[advocacy] On American politics (Off Topic) was Open/Free/Personal music licenses

[Bacchus Thirteen]

> You mentioned the SSSCA, which is an all-american
> thing.

What are you talking about can include political and
ideological issues and therefore can be avert from the
main issue of the list and yet it is connected with
any open source movements..., which bothers me.

Yes, indeed, Microsoft condemned open-source as
'un-American.'  However, open-source is un-American in
the same way in which it is un-Namibian, un-French and
un-Korean.  It is simply, border-less.

> - my concerns are only about the bad things going on
> there, which will
> affect me and the rest of the world on the one hand,
> but I cannot vote
> or sign petitions against on the other hand. This
> doesn't feel very
> good.

Then again, to some extent, you are right.  It is also
true that it is only America which is successful to
build Silicon Valley.  'Silicon Valley is what happens
when thousands of scientists and entrepreneurs migrate
to a sunny rich state with tough patent laws, a
sophisticated financial system and a culture of
inventing things and making money out of them.'  (a
passage from The Economist A survey of technology and
development November 10th 2001)  Therefore, in
Microsoft's nationalist propaganda, any thing which
against copyrights and patents, are 'unamerican' since
it is against the system by which America gathered the
wealth of the worldwide - the combination of
innovations and patents.  America's success is largely
based on its successful combination of brains and
capitals.

However, as I wrote above, open-source is border-less
and non-profit movements, which lets the movement less
controllable from any government or enterprise.  Even
supporters of globalization may not like the movement
since many of them are happy with globalization as
long as they think it is under their control.  Using
open-source software, even the third world companies
can make money without paying royalty to Microsoft.
This is a kind of brain-drain and money-drain and is
too much of freedom to Microsoft and some people.

In fact, this American nationalism seems to have
affected on the Microsoft case in which the company is
charged as monopolistic.  Because of the incident of
11th of September, accusing this most successful
American company appeared to be less patriotic.
Nationalism can change black into white.  Victor says,
"flame away, for I am full of love."  And of course,
love is blind...as well as hatred.  In this way,
American nationalism and anti-American feeling look
very similar.  And this is why I wouldn't like to deal
with either of them.

I am not against the nationality of the government or
enterprises but against the restrictions which limit
our possibility benefitted by creative innovations.
This is why I am not against patent companies'
applying copy-protection on their products.  It is
O.K. they continue their way..._as long as they show
the same respect to open-source community_.

However, if they are successful to demolish
open-source movement, in that case, as Mortiz says, by
limiting the freedom of the population inside and
outside of it, 'America' will inevitably proves itself
to have gone beyond the line from free economy to
imperialism which they fought against Britain hundreds
years ago.  From this point of view, anti-open-source
is 'un-American.'

Then, why should we be bothered with this American or
un-American propaganda?

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