Carroll Grigsby wrote: > >Well, the long-awaited report was released yesterday... for a while. It was >originally posted at >www.adti.net/html-files/defense/opensource_whitepaper.pdf, but was taken down >after a few hours. I'm told that it can still be found on their server at >www.adti.net/html-files/defense/old_opensource_whitepaper.pdf. It's crap, >pure and simple; it's only interesting as an example of MS FUD at its worst. >The most polite term for these guys is "whores". A brilliant rebuttal is at >www.roaringpenguin.com/adti2.php3 -- well worth a read. >Think tank? I think not. >
One part that I found true, though, was the following: > The success of an A-Z open source environment would expectedly impact > the software sector as a viable entity. If software is freely > available, but PC s, servers and hardware maintain their value, we can > only predict that the value of software companies will plummet. > Hardware will come with more and more free software. What many in the FS/OS world don't realise is that challenging the notion of intellectual property must lead to challenging the notion of physical property. All you are doing with with physical property is taking raw materials (which by rights are common to all) and adding your labour (see John Locke for the classical statement of this position). With intellectual property, you're doing the same thing without the raw materials (which are irrelevant, since they don't morally belong to anyone). In other words, Free Speech = Free Beer. I think I'll start a Free Beer Foundation. Sir Robin the Commie
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