[AktiviX-discuss] Re: GPL for the AktiviX wiki?

[MJ Ray]

On 2004-07-21 16:37:02 +0100 mp at fsc.cc wrote:

> (i) I am not sure that the AktiviX Wiki is *mainly* about software at 
> all, is
> it?

That was my impression from looking at it. I could be wrong.

> (ii) From my perspective it is an act of severely muddling issues to 
> claim 
> that "all information that it is residing in a computer is 
> *software*".

Most of the claims otherwise seem to be muddling the ideas of form and 
function. Here's a quote I like about why: "We can't depend for the 
long run on distinguishing one bitstream from another in order to 
figure out which rules apply." Eben Moglen, FSF's general counsel, in 
"Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright" 
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_8/moglen/index.html

> This is the
> line that Debian has taken, I understand, but I think it is nonsense. 
> Text and
> literature is text and literature, and NOT software, IMHO.

Text can be software, the same as text can be ink on paper. It's just 
a form, an instance.

> Is the Bible
> software just because it is ditigised and stored on a HDD?

Yes, or at least the copy on the HDD is.

> I just dont get this
> idea at all....... in an even more digital future everything is 
> software then?

I'm not sure. Probably more things will be available as software. This 
is part of why I think it is important to request the same freedoms to 
use, improve, redistribute and distribute improvements, even when 
software producers try to tell us that discrimination is fair, whether 
against groups of people or fields of use.

> And finally: I think that the GPL is a good thing for software, but I 
> don#t 
> see
> how it is *GOOD* for the GPL to be extended directly to other 
> domains...just 
> am i am not sure that it is a good idea to extend otehr domains into 
> software/GPL.

I hope your collaborators in Aktivix react to your concerns.

-- 
MJR/slef    My Opinion Only and not of any group I know
http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing
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