(For those of you who don't know, [a href="vny!://www.mozilla.com/firefox/"]FireFox [/a]is a free browser made by the Mozilla Foundation. Blogger Cory Doctrow wrote this bit below.)
UK anti-piracy officer assures Firefox she'll catch the pirates who copy it!
A Trading Standards officer in a town in the UK contacted the Mozilla foundation to assure it that she'd caught the icky pirates who were copying Firefox without permission. (LOL!)
When the Mozzers explained free software and copyleft, the officer lost it -- "I can't believe that your company would allow people to make money from something that you allow people to have free access to. Is this really the case? If Mozilla permit the sale of copied versions of its software, it makes it virtually impossible for us, from a practical point of view, to enforce UK anti-piracy legislation, as it is difficult for us to give general advice to businesses over what is/is not permitted."
I felt somewhat unnerved at being held responsible for the disintegration of the UK anti-piracy system. Who would have thought giving away software could cause such difficulties?
However, given that the free software movement is unlikely collectively to decide to go proprietary in order to make her life easier, I had another go, using examples like Linux and the OpenOffice office suite to show that it's not just Firefox which is throwing a spanner in the works.
She then asked me to identify myself, so that she could confirm that I was authorised to speak for the Mozilla Foundation on this matter. I wondered if she was imagining nefarious copyright-infringing street traders taking a few moments off from shouting about the price of bananas to pop into an internet cafe, crack a router and intercept her e-mail.
ROFL. Classic.[/DIV]I've run into others who are completely unable to wrap their heads around the whole open source/free software concept. What does it say about our world when people like Jack Abramov make perfect sense to us, but the idea of giving something away without an alterior motive just gets you blank stares (or anger)?
I think that when anything is offered "free", people just naturally look for the attached strings. They feel that any "gift" is a Trojan Horse.
The next logical step....
"A Trading Standards officer in a town in the UK contacted the Free Air foundation to assure it that she'd caught the icky pirates who were breathing air without permission."
Buahahahahaa OMG! That is hilarious. I am sending that one out. hahahaha
"...the icky pirates who were breathing air without permission."
Yeah, shades of "The Taxman." Meanwhile, the local gas stations are starting to charge for the air they supply. I guess it was just a matter of time before they decided "wtf? It's not like we have to give the air away. They're gonna gas up anyway regardless, right?" They've already trained their customers to pump the gas. Next there'll be a fee for taking our money.
weird al wrote:
Next there'll be a fee for taking our money.
I take it you haven't been in a bank recently.
Coupla times a month to top up the cash. No fees. Pay the bills from home.