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[Gnu-arch-users] OT: Slavery???


From: Parker, Ron
Subject: [Gnu-arch-users] OT: Slavery???
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 10:15:25 -0600

> From: Stephen J. Turnbull [mailto:address@hidden

> >>>>> "Tom" == Tom Lord <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>     > From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" <address@hidden>
> 
>     > Ie, that people have a lot of hostility toward BK and Larry
>     > McVoy.
> 
> 
>             The spirit of the Bitkeeper license is the spirit of the
>             whip hand. It is the spirit that says, "You have no right
>             to use Bitkeeper, only temporary privileges that we can
>             revoke. Be grateful that we allow you to use Bitkeeper. Be
>             grateful, and don't do anything we dislike, or we may
>             revoke those privileges." It is the spirit of proprietary
>             software. Every non-free license is designed to control
>             the users more or less. Outrage at this spirit is the
>             reason for the free software movement. (By contrast, the
>             open source movement prefers to play down this same
>             outrage.)
> 
>       --Richard M. Stallman
> 
>     Tom> Reasonably,
> 
> Anyone who deliberately equates intellectual property with slavery has
> abandoned reason and embraced demagogery.  A slave cannot say "no" to
> his owner, no, not even at the cost of substantial inconvenience in
> contributing to Linux.  He says "no" to his owner at his life's peril.

I usually follow your logic, but I must have missed the antecedent slavery
reference with respect to "intellectual property".  The closest reference I
was able to find was an RMS interview at
http://www.batasayti.freeservers.com/catalog.html, wherein he likens certain
jobs in "enterprise zones" to slavery.  A statement which would certainly be
true of many factory jobs in China and other countries with a non-Western
perspective on human rights.  I realize this is not a popular statement,
although true.  Stallman's comment came up as part of an answer to a
question about the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) Agreement, but had nothing to do directly with IP.

Could please fill in my mental gaps in your argument?




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