Linux itself does not represent any great departures from previous technologies, but has led a technological revolution that is predicated on free software licensing. The open source development model, which is facilitated by the GNU General Public License (GPL), represents a challenge and an opportunity to industry to rethink the way that information and technology is used and shared between individuals and organisations, and in some sectors - notably the financial services sector - the challenge appears to have been accepted. The disruptive technology is the license and its distinctive inversion of copyright law.
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Anybody up to writing good directory software?
Tue, 2007-02-20 11:17 — David JonathanSince the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
Is better education the key to finding better software?
Sat, 2007-03-03 03:25 — Edward RusselI read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
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Balzac
3 years 44 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago
GNU is the disruptive technology.
A GPL-licensed kernel was the inevitable conclusion of the bold and visionary GNU project.
GNU was well along its way to completion before the Linux kernel provided the last component.
The Linux kernel is a component of this disruptive technology which was set into motion by the GNU Manifesto and a lot of hard work.
The author of the article has it exactly right:
"The disruptive technology is the license and its distinctive inversion of copyright law."
aboutblank
3 years 44 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago
Copyright law in America was
Copyright law in America was instituted on the idea that a time-limited copyright monopoly on creative works would promote the sciences and the arts. Proprietary software that does not 'grant users the right to corresponding source code' does little to improve the state of the arts (or the sciences) for the public.
It is most certain that software licensed under the GPL does exactly what copyright law was intended to do. It does not "invert copyright law to disrupt the status quo". In fact, it works together with copyright law in order to promote the sciences and the art.
kiba
3 years 44 weeks 1 day 19 min ago
It does invert copyright
It does invert copyright law, by doing the opposite of what copyright usually do. Now, as for the purpose, we're actually fulfilling the purpose that copyright monopolies will never fulfill.
Copyright monopolies can benefit the public? That's absolutely 100% BS. There's no evidence to support that idea. If anything, monopolies are actually harmful.
Free software prove that cooperation and competition are better than monopolism will ever be. Heck, you can look at the automobile industry, or the banking industry, and even the agriculture and pharmaceutical industry as examples of why competition works and why government granted monopolies suck.
-----Signature----
*Copyright creates monopolies. Copyleft promote the free market.
*"Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely"-- http://againstmonopoly.org
Balzac
3 years 44 weeks 19 hours 36 min ago
Both comments are saying something true.
The GPL relies upon copyright law and it doesn't "invert copyright law", yet it does the inverse of most copyright claims - it protects public access, not private control. Of course we probably all know this already.