[Tfug] Shameless Software Trafficking (Wildly OT)

[Malcolm Schmerl]

Marco Savo wrote:
> Well, I just wanted to point out how easily we accept  the copyright 
> philosophy, and how the copyright is going to extend far after what 
> traditionally stands for copyright material. Copyright livestock, was 
> unthinkable and unacceptable from your ancestors. Or either Amazon 
> that erase the bought version of 1984 from the kindle, it is like 
> stores came to your house to pick up books they didn't had the right 
> to sell you and destroy all material you have.
> Do you think this it's not a topic of FREE and OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE?
>
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 8:00 AM, johngalt1 <johngalt1 at uswest.net 
> <mailto:johngalt1 at uswest.net>> wrote:
>
>     Sounds like a reasonable request... But out of curiosity...
>     You object to what? This thread was labeled OT.
>     Could it be the:
>
>     Irrelevant subject headers in your mail reader?
>
>     Deleting the offending posts...(after reading them)
>
>     What could it be?
>
>
>     ----- Original Message ----- From: "Angus Scott-Fleming"
>     <angussf at geoapps.com <mailto:angussf at geoapps.com>>
>     To: "Tucson Free Unix Group" <tfug at tfug.org <mailto:tfug at tfug.org>>
>     Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 9:01 PM
>
>     Subject: Re: [Tfug] Shameless Software Trafficking (Wildly OT)
>
>
>         Can we please drop the non-FOSS discussions, especially those
>         about M$ and
>         enviro-politics?
>
>         --
>         Angus Scott-Fleming
>         GeoApps, Tucson, Arizona
>         1-520-290-5038
>         +-----------------------------------+
>
>
>
>
>         _______________________________________________
>         Tucson Free Unix Group - tfug at tfug.org <mailto:tfug at tfug.org>
>         Subscription Options:
>         http://www.tfug.org/mailman/listinfo/tfug_tfug.org
>
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Tucson Free Unix Group - tfug at tfug.org <mailto:tfug at tfug.org>
>     Subscription Options:
>     http://www.tfug.org/mailman/listinfo/tfug_tfug.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tucson Free Unix Group - tfug at tfug.org
> Subscription Options:
> http://www.tfug.org/mailman/listinfo/tfug_tfug.org
>   
Let's face it, the old copyright laws are obsolete in the digital age. I 
have many CD's copied to my hard drive. I'm sure that's technically 
illegal even though many of them I've purchased, though many were 
borrowed or checked out from the library. In spite of the illegality, 
Ubuntu supplies excellent software to copy and play CDs on my computer. 
Isn't something just a little hypocritical here?

I do know of instances where artists have tried using other models for 
distributing their wares. /Radiohead/, for example, made their last 
album downloadable to anyone for whatever they wanted to pay, even 
nothing. They actually did much better than they would have through 
traditional channels. The /Grateful Dead/ records all their albums as 
live concerts, has one technician do the mixing on a laptop and produces 
the CDs themselves which they sell very reasonably by mail order.

What is needed are new business models for intellectual property. In the 
final analysis, the business model is what makes Windows so 
objectionable. By mid-2010 Google is coming out with its own operating 
system, Chrome OS. It will be open-source and possibly free. They claim 
it was built from the ground up with the Internet in mind. This may well 
be the last coffin nail for Windows. Google will then be able to offer 
all sorts of services from office suites to tax programs to storage over 
the Internet for a nominal fee. Businesses will no longer need fancy 
computers, just machines that are good enough to connect to the 
Internet. Everybody wins with this new model, except Microsoft.