From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Mar 21 12:50:53 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in (theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in [144.16.71.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 27A0537BD00 for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2000 12:50:48 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in) Received: (qmail 28000 invoked by uid 211); 21 Mar 2000 20:50:30 -0000 Received: from localhost (sendmail-bs@127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 21 Mar 2000 20:50:30 -0000 Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 02:20:30 +0530 (IST) From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Terry Lambert Cc: J McKitrick , Brett Glass , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: On "intelligent people" and "dangers to BSD" In-Reply-To: <200003211912.MAA02060@usr06.primenet.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > > GPL thing is not as black as it is painted out to be. Also, it's > > not only software, but in the age of quick and easy digital > > copying, the whole copyright scheme has to be rethought. > > I agree that intellectual property law needs to change; however, > I do not agree with Stallman that the idea of intellectual > property as institutionalised in law should therefore be abolished. > > > The current situation, of further and stricter controls on digital > > copying being introduced every year, will work only in a police > > state. > > This is more a RIA thing than anything else. It's driven by the > recording industry, who have little understanding for technology > (witness the fact that an image copy of any "encrypted" DVD will > work just as well as the original). Exactly. But who's making these points out loud? I see hardly any mention of the case at all in the general press, and most of that is either RIAA/MPAA sympathetic or grossly misinformed; and the few intelligent comments generally come from the "linux community". The BSD crowd may be "balanced" but change requires some level of activism, which I feel RMS, ESR et al are much better at doing. In fact, if anyone in the general public is aware of free software as an option, it is because of these loudmouths; and if sufficient informed opinion is to be built that the MPAA, RIAA etc start to see reality, or copyright/patent/IP laws get to be reconsidered, much more work is needed. I really don't see the more mature and seasoned BSD crowd talking about it at all. But perhaps it's just that they don't manage to get quoted in the mainstream media. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message