[Linux-aus] Re: DMCA on slashdot

[Janet Hawtin]

> > Funny really, every "pirate" I know of is a Windows user, yet Linux is
> > perceived as the OS of choice for "pirates" by the sheep, er, general
> > public, if they have even heard of it.

This is actually an interesting point.
It could be argued that the model MS uses where there is the company
with all the rights and the users with restricted rights generates
piracy out of the people who try to get more than basic rights.

Open source on the other hand creates an environment where people who
have more skill or interest or want to make something do something
customised are legally free to do so. It is channeled constructively.
There is little point in piracy.

Further restrictive DRM laws actually build the walls higher and moats
deeper that differentiate between company and user and are likely to
generate more rather than fewer pirates. Mind you when a parent is a
pirate for reading an ebook aloud to a child it will need to be a
large gaol.

Which leaves us back at square one where it is obvious that the real
goal of the DMCA is about shutting down competitors and crippling the
basic freedoms legitimate users have with paper books because they
fear that people being able to share information peer to peer makes
them irrelevant.
Which may be so. But an old fashioned business model should not be
able to make the rest of the world outlaws.

/me stops preaching to the converted and heads out to walk the talk.