On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 07:15:48PM -0500, Hugo Haas wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 15, 2001, Ian Jacobs wrote:
> > "Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating-system chief, Jim
> > Allchin, says that freely distributed software code such as rival
> > Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to
> > understand the threat."
> >
> > ...
> >
> > "I'm an American, I believe in the American Way,'' he said.

I found this excellent related article from Stallman last week:

http://scriptingnews.userland.com/stories/storyReader$1135

| Stallman: The GNU GPL and the American Way
| by Richard Stallman.
|
| Microsoft describes the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) as
| an "open source" license, and says it is against the American
| Way. To understand the GNU GPL, and recognize how it embodies the
| American Way, you must first be aware that the GPL was not
| designed for open source.
|
| The Open Source Movement, which was launched in 1998, aims to
| develop powerful, reliable software and improved technology, by
| inviting the public to collaborate in software development. Many
| developers in that movement use the GNU GPL, and they are welcome
| to use it. But the ideas and logic of the GPL cannot be found in
| the Open Source Movement. They stem from the deeper goals and
| values of the Free Software Movement.
|
| The Free Software Movement was founded in 1984, but its
| inspiration comes from the ideals of 1776: freedom, community,
| and voluntary cooperation. This is what leads to free enterprise,
| to free speech, and to free software.
|
| As in "free enterprise" and "free speech", the "free" in "free
| software" refers to freedom, not price; specifically, it means
| that you have the freedom to study, change, and redistribute the
| software you use. These freedoms permit citizens to help
| themselves and help each other, and thus participate in a
| community. This contrasts with the more common proprietary
| software, which keeps users helpless and divided: the inner
| workings are secret, and you are prohibited from sharing the
| program with your neighbor. Powerful, reliable software and
| improved technology are useful byproducts of freedom, but the
| freedom to have a community is important in its own right.
|
| We could not establish a community of freedom in the land of
| proprietary software where each program had its lord. We had to
| build a new land in cyberspace--the free software GNU operating
| system, which we started writing in 1984. In 1991, when GNU was
| almost finished, the kernel Linux written by Linus Torvalds
| filled the last gap; soon the free GNU/Linux system was
| available. Today millions of users use GNU/Linux and enjoy the
| benefits of freedom and community.
|
| I designed the GNU GPL to uphold and defend the freedoms that
| define free software--to use the words of 1776, it establishes
| them as inalienable rights for programs released under the GPL.
| It ensures that you have the freedom to study, change, and
| redistribute the program, by saying that nobody is authorized to
| take these freedoms away from you by redistributing the program.
|
| For the sake of cooperation, we encourage others to modify and
| extend the programs that we publish. For the sake of freedom, we
| set the condition that these modified versions of our programs
| must respect your freedom just like the original version. We
| encourage two-way cooperation by rejecting parasites: whoever
| wishes to copy parts of our software into his program must let us
| use parts of that program in our programs. Nobody is forced to
| join our club, but those who wish to participate must offer us
| the same cooperation they receive from us.  That makes the system
| fair.
|
| Millions of users, tens of thousands of developers, and companies
| as large as IBM, Intel, and Sun, have chosen to participate on
| this basis.  But some companies want the advantages without the
| responsibilities.
|
| From time to time, companies have said to us, "We would make an
| improved version of this program if you allow us to release it
| without freedom." We say, "No thanks--your improvements might be
| useful if they were free, but if we can't use them in freedom,
| they are no good at all." Then they appeal to our egos, saying
| that our code will have "more users" inside their proprietary
| programs. We respond that we value our community's freedom more
| than an irrelevant form of popularity.
|
| Microsoft surely would like to have the benefit of our code
| without the responsibilities. But it has another, more specific
| purpose in attacking the GNU GPL. Microsoft is known generally
| for imitation rather than innovation. When Microsoft does
| something new, its purpose is strategic--not to improve computing
| for its users, but to close off alternatives for them.
|
| Microsoft uses an anticompetitive strategy called "embrace and
| extend". This means they start with the technology others are
| using, add a minor wrinkle which is secret so that nobody else
| can imitate it, then use that secret wrinkle so that only
| Microsoft software can communicate with other Microsoft software.
| In some cases, this makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft
| program when others you work with use a Microsoft program. In
| other cases, this makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft
| program for job A if you use a Microsoft program for job B.
| Either way, "embrace and extend" magnifies the effect of
| Microsoft's market power.
|
| No license can stop Microsoft from practicing "embrace and
| extend" if they are determined to do so at all costs. If they
| write their own program from scratch, and use none of our code,
| the license on our code does not affect them. But a total rewrite
| is costly and hard, and even Microsoft can't do it all the time.
| Hence their campaign to persuade us to abandon the license that
| protects our community, the license that won't let them say,
| "What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine." They want us to
| let them take whatever they want, without ever giving anything
| back. They want us to abandon our defenses.
|
| But defenselessness is not the American Way. In the land of the
| brave and the free, we defend our freedom with the GNU GPL.
|
| Addendum: Microsoft says that the GPL is against "intellectual
| property rights." I have no opinion on "intellectual property
| rights," because the term is too broad to have a sensible opinion
| about. It is a catch-all, covering copyrights, patents,
| trademarks, and other disparate areas of law; areas so different,
| in the laws and in their effects, that any statement about all of
| them at once is surely simplistic. To think intelligently about
| copyrights, patents or trademarks, you must think about them
| separately. The first step is declining to lump them together as
| "intellectual property".
|
| My views about copyright take an hour to expound, but one general
| principle applies: it cannot justify denying the public important
| freedoms. As Abraham Lincoln put it, "Whenever there is a
| conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights
| must prevail." Property rights are meant to advance human
| well-being, not as an excuse to disregard it.
|
| Copyright 2001 Richard Stallman
| Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are
| permitted in any medium without royalty provide the copyright
| notice and this notice are preserved.

(unfortunately, UserLand/Winer isn't very clear about where this
article came from: when it was written, if it was copied there from
elsewhere, etc. I can't find any references to it on slashdot or
the gnu web site.)

If I had seen this article a day or two earlier I could have asked
Stallman about it in person because I saw him outside the 'tute
when I was buying food from the trucks. :)

> [..]
>
> Now I don't understand what "the American Way" is.
>
> After watching the Simpsons, my understanding was that the American
> way was to do a half-assed job:
>
> - From Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala-D'oh-cious (episode 3G03[1]):
>
>              Shary: If there's a task that must be done,
>                     Don't turn your tail and run,
>                     Don't pout, don't sob,
>                     Just do a half-assed job!
>
>                     If... you... cut every corner
>                     It is really not so bad,
>                     Everybody does it,
>                     Even mom and dad.
>                     If nobody sees it,
>                     Then nobody gets mad,
>               Bart: It's the American way!

>   1. http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3G03.html

:)

That episode was on Fox last night at 11pm...

--
Gerald Oskoboiny <[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/