Free Software / society doesn't fill laywers pockets
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| hkwint Aug 10, 2008 6:15 AM EDT |
Lawyers earn a lot from IP, this so called 'Intellectual Property'. I agree more to the term of 'Intellectual monopoly' myself. Anyway, for a lot of the lawyers (but still a minority of all lawyers), IP is the main reason they exist. Of course some of them are scared to death by a free society; because a free society in which people share is a society without Intellectual Monopolies to defend in front of a court. If there were no such a thing as software patents a lot of lawyers would become unemployed. Therefore, it is to their advantage that the world uses software coming with EULA's and patents so complex that only lawyers can make and understand them. Something like BSD licenses means the end of their job because anyone can understand the things. Lots of 'poor' co-operating people not organized in a company, working on free GPL'ed software also means the end of their job, because those people can't pay lawyers to defend their copy-left. Yeah, I saw lawyers trying to influence software so they can earn more from it before. It was in the Euro-parliament; the JURI - mainly filled with 'legal beagles'. No single programmer or IT-SMB representative or somebody with ties to them was in there, meaning they don't knew &*(^ about software at all.They had to decide about software patents. Of course they weren't interested in software at all; only in patents, and they favoured the software patents; it meant more work for them and their friends. |
| edtimar Aug 10, 2008 9:00 AM EDT |
I grew up on the streets of Chicago during the Depression. My mom would send me down to the corner tavern on Friday evenings to buy a fish and a bucket of beer. It cost 50 cents for both. I remember walking into that narrow hall with a bar that ran the entire length of the building and not being able to see the end of it because the cigar smoke was so thick. There were three types of patrons there on Friday night. There were the factory workers who gathered at the back tables. There were the professional gangsters that worked for Al Capone and there were the Ward/Precinct Politicians. I always knew the politicians. They were the ones the gangsters called "sir" and wore the nicest shoes. As I grew up to be of age I spent a short time considering a career in Chicago politics. It seemed the shortest and easiest road to wealth. There were only two problems I faced. I could not bring myself to deal with killers and I could not at any cost, consider lying to people in order to publicize a false point that I wanted others to accept as true. In reading the article by this attorney, I am a bit surprised to see one fact remain. Chicago style politics is still alive and well. In reading this, I wonder to myself who he calls "sir". Ten minutes alone with his unabridged client list would probably tell the entire story. Ed |
| gus3 Aug 10, 2008 9:03 AM EDT |
@edtimar: I strongly suggest you cross-post that to the Groklaw page. Direct link: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080809033233244 |
| edtimar Aug 10, 2008 9:58 AM EDT |
Gus, I post here from time to time simply because it is easy enough for an old man to do with his failing eye sight and the fact that a good friend advises me that no one will yell at me here for being less than knowledgeable about Linux. To be honest, it's not my thin skin that hinders me in doing as you suggest. It is the convoluted and confused layout of those comments. If you feel my comment is worthy of that company, you have my permission to quote this, although I don't really see anything valuable within it. I am flattered that you would think so. Ed |
| moopst Aug 10, 2008 10:30 AM EDT |
Did you notice that they have a link to the GPL? Ordinarily in a FUD piece like this the intent is to promote ignorance and reinforce misconceptions and as such would not have a link to a source of good information. My first reaction was that it must be a source of amusement to their lawyer audience, a human readable license - what a joke. I suspect this is aimed at those who are threatened by freedom, those who make their living representing the monied interests against the rest of society. |
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