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Re: Copyright Misuse Doctrine in Apple v. Psystar


From: Rahul Dhesi
Subject: Re: Copyright Misuse Doctrine in Apple v. Psystar
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:01:15 +0000 (UTC)
User-agent: nn/6.7.0

"amicus_curious" <ACDC@sti.net> writes:

>That gives FOSS a bad name.  Who wants to use stuff like that and risk
>getting bitten by the looney tunes that think software is some kind of
>religious experience? 

There is a lot of truth in what you wrote, and it's not specific to free
software. Enforcement of copyright (and patents) often gives the
enforcer a bad name.

As a contemorary example, consider how poorly many people view the RIAA
because its component organizations continue to file numerous copyright-
based lawsuits, thinking their coyprighted works are some sort of
religious experience.  Instead of giving RIAA the respect it deserves
for providing so much good music, people are trying to evade it in
unfair ways:

  http://www.p2pnet.net/story/605

As another example, consider the black eye that Microsoft got whan it
tried to enforce its copyrights against a small company:

  http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html?tag=lh

This is a quandary all copyright owners have to deal with it if they
think their copyrighted works deserve to be respected as some sort of
religious experience. If they pursue their rights too aggressively,
people will criticize them. If they don't, people will misappropriate
their software. It's a balancing act.

It happens with patents, too. Microsoft wanted its many patents, earned
in good faith, respected and not infringed.  Instead of getting
sympathy, all it got was criticism in return:

  
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/open_source_microsofts_patent_fud_campaign.html
-- 
Rahul
http://rahul.rahul.net/


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