MESSAGE
| DATE | 2006-05-24 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [rick@linuxmafia.com: Re: [Balug-talk] [rick@linuxmafia.com: Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Its a sorry day for The Linux?Journal]]
|
----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen -----
X-Original-To: balug-talk-at-lists.balug.org
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 02:38:39 -0700
From: Rick Moen
To: balug-talk-at-lists.balug.org
In-Reply-To: <20060524070646.GA29658-at-www2.mrbrklyn.com>
X-Mas: Bah humbug.
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Subject: Re: [Balug-talk] [rick-at-linuxmafia.com: Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Its a
sorry day for The Linux?Journal]
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Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com):
> I think a few more people will identify Linus Tovalds as the leader
> of the "Open Source" movement than will confuse North with South, but
> I could very well be wrong.
You know, I deliberately didn't swing on that "Well, Torvalds advocates
DRM; so there!" (paraphrased) pitch, in part because I wanted to see if
you'd keep running with it. And you did, I see.
There's a well-known psychological effect from online debate, where if
you give the impression of energetically attempting to rebut _every_
damned thing the other guy says, regardless of how feeble, he/she will
often walk away thinking he/she has "proven" any that you don't bother
to swat down. And I'm just not a free-of-charge swat-o-matic for dumb
assertions, so I try _not_ to create that impression.
But I notice that you did that anyway, so I'm hauling out my analytical
bat, one more time.
_Not only_ is Torvalds, to repeat, not a logical candidate when you're
casting about for people who speak for open source -- since he's never
_been_ that, and since there's a blindingly obvious organisation of
_other_ people who EXPLICITLY are that (leading the natural suspicion
that you're grasping at straws if you avoid citing them)...
...but also Torvalds didn't even say what you claim he did.
Really, Ruben, _next_ time I see you take swipes at someone for this sort
of thing, you'd better make double-sure you've got your facts right,
because I'm going to remind you of _this_ debacle every time, and keep
doing it until you clean up your act.
Ready? OK, here we go:
http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2003042401126OSKNLL
Quoting:
[L]ike the software patent issue, I also don't necessarily like DRM
myself, but I still ended up feeling the same: I'm an "Oppenheimer",
and I refuse to play politics with Linux, and I think you can use
Linux for whatever you want to - which very much includes things I
don't necessarily personally approve of.
I.e., it's _not_ that Torvalds likes DRM in any way.
I've had some private discussions with various people about this
already, and I do realize that a lot of people want to use the kernel
in some way to just make DRM go away, at least as far as Linux is
concerned. Either by some policy decision or by extending the GPL to
just not allow it.
In some ways the discussion was very similar to some of the software
patent related GPL-NG discussions from a year or so ago: "we don't
like it, and we should change the license to make it not work somehow".
I.e., it's that Torvalds refuses to consider changing the existing
licence to attempt to prohibit usage that he or anyone else disapproves
of. This is _exactly_ consistent with the identical answer he's always
given to various pinheads who want to make it illegal to use Linux in
military operations, etc. He says (paraphrasing): "No, sorry, won't
happen. It's under GPLv2, which puts no restrictions whatsoever on
permitted uses. Live with it, or write your own damned kernel."
And you called that advocating DRM?
You're wrong. Very. Demonstrably. And you thus owe Torvalds a nice,
big, public apology (even though he's staggeringly unlikely to have
noticed, that being beside the point). And you owe the _rest_ of us a
great deal more care to stick to fair commentary, particularly when you
dare to impugn people's motives.
> In my opinion....
Ruben: Facts first. Opinions after.
And the pity of it is, I think I can guess why you leapt to such a
stunningly wrong conclusion: I'll bet you went solely by the Slashdot
(et alii) sound bite, the introductory lines the very _top_ of
Torvalds's LKML post, _before_ he says what he's talking about (as
quoted above):
Ok, there's no way to do this gracefully, so I won't even try. I'm
going to just hunker down for some really impressive extended
flaming, and my asbestos underwear is firmly in place, and extremely
uncomfortable.
I want to make it clear that DRM is perfectly ok with Linux!
There, I've said it. I'm out of the closet. So bring it on...
[...]
Hundreds of blithering adolescents read no further, and like idiots went
straight for the dumbass flamebait. Did _you_ bother to read any
further? If so, it sure doesn't show.
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----- End forwarded message -----
--
__________________________
Brooklyn Linux Solutions
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://fairuse.nylxs.com
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting
http://www.inns.net <-- Happy Clients
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories and articles from around the net
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