[CS-FSLUG] OT: A war against the freedom to innovate

[Don Parris]

On Apr 8, 2005 11:20 AM, Fred A. Miller <fmiller at lightlink.com> wrote:
> "Stanford law professor and free software advocate Lawrence Lessig called on
> the open source community to stand up and fight or risk being buried by
> patent-wielding legacy businesses with arsenals of powerful lawyers. "There
> is a war against the freedom to innovate and this community has done way too
> little to resist," Lessig said. "I am a puny, independent law professor. If
> you are depending on me [to fight the war] you are hopeless and lost," he
> added.
> 
> He pointed to Microsoft, which he said could spend more than anyone could
> imagine in defense of what he called its monopoly, primarily through arming
> itself with lawyers and defending its patents. "Microsoft believes a form of
> property [patents] to be their saving grace. There is a huge sucking sound as
> Microsoft fills its arsenal with lawyers," Lessig said during a keynote at
> the Open Source Business Conference.
> 
> According to Lessig, big, bad Microsoft wants to lock out competition, and the
> open source--what Lessig likes to call "free software"-- community is the
> anti-monopoly. Despite the fact that Microsoft has mostly used its patents
> defensively so far, the company could switch to offense, he said."
> 
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/index.php?p=1247&tag=nl.e539
> 
> --
> The only bug free software from MickySoft is still shrink-wrapped
> in their warehouse..."
> 
> _______________________________________________

Has anyone on this list read Lessig's "Free Culture"? or Stallman's
"Free Software, Free Society"?  I just got a copy of "Free Culture"
and am still in the early chapters.  But it is thus far very
intriguing.  Based on my research thus far, I would have to agree with
Lessig's assessment in this article.  This also goes back to
Stallman's philophical views, on which free software is built. 
Anyway, software patents are a travesty.

Don
-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
Free software is like God's love - 
you can share it with anyone anywhere anytime!