[fsf-community-team] Responses to Excerpts

[Peter Rock]

Hi I'm Peter Rock, a FSF member. Some sites/blogs I follow include
Groklaw, Slashdot, Techdirt, Linux (sic) Today, the Free Software
Daily, and many others. I have no particular Free software-related
interest but for some issues I consider my understanding to be quite
weak. One example is software idea patents. Another is ODF and OOXML
standards particulars. I'm also struggling lately to understand the
recent push toward "cloud" computing and its implications. It was good
to read over the "Words to Avoid" page and see "Cloud Computing" has
been added since I read it last. If you want, you can find out more
about me here:

http://gnuosphere.wordpress.com

Here are my responses to the 3 excerpts, followed by a question and
comment below.

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Excerpt 1:

Richard Stallman is not associated with nor promotes "open source"
software. Richard started the FSF and the Free software movement to
promote freedom for computer users. The term "open source" has its
roots in the "open source software movement", a movement that views
the distribution of both proprietary and Free software on an equally
ethical footing. When Richard started the Free software movement, his
concern was not how "expensive" or inexpensive software may be but
rather, that computer users be free to cooperate as a community.

Excerpt 2:

Given the context, the operating system referred to here is actually
the GNU/Linux system. "Linux" is only one piece of the system and was
developed independently from the GNU Project. Using the name "Linux"
to refer to the system as a whole is technically inaccurate and falls
short in giving credit to those who started GNU.

Applications that run on another's servers need to be examined each on
their own merit. Two dangers with such applications are a risk to
privacy and loss of data. If users store and crunch their data on
another's server, they should be able to store locally accessible and
mutable copies of that data. Users should avoid using applications
running on another's machine to compute confidential data.

The goal of the Free software movement is to gain freedom for those
who use computers. While there's nothing wrong with popularizing
GNU/Linux, doing so by promoting proprietary applications like Adobe
Flash and Skype runs counter to the goal of freedom.

Excerpt 3:

Raising awareness of ACTA is important though we should do so in a way
that encourages a clear understanding of what's at stake. There are
two complications when stating there to be an "intellectual property
issue". The first is that this is a copyright concern. The phrase
"intellectual property" doesn't provide us with concrete information
about the matter. Being specific helps clarify the topic of
discussion. The second problem with the phrase "intellectual property"
is that it encourages a comparison of copyright with property rights
for physical goods. In fact, thinking of copyright as property is
often associated with the acceptance of other confusing and biased
words like "stealing" and "piracy" when what is actually meant is
"unauthorized copying".

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A question - Regarding the ACTA issue, do we see any problems with
applying the term "counterfeit" applied to unauthorized copies of
software? Also, perhaps with this idea promoted by Microsoft that
users are at risk using "counterfeit" copies of Windows we should
interject and note that the risk exists primarily in the use of
nonfree software, not unauthorized software. It is absurd for them to
suggest that users are in danger but would otherwise be safe with
authorized nonfree copies. Just a thought.