[LUAU] the term "open source" is dead, says Eben Moglen

[Julian Yap]

On Thu, 2006-11-23 at 10:58 -1000, Jimen Ching wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Nov 2006, Julian Yap wrote:
> > On Wed, 2006-11-22 at 13:25 -1000, Jimen Ching wrote:
> >> YOU don't NEED to care.  A lot of people don't NEED to care.  As long as
> >> there are people who do care and are willing to fight for those rights.
> >> You'll continue to enjoy the benefits.  That's how it worked in the past.
> >> That's how it's going to work in the future.  What you're seeing now is
> >> just the process...
> >
> > That takes the view that there's enough people fighting for freedom in
> > the first place and that they will actually win.
> 
> True.  Are you saying this view is wrong semantically, wrong ethically, or 
> wrong in some other way?

Semantically, saying people don't need to care is wrong.  It's like
saying, you don't need to vote.  Just replace the word 'care' with
'vote' in your first paragraph.

> It's my observation that the number of people who fight (meaning actively 
> doing something beyond writing to your congressman) are a lot less than 
> the number of people who benefit.  Are you suggesting otherwise?

Depends what side you're 'fighting for'.  You could be fighting for big
business in which case the number of people who benefit is a minority
(who then wield this power to do things like change laws so it stays
that way).

> Also, when I said peopled aren't needed to care about these issues, it 
> doesn't mean they aren't wanted.  If people want to join the fight, I'm 
> sure they will be welcomed.

True.  

We're speaking to Linux and Unix users here and to say that they don't
need to care or be aware of the issues we are talking about isn't
correct.

Otherwise, you can disregard any thread in this mailing list that talks
about such issues and continue going with the lowest cost vendor.

~ Julian