Copying, content and communism (Bill Gates on Who is a Communist

BBC ^ | Bill Thompson

[KwasiOwusu]

The British BS Corporation does it again.
Fresh from broadcasting the vile Jerry Springer obscenity laced, Christ mocking filthfest, they turn their attention to what they are best at again, spewing out anti-American, anti US business propaganda.
This one goes straight to the garbage bin, to join all the other normal rubbish from the Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

The drama between Open Source/Linux/Apache and proprietary licensed software like Microsoft very much parallels the more tangible battle of Marxism vs. Capitalism; government ownership of everything vs. private property rights.

The Mozilla.org logo very much is reminiscent of Communist China.

The cry "information just wants to be free" is at core an attack on intellectual property (private property) rights....

[weegee]

Copyright law of 100 years ago was closer to original intent of our Constitution (which includes concepts of fair use and works lapsing into the public domain).

It was also freer (no royalties to record a song on record, no royalties to play a song on radio...). Cases went to the Supreme Court and these freedoms held. Eventually entertainers got the special legislation that they wanted.

[weegee]

Copyrights and patents were all designed to give limited exclusive use periods to the creators (or those they decided to sell their ownership to). All works were supposed to lapse into the public domain.

The way to avoid making such information public and available is to not file it with anyone (which is why some people will reverse engineer software, hardware, and recipes).

[rpgdfmx]

Yes ... and no. There's the larger issue of who "owns" information... the state? Microsoft? the people? Intellectual property rights may need to be protected in some new form, but I'm afraid Bill Gates and megacorporations are not the folks I want to trust with control over information access.

[KwasiOwusu]

"The drama between Open Source/Linux/Apache and proprietary licensed software like Microsoft very much parallels the more tangible battle of Marxism vs. Capitalism; government ownership of everything vs. private property rights. "

There is not too much difference between open source ideology, as advocated by Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman, and communism as advocated by Karl Marx in his "Das Kapital".
No prizes for guessing whose side the left wing, American-hating BBC is on.

[KwasiOwusu]

"There's the larger issue of who "owns" information... the state?"

We are not talking about information here.
We are talking about Microsoft's intellectual property that they have spent billions of dollars , and continue to spend billions of dollars every year, developing.

"Intellectual property rights may need to be protected in some new form"

That is double speak for Communism.
its not a "new form".
It's been tried in the old Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Cuba.
Stalin tried it too Failed every time.

"but I'm afraid Bill Gates and megacorporations are not the folks I want to trust with control over information access."

Its not up to you to determine who you'd "trust" with intellectual property developed by a private corporation
This is America , not North Korea.
When people work hard and spend money to develop intellectual property, the own it.
They don't have to go get permission from loony left crazies for that.

[HAL9000]

As 10-to-20 million Americans dump Windows and switch to other platforms over the next couple of years, Microsoft will shift their marketing focus to China and other "emerging" and "developing" countries.

More than ever, Microsoft needs Commies, and Commies need Microsoft.

[weegee]

"Intellectual property rights may need to be protected in some new form"

That is double speak for Communism.

The American state does not own intellectual property rights. The patent office can be used to enforce your own intellectual property rights (with the stipulation that you will relinquish those rights at some future point). Our government creates NO copyrights, government texts are copyright free (which is why many publishers will release their own "Starr Report" or "Warren Commission" books using the government text). Even NASA images and WPA photos from the Library Of Congress carry no royalties.

The belief was that our inventions and literature would develop our culture. One thing would build off of the next. We would never have gotten to this stage of scientific development if someone tried to monopolize things forever.

Many people try to develop new technology (as it has always been). There were "races" to develop planes, television, and movie cameras. The rewards seem to go to the one who gets the job completed first (not just develops the "missing" piece) and can capitalize on it.

I think that the private race for space will have more pay off in the long run but it would be wrong to require all space launches to go through one private agency. Should everyone be driving a Ford today? Should different manufactuers' cars run on different patented fuels and even require different roads?

[KwasiOwusu]

"As 10-to-20 million Americans dump Windows and switch to other platforms over the next couple of years"

Dream on.
Microsoft sold more desktop Windows licenses last year than ever before.
When the results for the December quarter are released, Microsoft will probably have had a record desktop Windows revenues for any quarter (just going by Intel's record revenues reported yesterday).
Microsoft is as strong as ever, if not more more.


"More than ever, Microsoft needs Commies, and Commies need Microsoft."

China may be ruled by the Communist Party, but is China's economy "communist"? Nope.
Some parts of China like Shanghai are more free enterprise than even eastern parts of Germany today.

[HAL9000]

is China's economy "communist"? Nope.

Spoken like a true Globalist. Sheesh.

[rpgdfmx]

Astute friends of mine describe China as Fascism with a Communist face. Chinese free enterprise is for the benefit of the state and its expansionist aims. And, I'm not sure how "free" those enterprises are. Try putting out an unapproved website, for example.

[Nick Danger]

[cyborg]

LOL

[KwasiOwusu]

"I'm not sure how "free" those enterprises are."

Thousands of startups, hundreds of venture capitals firms (including many from Silicon Valley), IPO's of startups on both Chinese and US stock markets, hundreds of thousands of bright Chinese young men with new ideas and eager to start their own firms and "change the world", etc etc.
Arguably they are better at creating new frims than those socialistic EU countries.

" Try putting out an unapproved website, for example."

You could, to an extent, say the same thing about certain EU countries like France , where Yahoo and other American firms have been forced to modify and in some cases close down sites that the French did not like.

[ovrtaxt]

Seems to me that open source philosophy is just another contender in the free market.

[ovrtaxt]

Its not up to you to determine who you'd "trust" with intellectual property developed by a private corporation This is America , not North Korea. When people work hard and spend money to develop intellectual property, the own it.

Exactly, and the Mozilla people have decided to give theirs away. Now, if some talented programmer or group who contributes to Mozilla realizes the marketability of their talents, they can enter the free market at a compensatory level. Let the market work and stay out of people's choices. If they want to work for less than they're worth, it's good for the consumption side of the equation.

[KwasiOwusu]

Hey, I didn't know the open source devils had managed to resurrect Lenin too.
Great work guys.
Now you've gone and done it.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Now, if some talented programmer or group who contributes to Mozilla realizes the marketability of their talents, they can enter the free market at a compensatory level. Let the market work and stay out of people's choices. If they want to work for less than they're worth, it's good for the consumption side of the equation."

Agree with all that.