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[ox-en] Free as in America



It has been quite here of late. 

Maybe because I haven't been outraging anyone with my need to do more than 
mouth free and open rhetoric. 

But has anyone seen this 
http://www.sco.com/copyright/
it was linked to groklaw today 
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20031204195915515

includes this stuff below - it fits nicley with the position I was trying to 
explain by reference to US Constitutional texts a little while back and what 
"free" means within the confines of American law .... 

it also shows why I say from a legal point of view Eldred is relevant to the 
GPL debate

"The majority opinion in Eldred was delivered by Justice Ginsberg, in which 
Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter and 
Thomas joined. Dissenting opinions were filed by Justice Stevens and Justice 
Breyer. In Eldred , the petitioner argued that the Copyright Term Extension 
Act enacted by Congress in 1998 was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court 
disagreed, ruling that Congress had full constitutional authority to pass the 
Extension Act. The Court's analysis of the constitutional foundation of the 
Copyright Act applies directly to the debate between SCO and FSF / Red Hat 
regarding intellectual property protection for software. 


SCO argues that the authority of Congress under the U.S. Constitution to 
"promote the Progress of Science and the useful arts…" inherently includes a 
profit motive, and that protection for this profit motive includes a 
Constitutional dimension. We believe that the "progress of science" is best 
advanced by vigorously protecting the right of authors and inventors to earn 
a profit from their work. 


The Free Software Foundation, Red Hat and other GPL advocates take the 
contrary position. The FSF and Red Hat believe that the progress of science 
is best advanced by eliminating the profit motive from software development 
and insuring free, unrestricted public access to software innovations. The 
Free Software Foundation was established for this purpose. The GPL implements 
this purpose. Red Hat speaks for a large community of software developers 
dedicated to this purpose. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has dramatically 
undercut this position with its guidance in Eldred in how to define the term 
"promote the Progress of Science and the useful arts…" under ......


                   
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http://openflows.org/~auskadi/

"Mind you, I am not asking you to bear witness to what you believe false, 
which would be a sin, but to testify falsely to what you believe true - which 
is a virtuous act because it compensates for lack of proof of something 
that certainly exists or happened." Bishop Otto to Baudolino in Umberto Eco's 
Baudolino.
-- 
                   
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://openflows.org/~auskadi/

"Mind you, I am not asking you to bear witness to what you believe false, 
which would be a sin, but to testify falsely to what you believe true - which 
is a virtuous act because it compensates for lack of proof of something 
that certainly exists or happened." Bishop Otto to Baudolino in Umberto Eco's 
Baudolino.

_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/



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