On Monday 06 September 2004 08:08 am, Vaughn Treude wrote:
>
> Normally I would've jumped right in on this.  But at the time Alan posted
> it I was feeling pretty cynical.   My two impressions were:
> 1. The law sounds so far-ranging I doubt that if the makers of electronic
> equipment would let it go through because it would criminalize the
> production of almost every kind of recording device.  :-)
> 2. If the bill is amended to be "reasonable" - not in the sense that you
> and I would think so, but in the sense that it wouldn't bankrupt
> electronics companies - then it will pass, because what Disney wants,
> Disney gets.  :-( 

Yes, well, I am a bit cynical about the current state of the law-making 
process.  I'm afraid that I blame the general population as much as the 
corporations and the politicians who serve them.  If the general population 
actually participated in the government, with a bit of thought behind the 
participation, corporations and money influence could be reduced.

I can't "make" my neighbor care but I can make myself participate.  So I do.  
Representative democracy is an "open source" project that will florish if the 
people stay involved.  It will be (already is?) commercialized if the people 
don't keep their ear to the news and their voice active.

>3. Don't know anything about SPF.  I just checked out 
> News Forge and saw the article from Debian: are you referring to the
> so-called Microsoft
> Royalty-Free Sender ID Patent License Agreement?

Yes, that is exactly the issue.  The Debian letter and the Apache letter both 
explain the reasons why this current license is bad.  We cannot allow the 
standards that make technological freedom possible to become commercially 
encumbered like our form of government appearently has.

Alan
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