[sclug] Cheap'n'nasty Tesco Linux machines

[Alex Butcher]

On Sat, 15 Mar 2008, Phillip Chandler wrote:

> Richard Stallman. Id read that he even refuses to have a mobile as he
> has to give information to a company about himself, and that he lives on
> site as a legit squatter ? From his own site and what Id read about him,
> I get the impression that he totally refuses to use anything that is
> closed source, proprietary etc, and to have anything that means having
> info store on any database ????

rms certainly does tend to live in ways highly consistent with his system of
beliefs and values on copyright and patents. He's very much the evangelist
for aforementioned beliefs and values, but I think he's wise enough to
realise that not everyone finds it personally acceptable to live as he does.
My comment regarding rms not being in favour of copyright and other
'intellectual property' laws being simply swept away is based upon a) the
GPL *relying* upon copyright law in order to guarantee the freedoms it
offers and b) a talk he gave in Bristol a few years back, and which I
attended. In it, he proposed that different forms of creative works be given
different types and lengths of protection. A transcript of a talk he gave in
2001 appears to be pretty similar to that which I remember attending -
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html>. Pay
particular attention to rms' three classes of creative works; functional,
philosophical and aesthetic about halfway through.

> Its unfortunate that unless your an illegal immigrant, and working for
> back-handers, then you have no way of getting away from the fact, that
> there is probably a hand full of official government databases out there
> that contain info about a person. Im talking NI number, medical records,
> voting register, DVLA, thats four databases for a start. The info about
> where you have lived and worked since leaving school is available, even
> what type of car you have driven since driving legally (You are legal
> arnt you ?).

I'm not sure why you're bringing this topic into this discussion on the
value (or otherwise) of copyright. Would you care to elaborate?

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK.                           PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
  - Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>