[ale] Two awesome essays on open source and copyright

[Michael D. Hirsch]

Joseph A Knapka writes:
 > "Michael D. Hirsch" wrote:
 > > 
 > > Jeff Hubbs writes:
 > >  > Joseph A Knapka wrote:
 > >  >
 > >  > > Jeff Hubbs wrote:
 > >  > >
 > >  > >
 > >  > >>Many of these same issues and thought processes seems to have gone
 > >  > >>through the minds of the Peruvians.  Incredibly (to me, at least),
 > >  > >>right-thinking people appear to hold sway in Peru.
 > >  > >>
 > >  > >
 > >  > > Sho' 'nuf. And MicroShaft is terrified that this "viral"
 > >  > > right-thinking will spread to the US, a "danger" that
 > >  > > Dr. Nunez's letter makes all the more likely. His arguments
 > >  > > are extremely powerful, and as far as I can see they
 > >  > > simply *can't* be ignored by any government that professes
 > >  > > to operate in the best interests of its citizens.
 > >  > >
 > >  > > Cheers,
 > >  > >
 > >  > > -- Joe
 > >  >
 > >  > Roger that!  It's amazing to me that this guy is putting the country's
 > >  > big-picture interests first.  Same could be said of any country or business.
 > > 
 > > Well, I agree with one of the /. posts.  Money that the US Government
 > > spends on MS software goes to citezens and constituents.  Money that
 > > the Peruvian Government spends on MS software goes out of the
 > > country.  So MS is inherently in a stronger position in the US.  The
 > > question becomes how much influence can MS get the US to put on Peru.
 > 
 > However, as the letter points out, the money issues are
 > insignificant beside the security, interoperability, and
 > transparency issues for government software.

That's not the money I'm talking about.  I was referring to the money
in a politicians pocket.  If a politician signs a bill lowering the
income of a big spending corporation, guess who gets a lower
contribution the next year?  I betcha that MS spent less moeny in
Peru than in the US, even on a per capita basis.

On that topic, guess who spent more money than Enron lobbying the
government last year?  Guess who's spending on lobbying is growing by
orders of magnitude every year for the last few years?  They better
watch out or they may end up with an illegal monopoly on lobbyists,
too. 

 > If Peru makes a go of this and demonstrates that open-source
 > can provide reliable enterprise computing solutions on a
 > national scale, other national governments will follow. And
 > if government bodies (frequently viewed as incompetent and
 > wasteful) can pull it off, major corporations will be right
 > behind. Peru is like the tip of a chisel being inserted
 > between Microsoft and its monopoly-beholden customer base.
 > I bet there are many pairs of dirty shorts at M$ these days.

I sure hope you are right.

--Michael

---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.