Journal Journal: RE: Shakedown: How the BSA Operates
Open Source is the new Communism as far as many high-powered capitalist Americans are concerned.
That being said, Bill Gates seems to have stepped up to take McCarthy's place. The BSA is just another segment of the witch hunt that would hardly be necessary had the software business gone a different philosophical/business-model route long ago.
Don't forget, kids, software development is around 30 years older than Bill Gates would have you believe. Microsoft time begins on January 1, 1980 (try setting your Windows clock back to 1950). Unix time begins on January 1, 1970.. 1954 is the year Alan Turing died (that says a lot about how computers were already ancient before they were even high tech), the IBM 650 magnetic drum calculator became a sellable item, the FORTRAN language was first developed, and the year Apple Computer started their clocks on pre-OSX machines (I'm told this is actually because Steve Wozniak was born in 1954).
IMHO, rather than performing a public service, the BSA is more like a set of Congressional hearings bent on finding communists--fueled by the RIAA and Microsoft. Those two entities are performing the exact opposite functions than they seem to have intended when they were formed--protect artists and take software back for the little guy ("micro" is the first part of Microsoft, right?).
Another extension to the BSA/RIAA/GATES nonsense is the DMCA. Read that sometime! After you scan through that, do a search on Slashdot or Google for it. There are lots of court cases brought upon more or less undeserving individuals over the DMCA because individual rights in the US were warped by this law.
What can you do?
READ software licenses. You don't have to become a lawyer.. Just try to catch the big words.. If there's something that sounds shady, then it PROBABLY IS.
Here is a list (short) of what I call "safe licenses" (the BSA can't trounce you for installing software under these licenses--whether you're a corporation or not):
GPL
Copyleft (aka LGPL)
BSD One | Two
More great software license-related reads here.
Want a simpler place to start? Try here.
I'm almost leading into another rant here, but I need to say something on this semi-related topic... Software companies do not care about you, the user, in general. It's a fact. They're trying to create/recreate a business model that will make them money by selling you something. Remember that phrase: "selling you something."
Selling? You may hear at times what sound like sales pitches from the Open Source/Linux community, but those pitches are just personal preferences/passions that start the infamous flame wars (over things like, "which console text editor is better: VI, EMACS, or Pico?"). Hardly anything beyond books and certifications will cost you money in the Open Source Community. The only other resource required to learn just about anything is T-I-M-E. Time spent reading. Time spent coding. Time spent talking about and loving technology. Freedom of speech is inherently needed for these goals/pastimes.
If you don't want to be a developer and code your own software (or recode someone else's--that's allowed with Open Source!), then install the software you like that's available. If you don't see something available that you think would be a useful tool/program, then talk about it.. Someone may have already created it or someone might stay up many hours to crank it out--just for the fun of it.
More interesting reads/scours: One | Two | Three | Four | Five
Btw, according to this definition of McCarthyism, Folks might need to be reminded of the Halloween Letters (sorry.. having a *hard* time trying to find anyone that still has the Halloween Letters published).
