[FredLUG] A subject to discuss at SFD?

[Peter Larsen]

On Mon, 2010-08-30 at 12:22 -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 10:56:30AM -0400, Peter Larsen wrote:
> > http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67Q55V20100827
> > 
> > Synopsis: A company linked to Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen is suing
> > 11 major corporations, including Apple, Google and Facebook, accusing them
> > of infringing on technology patents.
> 
> This is probably not even on the scopes of most of the people
> attending SFD, so worrying about an approach about this subject seems
> premature. :-) Not to mention we might cloud the issue of freedom in
> software -- we don't really want people to walk away thinking, "Will
> someone sue me if I use this stuff?"  (Yes, people can be naive about
> these issues.)

Ahhh, no that wasn't what I meant. Just the opposite. What I thought
would be interesting to talk to people about is the notion of owning
technology - and draw the parallel to owning scientific discoveries.
Imagine Einstein suing anyone using his famous equation if they didn't
pay him first? Or Hawkings? Open Source breaks this notion and uses a
more pure approach that any improvement is shared and not restricted to
a single entity/company first.

I'm finishing up reading "Just for Fun" by Linus Torvalds - our mighty
Linux inventor and he had a very good point when he described why he was
giving away the initial version 0.01. He used science as a model, and
also pointed out (correctly) that he wouldn't have been able to do what
he did without existing free software like GCC so he used the same model
(it was interesting to note it wasn't until version 0.12 that Linus went
for GPL - I didn't know that). 

That was what I thought would be valid and interesting as a talking
point. I agree that mentioning any of the suits or even the old SCO crap
will just muddy the waters and scare some and even give the wrong
impression to others.

-- 
Best Regards
  Peter Larsen

Wise words of the day:
C:\> WIN
Bad command or filename

C:\> LOSE
Loading Microsoft Windows ...

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