From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261210AbTD2Q3E (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:29:04 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262033AbTD2Q3D (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:29:03 -0400 Received: from relay02.valueweb.net ([216.219.253.236]:1774 "EHLO relay02.valueweb.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261210AbTD2Q3B (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:29:01 -0400 Message-ID: <3EAEAB10.5060801@coyotegulch.com> Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:40:48 -0400 From: Scott Robert Ladd User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030327 Debian/1.3-4 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: Why DRM exists [was Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!] References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Dax Kelson wrote: > What exactly are you trying to say about an Open Source relation to > software theft (warezing), Audio/Video theft, high asian piracy rates > and DRM? These are all things you brought up, but I couldn't > recognize any coherent statement here. The coherency you seek lies in seeing a common thread of wanting something for nothing. Free software developers often clone products developed by commercial companies; this is taking a free ride (something for nothing) on the R&D budget of the corporation. The effort that goes into designing quality software isn't just coding -- it's also research, design, focus groups, testing, and QA. I think it is quite reasonable for commercial entities to protect their investment in time, effort, and personnel. "Free-as-in-liberty" software is just one of several factors that influence companies to protect themselves. Merchants put alarms and bars on their stores, in response to crime; software and IP companies buy legislation to protect their property as well. That property is the basis of their income -- and not all IP companies are unsympathetic, multinational corporations like Microsoft. Many, many small companies, authors, and artists depend on their IP for an income. Understanding your opponent is the first step to converting an enemy to a friend. As it stands now, the confrontational attitude of many free software advocates is counterproductive. The more adversarial "free" software advocates act, the more companies will use money and law to protect themselves. This isn't about right-and-wrong, it's about power. That, perhaps, is the most painful lesson I learned in my years as an activist. It doesn't matter if Microsoft *should* have been convicted in the U.S. anti-trust suite -- that *fact* is, they got away with it. It doesn't matter if every international court said that my friends were being mistreated by the U.S. government -- because the U.S. government could safely ignore those courts. If "right" wants to win out over "wrong", it must find power. If you don't have money or political clout, you need to find power elsewhere. But simply claiming "I'm right" -- even if you are -- isn't going to stop the corporate steamroller from flattening your band wagon. -- Scott Robert Ladd Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com) Professional programming for science and engineering; Interesting and unusual bits of very free code.