[pp.int.general] An answer to RMS' critique of the PP.SE political programme

[Edison Carter]

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 6:51 AM, Egil Moeller <egil.moller at piratpartiet.se>wrote:

> I have written an opinion piece for the swedish pirate party on compulsory
> escrow of source code as a direct answer to Mr. Stallmans' critique of our
> programme.
>
> I must add that this is not a final policy decision on the part of PP.se
> - this post reflect my personal opinion; but the post has gained a lot
> of internal momentum and quite a few seems to agree that something needs
> to be done, and that this is a good start. I only wish that Stallman
> understands that this is neither an entirely new issue within the party;
> that there are quite a few members who agree something more needs to be
> done to protect free software, and that we appreciate the attention of
> the FSF on us and on these issues.
>
> The piece is available at
> http://redhog.org/Blog/Stallmans_critique_and_compulsory_copies.html
>
> I also invite you from all PPs around the world to comment on my answer.
>
>
I do NOT agree that more needs to be done to protect Free software. The
pirate party's existing policies, if enacted, would be completely
devastating to the proprietary software companies and make them no threat at
all to Free software.

I have always asserted that MSFT's anti-copying features are weak by design,
to make copying Windows 'inconvenient' rather than impossible. If they were
to release a truly unbreakable anti-copying system the vast majority of
users of 'pirated' software and many paid users also would switch to Free
software in a fairly short time.

For all practical effect, DRM with any weakness is the same as no DRM if
it's legal to find the weakness and share software that breaks it, so if the
Pirate Party succeeds in removing anti-circumvention laws this would leave
MSFT with only two options; "Unbreakable DRM" which drives away much of
their userbase, or no DRM at all. If we succeed with a no-drm policy then
they have no option.

Do we really need to see their source code as well? I do not think so.
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