MS gain FUD if SCO lose [LWN.net]

MS gain FUD if SCO lose

Posted May 20, 2003 14:48 UTC (Tue) by rknop (guest, #66)
In reply to: MS gain FUD if SCO lose by allesfresser
Parent article: The fear war against Linux (News.com)

While I fully agree with your sentiments, unfortunately most of the world doesn't.

In fact, most of the world-- or at least most of this country (USA)-- doens't have a clue about the issues. If anything, they think "intellectual property means protecting the rights of creators and is good for business and therefore is good for the economy so therefore we have to protect it", mostly because that's the line they've been fed by the media and by various politicians who get a lot of campaign donations from the media.

There's already a House caucus on "strengthening" intellectual property (which in my view needs strengthening about as much as anti-communistic activities needed strengthening back in the McCarthy years). The leader of that has said bad things about the GPL in the past.

It's not very much of a stretch to envision a world where the GPL becomes effectively outlawed by future copyright law in the USA, if the GPL is what makes SCO lose this case. MS and a lot of other powerful lobbyists would love to "strengthen" intellectual property law in this way (since after all cross-licencing and proprietary software is the fertile ground on which the technological marvels of today grew, or so we are supposed to believe), and most of the world has no clue how much this strengthening is going to cost them. We already have truly insane laws like the DMCA and (in some states) the super-DMCA, and the CPDTPA has been taken seriously. If you think insane legislation won't pass, you aren't paying attention. Sure, the courts *should* throw out any anti-GPL copyright laws, but will they? I wouldn't count on it. If MS and others can make a case that sounds good to Congress and to the common man that, however specious, says "the GPL is destroying intellectual property and therefore American business", you'd better believe that various congresscritters and presidents are going to line up to "do something about this danger to our country".

-Rob

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MS gain FUD if SCO lose

Posted May 20, 2003 15:06 UTC (Tue) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link] (3 responses)

Well, yes, all that is true... but then I guess the USA will just keep sliding farther behind the rest of the world in technology, won't it? Do you think the hackers in India, Brazil, et. al. particularly want the USA to be always in front? I daresay they (we?) wouldn't mind if the jingoists got humbled once in a while. If MS wants to squander the US technology industry and give it away for the sake of more money for them, then I guess the rest of the world will gladly take the lead (and the future).

MS gain FUD if SCO lose

Posted May 20, 2003 18:18 UTC (Tue) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]

As an American, I hope you're right. Meanwhile, we're too busy driving around in SUV's with American flags flying off of them (and pictures of bald eagles on the windows) to worry about such things.

MS gain FUD if SCO lose

Posted May 20, 2003 20:42 UTC (Tue) by bcw1000 (guest, #11345) [Link] (1 responses)

Maybe. Our PM, Helen Clark, is working hard to get Free Trade agreements with the US - many countries are. This often requires dependent agreements on legal issues.

So, the legal climate in the US can strongly influence other countries via the markets. The market decides, and if the strongest market is the US...

I don't like it, but smaller, poorer countries don't have much to sell to each other to rely on without the "US centric" global economy.

MS gain FUD if SCO lose

Posted May 22, 2003 14:13 UTC (Thu) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link]

Tragic, innit?

The strange thing is, by being the world's trade clearing-house and having all commodities denominated in dollars, the USA is actually utterly dependent on the rest of the world. If only we were to trade in something else (euros, or gold), America would be humbled.

I got a spam advertising septic tank equipment the other day... I thought it was a joke email from Australia. But no, it was an American spam, advertising septic tank equipment.

Jonathan