French Government Lobbied to Ban Free Software

[Sam Liddicott]

Rui Miguel Silva Seabra wrote:

>On Fri, 2005-12-02 at 08:13 +0000, Sam Liddicott wrote:
>  
>
>>Well I propose that software includes calls to validation scripts to
>>implement such measures, and that such scripts be specifiable by
>>environment variables in order to upgrade such scripts to provide the
>>er.. latest enforcement that is avilable.
>>
>>That would meet the requirements of the law? Which seemed to suggest
>>that ir was lack of control that was objectionable.
>>    
>>
>
>Can you modify the variable to use a script that always returns true?
>Yes.
>
>Then that strategy is likely illegal under that law.
>  
>

How sure are you that the law writers have sense?
How about LD_PRELOAD and chums?
There are too many ways to patch after distrbution such checks.
There is no working DRM scheme yet apart from XBOX 360.

Let the OS developers do their best to protect authors rights, the fact
that they know their best is not good enough is not the point (unlike
makers of proprietary software who make money out of claiming their DRM
is good enough).

I'm only partly serious

Sam

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