Re: [ox-en] [Fwd: <nettime> dossier: WIPO knuckles under on open-source software]
- From: Russell McOrmond <russell flora.ca>
- Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2003 12:59:47 -0400 (EDT)
On Tue, 7 Oct 2003, Timothy Baldwin wrote:
It is proprietary software which can not exist without intellectual property
rights, it is, by definition, intellectual property.
The only use of intellectual property of importance to free software is to
prevent non-free derived versions. Without intellectual property and with a
legal right of access to source code, all software will be free software.
Before I got involved in the Creators Rights movement and the copyright
consultation process in Canada I had the same misconception. The Free
Software movement is not at all about abolishing creators rights or
copyright, and in fact the FSF can be seen as one of the first creators
rights organizations.
(See my submission to Heritage cmtee members for more:
http://www.flora.ca/copyright2003/ )
I am curious: Do you believe that Article 27(2) of the United Nations
Declaration of Human rights should be abolished?
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
" (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and
material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic
production of which he is the author."
As a long time promoter of the Free Software movement I can tell you
that I do not. The issue of FLOSS vs non-FLOSS (saying proprietary is
incorrect as all software not in the public domain is proprietary) is a
business model issue that goes back to the 1960's historical split of
software from hardware.
Recognizing that software is not a manufactured product that must be
sold on a per-unit basis is something that many people are understanding.
We can move away from these rights-hindering business models without
abolishing creators rights. Being hostile to creators rights, however,
will hinder and not help our progress.
Abolishing currently recognized human rights is not what I think of when
I think of a "GPL society" -- quite the opposite. I do hope everyone here
will look more deeply into these conversations and not try to derail the
work that some of us are doing to get open collaborative models for the
creation of public goods into WIPO, WSIS and related international
discussions.
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
Governance software that controls ICT, automates government policy, or
electronically counts votes, shouldn't be bought any more than
politicians should be bought. -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/