[pp.int.general] Correct word usage for PP.

[Gareth Nelson]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Boris Turovskiy <tourovski at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry, you're just showing (again) how deluded you are about the role of
> software in society. I don't reject using a car because I don't have the
> blueprints.

Generally speaking, you're able to open a car's hood and do whatever
you like so long as you own it and have the skills - and if you don't,
you can pay a mechanic who does.
Cars also tend not to call home, and they tend not to have faults
which only the manufacturer is allowed to repair (even if the
manufacturer is going to be a natural expert).

With software, you risk large fines (or even jail time) for modifying
it without permission and nobody but the copyright holder is allowed
to fix bugs unless they give permission for others to fix them. That's
a massive risk.

I personally view free software as being about my freedom to control
my own property - if it's running on my hardware, i'll do what I like
with it.

Considering how important software is in our society, free software
has a VERY important role to play. Look round the room you're in right
now, aside from your computer there's probably several things which
software was used to provide to you. I have some posters on the wall
which a designer produced electronically before the designs were
printed by industrial printers with onboard control firmware, I have a
lightbulb with a regulated supply thanks to the electrical grid being
modelled with software, I have a TV with builtin simplistic firmware,
a satellite receiver with lots of firmware pushed over the air
(something I plan to change by replacing it with a dreambox), I have a
wallet filled with debit cards which work on global networks
controlled by software, I have a poll card for the upcoming welsh
assembly election (the register is held both electronically and on
paper, and I have no idea what kind of malicious backdoors there might
potentially be in the nonfree software used on the database servers
which hold it - and neither does the electoral commission).

Longer term, software is going to be responsible for more and more
aspects of everyday life. What happens when the government begins to
require you to file tax returns electronically using only nonfree
software? Pay up to that private company or go to jail - and of course
you have no idea what they're doing with your information, or whether
those auto-update servers  are truly trustworthy (call me paranoid but
as  my wife still runs windows, i've firewalled off all microsoft IP
ranges).

-- 
“Lanie, I’m going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for
everyone. That’s worth going to jail for. That’s worth anything.” -
Printcrime by Cory Doctrow

Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html