Dear Andrew Orlowski,

Spot the difference...

Copyright Infringement: Taking other people's ideas without permission or attribution, then reusing them for your own purposes

Copyright: Taking other people's ideas without permission or attribution, reusing them for your own purposes, then falsely claiming to be the sole creator of the result

Much like the Cult of Apple

I find the attitude of many within the Raspberry Pi community to be strange and offensive.

I first discovered this odd phenomenon (odd because it contradicts the ethos of the project's academic foundations) back when it first started, as many within the Raspberry Pi community took an extremely hostile attitude toward academic freedom, apparently in defence of various parties' highly dubious intellectual monopolies (Broadcom and MPEG-LA, for example).

I pointed out the irony and hypocrisy of their attitude at the time, explaining that they were more than happy to leech Free (as in freedom) Software for their own benefit, but then balked at the prospect of freely sharing the results, and in particular this contradicted their stated academic goal of facilitating better computer education in British schools, an environment that rightly demands open access to knowledge.

This is now perfectly legal, shockingly

Sharing No Longer a Crime

Crushing blow to anti "piracy" terrorists

In a blatant act of democracy that would make Mussolini spin in his grave, the UK government reluctantly conceded that if everybody does it, it probably shouldn't be a crime.

Instead, as a nod to the intellectual monopoly gangsters, those dastardly "pirates" (i.e. everyone) will receive four spam letters a year from the Content® manufacturing industry, in a futile attempt to convince the rigidly bored audience to pay for Hollywood's increasingly derivative and uninspiring garbage.

Other than that, no action will be taken, at least not against the "pirates", not even so much as a menacing glance, much less a fine or prison sentence.