[d@DCC] Copyright matters -- protecting creators rights!

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: jason_brooks (at) ziffdavis.com
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 12:04:26 -0400 (EDT)

Open Letter to Jason Brooks (Copies to CanOpenER and Digital-copyright
Canada)

Re:  Sun's Unix-License Paradox, by  Jason Brooks
  http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1209873,00.asp

  I am glad that the rights of the many creators of Linux are finally
being acknowledged in the media.  It has been very frustrating to be
reading all the hysteria about SCO's alleged rights where the *known*
rights of orders of magnitude more people are being threatened by SCO.

  To characterize the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS -
http://www.flora.ca/floss.shtml )  movements as copyright violators, as
Sun CEO Scott McNealy did, is to interpret things entirely backwards.  
Far from being a movement of people who violate copyright, it is a
movement that can be said to be the first of a growing number of creators'
rights alliances.

  While the movement benefits end users and customers considerably, it was
a movement created by and for software creators.  Where some creators have
(incorrectly in my opinion) identified the largest threat to their rights
being private citizens violating their copyright, we very early on
recognized that it was intermediaries (publishers, industry associations,
etc) that was a far greater threat.

  Given creators do not have political clout to protect our rights given
our numbers, we have to make alliances.  Where some creators have created
uncomfortable alliances with various intermediaries who then publicly (in
media, legislation and courts) attack their users, fans and customers, we
have created alliances with our users, fans and customers.

  Our creations are available for full public review, making us an example
of best practices for accountability in copyright.  We don't hide our
source code such that other creators would have a hard time determining if
we were violating any rights, something that is much easier to do in
non-free/libre software.

  Our creations are protected in ways that non-free/libre software
creators are not often offered. An example is when non-free/libre software
is under "work for hire" regimes which oppose creators' rights.  (See
"Want to retain copyright?  Author Free Software!"
http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=149 )


  As an active participant in the copyright consultation process in Canada
<http://www.digital-copyright.ca/>, I have had the opportunity to meet
many creators.  Some conversations have taken the form of broadcast
debates such as Rabble.ca's Rumble http://www.rabble.ca/rumble/ , the
Ministers forum on Copyright
http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=382 , and CBC Newsworld's
The Docket http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=361 .

  When I attended the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Creators'
Rights Alliance
<http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/all?subject=Creators%27+Rights> ,
I offered our community as an example of a creators' rights movement that
they could learn from.  Where creators' rights alliances for traditional
creators such as authors and musicians are relatively new, the Free
Software Foundation <http://www.fsf.org> has existed formally for almost
20 years, and our movement informally for much longer.




  As to Scott McNealy's attacks, I offer some links from my weblog
reference to your story: http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=454

  I have been an active member of the marketing team for OpenOffice.org, 
including giving presentations to the federal government in Canada 
(Example: http://www.flora.ca/rwl2003/ ).

  Following the statements I read in e-Week, I wrote an open letter that I
copied to the marketing team (as well as other places) indicating I could
no longer recommend Sun products.  This included the StarOffice derivative
of OpenOffice.org.

  I have also been trying to encourage the GNOME office folks to match the
important criteria I was using to promote OOo:  a port to Microsoft
Windows (AbiWord is already offered in Windows, and GNUMERIC's MS-Windows
release is planned within the year), and full support for the OASIS open
office XML standard file format.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Recently at Ottawa Linux Symposium: July 23rd-26th
 http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2003/view_abstract.php?talk=193
 Hosting "Birds of a Feather" for http://www.goslingcommunity.org

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