(no subject)

[silveradept]

Getting off to a proper start, it's a bit of a Seussical day, according to eleme, who says that Dr. Seuss would be one-hundred-two were he still alive today. We still miss his writing style.

Breaking down the enforcement of anti-piracy laws, Free Software like Mozilla Firefox recently gave someone a headache when merchants were selling copies of the available-for-free browser. The difficulty was hat the people who are selling the software are within their rights to do so, according to the licensing agreement. If I recall rightly, the GPL is about source code access and concerns itself with ensuring that anyone can add to the source and that the source is available for free. Now, someone can add a segment to their own version of the GPL that states that no profit can be made off of the distribution of the software, and that is enforceable. Where proprietary software makers would add that segment immediately, along with all the usual "you cannot reverse-engineer this, nor obtain its source, nor add or subtract anything from it, period." that goes into that sort of thing. Might be that the cost of the browser is paying for the media used to create it, or the cost of the shipping of the CDs to the locale. Nothing in the GPL prevents that, either, if I recall correctly. It's just considered to be good practice in a lot of places and across the Free Software world that if you can release it for free as in beer, it's a good idea to do so. After all, if you're following the GPL, they can get your source and compile it themselves for their own systems. (Which is why you're seeing the model change - charge for tech support or for incremental updates or for new features and cool things for the software. Those can be non-GPL things and placed under the "proprietary" lock and key.) Maybe we'll watch priacy laws crumble and have to be reinterpreted to deal with things like the GPL. That would be cool to see. Then, maybe, we can figure out an equitable way of doing business.

I can imagine G.W. Bush doing a tennyspin on the piece of news that says the Patriot Act will be renewed, although I think with a few different provisions enabled and some rules tightened. Still, I see G.W. spinning about going "freedomfreedomfreedomfreedom" with joy. Thanks for that image, urbankotq. It's enjoyable.

Others are calling the charade for what it is, and picketing the White House, requesting U.N. assistance to get rid of the dictators in the White House. We hope they get a good spot where they can be effective and that nobody protesting gets hurt or shot at (Dick might be trying to improve his aim).

While the opposition marshals itself, someone in the GOP pulled a few strings and directed an IRS audit at a group that blew the whistle on DeLay. The group came back clean on the audit. Trying to shame them and discredit them to protect DeLay, possibly? Possibly. Just another strange thing in the story vault.

Oh, yes, and despite what the President said, they were predicting that the levees would break. There were plans and things before the hurricane hit, yet things still turned out as badly as they did. Something's just not right with that. Although, we can chalk up another fib told to the public about big events. What's the count at now, or is it too big to count now?

The last thing is an interesting experiment to try with yourself. Stolen from his journal, fred_smith asks us to grab our interdimensional scooper and find out what's in the multiverse:

Here's the game: All players have an inter-dimensional scooper like the one's on AlternateHistory.com who I stole this idea from. With it, you can pick things up from parallel dimensions. Mostly, what you get is random. The game is: Get cool stuff.

So what do you find on your trip through alternate history?

Comments

[alfedenzo.livejournal.com]

Under the GPL (Version 2, which I'm more familiar with, but I believe it's the same under Version 3), you're allowed to charge for the binaries. However, you must either provide the source code along with the binaries, a 3-year warranty to provide the source code for at most a nominal cost to cover physical costs, or provide information on how to obtain the source code (if you received the software like this). You are not obligated to provide the source code to anybody to whom you have not also provided the binaries (except as above).

Also, the GPL states that you're allowed to charge for it, so you can't add a restriction saying that you can't. Of course, since anybody receiving your software along with source is allowed to distribute it gratis, unless you're providing something else of value with the software, you're unlikely to make much money off of it.

Naturally, I am not a lawyer.

[locoluis.livejournal.com]

Never forget that the copyright holder has the ultimate say on how his/her code will be distributed (i.e. what license to choose).

If the copyright holder is unhappy with the idea of other people selling his/her code, then he/she should say it so in his/her license. And nobody else has the right to add or take away restrictions imposed by the copyright holder's license.

In other words, i wrote that piece of software, so the copyrights belong to me, and I said that it's to be distributed on the terms of the GPL so you don't f*ck with my code and sell it as your own because my code is GPL and you can't change that.

[alfedenzo.livejournal.com]

Certainly, the (original) copyright holder choose his or her own license to distribute the code under. They can even distribute it under multiple licenses. But if they distribute it under the unmodified GPL, other people can charge for it if they want to. There's nothing stopping the author from creating their own license that's identical to the GPL except that it prohibits charging for the program, but then it's not the GPL anymore.

Also, if you're work is derivative work of some code that you received under the GPL license, you lose the ability to add further restrictions, since for you to be allowed to use the GPL code, you have to license your modified version under the official GPL, and not your own variant.

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Well, the man says "freedom" so bleeping MUCH that he might as well just say it a dozen times at once. While spinning.

[silveradept]

I think if he did, it would finally give the American populace an accurate picture of the person elected to the office.

[yarha.livejournal.com]

freedomfreedomfreedomfreedom

Whose?

Yarha, Why Ask Why?

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Whose?

[Your query is in violation of Section 322 of the Eternal Vigialance act. Please report to your nearest Freedom Center for processing. Have a nice day! :)]

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Bah. Ruined that joke by misspelling "vigilance." ;p

[wanderingbhikkh.livejournal.com]

That ruins the joke? That's how Bush spelled it when he sent it in...

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) The picket: very interesting. One can only hope that one hears more of this, instead of it fizzling out or being supressed. One will not get one's hopes up, but... it's interesting to dream.

[silveradept]

Were such a thing to happen, I would hope it gets media coverage. I will be pleasd if it happens in the first place and draws people to it, without any other qualifications at all. I suspect suppression will happen if it gets off the ground and looks to actually be effective, though.