Re: What are "advanced" API topics? + XML - where's the beef?

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com>]

Glenn Maxey wrote:

> In the future, there should be little reason
>  ** why hardware can't be supported much longer.
>  ** why you can't get the software to do what you need it to do.
>  ** why you can't affordably get custom software.
>  ** why your data isn't compatible anymore.
>  ** why you can't do it yourself if you're so inclined.
> 
> Copyright/patent laws today are way out-of-kilter allowing corporations to
> protect things for up to 70 years beyond the life of the originator. They
> are against the spirit of the original copyright laws (which protected
> innovative ideas for a short period of time [initially 7-10 years] and then
> allowed for innovation on top of those ideas). When you think that
> musicians/authors "sell their souls" for a comparitive pitance to the
> music/book industries who then maintain the rights and earnings for decades,
> the mondo software public library (expanded into other areas) could be a
> mechanism to put things right.
> 

Glenn:

Most of the things you are advocating are already being implemented by
the free software and open source movements. In case you aren't familiar
with these groups, the result of their efforts are responsible for most
of the software that runs the internet, and has progressed to the point
where the average office user can use non-proprietary software for most
daily tasks.

You might start by looking at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

-- 
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com

"Ordinary people...are nothing without the ordinary truth, nothing at
all. They die without it: without innocence or candour. Indeed the very
great majority kill themselves long long before their time. Live as
children; grow pale as adolescents; show a flash of life in love; die in
their twenties and join the poor creatures that creep angry and restless
about the earth."
-Patrick O'Brian, "H.M.S. Surprise"

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