Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: The_Victor

Don't worry. Copyleft has nothing to do with politics.


5 posted on 02/23/2006 7:51:41 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]


To: ShadowAce; The_Victor

"copyleft" has everything to do with politics. Just as the article admits, it aims to turn our capitalistic society on it's head, and communist governments the world over are flocking to it.


6 posted on 02/23/2006 8:02:38 AM PST by Golden Eagle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]

To: ShadowAce
Don't worry. Copyleft has nothing to do with politics.

Not directly, but it does reflect a certain naivety that translates into stupid politics.

It also represents an unsustainable economic idea: give something away free so that somebody else can make a buck on it.

The problem is that development and maintenance of open source code involve real costs. The Open Source model assumes that those costs will always be absorbed by good-hearted programmers, for free to everybody else.

Over time, however, the desire for stability within a company's code base, coupled with divergence from Open Source as companies modify Open Source for their own needs, ends up killing the model.

Eventually, somebody simply grabs the Open Source, locks it down as a baseline, and starts selling their own modifications to all comers.

8 posted on 02/23/2006 8:05:51 AM PST by r9etb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]

To: ShadowAce

Copyleft has alot to do with politics. Specifically the politics(policy) of how software is created, distributed, and maintained. It has little to do with politics in the general sense of national politics.

:-P


12 posted on 02/23/2006 8:15:46 AM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing (Linux, the #2 OS. Mac, the #3 OS. Apple's own numbers are hard to argue with.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]

To: ShadowAce
Yes and no--thus I have to disagree in part.

By the common definition, you're right. Copyright isn't about politics.

But the basic definition (the one I have to know for my major) says yes--politics is the competition, interplay, and/or conflicts that occur between varying groups, peoples, or ideas over the distribution of limited resources and/or power.

The debate of copyleft is politicking. Whether we like it or not is completely open to interpretation.

65 posted on 02/23/2006 10:37:05 AM PST by rzeznikj at stout (This is a darkroom. Keep the door closed or you'll let all the dark out...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson