsch <bernd@firmix.at>]

On Mon, 2006-01-23 at 19:55 -0600, Ian Kester-Haney wrote:
[...]
> Copyright for one work is set forward in law.  My view is that Artists
> and their sponsors deserve
> the right to prevent piracy.  In my view the Open Source Community

Of course and ATM there are - at least in the free world - more than
enough possibilities to punish "piracy" of copied copyrighted work.
The whole DRM (which actually shopuld be read as "Digital Restrictions
Management") and "against copyright piracy" campaign is to take away
legal rights like "playing a legallay produced and bought DVD as often
was you wish" and to limit you to "view it at most 3 times and disallow
any copy - expecially legal ones".

> have an incompatible attitude.  In my mind the buying of a DVD means
> that I watch it on DVD players be it on my computer or on the TV. 
> while I beleive that I should be able to watch my DVDs on a linux
> based system, it behooves the open source community to support it in a
> legal way.  Cracking Access Control Sytems might be fun, but it only

The copyright-industry to-be-implemented access control is in fact
illegal.

> generates huge controversy in concerned industries.  An Open Source

Yes, because the concerned industries ignored the develoment in last 20
years. And they don't like certain aspects and rights of e.g.
continental European laws (yes, copying music CDs privately and giving
them away as a birthday present is completely *legal* hereover. We
actually *pay* for this right with ~40 eurocent per writable medium
since decades, i.e. since music tapes were young and paper copying
machines were very expensive).

> Access Control System that is respected by the FOSS community would be
> a great diplomatic way to allow for more access to content.  My

You are listening and beliving to the propaganda too much.

> personal view is that copying for my own personal use is ok, however
> the converting of such material in a way not granted to me by the
> Creator is not ethical.  Richard Stallman is painting himself into a

The creator (if you mean the artist) and the above mentioned "concerned
industries" are two different things.
And you probably have at the moment far more rights to copy for your
private use than you know - and this is at stake.

The strategic problem, that DRM has is: It doesn't hurt (or even apply
to) the big commercial (and thus illegal) copying organizations. And -
at least as far I the propaganda read - are the big evils.
The only target is the private consumer.
Do you want to pay 1$ for every time you hear a song?
Think of DVDs/CDs which *require* Internet access (next generation game
console will deliver that probably) and a (properly filled) PayPal
account.

> corner in this way.

	Bernd
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