[fsf-community-team] debut

[Mike VandeVelde]

Hi all. My name is Mike VandeVelde. I read The Register fairly 
regularly. Sometimes Slashdot, once in a while Kuro5hin. More and more 
rarely Wired.

I don't believe in intellectual property. Any step away from ideas as 
tradeable commodities will get my support. I believe that lawyers & 
marketers & bankers & insurance salesmen & etc are parasites on society. 
I don't hold it against any individual trying to support a family, but 
do what I can to deny support to the whole system. I support freedom in 
general, as long as you aren't harming anyone then I will stand with you 
against those who would oppress you.

The Free Software Definition sounds good to me.

I don't spend a lot of time meditating on the difference between Free 
Software and Open Source. Communist is not an insult to me. I have no 
hang ups about any assumptions you might make about me because of my 
support for Free Software. People who support Open Source but aren't 
comfortable going as far as Free Software won't get a whole lot of grief 
from me.

Copyright was a temporary compromise made necessary by the scarcity of 
copies. Copies are basically limitless now, so I no longer see any point 
to copyright. Shouting "Thief!" because of *copyright infringement* in 
insulting. Patents are not contributing as much innovation as they are 
stifling. Discard patents and let the fittest survive. Trademarks are 
related to personal identity - a very complicated problem. I cheer for 
the underdog in almost all trademark disputes. I have no genius solution 
to put forward in place of current trademark law.

I am by no means a zealot when it comes to using non-Free Software. I 
would like to be able to be a purist, but this is real life and I can 
compromise. I have almost no patience though for software that actively 
messes with my freedom, so RealAudio has never even been an issue for 
me. I used .png instead of .gif whenever I could. I live in an .odf 
world. I rip all my music to .ogg. Things like that - I will endure the 
minor hardship of something like not every portable music player being 
able to play my music files in order to avoid harsh Digital Restrictions 
Management. Wherever there are options, I lean heavily towards the one 
that seems to offer more freedom.

"we do not want to be confused with the open source camp, so we are 
careful to avoid saying things that would encourage people to lump us in 
with them"
I find that kind of a shame, but understandable I guess. I would rather 
that Free Software was an elite brigade in the Community Development 
Movement, proud to claim use of Open Source Methodology. I imagine it 
can get tedious to start every conversation with "But we're not the same 
as Open Source because...", but I do understand the motivation to not be 
associated with that bunch of lily livered equivocators ;-)

No problem with the rest of the list.

"Richard Stallman started the FSF in order to promote open source 
software like the Linux operating system, as an alternative to expensive 
software like Windows."

It's not an issue of cheap / expensive. It's an issue of letting your 
hardware do mysterious things for unknown reasons. If that's OK with 
you, then use Windows. It's also an issue of End User License 
Agreements. If you don't mind paying to use software on your hardware 
only in the way some corporation demands, then use Windows. It's also an 
issue of bugs and annoyances and being told that they will be fixed if 
and when it makes economic sense. If you don't see the point in being 
able to have fixes and make changes without the go ahead from some 
corporation, the feel free (lol!) to use Windows.

"Now with cloud computing and web-based applications, even Linux users 
can use the same software as everyone else, through their browsers. With 
other popular programs like Skype and Adobe Flash producing Linux 
versions, the Linux desktop may finally be catching on!"

People are free to do whatever they want with a Linux desktop, so if 
those are the kinds of things they choose to do then all the less power 
to them. The Linux desktop is a powerful experience as is, there is no 
need to dumb it down to a simple front end for the commercial 
machinations of far off corporate overlords. There are alternatives that 
offer more respect for your freedom, but you are free to move with the 
herd if that's the kind of person you are.

"When combined with the other chapters that include statutory damages, 
search and seizure powers for border guards, anti-camcording rules, and 
mandatory disclosure of personal information requirements, it is clear 
that there is no bigger intellectual property issue today than the 
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated behind closed doors 
this week in Korea."

Preach on brother! Here in Canada multiple attempts to escalate 
intellectual property regulations through our parliament have been 
unsuccessful, meanwhile the USA has been having a fairly easy time with 
their bilateral trade agreements. So now we have a new Goliath, similar 
to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment from years ago - let's hope 
it dies the same fiery death!!

Well how is that? I am a sarcastic bastard, and long drawn out flame 
wars can be fun. I am yours to command :-)

Mike VandeVelde