[sclug] Cheap'n'nasty Tesco Linux machines

[Jason Rivers]

is it me or have we drifted off topic a little....?


On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 6:51 PM, Alex Butcher <lug at assursys.co.uk> wrote:

> On Mon, 17 Mar 2008, Tom Carbert-Allen wrote:
>
> > originator? does someone claim title to the concept of open source
> software?
> > If so, I don't accept this. Are you talking about this Eric Raymond
> bloke
> > that someone else mentioned?
>
> Yup. Eric and Bruce Perens founded the Open Source Initiative in 1998.
> Before then, it was all Free Software, Freeware, Public Domain and
> Shareware. Eric wanted a term that didn't have some of the connotations of
> 'Free Software' which might deter business from getting involved. The term
> 'open source' did exist before then, but in an entirely different context
> -
> the use of publicly available information (e.g. newspapers) for
> Intelligence
> purposes.
>
> > Personally I describe myself as an anarchist, but don't have the
> academic
> > knowledge of politcal systems to label my particular branch of
> anarchism. As
> > by and large learning this was of no benefit to me. I tend to develop a
> > variation of my beliefs for each interaction anyway.
> >
> > If you guys think communism has a bad name, try telling people you are
> an
> > anachist then defend yourself....
>
> Actually, that's the only reason I dropped the names of Bakunin and
> Proudhon! Everyone thinks anarchists are a bunch of petrol-bomb throwing,
> flag-waving, balaclava-wearing black-clad hooligans. Well, they're right
> about the black-clad in this case... :-)
>
> > I was pondering on the idea of setting a maximum time limit on copyright
> > though? Maybe 0.5-3 years depending on the type of software? Does that
> work?
>
> There are limits to the terms of the protections provided by copyright,
> patent and trademark legislation. Generally, powerful owners repeatedly
> seek
> to have them extended. I think any fixed term enshrined in (generally
> slow-changing) legislation is probably a bodge, and at the risk of
> complicating an already complicated system, I'd like to see what would
> happen if an attempt was made to make the system self-tuning; say, by
> making
> the term of protection proportional to the annual growth in the median
> number of creative works per capita within that class. As that measure
> goes
> down, the term of protection is extended so as to (hopefully) stimulate
> production, and vice versa. Of course, just like inflation, setting the
> 'ideal' rate of growth would be more of an art than a science...
>
> > TCA
>
> 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>
>