Today is not a happy day…
… for free software.
Apparently, Microsoft says that “Free Software Violates 235 Patents”. I am not competent in patents, nor patent law, so I cannot say one way or the other if it is true. BUT… if it is true, then it is not warranted; software should NOT be patentable. Ideas are copyrightable, machines are patentable, and that is the way it is. Software is not a machine.
If you want to patent something (and lose customers) patent hardware. Fine. That is a machine. But, you know what? Software isn’t, despite the sad, sad attempts to represent it as such.
This stance really annoys me. I mean, think about it. There was a joke online, a long time ago, that I remember about Microsoft patenting math or something similar. Oh, it was run by The Onion in 1998. Wow, my memory isn’t as bad as I thought it was.
Or maybe I found it last year. You know what? I can’t remember.
In any case, it is starting to come to fruition. Microsoft is trying to harm those of us who want to live in a rightfully free fashion. Do you like freedom? Well, freedom (from taxes, even!) was what this country was founded on. Freedom. Freedom of speech (and computer languages are languages!), freedom of religion, freedom of assembly… you name it. Of course, that doesn’t extend to what common law was; you cannot harm, etc.
And you know, tomorrow, the U.S. Government officially starts getting access to YOUR ONLINE DATA. I just found out about this today; I do not know how in the hell this missed my radar before now.
We are a pitiful, spineless, backboneless country. We are letting the government control OUR RIGHT TO ARMS (from which I quote: “… the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” And now, WE THE PEOPLE, have to go out of our way to keep what we do on our Internet connections from the Government? You know, I am a MAJOR advocate of following the law… but I am also an advocate for personal rights and freedom. This is insane. This is WRONG.
Why are we allowing this to happen? We are being done wrong in so many ways that it should be fuckin’ surreal. I want to be free. Do you?
If your answer is “yes,” then do it. Be free. And let me be free.
Apparently, Microsoft says that “Free Software Violates 235 Patents”. I am not competent in patents, nor patent law, so I cannot say one way or the other if it is true. BUT… if it is true, then it is not warranted; software should NOT be patentable. Ideas are copyrightable, machines are patentable, and that is the way it is. Software is not a machine.
If you want to patent something (and lose customers) patent hardware. Fine. That is a machine. But, you know what? Software isn’t, despite the sad, sad attempts to represent it as such.
This stance really annoys me. I mean, think about it. There was a joke online, a long time ago, that I remember about Microsoft patenting math or something similar. Oh, it was run by The Onion in 1998. Wow, my memory isn’t as bad as I thought it was.
Or maybe I found it last year. You know what? I can’t remember.
In any case, it is starting to come to fruition. Microsoft is trying to harm those of us who want to live in a rightfully free fashion. Do you like freedom? Well, freedom (from taxes, even!) was what this country was founded on. Freedom. Freedom of speech (and computer languages are languages!), freedom of religion, freedom of assembly… you name it. Of course, that doesn’t extend to what common law was; you cannot harm, etc.
And you know, tomorrow, the U.S. Government officially starts getting access to YOUR ONLINE DATA. I just found out about this today; I do not know how in the hell this missed my radar before now.
We are a pitiful, spineless, backboneless country. We are letting the government control OUR RIGHT TO ARMS (from which I quote: “… the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” And now, WE THE PEOPLE, have to go out of our way to keep what we do on our Internet connections from the Government? You know, I am a MAJOR advocate of following the law… but I am also an advocate for personal rights and freedom. This is insane. This is WRONG.
Why are we allowing this to happen? We are being done wrong in so many ways that it should be fuckin’ surreal. I want to be free. Do you?
If your answer is “yes,” then do it. Be free. And let me be free.