[H-GEN] The Australian

[Martin Pool]

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On Tue, Jun 30, 1998 at 09:32:08AM +1000, Paul Gearon wrote:
> It's a discussion about Unix like OSs starting
> with a big section on Linux.  It won't have much that hasn't already
> been said before, but  this is the first time I've seen something like
> this is a mainstream publication.

OK: I haven't read it, and I know that subeditors like catchy
headlines.  But I rather object to this generalization that open
source is mainly a political movement.  To me, working on and using
open source systems is just good engineering: they work well, and I
have the chance to fix problems, check what's happening, and improve
things to suit myself.  I know many of the most productive open source
authors have similar approaches (consider Perl, Apache, RedHat, ...).

I've never seen this practical approach described in the mass media.

> It seems the Defense Department aren't happy
> about the laws being flouted and want the legislation changed.  

You mean, they want the laws changed so that people can be safe
without breaking the law?  Or do they want the law changed so that
people _will_ be flouting it by exercising fundamental rights?

> Personally I feel that Martin is quite correct in saying that
> chaffing/winnowing make this all obsolete and that the whole
> Australian debate is about little boys wanting to grab as much
> imaginary power as they can.

Well, the point of the debate is not encryption, but control: and not
imaginary power, either.

Read this little SF short-story from CommACM:

  http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

- --
Martin

In the early 1980s I was faced with a choice: either use proprietary
(non-free) software, and accept a way of life in which sharing with
other people is called "piracy", or stop using computers, or...make
some other alternative.
			-- RMS

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