The new copyright law.

[Ralph Janke]

Well.. I believe that is a misinterpretation on what RMS says.

Copyleft is there because of the inappropriate copyright laws, using
them in some way to mitigate. Copyleft is not the end of all means,
and if the policies that the pirate party pursues, would be implemented,
the issues the RMS raises, would be solved as well.

Remember, in the US, as an example, you have to publish your works
to the Library of congress (at least you used to), in order to be given
copyright. This comes very close to the escrow, RMS is talking about.

WIth shorter copyright laws, it is true, that also gpled and other open
source software would not need licensing after the time in question.

However, this is somewhat irrelevant, since it would always only apply
to a release older than the time for copyright. Most free software that
I know and that is relevant, is continuously improved, hence, all changes
are always inside copyright and hence protected (one can say the same
about proprietary software in some sense).

However, the goal is to open up more software. The best way to do this,
is to change copyright law, the second best way, to license it with GPL.

Ralph (txwikinger)

On 06/24/2010 06:27 PM, George Standish wrote:
> People who are considering supporting the Pirate Party should read
> RMS's "How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free
> Software" and consider the implications to Free software
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party.html
>
>