[Fsfe-ie] Call for mutual support between European and US advocates

[Aidan Delaney]

Hey all,
	I'd actually reverse the order of these points turning 
On Wed, 2004-10-20 at 19:04 +0100, Malcolm Tyrrell wrote:
> 1) the right to own fully-functional computers;
> 2) the right to make flexible use of published information; and
> 3) the right to express logic in code freely.

into 
1) the right to express logic in code freely,
2) the right to make flexible use of published information, and
3) the right to own fully-functional computers.

The first right (IMHO) is the right to freedom of speech and,
specifically, to express mathematics or more specifically to express
statements in the lambda calculus in a non-Church'ian notation.

The second right probably shouldn't be a right (IMHO) as it's covered by
a producers copy allowance (copyright seems a strange term when talking
about rights).  Producers copy allowance is reasonable if it's not the
length it currently is and there were other legal protections (the type
Stallman talks about, having different length producer copy allowances
for different types of products) and if copyright couldn't be claimed on
source code unless it's actually published (It's a trade secret until
then).

The third right is a function of the marketplace and as such I don't
think it should be a right at all.  Any reasonable computer will be an
implementation of a Turing machine.  I presume these guys are trying to
get at the TCPA style devices.  It should (IMHO) never be a right to own
a non-TCPA computer; customers should demand it.

I don't want to modify Malcom's nice wiki page with my opinion, I'm just
putting it out for debate.  I do agree with Seth's "hard-line" approach
to SW patents; they suck, they're a barrier to free speech and they're a
protection for mathematics (something we've always considered we
discovered, not invented).

-- 
Aidan Delaney   email: adelaney at cs.may.ie
                web:   http://www.cs.may.ie/~adelaney
                gpg:   http://www.cs.may.ie/~adelaney/public_key.asc
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