> Profit incentive is only one of the reasons for innovation. > > The industry did not invent services like the World Wide Web or > Napster, nor did they invent Linux - still they exist.
Exactly, not all software companies have the money to protect themselfes by and against patent/copyright-lawsuits. M$ tries to crack OS development exactly this way, and the next time their anti-thrust lawsuit will be decided, that is a very important thing for OS movement as well as other software companies. > The major reason for innovation is the need for a solution of an > existing problem. If the industry doesn't offer the devices and > services their customers want to have, people will build them on their > own. There is one perfectly legal thing we all around the world can do about: Don't buy any of these devices, talk to your friends neighbors and so on, discuss the implications, the price/service relation. The same thing applies for _any_ piece of hardware - do not buy unless they support open source. PW is almost bankrupt anyway, despite the high prices - that tells us something about the prices in near future...and DVD's are _way_ to expensive too, IMHO. Why can they do that - only because of the trick with the patents! Why do you think the quality of free-tv has become so bad? Because the PayTV broadcasters buy away any good movies, and in the case it's the same company - they just try to make more money out of the same things to broadcast. So hold on just a bit longer and free-tv will become better again. The time PayTV becomes 5 to 10 times cheaper because of enough competition i will eventually reconsider. Finally - maybe there will once be a FreeFilmFoundation, which will have it's own producers, actors, technics, ... to make good and free movies. The basics are already there - software for that is available under GPL. -just my opinion- -- Info: To unsubscribe send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe linux-dvb" as subject.
