Open Source and Piracy - Know the Difference!
January 23rd 2012 18:07
I watched on the news a few months a segment stating that schools are now allowed to serve pizza because of the tomato sauce on it, considering a tomato to be a vegetable. Now, being somewhat of a scientific thinker, I immediately objected that biologically a tomato is a fruit - a large berry. Today I researched the thing for this blog entry and found that for culinary purposes a tomato is considered a vegetable, and that the United States Supreme Court ruled it such in the case of Nix v. Hedden.
The urge to look into this started with the current affair of the government going after what many think the open-source movement, and I do not know for fact they are not. Are they attacking free human knowledge, or piracy of proprietary software?
You see, I am an avid supporter and somewhat of a preacher and teacher of the way of open source, so all the news these days scares me, but am I confused, as in the example of the tomato matter?
If piracy of proprietary software and artistic media is the target, then I am in full agreement, and must state that you must understand that open-source has nothing to do with software piracy.
Thank-you, Bill Gates, for helping the world think it does, when you called open-source hackers software pirates! At least many of us are not!
This is a most erroneous assumption. Please allow me to try and clarify.
"Open Source" means software that is written from the first character, and naming of it, to be made available to the public, all code not hidden, so that anyone can edit it to their whim and need. The software is distributed freely. Look into the legal term "copy-left".
Yes, it is a typically geeky term, but it means, to begin, what I said. Linux (for example), meaning most versions, is open source and free, and if you have the knowledge to do so, you can take any of the flavors and change the operating system to customize or repair it - or break it.
Now, proprietary software, sold to the public by the creators of it, is protected under the copyright laws we all are familiar with. To me there is absolutely nothing immoral about writing out proprietary code to make some money or for corporate security reasons, of why ever. And to steal such software is definitely piracy!
So many are confused, and I hope what I blog today helps. It would be a disastrous shame for open-source practice to be called a vegetable when it is really a fruit, just because the general populace is confused.
Hackers often, if not usually, use Linux and free coding tools to create proprietary software.
It is a matter of seeing that they are two different ways, thus my blog title, "The Way of Open Source."
I close to adamantly encourage everyone to refrain from piracy of music, software, etc. as YOU MAY MESS IT UP FOR EVERYONE!.
The urge to look into this started with the current affair of the government going after what many think the open-source movement, and I do not know for fact they are not. Are they attacking free human knowledge, or piracy of proprietary software?
You see, I am an avid supporter and somewhat of a preacher and teacher of the way of open source, so all the news these days scares me, but am I confused, as in the example of the tomato matter?
If piracy of proprietary software and artistic media is the target, then I am in full agreement, and must state that you must understand that open-source has nothing to do with software piracy.
Thank-you, Bill Gates, for helping the world think it does, when you called open-source hackers software pirates! At least many of us are not!
This is a most erroneous assumption. Please allow me to try and clarify.
"Open Source" means software that is written from the first character, and naming of it, to be made available to the public, all code not hidden, so that anyone can edit it to their whim and need. The software is distributed freely. Look into the legal term "copy-left".
Yes, it is a typically geeky term, but it means, to begin, what I said. Linux (for example), meaning most versions, is open source and free, and if you have the knowledge to do so, you can take any of the flavors and change the operating system to customize or repair it - or break it.
Now, proprietary software, sold to the public by the creators of it, is protected under the copyright laws we all are familiar with. To me there is absolutely nothing immoral about writing out proprietary code to make some money or for corporate security reasons, of why ever. And to steal such software is definitely piracy!
So many are confused, and I hope what I blog today helps. It would be a disastrous shame for open-source practice to be called a vegetable when it is really a fruit, just because the general populace is confused.
Hackers often, if not usually, use Linux and free coding tools to create proprietary software.
It is a matter of seeing that they are two different ways, thus my blog title, "The Way of Open Source."
I close to adamantly encourage everyone to refrain from piracy of music, software, etc. as YOU MAY MESS IT UP FOR EVERYONE!.
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