Call of the wild for BIOS

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RMS's biggest problem

is the fact that he tries to attract bees with vinegar rather than honey.

His ideas are good ones. But when he says things like "It puts me in an ethically compromised position to have a non-free program in my machine" and "These (companies) are evil" then it becomes obvious that regardless of whether you believe he has good ideas, his salemanship really sucks.

I do happen to agree with most of his ideals, but I differ in some ways. For instance, I do believe that the copyright holder has a right to use whichever licence he chooses. Now I may choose to not use that software if it is too prohibitive, but then again if it is good software that lets me do everything I need it to do, then it does not necessarily need to be GPL. Also I believe in the right for a copyright holder to use security and anti-piracy measures, so I do not hold his views when ti comes to DRM. DRM, used in the proper way, can please both the copyright holder and the end user. The fact that so many copyright holders abuse DRM does not turn me off to DRM any more than end users' abuse of P2P turns me off of P2P. I'll admit I would prefer an open DRM scheme, but only so it can be used license-free. But DRM can be used by both large corporations and little guys like the company I work for to protect their interests, so I don't want to see it just disappear.

But anyway the point of that rant is that there are people who agree with MOST of what RMS believes in, but also have a realistic view of the real world out there and realize that not everything you put on a computer should be free for the world to see. Programs I believe should be free, but the data may need to be secure, so the programs need to be able to accomodate. Also, if non-free programs are all that exist then I have to use them, like it or not. But since RMS does not agree with me on that, some of his venom would be directed at me, even though I'm one of his strongest supporters. And that turns people off in the long run.

Posted by: Michael Kelly   Posted on: 04/05/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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