British Government Violates Copyright
Thu, 21/08/2008 - 2:28am — Homer
It seems that an agent acting on behalf of the British government has violated the copyright of the software it used to create the PM's spiffy new Website. As much as I utterly despise the entire premise of Intellectual Monopoly, this is about violating the principles of a Free License, and if it's good enough for the British government to violate our civil rights in the name of Intellectual Monopoly, then it's good enough for the Free World to protect its "property" (in fact Freedom) too:
After receiving many emails on the subject, it’s been brought to my attention that my NetWorker theme for Wordpress has been used by the government of the UK, and it seems they’ve not honored the copyright agreement. The theme was released under the Creative Commons 3.0 license, which requires attribution to me whether the theme is modified or not. The link that I place in the footer of each theme I have available, which points to this website, is the attribution that I expect from each website that uses that theme.
The theme has been heavily modified, and looks very different from the original. However, one look at the source files verifies that it is indeed built on NetWorker.
The website in question is apparently the official site of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and boasts protection under Crown Copyright.
~ Anthony Baggett, NetWorker developer.
GPL JMRI Beats Patent Troll Matt Katzer in Court
Fri, 15/08/2008 - 9:14am — HomerFrom the criminal-thug-gets-just-deserts dept.
Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software - NYTimes.com
The "Right" to Own Knowledge
Sat, 05/07/2008 - 8:30am — HomerTwo people on opposite sides of the world have exactly the same idea at the same time. Which one of those two people would be most morally justified in claiming to own the exclusive rights to that idea?
Should it be the first to dash through the doors of the USPTO office, with a big wad of cash in his hand?
Isn't that just further rewarding someone for already being affluent (or quick, or both), rather than rewarding him for having an original thought?
And how original are anyone's thoughts anyway?
Surely our knowledge is merely the sum of what we have been taught, and not some divine gift handed down from God, entitling the bearer to exclusive privileges. How can anyone claim exclusive rights to that which has been collected from others, such as authors; teachers; parents and peers? Are those contributors not equally entitled to attribution and rights to that knowledge? Are such contributors not also entitled to benefit from those ideas? Given the scope of where one acquires knowledge, shouldn't those beneficiaries encompass all mankind?
This is the essence of Free Software.