Why is there such a rush of governments, the U.N., and so many others already pledging support for this initiative? It sounds like it could be a good idea, but shouldn't people wait to see whether the thing actually works? They have a whole boatload of new, innovative features like automatic peer-to-peer wireless, their own specialized Linux software, etc. -- surely it'll take time to work out the kinks...

But with free software (especially with smaller projects), the authors generally are the ones distributing it. Obviously new projects have to start from somewhere, and this generally means low-cost hosting controlled by the author. This law would make it difficult for anybody to release a GPL product because the moment it shows up on the web, it has effectively been distributed and subject to the same liabilities as any commercial software. This makes it easy for anybody to shut down such a project through a lawsuit or even the threat of a lawsuit (why should I defend a project which isn't yet widely used anyways?)