[Gllug] amongst the maddness

[Bruce Richardson]

On Sat, Sep 15, 2001 at 01:26:24PM +0100, sean at uncertainty.org.uk wrote:
> in  the UK most people who might describe themselves as libertarians
> would probably say that carrying guns reduces the liberty of those who
> get shot more than it increases the liberty of those who carry guns

Then they shouldn't call themselves libertarians, the definition is
quite clear.  Such libertarian movements in the UK as I am aware of
(tiny that they are) are pretty close to the US ones in attitude.
> 
> as far as RMS is concerned I see him as a bit of a mad genius

Ah, suddenly this goes right back on topic;)

RMS isn't a libertarian - ESR is but RMS definitely isn't.  You often
see US geeks of a libertarian bent calling RMS a communist, not that
political tags map at all well onto the arena of technology.

> - I think he has started something incredible but I feel he no longer
> helps further the aims of open source that I care most about - he is
> far to fundamentalist for my taste and certainly seems to scare of a
> lot of techies who are curios about open source.

He's always been as he is - over the top, taking everything personally
and retaliating in kind.  And yet the Free Software/Open Source movement
grew, with a very large debt to RMS and GNU.

Many balk at the way RMS treats Free Software as an issue of basic
rights.  Yet licensing, copyright and intellectual property are hot
topics in my area of work (International Development).  We work with
people in developing nations who are (for example) trying to obtain
cheap generic drugs to treat HIV/Aids or struggling to prevent global
pharmacuetical companies from patenting their long-used herbal remedies.
Intellectual property issues are about more than one-click shopping on
Amazon.  Sometimes they kill.

In that context, the concept of CopyLeft is of great interest since it
offers a way to work within established intellectual property laws
without further disadvantaging those who start out with few resources.

RMS is just part of a broader movement: you can always play with the
Open Source Initiative if you don't like FSF (mind you, ESR is himself a
card-carrying fruitcake).

But if RMS and the FSF are so destructive, perhaps you could tell me
what is wrong with this:

http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/rtlinux-patent.html

-- 
Bruce

What would Edward Woodward do?
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