Re: DRM

[Alfred M\. Szmidt]

   > Read www.gnu.org, it is clearly stated why users should have the
   > freedom to share digital information like software, and songs,
   > and why someone who wrote something shouldn't be able to dictate
   > how you use it.  A company doesn't dictate how you should use
   > your hammer, right?

   Because there is nothing special about hammers.

There is nothing special about software.

   But there is a company that says you should return the used printer
   colour and transfer films to them.

Should is not the same as `you are required by law to return this'.
You shouldn't do many things, like running around in a room with
scissors, but you can still do it if it turns you on.

   Plus the example with hammers fails in one way: you get actual
   physical hammer but you only get the right to use the software,
   which would be more like borrowing a hammer.

The example hammer actually only fails in one place, but not the on
you state: you can't duplicate them infinitly.  This is why it should
never be illegal to share digital information.

If I borrow your hammer, you can't dictate how I use it, if it is to
hammer a nail, a screw, or my foot to the wall.  If I destroy your
hammer, then I might be required to replace it.  But you can't destroy
software (unless you are _really_ _really_ persitant)

   On the other hand, the companies selling software should be bound
   by some rules that force them to make the software usable under
   sane conditions.

If you sell software, you give the party you sell the software to the
right to do anything you please, just if you'd sell a hammer.

   However, you can patent the recipe or algorithm used in your
   software so that nobody else is not allowed to use it. This may or
   may not work for some achievements but fails very miserably for
   software.  Unfortunately it is allowed in US and elsewere.

I think it is only allowed in the US, I know that it isn't allowed in
the EU.  It might be `legal' in some Asian countries, but I do not
know anything about the legal systems there.